Be Honost

Go ahead, raise your hands, who thought I would never actually sew this thing together. *Duchess is raising her hand.* I know, I don't know what has come over me, but I was determined!



I have had an excellent couple of days. I haven't been very sick at all (quick, knock on wood.) I am still tired and a little nauseated, but not anything like what I've been going through the last three months and nothing that I can't "push" through. Although yesterday, I found that pushing a little too hard, as I am wont to do, leads to exhaustion such as I have never known. However, better that than sick.


I called my mom to thank her for the very sweet Mother's Day package she sent me, which, in addition to candy (including Smarties, my favorite, and the giant ones at that!) included

Favorite Socks: 25 Timeless Designs from Interweave

and and wonderful book by Jane Clayson Johnson

I Am a Mother

I read most of I am a Mother today. It is a charming treatise on the value and importance of Motherhood. There are also several socks I will likely knit from the Interweave book.

Don't I have the best Mom, well she is a queen, after all, what do you expect?

Anyway, she and the Queen Mother (my grandmother) were sewing. Well, actually they were making themselves crazy, but it involved a little sewing and that made me want to sew. The Duke and I are going to NYC later in the summer, and I have determined that the only way I will be comforatable is if I wear skirts the entire time. I have purchased some fabric for new skirts, but I had a skirt that had been languishing unfinished for months, so I decided to finish that before I started a new one.



Isn't it lovely, and I can't even wear it. Oh well.

I also started a new knitting project, or at least swatched for it. I don't know if I will actually cast on for it until the blanket is done. I also have to cast on for the second half of the Marcellina Vest, but that isn't' appealing to me at the moment.


-unblocked, but more true colors


-blocked, but bad light.

It will be a rectangular shawl. I haven't decided on an edging for it yet, and I probably won't until it's well on its way to being finished.

So here's the math:

I want it to be 60 inches long without its boarder. The swatch is 7 inches, and is two repeats of the pattern. So 17 repeats of the pattern gets me 59.5 inches- close enough. There are 20 stitches, plus five to the pattern, so I will need to cast on 345 stitches, that sounds dreadful, doesn't it.

Now I would like it to be about 12 inches without its boarder and one repeat of the pattern is about 3.5 inches tall, so I will need to do 3.5 repeats, which actually works out fine, as the the half way point in the pattern works as a stopping point as well as end.

So, CO 345 sts, repeat pattern 3.5 times. The only question that remains is. . . will I have enough yarn?

So, the swatch is sacrificed, and we find that our swatch, which is 24.5 square inces (7 in width x 3.5 inch height) took 9 yards to knit

The shawl which is 12.25 inches high and 59.5 inches wide, has an area of 728.8 square inches. Let's round that too 729. So if 24.5 sq in takes 9 yards, 729 sq in takes [(729 x 9)/24.5] = 267.8 yds. I have 440 yards, so even if I am off by a bit, I should be fine, and still have plenty for a boarder.

YIPPEE, wasn't that fun?

Oh, and in case you were wondering the yarn is 50/50 Merino/Silk hand painted and purched from Merlin the Cat.

She has lovely stuff at very very reasonable prices. Yarn, fiber, and darling stitch markers. THANKS MERLIN!

The Good, The Bad, The BIG

The Good:
Progress continues on the baby blanket. This is the final layout, and the two blocks on the left are sewn together, or rather crocheted together, which is what I decided to go with.



The Bad:
Doesn't look so bad does it? It's been a long time since I decided to rip out a finished object. I guess one sock is not really finished but I won't be knitting the other, and this one, which couldn't fit worse if it wanted too, is bound for the pond.


And The BIG:
I have, at long last, finished the first half of the Marcellian Vest. I thought this would knit up very quickly, but pregnancy got in the way. It's been a month in the making. It looks HUGE doesn't it. I guess that is what you get when you are knitting a materninty top. Also, it goes over your hips, so hips + baby bump = a wide bottom top. This, BTW, this is not intended to be a maternity top. We (the Queen and I) just saw it and thought it would work well as one. It is a cute bell shaped vest for the non-baby-carrying among us. You can see it knit up here.

A Magical Day for the Royal Family

98 Days

Today I have been pregnant for 98 days and Princess P., my lil' sister, has 98 days left in her pregnancy.

All Hail PBTP

All of you click right on over to Princess P.'s blog and see what her amazing husband (PBTB) has made, yes I said MADE. It's amazing!

A Riddle

It's Monday night, late, very late. You are in your PJ's but sleep is far from your mind. Knitting, instead seems to be on the agenda. And then it hits you. . .

You have, in your weakened state, left your knitting bag in your car. Your car which is parked out on the street.

You begin to get frantic as you realize your dilemma, and your instincts point you to the yarn closet.

Two skeins of Koigu?

Size US 3 needles?

A little bit of obsession?



And two days later you end up with WHAT?



SURPRISE! It's a Baby Surprise Jacket by the knitting genius Elizabeth Zimmermann. Who, by-the-way, is the only designer people trust enough to actually make it through this origami of a pattern. Isn't it fun?

I think the colors are pretty gender neutral, when I know if the alien is a boy or a girl I will add a brown edging for a boy or a cream edging for a girl, and maybe some embroidery.

The alien's first hand knit!

Oh yes, and there is plenty of yarn left for a matching hat and/or booties!

16 DOWN

Well, I've finished the final two miters and just have to wait for the others to dry so that I have room (and pins) to block them. Then it's on to the dreaded seaming and weaving in of ends.

I listened to Sara Crewe or, What Happened at Miss Menchin's Boarding School by Frances Hodgson Burnett. It was the name that The Little Princess was first published under. It is a sweet children's story (by the same author as The Secret Garden.)

A Little Bit of Knitting

As there has not been a whole lot of it going on here, but a little here and a little there can lead to quite a bit.



14 down, 2 to go



My goal is to finish the blanket before I find out the sex of the baby and the gender specific knitting begins. I have about 4 weeks. I think I might make it, but don't quote me on that.

Have I mentioned. . .

that I HATE being pregnant? OK, I know, no one really wants to hear about how much I hate being pregnant, but I don't care, it's my blog and you don't have to read it if you don't want.

It's awful that the only time during the entire day that I feel good is the 20 min. immediately after I wake up (and only then if I am allowed to sleep as long as I want, which is rare.) After about 20 min. I begin to get hungry, and not regular hungry, like I've not eaten in 100 years hungry.

It's awful that despite being so hungry, I have learned that the only thing I can eat is fairly bland cereal, and even this WILL make me sick, but I can (until this morning) keep it down.

It's awful that the smell of my kitchen, my garage, my dogs, their toys, most foods, and even my husband sometimes, brings on the sudden urge to impersonate Old Faithful.

It's awful that despite being exhausted at night, I can't sleep because I am so uncomfortable.

It's awful that every time I eat I get sick, and if that weren't bad enough, my stomach is so squished that I have to eat about 6 times daily.

It's awful that even though I have to spend so much time trying to figure out what I can eat and when I can eat, and just thinking about food (that I don't want to eat) in general, that a good portion of it doesn't even have the decency to stay in my stomach and do its job.

It's awful that wearing a bra makes me more sick, and that not wearing a bra in uncomfortable because my gals are so tender. (And yes, I've purchased and tried 6 different bras, it doesn't matter.)

It's awful that I have so little control over my emotions, and that the poor Duke has to tolerate me bursting into tears over NOTHING!

It's awful that even though I'm not eating anything I'm still getting fat, and no I don't look pregnant, just fat.

It's awful that I was taking solace in the fact that my feet hadn't swollen at all, until yesterday when I put on my most comfortable pair of dress shoes and they gave me blisters.

It's awful that my legs ache and ache and ache and make me want to scream.

It's awful that there are other things that are awful that are too personal to put on this blog.

It's awful that I want to kill anyone who tells me it will all be worth it, or that it will all be over before I know it, or any other such attempt at comfort.

It's awful that for the most part, I don't have the energy or focus to either knit or read.

It's awful that I am too proud to "allow" myself to be sick. I push myself too hard, and even then I am disappointed in how little I can accomplish in a day. I normally live my life just slightly south of manic, slow is not a good word for me. It's probably the hardest thing about all of this.

I know it could be worse, that doesn't make me feel better.

OK, I guess I'm done with my pitty party now. I guess I'll go back to bed.

ps- I'm turning off the comments for this post. I know ya'll love me and want me to feel better, this was more just for me to vent something that I feel more and more like I should keep to myself.

Can we say WINNERS?

The verdict???

We took SECOND, which comes along with a very nice prize, thank you very much!

and

I will sleep well tonight!

In my Neighborhood, In my Neigh-bor-hood

So the competition is over. I am currently sitting in my house, after a very long and much needed nights (and mid mornings) rest, impatiently waiting for it to be 3:00 so I can leave for the awards reception that begins at 4:00. Don't worry, I'll let you all know how we did later tonight.

I have done all sorts of things to keep myself busy and my mind occupied that I haven't done in about a month. . . I mentioned sleep, homework (what a novel idea,) I'm blogging, and I even took a short little walk and at Bells' prompting took along my camera. So as I have no knitting content to share (do I even remember how to knit at this point. . . checking. . . oh yes, we'll get to that in a few days) I thought I'd jump on the "Show me your neighborhood" train.

I happen to live (in my opinion) in one of the most beautiful places on earth, and while my immediate neighborhood might not be the VERY best example of this, there is still much that is lovely and of good report. (A little nod to my Mormon friends out there.)




This is the front of my house, which is actually the back of my house- weird I know, but that's how it goes. I live in the middle one.



You approach through the alley way.



There is a beautiful pot full of pansies to greet you at my front door.



There are also two Mini Japanese Maples growing on either side of the drive way. I just love these little trees. They are the most intense color and a still photograph does no justice to the dance they perform when the breeze passes through.



When I first moved here, and even now, when I think of it, I am amazed at the height of the trees here. Yes, those are the roofs of houses you see near the bottom of the photograph. I can look out the window on the third story of my house and still have to strain my neck to see the tops of these giants.



After all this plant life, it may surprise you to know that I do actually live right in the middle of a city. This is about a block and a half from my house.



Despite the rumors, we do actually have blue skies in Seattle.



But the plentiful rain is welcome as it makes all this beauty grow. This weed, which I believe is called something highly uninspired, like Yellow Bush, abounds here. If you are going to have weeds, these are the kind to have (just as long as they stay out of my yard!)



Speaking of my yard, it is a small little postage stamp in the city that I am very grateful to have. It has been neglected, like everything else around here for a while, but the rain has coaxed the Hostas from the ground, ever amazing!



And here are my seedlings, hardened and ready to go to the garden, but again, neglected like everything else. Tomorrow I hope.

Well, there you go, that's where I live. Jump on the train. Let's see what it's like in your neck of the woods.

Royal Preparations. . .

So, the Queen is multi-talented. In addition to her knitting she also quilts. Upon arrival in Yarnnation,as is tradition when royal family members visit one another, she presented the Duke with a gift for the royal little alien.



My heavens, is it legal for things to be this cute? For those of you who know our royal pup, Maggie, yes that fabric holds a very good likeness of her. Any little alien, boy or girl, will be pleased as punch to be cuddled up in such cuteness. This is the quilt that I have snuggled up with for naps a few times in the last couple of weeks.



WE LOVE THE QUEEN! LONG LIVE THE QUEEN!

We also did a little fabric shopping at our favorite fabric store, Ester's.
(And I heard for a little bird there that they might be launching an e-commerce site soon!)



Here is the other fabric I picked out for the alien. A little bit vintage and fun. (This went home with the queen to make it's transformation into a quilt. I am NOT picking up another hobby- at least not right now.)



The print is a depiction of Jack and the Beanstalk. Supper cute!


Here is what the queen picked up. No baby in mind, but whoever he or she is will be lucky! Isn't that print so cute!


I have been working on this,



which will be come this. It's Jamison, which I never thought I would like to knit with, but I do. Out of Jamieson's Simply Sheltland 3, which I never would have guessed I liked so well, and I do.



I tried it on at Churchmouse, and it is going to make a supper cute maternity top, that will easily convert to a non-maternity top.



I've also been working on these (as if knitting were not addictive enough.) The yarn is Lamb's Pride's Cotton Fleece. I like this yarn, but it blocks in a strange way, which may just be that I am not used to blocking cotton. The baby blanket (the only one I plan on knitting for ANY of my kids, they will have to share) will be made of a total of 16 miters, making up four blocks, each 14" by 14" (35cm by 35cm) with a border. It will be a "car seat" blanket. It's good to keep knit blankies small.


OK, that's all for now. . . more to come!

Shopping SPREEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Some long overdue pictures of the damage the Queen and I did to our budgets while she was here in Seattle. This is mostly a healthy fix at Churchmouse on Bainbridge.

Princess P.

While we are on the topic of blogs, you may have noticed in my sidebar that my "baby" sister Princess P. has joined the blogging world. In addition to being an excellent knitter (this woman has cranked out more baby sweaters than all the rest of us combined,) she is also a very talented florist and could give Martha a run for her money in the craftiness department.

Welcome her to our world:

Fit for Royalty

Thinking Blogger

So both Bells and Melissa were gracious enough to include me in their lists of blogs that make them think. I am honored. Both of them have very interesting and fun to read blogs as well, and if you aren't familiar with them, I suggest you click on over (after you are finished reading this as-of-late-very-rare post.)



The rules of the award are as follows:

1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think,
2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme,
3. Optional: Proudly display the 'Thinking Blogger Award' with a link to the post that you wrote (silver version, gold version).

Like Bells, I read (or have read until my energy level dropped to next to nothing) a lot of blogs, 69 of them specifically, per my bloglines list. Most, but not all of them can be found on my sidebar, which updates as my bloglines list updates. Bloglines has this handy dandy widget that updates you blogroll in real time as you update it. My blogs are all nicely organized into folders, and you can select the folders that you want included on your blogroll. Much easier than manually updating your blog roll.

I purge and add blogs regularly. My time is precious and I will not spend it reading something that I don't enjoy or care about, so getting down to 5 that make me think will be a chore, but I am up to the challenge. Some of the blogs I most enjoy have been found through recommendations.

1. Magically Mama- Heather is one of my "real people." I have known her for nearly 15 years (we aren't getting old, are we?) Her blog is not a knitting blog, although may be converted soon, if we can just get some needles in her hands. (They work great as magic wands, Heather.)
She is mother extraordinaire to 4. She is doula, poet, and women's advocate. In a post she entitled "I'm giving June Cleaver the Bird" (you know you have to go read it!) She said:

(I) introduced my children to real music -- jazz, emo/punk, rock, country, classical, celtic, show-tunes. And I refused to insert the “Down on Grandpa’s Farm” tape into the car radio EVER AGAIN.

Reading Heather's blog gives me hope that I can be a mother without giving up my own person.

2. What Life Is: K-Good-Row is a knitter and Deputy Public Defender in California. Even if she didn't knit a single stitch I would love her blog. Her job leads to the most interesting posts and dilemmas. I could never do what she does (and in fact, as some of you may know, I was very much considering law school- thus the history degree and logic minor- but luckily took a law culture class and realized that I would never make it in that world.) I admire her greatly, and her posts are always though provoking. Here she is discussing a particularly poor specimen of womankind that she happened across:

She then managed to stick her foot in her mouth talking about how she
thinks it's so great we represent all those "guilty" people and best of all, she asked if we had to go to college or was an AA enough to be a PD. Ummm Law School. She was stunned to hear that PDs are lawyers! As the conversation went on, we soon learned that this young woman didn't know who the president was and had never voted in her life. It's not her fault that she's ignorant and stupid,
I guess.

In addition, you should check out this girl's stash, seriously impressive.

3. Kelly at Seattle Yogini is a knitter and yoga instructor. She is also a small business owner (she owns her own yoga studio.) While I don't know Kelly well, I have had a couple of opportunities to meet her, and she is as delightful in person as she is in print. I hope that when I stop wishing I were dead I will be able to become one of her lucky students. She often posts on topics most interesting in nature about things that I would have otherwise never thought about or even known to think about.

Check out her post here about Samskaras. Don't know what a samskara is? Oh, you know you must find out.

4. Lucy at The Doctor is In is a another non-knitter (but she is a quilter so you know we embrace her anyway) as well as another of my "real people." She and hubby Daddy Shark are two of my very favorite people. Lucy always has something thought provoking to write about and many of her posts end with a question. I'll let you explore some of her more deep questions, and instead leave you with one that just made me laugh.

Seriously, what do you think a sugar-free Peep could possibly be coated with? I don't think I even want to know.

5. Last, I want to add a well read and well known blog that doesn't need any acknowledgment from me, but it certainly makes me think more than probably any other blog. It isn't nice or neat or PC or even clean, but it reveals a part of human nature that we might otherwise never see. If you aren't familiar with Post Secret, you will be shocked and horrified, you will likely laugh and you might cry, but you WILL think.

Have fun clicking about, and be you might want to check out a few others in my sidebar, there is additional excellent thinking potential over there.

Babies and Business

A few things before I fall into my bed

1. Our business plan made it to the final four. I can hardly believe it. I'm still too exhausted from the last round to process it. The final presentation is May 2nd. Wish me luck.

2. My sweet little nephew (my brother's son) asks Princess P. (also his aunt) if he can get on our blogs to see our babies. Isn't that the stinkin' cutest thing you've ever heard of. Princess says he thinks that the widgets are real video of our babies. I must admit that nearly every day I pull up my blog and watch that little widget. It helps me realize that all this suffering really is because of a little alien growing inside of me. The Duke watches the widget too. The other day he called me in to show me that s/he was sucking his or her thumb. Who'da thunk that a little creative programing could have such a big impact on us?

3. There are a lot of babies in this town. Every time I see a little one I want to cry for how bad I wish mine were on the outside all ready. Six months has never seems like such a long time to me.

4. One of Lincoln's old co-workers had us come over to her house yesterday. She sent us home with all sorts of baby things we will need (that she doesn't need anymore.) We were so overwhelmed and also so grateful. We really didn't know that babies were so technical, or at least all the gear was so technical. It's always nice to have a "guide" when entering such new and unfamiliar territory. I know, I know, millions of people go there every day. OK, so then WHY is it so new and strange to us?

5. OK, goodnight. The alien is demanding that I sleep now.

No energy to blog

Dear friends and knitters,

Please excuse the Duchess from her usual blogging activities for a few more days and please accept her apologies for the long stretch of blogging silence. She is very sick and very tired and all of the very little energy that she does has is being used up by the current business plan competition. When she returns to her normal (well as normal as can be expected) self, you can look forward to the following posts:

• a finished sweater
• she's caught the mitered madness
• the Yarn Queen came to visit and we (between bouts of sickness) significantly added to the health of the yarn economy in Seattle.
• an ultrasound??? what did we see?
• cute baby things
• probably a little more whining about how much she hates being pregnant (that being at the top of her brain right now)
• A "thinking bloggers" post, as the lovely Bells was so gracious to nominate this humble little blog as such.

OK, tata 'till then dear friends.

The Duchess' non-pregnant alter identity

Note from the Duchess:

Thank you all so much for the emails and comments. I have read them and been very touched (you have no idea what will reduce me to tears now a-days!) You are all very sweet. Thank you so much.

-Duchess

Proof!

Proof that Heaven is guiding my life? Perhaps.

Exciting? Most certainly.

I just got an email informing me that my business plan has been accepted into the trade show round of the competition I have entered it in.

HERE WE GO!

Major Life Change #2

So sorry I haven't posted in a week or so, I am still feeling icky and I have started back to school, so much of my energy is going toward that. I have to take advantage of the few times that I feel decent to get my school work done.
I am feeling a little better, and thank you to all of you who have emailed me to wish me a speedy first trimester (it's over in 2 and half weeks!) I am still very tired and nauseated most of the time, but I have stopped throwing up everything I eat, and I am able to sleep through the night again.
In the near future you can look forward to a finished sweater, finished socks, our new P-Patch in our community garden, my (perhaps misguided) trip to the Whidbey Island Weaver's Guild Spin-In (very disappointing, but I acquired much lovely fiber!)

Now, I have alluded to a second (and perhaps a third) major life change. I have been struggling for weeks to figure out how to announce this is a diplomatic way. I have written two other complete posts, both of which were, obviously, never published. I have determined that I will just tell you all, as best I can, and hope that no feelings are hurt.

So here is my major life change (that some of the astute among you have all ready guessed.)

I am no longer working at Hillltop.

I worked there for 2 and a half years. It was the most enjoyable job I have ever had. I respect and cherish as friends many of the women that I worked with there. I am sad that I am no longer a part of that community on a daily basis.

I could leave it at that, and some might argue that I should, but my injured ego, or my consciences, or something inside of me will not allow that.

I will forgo many of the details, but I will add that I was sorely disappointed when push came to shove due to additional demands in my own life, to discover that a relationship that I thought was strong and equally yolked, in fact was not.

I went to work at Hilltop after a 6 month stint at a pharmacy in Ballard. I worked at the pharmacy, full time 9-6 M-F, for very good pay, with full benefits 100% paid for both the Duke and I, and a true pension that I didn't pay into at all. I left that job, against all reason, to seek out an opportunity to be happy, to have the flexibility I longed for to spend time with my husband, to have the energy to be creative, and to return to school.
That is just what I found at Hilltop. I gave my all to the business and to my job (as many of you know I could be a little on the annoying side at times) however, family and school were my first priorities. I was always clear about this, and for a long time there was no problem. Any reasonable employer must understand that a part time job, that offers no benefits and pays at the bottom of the pay scale, can not demand much from their employees.
However, when the industry dips, when the economy tightens, adjustments must be made, and I accepted those adjustments, as my hours continually were reduced and reduced again. However, with a further decrease in the all ready scant benefits the job offered, one would expect a proportional increase in flexibility. One (one Duchess) was wrong to expect such a thing.

When finals and a new and very difficult pregnancy (school and family) collided at once on the same day, that push came to shove, and flexibility very suddenly became rigidity. Harsh words were spoken, respect was lost.

Again, I will forgo details. Stress is a strange and powerful thing, with strange and sometimes unfortunate consequences.

As it turns out, as is nearly always the case in my life, it appears that providence had it's hand in this event. I could probably not have worked at all through the last month of my pregnancy. I am blessed that I didn't have that additional stress to deal with. Also, (foreshadowing the third major life change) the Duke has finished school once and for all. I no longer need to work (and he, being the good man that he is, has assured me that my yarn budget will not suffer. I, in turn, will be exploring new yarn frontiers, with all loyalty strings now cut.) I am also free now to focus on my own business plans, something that has previously been strictly kept to school time. Progress is being made, and I must admit that I am very happy. As the Duke often claims "It will all work out, it always does."

Smart man, that one.

Need Content? Grab a Meme

I stole this from Bells. I wonder what it say about me. I dislike nearly all modern fiction, so it makes for a lot of "blanks".
There should be another list, all non-fiction. I would have a lot more interest (ie The History of Salt - it's been on my wish list for a while now.)
Also, who wrote this list? There are so many wonderful works left off of it. The Scarlet Letter, Tom Sawyer, anything by Jules Verne, Shakespeare, any poetry (not even Uncle Walt is on here.) Anyway, here it is for what it's worth.

Bold the ones you’ve read
Italicize the ones you want to read
Leave blank the ones that you aren’t interested in.

1. The DaVinci Code (Dan Brown)- made for some interesting conversations between the Duke and I
2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
3. To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee) Read this, very quickly, in school, I need to read it again
4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien)
6. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)
7. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)
8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery) I read all of her books when I was 10 or so. I loved them
9. Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
10. A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling) Sorry Bells, can't agree with you on this, I love the HP series.
12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown) Too far out there
13. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden) I was SHOCKED to learn this beautiful book was written by a man. . .
16. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Rowling)
17. Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald)
18. The Stand (Stephen King)
19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Rowling)
20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
21. The Hobbit (Tolkien)- I actually didn't finish this- I got more than half through, but it just isn't my thing, much to the Duke's dismay.
22. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger) How have I not read this yet? I don't know
23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
25. Life of Pi (Yann Martel)- maybe
26. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)Loved it!
27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
28. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30. Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)
31. Dune (Frank Herbert)
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
34. 1984 (Orwell)
35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
36. The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
37. The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
38. I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)
39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
42. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)- maybe
43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom) - a funny thing about this book, my MIL gave it to me to read- this woman is a walking library, she speed reads everything in sight. The entire story revolves around 2 words in this book, 2 Tagalog words, no less. She missed those words and didn't understand the book. I was in tears.
45. The Bible - re-reading right now! I love the NT
46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy) I'm actually nearly finished with this interesting, if slow read. I ocasionaly put it down and yell "What are they THINKING?"
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
48. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt)
49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck) I've actually read this, but remember so little that I think this classic deserves a re-read.
50. She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens) Oh I love this one, I know, it might make me sick, but I just think it's hysterical.
53. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)- another maybe
54. Great Expectations (Dickens) Oh I loved this book.
55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)- it's in my reading pile right now
56. The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
59. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. The Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrew Niffenegger) I HATED this book HATE HATE HATE. I DO NOT believe in determinism.
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolstoy) so I bolded 1 word, I made it about 1/3 through and gave up
64. Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice)
65. Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
69. Les Miserables (Hugo)- yes, I've actually read the thing
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
71. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding)
72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
73. Shogun (James Clavell)
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
76. The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
78. The World According to Garp (John Irving)
79. The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
80. Charlotte's Web (E.B. White)
81. Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)
83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
84. Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85. Emma (Jane Austen)
86. Watership Down(Richard Adams)
87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
88. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89. Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91. In The Skin Of A Lion (Ondaatje)
92. Lord of the Flies (Golding)
93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck) I read this when I was a teen ager- even then I knew I was too young to really understand it all, even so I loved it.
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)- again, maybe
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)
96. The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
100. Ulysses (James Joyce)

Cascade 220

I got a total kick out of the fact that you all decided to guess which yarn was writing to you. That wasn't what I was expecting, but I loved it.
Just so you all know, the "piece of Yarnnation" that goes to the randomly selected commenter, will not always be in the form of the story yarn, in fact probably most of the time it won't be. (Like last time, the Yarn was Rowan's Chunky Print, but Bells got some hand dyed sock yarn, which she is knitting the most beautiful socks with.) This is mostly because the yarn doesn't tell me it's entire story until after I have knit with it, so I most likely will no longer have it in the stash.
In this case, however, I always have a little Cascade 220 in the stash. Right now it happens to be in colorway 9408- Cordovan, which is a slightly heathered reddish brown.
I have employed a handy-dandy random number generator, and the winning number is ............ 5! And this means nothing to y'all because you aren't looking at the comments, but Sarah (aka: Gry- Sarah what does your handle mean?) was the 5th commenter.
So Sarah, your choice, I have 2 hanks of C220-9408 for you, or (for your spinning pleasure) 8oz of some unspun superwash merino in one (or a mix) of three colors: a slightly variegated tangerine, a lovely lightish grass green, or a rich moss green.
Let me know what you want, you have my e-mail.