Booking Through Thursday: It's All About Me

As usual, I'm late with my response to the BTT post this week. I always forget, even when I remember. This week's question:

Which do you prefer? Biographies written about someone? Or Autobiographies written by the actual person (and/or ghost-writer)?

I enjoy reading biographies, but I prefer autobiographies written by the actual person. All writing is done through the filter of the writer's perception, so I don't know if readers can ever find an unbiased story. I do keep this in mind whenever I read about someone's life. And there is truly some fascinating writing out there.

Legwarmers Done

This morning I steam blocked the legwarmers for elder daughter. She is a petite woman, so the overall length is 19 1/2 inches. She intends to roll over the 3 1/2 " top ribbing at the knee.

Needles used: double pointed, sizes 6 and 8
Yarn: Patons Classic 100% Merino Wool

Cast on 52 stitches with smaller needles, and work in Knit 2, Purl 2 ribbing for 2 1/2 ".

I switched to larger needles for the rest.

The cable pattern is the "stitch plait" pattern from The Knitting Stitch Bible . It's worked over 18 stitches. The rest is stockinette stitch, then 3 1/2 " of K2, P2 ribbing at the end.

Simple and warm.

November

"No warmth, no cheerfulness, no healthful ease,
No comfortable feel in any member -
No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees,
No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds -
November!"

Thomas Hood

(1799-1846)

Booking Thursday: Blurbs

Something I’ve been thinking about lately: “What words/phrases in a blurb make a book irresistible? What words/phrases will make you put the book back down immediately?”

Today I realized that I choose books primarily because of interesting titles. For example:

• The Late Bloomer's Revolution: A Memoir. I chose this book because the title reminded me that my mother and aunts used to call me a late bloomer when I was growing up.
• All the Fishes Come Home to Roost: An American Misfit in India. Another memoir. How do fishes roost? How did an American come to live in India?
• The Wheel on the School. A children's book. I needed to know why there was a wheel on the school.

However, to answer this week's BTT question, I looked through the bookshelves to see what the blurbs actually say. The word I saw most frequently was lyrical. There was also honest, insightful, and epic. Another group of words that jumped out at me was funny, fast-paced, witty and entertaining romp.

What would not appeal to me are any blurbs about cancer or dealing with illness. Been there, done that, don't want to read about it.

How Do You Store Knitting Needles?

Jessi wanted some leg warmers. This is my first attempt. It's too small, so I started again with a cast on of 52 stitches. It needs to be a couple of inches longer too.


The year is not over, but I've decided to take inventory of my "fearless knitting" in 2009.

Knitted: 17 projects

• 1 pair of socks
• 1 lace shawl
• 1 baby sweater
• 7 cotton dishcloths/towels
• 3 feather and fan bag bags
• 1 entrelac scarf
• 2 felted hats
• 1 pair leg warmers

New skills learned this year:

• Making I-cords
• Reading a chart for lace shawl
• Entrelac

My favorite project this year was the lace shawl knit for my mother. The worst project turned out to be the one and only object that I crocheted: an afghan. I truly hated this. It turned out to be a very boring project.

The socks and two of the dishcloths I made for myself. Everything else I gave away. What's next? I'd like to make more socks and another shawl. We have a new grand-niece so I'll be making something for her soon. Another grand-nephew or niece is due in early spring. That makes two baby projects.

I really need to figure out a good storage system for knitting needles. One would think all a knitter would need is one set of needles in any given size. Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way.

Say all my knitting projects could be made with size 8 needles. One pattern needs short needles, another needs long needles. The next project needs a 29" circular needle, a 16" circular needle and then a set of double pointed needles. Then of course some yarn is too slippery to use on aluminum needles. I must use wood or bamboo. Multiple that by all the sizes of needles truly needed for different projects and this is what you get:




This picture doesn't include the needles left in various project bags stashed here and there around the house. There must be a better way.

If you are a knitter, please share with me the needle storage system that works for you.

Book Review

Last week Barbara sent me a copy of The Trials of the Honorable F. Darcy by Sara Angelini.

Over the years, I've read several sequels to Jane Austen's novels written by modern day authors. Today's book is not a sequel to Austen's Pride & Predjudice. Instead it is a modern day retelling of the same story.

Angelini uses some of the same characters: Elizabeth and Jane Bennett, Fitzwilliam Darcy, and Charles Bingley. Even Elizabeth's parents, Tom and Fanny Bennett are here, remade as 1970s hippies.

In this updated version Elizabeth is an attorney, Darcy a judge. Do you see the advent of an ethical dilemma? Elizabeth and Darcy do their best to rationalize their behavior in the face of this dilemma, but in the end they feel guilty.

In the first several chapters Elizabeth's disdain for Darcy grows, while Darcy admires her more and more. When Darcy and Elizabeth finally decide that they like each other, the most startling difference in this new-told tale emerges. That is . . . sex.

I do not object to characters in a book having sex. But usually the scenes are maybe a page and a half long. Angelini's strength may be in her ability to write chapter after chapter after chapter of interesting and varied sex scenes. Readers may find themselves exhausted. It was a bit much for me. I wonder if Angelini will have anything new to write on the subject in her next book.

Before I read this book, I thought it would be a good one to pass on to my daughters. When I started telling the 27 year old about it, she said, "no thanks."

The 20 year old said, "Mom, I'm getting married. Send me the book." We were on the phone at the time, and I just know that she rolled her eyes when she said this.
Maybe after she's been married for 10 years, I'll be comfortable enough to send it to her. She'll probably enjoy it.

Booking Through Thursday - Weeding

It's not Thursday, but I've decided to join in this week's Booking Through Thursday meme.

We’re moving in a couple weeks (the first time since I was 9 years old), and I’ve been going through my library of 3000+ books, choosing the books that I could bear to part with and NOT have to pack to move. Which made me wonder…

When’s the last time you weeded out your library? Do you regularly keep it pared down to your reading essentials? Or does it blossom into something out of control the minute you turn your back, like a garden after a Spring rain?

Or do you simply not get rid of books? At all? (This would have described me for most of my life, by the way.)

And–when you DO weed out books from your collection (assuming that you do) …what do you do with them? Throw them away (gasp)? Donate them to a charity or used bookstore? SELL them to a used bookstore? Trade them on Paperback Book Swap or some other exchange program?

I go through my books a couple times a year and dispose of the ones I don't want using all of the above methods.

• I have donated them to charity. (This is the best way to avoid getting more books).
• Sold or traded books to used bookstores. (Dangerous. I usually come home with more books).
  
• Occasionally, I do toss books because they are in poor physical shape or the story itself makes me ill. That doesn't happen too often.
• I pass on books to family and friends.
• In the past few months, for the first time, two of my adult children have asked to read some of my books. All those years taking them to story time when they were young has started to pay off.

Recently, I've been looking into book swapping sites or considered paring down my library by selling some of the books online. I'm not sure if I'm ready for that yet.

Someone once told me that if I couldn't part with my possessions, I didn't own them. They owned me. Well, I'm that way with books.