Making Stuff. It just runs in the family (obsession)

What can I say? People in my family just like to make stuff. My brother finished making his kit-car. It's a Shelby Cobra. It's very loud and very very fast. It's a lot of fun! So you can see that my very small crafts are as nothing against some of the stuff others in my family do for entertainment. I shall never feel guilty over what I spend on my activity's again. Still knitting scarves for JS. Too boring even to post them. However, I am up to row 191 of the Mountain Pines boarder with only 10 rows left to knit before I start knitting on the edging. (832 stitches around). I will try to post it on the "lacefreak" site when I get to that point. I've noticed on other blogs that knitting is sort of winding down for the holidays. People loose their incentive! I feel no guilt in this. I look forward to baking and catching up on my "trash" reading.

Just finished "Every Which Way But Dead" by Kim Harrison. It's the 3rd book in her Rachel Morgan series. She's a witch, but she's trying to stay a "good" witch with lots of opportunities to go bad including a "bad-boy" vampire boyfriend who is a heck of a lot more interesting than most of the rather annoying vampires you get to meet in the Anita Blake series. Also, the balance of sex vs plot is good in these books. Sometimes a book will lack enough of a plot to keep my interest. Not all the sex in the world will keep me from flinging the offending novel into the "donation" pile. Books I like, I keep. I actually re-read a book sometimes. I really enjoyed reading EWWBD and it whet my appetite for more. I'd slowed up on the reading front to knit, so now is a good time to get into that back-log of books and catch-up since the knitting is slowing down. I've got her next book, "A Fistful Of Charms" right here beside me and will be reading that along with more books by Sharon Shinn (Her Samaria Series). Sure glad I made a lot of those bookmarkers:-)

Good evening friends!

Slap me silly and call me "Sucker!" (Movies that fool you/book)

I went to see "The Illusionist"


***** FILM SPOILER!!! ******


Do NOT read any more if you want to see this film and be surprised. I already ruined it by accident for someone else!



Anyway, I went to see this film and got fooled but good. Just like the chief inspector and everyone else in this really quite good movie! I really thought that his lover was dead, honest I did. I thought it was going to be a movie about revenge but it was a movie about out-foxing a richer, more influential opponent and still be able to survive to tell the tale, not to mention win the girl at the end. I don't mind being a sucker in this instance. The last time I was so totally fooled was when the chief of police shot Kevin Spacey in "LA Confidential". Damn, it makes me want to get out my copy of "LA Confidential" and watch it again. As for the picnic, I actually didn't mind it. There were some very nice people who attended and, for the most part, they left me alone with my mp3 player and my knitting so I got more scarves done for JS. All told, a pretty nice weekend.

I've been reading "Grave Sight" a mystery novel with paranormal elements in it by Charlaine Harris. Yes, it's the same Charlaine Harris who writes those "Southern Vampire" books with the very regional Sookie Stackhouse. I read those too but I'm sort of "off" of them right now. In this book the female lead, Harper. can find dead bodies and can tell how the person died. She acquired this talent when she was truck by lightening as a young girl. While she can find dead people, she can't, say who might have murdered them if indeed it was a murder and she can only find them if she is physically close enough to do so. She can't do it from afar. It's a straight mystery, no romance, sex happens but it's "off camera" so to speak. The sex is not the important element of the story in any case. The important parts are the mystery and the interpersonal relationships. Most touching is the relationship between Harper and her step-brother Toliver. Harper is pretty twitchy and needs strong support. Her step-brother gives it to her and helps her with the cases. They share a traumatized childhood involving drug/alcohol addicted step-parents that placed them at risk physically, emotionally and spiritually. On top of the squalor, they endured they also suffered the loss of a sister who was abducted and never found.Of course Harper believes she will someday find the body of her sister and have some measure of closure. This book involves Harper being hired to locate the body of a teenage girl. The town believes her rich boyfriend killed her then turned the gun on himself. Though they found the boyfriend, they never found the girl. Harper discovers the girls body but also discovers that she and the boyfriend were both murdered and it's "Off to the races" we go. I rate it 4 stars because I was unable to stop reading it. Maybe it's not the ultimate but it's quite good and very readable. This matters as I've got a back-log of reading and I am only reading the books that stand up and shout "read my ass old woman!" You can't really ignore those. Well, you can, but you will pay for it in the end trust me. That's all for now folks!

Entertainment. I live for Entertainment!

Just a Few More (crafts)

Here are a few more of those darned scarves that are for the Senior Grandparent program. I only have one more to do then I think I may be done. I say "think" because you never really know with my friend, JS. If we get down to the wire and there are not enough scarves, I guess I will be doing more of them. I finished the two you see in the pictures while at a company picnic my sister went to in Walnut Creek. I go as transportation so my sister can leave whenever she wants and not have to wait for someone else to be ready to leave. I'm really not much into picnics. I mean, the bugs, the heat, the picnic food. It's just not me. I like to look at nature by watching PBS shows, not sitting in the middle of it. I also made a few more of the bookmarkers. I think I've almost got it out of my system now:-) I must be knitting lace now. I've neglected it. Of course, I made a BAD mistake on the Peacock Feathers Shawl and dropped a stitch. I say BAD because the sucker ran on me. Now I have to pick back at least 4 rows. 4 very long rows. Maybe I'll go see a move instead! I want to see "The Illusionist" with Edward Norton and Jessica Beal. It looks really interesting and is getting better buzz than "The Prestige" with Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman. Both are about magicians around the time of the Victorian Era but one is about a deadly rivalry between two magicians, the other about revenge for the death of the magicians one true love. I'll let you know how it turns out!

Go forth and Craft!

Something easy to make for Xmas (crafts)

So You're bored. You want a quick/easy project that will result in some potential stocking stuffers or a quick gift for the "bookaholic" in your life. How about a nice bookmarker made of pretty beads? I have, of course, a huge stash of beads anyway. I went out and got a roll of waxed bookbinding hemp and made these up. Just slide the beads on and knot at both ends of the beads (so they don't move around) and voila! Make sure to make some for both paperback and hardback books. For those of us who read alot (see my 'to be read' pile above) this is a pretty alternative to ratty old bookmarkers made of paper. I'm not fond of those bookmarkers made of metal (they break your binding) and these can be customized to fit the individual you're making it for. I've seen these made commercially with charms on the ends etc. I bet you could even use vintage buttons and it would be pretty. I've made some tatted bookmarkers in the past but I like these better!

I guess you can tell that the holidays are on my mind. I've been knitting on the "almost done" set of shawls at the house to try to finish some of them for Xmas along with those darned scarfs for JS. I said I would make only one more for her, but my friend, Louise, got fed-up with the project and I took some of her yarn off her hands to finish up. As a result, I have at least one or two more to do. Sigh. Ok, OK. It's for a good cause. I just hope that the people who get these don't hate them too much.

Until later!

Only one more to go (knitting)

Two down, one men's scarf to go! I added some of the rayon left over from my green shawl with the teal colored Fun Fur and left-over handspun to the blue/green Fun Fur. You can't see much in the teal fur unless it's seen in sunlight but it gives more body to the scarf to have the rayon yarn in there. It's amazing what you will do if a friend asks you to. I hope the volunteers enjoy these but I'm not sure how well this type of scarf will go over. I'd have picked different yarn, but then I guess there was a budget since there are 70 volunteers. For the mans scarf, I was given a ball of Wool Ease by Lion Brand yarn, color Blue Mist. It calls for US 8 and is a 4"x4" gage. I'll go look for a scarf that won't be too noxious.

Now to go and do something I want to do.