Wednesday, January 18, 2006

BILLY'S & ANDREW'S SWEATERS

Andrew in his new sweater. It's lighter weight than Billy's and only took me three days to make.





Billy in his new sweater. The sleeves are, indeed, WAY too big, but he likes it. If I get a chance (maybe this summer), I'll redo it.





Both boys in their sweaters.






I started Daniel's in the car on the way to Iowa and worked on it on Saturday while watching TV at the house...but (of course) I ran out of one yarn with just the top of the second sleeve and the neck to go (sound familiar?). So I'll have to finish it here and send it in the mail. It's royal blue, medium blue, and off white.

I recently finished Donna Simpson's The Gilded Knight--lame, impoverished ne'er-do-well tries to persuade his deceased cousin's widow to vacate the entailed estate she lives on, but a blizzard keeps him snowbound with her and her gravely ill daughter, enabling him to learn to know her better as well as to re-examine his own pointless life, leading to love and personal reform (a kind of bittersweet story, with a potentially happy ending); Catherine Asaro's The Last Hawk--Sauscony's brother, Kelric, doesn't die in battle, but crash lands on a planet ruled by women, where he is forced to remain for 16 years, a catalyst through his Quis playing skills causing great societal changes and war (another intense story, hard to put down, though the end is very sad, if heroic); and Charmed Destinies--three novellas connecting romance and magic by Mercedes Lackey (dark view of medieval life with a great revengeful ending), Rachel Lee (cute story about a future/modern couple magically co-dreaming the same adventure while at work), and Catherine Asaro (interesting tale in which a girl discovers her mage abilities by finding a long-lost heir to the kingdom).

Tuesday, January 10, 2006

BILLY'S SWEATER FINISHED

After much "frogging" and using different yarns, I finished it.





It is heavy, but actually doesn't look too bad. I don't think the yarn changes are too glaring.





I have not been doing any craft stuff since then--a week ago--until Sunday, when I did start a sweater for Andrew, but I only have a couple of inches done. Blogging, reading, and packing up Christmas stuff have taken a lot of time. And, I worked this past weekend. This sweater will be in brown shades.

I am currently taking down the tree; I packed the ornaments yesterday. I brought in the outdoor lights this morning and am packing them; I'll get the tree lights later today. Here's some pics of the tree as it was:























I've only read a few books since Christmas. Lynn Kerstan's Dangerous Passions was quite good, another in her Black Phoenix series, though leaving the reader with several unfinished plot threads. I also like Nora Roberts' Blue Smoke even though a lot of characters died nasty, horrible deaths. Rita Mae Brown's The Hunt Ball was a nice relief, more picturesque than scary or gory. Lady Savage by Donna Simpson was very different, depicting the struggles of upper class Regency era characters to survive on a deserted Caribbean island after being dumped when their ship was hijacked.

Sunday, January 01, 2006

STILL WORKING ON SWEATER FOR BILLY

The frustration continues since I have now run out of two of the three yarns used in the sweater. I have substituted, but the colors really don't match. So, the top of one sleeve and the collar will be "slightly" different. Oh, well.