Tag Archives: Audio Books

Reprise

Holly Doyne Posted on by

You remember Phoenix, right?

It must be almost a month since I had it out, busy being distracted by other projects. It is now my reward knitting.

I looked at the cuff recommendations. Once I got over the error in the book (staring with 50 stitches for a 48 stitch cuff) I decided I didn’t like the recommended portion of the pattern anyway. I wanted something that I liked.

Taking a bit from the final of the four charts, and deciding that the cuffs were not going to match –

Phoenix head

Phoenix head

which is almost impossible to see from your direction. But when I look at it from mine, it is just fine. 

As you also might have guessed, Scheherazade is on the needles again. Now that it needs to be completed in the next two weeks I don’t have much excuse……

Audio Books

Dime Store Magic – Kelley Armstrong

And no, I did not clean house, pick up or do laundry. Maybe tomorrow……

Shawls

Holly Doyne Posted on by

This is the time of year many of us have reunions, celebrate the graduations of various off spring and friends and otherwise reflect on where we came from and where we are going. What started me thinking about this was the Knitigator’s post on her college reunion. She mentions friends doing well and seeing members of the Class of 48.

I am not a fan of reunions. I have been to exactly two in my life – a high school reunion five years after I graduated and a 25 year medical school on. The first was a total disaster and the second was attended by hardly anyone that I knew.

Let me explain. I graduated high school in a rural small town with a consolidated school district. Five years later, out of 118 in the graduating class there were only five of us still involved in obtaining an education one of whom had just returned to school after serving in Viet Nam. My average classmate was divorced with two small children. Various class members were working on the family farm, in the family store, packing pickles for Gedney or shoveling sugar beets. College, much less graduate or professional school was not the norm. Five years out, a single nerdy woman, I had even less in common with anyone than I had while attending the school.

I left early and promised myself that I would not do that particular number again.

It was a promise I managed to keep for 27 years. Then 2000 rolled around and I was lulled into thinking about seeing how the University of Minnesota had changed. There were a number of good things about the trip. I spent time with old friends not related to school. I got to gape at Mall of America and I even found some clothes that fit. None of my close classmates bothered to come. Many of them are local to the area and probably saw no need to attend.

The only tolerable part wound up being my table companions for the dinner. I managed by some fortune to sit with mostly prior military scholarship folks. As a result, we actually had something in common. Since I was pretty anti-military going through school, I really knew almost none of them (in case you are wondering – there were over 230 who graduated with me. Since the group consisted of both 3 and 4 year program students, there was little to no chance that everyone knew everyone else).

Since I went to a large state university that didn’t particularly foster school spirit or camaraderie outside of sports or the fraternity/sorority scene, attending a reunion is just outside my realm. I have no idea what has happened to the hundreds who graduated with me.

In 1948 my parents graduated from University of MN and got married. My father after having served in WWII, my mother having spent most of her growing up years in a small town. Reunions? Not likely there either.

I am fascinated by the lives and experiences of others, but I am too old to want a do-over and regrets can waste a lot of energy.

Shawls

Perhaps the Internet is not such a good thing. I was able to cruise around and buy a couple of shawl patterns from Sivia Harding and Evelyn Clark. After one false start with Misti Alpaca – I tried the Diamond Fantasy Shawl
The first few rows looked fine.
Start of Diamond Fantasy
and the pattern clearly shows in a closeup
Shawl pattern detail
The yarn is STR medium weight; a skein of Bella-Coola that I got in the 2007 STR Club. I like the fact that the edging is part of the shawl. You should know me by now, lots of making up is just not my thing.

AudioBooks

Did a small bit of damage today at AudioBookStand. They had a number of kids CDs on sale. I have a tendency to buy and then donate to my local military library. They have plenty of cases, but no money to enlarge their collection. Plus free shipping and a couple of free audiobooks just made my day.

Podcasts

I don’t listen to fiber related podcasts. Rather, I spend that time on other subjects that interest me. Currently, I am listening to Spider on the Web. After hearing the first eight tracks of Variable Star I decided to download and catch up with his older podcasts. He has a nice combination of talk, music and personal opinion. I really wish he did a decent job of broadcast notes. Trying to write down URLs while knitting is fraught with errors.

-Holly

Sock Wars Update

Holly Doyne Posted on by

Sock Wars III – Obits

Obviously, we are still having a good time with this. I finally heard back from my victim. Not only has she fallen to death by sox – but has major things going on in the family and is now days beyond the 48 hours required to pass on her SIP. That meant an email to the Supreme Commander in Ireland in order to be able to start on a new pair for my downstream target.

There lies Benbah
vacant orbs gazing at the stars
Beautiful socks of pink and blue (and a few more colours too)
Adorn her cooling corpse

But wait!

There in her hand
A postal receipt does stand
Her death by Yarnwitch came too late
to save NewbieSockWarrior
from the same fate

Only just!

I have been killed
By women who are skilled.
I died not of the Pox
But death by socks.

VEELAU, died happily today when she opened her mailbox this afternoon after a horrific Monday at work. She was a happy soul that loved to knit…socks. She leaves behind a stash that she never had a hope of cleaning up; not to mention a refridgerator in the same state. She will be laid to rest wearing a FANTASTIC pair of socks knit with skill by another. “When given lemons, make lemonade – then add vodka.”

HERE LIES JUDY, DEAD AND COLD
NICE NEW SOCKS, THE COLOUR OF GOLD
TOOK TWO OUT BEFORE SHE EXPIRED
ALL THAT KNITTING, SHE WAS TIRED.

Podcasts

Listing to Betty – some of those pilots sound all too familiar.

Audio Books

Rusty Nail – JA Kornrath

Oops, so this is Reading

Holly Doyne Posted on by

Sometimes one’s day just does not go as planned.

Right before bed, I had reminded the Mole that we needed to leave NLT 0700 since I really wanted to make dental sick call. At just a few minutes before I wanted to leave, I realized that I had not heard a sound from upstairs.

No surprise, he was sound asleep. Very unhappy when woken to find that he did not have an hour to get ready. And you think teenage girls can take a long time?

It was drizzling, trucks were doing strange things on the roadways, and we were listening to Wiskey Sour. The upshot was that I zigged when I should have zagged and didn’t notice till I saw the exit for Reading. To compound things, instead of just heading around the traffic circle and getting back on the M4 in the correct direction, I decided to attempt a short cut through Reading.

Two times around downtown Reading before we could get out of there (would you believe that there is rush hour traffic in Reading?) and we finally got back to the A33 and found the M4. Lost an hour literally driving in circles.

Needless to say, by the time we got to Croughton, it was after dental sick call hours. They took pity on me. Said I could wait, or have a real appointment time at 1300. I opted for the appointment and we headed off to run errands. Just as I went into the PX, the fire alarm went off. 20 minutes later, they let us back in, all still clueless as to why it rang.

Commissary, then a run by the library which was still officially closed. They are supposed to be finished with the relocation by Wednesday. Since I will be out of town next week figured it would be nice to return the new best sellers and at least some of the DVDs.

Got the tooth looked at. We decided to hold off on drilling a little while longer. I don’t mind a bit.

Came home. The rain is good for somethings.
Rain does some things well.

with the occasional glimpse of sky

Evening Sky

Sock Wars III

I am still watching the forums and howling with laughter. The dead are mounting and the obits are a hoot:

The Dead Dulcinea wrote:
Here lies Dulcinea Quixote de la Mancha, cruelly felled by a fatal case of Sox Pox!

She leaves behind her loving husband, Don (a good guy but seriously delusional), and their children Aldonza Duet, Don Dos, Juan, Pedro, Miguel, Angel and Sam (who bears a striking resemblence to Sancho, Don’s faithful but apparently not so trusty sidekick).

She also leaves behind her best friend Aldonza (the barmaid and part-time hooker), Sancho (we know what kind of friend he was) and a pet dragon, Spike.

Dulcinea loved the outdoors in the frozen tundra called Wisconsin, especially tilting at windmills. She pretty much tilted at everything else after Aldonza poured another one. When not tilting, she was known to wage war with socks.

She’ll be buried in the family plot, wearing her beautiful, Sox Pox Socks!

She leaves her craftroom of wondrous yarns to her knitting friends, figuring they’ll duke it out over who gets what.

Please feed Spike on your way out… you don’t want to walk past a hungry dragon!

and Tiny Tyrant:

Interred May 14, 2008 by Knit Picks Memories in Rocky Mountain Dusk
Tiny is survived by her husband who refused to get the mail that
day and spare her from her fate. Her three dogs, Cliff the Mutt,
Oscar the Dog and Scrat the Brat, who all allowed the mail man
to deliver the package and four felines who simply worry about
where their next meal is coming from since dad is absent minded
about set meals. Her stash is not available as she intends to
come back from the dead and haunt her husband and leave yarn in
all the rooms of the house and needles in the most unsuspecting
places.

I am sure that I will be “dead” sometime early next week. Must think of something to say.

Audio Books

Finished up Whisky Sour and started on Bloody Mary, both by J A Konrath. They are funny and Dick Hill is perhaps my favorite reader of all time.

Arches

No idea why this is hereand from the back

Right near the end of my road, a trail winds back into the woods. This arch, made of long dead greenery wound around a frame stands by itself. No clue how long it has been standing, nor why. Only near object is this strange looking shelter, tucked between two huge trees with toes dug deep in the earth.

tree feet

Spun out

Holly Doyne Posted on by

Warmed up the house a bit more today with open windows and doors. Of course, I will need to be reminded about how cold things were once we get to the two weeks of summer when it will be too warm.

About the time I was really settled in back with the spinning wheel there were a few drops of rain.

The clouds sense of humor and mine just aren’t the same

Socks on the line

Spinning

From Sakinaneedles I have this merino silk roving. In fact, I have two of them at 4 oz each. Spun the first into a nice fine singles and will tackle the second tomorrow.
Colourway temptation

From the same dyer also comes Rufus in BFL; four ounces spun as well with another 8 to go.

Colourway Rufus

Books

No DvDs today, the computer seems to be crashing every 5-10 minutes meaning I need to do some backing up. Instead, it was listening and reading hard copy . Compulsion by Jonathan Kellerman.
Hard Truth by Nevada Barr. Finished today. Train Man by PJ Deutermann, started and finished. Good story for spinning or eating desert. Think strawberries dipped in melted dark chocolate.