I have recently succumbed to the lure of eBay and am bidding on some luxury yarns that I probably shouldn't have, but what the hey. Guess what those are--WW2 socks. But while I wish they were the colour shown in the photo, they are not and I may have to do some tweaking, overdye with tan because they are really butterscotch orangey brown. I probably should have used the dye I know (Gaywool and Landscape) and not used the kind I did but I assumed military "hosiery tan" would actually be that. Silly girl. Otherwise I am still spinning Brown Sheep grey mill end roving, knitting Trekking socks, and occasionally knitting some on the handspun cardigan. Both the cardigan and the socks require a lot of knit/purl action which is hard on my hands. I need to swatch for S's Christmas jumper to have some plain knitting to trade off with.

Book report: Finished Alpine for you by Maddy Hunter which sounded good in the reviews but was just too glib. You could tell what was going to happen from the first page. Still reading White Mughals by WIlliam Dalrymple which is interesting but heavy going. In addition to real footnotes (citations) there are asterisked footnotes in mouse-print that are mostly side notes and skippable for us visually impaired but who can tell till you read them.Started Germanicus by David Wishart which I picked up in a used book store. I had never read his Roman mysteries although i have religiously read Lindsay Davis. To be honest I found the Falco mysteries fun but difficult to follow. Falco makes a lot of off side remarks that I don't follow and I don't know if I am slow or whether they are supposed to be confusing. I love the characters but the mystery part throws me. Wishart's character is different in that he is born noble, but still has a cohort of weird relatives, strange clients and lots of Roman background detail. I am actually enjoying it more than the Davis novels and I may have to get the rest in the series. Lots of wine-drinking and sex with his feisty wife.

Because the Bear ate out last night and I was left home alone with Della and nothing on TV, I did some searching on my china pattern, Royal Doulton Sarabande which I just discovered was discontinued in 1998. If I could sell it to a dealer in replacement china I could make a handy amount of money. You see, my dear MIL was a Royal Doulton rep in Sydney and she gave me her set of Buckingham which is one of the high end and still active Royal Doulton patterns. So I have 2 sets of bone china which I never use. Wait till a stepdaughter marries and give one to her? Might be a long wait.