Smouldering inspiration

The past week few weeks have felt like the new start that is supposed to be hailed by Spring. We have celebrated several birthdays, latterly sun has been shining and blissfully warm, and things just feel somewhat shiny and new. Speaking of shiny and new, one of the birthdays was mine and I was lucky enough to be bought an Amazon Kindle.

I have generally been something of a book purist, resisting the electronic revolution and waxing lyrical about the feel of a print cover, the paper page and so on. However, print books have their downsides. I mostly use quite a modestly sized backpack style bag owing to a bad back and, therefore, only have room for small, slim books. In addition, I am pretty much blind as a bat; things become blur-free around an index finger’s length from my face. When I was younger with a lower prescription, I loved to read a few pages at night to help me relax and nod off to sleep. To be effective, though, this requires lying down on my side without my glasses. Given the current degree of my myopia I have to hold the book so close to my face that turning pages or holding up the heavy side of a large book can be a pain, especially when it clonks me in the face if I do nod off before I put the book down.

The Kindle has solved both these problems. It’s the perfect size for my handbag and I can enlarge the font to enable me to read at night without catching pages on my nose or scaring myself awake with a paper slap on the cheek. In the handbag, though, I felt a little protection would be warranted to prevent scratches to the screen. I had a look online for covers and the array is quite bewildering. Materials include leather, faux leather, neoprene, canvas, silicone gel and knitted polyester, and prices range from around £5 for a cheap gel skin to around £70 for the Diane von Furstenberg designer clutch case. After falling off my chair at the upper-end price, I decided to just make my own. After all, it could hardly be simpler to knit a little bag.

Some of you will know already I’m a keen knitter, which means I have various odds and ends of left over wool just waiting for such a project. I dug out some sock wool and whipped up the cover below.

For a bit of interest, and to distinguish it from the ubiquitous ribbed sock-type covers, I used 4 X 6 basket weave stitch (for the knitters out there). I’m rather pleased with the results, even if I do say so myself. Overpriced designers eat your hearts out!

Perhaps I’ll start a range for the ever-increasing assortment of electronic devices entering our lives….