Books from Auburnchick

A fellow KH'er and blogger recently posted a list for book readers, that goes as follows:
Bold the ones you’ve read, italicize the ones on your book shelf! Combine indicators as appropriate.
The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy - Douglas Adams
The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee- saw a play too
The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - J. K. Rowling
Life of Pi - Yann Martel
Animal Farm: A Fairy Story - George Orwell
Catch-22 - Joseph Heller
The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
Lord of the Flies- William Golding
Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
1984 - George Orwell
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - J. K. Rowling
One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel García Márquez
Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
The Lovely Bones- Alice Sebold-best Sebold book so far
Slaughterhouse 5 - Kurt Vonnegut
Angels and Demons - Dan Brown
Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk
Neuromancer - William Gibson
Cryptonomicon - Neal Stephenson
The Secret History - Donna Tartt
A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess
Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - C. S. Lewis
Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides
Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
The Lord of the Rings- J.R.R. Tolkien
Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte-read about 50 times, have 3 different copies
Good Omens - Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman
Atonement - Ian McEwan
The Shadow Of The Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
The Old Man and the Sea - Ernest Hemingway
The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood-first Atwood book read at age 10
The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
Dune - Frank Herbert
I thought I would play along! you can too! just copy and paste to your blog, or copy and paste as a reply!
I don't know where she got the list, but doing good so far on it!

I suck at stealth knitting

DH never asks in a really committed way what I am knitting. He asks, I tell, he moves on. For some reason when I cast on for Sonic the hedgie, he wanted details. Dammit. Now sonic is not an xmas present. DH likes to follow the whole felting/blocking/stuffing process. Now sonic is early. Ho hum. What now???

Done, now to start the xmas knitting

The Summer swing jacket is done. The last of the knits, (fingers crossed behind back) for myself before the xmas holiday season. I modified a bunches, see other posts, and in the final photo you can see I added the Noro (gorgeous up close, really lovely colors) for the trim on the edges and neck. The neck I made is nothing at all like the pattern, but I like it more. And I added a vintage pin that I happend to have found a while back for the closure at the top. All in all a lovely sweater, but I will make it longer next time. I think the designer had smaller boobs than me.

oh, I found my diamond earrings in the sock drawer below where the earrings are kept. Me thinks a certain kitty person knocked them in there.

So now I am on to the holiday knitting. Eric, go read another blog. Lots of blogs to read. bye. mom too. other people to meet and greet. come back next week. I dont' think anyone else that I gave this bloggy address to reads this, but if you do, come back later and don't read this post. Seriously. I will open up a can of whoop ass.

Eric's knit is a hedgehog like Leo's was last year, only in sonic the hedgehog colors. I want to make mom a sweater, but time is getting a bit limited on the sweater. She may get Grumperina's odessa hat, with or without the beads, pending beady difficulty. Leo is definately getting the felted kitty, pending finding a black feltable yarn and piecing together the pattern.

So said, I did a proactive thing for holiday knitting I have never done before. I actually took out the patterns for the knits and put them all in a plastic bag with the yarn together as my "kit". They are all in my "wip" box. Now, whenever I need to start a new knit, the whole kit is there. I feel seriously brilliant right now. August, and I have holiday knitting kits. Someone congratulate me.

Finally proof of lots of money spent!

I got it today! wooo hoo! only took 4 months almost to the day but now I have a $20,000 piece of paper to go along with the $35,000 other piece of paper!

Now I just need a frame to hold it.

Stuffed catnip fishies

I started to work on the curtains for our front porch, got about halfway on Saturday and pooped out on Sunday after having to return 3 rods for 3 bigger rods. I have everything, I just need to finish the hem. So instead I made some cat toys.

The fishies are an old pattern I have, just the shape of a fish in a large size. So old i have to tape it a bit every time I use it. Same pattern I used for the fishies I made to donate to the 35 w bridge craft sale, but they sold to the crafty people before the sale started.

Mulder had more fun than Itchy so far. I had fun with the camera.

2nd time's a charm

I recast on the Summer swing jacket, and boy o boy am I glad I ripped her out and started over. All of the problems I had the first time I learned from, and I had the forsight to add the Noro to the bottom for the edging (thanks for the bday present mom!) It is the PERFECT yarn in the PERFECT color to add to this sweater. It has a weight to it that hangs the jacket nicely, and is such a great color, a blue-green in royal/dark hues to complement the light blue of the body. LOVE.

The only other mod I might make is to use a prettier frog closure for the neck part instead of the japaneese style wooden buttons.

In other news, Ravelry rocks! (Where I got the summer swing jacket pattern btw). I got a message from a fellow user who is making a sweater but is going to run out of yarn, but she searched and saw that I had some of what she needed, in the right dye lot and all, and asked if I could spare some.

On a side note-I truly believe in knitters karma. well, nice people karma, but knitters are the nicest of all. A few times in the last year or so, someone has posted on Knittinghelp.com that they needed/wanted/couldn't afford/had an accident/ etc, and I truly believe that in my state of having enough and not wanting for anything that if I have the means, I should help. I'm not rich or whatever, I'm just blessed. I am happy and content and even sometimes blissfull in my life, and I truly believe that because of that I should help others if/when I can. Because as we all know, this state of life might not last forever, and I may have to call upon others to help me. Even if it's for a certain dye lot of yarn. So I help when I can.

So, even though I love said yarn, (it's classic elite lush, a lovely blend of angora!) that I got for a steal, I happened to see the woman's page and that she really was doing a lovely job on her sweater. I almost wanted to give for free, but I'm not that rich!

In another weird note, she happens to be from minneapolis, so I told her to drop me a note when she comes next time. Small world!

I can fix a toilet

New skill, fixing a toilet. Discovered after $90 water bill.
The toilet was constantly running. Found out it was because the float wasn't working properly. Attempted to bend float to my will. Broke said part. Hmmm.... I seriously considered trying to duct tape back together.
Nice man at hardware store explained that replacing the whole inside part would actually be easier than trying to unscrew really rusted screws and replace just broke part. $11. not bad.
Got home, DH helped undo part to replace, popped in, adjusted a bit, and VOILA no more running toilet.
Tell me how much I rock.