German Stockings=1/2 Done!

I'm on a role with this whole "actually finishing stuff" thing lately. Sort of. I got one of the German Stockings done.

I ended up going to the Yarnery on Friday and while I was there I signed up for their Socks in the Cities KAL and I think I'll enter these in that and either the Pomatomus or something else in Knit'n From the Heart's Socktoberfest as I'm not certain the Pomatomus will remain socks because they're a little tight for socks but seem to fit my arm perfectly. I'm just sad that my legs are so stubby because if they were longer then the twisted double moss stitch section would have gotten larger if it had more space to spread across. I am also in need of sock garters.

25 of 125

Lisa posted that the St. Paul library staff, to honor its 125th anniversary, put together a list of the 125 books published in the past 125 years that have changed their lives in some way. The list can be found here (pdf). Often when I see a list like this I like to find the books I've read and see if I agree with their placement or if I feel like something is missing. I've read a whopping 25 of the 125 books on the list. I agree with many of the selections but I still feel that we were correct when, at a camp I worked at, we nicknames The Giving Tree as The Co-Dependency Tree and that while I enjoyed The Age of Innocence, I'm not certain I can view it as life-changing unless you were previously stuck in a very odd, antiquated mindset. I was also kind of surprised to find that Catch-22 was not included.

The one book I'd like to highlight on the list is The Catcher in the Rye. When I first read it, I liked it because I felt, as a moody, obnoxious teenager, that I identified with Holden Caulfield. I still consider it to be my favorite book, not because I identify with Holden but because I really don't. I feel like it's a huge identifier of how far I've come as a person, that I don't feel on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

I actually have more to say about this list than I originally thought I did. I know there is the controversy about whether or not Laura Ingalls Wilder actually wrote The Little House series but I do consider it to be life changing for me, especially as a reader, and am surprised to not see it on a list put together by a library in the Midwest. I still totally want to make candy with snow and maple syrup, OK? Oh, and no recently deceased Madeline L'Engle, either. I know there were only 125 slots and that my paltry 25 books indicates that I'm not so up on the past 125 years of literature, but I still feel that there are a few missing. Perhaps I should have made my own list like Lisa did.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain

The Age of Innocence - Edith Wharton

Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl - Anne Frank

The Call of the Wild - Jack London

The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger

Charlotte's Web - E. B. White

The Chronicles of Narnia - C.S. Lewis

The Fountainhead - Ayn Rand

The Giving Tree - Shel Silverstein

Goodnight Moon - Margaret Wise Brown

The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald

Green Eggs and Ham - Dr. Seuss

Harry Potter series - J.K. Rowling

His Dark Materials trilogy - Philip Pullman

James and the Giant Peach - Roald Dahl

A Light in the Attic - Shel Silverstein

The Lorax - Dr. Seuss

Nineteen Eighty-Four - George Orwell

Number the Stars - Lois Lowry

The Outsiders - S.E. Hinton

The Red Tent - Anita Diamant

Sarah, Plain and Tall - Patricia MacLachlan

A Time to Kill - John Grisham

To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee

The Velveteen Rabbit - Margery Williams

Secret Pal Love

I'm in the Secret Pal 11 exchange and I got my first package today.


I got Buffy the Vampire Slayer yarn, a cute little crepe fruit strap, orange linden blossom herbal bath, a vanilla perfume sachet, and chocolate with liquid raspbery filling. So thank you, secret pal, this was a great gift.

Friday Morning Footgasm

I actually finished something for once. I think the startitis might finally be cured.

I Caved

I finally decided to get a ball winder and swift. I was waiting for me when I got home from work today and I made lots of pretty yarn cakes.






I've also been taking steps towards avoiding second sock syndrome. Not much more to go before I get to decrease the toe. I haven't been doing much other knitting but I think I should be able to get back to it more again, especially now that it's been so cold and rainy.

Ahoy there, mateys!

Avast, it be International Talk Like a Pirate Day! So be adding lots of arr's and aye's to your talkin' today or be marked as a scurvy land lubber. I'm off to drink me grog.

Once Again, Bored at the End of the Day

I'm pretty sure I've seen something similar to this as a meme before, but I just did it out of curiosity. I looked up my birthday (February 22) on Wikipedia and wrote down all of the people that share my birthday that I recognized since all I ever remembered before was that George Washington and Drew Barrymore were also born on February 22. I can't say I'm happy about all of these.

1732 - George Washington, First President of the United States
1788 - Arthur Schopenhauer, German philosopher
1918 - Don Pardo, American radio and television announcer
1932 - Ted Kennedy, U. S. Senator from Massachusetts
1952 - Bill Frist, U. S. Senator from Tennessee
1962 - Steve Irwin, Australian herpetologist
1966 - Rachel Dratch, American actress and comedienne
1968 - Jeri Ryan, American actress
1971 - Lea Salonga, Filipina actress and singer
1974 - James Blunt, English musician
1975 - Drew Barrymore, American actress

I think my new goal is to start learning more about other people born on my birthday.

New Knitty!

Do I need to say anything else?

Actually, now that I've looked at it, I don't know that there's anything I would knit from it. At least not right now. The Woodins are cute and give me flashbacks to freshman year of college, but other than that, nothing inspires me.

German Stockings

OK, I swear that this is the last post of the day. I knitted entirely too much on a pair of German Stockings this weekend and had to share my progress. I knit almost the entire leg and I think I'm only going to get up to but not start the heel flap tonight. It's time for mindless television watching tonight. One last shot of the stocking, close up on the main motif this time.

RIP Madeleine L'Engle

I know this makes post number three for me today and I may get up to a fourth, but I needed to acknowledge the passing of a great author, even if it is four days after the fact. Madeleine L'Engle shaped a lot of who I am as a reader and for that I am grateful.

Boredom to the Max

I can't really do anything at work until after my training session tomorrow so I am very bored. I cleaned my desk and keyboard and now the cleaning chemicals are giving me a headache. I changed blog templates and tweaked the colors. And then I took a quiz.

Free Online Dating from Mingle²

That's right. More useless knowledge that will do me no good in life. I think the only one that I got wrong was who sent the first e-mail. I'm OK with that.

Weekend Knitting

To really show what I knit this weekend I should be waiting until I'm at home to take pictures but I'm updating now, instead.

On Friday, my Knit Picks order came in. Other than the cables I got for my Options set to qualify for free shipping, I got Selbuvotter by Terri Shea and three skeins of Shadow in Lost Lake Heather for the Secret of the Stole KAL. I really liked browsing through Selbuvotter, and want to make more stranded mittens.

I knit my swatch up for SotS on US4 Options. I think I'm going to stick with this size. I don't know if I'll start it when the KAL begins because I still have MS3 along with some other projects to work on plus I'd like to see a little bit of the pattern before committing to it. Takes a little bit of the mystery out of it, but I'd rather do that than start it and feel obligated to finish something I'm not too crazy about.

I actually did a lot of a whole new project this weekend. Due to the drizzly weather and not many other plans, I finished almost an entire leg of the German Stockings. I purchased some Louet Gems in burgundy at Borealis last Wednesday and couldn't resist starting. I'm really enjoying this. It was kind of fun keeping track of the charts along with remembering to decrease for the calf shaping as I went. I'm all done with the calf shaping and just have about another inch and a half to go before starting the heel flap. No pictures just yet but I should be able to add some soon. Maybe even tonight.

Hello Cable

After about 3 1/2 weeks, I finally have cable television and internet services restored to my apartment. I've almost gotten used to not having it. I forget that I can go back to looking stuff up when I'm wondering and I'm still watching DVDs since I just bought Heroes on Friday. In honor of having my own internet connection back, I offer pictures of knitwear.

This from the pair of Corazon I started last winter and all I had left was to kitchener stitch the top and finish the thumb on one mitten and yet I let them sit until now. Instant satisfaction right there

I've also got the Fake Isle Hat from Mag Knits that I finished in about a week It's all bright and pretty colored and makes me excited for winter so that I can wear it.



As you can see, I'm very happy to have my internet back and have gotten quite photo happy. I don't know if this is a trend I can continue, but Ravelry has at least inspired me to start updating a little more frequently.