bookworms unite (FOs included!)

today was our 3rd official bookclub meeting! we had brunch at E's house, and 8 people attended out of 10... considering one of those 10 lives in Boston, that's not bad. E served some really delicious foods, including a yummy dish that consisted of egg-soaked bread, cheese, tomatoes, bacon, and basil. also a really good fruit salad (of which i ate a ridiculous amount!), and P brought some very tasty apple crumb cake. i helped make that disappear as well.

we were discussing A Thousand Splendid Suns, which really was a fantastic read. truly brutal at times, and one of the things that we all agreed on was that in today's society, we wanted a book about Middle Eastern society and culture that was going to shatter some of the stereotypes we've grown (sadly) accustomed to in the US, and how disappointed we were that the book just reinforced most of those stereotypes. we all got some very good historical information from P (she's a Global Studies teacher) that really helped us to understand the history of that particular region and all of the cultural implications of the violence that has been going on there for decades, if not centuries. it was a really enlightening chat.

we chose our next book, Water for Elephants, which Mom has read and was happy to hear that i would also be reading. actually, i just got back from the bookstore. Mom had given her copy away, so i had to pick it up. i also picked up The Knitting Circle and a copy of the fall issue of Knit Simple magazine. it had some cute looking sweaters that i may tackle.

speaking of knitting, a couple posts back i showed off my feather and fan bookmark and mentioned that i was knitting bookmarks for the book club! mission accomplished! actually, i only ended up with 8 for today's meeting, which turned out to be the PERFECT number. everyone was so appreciative and thought they were wonderful! and as it turns out, my friend R also knits! why we hadn't figured that out yet i have NO idea, but she was thrilled to find out that i am a knitter. so i have to share with you some pictures of the finished products!

this is all 8 of the bookmarks sitting pretty on my ottoman (which also served as a blocking location for them)...



these are the 2 feather/fan bookmarks...


these are the 2 basketweave bookmarks...


here are the 2 "lace wave" bookmarks...


and finally, the 2 "no wrong side" bookmarks (of course, i forgot to get pics of the opposite side!)...


so i've been a busy little knitter! now i can actually start looking into what yarn i want to tackle the Minimalist Cardigan with... i have the pattern, it'll be my first sweater and i'm kind of scared and excited about it!

oh, also... i just have to mention that the BF actually requested that i knit him something.

that's right. this from the man who called me a little old lady for knitting! he wants me to make him gloves with the Triforce symbol on them. hmm, i could learn colorwork... *starts plotting*