Finished a thing

This is a pair of socks I started over my visit to Illinois and just now got finished. The yarn is Biscotte et Cie., and I think it's one of her Harry Potter themed ones, as it's called Chaudron baveur, which best translates to "Leaky Cauldron" (which, IIRC, was the name of the wizard's pub).



I used one of the Nancy Bush "updated Weldon's patterns" - from Vintage Knitted Socks, the one called "Lichen Ribbed Sock" which has an unusual toe (the decreases are done as p2tog, which means they show a bit more.



The poison green, brown, and purple do seem like appropriate "wizard" colors.

***

I finished reading "The Ghost of Thomas Kempe" the other night. Good book, makes me want to seek out some of Livesey's novels-for-grown-ups and read them. It was an entertaining story but also did touch on some of the themes of history, and the different generations, and even, really, identity.

Last night I re-started "The Grey King," realizing I had never finished it, and also never read the very last of the The Dark Is Rising sequence. (I think what happened is I was reading it before Christmas break, didn't want to drag the book with me, and then got my attention pulled away by other things).

One thing both novels share (besides being aimed at a younger set - am guessing the target audiences for these was anywhere between 8 and 15, with "The Ghost of Thomas Kempe" maybe aiming a bit younger) is that they're fantasy novels, and yet are grounded in more or less everyday life, and I find I particularly like that trope. I don't know if that it's that I'm too "practical" to enjoy high fantasy as much (though I still have great love for "The Hobbit," I could never finish the Lord of the Rings trilogy) or if it's that I want to believe that there could be magic interwoven into everyday life, and so these novels feed into that somewhat.

(I should also finish the last three Harry Potter novels. And yes, I know: I've been warned they get progressively darker and I will have to be sure I'm in a "good place," headspace wise, if I undertake them: I find I sometimes have to put a book away for a while if it gets too sad or depressing).