In fact, since I took these pictures, I’ve gotten quite a bit farther with the projects. But I haven’t taken new pictures. Lazy!

And of course, I thought I had taken a picture of my first three real projects – scarves for my sister, sister-in-law and niece – but they’re nowhere to be found. But trust me, I made three actual and quite lovely scarves. I’m over the demented potholder phase.

Before I tackled a sweater, I wanted to practice some of the techniques necessary, so I took on a hat. And it came out quite well! (I’m apparently short headed as well as short waisted, so ended up folding the edge.) So on to sweaters! Time to stop drooling over patterns and actually make something.

So, of course, I had to start two at the same time. Sigh. The blue one, I actually have the back completed and am halfway up the front now. The stitch order isn’t hard, but it is involved. And I can’t tell you how many times I’ve messed it up and had to take it apart. I am the queen of unknitting now, let me tell you. The cream one is a long tunic done in the simplest stitch possible, but gave me a chance to try out circular needles. And I’ve gotten to the top and gotten stuck on the instructions. Fortunately, the yarn shop near my house offers a class called “Help Me With My Project” and I’m going to take it over there so I can count it done.

And of course, I already have a stash going. In this pile is yarn for another sweater and another scarf. And I have a box coming today from an online yarn store with more. (Although, I was a very good girl and picked out projects, then picked out yarn. So it’s not aimless yarn just sitting in the closet, but does have a purpose and will get used.)

Shatter: The Children of Man: Book One

The Sea of Monsters (Percy Jackson & the Olympians) – My nephew loves this series. I mean loves. Went upstairs and dragged the entire thing down and proceeded to tell me all about every single book. That said, he agreed with me that the first book was only so-so, but assured me they got better. A lot better. And he was right. Really liked this story, which takes Percy on a quest to fight a Minotaur and get the golden fleece. Again, helps if you have some concept of mythology, but no more confusing that reading any other fantasy.

Seven Dials: A Charlotte and Thomas Pitt Novel (Charlotte & Thomas Pitt Novels) – Could not shake the feeling that I had read this one already. And yet, never really confirmed it as I went on. (Did a search and if I did, I never did a review.) Does this mean Perry is starting to repeat herself? Hmm. Also think I got this one and the last one out of order, but no bother there. Still trying to catch up with these.

The Clockwork Rocket (Orthogonal) – Ugh. If you’re going to drop me into a strange world, at least have the courtesy to help me understand it and what is going on. Read from the beginning like I should have already had some basis of understanding of the world. Oh, and then there’s the math. Like he’s trying to trick us into learning something. I gave up. Just couldn’t get into it and when you start skimming over 10 pages of math equations and charts, it’s not the book for you. (I could swear I’ve read something by him before and liked it, but maybe not.) Oh, and the dust jacket is either telling the book wrong or Egan has decided to do relativity backwards. My head hurts.

Revenger: A Novel of Tudor Intrigue – Picked this one up on the new book shelf at the library (which is what sent me back to the first one). And I liked it but I think I’m already tired of this series. Sad. It’s five years after the first book, John’s brother Will Shakespeare makes a few more appearances and we’re into the attempt by the Earl of Essex to take the throne. Or at least be set up as the one to be put there when Elizabeth dies. John is pulled back into the world of intelligence and spying, this time working with Robert Cecil.

The Accidental Creative: How to Be Brilliant at a Moment’s Notice – I wonder if I’m losing my patience for non-fiction. Or if it was just that this book isn’t really for me. He’s making the case that every job requires some creativity and that every person can be creative. Creative isn’t just about artsy stuff. And I buy both his premises. Thus not needing to read the rest of the book since I’m already convinced. Right?

Scrap Republic: 8 Quilt Projects for Those Who Love Color – Including this here more to remind me of it later. She has some interesting ideas here for working with colors in scraps, but it’s no more than just working with the light spectrum, so not sure you need a book for that. Unless you just can’t see in color? In your mind, I mean. Some people need to have things laid out for them before they can make it happen.

Weekend Hats: 25 Knitted Caps, Berets, Cloches, and More – Again, another reminder for myself. There are some really cute hats in here, but I ended up just returning the book because (of course) every single one requires circular needles, which I haven’t invested in as yet. Beginning to think I might have to if I intend to make anything more interesting than a scarf.

Chasing Rainbows – Wrong story to be reading if you have loss in your life. But a good story. That make sense? The book opens with Bernadette Murphy dealing with her father’s unexpected death, which leads to her quitting her job. As the story goes along, we learn she’s also dealing with her husband leaving, which stems from the loss of their daughter when she was just five days old. A lot of loss in this woman’s life. And the story is sort of the year of her life in which she works through all of these things and starts to live life again rather than just walking through it. A few holes in the story, but generally a nice read. Except for the part where it left me bummed because of my own losses.

Drippy the Peg Legged Rainbow, A Story for Demented Children – So a Susan title. And it’s really just a short story/fable kind of thing so no big time commitment to check out to see just what demented children are reading these days. Oh, and free for the Kindle, so no commitment there either. I’m not sure just what definition of demented the author is reading, but I kind of thought the whole thing was lame. Maybe the emo bunny one would be more interesting. Or I just don’t like short fables. And just so you know, only about half of this was the story. The second “half” of the Kindle book is the guy’s bio and all about all the books he’s ever written. Interesting marketing ploy and I wonder if it works for him.

Success is a progressive realization of worthwhile goals.

• Progressive – As in you don’t get there all at once. It takes time, it takes small steps, it takes patience. But if with each step you are making progress toward the goal, you are achieving success.
• Realization – As in not just in your head. Or your heart. Or your gut. It’s a real step forward, not a fudged or imagined one.
• Worthwhile – As in it adds value to your life. Improves it in some small measure. Improves you in some small measure. Improves everything in some small measure.
• Goals – As in concrete and measurable. Not something you feel, but something with a tangible result.

Photo Credit: mugley on flickr. CC BY-SA 2.0 license.

But also a lot of doing. Not that I have the pictures to prove it. I could have sworn I took pictures of the scarves I made but danged if I can find them! Anyway, after the disaster that was my practice square, I made a really short scarf out of what was left. Ugliest scarf ever, although I did get better as I went along. Made three more scarves after that, all of which turned out really well, although not perfect. But again, I was getting better and more skilled at basic stitches and at ribbing.

Time to move on to learn something new so I could then move on to sweaters, which means a hat. And I did really well! It even fit me and everything. How about that! So now I’ve graduated to sweaters and of course, I have two going. (Not very efficient, I’ve discovered.) Focusing on finishing the cream one, then I’ll go back to working on the teal. The cream is an easy stitch that I thought would go quickly (the book says you could do it in a day) but I’m a slow stitcher it seems and it’s taking forever. Still, learning a new skill in using circular needles as well as the complex parts of a sweater, so it’s good. And knitting is something I can do in front of the TV with Kevin, so bonus over quilting there.

One of the other things I had wanted to learn this year was to do a figure 8 on my bike. Impossible (for me) on the M50, apparently. Kevin was able to do it. Me, not so much.

But new bike! And so now I’m hoping to be able to get that learned. Once I put some crash bars on it. Don’t want to tip over on this thing and hurt something. Actually, this guy is better balanced for me, but longer

and with a more angled front fork. In my head, that makes it seem less possible, so I have to figure a way to get out of my head.

Still on the list is to get my CHL, but we haven’t been shooting in a while thanks to a lot of family stuff and traveling. Need to get in a practice session to remind me what I’m doing before I go to class.

Overall, I’m realizing that I might need to get back to scheduling myself again to get me moving/working/doing with purpose. A lot of things I’d like to do are getting shoved aside, but not because there isn’t enough time to do  them. I’m failing on the making efficient use of my time part at the moment. It’s so easy to

Snuff: A Novel of Discworld (Discworld Novels)

Execution Dock and Dark Assassin – Two more in the William Monk series, which I think catches me up now. We’re kind of stuck in the same crime now and I’m hoping we break out of that soon. Kind of tired of child porn and prostitution along the river. Just way too grimm for something that is supposed to be entertaining.

Martyr: A Novel of Tudor Intrigue – Random pick-up as I saw the second book in this series on the new book shelf. We’ve got Elizabeth on the throne and are following the exploits of Shakespeare. Not that one. (Although, we do discover they are related.) No, we’re with Robert Shakespeare, who works as an agent for Wollsingham and we’re trying to solve a murder, track down some Jesuits and protect Drake from a Spanish assassin. He’s definitely got his hands full. Enjoyed it and looking forward to the next one in the series.

Getting Sassy – Got this as a free Kindle promotion and it was really a pleasant surprise. Interesting story, interesting characters, only a tiny bit predictable. Robyn Gutherie is a freelance writer with a desperate need for money and a lot of it if she’s going to be able to keep taking care of her mother the way she wants to. Enter her accountant with a supposedly shady past, a temperamental race horse and a low life not above killing for a payday and let the hijinks begin. Oh, and don’t forget Sassy. He’s a goat. And they’re out to get him.

44 – Still free for the Kindle and it has some good elements to it. A bit of a “I see dead people” kind of a deal (oops. surprise!) and pretty well told. Just turned out to not really be my cup of tea. Might be yours though. Or maybe your teen. Definitely targeted to the teen audience, which might mean they would like it  more than I did. Already have a book two and three in the series out.

The Very Easy Guide to Cable Knitting: Step-by-Step Techniques, Easy-to-Follow Patterns, and Projects to Get You Started and Speed Knitting: 24 Quick and Easy Projects – Two more knitting books. I think it’s time to move on to a new topic for my quarterly learning. And I can’t decide! Anyway, lots of cool stuff in the cable book, which is probably the next thing I’d like to tackle. Need to finish the projects I have going at the moment, however. Then I can consider another project. And one of those sweaters is out of the second book. (Which means I have two knitting projects going at once. That’s not nearly as efficient as it is in quilting.) The sweater I’m doing is really the only project I liked in the book, though. We’ll see how much I still like it when it’s done. Still, great pictures and some simple items to make.

Victory Vegas 8-Ball

Time for thinking about taking another long motorcycle trip. Only this time, way long. As in close to 5,000 miles long. (OK, that was the original plan, but we might be cutting that back. Someone has to work and make money during the month!)

Still, wherever we go, it’s going to require spending a lot of time in the saddle. And on my perfectly adequate Suzuki M50, a lot of time doesn’t equal a fun time.

It’s a great bike; don’t get me wrong. But when you spend the day traveling at highway speeds, it can start to wear on you.

Which got me looking at bikes with six-speeds to make for a smoother ride over the long distances. I almost got a Fat Boy Lo, really wanted to like the Triumph Thunderbird, but landed on the absolutely amazing Victory Vegas 8-ball. It’s completely blacked out, giving it that bad-ass look, and fits me perfectly right off the lot. Hooray for that!

Ordering saddlebags, highway bars and a windscreen to set it up for the long-hauling we plan to do. Anticipating a lot of fun on this one!

(Oh, and of course, this means my lovely M50 is for sale. Help me get my garage space back!)

Fireflies in December – Meh. Wasn’t bad, just wasn’t all that great either. Got it as a free Kindle download and it had its moments, just not enough of them. Bit of a coming of age tale during the time when being friends with colored folk was considered bad and the Klan was considered good as told from the eyes of a very perplexed young girl. Much like other stories, she just doesn’t get why some adults think blacks are a lower species and geez, can’t we just all get along?

Fools Rush In – Another free download and looks like book one in a series. Again, had its moments but also had characters acting out of character and a few glaring plot holes. Christian romance, so quite innocent love, but typical girl with hyper-insecurities with too-good-to-be-true boy. I liked him, but her hang-ups did start to get old after a while. Way too many story threads for any to really be fleshed out as well as they could have been.

Ready Player One – Oh, oh, oh, oh. You have to read this one. Totally heaven for geeks and kids of the 80s. Whether they actually lived in the 80s or not. We have an Easter egg hunt within a virtual world with a Willie Wonka vibe. Add to that a kind of tri-wizard tournament competition and you have got one great story. Basically, find the keys that open the gates, complete the tasks to get to the end and you win the guy’s entire fortune. Fortune. Think bigger than Bill Gates and Warren Buffet combined fortune. So of course, there are nefarious dealings, attempts to cheat and co-opt the game and plucky underdogs who get lucky but mostly win by persistence. And because the world would be a sucky place if the bad guys won. Throughly enjoyed it.

Pirate Latitudes: A Novel – Not as great as I was hoping for. Sigh. Last book by Michael Crichton; they found the manuscript in a folder after he died. And apparently someone was either too sad at his death or too sensitive to it to actually edit this that well. The story had some good plot points and potential, but our main character needed more fleshing out for me to actually care much about him. We jumped from crazy plot point to crazy plot point without a whole lot to tie it together much. And then it was just … over. Definitely not his best work. (Still, way better than Congo. Not that it takes much to do that, but still.)

Scandalous Women: The Lives and Loves of History’s Most Notorious Women – Read the first section, then started scanning quite a bit. I like scandalous women who are breaking the mold and kicking butt. Not so much the ones that are breaking societal rules just because they can. So I kind of lost interest when we start talking about women who were scandalous for being the king’s mistress as opposed to those who were scandalous for leading an army. And thank goodness, the names you’re familiar with are in the later camp and the others are just sort of footnotes in history.

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children – You know me. You think I could resist a book with a title like that? Targeted at older kids, this was a fairly good read, one that seems likely to have come about as a story explaining weird old photographs. In this case, peculiar children are ones that have rather unusual traits – think side-show at the circus style – who are being hunted down by other rather peculiar creatures. Add in a child who didn’t know his grandfather was a peculiar, a dash of romance and a time loop and you start to get a rather crazy story. It felt like it ended before the story did, which was either abrupt editing or setting it up for further adventures. We shall see.

Apparently knitting is my first quarter topic, which makes sense since I was working on a goal of knitting one useful thing this year. (I’m up to four, but that’s another post.) So I’ve been browsing and reading a lot of knitting books. Some of it’s reading, some of it is drooling over gorgeous patterns that I hope to be able to do here eventually. Which explains the long list I have going so far.

• Vogue Knitting: The Ultimate Knitting Book
• 400 Knitting Stitches: A Complete Dictionary of Essential Stitch PatternsTwelve Months of Knitting: Improve Your Knitting Skills Month by Month with 36 Seasonal Projects
• Knitting Scarves from Around the World: 23 Patterns in a Variety of Styles and Techniques
• The Knitter’s Bible
• The Yarn Girls’ Guide to Beyond the Basics
• Sensual Knits: Luxurious Yarns, Alluring Designs
• Mother-Daughter Knits: 30 Designs to Flatter and Fit
• Knits that Fit: Instructions, Patterns, and Tips for Getting the Right Fit
• Fitted Knits: 25 Designs for the Fashionable Knitter

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

Old Man’s War – A friend in my chorus loaned this to me last year. Then asked me every week if I had read it yet. Since I was working through the end of my reading list, I didn’t have time until this month. And glad she recommended it. Been a long time since I read a decent science fiction story. Nothing overly amazing about this one, but it was really pretty good. Nice story, loved the characters, can’t believe no one’s made it into a movie. And definitely moving on to read the next one in the series.

Stitch ‘N Bitch: The Knitter’s Handbook – So I wanted to learn to knit. And how do we learn? We read!! Usually, I read several books on a subject, then kind of go from there on my own with my collected knowledge. But from past experience, I knew that wasn’t the right course for this. So I picked up this book used and have been working my way through her directions. It’s clear and helpful and a bit irreverent. So far so good, at least after my first practice piece. I’m almost done with a scarf now and eager to move on to new projects and other books.

The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove – My sister-in-law loaned me this one after one of the many conversations going on about books. It’s quirky, a bit strange and probably closer to real life for precisely those reasons than most stories are. Oh, except for the godzilla/dragon/lizard that plays a huge role in the whole weirdness of the story. If you like Tom Robbins and his weirdness, this one might be for you.

The Shifting Tide and Dark Assassin – After last year’s reading list sucked up so much time, I’m trying to catch up with some of my favorite series. Ok, that’s not an excuse. For me to be four books behind on this series means I fell behind some time ago. Sad since I just love Monk. One of my favorite series ever. So I’m catching up with him and Hester and the new friends they’re making down on the Thames.

Piece of Cake!: One-Bowl, No-Fuss, From-Scratch Cakes – Heard about this one on the radio and I have no idea why I decided to torture myself by checking it out. (I’m back to strict low-carbing for health and weight reasons.) There are some really interesting recipes in here and I have to admit, I was going to make one for my birthday while I was at my sister’s house. Best way to keep me from eating more than a tiny bit. But if you like baking, this is one worth a peek.

Inbound Marketing: Get Found Using Google, Social Media, and Blogs (New Rules Social Media Series) – Possibly a nice primer if you know nothing, but I really failed to find anything new in here. Not to mention that it feels very focused on big B-to-B type companies. What local baker needs to create white papers? And yet, inbound marketing can be just as important for them. Does it have to feel so different for small business and B-to-C ones. (I didn’t look, but $10 says they’re from Hubspot with its excessive white paper and lead generation and list building emphasis as opposed to customer experience.)

Robopocalypse: A Novel – I think I got this as a suggestion from Seth. All I know is it was in my wishlist at Amazon, which is where I tend to stick stuff I want to get to eventually. And my library conveniently had a Kindle version of it for me to borrow. It’s a near future sci-fi story in which computers and robots are ubiquitous in society. And unfortunately, that one scientist guy finally manages to succeed in creating artificial intelligence, which proceeds to bring about an apocalypse. (Of course.) The robots aren’t trying to destroy the world, just kill off all the humans in order to save the world from them. The book is told in via snippets of recorded history, making it almost like reading a series of chronological short stories. Interesting device that works really well in tying a lot of different people and places and concepts together. By about halfway through, we’re essentially following the same six people or groups who play a huge role in the human uprising and eventual victory. (Not a spoiler. You get that in the opening.) Enjoyed it quite a bit, although I have started to look at elevators a little suspiciously now.

My little practice square – in which I took different stitches out for a ride – looks like a potholder made by a kindergartener. A demented kindergartener. Trying out a scarf now in a ribbed pattern. Only had to rip it apart and start over twice now. And it still has issues although they are getting fewer as I go along. Sheesh.

Trying to decide if I just stick with what I have (which needs a paint job regardless) or go ahead and make the switch. Decisions, decisions.

(it would help if the bike actually came is some fun colors and not just boring grown-up shades like black and dark blue.)