2013 Reading Challenge

I decided to take the Goodreads 2013 reading challenge.   For those of you who don't know, Goodreads is a website for the reading community - a place for you to keep track of books you've read, are reading or want to read, chat in various groups about books, and give or read reviews about books.  And, a la facebook, you can "friend" people and see the books they are reading etc. Very fun and the solution to my problem of forgetting all the cool books I've wanted to read because I've never taken the time to find an organized way of writing them down and then not lose the paper I wrote them down on.

Their monthly newsletter came out recently and indicated they do this yearly challenge. I'm supposed to pick a target number for the amount of books I'd like to read in 2013.  Here's how clueless I am:  I said to myself, "Hmmmm.  I think I should choose 12 - one book a month.  That's a good goal and one that would not really be a stretch." Don't want to set myself up to fail the first time out, right?  So I clicked on the link and it brought me to the sign up page where it directed me to put in my goal.  Then I noticed in little parentheses under the space, it says, "You read 13 books in 2012."  What?????  Wow, I should adjust my goal a little higher, right?  Then, I said to myself, "Wait, I didn't even know about Goodreads until well into 2012."  And I clicked the link that would show me the 13 books I read.... since August.  Thirteen books in four months?????  That's a book a week, more or less.  Who knew?  So, guess what my goal is now?  26 books.  For some reason I just didn't want to push it.  Wonder what that says about me?  After writing all this, I may change it, but I just can't imagine putting down 52 books as a goal - that seems like so many books.  Yes, I realize it makes sense if I read 13 in four months, but come on, 52 books?!?!?  That's crazypants.  Right?

And speaking of books, I forgot to show you the books my sister-in-law gave me for Christmas (thanks Anita!):

Elizabeth Zimmermann's Knitter's Almanac which is a book of 12 classic Elizabeth Zimmerman patterns (one for each month).  But the best part about her books are the stories she tells about her life, in and around talking about the patterns.  She believed knitting should not be stressful or hard and often talked about knitting as if one could do it lickety split, with no worries at all.  One of my favorite quotes from her:  "Really, all you need to become a good knitter are wool, needles, hands and a slightly below-average intelligence.  Of course, superior intelligence, such as yours and mine, is an advantage."  And my really most favorite quote is, "Knit on, with confidence and hope, through all crises."

The Principles of Knitting is an updated, reprinted book that has absolutely everything you want to know about knitting.  It's about 3 inches thick.  An excellent reference book. Love. It.
  
On to knitting news:
I'm ready and waiting:

.... for all my knit a longs to start.  SO excited for all my knit a longs, that last night I wound my yarn and got everything ready.  Up at 5am today and the Jimmy Beans Wool blog still hasn't posted the first clue for their Downton Abbey mystery knit a long that starts today.  What slackers!  Ha.  The yarn for that is on the left.  The yarn in the middle is for my Knitter's Brewing Company mystery sock knit a long that starts this Friday.  And the yarn on the left is for the Great American Afghan knit a long that starts this Saturday - we are starting with square #3 since it is apparently one of the easier ones.  Seriously, when will I be knitting my unfinished projects that I vowed to finish?

Oh, and speaking of that....  I was at The Spinning Room yesterday and saw my friend who is also knitting the Umaro blanket.  Here is mine:

It's actually about twice the height now which is still not
very far along...

We got the yarn (over a year and a half ago!) at the same time and had a very informal lets-knit-this-at-the-same-time-but-it's-not-a-formal-knit-a-long thing.  She's now done and it's gorgeous!  Now, I'm all antsy to work on that.   But I have one more wrist warmer and a hat to make for class samples.  Whine, whine, life is rough right?  I'm happy to have a hobby I love.

Finally, a couple of pictures of winter around here:

If only I knew how to photoshop out those
power lines!

No idea how that's working...