Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
Color by Victoria Finlay
The Know-It-All by A.J. Jacobs
Talking to the Dead by Helen Dunmore
Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
Lucky Girls by Nell Freudenberger
The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory
The Complete Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

and I am now most of the way through A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson.

Lucky Girls and Talking to the Dead excepted, I really enjoyed and highly recommend each of these. The Other Boleyn Girl is complete fluff (perfect summer beach reading) but very good entertainment. Eat, Pray, Love is just as good as everyone says. And The Complete Persepolis was beautiful and absolutely changed my preception of graphic novels; I can’t wait ’til the movie comes to me via Netflix sometime in June.

Does anyone have one of those Amazon Kindle digital book-reader things? I think I want one (I’m envisioning a sort-of ipod for books in terms ease of use and portability), but I also think I might miss the physicality of turning pages and holding paper. I suppose if I started carrying that everywhere I wouldn’t get to do much subway or in-line knitting… audiobooks (especially on my ipod - which is many years old but still running like a champ) would allow me to do both, but audiobooks are so expensive compared to hard copies!

Then I was able to knit quite a bit Tuesday as I didn’t have work:

And I finished both the back and the left front yesterday, but they don’t line up perfectly - I think I forgot a set of increases on the front, so I’m going to have to rip it back out to the start of the raglan shaping:

This color is proving difficult to photograph; I don’t even have this much trouble with reds! The second photo seems the most accurate on my screen. The yarn is new to me and fantastic - it’s Vermont Organic Fiber Company O-Wool Classic 2-Ply in color 2012 and it is delicious! Hopefully I will finish before it gets too warm here in the city - it was about 70 degrees here today and so spring-y.

There won’t be any knitting for me anytime soon… well, at least until I figure out how to wedge a needle more securely between the fingers of my left hand (I give myself about three or four more days)! I got hit by a car (a van, really - one of those big cargo/commercial types) Tuesday afternoon. I was (amazingly for a New Yorker) in the middle of a crosswalk, crossing with the light, and not talking on my cell phone! The driver and I saw each other right before impact, so he was able to hit the brakes and I was able to put my hands between the rest of my body and the hood of the van. Right as he hit me I jumped down the street in the direction he was traveling so I managed to stay on my feet and not go flying onto my ass or head - I find it astonishing how quickly the body will respond to this sort of situation in order to save itself without any prompting from one’s brain! The only thing I remember thinking before impact was: “he’s going too fast - he’s really going to hit me - asshole!” (and my mother says I’ve been in New York too long…) After the adrenaline wore off, my hand started hurting a lot… which makes sense considering they think I’ve fractured two metacarpals!

Except for that whole getting-hit thing, I feel really really lucky. It could have been just so much worse; I’m quite happy to have walked myself out of the street to sit down on the sidewalk to collect myself and wait for the paramedics. And the driver stopped and called 911 and didn’t run! And it’s my left hand and not the one I write with! The little things for which I’m thankful just keep coming… Now, there are plenty of things about this experience that are frustrating and upsetting - and I’ve cried at the strangest times - but I am trying to remain positive, which is pretty easy when I consider what could have happened!

So I’m going to visit an orthopedist/hand surgeon Monday morning. The PA, xray tech, and radiologist from the ER visit and the doctors in my primary care office don’t seem to think I’ll need surgery or anything more than to wear a splint for the next month or so, but they want a hand specialist to go over the films and confirm the fractures and supervise my recovery. They gave me some big-dose painkillers, but I mostly just need them to sleep and only take them otherwise if my hand is swelling up.

pattern: my own

yarn: Regia Kaffe Fassett Landscape Storm from The Loopy Ewe

needles: 4x my favorite 2mm dpns

started: 3rd week of November 2007

finished: 17 January 2008

They are, happily, fraternal instead of identical twins; and I used every last bit of yarn in the two skeins:

I haven’t worked on a sock since Thanksgiving weekend… which, for me, is shocking since I tend to always have a sock going for subway knitting or whatever. Thanksgiving weekend I finished the first of (what will be) a pair of ribbed knee-highs out of Kaffe Fassett Regia.

I had originally thought I wanted to make a pair of Rainbow Socks from the yarn, but I didn’t like the way the long stripes of color were (or weren’t, as the case may be) working with the pattern:

So I ripped it all out and decided to knit it up in vanilla-style 3×1 ribbing:

With a little bit of TV time in the hotel room I completed the first of the pair, but since then I have been completely engrossed in holiday knitting and gifts and time with my parents and brother and one other project (FO post to follow soon). According to the rules of the contest, I have until February 7 to complete its mate. I think I should be able to accomplish that without too much heartache, so…

I’m giving myself an extra-credit assignment - for the Yankee Swap that my friends do here in Brooklyn I promised to make a pair of hand-knit socks or fingerless mitts out of this lovely Lisa Souza:

Our friend James walked away with that gift (he seemed pleased but was a little confused as to why they weren’t already made… silly!) and I still haven’t even taken measurements so I can start! He’s decided on socks instead of mitts - so if I measure this week I should be able to whip out another pair of socks in the next four weeks.

After being unbelievably busy with work since July and then with the holidays (and, therefore, not posting as frequently as one might like), there’s A LOT to show and tell. In order to not feel entirely overwhelmed and thus never begin, I am going to start 2008 with a simple finished object post and not do a recap of my last 5 months because that would be crazy and potentially (definitely) long and boring.

So without further ado, may I present the fingerless mitts I made for my best friend for Christmas; please excuse the cell phone photos as I forgot to bring my camera when we took her to the train station for her return trip to Portland.

pattern: none

yarn: Koigu in… um… greens? (top photo is accurate colors)

needles: Prym 6” 2mm dpns (which I previously thought were INOX)

started: December 5^th (maybe)

finished: December 24^th (just in the nick of time to be unwrapped the next morning)

notes: They’re pretty much a tube with a few increases before the thumb. What else? Single-round stripes and twisted ribbing…

Happy New Year everyone!

1. A collection of stitch patterns, either Barbara Walker’s A Treasury of Knitting Patterns (and Volumes 2, 3, and 4)

or the new Harmony Guides (Knit & Purl, Lace & Eyelets, Cables & Arans)

2. The Knitter’s Book of Yarn to go with my newly found obsession with designing my own patterns

3. These beautiful pattern books that I’ve had the time to browse but not yet the money to buy

4. And one that I have not yet been able to see in person

If you have either the Barbara Walker or Harmony stitch guides (or Vogue, I suppose), would you recommend the collection you own or do you want a different set?

pattern: Henry

yarn: Louet Gems Fingering in Indigo

needles: ADDI turbos in 3.25mm and 4mm

started: 27 September 2007

finished: 12 November 2007

notes: I made each row 500 stitches instead of the 450 called for in the pattern. And it still came out shorter than specified! The finished dimensions: 56″ x 6″. I had some extra yarn left from the half-pound cone, but I didn’t really feel like knitting another 24 row repeat (that’s 12,000 stitches, folks!). This is the only thing I’ve worked on during the past six weeks…

I think I mentioned this in my last post, but I like the back better than the front of this pattern!

Let’s have one more shot just for good measure…

And now I can move on to other projects that I planned out in my daydreams while working on this one!

I am getting so close! The birthday of the intended recipient is Wednesday, but I won’t see him until Thursday or this weekend, so I think I might just make it. And if it isn’t done this week I’ll just give it a little late. This scarf has taken a LOT of hours to complete and I’ve been completely monogamous about this project - no socks on the side… each row is 500 stitches (I modified for extra length) and takes 20-30 minutes to complete! Is it wrong to like the back better than the front side of the stitch pattern?

The color of these is all wrong, but I’m not getting outside again today before the sun sets… so this will have to do for now.

I’ve been desiring another pair of wristwarmers/fingerless mitts for the cold theatres I work in (I wear my Endpaper Mitts nearly constantly)… and this Classic Elite Alpaca Sox will be perfect! This yarn is lovely and soft and grey goes with nearly everything in my wardrobe.

I’ve been quiet in the works-in-progress department because I’ve been working on and quite frustrated with a skein of Anne that I bought earlier this summer in Boston and have been attempting to find a good stitch pattern that avoids creating a lavender spiral up a green sock; there is just SO much more lavender in the skein than I thought! I’ve been through three versions and have now taken it off the needles and have cast on for Rainbow Socks in the Kaffe Fassett Regia I bought from The Loopy Ewe last month…