yarn along: mabel

Knitting a Mabel cardigan for Bridget and reading Circling the Sun, by Paula McLain, on my Kindle.

I'm using leftover Malabrigo worsted yarn (hooray, always a good feeling) for the cardigan. As always, it's a delight to knit. The pattern is worked top-down and the yoke features these amazing cluster stitches for the increase rows. They look so neat, and they're fun to work, so long as you read the pattern very, very carefully, since they are slightly different as you go along. I just may have had to rip back a few times. 

Circling the Sun is beautifully written, evocative of place and time. You can tell that Paula McLain came to historical fiction via poetry. I attended her author talk at the Edsel & Eleanor Ford House last weekend, and she was terrific. Funny, genuine, down-to-earth. I love hearing about authors' journeys -- how they have come to writing, how they work, what inspires them. Lauren Willig spoke, too -- I haven't read her books yet, but she's a gem. A PhD student-turned-attorney-turned-author. It was so neat to hear how both authors approach writing and have made big, bold choices, embracing doing what they love, immersing themselves in books and writing. 

A big weekend for me! I also went to the Fiber Expo in Ann Arbor, which was great fun, and I made some wonderful new knitting-related discoveries. More soon...

** joining Ginny for this week's Yarn Along **