books « Plath’s Adventures

Archive for the ‘books’ Category

Just bumming around

April 1, 2008

I’m still here, I just haven’t felt like doing much lately. Growing increasingly LARGE and uncomfortable, of course, but I’m hanging in there. My midwife told me to take it easy, as my swelling is up, so I’ve been doing some reading, as knitting hasn’t been capturing my interest the past week or so.

I just picked up a big stack of books at Goodwill the other day, and I already finished Family Tree by Barbara Delinsky (decent book with a bit of a thought-provoking theme), Cocktails for Three by Madeline Wickham (good chicklit book to pass the time) and The Road by Cormac McCarthy (very good ~ I read this in less than one day). Right now I’m reading A Widow for One Year by John Irving. So far, it’s pretty good. I guess I was really craving a good book to have read all those in less than a week! I’ve been avoiding the library lately, as I didn’t want overdue books needing to be returned hanging over my head, so the next best thing is buying secondhand. I came very close to buying Cocktails for Three at Target last week and then a few days later I found it at Goodwill for 75 cents. That’s been my excitement for the week!

Not much going on in the baby department, although my braxton hicks contractions are getting stronger. Only 7 days until my due date, not that it means anything!

Told ya I was big!

Posted in books, pregnancy | 6 Comments »

Finally Settling In

October 26, 2007

Well, it’s been almost two weeks and I’m finally starting to settle in. I found the public library yesterday, and while I was only allowed to check out two items, it was still a relief to know that a building full of books was close by and just waiting for me. I may just have to stop in again today to check out more than my initial two. I’m the kind of reader who likes to leave the library with a giant stack of books…
In getting settled in, I’ve been doing a bit of knitting as well. I quickly knit up this pair of baby socks so I can contribute something to Socktoberfest. I can’t believe I missed that this year - I usually love socktoberfest!

Click on the picture for the details, although they’re just a pair of basic baby socks.
And I also finished the baby sweater

Click on the picture for more details. I don’t think it will be very practical in North Carolina, but should be nice for when we visit family in Ohio and Michigan.
Nothing else too exciting to report. We may take a drive this weekend to see some North Carolina fall color. If we do, I’ll be sure to take lots of pictures. So I leave you with one last picture. It’s of me and my sister in law (I’m on the right) at the race shop where Jason now works. You can see I’m getting a bit of a belly!

Posted in books, knitting, pregnancy | 6 Comments »

Still tired…

August 6, 2007

I’m finally back, but I’m still exhausted. Ugh. Returning to work right after my vacation has just wiped me out, and really made me realize how much I dislike my job. Ok enough complaining, I know that most people dislike their day jobs.

Anyway, I didn’t get much knitting in while on vacation, although I did cast on for a new pair of socks on the plane ride out to California

They’re the Menehune Cobblestone Socks in Panda Cotton.

We had a fantabulous time in California, even though I only managed to hit one yarn store, Bella Yarns of Sonoma, where the owner was super-nice and gave me a discount because a yarn was mismarked. I couldn’t find my skein this morning to take a picture, but I’ll post details later. I was excited to find in my google search a yarn store in the little town we stayed at in Sonoma county, The Knitting Workshop in Sebastopol, but discovered the owner had closed her retail store, much to my disappointment.

If you’re ever in the North Beach area of San Francisco (which you should definitely go to, even if just for a visit to City Lights bookstore– a huge beat hangout in the 50s), you must go to XOX Truffles and pick up a cup of their Graffeo coffee (from the roaster across the street who unfortunately was not open on the Sunday we were there) and get a free truffle. They were hands-down the best truffles I’ve ever tasted in my life.

Even if I didn’t get much knitting done while I was gone, I did manage to read 3 books, one of which was Harry Potter, of course! I picked it up in San Francisco, and read it in the evenings and finished it while in Sebastopol. I really did like it, but I’m not sure how I felt about the epilogue. I am a bit depressed it’s all over. Jason kept asking me not to finish it, as he knew I’d be depressed when I finished reading.

And of course we hit winerys in Sonoma! Here’s a list of ones we hit, not too many, but we only did 2 days of wine tastings.
Viansa– beautiful scenery, a great place to pick up an Italian sandwich, buy a glass and have a wonderful lunch. Reds were tasty, as was their smoked mozarella spread.
Belvedere– employees were very nice, knew their stuff but weren’t condescending at all. Picked up a great organic red
Rodney Strong– a bit too commercial for us, even though we liked a few of the wines
Ravenswood– Very good reds, and a very laid-back atmosphere. I really loved their old-vine zinfandel (and of course we bought a bottle)
Benziger– by far our favorite. Employees super-nice, really gave us selections based on our taste, and we loved everything we tasted. We couldn’t resist joining their wine club. They’re doing great things with biodynamic farming.

Edited to add: I just got out the sewing machine yesterday for another go at learning to sew… I have a bag half-way finished. Anyone have any great links to beginner sewing patterns?

Posted in books, knitting | 1 Comment »

Jane magazine is dead

July 9, 2007

Jane mag is kaput. Click here for very short story

Yes it kind of sucked after Jane Pratt left, but it was still readable…

Sigh. I wish Sassy was still around… gosh how I loved that mag.

Posted in books | 1 Comment »

Happy Monday

July 9, 2007

I spent a lot of time over the weekend reading Dream When You’re Feeling Blue: A Novel I LOVED this book… until the last 30 pages. Not to give away the ending, but I was expecting one thing to happen, but what happened as a result was truly shocking, and I didn’t like it at all. In fact, I think I freaked Jason out a bit at my anger after I finished…
Normally I love Elizabeth Berg’s books, so I was saddened when I didn’t like this one in the end. It’s about two sisters during WWII who’s boyfriends are fighting in the war. I loved how I felt transported back to the 1940s –it really made me think about how difficult times must have been back then, and the patriotism everyone had to possess. I just wish it ended differently!

I told you I would share my birthday presents, and here are the books I received:
Fitted Knits: 25 Designs for the Fashionable Knitter and No Sheep for You: Knit Happy with Cotton, Silk, Linen, Hemp, Bamboo & Other Delights. I haven’t had a chance to really peruse Fitted Knits, but I love Stephanie Japel’s patterns, so I can’t wait to really pore over it. I really like No Sheep for You. Not sure what I’ll be knitting up first, but there are quite a few patterns that interested me, and I loved the descriptions of the all the non-wool yarns in the beginning. And courtesy of my brother, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Book 7) will be arriving July 21st! Too bad I’ll be in California when it arrives though!! My mom also got me some of the new Cotton Ease in the lime color– I’m excited to try out the new colors!

Haven’t been knitting too much lately, but I have been embroidering. One project is a gift, so no pictures forthcoming of it, I hope to have a pic of the other one soon. My sis got me Sublime Stitching’s Winterland patterns and some floss, so maybe I’ll start a Christmas project… I’m thinking napkins would be cute. She also got me the Clover Needle felting tool, which I haven’t tried out yet, but can’t wait to.

Speaking of stitching, MIL gave me a pieced quilt she and GMIL (grandmother in law) put together a long time ago, that was never stitched together. My part of the project is to stitch it together (is there a fancy name for that?– probably quilt) and then she’ll help me with the binding.

Jason’s present to me is going to be a new tattoo that he has yet to draw. I’m thinking a big back piece in a floral design. I also plan on getting two nautical stars on my hips to represent my miscarriages.

We went to see Transformers this weekend. I was not so enthused to go and see this movie, but I actually ended up really liking it! I thought Shia was a great actor in it (used to watch him in Even Stevens!), and there were quite a few scenes that were hilarious. I didn’t watch a lot of Transformers when I was a kid– I preferred GI Joe (I LOVED the PSAs–And knowing is half the battle!), although I did watch it ocassionally. Jason was a huge fan, and liked the movie as well.

Still waiting on my Ravelry invite… I hate being the only knitting loser without one!*

*Technically I know that’s not true and many are still waiting for their’s, but it still makes me feel like the loser who can’t get into the cool club yet

Edited to add: Threadless restocked the cute Insomnia tee featuring sheep! This tee also makes me laugh.

Posted in books, embroidery | 4 Comments »

Busy busy busy

June 21, 2007

Is it possible to be both busy and boring at the same time? Not much knitting has been going on in the plath house… I’ve worked a little on my chevron scarf, but nothing much to show as far as pictures. That’s the problem with working on a scarf, it tends to just look the same once you get a few feet into it.

I have been doing some reading, though. I just finished Fast Food Nation, and I must say, if you haven’t read this one yet, go get it right now and read it. It’s that good. I can’t believe I’d never read it before. I watched the dvd a few months ago, and while it was very good, of course it doesn’t compare. I just started The Knitting Circle: A Novel, and I’m really, really liking it. It’s by far one of the best knitting-driven novels I’ve read.

Otherwise, I’ve just been keeping busy with life. Trying not to think about fertility related things for a little while (although my beta last week had dropped to 9.1, which is good. We went to the Nascar race last weekend. I know I’ve mentioned this before - we’re not big Nascar fans, but Jason is involved with the race car industry for his work, and with the free hot passes he got, how could we not go? Hot passes are really hard to get, and give you access to the pit and garage areas *during* the race. We probably could have gotten a lot of driver signatures and whatnot, but since we’re not fans, I didn’t really know all of their names… LOL It really is neat to see the pit crews at work though - they’re so fast! Here’s a pic of Jason and me at the race:

If you want to see more pictures, I have a bunch in my flickr pics here.
Next week we go to the NHRA Drag Race in Ohio, and I’ll be going to Cedar Point with my family, who’s driving up for it. That should be fun

Posted in books, fertility, knitting | 3 Comments »

Progress on my tank

June 4, 2007

It’s coming along nicely; I’m just about to start the increases, but I’m feeling the tempation to cast on something new… Rusted Root is calling me, and a nice chevron or feather and fan scarf, and I’m even feeling the urge to cast on for a felted Christmas stocking. Crazy aren’t I?

If you still have some moolah to spend, Amazon has a couple more good deals:

$3.79
If you missed out on the premiere edition of Craft magazine, it’s super-discouted to $3.00. It originally sold for $15.00

And I keep waiting for Monday’s unveiling of the new shirts over at threadless. ~~I believe the $10 sale was extended through today.~~ The $10 sale was extended through today! Woo hoo 9 new designs!

Edited to add a fertility update: My official miscarriage started yesterday (even though I’d already experienced most of the miscarriage very, very early, part of the placenta hung on and continued to grow), so hopefully my beta will be dropping! This is good news, because it means we’re closer to trying again. Please don’t think I sound callous, as I was already able to emotionally move through this when the doctor told me I was miscarrying so early. My body just wasn’t able to move on until now.

Posted in books, fertility, knitting, shopping | 2 Comments »