The Hot Pink sock yarn arrived just in time, Dylan's red socks are complete and he is very pleased with them, I have already cast on the Hot Pink for Tilly and am beginning to find it difficult to concentrate on anything else in my knitting basket! This is inspite of the fact that I have some baby knitting which is normally all absorbing, hmmm, this sock thing could be a worry.
Thank you for all the wonderful book suggestions, I am still weighing them up but will probably choose quite soon as I think I am ready to make the move from plain to patterned socks.
To accompany my current sock knitting I have just begun this rather wonderful book, The Diary of a Provincial Lady by E M Delafield. I listened to a serialisation of this book on Radio 4 some time ago and really enjoyed it so I snapped this copy up when I came across it recently in a Charity shop. Our provincial heroine and her witty observations make for splendid reading. The characters are brought brilliantly to life, from grumpy cook and her complaints about the stove to the frustrating Robert asleep behind his Times - "Robert startles me at breakfast by asking if my cold - which he has hitherto ignored - is better. I reply that it has gone. Then why, he asks, do I look like that?" Then there is the awful Lady B with all her well meaning condescensions. One such conversation with Lady B gives our heroine cause to consider a suitable subject for debate at the next WI meeting, "That Imagination is incompatible with Inherited Wealth." Our long suffering heroine must deal with the day to day management of her household, difficult servants include the Madmoiselle who is "very French". The Provincial Lady manages her budget with difficulty and has a close relationship with the rather facetious Plymouth pawnbroker.
However, I am waffling, suffice to say, it is a really super read, very, very funny and I am enjoying it immensely. Inspite of the very different times in which we live I am sure many of us can identify with aspects of the Provinical Lady's life, one moment which rings particularly true with me is her trip to the hairdressers from which she emerges with a mahogany coloured head which will wear off in time, "very angry but all to no purpose". Ok, morning coffee time, might manage another couple of rounds of this sock if I can keep Tilly amused at the same time. Oh the addiction of it....
Comments
Your book snippets sound very interesting.
Love that pink sock yarn - you are a very devoted mum, I'd probably end up keeping it for myself!
India
That novel sounds like an amusing read , just what I am in need of Thank you :)
I found a copy of "Provincial Daughter" by R.M.Dashwood recently, which is another diary-form novel in a similar vein but based in the fifties, written by E.M.Delafield's real-life daughter.
Also have you come across the sequels to the Provincial Diaries as well? Can't get too much of a good thing!