Another post for the Yarn Along link up, where bloggers share their knitting projects and the books that they’re reading. This post contains affiliate links.

I remember now why I stopped reading books nine years ago: I have absolutely no will power. I just can’t stop in the middle of a good story.

It was never really a problem until I had a child to care for. Then, after a few too many novel-fuelled late nights, I realized that self-inflicted sleep deprivation does nothing to enhance my parenting skills. I decided to stick to magazines for awhile instead. And besides, I had other things to do at night anyway — I was enrolled in university part-time back then, and I was doing some freelance web programming too.

Geez, when did I even have time for books?

Well, it’s not like I have that much more time now, what with three stay-at-home kids running around.

I think the difference is that I need my books now, because I need a break. So much.

I need to escape into other worlds where all three kids aren’t fighting constantly. Right now, for example, they’re fighting over who gets to dress the mannequin that my two-year-old hauled over to the front window.

My five-year-old wants the mannequin to wear a fur coat and a sun hat but my two-year-old is insisting that it wears a knitted cowl instead. Makes sense — that’s what he always sees me putting on it.

I pulled the mannequin down from the closet today to take a picture of my newest Three Turn Cowl. I was knitting it last week, if you remember.

It actually started off as a … scarf? Cowl? I can’t remember what the end product was supposed to be. I know that I used the Marshmallow Fluff pattern, but when I finished (aka ran out of yarn), it just wasn’t the right length. It was too long to be cozy but too short to loop around my neck a second time. I should have made it wider and shorter, and since I knew that I’d never wear it, I never bothered to weave in the loose yarn or knit the ends together. As you can see.

The project has been sitting in yarn purgatory for at least a year, until finally last week I frogged the whole thing and made my second Three Turn Cowl.

Now it’s nice and cozy and kind of looks like a neck brace. Not exactly the effect I was going for. I don’t care though — I still wear it. Hey, if a neck brace really was warm and cozy, I’d probably wear that too.

The yarn is super-bulky and the colour is a white-ish cream. A creamish-white? I don’t know. Off-white with brown flecks. I think it’s Rowan Drift in China Clay, but I’ve long since thrown the tag away. I know that Drift has been discontinued, and that makes sense because I bought the yarn on clearance years ago. Here’s a closeup of the pattern and the colours.

It’s plain, but I like it. It’s nice to have something neutral. Neck brace neutral.

As for books, I finished Little Women last week and moved right into 1) Divine Dance: The Trinity and Your Transformation by Richard Rohr with Mike Morrell and 2) Gilead by Marilynne Robinson. I’m enjoying them both a lot.

Divine Dance is about finding a different way to understand God — less as the judge in the sky and more as pure love between three divine beings that’s being pouring out and then received, over and over and over. It’s not a new idea –in fact, it’s an ancient one. Rohr writes:

“At the heart of Christian revelation, God is not seen as a distant, static monarch but — as we will explore together — a diving circle dance, as the early Fathers of the church dared to call it.”

It’s a great book, but sometimes I want something a bit lighter. Then I turn to Gilead, which is a letter from an old man to his seven-year-old son…? I know, I know, that doesn’t sound interesting at all. In fact, when I first heard of the book, I didn’t think I’d be into it, but so many people have said that they loved the story that I wanted to read it for myself. I don’t know that I love it yet, but the writing definitely sucks me in. And the constant jumping around from memories to musings to other random thoughts is great for me because I can put the book down whenever I need to. Like when I need to break up a fight about who gets to put hair clips on a headless mannequin.

It’s headless.

Thankfully the mannequin has been moved out of the front window for the night. It’s propped up in my room, kind of hovering beside my bed. I’m sure that will go over well at 3am when I get up for a drink of water.

Maybe I’ll just save myself a scare and just stay up until then, reading.