Books

Although this is primarily a blog about my knitting, in an effort to blog more regularly, I thought that I might share some of the other things going on in my life.  I also love to read and cook, so I'm going to share some of those fun things too.  And 2014 is going to be a BIG year for my boys too.  One is graduating from college and one is graduating from high school.  As you can imagine I am one proud and happy mom :-)

Today I'm going to tell you about the books I've finished so far.

Where'd You Go, Bernadette?

I really enjoyed this book!  It's about a woman who is lost in about every way a person can be lost.  Much of her story is told through correspondence.  Some of it is touching, some is heart-breaking, and some of it is laugh out loud funny.  The supporting characters are great and I loved how my perspective of them changed as the story unfolded.  I give this 4.5 out of 5 stars.

Sycamore Row

I haven't read a book by John Grisham in a long time, but my husband is a big fan of his books and got this as soon as it came out.  Generally he is person who reads on planes and on a quiet weekend afternoon sitting by the lake.  He could not put this one down so I picked it up when he was finished.  If you've read A Time to Kill, or seen the movie, you're familiar with the character Jake Brigance. This is another Jake Brigance book and includes his merry band of odd ball cohorts such as Lucien and Harry Rex.  I thought it was an enjoyable read.  I spent much of the book wondering how the case was going to work out.  Although I had basically guessed the outcome, I loved how it all came together.  I'm giving it 4 stars!

Right now I'm listening to The Cuckoo's Calling.  In print I'm reading Flight Behavior.  It was my book club's pick for January.  I'm only about 40 pages into it, but my group met last night and most of  my friends didn't like it.  They described it as "not captivating", "excruciating", "preachy" and were really annoyed that it was over-descriptive and yet left characters hanging, didn't develop stories and characters that would have enriched the story much more.  And yet it has some really great reviews. Hmmm....  I haven't decided yet if I'm going to continue it or abandon it.  I might just keep it around and poke my way through it for a while longer before I decide.

Next month's pick is Me Before You.  It sounds really good to me and I'm looking forward to it.  I downloaded it to my Kindle as soon as I got home last night.

I'd love to hear about any books you've read that you've really enjoyed!  I'm also on Goodreads if you'd like to follow me there too!

Toasty Twist

A finished pair of socks!  It's been just more than 3 months since I last finished a pair.  I started these in October when these gorgeous fall colors were just the thing to make me think of toasty, cozy things.  Things like fires in the fireplace, think stews and chili, and my wonderful hand knits to keep me warm.

Here's a little closer view of the pattern on the leg, which continues down the foot.

The details.....
Pattern: Toasty Twist Socks by Theresa Fox
Yarn: Socks That Rock lightweight in Rocktober
Cast On: 10.18.13
Bind Off: 1.24.14

This was pair 7 of 26 for the 26 Pair Plunge.  I better get my needles moving if I'm going to finish 26 pairs by June 30th!

Finally!

I have been so envious of my friends on Ravelry and knitters I know through their blogs who belong to Knit Groups, or have Knit Nights at their local yarn store. Well, FINALLY, someone from my local yarn store posted in the store's Ravelry group looking for a group to join. And shazam! a group was formed!  I went last Friday for the first time and discovered that this is primarily a group of ladies who are much like me.  They like nice quality yarns, they like learning new things, they spend silly amounts of time on Ravelry admiring the new patterns and trends, and... they like to share their projects, talk about all of this and knit!  I'm so excited!

Last week Irish brought her gorgeous Color Affection shawl.  We all oohed and awed all over it.  Many of us admitted that this pattern has been in our queues forever and pretty quickly we decided that we should have our own little Knit-a-long.  I went back today with some yarns form my stash, and this is what I decided on.

These are all Hazel Knits yarns and they are all exclusive Club colors.  From left to right they are Starry Night in Artisan Sock, Silhouette in Entice, and Jubilee in Artisan Sock.  I cast on today while we were together and knit a few rows.

I've also been working on my Toasty Twist socks.  I made it to the toe of the second sock last night, but I just couldn't stay awake to finish it.  Perhaps tonight I'll get this finished!

I bought some yarn last spring for a sweater for my niece.  I intended to work on it over the summer so she'd have a new sweater for fall.  Then that plan morphed into a new sweater for Christmas.  Now it's going to be a sweater for her birthday next month.  Third time's the charm, right? LOL

That's what on my needles right now. I'm sure I'll be showing you more soon, because I've got a wicked case of startitis right now :-)

Ten on Tuesday

The Breakfast Edition

 This week Carole asked what our favorite breakfast foods are.  I don't know about you, but I love breakfast foods!  In my house though, we identify breakfast as "work/school day breakfast" and "family breakfast".  Here are some of my favorites!

1. Bagel with cream cheese.  Specifically, an everything bagel. Yum, yum, yum!
2. English Muffin with peanut butter.
3. French Toast.  This is my absolute favorite breakfast.  I generally like it simple with a little cinnamon and maple syrup.
4. Pancakes, a close runner up to the french toast.
5. Belgian Waffles, skip the fruit and add some chocolate chips!
6. Maple Squares.  These are definitely a treat.  I think that the best ones I've ever had are from Harvey's Bakery in Dover, NH.  If you're ever in the area, you should treat yourself too.
7. Scrambled omelets.  I'm sure I'm not the first person to think of this, but as a family of 5 who all love omelets, I came up with this as a time/sanity saver.  Whatever you'd put in your omelet, just scramble it all together in the pan.  Usually I start with some breakfast sausage in small chunks or scrambled, when that is browned I add in the eggs, and then just before the eggs are finished I add some cheese so that it melts and blends in.
8. Eggs Benedict.  It's a must have on Father's Day :-)
9. Bacon, only it's not just for breakfast. Everything is better with bacon :-)
10. "Egglets" aka Egg McMuffins made at home.  This is what my oldest son called this breakfast sandwich when he was little.  Funny how some things stick, isn't it?

I'm looking forward to seeing everyone's lists today.  Maybe I'l find something new to try!  You can hop over to Carole's blog and join the fun too!

Challenge Complete!

Happy Monday!

We had a relatively quiet weekend with the exception of the unexpected snowstorm Saturday. DH and I both swear the last thing we heard the weatherman predict was a dusting to 2 inches.  Well, 6 inches later, it finally stopped snowing.  it was the heavy wet snow too, that is a pain in the neck to clean up because it's so heavy but so beautiful to look at because it coats everything with a glistening white blanket.  This is one of the trees in my yard.  So pretty!

I finished the last of the hats for my son's hockey team on Saturday.  Here are the sophomores...

and the freshmen...

The hats are fun to make for the kids.  They really love them and it's fun to see them wearing them.  But after 11 hats in 23 days, I am ready to knit something else!

Since it is Martin Luther King Day today, I'd like to share a quote I saw this morning that reflects how I'd like to live.

"I have decided to stick with love.  Hate is too great a burden to bear." - Martin Luther King, Jr

My Poor Neglected Blog

I cannot believe that it has been 6 weeks already since I last blogged! There have been so many things that I have thought, "I should share this on my blog" and then life just kept up it's whirlwind pace and I didn't get to it. So I'm having a quiet day at home today and thought this would be a perfect opportunity to catch up a bit.

I had this great idea that I would knit a bunch of hats this past year, and then when we got together with our extended families for Christmas, I would have this wonderful assortment of items that our family members could choose from.  I didn't quite make it. I've shared some of the items over the year, and here of some more that I finished.  Maybe next Christmas this will work out!

The newest hats to the collection are....
Alpine Topper.  You've probably seen this in Interweave Knits in the Halcyon Yarns ad for the past few winters.  I love this design!  When I visited Halcyon Yarns this fall I just had to get the pattern and yarn to make it.  The green is Lamb's Pride Bulky in Turkish Green and the variegated is Malabrigo Rasta in Arco Iris.  I probably have enough of the Malabrigo left to make at least 2 more of these hats, maybe 3.  I think I need a blue one and either a Burgandy one or a grey.

This is Antler Hat.  I couldn't get one of the boys to model it for me to get a better picture but the hat itself is getting passed around among them quite a bit.  They love the deep ribbing that folds up so that it's doubled over their ears!  I used Madelinetosh Vintage in Weathered Frame.  I made the largest size and used all but 30 inches of the skein!

This is He Said She Said.  I used Berocco Blackstone Tweed Chunky for this hat.  It is super yummy yarn and I would love to have a sweater knit in this!

This is Twisted Rib Hat.  I made the child size for this so that I could use up some Dream in Color Classy I had leftover from a sweater I made for me niece.  Coincidentally I think this same niece is the only person that this hat will fit :-)

So that's it for the hats.  Some are being claimed by the kids, but hopefully some will hang around for gift giving.

We had a nice Christmas this year.  It was the first year without my mom but she still seemed to pop up everywhere.  There are the ornaments that she has picked out for me and for the boys every year that brought back so many memories and the occasional recycled box or gift bag that still had a tag on it in her handwriting.  I left her tags on everywhere I found them and we all laughed when we would see them.  My mom was famous for "Save the Box!"  It was a good memory :-)

It was nice to spend the day with my dad too :-)  Nothing like a selfie at the Christmas Dinner table!  We had a big crowd for dinner this year too!  15 in all. It was lots of fun and good food.

One more thing about Christmas.... My middle son went to the yarn store in his college town to get me sock yarn in his school colors.  May I present Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock yarn in Crimson Pride! Roll Tide!  Have I trained that boy well, or what? He also got me a bottle of Peach flavored vodka to make me Peach Sangria :-)  He's a keeper!

In other family news, my youngest son was selected Captain of the Varsity Hockey team!  I'm very proud of him and happy for him! He's taking the responsibility very seriously and sends text reminders and updates the team Facebook page with important info.  I love watching my boys embrace what they love and do it with pride.

And so begins another quest for hats for the team....  Last year I knit 20 hats in 7 weeks.  This year I only need to make 10.  I'm well on my way already.

Plus I took a break from the boys' hats to make one for Chandler's good friend who plays on the girls team.  It's a cooperative team with the Catholic High School in the neighboring town as neither school had enough players to field a team alone.  They've combined the colors from both schools to come up with a fun jersey.  So I made Steph a hat to match.  I think I nailed it :-)

So that's all the highlights!  I really do plan to blog more regularly again as I do miss it.  For now I'm on a quest to get all the hockey hats done.  I'm thinking about joining the Ravellenic Games this year. I'm not sure yet what I want to knit or what team/s I want to join.  What about you?  Are you planning any knitting for watching the Olympics?