Spring is Here! (even though it doesn't really seem like it)

Despite the still-frozen pond....

I can feel it.  Spring is in the air.   This week, the days were a little warmer and I got outside with the doodlebugs for some great walks.  Busses!  Cars!  More Cars!  Planes!  and, wait for it....Even. More. Cars!  The gasps of delight at everything that passed by was hilarious.  And who knew watching furniture guys unload a chair at some random house could be so riveting?  Even though we've still got snow on the ground up here on the hill, and we're still waiting to see buds on the trees, the warm air is encouraging and we just know more is coming.

And Spring also means Easter.  Today and tomorrow are bread-baking marathon days.  Some for the baked french toast I'll be making for Easter brunch, and some for giving away.  My sample loaf last week went over well with my taste testers, so I'm using the same recipe.  Stay tuned for an update on all this yummy goodness!

Spring, however, does not mean I stop knitting with wool!....

In Knitting News:
My Meadowlark is done!

Picture with me in it to come when I have a photographer...

I re-read the directions, which said that the i-cord down the front edges was optional (yay!) so, of course, I opted out.  I actually really didn't think the i-cord would look as good on the fronts since it is supposed to be drapey/wavey.  Like this:

The i-cord would make it sturdy and not-as-drapey.  But it's great to give the arm holes some shape:

Before i-cord

After i-cord.  See?  Neater.

Also, lots of progress on my Bloody Mary Cardigan... the back is done:

I'm excited, although I'm slighty concerned about my yarn amounts.  I should have 100 extra yards.  However, I've used almost a whole skein (of my three skeins) on the back.  I still have the two fronts, two sleeves, button bands and collar to do.  I think I'm worrying too early.

I also finished Square #10 from the Great American Afghan book:

This makes 5 sqaures completed, one in each color. This gives you an idea of my color scheme:

I'm a little not sure about it now.  I don't know why.  I'm trying to imagine it done, and I feel like it will be really busy.  I'm thinking that I will use the darker color for the border to reign in the other lighter colors.  Ha!  Can you see how I'm already thinking about the border when I still have 20 (twenty) more squares to knit and that could take ages?

I also became obsessed with the Lightspeed shawl/scarf-y thing:

Sample picture from Ravelry.com

So here are my colors:

(That's navy blue on the right.)

I'm starting it today when I run out of my Bloody Mary yarn -- I have to go to The Spinning Room yarn shop to wind the next skein on their ball winder since it is a jumbo skein!

In Book News:
The Last Time They Met by Anita Shreve:  I suffered through this one. 
The Amazon description is:
"From the last time Linda and Thomas meet, at a charmless hotel in a distant city, to the moment, thirty-five years earlier, when a chance encounter on a rocky beach binds them fatefully together, this hypnotically compelling novel unfolds a tale of intense passion, drama, and suspense. "  My take on it:  It was non-hypnotic, depressing and blah.  I just didn't enjoy the story line. 

I have had mixed personal reviews of Anita Shreve's books.  Some I have liked, some I have not.  I loved Light on Snow (see my blog review here).

In Other News:
I am going to participate in the NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month) in April, which means I will be posting every day for the whole month.  That's the goal anyway! The idea of this is to get writing and re-juvenate my ideas for the blog. The theme for April is "Fresh" since spring gives us a fresh start etc.  My posts may or may not have to do with the theme (they don't have to), and I'll just see where it takes me.  So, just warning you (or delightfully informing you, if that's the case) that there will be a lot of posting going on.  After that, I'll go back to my regular programming.  If you are not signed up to receive email notifications when there is a new post, you can do so by going to the sidebar on the right! 

A book trio (but they aren't related!)

I've been reading a lot lately, mostly because I've picked some books that I just couldn't put down.  I love that.    I've put links to Amazon for books and Kindle books after each review, if you are interested.  So, here they are:

Book the First:
Moonlight Mile by Dennis Lehane.  LOVE his books.  Most of them (Couldn't seem to get into The Given Day).  This book has his recurring characters Patrick Kenzie and Angie Gennaro and takes place 12 years after the events in his book Gone, Baby, Gone: A Novel (Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro).  In that book, they investigate the disappearance of a 4 year old girl and in Moonlight Mile, they investigate her disappearance again, at age 16.  Patrick has lots of internal conflict about the previous case since it involved him returning the 4 year old to an abusive, drug addicted mother instead of leaving her in the wonderfully loving home her kidnapper (her concerned uncle) took her to.  Now it all comes back to him as he tries to find her again.  Very exciting page-turner.

If you haven't read his books, I highly recommend them.  They are detective stories jam packed with action and suspense.  Patrick Kenzie struggles with right/wrong as he acts on his instincts to bring people to justice.  And his friend Bubba is scary but hilarious.  Then there is Shutter Island (not a Patrick Kenzie book) which I read and couldn't put down but it. was. so. scary.

    Or get it for your kindle here:




Book the Second:
Track of the Cat by Nevada Barr.  This was the first time I had read anything by this author and got the recommendation from the  2 Knit Lit Chicks podcast.  They have read all of the books in the series and highly recommended them.  So I started with #1 in the series (I think there are 13).  This is a series that also has a recurring character, Anna Pigeon, who is a national park ranger and in the course of her work, stumbles upon murders in various national parks around the country.  In this first book, she is in Texas and is investigating the murder of another park ranger.  We get little peeks into Anna's life and how she got to Texas from New York .  Another page turner, with lots of little cliff hangers at the end of chapters.  It was a little difficult to follow the writing when it was describing the national park and the various hills and valleys --- clearly trying to set the scene, but I was having trouble picturing it.  In the end it didn't really matter, but it distracted me a little.  I will definitely read on to the next in the series, since I'm curious to know more about Anna and why she ends up in these various parks.
   or on your kindle here :

Book the Third:
Light on Snow by Anita Shreve.  I really like this author.  My sister loves her.  I have read a few of her books and liked most of them but some I felt plodded along.  Can't remember which ones now.  I have another book by her on my book shelf: Tesitmony.  She reminds me somewhat of Jodi Picoult because often there is some sort of moral dilemma on the line.

In this one, Nicky and her dad stumble upon something while snowshoeing in the woods.  The track their life takes from there is affected by this something (you have to read it to know what it is!) and brings on the moral dilemma.  But brought into it is also their tragic past and how these two worlds are colliding.  Nicky is 12 and the story is told through her eyes, so we also see the struggles a pre-teen goes through with all of these events.  While not action packed like the first two books, I still could not put this down for wanting to know what was going to develop and happen next.
   Or get it for your Kindle here:

So, there you have it.  I'm reading a new-to-me-author, Carol O'Connell, now.  More police detective mysteries and recurring characters.  Stay tuned...

And, remember when I said I really liked putting quotes on my weekly emails when I owned the yarn shop and so I was going to do it here?  And then I didn't?
Ha!  Here's one:

"Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire: it is the time for home."

-- British Poet Edith Sitwell 

(...and for curling up by said fire with a great book!)