I’ve been sitting for over three hours now, crocheting a sweater for the fall issue of crochetme.com (I can’t say much more about this cool project except that new exciting yarns will be used, a Crochet-Along and several of your favorite crocheters will be involved).

Anyway, what’s kept me going, even though my eyes began drooping at ten, is that I’m listening to the CD recording of Harry Potter, book 6. I really love books on tape. I find it just as easy to imagine a story when I hear it, as when I read it. But of course, when I’m listening, my hands are free–to clean house, or baby-tend, crochet, or drive the car.

What I notice about books on tape that doesn’t happen with print, is that I associate what I’m doing, or where I am, with the book I’m listening to. Last summer I listened to the amazing BBC cast reading Phillip Pullman’s His Dark Materials as I was driving back from taking Selma to and from summer-camp. Even now, when I drive down those particular streets, I vividly recall scenes from the book. I wonder if I’m somehow filling this sweater with Harry-potter-ness, if somehow the sleeves or the neckline will remind me of different parts of the book, or even if my design will somehow be influenced by the story.

(By the way, this doesn’t happen with TV–I have no memory with any knit or crochet project, what I’ve been watching while I made it. Probably because TV is so much more passive.)

Round and Round with Harry Potter