Land of Lakes and Volcanoes

Generally I try to choose knitting projects where I need to master one new skill at a time.  I've learned cables, increasing and decreasing, short rows, continental and European knitting.  I've also successfully modified a rather complicated pattern so that I could add in a specialty rib stitch where a simple rib was called for.  I felt very proud of this, which indicates that I am a nerd with no life.  C'est ma vie. However, I am breaking my rule to start on a project I've really wanted to do for a while.  It's a kit from KnitPicks for a laptop case.  Should I manage to not screw this up, it will look something like this: This requires that I knit in the round, read a chart, and do stranded colorwork, all of which is new for me.  Should I actually manage to finish it, it's also going to require steeking , where you cut. the. damned. knitting, which is craaaaazy. Steeking.  Pure madness. I may use it as a laptop bag, or maybe I'll turn it into a pil

I had one of these: That's awesome because it had popcorn in it, and I like popcorn.  However, it's not exactly the kind of thing you'd keep around the house year round, now is it?  Even though you can imagine it would have lots of uses, most of which involve holding things.  (This isn't my tin, as I didn't take a pre picture, but mine had puppies and Santas on it.) I also had some of this: The colors are lovely, but what exactly do you do with such a thing?  It's not really garment appropriate, and I didn't have enough to make a blanket. But, when I put the two together, I got this: I started at the bottom where there's a little metal lip, and just wrapped up the side.  I put a thin layer of Mod Podge underneath occasionally to anchor it, and attached the beginning and end of the yarn with some hot glue.  Then I sealed the whole thing to give it some stability and keep it from getting too dirty since it will be on the floor.  I didn't bot

That was the title of the email I got from The Rumpus today, and it's apropos, as I also had a rough night.  I dreamed about my mom.  Before I went to bed ThisMoiThisMoi posted on Twitter, "Today I turn 27. The same age my mother was when she had me. Now the universe will explode."  I retweeted and responded with, "My mom was 27 when she had me and I was 27 when she died. Somehow the universe didn't explode." Not because I was trying to be a downer or anything, but because it's true.  It feels like the universe should have exploded when she died, or at least collapsed in on itself, but somehow it didn't.  I also just know what she means.  When my mom died I wasn't a mother or a daughter anymore at the same age when my mother was both.  I felt unmoored and without purpose. Then last night I dreamt about her, a few times I'm sure because I woke up a lot, but I only remember the first time.  I don't know what was happening, but at the en

Post to keep track of 100+ Challenge books: To the White Sea - James Dickey Little Bee - Chris Cleave Talk Talk - T.C. Boyle Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides After Dark - Haruki Murakami Lullaby - Chuck Palahniuk Hedge Fund Wives - Tatiana Boncompagni Watership Down - Richard Adams A Discovery of Witches - Deborah Harkness The Lovely Bones  - Alice Sebold The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake  - Aimee Bender Between, Georgia  - Joshilyn Jackson Breathers: A Zombie's Lament - S. G. Browne The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins Catching Fire - Suzanne Collins Mockingjay - Suzanne Collins  The Mermaid Chair - Sue Monk Kidd

★★★★ This isn't so much a review as a bunch of the stuff I thought about while reading this. Expect that this year, as I have 100+ books to read, and I'm already behind. First, I loved this book.  I was completely entranced by the lead character, a GI named Muldrow who gets shot down over Tokyo during World War II.  I've been really into war novels lately, but I hadn't read one of the "trek through enemy territory" variety yet.  Muldrow is a weird guy, a fact established from the very beginning, but I found his reactions throughout the story really fascinating, and while I think they probably were unusual, he didn't seem particularly mad to me.  I mention that word, "mad" in particular, because all the comments on the book cover are about "outland craziness" and "snow, murder, madness, and war."  I'll give you all those descriptors except mad. Yes, getting shot down in Tokyo and deciding to head North because it's

I've been freaking out about work this week as well as about my inability to follow through on some person goals (not related to New Year's at all) and it's been affecting my sleep. Hasn't helped that I've been sick. Last night it showed up in the form of dreams. I don't remember all of them, but I know there was a series of weird dreams in which I was somehow not up to the task presented to me. In the last dream, I had a baby, but I was away all day, and in the evening I was meeting my mom and we were going out of town overnight and she had left the baby with someone.  I had kind of forgotten I had the baby and when I remembered, I was immediately terrified that she hadn't eaten, that I had abandoned her, and that my mom for some reason had forgotten her as well.  I demanded that she take me to see the baby, and while we were traveling to where the baby was, I started thinking about why the baby wasn't with me, and how if I'd been breastfeeding, t

On the first day of this new year, I am pulling together the reading challenges in which I want to participate.  There are so many that sound interesting that I'm not doing, particularly a bunch of them that are regional authors, which I'm trying to cover with my Global Reading Challenge.  I've chosen a bunch of them, but the problem won't be reading quantity, but more like reading strategy.  I read 3 or 4 books a week and most of these challenges allow crossovers, so I see no problems reading enough books, merely reading the right books and then, perhaps more challenging, writing about them, which some challenges require, and some only suggest.  Either way, it's a neat way to prioritize reading for the coming year. The Challenges in Which I Shall Participate Southern Literature Challenge - I've never read enough Southern Lit, and while some of the newer stuff is truly awful, I'd like to explore some older books. It's any book set in the South by a S