Just a quick post - I'm still on vacation. The end of this week I travel to Michigan to see my cousin get married.

I had a dream about the blog last night. Hahahaha. I guess I miss it when I'm away from it. The dream was very detailed - the blog was this same blog, but with more bells and whistles: for example, there was video on there. (Though, boringly enough, video of me cleaning my house.). There was also someone who wrote a daily "Fillyjonk's Progress" comic strip taking my daily adventures, casting a "real" fillyjonk as the main character, and embellishing them a bit. And there was someone who had written a book and who thanked me for my blog in their acknowledgements section. (I wonder - am I feeling a little needy of recognition?)

I was kind of sad when I woke up.

In terms of knitting, I've almost finished the socks from the latest McKinney yarn purchase - I was afraid I'd not have enough (it's 4 oz., and it's closer to sport than to fingering weight). I think I'm going to make it. I hope.

I also knit the various body-parts for a teddy bear but I have to seam them up. And I'm working on a small quilt from some fabric I bought up here.

I also went to the local library and borrowed my mom's card. It's a good way to check out new knitting and quilting books - there's an active quilt guild here and also an active group of knitters. No real new quilt books, but I did check out three knit books:

The Knitted Rug (Donna Druchunas)
"Knitter's Lib" (Lena Maikon)
and
Freeform Knitting and Crochet (Jenny Dowde).

I also got out a copy of "Hip to Stitch," which is on embroidery.

Of the three knitting books, the only one I would buy - and I am seriously considering buying it - is The Knitted Rug. Several patterns in there that would be fun to try (there are also pillows in there and things that could be used as throws). I love the spiral "Yellow Brick Road" rug.

The other two knitting books were mostly disappointing to me, but that's okay, since they were checked-out rather than bought. "Knitter's Lib" might be okay if I were 23 and a club-kid, the patterns have that kind of ethos. She's trying very hard to be Deb Stoller, is my sense, and she doesn't do it as well as Stoller does. The instructions on how to knit and crochet are accompanied by photos rather than clear drawings, which I think I would find harder to use as a reference. And she talks about not liking to sew, and saying something like "I'm sure it's very useful, but it just doesn't interest me, so don't talk to me about it." That sort of rubs me the wrong way, when someone dismisses something out of hand, because it doesn't "interest" them. (My other main complaint? She calls Fair Isle "Intarsia." The two are NOT the same. I'm surprised no editor caught that.) I'd call it "Stitch N Bitch Lite." Not as good as the Stoller book by a mile.

The Freeform book was better - but I think you need to be into wearable art (which I am not) to be really moved by it. It also draws heavily on novelty yarns, which I'm pretty much done with by this point. Basically you make little patchworks of "scrumbled" knit or crochet (i.e., increase at will, change yarns when you feel like, don't worry overmuch about shaping). It's perhaps a bit too uncontrolled for me. (And there's all the sewing of the little bits together. I like to sew, but I don't like sewing knit bits together THAT much).

Hip to Stitch is neat. I like the ribbons in there and also the guitar-pick case, although I don't currently know anyone who's an avid guitarist. Interesting ideas. It's a good basic overview of the different modes of embroidery. I'm still on the fence about buying this one, but I do think it's a good book.

Tomorrow is my mother's birthday (she and my dad are out at a meeting this evening.) I'm baking her a cake - an Earl Grey Tea chocolate cake. She's not normally a fan of chocolate but she likes this cake (and it's fairly quick and easy to make, and doesn't take any real exotic ingredients.) It was a recipe out of "Real Simple" magazine several years ago.