Another year in a post

This blog is so sadly neglected.  At any rate, the calendar has somehow turned to 2015, so I should record what I read in 2014 and start the list for 2015.

Books Read in 2014

001. Silver Linings Playbook, Matthew Quick
002. Book of Ages: The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin, Jill Lepore
003. Everything's Coming Up Profits: The Golden Age of Industrial Musicals, Steve Young and Sport Murphy
004. Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro
005. Babylon's Ark: The Incredible Wartime Rescue of the Baghdad Zoo, Lawrence Anthony with Graham Spence
006. Dust, Charles Pellegrino
007: Johannes Cabal: The Fear Institute, Jonathan L. Howard
008. Is Tiny Dancer Really Elton's Little John? Music's Most Enduring Mysteries, Myths, and Rumors Revealed, Gavin Edwards
009. Parasite, Mira Grant
010. Losers In Space, John Barnes
011. We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Shirley Jackson
012. The Automatic Detective, A. Lee Martinez
013. Ex-Heroes, Peter Clines
014. The Elephant Whisperer: My Life with the Herd in the African Wild, Lawrence Anthony with Graham Spence
015. Ex-Patriots, Peter Clines
016. Moab Is My Washpot, Stephen Fry
017. How Carrots Won the Trojan War: Curious (but True) Stories of Common Vegetables, Rebecca Rupp
018. The Martian, Andy Weir
019. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz
020. Wintersmith, Terry Pratchett
021. I Heard the Owl Call My Name, Margaret Craven
022. The Discovery of Insulin, Michael Bliss
023. Incident at Hawk's Hill, Allan W. Eckert
024. Women of the Underground: Music (Cultural Innovators Speak for Themselves), interviews by Zora von Burden
025. A History of the World in 100 Objects, Neil MacGregor
026. Centuries of June, Keith Donohue
027. Unwind, Neal Shusterman
028. Veronica Mars: The Thousand Dollar Tan Line, Rob Thomas and Jennifer Graham
029. The Dark Room, Rachel Seiffert
030. The Teleportation Accident, Ned Beauman
031. Salvation Boulevard, Larry Beinhart
032. Dry Storeroom No. 1: The Secret Life of the Natural History Museum, Richard Fortey
033. Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats, T.S. Eliot
034. Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn
035. Burial Rites, Hannah Kent
036. The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are, Brené Brown
037. The Inventor and the Tycoon: A Gilded Age Murder and the Birth of Moving Pictures, Edward Ball
038. FlashForward, Robert Sawyer
039. Let's Bring Back: An Encyclopedia of Forgotten-Yet-Delightful, Chic, Useful, Curious, and Otherwise Commendable Things from Times Gone By, Lesley M. M. Blume
040. The Scottish Prisoner, Diana Gabaldon
041. This Bright River, Patrick Somerville
042. Parallel, Lauren Miller
043. The Fry Chronicles, Stephen Fry
044. Love, Loss, and What I Wore, Ilene Beckerman
045. Divide: American Injustice in the Age of the Wealth Gap, Matt Taibbi
046. Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures, Vincent Lam
047. The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Neil Gaiman
048. One Person/Multiple Careers: A New Model for Work/Life Success, Marci Alboher
049. Popcorn, Ben Elton
050. Written In My Own Heart's Blood, Diana Gabaldon
051. Fictitious Dishes: An Album of Literature's Most Memorable Meals, Dinah Fried
052. The Mad Scientist's Guide to World Domination, John Joseph Adams, ed.
053. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
054. Skin Game, Jim Butcher
055. Finding Me: A Decade of Darkness, a Life Reclaimed: A Memoir of the Cleveland Kidnappings, Michelle Knight
056. The Bees, Laline Paull
057. Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised Our Nation, Cokie Roberts
058. The Walk Home, Rachel Seiffert
059. Parade's End, Ford Madox Ford
060. Imperial, George Bilgere
061. Ella Minnow Pea, Mark Dunn
062. Bug Music: How Insects Gave Us Rhythm and Noise, David Rothenberg
063. The Festival of Earthly Delights, Matt Dojny
064. My Inventions, Nikola Tesla
065. The Damned Busters, Matthew Hughes
066. Oh Myyy! There Goes the Internet, George Takei
067. White Out: The Secret Life of Heroin, Michael W. Clune
068. His Promised Land: The Autobiography of John P. Parker, Former Slave and Conductor on the Underground Railroad, Stuart Seely Sprague, ed.
069. The Drowning House, Elizabeth Black
070. The Story Hour, Thrity Umrigar
071. I Don't Know What You Know Me From* Confessions of a Co-Star, Judy Greer
072. Ancillary Justice, Ann Leckie
073. Code Name Verity, Elizabeth Wein
074. Yarn: Remembering the Way Home, Kyoko Mori
075. The Song of Achilles, Madeline Miller
076. The Liars' Club, Mary Karr
077. Rust Belt Chic: The Cleveland Anthology, Richey Piiparinen & Anne Trubek, eds.
078. The History of Rock 'N' Roll in Ten Songs, Greil Marcus
079. Wolf in White Van, John Darnielle
080. How to Be a Woman, Caitlin Moran
081. Homeland, Cory Doctorow
082. American Salvage, Bonnie Jo Campbell
083. Moranthology, Caitlin Moran
084. The Actress, Amy Sohn
085. Eclipse One: New Science Fiction and Fantasy, Jonathan Strahan, ed.
086. Famous Hussies of History, Abbert Payson Terhune
087. The Speckled Monster: A Historical Tale of Battling Smallpox, Jennifer Lee Carrell
088. Phoenix Rising: A Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences Novel, Pip Ballantine & Tee Morris
089. Unidentified Funny Objects, Alex Shvartsan, ed.
090. Maplecroft: The Borden Dispatches, Cherie Priest
091. We Are All Completely Fine, Daryl Gregory
092. The Janus Affair: A Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences Novel, Pip Ballantine & Tee Morris
093. Curtsies & Conspiracies, Gail Carriger
094. Waistcoats & Weaponry, Gail Carriger
095. Tastes of Paradise: A Social History of Spices, Stimulants, and Intoxicants, Wolfgang Schivelbusch
096. The Beast in the Garden: A Modern Parable of Man and Nature, David Baron
097. Secrets from the Vinyl Cafe, Stuart McLean
098. Dawn's Early Light: A Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences Novel, Pip Ballantine & Tee Morris
099. The Museum of Extraordinary Things, Alice Hoffman
100. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Jean-Dominique Bauby
101. Neil Patrick Harris: Choose Your Own Autobiography, Neil Patrick Harris, as unshredded and pasted back together by David Javerbaum.
102. Vinyl Cafe Unplugged, Stuart McLean
103. Deep Down Dark: The Untold Stories of 33 Men Buried in a Chilean Mine, and the Miracle That Set Them Free, Hector Tobar
104. Neverhome, Laird Hunt

I'd promise to post more in 2015 but I doubt that I'd follow through. We'll see what happens!

2013 Book List

As always, I should post more. I knit a LOT in 2013. Someday I will actually do the blog post comparing various beaders that I have threatened to do. Summary: I reallyreally like the Verna beader. The Fleegle beader is quite good, too, but not as pointy, and I found that it was more likely to shred my yarn. The hook cap is far superior to the Verna's rubber stopper, though. Also, while Verna is smoother for me than Fleegle during the actual beading bit, the pointiness means that occasionally the hook goes through the yarn and can be somewhat difficult to extricate. Of course, I haven't used both sizes of both options, so this is just an educated guess at this point. Someday, eventually, there will be a full comparison. With pictures, even!

Edit: Goal for the year is to use the yarn that has accumulated in the main level of the house before delving into the stash room for yarn. Must declutter the downstairs by knitting it! 

Posting the book list so I can start 2014's list, although it may be a few days before I finish anything.

2013 Book List 

001. The Holy and the Broken: Leonard Cohen, Jeff Buckley & the Unlikely Ascent of "Hallelujah", Alan Light
002. Stranger Than Fiction, Chuck Palahniuk
003. The Dog of the Marriage, Amy Hempel
004. Tumble Home, Amy Hempel
005. At the Gates of the Animal Kingdom, Amy Hempel
006. Waiting for the Galactic Bus, Parke Godwin
007. Johannes Cabal the Necromancer, Jonathan L. Howard
008. Don't You Dare Read This, Mrs. Dunphrey, Margaret Peterson Haddix
009. A Girl Named Zippy, Haven Kimmel
010. The Forest Unseen: A Year's Watch in Nature, David George Haskell
011. Guerrilla Marketing for Nonprofits: 250 Tactics to Recruit, Motivate, and Raise More Money, Jay Conrad Levinson, Frank Adkins, and Chris Forbes
012. She Got Up Off the Couch and Other Heroic Acts from Mooreland, Indiana, Haven Kimmel
013. Bellwether, Connie Willis
014. Warm Bodies, Isaac Marion
015. Just a Geek, Wil Wheaton
016. Jack Tumor, Anthony McGowan
017. When I Grow Up, Juliana Hatfield
018. Zombie Blondes, Brian James
019. Why Sh*t Happens: The Science of a Really Bad Day, Peter J. Bentley, PhD
020. Raising Stony Mayhall, Daryl Gregory
021. My One Square Inch of Alaska, Sharon Short
022. Monty Python Speaks!, David Morgan
023. Your Inner Fish: A Journey Into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body, Neil Shubin
024. Everything Breaks, Theo Nicole Lorenz
025. Ready Player One, Ernest Cline
026. Lessons From the Fat-O-Sphere: Quit Dieting and Declare a Truce with Your Body, Kate Harding and Marianne Kirby
027. In the Peanut Gallery with Mystery Science Theater 3000: Essays on Film, Fandom, Technology and the Culture of Riffing, Robert G. Weiner and Shelley E. Barba, eds.
028. Bad Science: Quacks, Hacks, and Big Pharma Flacks, Ben Goldacre
029. Perdido Street Station, China Mieville
030. Flora Segunda: Being the Magickal Mishaps of a Girl of Spirit, Her Glas-Gazing Sidekick, Two Ominous Butlers (One Blue), a House with Eleven Thousand Rooms, and a Red Dog, Ysabeau S. Wilce
031. Into the Beautiful North, Luis Alberto Urrea
032. Flora's Dare: How a Girl of Spirit Gambles All to Expand Her Vocabulary, Confront a Bouncing Boy Terror, and Try to Save Califa from a Shaky Doom (Despite Being Confined to Her Room), Ysabeau S. Wilce
033. Manatee Insanity: Inside the War over Florida's Most Famous Endangered Species, Craig Pittman
034. Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking, Susan Cain
035. Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls, David Sedaris
036. We Need to Talk About Kevin, Lionel Shriver
037. First Shift: Legacy, Hugh Howey
038. Ashes of Honor, Seanan McGuire
039. Flora's Fury: How a Girl of Spirit and a Red Dog Confound Their Friends, Astound Their Enemies, and Learn the Importance of Packing Light, Ysabeau S. Wilce
040. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, Alan Bradley
041. The New Republic, Lionel Shriver
042. Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk, David Sedaris
043. Divergent, Veronica Roth
044. When You Are Engulfed in Flames, David Sedaris
045. Barrel Fever, David Sedaris
046. Insurgent, Veronica Roth
047. A Field Guide to Getting Lost, Rebecca Solnit
048. VJ: The Unplugged Adventures of MTV's First Wave, Nina Blackwood, Mark Goodman, Alan Hunter, and Martha Quinn with Gavin Edwards
049. Etiquette & Espionage, Gail Carriger
050. The House Girl, Tara Conklin
051. Pick Your Poison: How Our Mad Dash to Chemical Utopia Is Making Lab Rats of Us All, Monona Rossol
052. The Faraway Nearby, Rebecca Solnit
053. Railsea, China Mieville
054. The Death of Bees, Lisa O'Donnell
055. Knitting the Threads of Time: Casting Back to the Heart of Our Craft, Nora Murphy
056. Brick By Brick: How LEGO Rewrote the Rules of Innovation and Conquered the Global Toy Industry, David C. Robertson with Bill Breen
057. The Night Circus, Erin Morgenstern
058. In God We Trust All Others Pay Cash, Jean Shepherd
059. Johannes Cabal the Detective, Jonathan L. Howard
060. Vampires in the Lemon Grove, Karen Russell
061. Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, Robin Sloan
062. Eight Cousins, Louisa May Alcott
063. The Potty Mouth at the Table, Laurie Notaro
064. ADHD in HD: Brains Gone Wild, Jonathan Chesner.
065. Reasons to Live, Amy Hempel
066. Orange is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison, Piper Kerman
067. Frankenstein's Cat: Cuddling Up to Biotech's Brave New Beasts, Emily Anthes
068. My Beloved Brontosaurus: On the Road with Old Bones, New Science, and Our Favorite Dinosaurs, Brian Switek
069. Brain Thief, Alexander Jablokov
070. Neon Angel: A Memoir of a Runaway, Cherie Currie with Tony O'Neill
071. A Good Year, Peter Mayle
072. Don't Cry, Mary Gaitskill
073. The Idiot Girls' Action-Adventure Club, Laurie Notaro
074. A Highland Werewolf Wedding, Terry Spear
075. Veronica, Mary Gaitskill
076. Garden State, Rick Moody
077. Midnight Blue-Light Special, Seanan McGuire
078. Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon - and the Journey of a Generation, Sheila Weller
079. One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd, Jim Fergus
080. Silence, Michelle Sagara
081. Rose in Bloom, Louisa May Alcott
082. The Great Lakes Water Wars, Peter Annin
083. Allegiant, Veronica Roth
084. Chimes at Midnight, Seanan McGuire
085. Three Men in a Boat, Jerome K. Jerome
086. Extra Virginity: The Sublime and Scandalous World of Olive Oil, Tom Mueller
087. Dreamland: Adventures in the Strange Science of Sleep, David K. Randall
088. Bah, Humbug, Heather Horrocks
089. The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Stephen Chbosky
090. The Unapologetic Fat Girl's Guide to Exercise and Other Incendiary Acts, Hanne Blank
091. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
092. Let's Pretend This Never Happened (A Mostly True Memoir), Jenny Lawson
093. Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, and Other Things That Happened, Allie Brosh
094. The Girl in the Green Sweater: A Life in Holocaust's Shadow, Krystyna Chiger with Daniel Paisner
095. Coffee: 14 Caffeinated Tales of the Fantastic, Alex Shvartsman, ed.
096. The Blue Hour: A Life of Jean Rhys, Lillian Pizzichini
097. Behind the Attic Wall, Sylvia Cassedy
098. Joan Jett by Todd Oldham and Kathleen Hanna
099. It All Began with Jane Eyre, or The Secret Life of Franny Dillman, Sheila Greenwald
100. The Book of Vice: Very Naughty Things (And How to Do Them), Peter Sagal
101. Whirligig, Paul Fleischman

A Festive Bunny Staplus to All!

There is a Ben and Jerry's in University Heights. I ordered an ice cream cake. Candy Bar Pie and Chocolate Therapy ice creams, brownie filling, chocolate frosting, caramel and reese's and chocolate chip cookies on top. Supposedly. We haven't tried it yet. But soon!

Someday I will update with knitting content. Just not today, as it is time for ice cream cake!

One word

Discofrankenfridge.

Book List!

I really ought to post more, but as I am nearly done with a book that is due to the library, I want to start my 2013 list. So here's 2012. Didn't quite meet my goal of 100 books, but came close. I did, however, meet my goal of knitting 12 miles, and all that knitting reduced my reading time.

Books Read in 2012

001. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, J.K. Rowling
002. Touch Not the Cat, Mary Stewart
003. Euphemania: Our Love Affair with Euphemisms, Ralph Keyes
004. Digging Out: Helping Your Loved One Manage Clutter, Hoarding & Compulsive Acquiring, Michael A. Tompkins and Tamara L. Hartl
005. What Makes Flamingos Pink?, Bill McLain
006. Written in Stone: Evolution, the Fossil Record, and Our Place in Nature, Brian Switek
007. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, Ransom Riggs
008. The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins
009. Video Slut: How I Shoved Madonna off an Olympic High Dive, Got Prince into a Pair of Tiny Purple Woolen Underpants, Ran Away from Michael Jackson's Dad, and Got a Waterfall to Flow Backward So I Could Bring Rock Videos to the Masses, Sharon Oreck
010. Hexed, Ilona Andrews, Yasmine Galenorn, Allyson James, Jeanne C. Stein
011. The Woman Who Is Always Tan and Has a Flat Stomach and Other Annoying People, Lauren Allison and Lisa Perry
012. Eternal Pleasure, Nina Bangs
013. Timeless, Gail Carriger
014. The Scent of Shadows, Vicki Pettersson
015. The Taste of Night, Vicki Pettersson
016. An Abundance of Katherines, John Green
017. Sizzling Sixteen, Janet Evanovich
018. Smokin' Seventeen, Janet Evanovich
019. Explosive Eighteen, Janet Evanovich
020. Wicked Appetite, Janet Evanovich
021. Paper Towns, John Green
022. The Good Daughter, Jasmin Darznik
023. Eternal Craving, Nina Bangs
024. Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power, Rachel Maddow
025. Imagine: How Creativity Works, Jonah Lehrer
026. Don't Put Me In, Coach: My Incredible NCAA Journey from the End of the Bench to the End of the Bench, Mark Titus
027. Midnight Riot, Ben Aaronovitch
028. Annoying: The Science of What Bugs Us, Joe Palca & Flora Lichtman
029. Size 12 Is Not Fat, Meg Cabot
030. Thanksgiving, Janet Evanovich
031. The Stepsister Scheme, Jim C. Hines
032. The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion, Jonathan Haidt
033. Wicked Bugs: The Louse that Conquered Napoleon's Army & Other Diabolical Insects, Amy Stewart
034. Redshirts, John Scalzi
035. Wicked Plants: The Weed that Killed Lincoln's Mother & Other Botanical Atrocities, Amy Stewart
036. Stand By Your Hitman, Leslie Langtry
037. Clockwork heart , Dru Pagliassotti
038. The Man From Primrose Lane, James Renner
039. Uncle John's 24-Karat Gold Bathroom Reader, The Bathroom Readers' Institute
040. The Taken, Vicki Petterssen
041. Banana Hammock, J.A. Konrath
042. A Fine and Private Place, Ellery Queen
043. My Life as a White Trash Zombie, Diana Rowland
044. Break, Hannah Moskowitz
045. Even White Trash Zombies Get the Blues, Diana Rowland
046. Cleveland Curiosities: Eliot Ness and His Blundering Raid, A Busker's Promise, The Richest Heiress Who Never Lived, and More, Ted Schwarz
047. The Line Between, Peter S. Beagle
048. Faster: The Acceleration of Just About Everything, James Gleick
049. Thirteen Reasons Why, Jay Asher
050. Moon over Soho, Ben Aaronovitch
051. St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves, Karen Russell
052. The Fault in Our Stars, John Green
053. Discount Armageddon, Seanan McGuire
054. Little Brother, Cory Doctorow
055. The Agency: A Spy in the House, Y.S. Lee
056. Catching Fire, Suzanne Collins
057. Rosemary and Rue, Seanan McGuire
058. How the World Was One, Arthur C, Clarke
059. Giving Up the Ghost: A Story About Friendship, 80s Rock, a Lost Scrap of Paper, and What It Means to be Haunted, Eric Nuzum
060. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot
061. A Local Habitation, Seanan McGuire
062. The Wasp Factory, Iain Banks
063. Shadow and Bone, Leigh Bardugo
064. Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell
065. An Artificial Night, Seanan McGuire
066. Monster Hunter International, Larry Correia
067. Peeps, Scott Westerfeld
068. The Last Days, Scott Westerfeld
069. The Demon's Lexicon, Sarah Rees Brennan
070. Late Eclipses, Seanan McGuire 071. Young Adult Novel, Daniel Pinkwater
072. One Salt Sea, Seanan McGuire
073. Uglies, Scott Westerfeld
074. Field Notes on Science & Nature, Michael A. Canfield, ed.
075. To Say Nothing of the Dog ~ or ~ How We Found the Bishop's Bird Stump At Last, Connie Willis
076. Pretties, Scott Westerfeld
077. The Island of the Blue Dolphins, Scott O'Dell
078. Un Lun Dun, China Mieville
079. The Doomsday Book, Connie Willis
080. Zombies vs. Unicorns, Holly Black and Justine Larbalestier, eds.
081. Specials, Scott Westerfeld
082. Extras, Scott Westerfeld
083. Eaters of the Dead, Michael Crichton
084. Wool, Hugh Howey
085. Motel of the Mysteries, David Macaulay
086. The Twelve, Justin Cronin
087. Wool 2: Proper Gauge, Hugh Howey
088. Wool 3: Casting Off, Hugh Howey
089. Wool 4: The Unraveling, Hugh Howey
090. Wool 5: The Stranded, Hugh Howey
091. Flight Behavior, Barbara Kingsolver
092. Cold Days, Jim Butcher

Where did the time go?

Wow. It's nearly October, and I am not at all ready for it. October is generally my busiest month of the year, and this year is no exception.

First, we have Pearl and the Beard! They'll be at the Beachland Tavern on Wednesday, October 3, and they're lots of fun. Example:

And bonus yarn!

I am really looking forward to the show, and hope lots of my fellow Clevelanders can make it!

After that, there's the North Coast Tour de Stitch, so my mom and I will wander across northeast Ohio visiting cross stitch tours. Oh, and there is coincidentally a production of Xanadu that weekend, so we'll have to catch a performance. I doubt we'll get to sit on the stage this time, though.

The next weekend will be spent in University Circle, at a Kirtlandia meeting and at the art museum for a knit-out.

Then it's off to Rhinebeck for a week at the Fred Compound! It will be great to see so many good friends again. We'll probably trek into NYC at some point and explore another bit of the city.

What else? I don't think I have anything planned for the last weekend in October, but you never know.

As usual, I am a slacker about posting. I have added 10 pages to my flickr photostream since my last post. Wow, that's a lot of knitting. And lots of Zuzu pictures. Finished the cowl to match the mitts, but still haven't sewn on the buttons. I have the buttons, so that's a good start, right?

Finished the fifth cowl in the Great Cowl KAL, and decided that I really disliked the yarn. Thankfully my coworker liked the finished object, and I was very happy that the cowl found a new home.

In April, went to Gretchen's wedding in NYC! Congrats, guys! My husband agreed that NYC is not as terrible of a place that he thought it would be, and perhaps we can go back someday, because we only touched on a fraction of what the city has to offer.

I wanted to wear a blue dress to the wedding, and knit a botanical garden shawl to match. Unfortunately, I ended up wearing something else, and the shawl is now on loan to Ewes d'Bleu as a shop sample for Lace Lux yarn.

While in NYC, I needed a walk-around-and-knit project, so I made a black hat my husband, as he can always use more hats.

Oh, yes. When we got back from NYC, Zuzu was diagnosed with diabetes. We started giving her shots twice a day. I got rather good at it, and if she was sleeping she might not even notice the injection. After a while, her kitty torture was reduced to once a day, and more recently she was declared normal enough to go without shots (just after I bought a box of syringes, of course!) Apparently diabetes in cats sometimes resolves on its own. I wouldn't be surprised if we have to go back to once-a-day shots eventually, but we'll see. Anyway, knit Lancet, and since I am most familiar with the word "lancet" as what is used to draw blood for glucose testing, I referred to my project as "my junkie cat."

Gratuitous cute kitty picture!

Also knit a Wingspan, because it was perfect for kauni. Wore it to a class with the Yarn Harlot, and while it is a bit bright for her taste, she ended up knitting one, too. (She also called me and Mary weird, but hey, we never claimed to be normal. And apparently the weird had more to do with our butterfly headbands than anything else.)

What else? Went to Maryland Sheep and Wool for a day in May. Also had to visit the Great Lakes Fiber Show since it's so close to home. Made the Like Honey cowl. From the end of May to the beginning of June, knit Thao, Undine, finished a slightly modified test-knit of Stepped Laceline Shawl, and Vlad.

They've all found good homes, although I am a huge slacker and still need to mail Thao to her permanent residence.

Apparently I've been knitting a lot of Liz Abinante designs. She designed the cowls, and Lancet, and I also did Vouissour and Squinch.

Oh yes, in June I walked in a Color Run. And of course my hands could not be idle, so I have a hat. Also walked in a Color Me Rad with my sister in August, so she has a hat, too.

Did a very quick test knit of Dash Mitts, and may need to make more as Christmas gifts.

Still playing along in KALs, and did Nefarious Web, the TTL KAL, the Summer Solstice KAL. Did Madame Phelps (quietest KAL ever!), although still haven't blocked it, and am still slightly peeved that my "500-yard" skein of merino-tencel was more like 360 yards. The designer used 440 yards for her project, so I thought that 500 yards should be plenty. Nope. Needed to rip back the endless short rows, and didn't really add a ruffle at the bottom.

I love how this turned out!

I really disliked blocking the edging. Sent to a friend and she is welcome to re-block at will.

Given to a coworker who retired.

Finally finished my Ka'ana. (Love it! So soft and squishy, and the colors are gorgeous.) Needed some relatively instant gratification so started (and finished) Red Sumac. Got sucked into the endless garter stitch that is Color Affection. Finally finished my travel socks Finally made a Jayne hat.

Can't forget Zuzu's mane.

My kitty is so tolerant! On the needles now I have yet another KAL, Malice in Wonderland. I am slightly disappointed in this one, as the ads implied something a bit more complicated. Yes, it will be huge, and I will probably keep going, but I'm not sure if this one will live with me or if it will find a new home. Working on Spring Thaw in some amazing yarn. Silk and cashmere. Incredibly dreamy stuff. Talk to Rain and get yourself some. I would really like to finish that today, but of course it depends on how much longer I stare at the computer! Current meeting knitting is Afternoon Tea. We'll see how much longer that lasts.

Waiting room picture, not my magazine.

Anyway, I should get back to knitting and laundry. Funny how laundry never ends. One last thing: I looked at my project page to do this post, and sensed a theme. Can you see it?

That's all, folks! Catch you on the flip side!

Laundry Interlude

Taking a break from laundry. It is March 3, and that means spring cleaning, right? Time to wash all of the linens! Also, someone remind me to clean behind the big chair more often than once every few years, please.

Apparently no one wants a chocolate covered twinkie. Maybe I will send it to Tallahassee to be saved for the zombie apocalypse.

What have I been up to since the last post? Let's see...

Took an intro stained glass class. I want to learn more!


Finished the Linaria bipartita socks.



Finished the third cowl in the Great Cowl KAL.



And the fourth!



Waiting for the fifth. Also had a bit of an incident with the third, in that when it came out of the water after its bath part of the edging came undone. Need sunlight to fix it, and haven't had sunshine on a day that I have had the time to fix it. I'm confident that I can do the repair, but I just need lots of light for it.

Finished a pair of fingerless mitts, and got a good start on the matching cowl. Need to take a picture of the cowl-in-progress. I think I have 24 rows to go, maybe? Then to pay someone to sew on buttons...



Worked a bit more on the numma numma KAL, but am still way behind on clues. Too many other things to do, and this doesn't really have a deadline.



Picked up my Sugared Violets again, as I didn't read the pattern well enough and had rotated it out of meeting knitting. Turns out it could have stayed meeting knitting for another twenty or so rows. Oh well.



Latest meeting knitting has been the Trout Club scarf, Wavy Baktus. I'm about halfway done.



Well, I think the dryer has stopped, so it's time to deal with more laundry. Have fun!