ProseKnitic – of Words und Wolle

The Old Tower stands at one end of what is now a pedestrian zone in La Laguna at the Placa de la Conception. Its stones are old, the wood frames of the windows looking only a few decades old and well cared. There are 24 stone steps inside leading to the first main level. From this point, obvious new wooden construction lets you climb another 112 stairs up to the point when you literally hit your head against the glass ceiling at the top of the cupola. The bells are one level down from there and the highest section at which you have access to the outside world without benefit of glass separating you from the weather.

Since I was just here in Nov (as apposed to Nov of 2007) when I had seen some of the museums I decided to take the tram across the northern part of the island from Tenerif. From one end of the line to the other takes close to an hour starting from near the old fort at water’s edge and ending at the Pedestrian Zone at the other.

It is easy to see that we are back in Spain; the fancy patterned stone side walks with their lines, symbols and insets are gone in favor of ordinary cobblestone and pavement. The architectural highlight in this city is the door. Old wooden doors pitted but lovingly tended. Newer doors (well 100 years old is newer, right?) gleam with varnish and sealant. Also of interest are the wooden frames to upper windows.

I hope you can handle doors two days in a row. Oh, and did I mention the tribe of Scouts complete with backpacks, sleeping rolls and a weary looking couple of adults escorting them down the street. From the variety of languages heard I don’t think they are local kids.

Reading -

I am trundling through Monica Ferris’s Needlework Shop Mystery series. Not exactly in order by chronology but by alphabetical order as I picked most of them up over the last year on the various Audible Sales.

Knitting.

It takes much longer to finish a section repeat on the Shadow Jacket now that I have added the body extensions on both ends to to the sleeve sides. ~150 stitches suddenly had 220 added, which does slow me down.

and of course, packing. It is not that I really have all that much to take home, it is I don’t want to leave the extra suitcase here. Good thing that my Frequent Traveler card with Lufthansa entitles me to the extra suitcase (and only a bejillion miles to go to reach Senator status).

Reading

I had mentioned the reading in the my first note this year. I am attempting to shift my reading to free sources as much as possible. It may stop me from spending as much on books (all formats) as I did last year. There is a lot of material free (B&N, Amazon, iTunes and even occasionally on Audible). In response, there was a wide variety of reading from all of you. Ron, for example answered -

What am I reading? Just finished the “Hunger Games” Series after Deb kept telling me I need to read them. I could not put it down, 3 books in 7 days, over 2000 pages. Well written. Interesting fiction with socioeconomic subtext about distribution of resources (food) in American future at some distant point yet to come. It is not deep, but it will grab your attention and hold it. It reads like an ancient Roman story set in the future… food and blood sport used as tools to control the masses. Play the colonies against each other for the good the the empire. I am probably going to read them again to see if I missed anything… It is about to be released as a single movie, that has a big list of stars in the key characters.

These are books in which I, to this point, have had no interest. I had mostly heard teens talking about them. After being totally irritated by poorly written wizard stories and sparkly vampires, I had been ignoring YA fiction. Sounds like these might actually have some redeeming worth and I might reconsider.

Ignoring all those books out there which fall into the SVS group (stupid vampire stories), I have been listening to mostly mysteries and the occasional non-fiction.

For something completely different in non-fiction, I would recommend “Looking through a Keyhole” a memoir by Julia Spencer. With sharp, clear prose Ms Spencer unflinchingly interweaves her past into her present situation. Having inherited retinitis pigmentosa, she must come to grips with going blind; changing her life, reclaiming independence and finding her place in the world. This is also a story of Irene – a golden lab – who makes the difference. Most of us have issues with trust, wanting to do things for ourselves. Having to define relationships, especially in one’s seventies is really pretty impressive. I don’t know how the book would read – I have it in audio (and at $3.95 it is cheaper than print) and the narrator is awesome.

Otherwise, have deleted a number of free books, read a couple of so-so urban fantasies and am working my way through some of the early Sharon McCone books by Marcia Muller (again, Audible has nice sales).

Knitting

One does not want the daughter of a knitter to get cold. Someone who has moved to Chicago didn’t have a decent warm neck scarf. So, I knit her a scarf

just the pattern portion of a larger shawl design

Last year I joined a lovely Ravelry Forum called “52 Books in a Year.”  Obviously, reading 52 books in a year is not a particularly difficult goal for me being part of the subset that read more than 200 books. (Obviously, being deployed heavily contributed to my reading numbers along with eBooks and Audiobooks).

Listening to books and reading books electronically can  be financially wallet breaking if you are not careful since it is extremely easy to just hit the buy it now, load and go. All of the on-line book stores continually have special deals as does Tantor, Audible, GraphicAudio and numerous other sources for audiobooks. (please note that I am not providing links for you, I am not going to facilitiate increased expenditures).

This year, instead of spending large amounts of money on reading and audio material, I am going to concentrate on what I can read for free. I have a decent local library; that solves the best sellers reading. I have plenty of access to paperback swap shelves, so portable books for take-offs and landings are solved. My backlist of audiobooks to be heard is long enough that it should last months. Finally, there is a wealth of free eBooks – I must have a good hundred between various accounts (B&N, Amazon, Kobo) and more are available every year.

The end result is that I plan on reading what I find, writing reviews, recommending new authors and limiting my spending. I am willing to be honest in a review here; I am unlikely to post on an otherwise open site if writing is significantly lacking. Something about the old “if you can’t say anything nice…….”

There are some others from Ravelry joining in. If you want to play as well, just let me know. I am more than happy to link to anyone else participating and also put up links for anything interesting that I find. Pixel of Ink and Books on the Knob are a good sources for listings and recommendations on free eBooks. ITunes has the occasional freebie, not as often as Amazon or Barnes&Noble but more than snow in Florida.

Currently on hand from the Library:

Aloha from Hell (A Sandman Slim Novel) – Richard Kadrey which I thoroughly enjoyed. Yes it is violent; no – there are no vampires. Gritty Urban Fantasy with imagination and minimal romance.

Three-Day Town (Deborah Knott Mystery) – Margaret Maron. Deborah and Dwight on their one year delayed honeymoon no sooner arrive in NYC than there is a murder in their apartment. Bringing Sigrid Harald (1980s-1995 mystery series) in as one of the NYC detectives is both interesting and effective.

The House of Silk – Anthony Horowitz. After writing a whole series of YA mysteries – Horowitz was selected by the Arthur Conan Doyle Estate to pen a new Sherlock Holmes Mystery. It is next on my reading list.

Son of Stone (A Stone Barrington Novel) - Stuart Woods. The latest in the Stone Barrington novels – sometimes life takes some rather interesting turns.

Spellbound – Blake Charlton. With all these mysteries – I just had to pick up one fantasy book complete with dragons didn’t I?

What are you reading? Write a post, write a review, I will happily keep the links and conversation going.

we spent, Carmen and I, first relaxing with coffees and knitting then wandering the isles of Barnes & Noble.

Since the demise of Borders, Barnes & Noble is the only large scale chain that actually offers service, miles of in house book shelves and on-line ordering. Yes, I know that Amazon does on-line ordering, but I really like to hold the books every once in a while and believe that rewarding the store that supports my book addiction to be a worthwhile endeavor.

Then there is the small matter of e-books. I don’t mind reading books on either my computer or iPad; but again I want to know what I am purchasing before I commit myself to the large layout of $$. Currently being in the US means that I can happily download books from both B&N and Amazon (funny, but the price is always the same in both locations) onto my computer.

Then, there are all those knitting and craft magazines to which I no longer subscribe since they never have anything that is all that interesting. As you probably guessed, I am not much for current fashion nor knits completed on needles the size and weight of lightening rods.

I made progress on the current scarf

Nessie II

all the pretty sparkles

someone is tired

The theory of my making some particular clothes for the Maus is that she puts in some time and assistance. To a large extent, this has happened. When she vanished partway through the day, I went to find her. All this clipping, pinning, snipping and ironing apparently has taken more out of her than planned.

Knitting

Just to show of totally and complete pictures of the City Sweater ….

the City Sweater

looking at 1/2 the sweater back

Books and Audio Books

I have been doing well in various Bookcrossing Virtual Book Boxes having been able to send off several books to people who are interested and picking up a few more that I would like to read. That takes care of the Dead Tree side of things. Unfortunately, Audible has another sale, so my “to be heard” queue is actually longer than my TBR pile is high. Go figure.

Brand new and Huge. LH400 from Frankfurt to New York’s JFK was via Airbus A380-800.

You know a plane is large when there are four (4) different boarding ramps. When row numbers run up to 94. When frankly the departure gates are separate for the business/first class sections and the rest of us mere mortals. Downstairs, below stairs, dungeon we are while rows 1-9 are First Class and 10-18 hold all those self important business passengers. Did I mention that they are upstairs? Penthouse view while we should be glad to have new seats, windows, decent over head bins and individual seat back displays.

The seating is 3-4-3 for most of coach. Lucky me with an isle seat in row 70 which turns out to be the last group to board the plane. Even better wis when you get to polite but insistent oversize people in the other two of your group of three who want to swap your precious isle seat for a window location. Now normally I prefer sitting next to the window. But my bag with camera was already stowed for the flight and there was not way that I was taking a chance on not being able to get out of my seat for the entire flight.

In an amazing turn of luck, the flight was not completely full. Just across the isle and up a row (69G) there was an empty seat which I nabbed just the moment the flight crew shut the doors giving me elbow room which translates to knitting room.

The flight was smooth, the food was barely warm (they are going to have an issue if they don’t properly heat up the food), and the peons had to wait at JFK while the entire upper class departed the plane through the single gangway.

I managed to find the bus to Central Station and a train in the direction of Scarsdale. Of course, it might have helped if I had managed to take along the directions so that I got off at the correct stop or had an easy time with the cell phone. In any case, I wound up at the right location with some small bit of insanity in time to snack, knit, read and crash for the evening after taking a short walk in a lovely neighbourhood.

Knitting

Started Polo II – a sock yarn version of a Hanne Falkenberg Cowl. The multicolor is African Grey (parrot) from Cherry Tree Hill Yarns and the grey is a sport weight from Louet.

Konkylie is a knitted collar/scarf – also a HF which I am knitting out of some sale coned yarn (with double strands as directed on 5.00 mm needles

Audio Books

Beach Lane – Sherryl Woods
Trick of the Light – Rob Thurman

A long plane flight is a great way to go through more t

from Scarsdale, NY

I am making slow but steady progress.

Two more boxes have been emptied and most of the knitting books are back on the shelves. Yarn is in storage bins and clothes bags are in the bedroom although not sorted out or unpacked. I made nice piles of stuff on the dining room table (His, theirs and mine), and have steadily been adding to the “going out box.”

A good friend is taking a lot of the older audiobooks off my hands. She has a cassette player as well as CD/MP3 and I am happy to pass these along. Also in the box are leftovers of sock yarn for her “going to be how big?” blanket from scraps. I have thought about doing one of those, then decided to forgo it in favor of sweaters and comforters with flannel covers.

Lastly, I have been cataloging books again. As you might remember, the audiobooks (real vs electron versions have been done, I am now starting on the books… the hundreds and hundreds of books we have in the house. I broke down and have purchased a bar code reader. Even with a number keypad, data entry was just taking too long….

I had extensive catalogs once. The computer crashed and locked files which I was never able to open. It is time to try again….. meanwhile, letting me avoid other parts of the organization and cleaning!

Or Indian either for that matter.  

Instead, in the tradition of DFACs everywhere – the breakfast service was moved up by 30 to 60 minutes and stopped by 0730 in order to prepare for the main meal which is served at noon. Also, like many other facilities, the senior personnel – officers, first sergeants and command sergeant majors staff the serving line. The only significant variation that I saw is that all of us senior types were in ACUs rather than Dress Blues.  

At Aviation DFAC there are two lines – for this meal both the same. First station is roast carving, followed by choice (more than one ok) of turkey, prime rib, ham, pineapple chicken and corn on the cob. Following that was self serve for mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, collard greens and black eyed peas. There was a separate ham carving station along with a seafood area featuring cold crab legs and shrimp cocktails. In the next room were the salads, fruits and deserts.  

My line, of course, was the most efficient (grin). I spent a bit over an hour before my back said enough. I will attribute all of our ability to serve at double the speed of the other time to both the CSM asking everyone what they wanted and the SPC who was fast and efficient at the roast carving.  

 Seriously, the BDE Commander from 10th Mountain stopped by to say hello later and asked how we managed. His CSM and a good carver. In fact, the only thing that slowed us down at all were people self serving multiple side dishes. Oh, yes, Mac&Cheese, there was Mac & Cheese. I will need to ask Bonnie why, but it did give me something with protein besides ice cream.  

I am now back in the office with the following to finish before the end of the day

1) ABFM Part II Patient Simulation. Since this is open anything (as far as I can tell) I finally located a couple of great review articles to walk me through the two main diagnoses. With luck I will be done today – a bit in advance of 31 Dec….

2) two awards

3) review another award

4) Dari.  

My reward for getting through each section is to be able to stop and listen to an episode of Owner’s Share by Nathan Lowell. The first five episodes are up and I managed to download them last night and today at the USO. Remember those old 56k modems? With the limits on the USO system it takes about an hour to download 35 MEG. I also have the new Rawlins Cross album (Heart Head Hands) which came in the mail this week.

And it was a quiet day here at Camp CRC. At least it was after the morning session of IED and UXO training. As a Health Care Provider they exempted me from the first aid training drills for the afternoon giving me a chance to organize, pack u things and read junk books.

There are not many worthwhile books on the swapshelves here – mostly old romances of the “stupid helpless young woman rescued by the older, experienced alpha male” variety. Means that you can read a dozen books in an afternoon. Or, as it more like the case, start a dozen before tossing each aside as not worth the time and effort!

For those Harry Dresden fans – Changes – by Jim Butcher has hit the streets, the library and arrived at my APO box courtesy of amazon.com. Take an interesting plot twist involving the return of Susan, add in the White Council plus a pending “peace proposal” from the Red Court (give us a break – trust a vampire? I mean, really…..) and it is Harry and gang against the world as he knows it

Any thing more than that would involve serious spoilers. Even though each book stands alone and Butcher is relevant but sparing with his back story, I would really recommend reading this series in order. The books just keep getting better.

Now – back to the re-read of Sci Fi Classics  (and thanks to Ruth for the nagging) the partial list of which includes – iRobot and the Foundation Trilogy by Asimov, Cities in Flight by Blish, Waystation by Simak, Dune by Herbert, Stranger in a Strange Land by Heinlein, Rendezvous with Rama by Clark, More than Human by Sturgeon plus todays -

The Left Hand of Darkness – by Ursula le Guin. (FantasticFiction Link here). Published in 1969 (university time, before medical school; long before marriage and children) the story is set in a far future universe where mankind and others are far flung across the galaxy and loosely organized into the Concordance. Newly discovered worlds are sent a single Envoy who establishes a toehold by peaceful means.

Genly Ai is posted to Winter, by himself with just his wits, an ansible and belief system which undergo transformation during his time. For Winter, you see, is populated by hermaphrodites and provides a challenge to deep seated assumptions and prejudices. A population that can and does change genders over the years and dependant on social situations beyond the understanding of a short term visitor.

Hailed at the time and discussed for years after, The Left Hand of Darkness is considered a key work in the genre as it explores both society and the role of the individual against the backdrop of other than traditional belief systems.

I read it when it first came out, finding it fascinating. Unlike other SciFi of the time which portrayed strange looking creatures with otherwise US/UK mores, language, and behavior, Le Guin created a society that challenges those beliefs while maintaining a complexity and internal consistency.

40 years later, this Hugo and Nebula winner still stands the test of time. Because it is person and society centric rather that hard technology dependant, it has aged well. The questions raised – how to initiate first contact, how to understand new societies and cultures, are as relevant today as then.

Superficially, the roles of women in western society may have changed drastically in the last four decades. But have we really evolved? Do we still want to know if someone is “a man or a woman”? Isn’t that the first question asked of parents about their newborn?

And are we not all a bit uncomfortable when we can not identify the gender of an individual by their first name? Needing that little bit of knowledge to carefully slot one into our own privately constructed pigeon holes of roles?

At the end, a book that makes me think as well as being a good read is certainly worth putting in my classics pile and recommending it to you.

In this case,

miter + mitrer + more

Progressing apace, I am on the last full row of miters for the skirt area of the jacket. I am now going to have to figure out a right facing half miter.  Once that is done, the whole piece is rotated 180º in order to start the bodice portion. Sleeves are last.

I am even being such a good kid and weaving in ends as I go.

Books

Since you can see that I have made less progress than any one may expect I will confess to reading a few books this weekend:
Cockatiels at Seven and Swan for the Money – Donna Andrews, both books of which are fine if you like comedic mysteries, but some of the characters in this series are getting pretty dull. Crouching Buzzard, Leaping Loon was probably the best.
The Enchantment Emporium – Tanya Huff. Lovely book, similar to her Keeper series (1998-2003) in attitude, characters and fluid description. Good urban fiction completely without vampires or werewolves. Perhaps you have to be from the northern tier to manage? (Charles de Lint and Emma Bull come to mind. Great writers – Canada and Minnesota. Proof that it is completely possible to write interesting stories without pandering….

You are familiar with Bookcrossing.com – right?

It is not the same thing at all as Library Thing. Admittedly, you can catalogue all of your books if you have enough energy but that is not the purpose of the site.

Passing along books to others – now that it something to support.

All of us have our shelf of books that will stay with us for the duration of our existence: those books which we love/hate and read over and over. Then there are all the other books which are bought or received. All books are too good to throw away, but finding a home for books that do not fall in the “keeper” category can be a challenge.

Enter Bookcrossing.  Started in 2001, there are more than 800,000 individuals participating world wide with supporting websites now in multiple languages. You can post books as available for anyone who is seeking them or tag books and release them in the wild. There are various assorted get togethers in different communities (I have met some really neat people in both Germany and the UK this way).

Go, take a look. Register. Participate. Share the wealth of books.

Tell them I sent you!

(Proseknitic)

(Why am I thinking about this? I looked at my joining date – three years ago today!)

Coming late to the party, I am taking the plunge into modular knitting.

It was the arrival of that lovely book by Jane Slicer-Smith that pushed me over the edge. After having been a student in the 60s and 70s, I absolutely loathe granny-square type patterns. Kind of the following refrain – if you were old enough to wear it in the 70s you should know better than to wear it this time around.

End result is that I have just flipped by most of the mitered patterns as being either too like those times of 40 years ago or just too full of ends to weave it. Loose ends are even worse than granny squares.

Then over the last couple of years I have been seduced by garter garments designed by Hanne Falkenberg, Vivian Hoxbrø and Garn Studio. Mitered just seemed like the next thing to try. After all, if I can manage fairisle on 2.5 -3.0 mm needles I should be ale to manage garter with dk yarn.

(Shall I mention that I have all this lovely dk weight merino in my stash from Army-Navy closeout this past fall. Purchased at 50-70% off meaning I can manage a whole jacket completely out of stash?)

I am going for the Mitered Jacket in my favorite colors (red, grey, burgundy) which should not be a surprise to anyone.  Hold on, I knit a gauge swatch!

4.0 mm needle = 5"

before moving on to carefully read instructions.

(Yes I know, totally shocking and out of character, but who wants all those strange lengths of yarn that are going to happen if I have to do much frogging).

and it doesn't take much time to knit the first square

As it turns out, it really gets kind of addicting…

3 full, one half square

and it is back to more squares to go with Criminal Minds… or Kay Hoopers “Fear“  series in audio. Humm – too much FBI?

We have all studied literature in school. Defined by me as that portion of writing in prose in which a point/commentary is delivered through the expression of the story.

Fiction on the other hand, is all about the story.

The difference is the writer’s intent. Not what professors of language, literature or social analysis decide later, but what the author intended in the first place.

For example, it is fairly clear that Jonathan Swift and Mark Twain were using the medium of storytelling to provide commentary on their societies. Both have even commented so in non-fiction essays.

Similarly, in genre fiction there is little question in most people’s minds that mystery stories are all about solving the puzzle and romance is about relationships.

That leaves Science Fiction – which is about some kind of future – based on technology rather than magic. The wisdom about 30-40 years ago was that authors wrote their vision of the future. Meaning that science was going to lead to outbound travel while really not fixing much of anything with the people involved. Postulations of doom and gloom abounded.

What was also noticeable were the characters – present day attitudes superimposed on future science. Makes as much sense as an enlighted man of the 13th century expressing 21st century US views about the roles of men and women in society.

And then along comes Ursula Le Guin with The Left Hand of Darkness portraying a society different in concept from the known and accepted in her time. If you need a summary, perhaps you want to detour to Wikipedia or an excellent discussion of gender roles in science fiction and society by Rebecca Rass.

I originally read Left Hand of Darkness in 1969 when it was first published and was stunned by the book, the thought and the society portrayed. It is not an action adventure which was what I had quietly assumed was most science fiction (see Andre Norton, Robert Heinlein, James Blish……..) but a thoughtful portrayal of what was certainly alien to someone fighting basic gender discrimination in school.

Since this is the first one on my Classics of SciFi List, I am still decided how to approach the commentary. Assume that you will hear once to several times about each book since I am as interested in how they strike me now as when I first read them.

Perhaps that is my definition of classic – a book that keeps appearing fresh with each re-reading.

.

Smart name from Raverlry last year right about this time.

What better way to deal with the mid-winter doldrums than to knit a nice vest?

Rather than something complicated, fine yarn and fiddly, I decided to choose an easy, fast pattern. In fact, Drops #115-24, a cabled top looked to be right about my speed.

Purchased a few years ago, I have this bag of Shakespeare by Artful Yarns, 100% wool in a lovely combination of blues and purples

Color #5

Casting on 95 stitches (yes, that is around. Total number that 95!) on size 8.00 needles to set up the pattern before moving up to 9.00 needles with two strands held together

cables plus ribbing

it has not taken long to get three balls (135 yards each worked from inside and outside) into the project.

not quite to the underarm, but close.

I am rather pleased to think that I will shortly have a nice warm vest.

I did look through other’s projects: Nicole knit a lovely version without sleeves, as did Katharaina. Then there is Donna’s (which is located here on her old blog) which I hope she ports everything over from Blogspot as she has such a nice collection of pictures and finished things.

There were another three or so finished vests, but none of the rest have projects that seem to be posted outside of Ravelry.

Audio Books

The Mercedes Coffin – Faye Kellerman. A Peter Decker & Rina Lazarus mystery, this was one of several downloaded from iTunes a few months back when they had books on sale ($6.95 seemed like a really good deal).

I read it (library book( when first released in hardback) and enjoyed it then. It is holding up well on listening, the reader is a pretty gruff sounding guy which seems to suit the story well.

on other fronts

By the simple expedient of heading into London, the Mole managed to avoid returning to school this afternoon.

On return, we had a serious conversation about what comes next. He is a good kid, knows that the budget is not unlimited (school year prepaid) and that transferring schools – except to mean mom’s – is not likely.

No one really lost their temper and we will talk on the way to Croughton in the morning.

Managing a wander up Oxford Street early this morning.. well, early apparently for Berkeley. Not even joggers out and about at 0730 on a Saturday morning, just homeless blockaded into doorways by their laden carts.

I was looking for Beth-El and the 0830 Minyan. Having the address was good, the building is not signed. Held in their smaller Beit Am, the group and folding chairs felt more welcoming than many of the formal, decades established Shabbas services, complemented by a locally produced prayer book designed for all levels of Hebrew ability and vision.

Sliding out before the Torah study, the walk back to the hotel is downhill. Hill direction can be terribly important when you are on the edge of the foothills. Having a house seven blocks from Shul is good. Would be much better if those seven blocks were not straight up hill…

Friends

Feeling truly fortunate, I spent a lovely afternoon with Ruth (aka the Scrabblequeen). I also met her husband, one of those great guys willing to take a Saturday afternoon and wander a section of Solano so that we could visit.

Part of the plan had been to visit Stash. Well, it seems that they had moved. No sign in the window of the old location. We wandered through other shops and books stores, totally missing looking up the street from where we had lunch. Stash, as it turns out, was just around the corner.

Tea, Chai and knitting were also in order for the afternoon. Ruth’s current sweater project has a lovely look and feel and she is such a warm and welcoming person. There are those times when you can feel awkward meeting someone who you know only through email. Both yesterday with Alison and today with Ruth it was sitting down with old friends, picking up threads of conversation like no time had passed at all.

Flashback Challenge

Wanting to read old science fiction/fantasy classics, I was facing a dilemma. Few of the books I will be re-reading are currently in publication and rarely in hardback, eliminating the library as a source for the books. I probably have most of them, somewhere in a book box.

But then there are used books stores and I found:

I still have to track down:

• Strange in a Strange Land – Robert Heinlein
• Way Station – Clifford Simak
• Canticle for Leibowitz – Walter M Miller

What is on your reading list?

Whether or not you are a fan of New Year’s Resolutions, the fact remains that many of us make them and few managed to keep up the good effort for more than a few days to weeks.

Then along comes an idea that is just made for signing up and actually completing. The Flashback Challenge, started by Aarti, a young Chicago book lover, is based on a Robertson Davies (you know, the Canadian novelist, author, journalist, professor) quote -

A truly great book should be read in youth, again in maturity and once more in old age, as a fine building should be seen by morning light, at noon and by moonlight.

The Challenge is simple – go, sign up, and commit yourself to re-reading somewhere between 3-12 books from earlier times in your life. If really ambitious, there is nothing stopping you from reading more. Three books in a year, that is not an overwhelming number. You don’t even have to decide which books right now. Read during the year. If you have energy, you could even use each as the subject for a blog post; you could right a review.

I haven’t decided which books yet, but I am going to re-read classic children’s literature and what I consider true early classics of SF/Fan. Perhaps a bit of Louisa May Alcott, Mark Twain or Kenneth Grahame (if your mind just went blank - Wind in the Willows was first published in 1908). Then there are the books I read as they were being published in my childhood and early teens by Andre Norton, Clifford Simak, Theodore Sturgeon, Robert Heinlein, Frank Herbert, Walter M Miller, and Ursula Le Guin.

Yes, there are a lot of new and very interesting books being published. Perhaps by doing this and writing about it someone else will become interested in a particular book. It couldn’t hurt.

And you know what is really special about my plan? It is totally and completely vampire romance free…….

Waiting for the electrician (Did I mention that the florescent lights have gone out in the kitchen? Both of them, leaving it a bit challenging to do anything in that room any other time than between, oh lets say, 0830-1530?) I figure knitting should keep my fingers warm. After I get through all the work related email that is.

For those who celebrate the Christmas Holidays and like to decorate – Garn Studios (those wonderful people who make the Drops yarn and put all of their patterns on the web for free) has put up a Julekalendar with a new pattern every day.  The link is also part way down the home page.  Not normally watching such things, I saw a note by Maria who is already started on some really cute and speedy projects.

(many hours later) – I now have lights again in my kitchen and a scheduled time for the plumber tomorrow (I think) as well as all day next week Thursday for the heating system to be fixed.

End result is that I discovered something else today that was not to my benefit. BigFishGames have now organized their MAC games, making it extremely easy to download and try new games. Unfortunately for me, there were a couple of new games I just had to try. Knitting time was impinged.

Books

Grave Secret – Charlaine Harris. Simple. Neither complicated in plot or characters, it is a nice change from her other paranormal series. Most of the ugliness is in the past, and a major mystery is solved in this book. All the same, it is probably about time she ends this one.
Missing in Death – J D Robb, read by Susan Erickson. Novella taken from a new story collection (this is the only one of the four stories available in audio so far – I think they are missing a trick or three). Slightly under 4 hours, it is quick, tightly plotted and wastes only a couple of minutes on sex scenes. Writing is more consistent than Kindred in Death (new out in Oct) which was quite uneven. Honestly? I would believe she changed ghost writers about an hour into the story.

Strange day here in the UK.

Temperature has been low, the electrician will be returning on Thurs morning to fix the overhead florescent lights which buzzed out over the weekend. And, the heating guy certified my boiler as kaput. A new one is on order. Meanwhile, I have two small electric space heaters on loan.

Funny thing, that. I had been doing ok without them. Not great, you understand, but ok. I had convinced myself that wearing four layers, sitting under comforters, and burying my hands with knitting wool was a completely normal way to live in the evenings.

I now have the heater running. The temperature has reached 16°C (a balmy 60°F for some of you) in the bedroom and my nose is no longer frosty at the tip.

Knitting update

Ok, there are four things on the needles right now.

four projects underway

The two vests both have backs completed; fronts are now cast on. I think I might wind up ripping out part of cul-de-sac and reknitting because my gauge isn’t quite right on the one side.

back of Cul-de-Sac

back of Lima vest

Then there is the diamond shapes pullover has two sleeves to be attached while on which I completed one of the lacking 4 quarter diamonds.

diamonds and triangles

adding shoulder and upper back bits

Finally, the garter square cardigan needs the steek cut on the front and sleeves finished prior to completing the bottom panel. I now have four 3.00 mm needles dangling from here or there which can make it a challenge at times.

starting second sleeve

I am thinking that the green vest should be the fastest finish followed by the garter diamonds. Then, I might just take a break and knit myself a winter hat or two. I just happened to find a couple of wonderful patterns and I have this lovely alpaca yarn …..

Books

In my effort to decrease the reading pile – in paper version, I finished Thai Die by Monica Ferris, Whisper to the Blood by Dana Stabenow and The Mystery of Grace by Charles de Lint. All were rapid reads. The Kate Shugak novel does require familiarity with the series, Ferris has pushed the series far enough and the de Lint was a bit different than his other books.

Not that I am really complaining since it meant that I could race through all of them in an afternoon while waiting on the heating guy.

We are all familiar with the concept of UFOs – and not as Area 51 or flying saucers – but as unfinished objects when the subject is knitting/crocheting. Perhaps it would be more accurate to use UFPs – unfinished projects – but UFO seems to have caught on and stuck.

The phenomena has spread in my life. Since becoming an affectionado of audio books, I now have the problem of UFBs – unfinished books. Having mentioned before that I have been known to have the attention span of a gnat, you should not be surprised.

I have often had several hard copy books in progress between professional reading, paperbacks and the hard covers that I check out from the library. I might misplace a book, leave one in the car or at the office and it certainly would not do to be out of reading material. Book monogamy has never been my thing so the idea of having a book on the night stand, professional reading in the office, an audio-book in the car CD player and something else on the iPod for treadmill entertainment didn’t bother me.

At least, not till yesterday morning when I realized that things were a bit out of control. Getting on the train, I hauled out the iPod and could not remember which book I had been listening to. When I had been listening to a book became the operative question. I spun the wheel down the list.

I can no more delete an audiobook than I can toss out a regular book. It doesn’t matter that it didn’t appeal to me at the time, I could change my mind. Or, it might get better if I listened a bit more. Or, I might just not have been in the mood for that particular kind of story at the time.

And on, and on, and more excuses. I started counting. One, two, five, twelve …. Never mind, I am not sure that I want to admit to the final number of books in progress.

It made me feel much better about having four knitting projects underway. That is a positively puny number, totally under control!

Especially compared to started books.

Knitting, on the other hand, at Costa Coffee this after was a combination of two diamonds forward, frog one back as I once again was not completely all there. Yes, I know how to drop down and reknit just an area to correct a mistake, but this was not one of those occasions where it would not have shown.

Pictures tomorrow, I promise.

I am not sure if I imagined seeing my breath in the bedroom this morning. Certainly, it was 5° C outside and a bit more than that in.

My boiler is not cooperating and will not stay lit. Simply put, I don’t have heat.

I do have three duvets (one under, two on top) with flannel covers, wool socks and sweat clothes.

Frankly, it reminds me of a Minnesota folk singer who wrote a lovely song about wearing long underwear, a shirt, three sweaters, pants, etc then getting out of bed to get dressed.

No question going to work this morning was an improvement over home.

I managed to get the Mole’s cell phone cancelled (he lost it) and will order him a new handset.

That was the good news.

The more challenging – I tried to call in a work order. There is a hold because of something called an “electrical appliance inspection” that I know nothing about. No repairs till the inspection is complete.

Fine.

The people who do the inspection are not answering the phone and their answer phone is clicking on and off without apparently recording messages.

Good work if you can get it.

Meanwhile, the water heater is on electricity as an alternate so I do have warm water. I have a thermos, I have warm clothes.

And, of course, I have a lot of wool.

Drops 111-1

I am pleased with the sweater back. Rather than stripes, I decided to go with another full diamond, then will finish the sides with 1/4 diamond insets

sweater back

The front is not as pleasing. The stripes are both wide and boring. Frogging is in the future with a choice of 1/4 diamonds going in two different directions to keep up the angle theme.

sweater front

Otherwise: blasting through audio books, having completed Bed of Roses – Nora Roberts, Kindred in Death – JD Robb and Obsidian Prey – Jayne Castle over the weekend. Easy listening and requiring no particular thought or concentration…..

(if you are here for the knitting, please feel free to skip the next few paragraphs)

It was one of those days. The kind which are both good and bad. Bad because I woke early with a migraine. Good because it responded properly to some meds. Bad in that I got on the road about three hours later than planned which meant I arrived at Croughton right at the beginning on lunch hour.

I can’t say enough good about the Post Office crew at Croughton. With the construction on the mailroom not yet complete, all the post boxes are in a separate trailer. I can get open my box and take package pickup slips to the main building without problem. What I can’t do is access the boxes of the others in my mail pick-up pool. For months now whomever of the Airmen or Sergeants is on the window cheerfully tramps over to the trailer, pull slips, digs out packages, and double checks to make sure I have everything. That kind of service rarely happened in Heidelberg, and certainly not at Landstuhl (both of which had severely limited hours for package pickup).

The library offers the same kind of service and small town feel of community. I can hardly imagine the PHV library letting me stay on a computer for a couple of hours in order to complete an on-line course that could only be accessed from a US IP or .mil computer. Or giving me access to a DSN phone so that I could call through the system to a state side 1-800 number to straighten out a billing problem.

Oh, the bad? I would up with duplicate airline reservations for later this month due to a web page freeze and lack of email confirmation of the reservation. The good? I actually reached a wonderful lady on the US Air France help desk. She finally tracked down the reservation, gave me all the information and explained the workings behind the fine print.

(Non refundable plane tickets. Read the fine print. If you cancel prior to the flight, you are out the cost of the ticket. Not the taxes and fees, just the ticket. It turned out to be cheaper to cancel than to to pay a change fee and rebook). Of course, I could also spend the next six months on a letter writing donnybrook in an attempt to convince them it is all their fault in an effort to recoop that last 10%.

I would rather spend the same time knitting.

Oragami is progressing. By the end of this evening, I completed the back to the arm holes. The patterning is obviously narrower than the front, but I don’t think it is going to bother me. No eyes in the back of my head and I doubt that anyone else is going to see both the front and back at the same time.

complete to armholes

The final episode of Captain’s Share by Nathan Lowell was just released and I am plugged in and ready to listen. Good story and some fantastic dialog.

I am stealing a wonderful knitting abbreviation from Ruth, the Scrabblequeen. She doesn’t claim coining of the term, but I am more than willing to let her hold part of the blame.

OTN – standing for “on the needles”

It is a neutral term, not positive like WIP (work in progress) or pejorative as is UFO – (Unfinished Object).  Rather, it provides a simple statement that this project has been started and is not yet completed.

I found the abbreviation in one of the on-line compendiums, but not in the rest. That one uses a definition that is the same as WIP (current project) which I don’t find correct.

I think there just might be a small sense of commitment. After all, you cared enough to start, to see what it might become; to handle the yarn, try out the stitches and color/s, to decide if you want to invest the time and energy. Sometimes it takes a while to make that determination. But you are allowed to change your mind, let it marinate for months or years until exactly the right time. It doesn’t matter which choice you make, just that you make one. At least at the point of which you really need those needles for another project.

Pyramide

And so, I went back to a project that had been waiting for me to progress on this sleeve,

first sleeve - 10 am

for the Faery Ring KAL project

first sleeve complete

and ready to bind in.

sleeve ready

The cuff for the second has been started. I can’t get any further till I free up the needle tips currently providing the magic loop for the first sleeve.  I might just knit the hood next.

Another couple of ridges on Pagode. The downside of this section is that each row is five stitches longer than the previous, each ridge 10 stitches longer.

knitting the back onto the front

The good thing is that once I get through the next 8-9 ridges all the stitches will be picked up and I can dump the whole thing in my lap rather than having to leave it lying flat on the floor.

Tomorrow – I am going to start the bottom ribbing on Brage. Once I am past the ribbing I am going to have to actually do a bit of planning to have the sides come out the same size since the 34 stitch cable is on one side only. And then there is the small issue of steeks vs one piece back and forth knitting.

Audio

Also completed – Mike Resnick’s Starship: Pirate which has both humor and good technical handling. The reader is excellent which really adds to the story
Black Hills by Nora Roberts. Hate to say that the story did not suffer terribly from me skipping about six hours out of the second half of the book. I got bored with all the subplots which just seemed to repeat and slow everything down.

So what did I do this evening? Knit?

Nah. I played a couple of stupid computer games, did laundry, dishes, and contemplated cleaning up a bit more of the house for inbound company.

I also sat here looking at this wonderful pile of books + that I picked up at RAF Croughton Library.

• Fire and Ice by JA Jance
• Smash Cut - Sandra Brown
• Dreamfever – Karen Marie Moning
• Gone Tomorrow - Lee Child
• Lavender Morning – Jude Deveraux
• The Perfect Poison – Amanda Quick
• The Third Circle - Amanda Quick

Oh, yes. And Season 4 of the New Doctor Who. I have no clue as to whether or not I am going to like this particular assistant. What I saw of her in The Runaway Bride seemed to combine some of the worst traits of both Rose and her mother……  Did the ability to write the perfect side kick end with Rex Stout?

sunshining through

The convention center is a multicolor riot of color just a few blocks from our hotel.

Registration, where I spent most of the day along with the two girls hit periods of quiet. Final numbers for the Con should be around 5,000 with most expected to check in tomorrow and Friday.

As it turned out, the reg system was the same as we used at LACON, so the girls went right to work.

Ms Soprano

Ms Maus

with the two of them probably helping more people than most of the other stations combined. Could also be their smiles and the fact that they are not old…..

Other than the Reno 2011 bid party, there wasn’t much of anything scheduled for this evening. I just headed back to the hotel, knit for a short while and went to sleep early feeling rather righteous from having spent 40 minutes on the treadmill this morning.

Audio

Lt Leary series – David Drake – Book 3. Valor’s Trial – Tany Huff….

Thank you all for the thoughts, well wishes, prayers, and sympathy. Friends now stretch across the globe and your comments and those off my f&f email list have helped ease the pain of her loss. Elana was a good dog, well loved by the family. She enjoyed her walks, barks, and bones.

My bone, what a treat!

The rest of us mortals are just muddling along.

Faery Ring

Making progress again. The right front is finished. The back is finished and the first shoulder bound off. The second front is now with in a few cm of completion.

Faery Ring Cardigan

Other Knitting

I frogged the EZ Baby Surprise, not liking how the striping was turning out. Since I only had straight needles with me (wait, these are not ordinary straight needles – they are wonderful Signature Needle Arts with stiletto points) it seemed time to knit verticle tops with some texture which I can graft closed before reversing directions for the instep, heel and foot.

sock top

Audio

And then there is With the Lightnings – David Drake. It is the first of the LT Leary space opera novels that were on sale at iTunes last week along with Starship: Pirates by Mike Resnick (already heard the first one – Starship: Mutiny). They are great knitting as well as travel listening.

Thought I would give you that information up front. Ms Soprano talked to the vets office several times today and we will be over there late morning tomorrow. No improvement at all is not good.

Knitting

Needing something pretty midless, I started this yesterday out of a self striping Regia Sock yarn. Garter Stitch with the usual suspects of two markers and paired double decreases every ridge for a while; on 2.75mm needles it is

A baby surprise

Version II of Link O’the Waves is complete. Knit of two balls Rowan’s Tapestry in shades of grey I put an edging on one end only.

One repeat scarf

Only one repeat wide (instead of four), I liked the texture and the finished width will easily block to ove 20 cm.

detail

Katherine of Aragon

Much more subdued than my normal color choices, I am seriously considering turning this into an elegant vest.

40+ rows up the patterning

I have to decide in the next few inches since it makes a difference in the arm scythes.

Audio & Video

Daemons are Forever (long book – 18 hours – 2/3rds of the way through) by Simon Green
Castle (Season I) for knitting.

I haven’t figured out how to watch movies on the treadmill or stairstepper yet. More likely I would fall down.

It doesn’t take any more time to walk from my house to the Blackwater Station than it does to hike into Camberley. In fact it might just be a few minutes shorter. Allowing for plenty of time, I cut through the Meadows and arrived on the Platform 17 minutes later.

If I was smart, I would skip the time I spent at Reading. Something about trains being canceled, someone trying to take off with my suitcase (the clothes don’t matter, the laptop does) and me almost getting on a train without it. Or, maybe I just forgot where I was sitting?

In anycase, my luggage and I finally managed to get on the 1141 to Cardiff.

Did I mention it was raining? That it didn’t seem worth wandering around the city in such weather so I bopped through to Cardiff Bay and the Future Inn.

duh, conference room

with its conference facilities, excellent restaurant, and modern rooms. As a conference location, it might be off the end of the earth but it was more than price worthy and lovely.

Conference?

WordCamp2009

Knitting Update

Managed to almost complete the current scarf on the needles (Eunny Jang’s Print O’ the Wave ) in Regia Sock Cotton.

detail of scarf

Audio

Blackhills – Nora Roberts
Demons are Forever – Simon R Green

Both of which are long, long books.

As you can tell, I have been messing around with the blog appearance again. Never mind that the sidebars seem beyond repair in all themes or that this particular theme has no options whatsoever. (Meaning that I have to get creative and actually edit some php and css files myself. Not mentioning that the editor does not seem to be working nor remotely does anything resembling the archive function.

Ah well. Clean, simple. Lots of white and the Heidelberg pictures rather than my current garden. Please let me know in the comments what you think and what you find that is broken, I would really appreciate it.  For that matter, does anyone really check the blogs anymore as apposed to reading feeds?

In better use of my time, I hauled out the spinning wheel yesterday.

fine black singles

and tried spinning a bit of the black roving I received in the On-Going UK Swap.
Looked at some of the white shetland

unprepared locks

and combed at bit, spun it into singles, then plyed.

two ply shetalnd

it was happy to be fine

15 threads over a pound coin

and it is now washed and hanging. That small amount turned into 30 meters of two ply.

not for dogs

meanwhile, the grey fleece I washed last night is mostly dry

grey shetland

My choice of listening today has been Zombie Chronicles by James Melzer which you can find on his website or Podiobooks and The Fledgling by Sharon Lee and Steven Miller. You can find it contained in the Saltation Podcast on Fireheart Foundry or available on iTunes. It will be out in hardcover from Baen this fall.

At almost 2200, it is dark enough that I need to bring in yarn and fleece.

Back home, I realized that I was nowhere near as coherent yesterday as I thought.

There is a reason why the written instructions (instructions? who reads pesky instructions) are very specific about not driving for 24 hours after anesthesia (legally impaired I think were the specific words).

Forgot to show you the progress on the Faery Ring Aran

ready to start bodice cabling

Other than driving home mid day and rescuing the dog – the only useful things I accomplished this morning were a stop at the library and a stop at the craft store (Lakenheath both).

TBR

in no particular order
Wormwood – Susan Wittig Albert
A Cedar Cove Christmas – Debbie Macomber (written soap opera)
Undead and Unworthy – Mary Janice Davidson. What am I doing with this book anyway? The last one in audio drove me insane!
Wings of Wrath- C.S. Friedman
The Language of Bees – Laurie R King
Three Bags Full – Leonie Swann (I skimmed through it in the original German. wanted to see how it was in translation).
odd girl out – Timothy Zahn (real scifi!)
Dark of Night – Suzanne Brockman (the next in the Troubleshooters series).