A post about libraries, books and bookcrossing.com

This past week I had my MOMS Club book club meeting and we discussed The Road by Cormac McCarthy.  As I guessed, most of us found the book dark and quickly read it to be done with it,  but we all had many things to discuss about it, and isn’t that the point of the book club?  Although I didn’t enjoy reading the book, I have to say, I have thought more about that book after reading it than any other book I have ever read, so McCarthy definitely reached his goal there.  We picked the next book (for September–the July and August books I’ve already finished reading) and decided on Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides.  It’s also the Oprah book club book and I just finished reading it Thursday night.  I absolutely loved it!!  I loved the charachters, couldn’t wait to keep reading it whenever I had the time, and was sad when it had to end. 

In order to keep my house as decluttered as I can, I am giving this website a try to recycle my books www.bookcrossing.com tell them kdy12570 sent you.  I simply do not have the room to keep all the books I have read and I know I will never read them again, so after I pass them on to friend’s and family, if they come back to me, I’m going to release them into the wild and see where they go.  It’s a neat concept, check it out.

After a quick trip to the post office, I took DD to the library yesterday.  I had to get a new library card (they updated their system) and it came with a little keychain card, which DD promptly took and claimed as her very own.  She told her daddy(over and over and over), “I have a little library card and mommy has a BIG library card”, this is said in quite a dramatic tone.  Once that was done, I took her to the children’s section to see her favorite librarian, Miss S to sign up for the summer reading club and their craft program.  DD believes Miss S lives at the library and whenever she finds out we are going there, asks “We’re going to see Miss S?  We’re going to Miss S’s house?”  Try as I have, I cannot convince her that Miss S doesn’t live there, oh well.  Anyway, she is the most wonderful children’s librarian you could ever ask for.  Provides great programs for babies, toddlers and older kids, when other larger community libraries in the area just offer story times for older children.  This is a small library, really small, and she just does amazing stuff for them.  But it’s not just that, she remembers all the kids names, speaks to them on their level, remains so calm while 20-30 screaming kids are running all around her.  Two weeks ago, when I brought DD in to make the father’s day craft at the libary, she carried along with her the felted hedgehog.  Miss S talked to her about the hedgehog, went over to a wall of books, barely looking, she plucked out a book that had a hedgehog in it.  Yesterday when we went back, she remembered the book she got for us and asked us about it–amazing memory, amazing lady.  I feel extremely and incredibly lucky to have this library in my community.  So, moral of the story–stop by and support your local library.  I am almost positive they are way underpaid and underappreciated for what they do.  TTFN!

Happiness is….

The Jersey shore?  While it can be complete heaven to lounge by the ocean, hearing the waves crashing, the sun warming you up after being cooped inside for far too long and jumping in the cool water to cool off, no, not at this moment.  My happiness is seeing DD and all her cousins playing together, and really loving being together!  She is so blessed to have them and their love.  I truly hope that they remain this close as the years pass on and they go their separate ways and become the different persons they are meant to be.  I leave you with this image, which is a favorite of mine from yesterday….

From left to right:  Cuz #3, Cuz #1, Cuz #2 and DD

Got a package from my SP10 buddy with a reveal–will take pics and post at a later time….tune back in for details….

Help Claudia be the top fundraiser for her MS ride

Check out the amazing knitting prize basket for pledging money for her MS ride this weekend– http://www.claudiasblog.net/   I love the opportunity to win something huge and knitterly and help out a cause at the same time, don’t you?

A little of this and a little of that

Well, I am sitting down to write a post, and I don’t really have anything specific in mind to write.  Usually there is something I want to tell about or post a picture or something, but not today.  So do forgive if this post seems rambling-on-about-nothing.

Need to finish up the fringe on my Artyarns scarf, but it looks gorgeous and can’t wait to finish it up.  I dug up another old UFO and will try to complete that–the blue shawl.  I just grabbed about 4 or 5 skeins of complimentary color yarns (they are all different types of yarns, furry, boucle, mohair-ish) and have been knitting miles of garter stitch in a lengthwise fashion–much the same as the scarf I just finished from Artyarns.  I don’t know why all of the sudden knitting all that garter appeals to me, usually I shy away from something like that and really want stitch patterns and definition and something a little more challenging.  But lately, no, knit after knit after knit, seems just fine with me.  I have been looking up blogs from the Virtual Vacation Swap to complete my bingo card (don’t ya just love swap games–they really do make things interesting!) and of course, I’ve found a few dozen more patterns that I would like to acquire and make.  One was for some more felted critters, and I think I might have to get those.  I am really, REALLY trying to not buy any more yarn and to knit from my stash, but if I had to get a skein or two to make some of these http://www.craftyalien.com/component/page,shop.browse/category_id,1/option,com_virtuemart/Itemid,1/ 

I’ve been taking DD to some summery activities.  On Monday we went to the beach–she had a blast!  I love going there with her, she is in pure heaven, sand, water, no computer or phones or TV, just one on one time with mom and toys, snacks and drinks in the cooler and a pop up tent to hang out in when the sun gets too hot.  What more could you want?  I didn’t bring a bathing suit for me, thinking it would be too cold to go in the water yet, but I was wrong–it felt great!  Next time, we’ll both be in the water for sure.  Tuesday, we went to a local water park and picnic lunch.  On the way home we stopped for some ice cream–I got the cutest picture of her with chocolate all over her little face and the most contented, angelic little smile–I could eat her up!  Man do I wish we lived somewhere where it’s like summer all year round….these are truly magical days for us.  Since we spent so much time outside and it was raining and I didn’t feel like going out, on Wednesday DD and I cleaned and organized my bedroom and closet.  That was practically a whole morning event, lol.  I feel so much better now that it’s straightened up.  I need to spend more days doing that, but the beach is so much more fun….

Next week is book club for our MOMS Club.  We’ll be discussing The Road by Cormac McCarthy.  Don’t have much to say about it.  I know it won the Pulitzer, but honestly, it’s so dreadful to me, I just wanted to finish it asap!  I know if I wanted to re-read it I could find all sorts of analogies and hidden meanings, etc, but I passed it on almost immediately to someone else and don’t care if I ever get it back!  Since I read all the books our club has picked out for the summer already and the new Harry Potter book isn’t out yet…I decided to pick up the next Oprah book club book, since it sounded so interesting.  It’s called Middlesex by Jeffery Eugenides and it is ASTOUNDING!  I really am enjoying this book and I am only halfway done. 

Well, I’m having the carpet cleaned in the am and it is super-late, so I’m going to sign off for now.  Till we meet next time–keep knitting, reading, playing with your kids or whatever makes you happy!

Here little hedgehog, come on out….

This is going to be a quick post.  It’s been a little busy over here and I think DD is starting to give up her naps (I can almost hear the sympathy from you all, lol) and that means less blog/knitting/scrapbooking/anything remotely-me time.  But I will post a pic of her finished hedgehog–he came out really cute, and I’m proud of him.

And now for a pic of the in-progess OTN artyarns scarf that my SP10 buddy sent me:

It’s actually almost finished now, but this was taken a few days ago and I am just now getting to post it.  I really like how it looks and I will have leftovers of some of the yarns to make fringe and possibly add to some felting projects.

Gotta go get ready to go out now–see ya later!

Knitpicks Options needles and my latest WIP

Well, I think I posted a few days ago that my options needles came in, but I didn’t have a chance to blog about it.  I wanted to give them a test run first, and the verdict is in–I LOVE THEM!!!  I am seriously considering selling ALL my addi’s that I have left (I have sold quite a few already through knitswap@yahoogroups.com to fund the purchase of the options set, but I kept a few, just in case….).  I had wanted to start the scarf kit that my SP10 pal sent me, but decided to wait until I had my options set to do it.  Well, I put the needles together quickly and was impressed with the join and how well they stay together–as long as you use the key to help assemble them.  I am plugging along on the scarf and it is looking sooo pretty–thanks pal!  What I loved, was casting on with one size needle, then when I was ready to do the knitting, I just switched the needle tips and off I went.  Unfortunately, one of the plastic inserts for the case was damaged, so I haven’t been able to put everything away in the kit nice and neatly, but I expect they will be sending the replacement soon and I will take a picture of them all tucked away neatly in their case asap.

DD’s felted hedgehog is completed!  I will post pics later if possible.  He/she (not sure exactly what it is..) came out adorably–I love ’em and so does DD.  Although it does look like it has hair plugs–I guess that’s what happens when you use hot pink yarn and jet black eyelash, lol.  She helped me stuff the innards and watched me sew on some eyes and nose and per her request, it has a belly button (what can I say–toddlers are obsessed with those things, lol).  I can see that I might be trying out the other Fiber Trends felted animal patterns in the near future.  I already have the ones for the squirrels and penguins….now I just need the yarn.

Oh and in the scrapbooking realm, I made an 8X8 scrapbook about my dad and DD for his birthday.  I picked up a kit from colorbok the other day and was able to complete the whole album in an evening (that included printing out the pictures and picking them up at the store).  I was so happy with the results, I picked up the same kit to make one for my mom….so nice to have something completed so quickly and to look so nice….I might be addicted to these kits now.  And just to prove it, I bought a baby scrapbook kit from this blog site (she also has a podcast, and it’s fun to listen to–give it a try!)  http://knitandpurlgrrl.blogs.com/scraphappy/ 

Well, that’s all for now.  Will take pics later–probably staying home as DD is congested, sneezing and has a runny nose (apparently, we didn’t get the exorcism fast enough over here!!).  Got to watch the last episode of Soprano’s before someone tells me what happened….

OK, I need a pity party…some sympathy, please…

OK, so as you may have glimpsed from the past month on this blog, my daughter and I have been sick, sometimes individually, sometimes at the same time (and boy, isn’t THAT fun?), but it has seriously lasted a month!  I want my May back! (can you hear me stomping my feet like a toddler?)  I love spring, it’s not oppressively hot yet, you can go to the beach and parks and stuff and it’s not as crowded ‘cuz the older kids are still in school and all, and sometimes we get the most heavenly breezes…but I digress.  So DD has had fevers, and not little wimpy ones either, on and off for the past 3 weeks!  So bizarre, they come and go, some days she’s fine, then others she’s got one right before bedtime.  Enough is enough already–so I took her to the pediatrician on Tuesday.  That was a 2 hour ordeal because they wanted to get a urine sample from her.  Needless to say, DD did not enjoy that one bit.  Since she had a fever again the next morning, they decided they wanted a sterile catheterized urine sample to send out, along with a long list of bloodwork.  My poor, poor peanut.  She was not amused.  As we left the house yesterday to go to the doctor’s office, she kept saying over and over “no doctor, I want to go shopping”.  Now if that ain’t a girl for you….That visit was also 2 hours in length (she’s pretty stubborn about not drinking when she knows I really want her to–takes after me, I suppose).  This morning involved a trip to the lab for bloodwork.  She was such an amazing, brave trooper–I am so proud of her!  Of course now, she’s completely better–no fever, running around happy and finally eating again (she’s lost serious weight!).  This morning I was also supposed to go to my LYS for a visit from Debbie Bliss.  I was going to get to meet Debbie Bliss.  But, instead of racing DD back to the car and driving to the LYS, I looked at that sweet little face and said to her “Wanna go to Toys R Us?”  I feel as though I bought out the store–talk about mommy guilt!  I mean, seriously, the shopping cart was full, but there were a lot of educational things in there–not all frivolous My Little Ponies and bouncy balls (of which she has about 5, but I ask you, can you really ever have enough?).  So I missed meeting Debbie Bliss, but I felt like I gave DD a little bit of fun after our month of H**L.   Can we all say a silent prayer that whatever this is leaves this house?  Does anyone know a good person to perform an Exorcism?  TTFN

Virtual Vacation Swap Questionnaire

1. If you could visit any state in the US, which would it be and why?  I would LOVE to go back to Hawaii.  We went there for our honeymoon and it just seems so magical to me.  I have some amazing memories and a ton of pictures to prove it.  I feel warm and happy just thinking about our time there.  And the smells of the flowers….I could just go on and on….

2. If you could visit any country in the world, other than your own, which would it be and why?   That would be a toss up between Ireland and Germany.  I’m half of each in ancestry and I would love to see the roots, ya know?

3. Have you ever driven across several states/providence/countries?  Oh yes, my parents were famous for these type of vacations.  I’ve driven up and down the Eastern seaboard of the USA from Maine to Key West, we’ve even driven through parts of Canada.

 4. Have you ever visited someplace you consider exotic? Where was it?  I’ve been on several carribbean cruises and I find all those islands exotic, but I prefer Hawaii still…

5. What was your favorite “travel” vacation? Why?  When I was in high school, I traveled with a choral group and band called Honors Choir and Honors Band of America.  We toured through England and Scotland for over two weeks and stayed with host families.  It was not touristy, I really felt immersed in their culture and I was immediately in love with the countryside and simpler life there.  I would go back in a heartbeat!

6. Have you ever played tourist in your own home city/state (if international, country)? Explain.  I guess, a little bit.  There’s Atlantic City and the shore to visit here….I’ve been to both, many times.

7. Are you a museum visitor, beach comer or an amusement seeker?   I would have to say a little of all three.  Although, now that I have a toddler, our idea of amusement seeking has changed to Sesame Place instead of Great Adventure, lol

8. What’s your favorite type of yarn?  I love textures and color!  I prefer wools and wool blends.

9. What’s your least favorite type of yarn?  Not a huge fan of acrylics or novelty yarns (unless I’m including them in a felted project).  Cottons tend to hurt my wrists to knit with, although I have found some stretchy cotton blends that work…

10. What items do you like to knit/crochet?  I really enjoy knitting sweaters and I’m all into garment construction and how to piece it together–I even like the finishing, but honestly, with a toddler running around, I find I like to get in and out with a quick knitted project lately.  Felting is always good around here–I just love the magic of shrinking it!  I have been wanting to knit something else for my daughter (possibly for this winter), but she’s growing so fast, I’m a little afraid to invest too much time in it…

11. What do you pack, knit/crochet wise when you go on vacation?  When I travel or go for long car rides, I try to pack a current WIP that is on the small side, with a simple pattern–nothing too fussy, such as a scarf or a felting project.  If I was better committed to finishing my socks, I would bring those, but I know I wouldn’t want to be stuck just knitting socks for my trip, so I usually bring something else.

12. What other crafts do you do/would like to do other than Knit/Crochet?  I love to take pictures of my daughter and family (I have thousands of pics on my hard drive as we speak!) and to go along with that, I love to scrapbook.  I don’t get a lot of time to do it, but someday I hope to…

13. Are you allergic to anything? (Yarn wise or treat wise)  Shellfish and really itchy mohairs

14. What is your favorite color? Least Favorite?  I love purples, blues, greens, pinks, teals, jewel tones and pastels are good.  Not a huge fan of earth tones, I love how they look, but not on me!

15. Sweet or Savory (Treat not personality)?  sweet, I love the darkest of chocolates (no semi-sweet or sweet chocolates for me, please!  LOL)

16. Anything else we are forgetting to ask that you think your partner desperately needs to know?  I love being a mom and love teaching my 2 year old daughter new things.  She’s like a sponge and wants to learn anything and everything.  I love reading and reading to my DD–she has a book collection to be marvelled at as well–my mom helps with that–hooray for weekly reader!  I’m very much about family and heritage, and want to teach my daughter her many cultures (irish/english, german and chinese).  I love celtic music and listen to it a lot on my IPOD.  That’s all I can think of–can’t wait to get this trip underway!

Hedgehog Pre-bath–pics

I truly hope that my daughter will enjoy her hedgehog as much felted and stuffed as she has enjoyed it the past day or two as I knit it up for her.  She talks to it already and has introduced it to herself, her bear (doesn’t leave home without ’em!), her father and of course, me.  She’s not thrilled with the idea of giving him a bath in the washing machine, so I will need to do that while she is sleeping, probably tomorrow night as I am a little sleep tonight.  I have to baste him closed before I can toss him into the hot bath, and I didn’t feel like finding some cotton to sew him up with.  How do you like the colors?  I had the leftover pink and DD picked out the jet black fun fur when we went to Michaels the other day.  She sticks her nose in the fur and giggles saying “he’s fuzzy”.  So nice to know something I knit for her will be so appreciated–I know that won’t last forever, but it has definitely boosted my spirits for now 🙂

And the classic mug shot:

WIP Opal Tiger sock, 2 circs, toe-up

Second post of the day:

Well, I couldn’t wait to here from you all as to what you thought I should do here, so I am posting now.  I have been working on this sock for quite a while (not going to admit the real age of the project, just not gonna do it!), and I started it from the Cool Socks Warm Feet book, but didn’t care for the afterthought heel it called for.  I started knitting it on a size 0 addi, then changed to a size 1 knitpicks needle and have been enjoying it much better this way.  My original gauge was 12 sts/inch, but once I started doing the short row heel, it really loosened up, I know, I know, it’s the purling back.  I have to frog the heel at this point anyway, b/c I am off on my counting and I don’t like how loose the gauge is, but I thought I would ask opinions of other toe-up short row heel options.  I was using the currect IK article to do the heel from.  And now for the pics:

Toe close up:

And heel close-up:

So any suggestions and/or ideas for different short row heels for a toe-up sock?  I’ve seen some slip-stitch heels that seem super-comfy to me and thought I would check that out as well.  Oh, and what’s the opinion of a carry-along nylon thread for the heel–necessary or unnecessary or not to be done?  TTFN!