A question and a meme

Ok, technically I wasn’t tagged for this meme, but I am a little light on yarn content. I have made good progress on the second Fuzzy Foot but am sparing you all the boring progress shots. Actually, here’s a knit-question that I hope somebody has an answer to: The directions for joining the toe say to “graft toe” together. My handy-dandy Knitting for Dummies book doesn’t explicitly state what this means... I am assuming that it is either the Kitchener Stitch or a 3-needle bind-off? I used the 3-needle bind-off on the first FF and it worked fine, but I was wondering if there is a standard toe graft technique that I should be using in the future?

Anywho. I saw this meme at Sue’s and it felt like a nice, mid-week “I need to make a list of something” type of thing:

5 Things in my fridge:
Leftover Pizza House Pizza
Leftover grape salad from Memorial Day
Cranberry juice
Onions
Hummus

5 Things in my car:
Garbage v 2.0 CD
Plain ol’ garbage!
City maps of Kalamazoo, Detroit, and Ann Arbor
Diet Mountain Dew that the hubby refused to drink
Sunglasses

5 Things in my purse:
Wallet
4 types of lip product
ID badge for work
Stamps
Wedding pic of me and hubby

5 Things in my closet:
Crates full of purses
Shoes, shoes, and shoes
Hidden treats when a holiday is approaching
Extra hangars
Box of wedding mementoes that I swear will be put into a scrapbook. Someday.

Happy, fuzzy feet

First off, let me show you a few crocheted granny squares from the swap at Crochetville:



I received these (along with the cute yellow dishcloth) from my April and May swap partners. Lovely!

After the never-ending drama of the Spider Stitch Shrug, I decided I needed a little break from crocheting... so I am now happily plugging away on the knit Fuzzy Feet. Wow. So, before this, I had never knit in the round. I am now completely addicted. It is sooooooooooo fast. Also? I think I could become one of those compulsive sock knitters that I keep reading about in blog-land, because I am simply blown away by how elegant (does that make sense?) sock knitting is. Ok, I know these are on size 10s with WW wool and will be felted... but the fact that you can make this shaped tube without having to knit all the little pieces by themsleves and then join them later (which is what my experience with crocheted socks has been)... honestly, it is pure genius. :-) So here is what I have so far:



The yarn is Manos del Uruguay. I am making the pair to be a little mismatched and funky. The dark blue toe of this FF will be the body of the second one, with a light blue toe. (And we're pretending that I did that on purpose and not because I realized after starting that I wouldn't have enough yarn for a matched pair.) I'll keep you all updated on the progress. Since I have a 4-day weekend, hopefully I'll fly through them. :-) Speaking of which...

Have a wonderful Memorial Day!

Good times

Just thought I would share the joy I am experiencing in this: Grand Hotel. And why am I joyful? My hubby's work is paying for us to stay here for a weekend in June! Yes, he does have to attend a conference... but I don't. (Hee hee!) So I will be riding in the horse-drawn carriages around the island, eating that famous fudge, perhaps riding a bike around the entire island... fun! The only downside? Well... dinner at the Grand Hotel is a formal affair and requires evening attire... so I will have to do a little shopping first!

(A more yarn-related post in the works. Knitted Fuzzy Feet? LOVE THEM. Pics soon.)

Good books are out there, too

I realized today that I haven’t posted anything about my current reads (since my scathing review of Teacher Man). Amazing how it is so much easier to write nasty rather than nice things, isn’t? I have read several very good books since then and just haven’t felt motivated enough to sing their praises. So here they are.

The Subtle Knife, by Phillip Pullman (Book two in His Dark Materials trilogy)

I am thoroughly convinced now that these books aren’t for kids. Pullman may use simple language and have children as protagonists, but this mixture of science, religion, fantasy, and adventure should be read by adults. In fact, I am not even sure your typical 12-year-old would really get the overarching story line of “fighting against the creator” to right the wrongs of original creation (Though, I don’t know any 12-year-olds, so correct me if I am wrong.). I, however, loved this installment in this series and can’t wait to read the final book. (I hope the armored polar bear is in the last one! I loved him and he wasn’t in TSK.)

Mr. Timothy, by Louis Bayard

I have a real weakness for historic fiction. I also love stories that tell you the “rest” of the story which isn’t covered in the original novel (like Wide Sargasso Sea does for Jane Eyre). Mr. Timothy combines both of these happy-making aspects.... it follows up on Tiny Tim from Dickens’ A Christmas Carol in 1850s London. Timothy is a grown man, struggling with his own “ghosts” and trying to do what is right in morally foggy London. The murder/mystery aspect of the story is gripping (although at times I felt like I was watching an action movie, as some of the chase scenes were spelled out in agonizing detail) but it is Timothy’s strides to make something of himself that really give this book heart. I liked it and was cheering him on through the whole tale.

I am currently reading Never Let Me Go and am nearing the end. I'll save that one to discuss for another day.

Ta-Da!

My very first non-scarf, non-bag, non-hat, non-grannie-square wearable! Yup, it's the Spider Shrug, done at last.





I did change a few things in the pattern. I decreased the cuff size by 1/3. I wish I had done the same for the collar, because as you can see, it is a smidge too big and has to be folded down. I also decreased the sleeve length by 1 repeat. But besides that, I followed the pattern pretty much exactly.

I'm pretty pleased with it. I love the spider motif (which you can't see so well in these pics, scroll down a few days to see better ones). When I finished it up this morning, I hated the collar and was really upset that I hadn't noticed before that it was just too wide(though, I did make the smallest size). But, I wore it to Mother's Day festivities (mmm... Japanese Steakhouse... is anything more fun that a flaming onion volcano?) and my family loved it. So... I am now moderately happy with it. Especially as this is my first ever piece of clothing.

I'm not sure if I would make this again, but I am chalking this up as a success. :-)

Progress

Is slowly but surely being made on the Spider Shrug. See*:



And a bit of a close up of the stitch pattern:



Now just the cuffs to crochet... and then attaching them... and then blocking... and then the seaming...

... and I might be able to wear this by Winter! LOL

* By the way, I am aware that my sleeves have slightly different shapes. I have no idea how this happened. I am hoping that when I seam them it will just disappear. Please don't disabuse me of this notion!

Two great tastes that taste great together

Or something like that. See, I just discovered that the Ann Arbor District Library has twenty-seven (27!) pages of knitting books available in its catalog. Let’s say that again: twenty-oh-my-stars-seven pages! Knowing my love of the library, it is a little shocking that I didn’t tumble onto this a few months ago. But when I first started crocheting last summer, I was all eager to see every book out there, so, of course, I looked at the library. And the most up-to-date book they were offering was from like 1985, with black-n-white photos and models with poofy hair. Yikes! Knowing that knitting is way more popular, I should’ve figured that the AADL would be hip to the times and have good knitting books... but... dang! I wasn’t expecting 270 books worth! Hee hee.

So I have requested a modest amount to start with. Just four. I’ll save the other 266 for next time.

Frog Princess

Yup. That's me. I was making good progress on my Spider Stitch Shrug this week. Started the first cuff at Sit-n-Stitch, and worked for nearly two hours on it last night while re-watching Independence Day (for lack of anything else to watch). Please note: I was watching a movie. I wasn't actually looking at what I was crocheting. You see where this is going? Because the movie ended, my cuff was complete, and I thought, "Oh good, I'll do a progress shot for my blog" and looked down at the cuff, I mean really LOOKED, and then screamed in horror.

Because, the cuff I had crocheted was a hideous monster cuff. The type of cuff that rampages in Tokyo and squashes innocent bystanders. That will haunt my crochet dreams forever. Because... I hadn't been paying attention, and apparently was adding one to two stitches per row as I crocheted... and what started out as a 15 stitch cuff grew to over 40 stitches at the other end. *shudder* Don't ask how I didn't notice. I blame Will Smith (by the way, when is he going to have another movie out? I love Will Smith!).

So. I frogged. The whole darn thing. And did NOT take a picture for all of blog-land to laugh at. (Though I am sure you all are snickering right now. Well, I would be, too.)

And then I resolved no more Will Smith movies and crocheting. Apparently, they just don't mix.

One of those deadly sins... sorta...

Book Lust

As I am sure is obvious by now, both my hubby and I love to read. Really, really love to read. When we first met, one of the first things we did together was read... and that’s how I knew he was the one for me (well, one of the ways... being a good cook helped, too! LOL)! But the problem, of course, is that books are expensive. I skirt this issue by using the public library as much as possible, but borrowing books just doesn’t feel the same. You have to wait for the ordered book to become available, and then race through it, and if you just don’t feel like reading it at the moment... well, you’re screwed.

So, we are always overjoyed when the library has their “let’s-get-rid-of-all-these-extra-books-that-the-good-people-of-Ann-Arbor-have-donated-to-us” sale. Which they did on Saturday. We were like kids in a candy store ~ or maybe, more appropriately, like two bookish nerds in a library with dirt-cheap prices... :-) Here’s what we got:

The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler
Mr. Timothy by Louis Bayer
Tricky Business by Dave Berry
Kon Tiki: Across the Pacific by Raft by Thor Heyerdahl
Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding
The Nanny Diaries by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus
Second Nature by Alice Hoffman
Duplicate Keys by Jane Smiley
Stones from the River by Ursula Hegi

Tied up in Tinsel by Ngaio Marsh
Photo Finish by Ngaio Marsh
(I can’t remember the third title) by Ngaio Marsh

Plus, my hubby bought 7 Agatha Christie paperbacks....

And guess how much all this cost? Ahhh... that is the beauty of the library book sale... the grand total was $7. Mmm.... less than the cost of a new paperback novel (cue the Beatles song).

Looking at the majority of these books (which are for me, only the Christies are my hubby’s) I am struck by the fact that almost all of them are women authors. Hmmm... I didn’t do that intentionally, but I am not surprised. All of my fave authors are women.

Yarn Lust
Sit-n-Stitch is tonight! Hurray! We have been meeting a bit irregularly lately, as our group is pretty small. If one or two people can’t make it, there goes the meeting. But it sounds like everybody can make it tonight, so it should be fun. I have been making steady progress on the Spider Shrug from a few posts ago. Just made it through the first set of repeats for the first sleeve. Maybe I’ll make enough progress tonight to make taking a picture worthwhile...

I....?

Sorry for the complete slacker-ness about updating my blog lately. I actually have been crocheting nearly everyday, but the "pics in progress" just aren't very exciting.

I swiped this meme from Sue's blog. Until I have better content, it will have to do!

I AM: a Medical Editor, wife, daughter, sister, friend, cousin, bibliophile, Ireland-obsessed, yarn-obsessed, flamingly liberal Democrat.
I WANT: another cup of coffee.
I WISH: I could see my friends more often.
I HATE: shopping (for groceries or clothes... blech!)
I MISS: summer vacations while in school.
I FEAR: kids.
I HEAR: co-workers chatting in the hall.
I WONDER: why people watch so much TV?
I REGRET: that it took me such a long time to meet my husband!
I AM NOT: very outgoing.
I DANCE: to cheesy 80s music.
I SING: only to Beatles in the car.
I CRY: occassionally. I am not a very crying-type of person.
I AM NOT ALWAYS: understanding of my parents’ decisions as divorced adults.
I MAKE WITH MY HANDS: crochet and knit goodies.
I WRITE: book reviews for Curled Up With A Good Book.com. Haven’t done it in awhile, though.
I CONFUSE: discrete and discreet. Shhh... don’t tell anybody.
I NEED: to visit the dentist.
I SHOULD: update my blog on a more regular basis.
I START: too many patterns.
I FINISH: every book I read.
I TAG: anyone that wants to play.