March Picks

Since I was teaching Ancient Rome in history this term, and since I am a passionate believer in matching excellent historical fiction with the study of a people and a time period, I decided that I would go ahead and get this book which had been sitting on my Amazon wishlist for quite some time. I had also heard it mentioned in my Emperors of Rome Great Course, so I was even more eager to finally read this book. Well, I was not disappointed! I think this author did an excellent job of making you understand how, shall we say, 'messy,' the lives of the Roman elite were without going into disgusting detail. The conniving, the moral bankruptcy, and the use of religion as a bludgeon are all well portrayed. I found this a hard to put down read, and while I won't be using it in my classroom with my tender middle school ears, this book deserves its reputation as a great piece of Roman historical fiction.

My music pick for this month is something else that has been sitting on my Amazon wishlist for quite some time. I grew up listening to Roger Whittaker, and since I wanted something Irish for March this album seemed a good choice. I also had this album on my wishlist because it has some of the songs on it from my all time favorite Whittaker album, Folk Songs for Our Time, this is only available as a cassette, 8-track, or LP. While I wasn't a huge fan of all his renditions of these common Irish folk songs, there were a few that I really do like, so I consider it money well spent. Now I just need to track down that cassette again and get it converted to digital format so I can't loose it again!

February Picks (yes I know it’s March!)

Well, I had the best of intentions of getting this up in February, but my life got rather…complicated…suddenly, I was sick, and I’m still expected to get my work done. *sigh* Here goes then!

For my Kindle purchase, I finally got the novel written my friend, Rebekah Shafer, A Twist of Fae. I greatly enjoyed it, and I’m not just saying that because my friend wrote it! A delightful mix of the hard boiled detective story and a fairy tale; my only complaints were a) it was too short, and b) the next one isn’t out yet! Such a nice treat.

For music, I indulged myself with the first Piano Guys album. It wasn’t quite what I was expecting based on my limited cruising of YouTube, but I have and am enjoying it nonetheless. It’s a little more ‘soft’ classical than I had thought; I can totally see why they have become so popular. I still like their single, “Let it Go” best of all their stuff that I have heard, but the Star Wars medley had me smiling. All in all a nice Valentine’s treat

A Tale of One Pair of Gloves and Four Hats

When I went home for Christmas I spent my usual goodly amount of time figuring out what my ‘trip knitting’ would be. I decided that as my mother had requested “Handknitted fingerless gloves in fingering weight with partial fingers,” I would use my many long hours on a plane to accomplish some stealth knitting. All the way from Lusaka to Dubai, in Dubai, and then from Dubai to Dallas I worked on the first pair. When I took my trip up north to Columbus and then down to Atlanta, I continued to knit away. Since I choose a really basic pattern, I used an arched cable pattern down the back of the hand to keep the knitting ennui away. I don’t have a picture of them yet (hint hint Mother!), but I was pretty happy with how they turned out. The worst part of the project? The fingers. I’ve always been a fan of fingerless gloves because there was no fiddly finger part! That being said, after getting a taste of real cold up in Ohio, I can see the appeal…

Once I arrived in Texas I quickly found myself some other knitting to occupy my hands. I decided that I was going to make hats for each of my three sisters as Christmas gifts. I had already made two pairs of socks and a scarf for said sisters, but what’s Christmas without frantic knitting? So, I finally bought the Verity pattern that been in my queue for forever, and made a green hat for Lucy.

Love, love, LOVE this pattern! That being done, I went looking for more ‘hipster’ patterns for my other two sisters. For Mercy I found “Shannon’s Slouchy Hat”—a quick, easy knit. I ended up adding a few stitches to it and adjusting the ribs accordingly; I might make myself one some day.

For Mary I choose the “C’mon Baby Twist and Slouch.” Again, I really liked this pattern; I can see making myself one. Because you know, I need so many hats here in the bush!

Well, after all that hat knitting, I still had a little time between Christmas and New Years, and since it was actually a little cold, I figured I should cash in one what hat wearing time I could. So, I made myself a Verity in a lovely teal color. I had great fun wearing it until I left to come back to my more usual tropical climes.

Thus, the story of the four hats I knit in December, and the pair of fingerless gloves that as my somewhat awed friend remarked were a real gift of love. Now, what shall I knit for next Christmas?

I made some yarn!

While I made some more progress on both of my blanket projects this week,

the big exciting thing I did was finish my very first skein of plied on the fly handspun. 31 grams of lovely green yarn that I'm admiring for awhile before matching it to a project.

I enjoyed this so much, that I couldn't help myself and pulled out a lovely roving of Mountain Color fiber that I bought awhile back and divided it up by color repeat,

And have started spinning with the shortest end. I'm going to be splitting each third into thirds again so that it's not too thick to spin with. I can't wait to see what the yarn looks like! I'm really noticing how a different fiber spins a little differently; this one took me awhile to get going. Now I'm starting to dream of a spinning wheel...

Other than being sick this week, not much went on. I staggered around trying to get the most urgent things accomplished while also not falling over. I'm feeling much better now; still rather snowed under with work, but at least able to breath deeper. I've been so tired these last two months; I can't wait to sleep, get caught up on life, and clear out/clean my house in April. Is it the holiday yet?