Yarn Along

This week for Ginny’s Yarn Along blog party I’m sharing the same sleeve.  Actually, I’m sharing another version of the sleeve, as this is the 3rd one  Last week was the first version…I think.  It’s not that my calculations were wrong, it was that my knitting in the fair isle technique looked terrible when not knitted in the round.  I conveniently hid the ugly looking parts from you in last week’s post.  The purling side caused these huge gaps on the edges and I just detested looking at them, which is not a great start to a handmade garment.

So I decided to work it in the round (conveniently eliminating the need to purl), and therefore started with the cuff this time.  I’m content now and hope this project starts getting some traction.

As for reading, I have you lovely Yarn Along ladies to thank as this week my reading was a result from numerous recommendations of this book.  I absolutely love reading history books, and I’m intrigued about Russian history because I know so little about it.  I’ve tried to get into Russian literature in the past, and found it useful for getting through those many nights of insomnia when I was pregnant.

Normally a book does not put me to sleep but awakens my brain…except if it’s Russian.  It took me 5 years to get through Anna Karenina and she got me through 3 pregnancies.  1-2 pages of that book put me straight to sleep.  On really bad nights I’d get almost 5 pages done.

Still, Russian literature seems to be so lofty and “brainy” to me and I’d love to understand it so I could feel smart.  That’s what keeps coming me back: my pride.  It’s not a very good reason, but what can I say?  Sometimes the more you know about at topic the more interesting that topic is.  I wish I were more interested in Russian literature so a good step to get there is to know more about them.

This book, though, Nicholas and Alexandra: The Classic Account of the Fall of the Romanov Dynasty is not difficult to get through.  In fact, I’m learning so much about the context of Tolstoy’s writings that it becomes that much more fascinating.  I finally picked up this book last weekend when Solveig was sick and I spent many hours holding her on the couch with her sleeping on me.  I couldn’t manage knitting, so reading it was.

I got through about 80 pages on Sunday and I am in history heaven.  The author paints both sides (the Romanovs and the revolutionaries) as very human, and I love it when historians do that.  I hate it when historians paint one side as “good” and the other as “bad” when it’s just a bunch of humans doing stupid or smart things.  Alexander never wanted to be Tsar, and his father sheltered him from knowing anything about the job.

His wife was a German princess who married Alexander in a time of mourning his father (a week after the funeral) and was basically thrown into her role knowing very little Russian.  Then she had multiple pregnancies requiring bed rest, after which she insisted on nursing and caring for all of her children herself…which was very unroyal.  It separated her from her people and they could not connect with her because she was never in the public eye.  She was caring for her children instead.  Would I have done anything differently?

I know how this story ends so I’m a little sad that I’m connecting with these characters so much.  That’s what makes it a great book, I guess.  Now I’m starting the part about Lenin’s history which is a bit creepy, and a bit sad. 

Of course, I have only managed about 5 pages since then.  Everyone is feeling well again, and that pretty much means I’m back to nibbling at books instead of taking great big bites.  You may see this book on my Yarn Along posts for awhile.