January Finishes

Here are pictures of the projects I've finished in January - my little Jane Austen sampler, the blackwork sampler for the 40th Anniversary Challenge, the Suffolk sheep, and Sampling the Snowfall.  It is so satisfying to have them done, and I'm already working on UFO no. 5, another design by Susan Goodman.

I also finished reading The Hobbit.  It has been a long time since I last read it, and I wish now that I had made time for another reading right before the first movie came out.  The movies were pretty faithful to the book, and even where they differed from the book, the changes somehow worked.  To me, the best and most memorable part of The Hobbit is when Bilbo meets the Gollum.  He was a scarier and more dangerous enemy than Smaug.  Now I'm reading Master and Commander, the first in a series of historical novels set in the British Navy during the Napoleonic Wars.  There are a lot of nautical terms unfamiliar to me, but the characters of Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin are engaging, and exactly why is Stephen Maturin anxious about meeting the Sophie's lieutenant?  I can't wait to find out!