Last Day for Summer Reading Challenge

So I've been bad, I admit it in not posting more often after the first week of the Tour de France KAL and my sockapalooza photos. I'm actually done with sock #1 and am booging on the foot. But I had to post the result of my Summer Reading Challenge.

I had high hopes at the beginning of the challenge and June was great but July not so much.

Here was my original list:
1. The Life I Longed For by Maribeth Fischer
2. Peony in Love (Advanced Copy) by Lisa See
3. The World to Come by Dora Horn
4. The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield (reading group)
5. The Keep by Jennifer Egen (reading group)
6. Eye Contact by Cammie McGovern
7. On Beauty by Zadie Smith
8. Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky
9. Shopaholic & Baby by Sophie Kinsella
10. The Birth of Venus by Sara Durant
11. In the Company of the Courtesan by Sara Durant
12. The Diary of Anne Frank (reading group)
13. The Boy Who Love Anne Frank (reading group)by Ellen Feldman
14. And last but not least, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows by JK Rowling

And here is what I ended up reading:
1. The Life I Longed For by Maribeth Fischer
2. The World to Come by Dora Horn
3. The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield (reading group)
4. Hatchett by Gary Paulsen
5. Shopaholic & Baby by Sophie Kinsella
6. Eye Contact by Cammie McGovern
7. The Keep by Jennifer Egen (reading group)
8. The Husband by Dean Koontz
9. Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince by JK Rowling (re-read)
10. Harry Potter& the Deadly Hallows by JK Rowling

I do have 60 pages left in "Peony in Love" (disappointed as compared to Snow Flower & the Secret Fan so it's been really hard for me to finish), half way through "Birth of Venus", and about 50 pages read of "On Beauty". I'm actually extending my personal deadline for the challenge to September 1.

Hopefully tomorrow I will be back to complete my end of a blogging meme bargain. And to jump up and down about the contest that I won (you know there was yarn involved of course!).

Tour knitting and watching on ice

Well between sitting for 4 hours on the floor at Borders on Friday nite waiting for Harry and then a mishap while cleaning a closet yesterday afternoon, I managed to put my back out. Just got back from the chiropractor and although the spasming has stopped, I feel quite out of it...which I kind of expected. I watched today's Stage alternating between ice and the heating pad.
I did manage to finish clue 3 for the MS3 (picture was taken half way thru clue #3) on Friday night while waiting for the book (reading it slow to savor the words because otherwise everyone in this house knows that I'd have been done Saturday afternoon).



On Friday night, I thought that I would also work on Brigit for my sockapalooza pal...good idea with disastrous results...Brigit was frogged completely. I kept making all kinds of mistakes...I think the concentration needed for MS3 was taxing my brain and I couldn't handle both at the same time. Plus the deadline is looming...needs to be sent out to my pal by August 2. So a change in pattern and Tour de France KAL itinerary. I am using the same yarn...Panda Wool in Aquamarine and making another STR Solstice Slip (this time using Magic Loop with #0 Addi's). I am still on sock #1 but at least on the foot. The next assault on my mountain stage will be seeing if I have enough yarn to make it to the finish line.

Sock Withdrawal

So last night when I strolled in from work very late and bleary eyed...way past the normal 6:15ish...I realized that it probably wasn't very smart to knit on the MS3 and watch the Tour as I was inevitably going to crash and burn. So I picked up my neglected second Solstice Sock and finished the heel. I should make some more progress on both tonight when I meet up for a Thursday Knit night with dinner. And hopefully, tomorrow's posting of clue #3 will not involve more than 50 rows so I can get cracking on my Sockapalooza Socks because they need to be sent out by the end of the month! How did it get to be the middle of July I ask you?

Finally in France

Boy am I dragging today...that's what I get for staying up way past my normal bedtime to watch the replay of the Tour (but of course it was well worth it). By the time I added the mysteriously disappeared beads back onto the stole, I only had time to knit four more rows of the stole so it doesn't look much different than yesterday..except there are now a full compliment of beads down the left side. So here's a pic of my fancy schmansy bead dispenser (makes clean up a breeze):

Could have used some Belgian Chocolate

So as I watched the replay of Stage 2 last night on Versus, the cable station that used to be OLN, I knit on Mystery Stole 3 from row 93 to row 100 (keeping up with the other knitters in the Tour de France KAL). I would have gone further except I noticed a perplexing mystery...I was missing 3 of the beads that I had previously placed on the outer edge of the left side of the stole (and I just looked and they are missing in the pic from yesterday's post as well...Yikes!). Hmmm...tonight will be tasked with putting them back where they belong. And back to speaking of the Tour, the first week is always notorious for crashes and stage 2 in Belgium with a finish in Ghent held true to form. Twenty riders went down with less than 3K to go. It was scary I tell you!




And whatever stress relief I had from my vacation evaporated very quickly yesterday being back at work on my first day (par for the course when you are a spin doctor for a living). But when I got home what was waiting for me? It was my Knitflix runner up prize from Jennifer. THANKS for stash diving! I got 2 skeins of Claudia's Handpainted in Donna's Favorite. Love it and unfortunately so do the boys so we might have to draw straws for a pair of socks to be made of these lovelies. Jenn...thanks for turning around my otherwise miserable day!

A Canterbry Tale

Again another great day of cycling and knitting yesterday. Stage 1 was ever so exciting...unfortunately lots of crashes and the exciting win by the Aussie Robbie McEwen in mystical fashion. I think that I hadn't whooped so loud for a sporting event since the Tampa Bay Lightning won the Stanley Cup! (And did anyone see the ending of another great tradition...Wimbledon?) Cruised along through 92 rows of my MS3...very much in the cadence of the pattern. Two hints that I have picked up along the way....even though there is a written out file that corresponds to the chart I still write out each row by hand. Once I hit row 60, I started to divide the left and right side into groups of 10 stitches in my repeats separated by my hair elastic stitch markers. The beading tutorial by Deb was extremely helpful and now placing the beads is a snap! Hoping to get through rows 93 thru 100 (at least) later today.

Knitting around London

Well I started the Tour yesterday morning with the choice between these 2 Zephyr colorways...pewter and mahogany for my Mystery Stole 3 with my accompanying bead choices.




I managed to get to the end of Chart A for Clue 1 at the end of the day's knitting for the stole. I didn't want to chance making any mistakes later in the day when we returned from dinner with my 'rents for my Dad's birthday. So I knit some more on the Solstice socks. Well today's coverage of the Tour is about to start...Stage 1 from London to Canterbury. Go George!

Ode to Summer Solstice

One Solstice done and the second started. I'll knit tonight during the Harry Potter Weekend on ABC Family and then tomorrow...look out as it will be time to start the Tour De France KAL and my MS3 (which I think will top out at over 7,000 with the push from Yarn Harlot)!

Summer of Socks 2007 update

I wanted to post something really quick so that Melinda my blog reader had something new to report.
Although I had great hopes of getting a few socks completed...only one pair made it to being kitchenered closed...my second pair of Horcrux Socks. Do I dare say it again...I LOVE BLACK BUNNY!



I did get about a third of the way down the leg of Brigit...but it was hard to knit these in the car as I am using a size 0 double pointed needle as my cable needle...very slippery and it kept on sliding out. Nevertheless, Brigit did get to travel to some exciting locations including the hike up to DeSoto Falls (seen in the background).



And so in the meantime...and about time since this is my first Rockin'Sock Club that I actually got more done on than the Inside Out (still only the toe on sock #1 is knit), I cast on for the latest club knit...the Solstice Slip in Firefox lightweight. I actually really like this pattern...fast! I'm almost done with the short row heel.



In other news, the 2 colorways (Steel and Mahogany) of Zephyr that I ordered from Sarah's Yarns arrived while I was gone for Mystery Stole #3. E and I went to Tampa Bead Cafe to pick up the right beads (I actually already had some beads that would work with the Mahogany but I did get more in a different color that I thought that I would alternate). And drat, they didn't have anything smaller than a size #4 crochet hook but luckily Jo Ann did and I got #10 through #12. Although I am behind, having missed the posting of Clue #1 last Friday (and clue #2 will be up tomorrow), I decided to wait until Saturday to cast on so that I can use this knit for the Tour De France KAL. (I am a Tour fanatic...I have the live feeds bookmarked at home and at work).

Hurricane Sock Pal package

As promised...now that I am back from vacation (which will be an entire other post...maybe even two), I want to officially thank Lynette for my Hurricane Sock Pal package. It was a tad late as she had a problem with her short row heel for Alison's ankle pattern. I really like the way that the STR club patterns handle short row heels with the knit into the first wrapped stitch on your way back and then continue wrap and turn while knitting into the double wrapped stitches rather than picking up the wraps or doing the yarn over technique (I didn't seem to find a tutorial online so I might just have to write one up myself with pictures). Getting back to my package...the sock was knit on bamboo needles which Lynette included using STR Knitty Rocks (and so do you Lynette), there was chocolate Cadbury cookies (which unfortunately the dog got hold of instead of the biscuits that Lynette packed specifically for him, light-up needles, a fab bag to carry all of my knitting projects (it was stuffed to the brim for the trip), a copy of Knitting Vintage Socks, magnets, wine bottle topper with accompanying charms and handmade organic soap.
Thanks again Lynette! And thanks to Christy for another great swap and job of hosting...looking forward to Hurricane Socks 2008!