Acquisitions

Hey Flan,

I hope the meetings are satisfactorily finished and everything went well.

Last weekend was the Library's annual book sale. Last year I found an out of print knitting book for $0.50 and this year I was hoping for similar success.

First, there were cookbooks:

Then there were knitting books:

The Hubby insisted on showing up to the preview sale and being early to that so we were some of the first people in. True to the spirit of comptetion and greed I headed straight for the craft section and grabbed everything I thought I might be interested in.

This was one of them:

Not so fabulous really. All the patterns are 80s fabulous and I really don't know what I was thinking- must have been the frenzy of it all.

Later, I sat down to cull through what I had rashly shoved in my bag and started flipping through the above.

This is what I found:

Oh yes, an original "Wool Gathering" from March of 1988! I couldn't believe it. These aren't even on ebay. Somehow, the person who donated the Vogue Knitting paperback didn't realize they had left a pristine copy of the newsletter within.

Got to love that book sale.

Quite a Week

Hey Flan,

Last week was one I was estatic to bid farewell to. The one bright spot was that I acquired a new EZ book! The Opinionated Knitter has been added to my collection and I am beyond thrilled. I think that leaves just one book (Knitting Around) that I do not yet have. I don't knit that much from the delightful EZ, but reading her books makes me feel smarter. Two things I'm very excited about in regards to her are the pictures found on Ravelry- the other is mr.brooklyntweed who loves her patterns and shows us all how it's done. My brain is not nearly gifted enough to imagine what the final product will bring, so the photos are indespenisble. Also, did you know the Schoolhouse Press website sells YARN!?! I was trying to figure out what 10 oz of Sheepsdown meant in "regular" terms, googled it and there you go. So exciting.

Other news... Let's see... The main part of the knitting for The PPC is finished! Well, that would be exciting if I were any less bumfuzzled about how to put the whole thing together. I checked out practically the entire knitting section from the local library in an effort to figure out how to put it together. The winners are: The Ultimate Knitting Book from the nice people at Vogue, and Knit Fix. They both had suggestions for what to do with reverse stockinette. HOWEVER, there is NARY a word about what to do with reverse stockinette on a diagonal. I decided The PPC and I needed some time apart and shoved the whole blessed thing in a bag where it will remain until Knit Night when I'm planning on pleading with the more expert knitters for guidance.

Thoroughly besotted with my new book and equally as thoroughly disgusted with the making up of a blanket (which EZ would have had the good sense not to have started), I decided that the world really did need another Baby Surprise Jacket and have cast on in a delightful combination of slate gray and "willow leaf". The ladies at the yarn store looked slightly askance when I combined gray and nearly puce green, but I love it so far.

Hope you're staying warm and that M had a nice birthday.

Day 13 (Laura Ingalls Wilder Edition)

Kathleen-
I hit the road for my Southern Minnesota travel at 6:15 am today, and was treated to a spectacular sunrise driving south. I spent an enormous amount of today driving through really rural areas of Southern Minnesota and Wisconsin, both of which were extremely scenic (albeit in a bleak late fall fashion).

Driving between my 1st and 2nd appointments, I spent part of my time on the Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Highway, and was inspired for this entry. I've been writing it in my head as I drive all day.

I started reading the Little House series the summer before 1st grade. I vividly remember my 1st grade teacher having to intervene with the school librarian because the librarian- a woman who was supposed to fill us all with a love of reading- maintained that I couldn't possibly be reading well enough to be reading Laura Ingalls Wilder. I know I read through the whole series for the first time beginning the summer before 1st grade and finishing the following summer. I then reread all the books at least one additional time, and many of the books separately throughout Elementary School.

She lived through an amazing 90 years. She was born in Wisconsin when it was still pioneer territory, and lived until 1957, living through the development of the car and the airplane. Can you imagine? I was thinking about timing- it's remarkable to me that a woman who my parents could have met as children experienced Minnesota as a pioneer.

I guess time is relative after all.

No knitting content (or pictures) today. Better luck tomorrow!

Although Laura Ingalls Wilder isn't completely responsible for my (sometimes obsessive) love of reading, I think she provided an important impetus. And clearly, I'm not the only one. Did you know her books have never been out of print? That's quite an achievement.

Book Reports

Hey Flan,

Thank goodness for Lime & Violet. It's so nice to have crazy knitters to listen to whilst seaming a sweater. Once it's finished I'm going to take pictures and show it off like there's no tomorrow.

Anyway, on to some book reports! One of the absolute best part of working at The Library is that I get to see all of the new knitting books that come in. PLUS, the ladies who have lunch when I do are impresesd by the knitting and I think may be ordering more knitting books so that I'll be inspired to knit something for them. They've also dropped several hints about how cold their offices are...

This is the first book. Knitting Classic Style by Veronik Avery. Now usually I am very impressed by her designs but do not actually lust after them. This book is different. There are TWO sweaters that I MUST have. Naturally, these are both knit on size 3s. I am completely insane, but these are so very pretty that I absolutely have to have them. Pg 26 has a cable cardi that is fabulous and I really must have it. It's the perfect cardi I've been searching for forever. Also, Pg 116 has this sweather thingy that I really really do not like, but the under top is so fantastic I cannot tell you. It's also on 3s, but out of cotton. SUCH lust.

This book, Folk Style by Mags Kandis. Most of the time going through this book I mostly said, "hmmm...." There is only one pattern that mildly interested me. Scarily enough, it's also a Veronik Avery. There's a hat on Pg 119 that I might be interested in, even though it's on size 2s. There are mittens but I don't think they coordinate enough. If you don't mind embellishment on your garments you will probably like this book. I usually feel that I don't want crap on my knitting, so this one is going back to The Library soon.

Last book for the day is The Best of Interweave Knits ed. by Ann Budd. Here we inadvertantly continue with Veronik Avery. Flan- you must have the sweater on pg 9. It would look fantastic on you and it's very pretty. I think you'd also enjoy the one on pg 49. Short sleeved and sassy. I do kind of wonder how they determined what the best is. Even though most of these patterns are nice, I probably wouldn't have chosen the majority for the ultimate prize of BEST. I do, however, think I'll be making the Icarus from the front photo. Thankfully, I already own that issue of the magazine, so I don't have to buy the book.

Enough literary-ness for the day. I'm off to vaccum the floor of the second bedroom. Apparently it bugs The Hubby. We need The Hubby focused. Ironically, large piles of dirty clothes and dishes do not bug him. No one said he was logical.

Magic Numbers & Cow Udders

Hi Flan,
Again, I hope everything is going well with the impending crazy. We had a very productive, if not very restful, weekend. Saturday morning, as my crazy garbled message said, we were at the Mobile Public Library's Annual Book Sale. That's where I found THE book. One of the knitting world's holy grails- for $0.50. That's right, fifty cents. I looked up the book when we got home and people sell it $200-$400. After I found it the world got a little wobbly, but I couldn't let anyone know what I had found, so I tried to act nonchalant, but was completely paranoid, so probably came across as a nutcase. I have the receipt, just in case the public library gets mad that they could have made $199.50 more if they had noticed the incredible find, and I can prove that they didn't want it and even stamped "discard" on the front.

I pulled out all the UFOs and I think there are 6. I decided that I am going to try and focus on two at a time, one that's straight, solid, unending knitting (it is the year of the sweater) and one with a pattern. So far The Hubby's Sweater has 10 inches of the body completed. That's 2/3 of the total body length. I'm so excited.

Clapotis is coming along. I decided to go for broke and try to make it as long as possible instead of trying to have enough left over for a second project. I'm completely loving how it's coming out.

The Hubby met with his advisor last week. She has been working tirelessly to get him finished and has been negotiating about how much the current University will accept from his transfer credit. After Field Camp he only has FIVE classes to go! Two in the summer and three in the fall! I almost cried.
The Field Camp List is having things slowly crossed off. I'm so tired of buying stuff and spending money. We don't have everything, so there will have to be some more buying and there's $900 due tomorrow. We bought a cot so that he can be as comfortable as possible whilst camping in the desert. It was the only extra long in the store and the regulars are too short. The stupid thing is too long to fit in the blessed tent! Now we either have to borrow a bigger tent or take back the cot. Oy.

Now, the "Cow Udder" part of the title. Last night The Hubby and I were watching our usual geek tv fare- Antiques Roadshow, followed by Nature (it was all about dogs and actually very interesting) and then IT came on. Completely unannounced. And IT was amazing. The PBS website describes IT as such:
"...step inside the colorful and competitive world of "Show Cattle" and follow the trials and tribulations of competitive cows in pursuit of the ultimate honor - "Supreme Champion" - at one of the most prestigious cattle shows on the East Coast, the Fryeburg Fair. See inside the little-known world of bovine makeovers, where pride and determination, not to mention steel-capped boots, transform a barnyard cow into a regional celebrity."

Oh yes. Competitive Cow Showing. Complete with nearly pornographic udder shots and in depth descriptions. The phrase "mammary system" has a whole new meaning. There were even allegations of sabotage. Never has there ever been such a thing on TV and everyone should have to watch it. It was fantastic.

Planning and Plotting

Kathleen-
Last night I made Chocolate Mousse for tonight potluck (yum) and sorted through boxes in an attempt to get things sorted and cleaned up before you come and visit. As a result of my sorting, the living room and main bedroom are a mess, but I have faith that I'll get it sorted out. Also as a result there was no knitting last night, but you can't have everything.

As planned, I stopped by the library on my way home and picked up my books on reserve (Handy Book of Sweater Patterns and Phillipa Gregory's Boleyn Inheritence on cd). Due to all the other stuff I did last night I didn't end up looking at the knitting book, but I'm planning on keeping it out for a while, and possibly buying it. It seems like it might help make sense of some of these moments when I want to make a pretty simple change to a pattern. I've also thought about buying one of the computer programs that allows you to do things like recalculate gauge, etc. However, I haven't done any real research into that.

So while I cooked and sorted and cleaned, I listened to the first disc of Boleyn Inheritence. I picked it up because I enjoyed Phillipa Gregory's The Other Boleyn Girl so much, and to a lesser extent I've enjoyed her other books. I was looking for some light reading material, and then when I saw they had it as an audiobook, I thought it might be the perfect thing to get me back in the groove with audiobooks. So far its enjoyable, though not as engrossing as The Other Boleyn Girl was. It will be good for knitting and spinning when I don't feel like having tv on in the background.

I can't wait for you to get here! As I made the reservations for Stephanie's talk and for books, I realized that its actually is really soon! By the way, did you see Stephanie's saga of renovation? The room looks gorgeous, but I think my favorite story of the week was the sawdust fire.... that would totally happen to me!