A red scarf for recognition

I haven't been doing much of anything lately. I go to work, and stay way too long. (At this point, my job owes me 48 hours of comp time. I'm taking off a week to spend with my daughter, and I'll still have 2 days plus my 2 week vacation this year.) Then I go and knit at the Barnes & Noble, or at the library. I think I'm just trying to avoid going home each day, where there's too much cleaning to be done and not enough room to accomplish anything. I still think I could really love my apartment, if I only had less furniture and boxes. (It's odd to say I want less furniture, since I really need a dining room table and a couch. But there isn't any room for the necessary stuff with a large dresser, four end  tables, and two looms taking up all the space.) But I don't mean to whine.

I actually just meant to do an introduction for a kniterary reference I found. You see, while knitting I've been reading. The Nook tablet is wonderful for that, since you don't have to  hold it open to the page and it can be easily propped up to a comfortable reading angle. One of the books I've been reading (I still have the bad habit of having several books going at once. Start-i-tis doesn't only affect my knitting.), is The Night Circus. I was very surprised to find this kniterary passage:

While they wait for the train Elizabeth takes out her knitting needles and a  skein of deep red wool. ...
The train arrives shortly after the sun has fully risen, and on the way to Boston the stories continue, while  Elizabeth knits and Lorena props her head up sleepily on her arm.

I love that this minor character, Elizabeth, just automatically pulls out her knitting while they wait for the train. Her companion is bored (Lorena props up her head), but Elizabeth goes on to finish a red scarf that she then randomly gives to a fellow traveler. The Night Circus is a wonderful book full of mystery and magic and populated with people that I could never be; and then suddenly there's Elizabeth, who briefly interacts with these fantasy people and gives me hope for my own normal life. I think Elizabeth is my new hero. And how appropriate that she is named Elizabeth, after the knitting superstar Zimmermann!

August Reading List

Books Read in August

123 - 01 The Real Macaw, by Donna Andrews (8/5)
124 - 02 Death on Tour, by Janice Hamrick (8/6)
125 - 03 The Trouble with J.J., by Tami Hoag (8/7) 
126 - 04 Just Murdered, by Elaine Viets (8/9)
127 - 05 Murder with Reservations, by Elaine Viets  (8/10)
128 - 06 The Secret Mistress, by Mary Balogh (8/13)
129 - 07 Clubbed to Death, by Elaine Viets (8/14)
130 - 08 The Baby Planner, by Josie Brown (8/15)
131 - 09 Human Communication, by Pearson, Nelson, Titsworth,  Harter (8/16) textbook 
132 - 10 Sixteen Brides, by Stephanie Grace Whitson (8/16)
133 - 11 How to Woo a Reluctant Lady, by Sabrina Jeffries (8/19)
134 - 12 Dead Reckoning, by Charlaine Harris (8/24) 
135 - 13 And Thereby Hangs a Tale, by Jeffrey Archer (8/25) 
136 - 14 April in Bloom, by Annie Jones (8/26) 
137 - 15 Charlotte Figg Takes Over Paradise, by Joyce Magnin (8/28) 
138 - 16 Griselda Takes Flight, by Joyce Magnin (8/30)


Death on Tour, by Janice Hamrick, was a very easy-to-read mystery. Even though I had figured out who the murderers were by page 37, it was interesting enough to keep reading. I'd put it in my "junk-food books" category, with mystery instead of steamy romance. (There was a romance, but very g-rated.) I did find one quick kniterary reference: "In the evening, board a felucca and sail across the sapphire waters of the Nile to the lush botanical gardens on Kitchener's Island." I suppose only a die-hard, obsessive sock knitter such as myself would immediately add Egypt to the list of places she absolutely has to visit, based only on the botanical gardens of Kitchener's Island. (For the non-knitting readers, "Kitchener" is a way of seaming two pieces of knitting often used to close the toes of a sock.) On the negative side, and almost making me abandon the book, was a far-too casual, " 'No, I'm not retarded,' I snorted." This is an expression that I truly hate, and I don't understand how it managed to work it's way into a newly-published book. Seriously. Publishers would hesitate to write "nigger" or "kite" (there would have to be a legitimate literary need for those words), so why is a casually-used "retard" okay? It was the one bad note in an otherwise pleasant book.

The dreaded "retard" appears in another book this month. In fact, it made several appearances in Just Murdered, by Elaine Viets. Normally I let it something offensive in a book get past me one time. The second occurrence is when I will put the book down and move on. But in this case, I stuck with the story since it the character using the term was supposed to be a horrible b*tch that wouldn't mind offending anyone. The book, while still being easy 'junk-food' reading, actually had a well-written mystery. 

One of my favorite books this month was And Thereby Hangs a Tale, by Jeffrey Archer. It's a collection of short stories that are wonderfully engrossing. Out of the 15 tales, 10 are actually based on real events. I will definitely be looking for other books by this author.

I found knitting!

It was a ridiculous book. Of course, a lot of the stuff I read is just ridiculous. But as I've said before, I happen to appreciate junk romances. They go well with m&m's and wine.

Anyway, I was reading Beauty and the Beast, by Taylor Ryan. I won't bother going into the plot, other than it was a regency romance so you can assume girl meets boy, girl is demure while boy is needy, girl falls for boy, boy turns out to be rich jerk, girl rejects boy, boy then falls for girl, and they live happily forever after. Oh, I guess I did just give you the entire plot. Sorry.

Anyway, this particular romance turned out to have kniterary references. The first one is about mid-way through the book:

"Miss Penwell, I suspect you are poking fun of me!" Claymore accused..."One would think you enjoy being housebound by foul weather."

"Housebound? Oh, I suppose I don't mind, though it's always a good thing to have candles, some tobacco, a pack of cards, perhaps a little whiskey in the house, like a sailors preparing for a storm." She glanced out the window for a moment, then returned to her work. "Also knitting needles and wool for the women, a well-stocked library..."

It sounds a lot like my own storm supplies.

Later, knitting comes up again.

To take her mind off her worries, Marke had attempted to knit, but she soon threw the needles and ball of wool into the chair opposite her in irritation at her incompetence.

It's amazing how often knitting appears in books, once you start looking for it.

Not My Daughter

Click on picture for link to Amazon.com

I've been reading Not My Daughter, by Barbara Delinsky and it is a wonderful kniterary novel. I hadn't expected it to have anything to do with knitting. My mom had read the book and was quite upset by it. Since she had such a strong reaction, I had to read it.

It's the story of three high school girls who make a pact to get pregnant. Naively, they believe that because they planned their pregnancies, everything will work out the way they want it to. Being teenagers, they never considered the impact their pact would have on their families and their community. The book centers on the mothers of these teenagers and how they come to terms with their daughters' decision and the consequences it has for everyone.

Throughout the book, the mothers and the daughters connect through their knitting. There are even Saturday mornings spent dying wool! Best of all, the knitting and the wool are just as commonplace in the story as making dinner. A nice change from other knitting-based stories I've suffered  through lately. (NOT that I'm going to stop reading the junk-knits any more than I'll ever completely give up knitting with acrylic even though the alpaca or bamboo blends are so much nicer.)

Missing in cyberspace

For the past couple of days, I haven't been able to get into Blogger to write new posts. Apparently they had a problem after some routine maintenance. Posts disappeared, strange error messages appeared, and bloggers ended up confused and complaining. In an effort to fix the problems, Blogger had to revert to an earlier backup of the system, then go in to restore all the new posts and comments. For two days Blogger has been turned off, so to speak, so that the repairs and maintenance could be completed. (You can read all about it on the Buzz.)

Unfortunately, my Wednesday post was not restored. It's a shame, too, because it had a really great kniterary reference in it. I've already returned the book, but I'm going to try to find it again the next time I visit the library.

I couldn't get in to post on Thursday or Friday. Thursday's post was going to be about cookies.(They are really yummy cookies, and I'm still going to share the pictures.) Friday's was a rant about doctors and testing and spending money to be told what everyone already knew. (So it's probably best that I couldn't post Friday.)

(Just admire the cookies, and ignore the ugly old cookie trays please.)

I used to be the computer geek for where I worked, and I know how much pressure it could be to try to figure out a computer problem while a non-tech-savvy person is breathing down your neck with helpful comments like, "Typewriters never lost my letter. Where did the computer put it?" I can't imagine what the guys at Blogger must have been going through with the thousands of bloggers crying, "But MY post was important. Fix mine first!" So while I'm frustrated over the loss of an unusually good Wednesday WIPs posting, I appreciate the dedication and expertise of the techs in bringing back Blogger.

And in the act of making things, just by living their daily lives, they also make history. (Anne Barlett)

See original comic strip here.

Lately I've been collecting kniterary sightings. That's what I've decided to call them, anyway. It's when knitting (or other fiber work) is matter-of-factly mentioned in a book. Gimmick stories (like Knit One, Purl Two) don't count as a kniterary siting.

The Sheldon comic is a good example. Knitting is mentioned as part of the description, but the comic isn't really about knitting.

I have another sighting. I found this in Phoenix and Ashes, by Mercedes Lackey. The story is set in an alternative England, where magic is woven into everyday life. This book takes place in 1917, during the First World War.

The last thing he anticipated was to find his mother waiting for him in the settle at the top of the family staircase.

She had an oil-lamp burning on the table beside her, and was pretending to work on some of that infernal knitting every woman seemed to be doing these days, making stockings for soldiers.

Let me know if you have any kniterary references to share.