First off, I hate it when Blogger is down. Even the comments? The horror! The nerve! And my email server went down too. It was awful. I had no choice but to work (and to leave early and go to Border to use my 30% off coupon to soothe my shattered nerves. )

Isnt't this fabulous? It's the Red Dress washcloth from Becky I mentioned earlier, that she gave to me to give to my Mom. Her pic came out so much better than mine too, so go to her site and check it out. It's the May 23rd post. Thank you so much, Becky.

And here's my progress on the shell, almost done! With the front. Then I get to seam it, and knit on I-cord around the neckline and armhole edges. Joy, oh joy. Not to mention it's a twinset, so the jacket still needs to be done. But later. After the critter blanket ( my *U2FO came out looking quite nice in photographs, unlike this damn shell. It's possible that there's an 8 row cable amid the 6 row cables, but it doesn't look that wonky IRL) and after Eliz I.



Tonight! Season finale of Doctor Who and the last ep with Christopher Eccleston.

Sunday: The actual season premiere of The 4400, 9-11pm USA. I was so very annoyed to discover the "new" show last Sunday was a "new" show of clips. Sorry about that, guys.

Kat With A K is hosting a Summer Reading Program, which goes really well with Amanda's Summer Reading Challenge 2006. So far I've read Freddy & Fredericka by Mark Helprin (reviewed in an earlier post). Out of the 553 pages of the book, I read about half of them after the 1st. (Kat's program is tracking the pages. Amanda's isn't).

I'm still reading Jane Hirschfield's essays in her Nine Gates: Entering the World of Poetry. It's just fascinating. I'm trying to read it slowly. One essay dwells on poetry's using music, intellect and image to be truly effective, and the representation of the camel, the lion and the child (to be delved into during a later post).

Mason Dixon Knitting by Kay Gardiner & Ann Meador Shayne (160 pages). I picked this up at Borders yesterday because it's impossible not to have heard of it and discovered that it had Log Cabin knitting! I'm a Log Cabin freak enthusiast. I've got Log Cabin Quilt books, a million log cabin quilt squares littering the craft room , tons of Log Cabin quilt plans (no actual FO's but that's not too unusual for me) so I was practically forced to purchase it. Now unlike Nancie Wiseman's Knitter's Book of Finishing Techniques that I also picked up and flipped through, (which will hopefully be invaluable when I pick up and knit on the I-cord) I read, cover to cover, Mason-Dixon Knitting, because as the Knitting World knows, they're both pretty darn funny and so very readable. Lovely patterns, a revolutionary idea of actually using your knitting and not say, displaying it in a museum case (which I've been tempted to do) (or hide it). I'm sure everyone already knows that the patterns are both pretty, practical and easy to read (we'll see if they're idiot proof when I actually attempt to knit one).

And now I must go out and knit washcloths.

Thanks to Heather's contest, I took her prize of a gift certificate to Amazon and applied it towards Symmetries of Culture by Donald W Crowe & Dorothy Washburn, Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte (I couldn't find it in a used bookstore around here, how weird is that?) and an anthology of poetry by Marina Tsvetaeva. I'm not too fond of this particular translation though.

Baby pictures in the park this morning:









Big ball o' fluffy feathers:













Big ball o' fluffy fur



*U2FO = Un-identified Un-Finished Object

Saturday - Knit In Public Day! Where are you going to knit, and what?