Book List

I haven't posted a book list in a long time, have I? Oops. Well, here it is. This is a partial list, because I've read some things and took them back to the library already.

• No One Noticed the Cat, Anne McCaffrey
• Innocent in Death, J.D. Robb (Nora Roberts)
• Maelstrom, Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough
• Nimisha's Ship, Anne McCaffrey
• Killashandra, Ann McCaffrey
• The Redemption of Althalus, David & Leigh Eddings (I think this might be the best of all their books, all the series included)
• One Good Knight, Mercedes Lackey
• A Civil Campaign, Lois McMaster Bujold (Yes, I've read this already. Several times this year in fact. It's one of my very favorite books, and I read it whenever I miss Miles Vorkosigan)
• The Alchemist's Apprentice, Dave Duncan (VERY good book. It's the first I've read by Mr. Duncan, and I think I'll have to track down his others.)
• The Nursing Mother's Guide to Weaning, Kathleen Huggins and Linda Ziedrich
  

I'm going to put the knitting books next, with....PICTURES!

Homespun Handknit, edited by Linda Ligon. This has some really lovely hat and glove/mitten patterns. The socks aren't to my taste (mostly knee-high) but it does include Elizabeth Zimmerman's Wearable Art Sock, that is a sampling of EZ's amazing talent for seeing patterns in unusual ways.

Simple Socks - Plain and Fancy, Priscilla A. Gibson-Roberts. This gives a basic pattern, and lets you add embelishments. The author(the wonderful person who did Knitting the Old Way) shows how to do topdown and toeup socks. The only heel in the book is a short-row heel. The author admits it's her favorite. :D There's lots of tips and tricks in this book to make your socks better.

Knitting in the Old Way, expanded ed, Priscilla A Gibson-Roberts and Deborah Robson. A loverly, loverly book that examines 15 basic sweater shapes, explains how to create them, and gives examples of how to customize it to fit your ideas. I may need to buy a copy of this one! It's coming out in paperback...

Inspired Cable Knits, Fiona Ellis. This book is divided into 4 sections, each "Inspired By..." change, nature, energy and time. Change has projects (4 tops, 1 hat and scarf set) that has cables that move in unusual ways. Nature (4 sweaters and a wrap) are projects in earth tones (except for the violet wrap) and textures that mimic natural substances. Inspired by Energy is a more ecletic selection, with a yoga bag, a pillow, a child's sweater, and two adult tops. Inspired by Time has patterns that are more traditional, or at least, inspired by traditional patterns. Nothing in the book jumped out and grabbed me, but it's got lots of pretty pictures.

Re: Potty Training

Thank y'all for your helpful coments. It helps a lot to know other people have, indeed, gotten thru this without permanently scarring their children. I'm going to try more rewards, and, I'm feeling hopeful, because Little J's pee'd in the potty twice in the last two days. YAY!

As promised, my current Knitting WorksInProgress***

These first two pictures are of my Hogwart Sock Swap sock. I can't tell you who it's for, and I'm not going to tell you the pattern either, but, it started out with three balls of lovely Koigu KPM. I've since decided not to use the white, and simply use the blue and grey for the Ravensclaw socks. It's a very wavy pattern, which I hope you can see in the second picture, and it makes scalloped stripes around the sock. It's also going pretty slowly :( This seems like such infinitely small yarn (even though I used smaller on my fingerless FairIsle gloves) and the pattern requires concentration.

The second set of pictures, below, are my current mindless knitting sock. The sock I take in the car with me, the sock I put in my purse, even, the sock that I knit on when I'm standing in line.

It's a ribbed pattern, with a small braided cable in the wider part of the rib. I like it, and it dosen't demand too much of my brain.

Like I said earlier (I think) this yarn is the varigated portion of a Duets set from A Swell Yarn Shop. It's the Chocolate Fantasy colorway, which I thought was yummy. I know it's a lot of pink, and I do remember how often I've made comments against the overuse of that color, but, but, it looked so good! And yarn dosen't have any calories, right?

Future plans include knitting up the Sahara sweater (I haven't swatched for that yet) and I'm considering ordering yarn from Elann.com for another Shapely Tank from White Lies Designs and for some Little Turtle Knits diaper covers for Little J. I've got projects running around in my head, and I'm not sure what to do next. But, I'm going to blog about it! As soon as I get something done :)

***To quote from the Yarn Harlot: This is not a complete list. I shall never admit publicly to the full, complete and real list and any references to an project that is on the needles that I am ignoring or have abandoned will be ignored, even if you have photographic proof...even if I provided you with that proof myself through the miracle of blogging.

Potty Training Difficulties

Little J had been doing really well at using his potty chair. I know, this all isn't very interesting unless you're a parent, but, I was gushing about it too his pediatrician...how he was actually sitting on his potty, and he was trying to pee, so he obviously knew how to use the muscles he needed...Well, I seemed to have spoken too soon. Since then, he has started resisting sitting on the potty chair. Vehemenently. He dosen't want to sit on it when he wakes up, he dosen't want to sit on it after naps (and he definitely has to go after a 3 hr nap with a dry diaper) and he dosen't want to sit on it before bed.

There hasn't been any traumatic incidents to cause him to dislike his potty. I think this is more of a control issue. My son is, in the minds of his fond parents, very intelligent, and he wants to have his own way...which often means that he wants to do something, anything, besides sit on the potty. As long as it's not what his mommy wants him to do, of course.

Little J has been so resistant, that I've started praising him again whenever he sits on the potty chair. Even if it's the two short seconds he touches his butt to the potty chair before he gets up to streak through the kitchen. And extra praise and huggles when he actually uses it. But, it's slow. He dosen't want to sit on the potty chair, and I'm not sure what to do now. Do I just keep trying? Or should I let it wait for a couple weeks?

Future posts (this weekend?)

Somehow, finding time to type when I could be outdoors just gets more and more difficult. I wonder why? lots of sarcasm there. But, I do plan to post this weekend. First, I need to update my booklist with the books I've read in the last month. It will be a partial list, because I don't remember everything, but the library is requesting their books back. urgently. Next, I want to let y'all see a picture of my current WIPs. (or yarn planned for projects, as the case may be) I've also got a rant in the back of my head on the difficulties of potty training. Maybe y'all can help me out with that. And, late Monday, I will hopefully be able to post pictures from the Indy knitting group. Yay for knitters!

Toddlers and shiny pointy things

Little J is definitely my child. Oh yes. He has this fascination for shiny objects, and if they're pointy, even better. He absolutely adores my metal dpns, and wants to grab them, and wave them around (and would run with the pointy objects, if I let him) at every opportunity.

He took all of the dpns out of my sock! all four of them. I had just turned the heel! The pain! The tears! but no cursing! not in front of the baby, at least.

I've picked up all the stitches. Hopefully, I just lost one row. Now, I need to check all of those itsy bitsy stitches, and make sure they're turned on the needles the right way (stitch mount). Sigh. and it was going so well.

I love you little J. Even more than I love my knitting.

Cute baby photos

No, not my baby. But really cute! Go look: http://www.tsocktsarina.com/blog/?p=88

Wikipedia Fun

I found this quiz over at On The Sticks, and i've got to see what comes up.

1. Go to Wikipedia and enter your birthday without the year:
Dec 7

2. List 3 events that occurred that day:

• 1776 - Marquis de Lafayette attempts to enter the American military as a major general
• 1917 - World War I: The US declares war on Austria-Hungary.
• 1965 - Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras simultaneously lift mutual excommunications that had been in place since 1054.

3. List 2 important birthdays.

• 521 - Saint Columba, Irish Christian missionary to Scotland (d. 597)
• 2003 - Princess Catharina-Amalia of the Netherlands
  

4. List 1 death:

43 BC - Cicero, Roman politician and author (b. 106 BC)

5 List one holiday or observance:
US - Pearl Harbor Day (observance)

knitting (and lack thereof)

I know, I know, I haven't posted much about my knitting lately. Mostly, that's because I haven't had much to say. I finished up on Vestee, and Rogue is mostly done. (All that's left is putting on the zipper, and with it being warm lately, I'm in a serious mood to procrastinate.) I have projects planned (Sahara sweater, H.S.S. socks) but I'm not in a mood to start them, either. So, I'm working on my current mindless knitting sock. It's a pattern from "Knitting for the Road" by Nancy Bush. I'm doing it in a duet yarn that I got from ASwellYarn shop, but, I lost the little ball of contrasting yarn, so, it's all variegated.

Enough typing already, I can hear you saying ;) It's enough for me too. I've got an excess of little girls in the house tonight, and the cheerful schreechings are giving me a migraine. And that's not including Little J, who has his own vocal piercings... Luckily, the little girls are going up to bed now. Thank Goodness!

Reading blogs

I've added sites to my list of knitting blogs today. It was fun reading thru all the projects that everybody is working on. I'll keep checking for updates, so, y'all aren't going to disappoint me, right?

One thing I want to mention, reading pink text is really hard on my eyes. Sometimes, I'll happen across a blog that seems really nice, funny, well-written, great projects, but it's all in pink writing! I can't look at it long, i start to get a headache, and I probably won't be back :( I'm sorry, it's me, an idiosyncratic quirk, and I WISH i could look at your blog for longer. :(

H.S.S yarn

Okay, I'm not going to say very much about it, but I did get my yarn for the sock swap today, and I found a loverly pattern to go with it. I'll probably start it up tonight. I have a band concert to go to for Little Sis, and, if Big J goes along, he can hold the baby, right? Which will mean more knitting time for me. I wonder how long it will take?

must do swatch...oh shoot...

Finished Object!

Finally! I don't think I've had any finished objects this year. But, the Vestee is done! I need to find some cute buttons, but all the knitting is done, the ends are worked in. Three cheers hurrah! I'll take pictures of it tomorrow when I can bribe Little J to wear it, by promising to go outside.

Next, to finish up with Rogue...
And on Monday, perhaps a trip to the LYS for Hogwarts sock yarn :)

oooooOOhhhh, there's so much knitting goodness...

To quote my husband, this is the "whimpering child picture"

It isn't that he dosen't like the Vestee, he just dosen't like wearing jackets. At all. He wears one outside under protest, becuase he knows it's the only way Mommy will let him go outside. But inside? No way. Not even for a chocolate Banana Pocky.

The Vestee isn't quite done yet. I need to add on the band around the front edges. I'm waffling between the edging in the pattern, and a sorta cable pattern. The trick will be to put buttonholes in whatever I use. Yes, I was thinking about this in bed last night. Dosen't every knitter? It's quiet, there's no one insisting I help them right now, and I can think without interruptions. I drifted off somewhere between figuring out how many stitches I would need to cast on for the cable pattern, and (guess-)estimating how many stitches would be picked up along the edge.

Vestee and HOOD

The hood is completed. I brought it to show Big J ("Isn't this adorable??") and he responded just right. He held it, and examined it, and petted it...I think he wants one now. I'm sorry, but it just won't fit you, Big J!

In the instructions, the hood is to be finished at the top with a three needle bind off. I just don't like the idea of a seam at the top of baby's head, even though, yes, I know, the three-needle method dosen't leave a huge seam. So, I ended the hood with a right side row (K2, p, K2, P) and grafted the two sides of the hood together (all grafted stitches as knit stitches.).

Next step, is to make the edging around the front edges. (edges. I guess that's why it's called an edging. Oh boy, I need sleep!) I need to figure out how to put buttonholes in it...this might involve a different-than-pattern method for attaching the edging.

Gleep! I hope I don't dream about knitting...

Hogwarts sock swaps

The secret pals were all assigned! I've got mine, I can't say who it is (it's a secret) but she's in Ravensclaw. And she dosen't mind which color combo I use(blue/bronze, blue/silver), so, I guess it's off to the LYS for me! Teehee, teehee, more yarn for me :D

Hmm...I don't have many sock books, but I do need to look through the patterns I have. hmmm...what to make...

Vestee halfway done

Whee! I've started on the hood stitches! It's way past my (theoretical) bedtime, but I couldn't put down the knitting until I reached a clear stopping point. With the beginning of the hood, I've a definite sense of accomplishment. I'm going to bed now...and if I can just get Big J to turn off the computer game (Neverwinter Nights)...

Hogwarts Sock Swap

I joined a nifty neato sock swap! It's the Hogwarts Sock Swap, (edit: This Swap is Closed!) to give all of us Harry Potter fanatics something to do until the new book comes out. We won't be knitting after we get it, of course not. ;) I can't wait to see who I'll be knitting for, and what house they're in. I'll be knitting that lucky lucky person a pair of socks in their house colors :D

Hogwarts Sock Swap Questionnaire

1. What Hogwarts house have you been sorted into? Hufflepuff

2. Shoe size? 6 1/2

3. Foot Length? 9 1/2 inches

4. Foot Circumference? 8 1/2 inches

5. List your three favorite double-point needle brands, including size and length.

• a. Brittany, size 5, 5 inch
• b. Lantern Moon, size 5, 7 inch
• c. Clover, size 5, 7 inch

6. Would you like to try a new brand needle? If so, which brand? Size? Length?
Sure, I like trying new things! I usually use needles from size 4 to size 6, and 5 to 7 inches long.

7. If you are a RAVENCLAW, do you prefer the colors in the film or the book? Do you have a strong preference? n/a

8. Are you willing to have an international Hogwarts Sock Pal? Certainly! That would be great!

Vestee progress!

Here's my Vestee so far! (Please ignore the messy background, and the strings trailing, and the electronics cords...would someone come clean my house?)
I like the way the colors are working out. Because I wanted the camo pattern, I don't mind the blobs of color in places, but if I wanted a nice even varigation, I think I would have needed to knit with two balls of yarn at the same time.

Vestee Update

Happy Easter everyone! I hope everybody had a great day. :D

On the Vestee front, it's been a bit frustrating tonight. I had the sleeves done, attached to the body, and a good 2-3" of the yoke done, and I thought, "Why does one side of the front have less stitches than the other?" Oh, frack! (I was watching episodes of the old Battlestar Galactica tonight. StarBuck used that word. Heheehheee.) I had attached one of the sleeves in the wrong spot. Darn, darn darn. So, I frogged it back, reattached the sleeve in the right spot, and, now I'm too tired to do anymore with it tonight. Sigh. I really want to get it done. :(

Book List

Recently read:

1824, by Eric Flint
A Sorcerer and a Gentleman, by Elizabeth Wiley
Wintersmith, by Terry Pratchett

1824 is really good, it's alternative history set in 1824. Indians, and free blacks, have set up their own country in the territory of Arkansas and Oklahoma. Interesting!

100 Great Books

I found this list of books on Patty's (sorry, Patty :( ) blog, Stitches in Pink, and she got it from Tiennie Knits.

In the list of books below, bold the ones I've read, italic the ones I want to read, cross out the ones I won’t touch with a ten-foot pole, a cross (+) in front of the ones on or were on my book shelf(s), and asterisk (*) the ones I've never heard of.

I've got 33 bolded, and there's a definite trend towards sci-fi and children's books, with a sprinkling of romantic classics.

1. The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown)
2. +Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
3. To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
5. +The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien)
6. +The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)
7. +The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)
8. +Anne of Green Gables (L. M. Montgomery)
9. *Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
10. *A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
11. +Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)
12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
13. +Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
14. +A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
15. +Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
16. +Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Rowling)
17. *Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald)
18. The Stand (Stephen King)
19. +Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Rowling)
20. +Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
21. +The Hobbit (Tolkien)
22. +The Catcher in the Rye (J. D. Salinger)
23. +Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
24. *The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
25. *Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
26. +The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
28. +The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
29. East of Eden (Steinbeck)
30. Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)
31. +Dune (Frank Herbert)
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
34. +1984 (Orwell)
35. +The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
36. *The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
37. *The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
38. *I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)
39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
40. *The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
41. +The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
42. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
45. +Bible
46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
47. +The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
48. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt)
49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
50. *She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
52. +A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
53. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
54. +Great Expectations (Dickens)
55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
56. *The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. +Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
59. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. *The Time Traveler’s Wife (Audrey Niffenegger)
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolstoy)
64. +Interview with the Vampire (Anne Rice)
65. *Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
66. *One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
69. +Les Miserables (Victor Hugo)
70. +The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
71. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding)
72. *Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
73. The Shogun (Robert Clavell) Does it count if I've seen the TV series?
74. The English Patient(??)
75. +The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
76. *The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. *A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
78. The World According To Garp (John Irving)
79. *The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
80. +Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White)
81. *Not Wanted On the Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)
83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
84. Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85. Emma (Jane Austen)
86. Watership Down (Richard Adams)
87. +Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
88. *The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89. *Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. *Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91. *In The Skin Of A Lion (Ondaatje)
92. Lord of the Flies (Golding)
93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)
96. *The Outsiders (S. E. Hinton)
97. *White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. *A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
100. Ulysses (James Joyce)

Knitting Meme: You knit where??

This is pretty nifty...I found it on the web, from mamaloo, blog at here

Knitting Meme 1: You Knit Where?
List the 5 places, other than home or a yarn store where you have knit recently.

1) In the car, at a Loooong red light
2) Thai restaurant
3) Panera's!
4) Easter Egg hunt on an Army base
5) Library (isn't the children's room great?)

Technorati

I added my blog to Technorati.com tonight. So, go over there, and check it out!

Kidlet pics

And here is Little J and Little Sis, running around at the gardens.

Little J loves water. He almost fell in the ponds, several times. That's why we put overalls on him, so that we have more handles!

And here is little J, getting even wetter, with the spitting frogs :)

Spring has sprungeth

And then went away again. Here are pictures we took at the White River Gardens on Monday, when it was NICE outside. These are butterflies that were in the greenhouse, some had just hatched.

Temporary Hiatus

Sorry, I'm not feeling chatty lately. However, I promise I will have a new post up after april. I'll probably have photos to post then too.

Plans, plans

Tonight is the meeting for the local group of knitters. I'm planning to go. I'm figuring that by then, I'll need some kid-free time, since Little Sis is home for Spring Break this week. She's been a big help cleaning the house this morning, and we're probably going to the zoo in a little bit. Anyway, Big J said that he would babysit, all by himself (sooo brave!) and I could go knit with the girls. Yay! I'm taking Little J's Vestee along with me. Right now, I've got about 5 inches of it done.

I'm taking a skein of Sahara's yarn along to the zoo, and I'll work on swatching it while the kiddos play on the play ground. Or run around like wild things ;)

Happy Palm Sunday!

I'm looking forward to Easter!

Baby Milestones

Little J is soo neato! I'm so proud of him! He peed in his potty, and he told Mommy that he would have to go!

That's the baby speak. I've been talking about myself in the third person for wayyy too long. To use adult speak, we've been accustoming Jaiden to using his potty. We have toys and things that he can play with when he sits on his little white potty, and at first, we praised him just for sitting on it. After he was more familiar with it, I put him on it at times he was likely to need to pee, like when waking up in the morning or after a nap, after he had nursed, or after meals. We praised him for going in the potty, and told him when he was peeing on the floor(which has happened. I would not want to do potty training in a carpeted bathroom). And, I ask him if he needs to go to the bathroom and use the potty when he acts like he needs to go. And this evening, he took my hand, took me to the bathroom, and peed in the potty! Yay! It's working! I'm not expecting him to be totally using the toilet anytime soon, but this will help make using the toilet an easier experience. Things I've read say that on average, a child who starts getting used to the potty around his age are usually potty-trained (to the extent of telling their parent when they need to go, and maybe wearing underpants) by 24 months old.

Back in January, I had noticed a blog that mentioned potty training for infants, and I wrote about how I would like to do it with Little J. I ordered a couple books from amazon (Infant Potty Training by Laurie Boucke, Early-Start Potty training by Linda Sonna )and they gave me ideas on how to start doing it. We've been doing it for a couple weeks, and I'm really happy about it. I will say, it's encouraged me to clean my bathroom, b'cause I'm spending a heck of a lot of time in there. Sitting on the floor, even!