In other news, my skirt came out gorgeous. Gorgeous! There's a bit at the waistband where my stitching is a bit messy, but that'll be covered by a blouse anyway. The skirt is shantung silk, in a sort of periwinkle blue, and it just falls so beautifully. Soon (maybe today, maybe not) I'm going to try to make a blouse to go with it. I'm hoping to make a longish fitted tank, lined, with thick shoulder straps, in shantung silk -- pink! I'm not normally a pink person, but I saw these two fabrics together and they just looked so fabulously right together, and spring-like. If it all comes out well, I may wear the outfit to Arthur and Pam's wedding -- if I can't do the blouse right, I may just buy a crisp white cotton blouse with french cuffs to wear with the skirt (sort of an Audrey Hepburn look, according to Roshani, who suggested it). I'm a bit nervous about the blouse. It's a fairly tailored look I'm hoping for, so it's going to need much more precise measurements than the skirt did. I'm a funny shape, too -- according to the chart, I'm practically a 16 at the bust, but a 10 or 12 at the waist. Not sure I know how to deal with that! I really ought to take a sewing class sometime soon...
I'm enjoying the novel I'm currently reading, Pashazade, an alternate future in which the Germans won WWII and Islam became much more prevalent world-wide. The story is set in North Africa, and the cultural stuff is really fun. It's a bit bumpy in the telling; it reads something like a first novel. I hear the sequel is much smoother and generally better. But really, this is quite fun already.
Back to them, then. I ought to start my list reading soon, but I'm waiting to hear about a check. Once I know how much money I have, I'll know if I can start buying my books, or if I'll need to check them out from a library this summer and wait to buy copies until the fall, when my fellowship starts up. 120 books is going to be expensive! So I'm just marking time for the moment. Very pleasantly so.