Book Review: History a History

Harry, A History: The True Story of a Boy Wizard, His Fans, and Life Inside the Harry Potter Phenomenon

 

I was going to ask for this book for Christmas, but saw it in a Target on vacation and decided to go ahead and get it and read it over the break. I’m grateful that I did. This book took me back to my childhood of Harry Potter reading and playing Harry Potter in my backyard, my young teenage years of obsessive fanfiction writing and my late teens reading the final books as I surpassed Harry’s age and embarked on my own journies. Mellissa writes about movements and events that are recognizable only to the fandom, but which I remember clearly. Switchblade Kitten’s Ode to Harry Potter is on my iPod, and more importantly, on all my old mix CDs.

The only thing I can criticize is the lack of attention to the elements of fandom that are lacking in the novel, and happen to be the ones in which I immersed myself. I spent my fifteenth summer on Fiction Alley, and spent the time before that reading Fanfiction which was not Cassandra Claire’s. I came in through MenaRaisin’s Hermione’s World newsletter and I feel like that is where many, many fans started. I also mourned the lack of mention of JK Rowling’s interaction with LOOK UP the young girl with cancer who wanted to know the end of the books, and the girl who came home from camp to find Harry Potter in her car—early. But those two things happened before Melissa came into the fandom and are, thus, excusable.

All in all, this book receives many accolades from this fan. I was never a BNF, I shipped Harry/Ginny but Fire and Ice was my guilty pleasure. I hung on to the potential of Mark Evans and remember the day JK Rowling’s website went live. Melissa’s book brought all of that back to me, and for this I am extremely grateful. 

Book Review:

News and Notions

We're spending Thanksgiving in Delaware, where my other grandparents live. I'm up in the hotel room messing about online whist Dad's at there house and Mom and Little Brother are eating downstairs. I've been busy with school. I'm writing my thesis on fairy tale retellings so I have some book reviews to come up in the near future.

But my biggest news is this: I'm studying at Oxford in the spring! Two tutorials, Jane Austen and Victor Hugo. I'm really excited, although I have to have read Notre Dame de Paris and Les Miserables by the 7th of January when I leave which is slightly ridiculous, but also terribly exciting.

I've kept up with hat knitting; I've done Gretel and Rose Red by Ysolda. I have yarn now for the Dickensian Pullover from Interweave a while back as well as the Hermione bag from Charmed Knits so I'll be taking those two large projects with me to work on. 

There's not much else in my life, just preparing for that and doing school, but I'm excited!!

Novels...

NaNoWriMo is not happening this year. Just not. But I don't want to give up a writing expedition in November. So I'm planning on doing serious rewrites on one of my novels written previously. But I can't pick which, so that's where you all come in. 

Here are the choices:

Song of the Lark-- In a society where class gaps have grown significantly three teenagers and one little boy escape from the house where they are enslaved. The mastermind, Caileigh, leaves behind her lover and his jealous fiancée Elaine. In a race to stay hidden they have to put aside differences and band together. Unfortunately Elaine intercepts a missive Caieigh sends to her lover, Aiden, leaving all four in danger.

Broadway Lullaby-- Casey Marlow got sent to live with her mom and stepfamily after her first film "Moonlight" was filmed. Her parents want her to finish high school normally, but what is normal in her family? It's definitely not when her eleven-year-old brother Dylan, who has Autism, disappears. She, her evil stepbrother and their friends try to circumvent the police to find him--after all Casey knows Dylan better than anyone, but is that enough? 

untitled-- Tessa's kingdom has a tradition. One eligible maiden is sent to the neighboring kingdom every year under the guise of keeping up communication, but really in the hopes of a marriage. WHen her sister runs away upon being chosen, Tessa must go. But what kingdom will accept a could-be-queen whose legs don't even work properly? 

The Ella Trilogy-- Ella's parents died. In fact, most of the adults in her world died of a Pandemic (secretly designed by the government) that only affects adults. In children it causes odd side effects, side effects such as time travel. It was Ella's father who discovered that this talent could be used to find the cure. Now, years later, his daughter is part of the resistance. Gallivanting across time, however, does not spare her the emotional hardship of being a teenager.

 

 [polldaddy poll=1086058]

Election 2008

Barack Obama is going to be the next president of the United States of America, and I voted for him. I have a paper due Monday that I have been working on tonight. But I'm not going to remember that. I'll remember sitting with my little sister in my sorority watching McCain concede to the man that I knew I wanted as president when I saw him on TV four years ago.

 

We've lived through 9/11, the War in Iraq, the invention of the iPod, hanging chads and now BARACK AS THE 44TH US PRESIDENT.

Eyes. On. The. Prize

I'm kniting Rose Red, by Ysolda. It's my first pattern that requires you to really pay attention every round, do YOs and has 180 stitches. I want it done so I can cast on socks for going to NYC weekend after this. I'm about halfway in with very little time to knit. Today was going to be great, a movie to watch for French and two hours at work, at which I do little but knit because only one or two people per shift come into the Writing Center.

 

And I left my knitting in my dorm.

Two Finished Hats!

I'm knitting hats at the moment. I don't have enough hats and I'm never mad about store ones, so now I've knit two with another on the needles. Two weeks ago (pre-Recruitment) I finished the Fisherman's Beanie, from Rowan Coast Book:



. The hat fits really well, a bit big. It knit flat, but I got tired of that quite quickly and decided to join it. It moved much more quickly after that. I love that bit on a hat when you get to the decreases and think you're almost done. Two hours later.... (Details of yarn and such here)




The next hat, my project for the week of sorority recruitment and this week was this Burgundy Ribbed Hat that I knit out of some gorgeous hand-dyed I got at iKnit. The yarn was thinner than I thought, but I swatched, cast on 112 stitches and went. I even figured out the decreases on my own. I love it. If you look carefully at that picture you can see my new piercing. My cartilage came out over the summer so Mom took me to get it redo Friday. (Hat details here)

Now I'm working on Straun, by Ysolda. I've done the nifty Invisible Cast-On and am increasing.

Calm Before The Storm?

It's a Sunday. I have an hour before I have chapter for TWO organizations, sorority recruitment is next week, and I have time to knit? What is this??

The project I'm working on is the Fisherman's Beanie from Rowan's  Coast which i bought at Liberty's last year with yarn i bought there this year. (Circular, no?)

I finished the Central Park Hoodie in July, but I haven't taken pictures yet *bad knitter*. I shall do soon. Classes are fun, nothing too exciting.

Um...Hi

So I've been awful at this blogging thing, haven't I been? I'm sorry! I got back from London a little over a week ago, and besides that all I've done is read at a speed to fast to review and knit a Central Park Hoodie that I have no pictures of. BUT! I have yarn I bought in London and there are Hats to be Made! So I will blog more! Promise!

Let's see, what news? London was amazing, it's my favorite place in the universe. I've read everything from Austen to Joyce to Anna Karenina this summer. I'm now on Sons and Lovers by DH Lawerence. Classes start Monday. That's really it, but more soon.

Seaming

I am not great at seaming, mainly because I am too impatient to baste or occasionally even pin. Things get lined up by chance and some effort in that general direction. But they're not overly lumpy or anything like that. I don't mind doing it, though, unlike the majority of the knitting universe. As a matter of fact, I like it. It's kind of magical, drawing yarn together and coming out with a finished garment.

Just saying.

Summer Knitting?

A lot of people, Stash and Burn in particular, have been talking about 'summer knitting'. Word about not wanting to have hot sweaters on laps, and cotton have been mentioned. And I sit here seaming a cardigan.

Summer is an entirely different beast, I think, for me than it is for other people. Being a student, I don't have as much time to knit in the school year, so summer is for big projects. Like afghans. And sweaters. Destashing has happened, as well, which also controlled what I knit. Two balls of sock yarn are ready to be packed for London, and there I will buy yarn. For hats. Not for summer, whose colors in fabric I don't really like, but in preparation for autumn, which I prefer anyway.

Book Review: Sense and Sensibility

Sense and Sensibility

I love Jane Austen. I admit to being a tad bit saddened by the distance from characters that is necessarily present in her works, but for a work of the period she does incredible things that truly allow even the modern reader to connect with Elinor and Marianne, the heroines of the novel. Also fantastic, particularly in this novel, is her ability to satirize genuinely (if that is possible) her society. It is what it is, and yet due to her humor and perhaps also to a modern perspective, there is an underlying critical current.

Although to me there are characters and occurrences in this work that are very similar to those in Pride and Prejudice (or, I suppose, the other way around), the novel is unique in and of itself. Elinor and Marianne are strikingly different, yet I find points to sympathize with both of them. Their mother is silly, and Elinor is more maternal, but she is also busy with her own love story as rational as she may be. I think it is disappointing that Austen includes the figure of their younger sister and yet she disappears, but that is a minor point. The scandalous story of Eliza and her daughter is an honest truth that I appreciate as a reader who is used to the fairly idealized world of Eliza Bennett, in whose novel even servants are not mentioned. Not, that Austen acknowledges every realistic point of life, but i think that this novel holds the day-to-day more closely than others. 

I adore the women she writes, who years later I still identify with as a young woman in 2008. Although our lives are very different, the feelings are the same, the worries and the personalities ring true. This is, I think, what has kept her books selling for so long

You Are Not a Very Nice Old Man!

Last night at 1 AM when I was finishing sleeve the first for the Central Park Hoodie, I put on Enchanted. I looove that move, a lot. There are many quotes from it that I know by heart. It's also good because I can knit without looking up at it too much. You see, I claim to not be able to knit without looking. This cannot be entirely the case because I can see a movie and get knitting done at the same time, but it's faster to look.

Thus, it's a good thing that I'm not one of those people who can only watch a movie twice if they really adore t. I can watch pretty much any movie twice, and my DvD collection reflects this. During finals I watched Romeo+Juliet, which not exactly a fantastic movie, but I needed something I didn't have to focus on too much. I've definitely been acquiring more DVDs lately, because they're good weekend things when you don't want to think too much. I used to say my collection reflected a ten-year-old with the exception of the R-rated French films. It's better now :)

Well, that's all I had to say. I have another sleeve to get going on!

Why yes, I invented it...

At a big box store today, one which often email out coupons, Mom and I were gathering materials to make a blocking board. First, however, she sent me to see if they had one ready-made that we could use a coupon on. Attempting to explain what I needed to the saleswoman she said something to the tune of "Blocking knitting before you sew...? Is that some kind of new technique?" I promise you she was dead serious. I was just dead.

And yes, I know as an employee of big box store you do not have to be particularly knowledgeable about the gajillions of crafts they cater to. The question just amused me greatly. 

On another note, having to rebuild an exponentially growing iTunes library from where you were last August is NOT fun...

Book Review: The Voyage Out

The Voyage Outby Virginia Woolf

I love Woolf. To the Lighthouse is probably one of my favorite books ever. The Voyage out is not quite what I was expecting. It's written in a narrative-style reminiscent of the typical novel of the period, and not quite what I had grown to expect from Woolf. The prose was fantastic, and she manages to capture little ideas and emotions that are generally not dealt with in books. For instance, at one point the main character feels irritated with the actions of all of those around her, merely because she is lost in thought and does not want to be interrupted. Who hasn't felt that?

I think my problem with the book may be the fact that the back cover synopsis of the Barnes and Noble Classics edition did not feel at all like the book. In a nutshell it said "Helen notices Rachel is growing up when her engagement to Terrence Hewet starts to go badly". Well, when you take into account Hewet doesn't even show up 'til midway through the book and they're not engaged until mid-way through and Helen is less mature than her niece and...well, not so much Barnes and Noble synopsis-folks.

The nature of the feminine struggle, more explicitly dealt with in A Room of One's own, is prominent in this book. Woolf deftly portrays views on either side of the debate, and whilst to the modern reader the fact that the lives of men and women are disparate is slightly absurd, this novel makes one realize how real the struggle really was.

Plus, there's a passage with one woman bragging about her knitting.

Did I mention I love Woolf?

Perfection-knist

I can post today. I can post today, because today I am finally where I was at 5 pm yesterday when I decided to frog an entire weekend's worth of work on my Central Park Hoodie. My cables were wrong. I still contend I read the chart right, but according to other's pictures and even the picture in the pattern, I was wrong. So I frogged five inches and managed to make it back today.

I have also read 120 pages of The Voyage Out by Woolf, gone to the orthodontist, researched grad schools, transfered an audiobook, started studying for the GRE and slept a bit in the past twenty-four hours.

This is a productive summer.

My LYS Knit Night

On Thursday nights and Saturday afternoons my LYS has knit time. It's pretty much always the same people; mostly older women. My friend and I are always (unless someone brings their kids) the youngest there. I often don't agree with the political views of the LYSO and her employers. I don't always buy my yarn there. But I love it. Everyone is nice, they ask how school is going, remember where Corinne and I go to college, where we're traveling, what we're doing.

Since we see each other most when we go there, we tend to talk on our own most of the time, but it's still fun listening to others conversations, seeing what their knitting etc.

That say, if I have a problem, I'm much more likely to look it up online than ask someone. I think it's because I taught myself. This benefits me, because my mom and friend who were taught usually need someone to help them. Nothing bad about it, just different.

I started the ribbing on my Central Park Hoodie!

In the Box

You know how when you have a big purse there are always a million things in it? Like a lighter, kniting, needles, a wallet, tampons, paperwork, hair ties, lipstick, Shakespeare's The Tempest (or maybe that's me), but the thing you need is never there?

Yesterday, I finished, except for felting, my guitar strap (need to go to Guitar Center today and get a knob put onto my guitar so I can use it), so I decided to clean out my stash box. In it I found: all my books, a baby hat in donated acrylic that I may never finish, yarn bands, empty Hefty bags, sock yarn, remnants of Cascade, a broken needle threader, a "doodad", many many DPNs without a home (note to self, needle case), a hair tie, trash, a bag full of scrap yarn...

And oh yes, size 8 straights to do the gauge swatch for my Central Park Hoodie

Oops

I suck as a blogger. I mean to, and then it does not happen. I've been busy! Doing things like....clearing out my iTunes! Yes, that's important...And finishing socks!

 


And an iPod case.


 

And now all I have is a felted guitar strap and a Central Park Hoodie and I will be done with my stash! That's right, with the exception of some sock yarn I don't know if I want to use and a ball I can't find, all the yarn in my stash will be significantly used enough for me to justify buying more. It'll be good, because I am not, strictly speaking, a stasher. And I want to start buying yarns that feel more "me". Less "ooh shiny MINES" and more, I could wear this, add it to a wardrobe. So, once the no-more-stash happens, there will be many hats (I need more hats) a sweater or two, and some bags. "Wardrobe"-"real knitter" things. Not just knick-knacks that I won't use. Because I tend to do that!

Simple Joy

I'm swatching. For a new project. Wendy's iPod sweater. My socks are done (pictures when I put batteries in my camera).

I'm making headway on my summer projects. I can play a couple chords on the guitar. I've driven around the neighborhood at a glorious speed of fifteen miles per hour. I only have three hundred pages left in the huge book i want to finish. It's been a pretty productive day. Add to that, two more skeins of yarn to use up before I start my Central Park Hoodie all makes me a happy nose-pierced knitter!

Sad Story

I just binned a pair of socks. The socks I knit last summer, the blue ones that I like very much. They are very soft and have lovely colors. And many holes. Those socks travelled with me to Europe. I should keep them for sentimental value. But I can't. Because they have irreparable holes.

 

I am considering buying more of the yarn and reknitting them to make myself feel better. 

ETA

Yeah binning is a lie. they're going in the back of my sock drawer.

BusyBusyBusy

it has been quite a semester. So I'll give it to you in pictures, while I sit back here trying to knit these freaking two-month-long socks! 

Moe's picnic inside in April. It was cold. 


My school is pretty in April:



 

Renaissance Faire!!




FINISHING THE SOCKS

 

PS. if anyone knows a good place to buy a cabled cardigan in summer (no time to knit one), let me know.

I Am Not Yet Dead

Hey guys, looks like I survived finals! And as soon as I find my camera link I'm going to try my damnedest to get back to posting regularly here! I really do adore this blog.

 

For a rundown, I'm home for the summer. And by summer I mean until July 12th when I go back to London. So, until it's warm enough to swim I have various projects going. I'm putting photos in albums tomorrow, learning guitar, going to start a recipe book for my mom and I, finish sewing some skirts, read some books and...

 

KNIT! 

Last night, last night I cast off ONE sock from the pair I started in MARCH. I freakin' hate finals. But I love y'all! 

As for book reviews, there are quite a few I should give, but I think I may just start up from now on again, with perhaps the exception of my favorite book of the semester.

I'm Alive!

And I have things to blog about, but it's the pre-finals/finals crunch. There's a chance of a lull in late April, but until then much love from the buried-in-work knitter!

Dear Me,

You are not a process knitter. Please keep that in mind when you try to cast on socks without checking gauge. All sock yarn is not the same. Hell, your needles weren't even the same.  Do not think that you will have the patience to unravel or *shudder* cut the toe of your sock to fix ANYTHING.. You won't. Will Not.  You also will not (got that) put away this yarn and move on to the pretty new blue yarn you bought in Pennsylvania.  You will meekly cast on a gauge swatch (though it is okay if you want to use the untouched ball) and restart these socks. And if you're still knitting them during finals, you will have learned your lesson.

FO: Pink and Blue Socks

I think I'm finally in love with sock knitting. They fit. They're pretty. Did I mention that they fit?I knit the top of the cuff, the last three rounds or so, with size eight needles, to keep them from being too tight. And they're perfect. They're Fortissma Sock, details hereI started them in January, but only just finished them thanks to the wonder that is higher education. And papers. But I was determined not to be on the same project that I was one at Christmas during Spring Break, so when I took a cab up to the post office yesterday, I spent five hours at the nearby Starbucks listening to podcasts. I came out with socks!  They're toe-up (of course) with a heel flap, which in my opinion is the best of both worlds.Look, this one fits too:It's so nice to have an FO. I must admit I love my mostly monogamous knitting ( I have a charity hat that I work on at knitting club), but it is nice to be done with something and move on.And move on I shall since I have next to no homework this weekend. It's all during spring break :(

The One Good Thing About Today

 The rest of today was a bunch of friend drama. sigh. Oh well. I may go knit for a while until my friend calls me to study.

Nineteen Candles

Actually, at no point in the past week did I have a cake with nineteen candles, but I did have cake that my friend baked for me! It said "Happy Birthday, Chiclee!" which was really sweet. So all week I've been celebrating my birthday this week. It was on Thursday, and it was raining and gross but also a really awesome day. I've actually had a social life lately, so not so much knitting. This is what I have on the second sock (picture via my iSight!)=:  And also pictures of the blue hair for those that requested them. It's kind of faded now but it won't be all the way out for my sorority composite pictures this week, but oh well. Off to knit!!

Skype!

I have Skype! My name over there is Chelseyblair

Got it so my mom (windows) and I (mac) could video chat. It's great, and I get to see little brother tomorrow!!!!!

New Computer!

I just bought a Macbook!! I also installed a widgit that will let me post to my blog without having to open a webpage and things, which means more posts from me! Except, it doesn't do pictures, but as I haven't been finishing anything lately, that's not a problem. What with classes, I'm still on the socks. But I will prevail!And soon I will rhasphodize about my English major crazy realizations and such, but at the moment it's late. Good night, Blogosphere.

Something Unpredictable

Life has picked up significantly, so less knitting, I'm afraid. I did spend two hours today on the cuff of my sock (the cuffs look ridiculously long, because they need to stretch), and will cast on the second tomorrow.

I had a blast last night at my friend's party, and hung out at Chi Phi (frat) for a little while too with some of my sisters. It was a wonderful night, and I'm much happier than I was this time last year in a lot of ways. I'm more in-transition now, with a lot of things and friendships, but it's okay; I have so much to look forward to. So yay.

Pictures after I cast this sock off. :)

Yo, Listen Up, Here's The Story:

About a blue girl....

Rie and I have been planning on dyeing my hair blue for a while now. Today we finally got around to it. First, let me say, my hair looks really good.

Now for the fun part. All went well during the slathering my hair with color, part. Then I let it sit for quite a while, because my hair is thick. And then, RIe left to go home and I went to rinse, as the bottle said.

A torrential downpour of blue cascaded all over me. My hands became purple. I stood in the water for AGES until each time touching my hair didn't bring new waterfalls. I shampooed. Got out, not touching my hair with the towel, and surveyed the damage.

The Smurfs had World War Three in my bathroom. I, as it seems, am the only survivor, and covered in Smurf blood. My shower hosted the Blitz.

Now, after a million baby wipes and nail polish remover, my face looks okay. My hands are still a little smurfy, particularly the thumbs and nails. Sonya and/or Rie is going to help me with my shower in the near future.

Once my shower is clean and I don't have the threat of having to pay OU for damages I will laugh about this. Oh, yeah, and after I'm sure I don't have to join a freak show or Blue Man Group.

Back to School

The first week of class is over. I like most of my classes, but I've already switched one of my required courses for another professor. I feel bad, because my little sister (sorority) was in that class so I was going to take it with her, but the professor is very vague about what he wants, and I want a class that I can get an "A" in.

Shakespeare looks like it will be good, although we're reading some pretty obscure plays it makes me happy because then I can make obscure Shakespeare references. We have a twelve page research paper, so that will give me the opportunity to find out how much i like researching Shakespeare.

In other, really exciting news, it snowed here on Wednesday, and it's snowing now too! In Atlanta! And up until Wednesday, I'd never really seen snow. I mean, it flurried once at home when I was four, and I have a picture of me at my grandparents at the whopping ages of 9 mos in the snow, but that's about it. So this is very exciting!

Not much knitting, having scoped out any classes where I can get away with it yet, though I plan on doing some this weekend :D

Book Review: Blackberry Wine

Blackberry Wine by Joanne Harris

This is the book I received in the Book Swap. It's by the same author as the book Chocolat and set in the same village.

I enjoyed the book as a bit of a light read. The main character, Jay, was interesting to me and different from other characters I have seen. I loved the contrast between London, the small English time where he spent his childhood and the French village that he came to.

The appearance of his old friend Joe as an "out-of-body" traveller was interesting, but not as clunky as it could have been, and I liked it. The village characters are all quirky and interesting, and I felt a real pang when it was talked about how many villagers want to modernize their villages for tourism. Realistic, but sad.

Harris's prose is spectacular, and it's worth the read just for that. Her images are vivid and luscious. The two real peeves I have about the novel are these:

The narratives done from the point of view of the wine was inconsistent, and in my opinion, unnecessary. I appreciate the exploration of new techniques, but I think an editor should have cut that at some point. I also think Jay's romance with Marise was too sudden. She goes from reclusive to in his bed very quickly. I appreciate the off-camera talks that they must have had, but those would have been nice to see.

Overall, though, a good and quick read.

Book Review: Villette

Villette

by Charlotte Brontë

I technically started this book in September, but I set it aside for a while and didn't finish it until last week. Towards the end I had to force myself to read fifty pages a day just to finish it. That said, it's not a completely horrible book, but I was not a fan.

Too many of the occurrences were amazingly contrived. For instance, the main character, Lucy Snowe moves to an entirely different country and yet still manages to run into her godmother and, in a completely different fashion, a little girl for whom her godmother cared for ten years apart? No, don't think so.

Also, Brontë's prose, while brilliant, is very often preach-y. A big thing she seemed passionate about in this book was the differences between Catholicism and Protestantism. But this was not too well-woven into the story. Long passages devoted to it exist instead, just barely tied onto the characters.

I liked the main character, but thought her final relationship was a bit disappointing. She ends up with a man who has tormented her for most of the book, in a very condescending way. She seems to end up with him because she is sympathetic to his past and he buys her a school.

Still, it's got some interesting characters, but not one I'd read again.

Scholar? Maybe.

Take the Quiz here!

It's a new semester and I'm getting all organized. You know what a great invention desk dividers are? I didn't until today. My pens, highlighters and sharpies are no longer all mixed together! Amazing.

I'm completely excited about getting my books tomorrow; particularly because I'm fairly sure that my Shakespeare text will be a copy of the Complete Works! :D I'm really hoping so.

You know, I write. I want to remain in academia and I consider myself somewhat of a scholar. But I've never been published (granted, I'm only 18), I don't write constantly, although I have ideas a lot. I hate rewriting. And I wonder, does this all combine to mean I may never be successful? I'm intellegent, but part of it is that I do my classwork. I just wonder.... I don't know. People knew more in ancient times, of course, in a way, there was less to know.

I guess we'll see where it goes....

What did you learn today?

I learned how to sew. My mom had not really sewn in ages, but because I wanted skirts we bought the fabric this summer. Because of our Europe trip, we didn't get around to making them until now.

Hopefully, this summer I can go out and get fabric on my own and make a couple more. I sewed the sparkly one all by myself! (er.... pictures when I'm back at school. Sorry!)

We're headed back to school tomorrow, and classes start Wednesday. I've had a good break, recovery and all that. So, bring it on Winter semester!

Winter Break How I love Thee

I love the endless time to read and knit and talk to my mom and not have actual work to do. I shall soon cast on the final project that I brought home yarn for (socks). I'm trying to finish reading Charlotte Bronte's Vilette before I go back, since I set it aside since September and one of my goals is to read all of my "to read" books before I buy new onces (pleasure reads, obviously, textbooks must be bought in a week, ack!)

I finished the last of my "Christmas knitting" for my friend who's had a rough semester and will give it to her when I get back to school. FO post once I have pictures of her in it.

My Mission101 has been going well. I've done all of the various "throughout the project" nitpicky things this week, and am working on the weightloss. Hopefully, once my cards are paid off, I'll have the money to invest in rejoining weight watchers and that'll be a big help.

I've changed my list a bit, getting rid of vague things such as "make better friends", because that's impossible to cross off. Instead, I've put on more things to help with my writing and such. So that's better. :D

This month's Bible verse is:

"We are persuaded that neither life, nor death, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things past, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creatures shall keep us from God's love, which is Jesus Christ, Our Lord" Romans 15; 38-39

FO: Hermione's Cable and Bobble Hat

From Charmed Knits .


I love this hat so much. I've worn it nearly every day since it got cold here, and I adore it. It's a little big; and I have to fold the brim up twice, or else this happens:
but I still love it. Made in Cascade 220 that I bought at the Purly Gates closing sale last year. It once going to be fuzzy feet, but changed its mind. So now I have an extra ball in the stash that I need to do something with.Needles as prescribed in the pattern, no mods to speak of.

Book Review: Mockingbird

Mockingbird

by Charles J. Shields

Called "A portrait of Harper Lee" by the author, I would call this: "A portrait of Harper Lee, but not the details people really care about", but that's me. Honestly, it seems to be a little bit more about Truman Capote than his friend Nelle Harper Lee. Personally, I would have liked to spend a little less time in the novel talking about her time helping Capote with "In Cold Blood" I also thought that there was too much talk about the people that surrounded Lee.

I was interested in the little details about the similarities between Lee's childhood and the world of Maycomb she portrays in the novel; and the looks into the reasons that she did not write a second novel, but I also somewhat disapprove of the fact that the book was written directly against Harper Lee's wishes.