Travelling Socks and a Book Review

I listen to the Yarn on Tap knitting podcast.  Wendy is one of the hosts and owns the online yarn shop The Knitter's Brewing Company.  She started this really fun thing called the Travelling Socks.  Eight people from all around the country participate in knitting a portion of a pair of socks.  Each person starts their own sock by knitting the toes.  Then they send it on to the next person, and receive toes from another person, to knit the next part and then send it on again. They use whatever yarn or stitch pattern they want for their portion but follow a basic knitting pattern for the sock in general.  It goes through all eight people and by the time it gets back to you, you (and they) have a completed pair of socks!  How fun is that? (I sound like Ina Garten there... I love her.)

Here is an example of a finished pair (picture is from Ravelry):

You can see that they look pretty funky and, aside from suggesting colors that you like, you have no idea what they will look like.  Some may not like this but I thought the idea of it was fun.  And a fun way to connect with other knitters around the country.  In our lineup, I send my socks to someone in Oregon!

So, while in Virginia, I sarted my toes on the porch:

And here they are finished, on waste yarn, ready to send to Oregon:

Oh, and we also include a little notebook so everyone can write about the yarn they used and maybe even a little tidbit about where they live.   Each time I get a pair of socks, I'll be kitting the next further along portion of the socks from the previous pair I knitted.  Get it?   Am I describing this well?  I'll try to get a picture of each pair of socks that I get and the portion I've knitted, so I can put it here on the blog.

On to A Book Review!
Hour Game by David Baldacci:  I love his books.  Always fast paced and exiciting.  This one involved a serial killer who is copying famous serial killers.  Two ex-secret service agents, who now have a detective agency, are hired to help defend a man accused of burglary of a wealthy family.  They end up involved in more than they bargained for, including the serial murders, with lots of twists and turns and family secrets revealed. The story line did not disappoint.  My only criticism is that because there were so many twists and turns, the end of the book involved a lot of explaining of why who did it, did it, and it got a tiny but yawn-y.  Just a tiny bit.

On page 273 - don't ask my why I remembered to note the page - I absolutely knew who did it.  I was not quite half way through the book.  I tend to have a knack for guessing who-done-its early on, especially on tv shows like Cold Case and Monk and Blue Bloods.  And with this one?  I was completely wrong.  That should teach me a lesson because I spent the rest of the book, after I was completely sure who it was, looking for clues as to back up my sure-ness.

And because I'm sure you were wondering, I have now read 14 of my 45-books-this-year goal, and goodreads says I am one book ahead of schedule!