I think someone could make a business out of coming up with pithy blog post titles. I am obviously not that person.

Some things I've been knitting include my Seraphim shawl, which is now finished.

I knew I would love it, and I was right. It weighs nearly nothing, but is so warm and soft. I'm cursing this ridiculous January heatwave, because it means I can't wear it right now. Not that I have anything that really matches in color or style even if it was cold. I don't care, though, as soon as the temperature goes back down to reasonable winter levels, I'll have it jauntily tied around my shoulders with my every day black hoodie sweater and jeans. 

Sadly, I'm still not any kind of lace knitting expert. At one point, well into the lace border, I had to rip back a few rows due to a glaring error, and let me tell you, it was.not.fun. Then, not learning my lesson, I neglected to put in a new lifeline, and found a couple extra yarn-overs. As I continued knitting, they were so obvious that I wasn't sure I could live with them, but I also couldn't face ripping back again, so I decided to let it go. And you know, as I was blocking the finished shawl, I really had to look to find them. I'm pretty sure that no one will ever see them while I have it nonchalantly draped around my neck, either. 

I think my next lace project is going to be a Juneberry shawl from Brooklyn Tweed. I hope to get some Shelter yarn (I'm very tempted by the Button Jar color, but Almanac is also nice), I think lace in a heavier yarn could be a lot of fun. 

Of course, once I bound off and blocked my shawl, I thought I ought to start something else. I am not at all tired of the purple Malabrigo I used for my Abrazo, so I used the leftover to start a pair of socks.

The pattern is Pyroclastic from Knitty Winter 2009, and they are easy-peasy. Well, that's not entirely true. There is a knitted-in arch support, which I think sounds like a fantastic idea, but the truth is, I started working on it and I just wasn't feeling it. You have to fiddle with about six stitch markers on size 1 needles, and keeping track of increases and decreases on this dark, dark yarn during these dark, dark evenings just isn't any fun, so I decided not to do it. I'll let you know if that's a big mistake, but I think it will work out just fine. I love the mock cables, they couldn't be easier, and the socks are just flying off the needles. 

Some things I've been reading include the entire Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. They're YA books, so they were really quick reads. I thought they were a lot of fun. The action was non-stop, and I really enjoyed all the funny lines the author came up with, like

"I nodded, looking at Rachel with respect. "You hit the Lord of the Titans in the eye with a blue plastic hairbrush."",

or ""It's him," I said. "Typhon." 
I was seriously hoping Chiron would say something good, like 'No, that's our huge friend Leroy! He's going to help us!'"

Or "I’ve met plenty of embarrassing parents, but Kronos, the evil Titan Lord who wanted to destroy Western Civilization? Not the kind of dad you invited to school for Career Day."

I was seriously on the edge of my seat for most of the five books, so I read them back-to-back, pretty much non-stop. I would have probably loved these when I was in sixth grade, so if you have any young readers looking for something entertaining, and even a little educational (I even learned a few things about the Greek gods), give them a try. 

Way at the other end of the spectrum, I spent a good part of my day off yesterday reading Room: A Novel by Emma Donoghue. Wow. I don't want to say too much about this one, but I couldn't put it down, and I will be thinking about it for a good, long time. Room is the story of Jack and his Ma and the 11 x 11 room where they live as prisoners of Old Nick. Five-year-old Jack is the narrator of the story, and it takes a little while to get into the rhythm of his voice, but ultimately, I think Donoghue has done an excellent job of creating that voice. Jack is at the same time smart yet somewhat developmentally or maybe emotionally disabled. His Ma does that best she can to educate and entertain him within their very confined, limited existence. 

Often, when I read a book, particularly a very popular book, I have a bad habit of reading the Amazon reviews, mostly the bad ones. I can sometimes empathize with the one-star reviewers, and often find new insights that I may not have thought about before. In this case, however, I found myself disagreeing with most of them. Many of them didn't like the voice of Jack, saying they didn't think a five-year-old would talk like he did, using simple words and improper grammar one sentence and then spouting multi-syllabic words the next, but I thought that was very authentic, particularly because his world was so limited, yet his mother would play games with him to teach him new words and their meanings. The other complaint that was repeated multiple times was that the reviewers thought that the many references to breastfeeding were "gross." Really? I get that in society today it's not really acceptable to breastfeed a five-year-old boy, but they didn't live in regular society. I think it was quite understandable in their circumstances, and that it was a great comfort to both Jack and to Ma. I understood the discomfort of people outside of Room when Jack wanted to breastfeed at that point, but I would hardly call it gross. Okay, I'll stop there, but if you've read it, what did you think? Please comment! I still need a book group!

What are you planning to do this Autumn? Here's what I want to accomplish by the end of the year:

• Finish Christmas shopping/making by the first week of December
• Find the perfect  cream of mushroom soup recipe (I think I'll start with this one, Ina never lets me down!)
• Bake a Ginger Pear Upside-down Cake
• Bake a pear tart
• Bake an apple cake
• Make lots of pickles for gifts
• Finish a quilt
• Finish current knitting projects before starting a new one
• Go on a hike
• Clean up the garden
• Plant some cold-weather vegatables (Kale, spinach, etc)
• Plant pansies and flowering kale in pot on the porch
• Make a desk for the guest room, so I can work there on my laptop instead of sitting in bed or on the couch
• Chop wood for the stove and start building fires (I need to learn how to split wood, I think that will be a good skill to develop)
• Move the mulch to the garden
• Build another planting box

I can't wait to eat this cake again! 

We got a new dog this weekend. His name is Winston. We traded in the old model for the sleek newly re-designed model.

Okay, we don’t actually have three dogs, Winston just got a haircut. Look at that skinny little tail! He’s still recovering from the trauma, but I think he feels a lot better. I know he’s not as hot as he was before with all that fur, because he slept next to me almost the whole night. I think he might even be a little chilly. The poor little guy had so many stickers from the weeds in our yard stuck in his belly, and he was starting to get some mats in his fur that I couldn’t comb through. I think I spent hours this past week pulling out the stickers and trying to brush out the knots. I finally had to admit defeat, and take him in for a shave. Bear didn’t recognize him when we first got out of the car last night. I think he’s still not too sure who the strange new dog is.

I decided to take a break from the garden this weekend, since I’m currently frustrated by the two (out of four) dead tomato plants, two dead peppers and two dead zucchini plants. I mean, come on, anyone can grow zucchini, they’re practically weeds. Apparently I can’t grow them. I’m not sure what is going on. Something has been digging around in my raised bed, and the dead plants look as if they’ve been sprayed with something. They’re not even next to each other. It’s too weird. I am taking measures, however, to try and protect everything else. I bought some rue and coleus, which are repellent to cats, and I’ve got some garlic to plant, which should repel gophers and other rodents. I’m not giving up, although my dreams of canning tomatoes and making zucchini pickles may have to wait until next Summer.

In happier news, I got a little treat in the mail last week! Miss Cara Lou made me a cup cozy, and appropriately, it says “All Mine”, so that means I don’t have to share, right? Do you see that Mr. HeyLucy?! He always thinks my food is better than his and wants to try it out. Here it is being modeled by a lovely cup of peppermint tea:

Since I boycotted the garden this weekend I did some knitting and sewing instead. There’s a new niece arriving soon, and I may not have a quilt ready right when she arrives, but I did manage to get some  booties done. They’re obnoxiously bright, but I like them anyway. I just used some leftover cotton yarn I had laying around.

And I’m nearly finished with the kimono from Weekend Sewing. I’ll show you the whole thing when it’s done. It’s a quick little project, just like the booties, so I highly recommend either or both if you need a special baby gift in a hurry.

Just a quick list of links to some beautiful things I love today:

• This song, I can't stop listening to it.
• This shawl, it's all I can do not to drop everything and go make it.
• This photo, and all the others in her shop. That is a real fawn, by the way.

That's all for now. Have a nice weekend!

A little Spring, which is brightening my day:

I was playing with my aperture settings. I think I’ll try again at a different setting.

I didn’t feel like saying much in my last post, but I do want to sincerely thank you all for the kind words about Reggie. I know that all pet owners know how bad this sucks, and it helps to know that I’m not the only one who has ever had to go through this. It’s been hard, because I realized that I had been grieving for the dog he once was for a long time, and I hated seeing him slowing down like he did. It’s part of life, though, and it makes me appreciate the good times all the more. And this little punk is really helping:

I tried to work his fur into a faux-hawk, but it wasn’t cooperating this morning. I never mentioned that I went to a Pet Photography workshop at the San Diego Humane Society a few weeks ago. It was taught by this lady, who takes some great animal photos. I learned a few things about taking pictures of animals, although I wish we had had a little longer, I think there is so much to know! Here is another animal (and people) photographer I’ve been enjoying lately.

In other news, I had a bit of a cold earlier this week, and stayed home from work. While I did sleep for many hours, I started feeling better in the late afternoon and decided that I needed to knit. I went to work on my Hanami stole, started oh so long ago, but it seems that my snot-addled brain just could not handle the lace and I made yet another mistake. Actually, snot-addled or not, my brain is just having a hard time with it. I don’t know why I’m having such a hard time with this pattern, but it
is seriously the most challenging knitting project I have ever
attempted. I’m not giving up, but I need a few more days to work myself up to un-knit to find out where I went wrong. So I went foraging in my yarn basket, and on Knitty, and decided that a nice Spring scarf was in order. So I cast on the Lace Ribbon Scarf from the latest issue, and I’m really liking it. I’m using Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock yarn in the colorway Glenwood (that’s the most accurate photo I could find). I actually like it better in this multicolor yarn than I thought I would, but I’d still like to have one in a solid color, maybe in a nice, drape-y linen yarn.

Now this lace I can handle, although it is going to need some serious blocking.