Free* Books

In an attempt to de-clutter a bit, I've weeded through my book collection and the following books didn't make the cut. Please help take these books off my hands! They're free*! Comment or email me of you would like any of these.

*If you live far away, it would be cool if you kicked in for shipping--I promise to try to mail 'em as cheaply as possible.



From top to bottom, left to right

• Henry James, Washington Square
• Jonathan Lethem, Motherless Brooklyn
• Wally Lamb, I Know This Much Is True
• William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair
• Alison McGhee, Was It Beautiful?
• Alison McGhee, Shadow Baby
• Benjamin Cheever, The Good Nanny
• Indu Sundaresan, The Twentieth Wife
• Nick Hornby, How To Be Good
• Irene Nemirovsky, Suite Francaise
• Ian McEwan, Amsterdam
• Arthur Phillips, Prague
• Curtis Sittenfeld, Prep
• Zadie Smith, White Teeth
• Tom Perrotta, Little Children
• Tom Perrotta, Joe College
• Stephanie Meyer, New Moon
• Jessica Shattuck, The Hazards of Good Breeding
• Zadie Smith, On Beauty
• Matthew Sharpe, The Sleeping Father
• Richard Wright, Native Son
• Jonathan Swift, Gulliver's Travels
• Anne Moody, Coming of Age in Mississippi
• John Grisham, A Painted House
• J.M. Coetzee, Disgrace
• Penelope Lively, The Photograph
• Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Love in the Time of Cholera
• David Rakoff, Don't Get Too Comfortable
• Phillip Lopate, Waterfront
• Richard Highfield, The Science of Harry Potter
• Atul Gawande, Better

Fire Starters!

Planning a camping trip, so I decided to make some simple fire-starters to help us with our campfires. My mom made these when I was a kid, but this was my first time. What you need:

• Dryer lint (a lot of it)
• Cardboard egg carton
• Wax

I started saving dryer lint a while ago. I kept the egg carton in the laundry area and each dryer filter lint load got it's own little cup. (You can tell which loads were darks and which were lights.)



For the wax, I used a couple of candles that I wasn't too fond of. I melted them on a candle warmer ($1.99 at the goodwill).



Pour a little wax into each egg cup. It'll sort of absorb a bit into the lint.



Voila! When it comes time to light your fire, you just tear/cut off one cup from the egg carton and light one of the cardboard bits that extends up. You may need to use more than one fire-starter for your campfire.

(ETA: I just saw that Northern Cheapskate has a post just like this from yesterday! Great minds??)

FO: Trilobite Hat

Pattern: Trilobite from Knitty (rav project page)
Yarn: Malabrigo Rios

This was a delightful hat to knit from brim to crown! The yarn is a dream, the pattern is fun and the hat fits me perfectly! I did modify the pattern a bit, based on some people's notes on Ravelry. I added a total of 7 rows to the hat; I also used one needle size larger than called for.

This would be a great hat pattern for your biology- or fossil-loving friends. And I definitely recommend this yarn for hats or any other winter accessories.

Today I like...

• My husband. He's out of town this week for work, but each day I wake up to an email from him that contains a OneNote file with a few pics and an audio clip in which he talks about the pics. It's pretty much the cutest thing.
• Wire Tap. I've only heard a couple episodes of this CBC radio program, but each time I happen upon it, I find myself literally laughing out loud. I need to start podcasting this...
• This awesome blog, Dear Photograph.
• Trader Joe's non-dairy mochi ice cream.

FO: Log Cabin Potholders

I got the book Log Cabin Quilting from the the library and one of the projects is pot holders. Inspired by those images, I turned those 4 log cabin blocks I made a while back into these two bright potholders.



I chose to do a square-swirl of quilting that mimics the log cabin block. The binding was a little bit tricky for me (guess I need more practice) but I'm overall happy with the result. :)

FO: Stripey Baby Sweater

Pattern: Simply Stripy Sweater (rav project page)
Yarn: Hand Jive Nature's Palette Fingering and Malabrigo Sock



This adorable little sweater was a test-knit for Rae of Extravayarnza. It was fairly quick little knit--lots and lots of stockinette, great TV knitting. I chose to use hammer-on snaps for the neck closure, which was a first for me. It was a little tricky and I ended up slightly cracking one of the snaps. But overall I'm happy with it.

Forgotten images

I've had a few rolls of film floating around the house that I kept meaning to get developed. I finally sent them off to snapfish for developing and it was fun to click through the images. Some of my favorites:

We [heart] WA

My sister and her husband will be relocated to PA shortly and I had the pleasure of throwing their going-away party today. In addition to planning food (thanks, Raj, for BBQing!), I knew that I wanted to do some sort of quirky picture thing and I quickly came up with the idea of making a giant State of Washington with a heart cutout. Luckily I had a large piece of foam core just gathering dust in the craft room.



I traced the outline of the state onto the foam core with pencil then cut it out with an exacto knife.





I made a heart large enough to accommodate a few heads...



And finished it off with a coat of green spray paint (the same stuff I used for the TP Wall Art).



A quick project and a great prop for party pics!

Leavenworth

Raj and I visited Leavenworth, a cutesy little Bavarian-ish town a couple hours away last weekend. Located on the eastern side of the mountains, it was actually hot there! (For us, anyways.) We had forgotten what it's like to be sweating in the heat. I think we might need to make some more Eastern WA visits this summer in preparation for India, otherwise the heat there will really be a shock!



And it wouldn't be a trip if we didn't visit a yarn shop! The yarn shop in Leavenworth is in the process of closing, unfortunately for them, but fortunately for me because all the yarn was on sale! I got two skeins of sock yarn. :)



Leavenworth is a bit amusing to me. The town was established during the railroad years. In the 1960s, they decided that they would market themselves as a Bavarian village to attract tourists (it works, the place was packed!) so all the buildings in downtown have kitschy decor.

We only visited for a few hours, but I think it would be nice to plan a weekend--there are all sorts of outdoorsy things to in the area.

FO: Late Hours Shawl

Pattern: Late Hours Shawl (rav project page)
Yarn: Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool

This was a testknit. I'm not sure when the pattern will be available. The designer's project page is here.



This shawl was quick and easy to knit. The pattern is written in such a way that it's adaptable to multiple yarn weights and three sizes. I knit the medium shawl in DK weight yarn (frogged from this, which I never wore because the fit was bad).



I will definitely make this again. The pattern is easy to memorize and I love the result!

FO: Springtime Beret

Pattern: Springtime in Philadelphia (Rav project page)
Yarn: Fibre Co Canopy Fingering

This was a fun, quick project. It's worked from the top down. I love how it looks like a flower. The pattern calls for the hat to be blocked over a 10" plate, which I did. But then when it was all dry, I spilled coffee on it, and didn't re-block it, just laid it to dry, which gives it a softer look.

This yarn is great! It was my first time using any Fibre Co yarn. I got this while we were in Toronto in March--part of my souvenir from our trip.

The final look of the hat, though, I'm not so sure about. As evidenced by the following:



My head is too big for tams. So this hat is up for grabs. Anyone want it?

(Also, please ignore how tired I look....it's been a week since I had a good night's sleep, thanks to this persistent arm pain I have following a tetanus shot last week. Oy.)

Today I like...

• This recipe for 2 cupcakes. Because sometimes you want cupcakes for dessert but you don't want to make a whole bunch. I added some cocoa powder and mint extract to the recipe to make choco-mint cupcakes!
• This book I just finished reading, The Marriage Bureau for Rich People. I tend to love books set in India, and this one was no exception. Made me more excited for our trip to India. We'll be there in 2 months!!
• This super cute little quilt. Classic pattern done up in eye-catching colors.
• The new Bon Iver album. So beautiful. Just as haunting as their other stuff, but slightly more upbeat. Here's a video of them on LNwJF last week (I apologize for the ad): 

I've been working on a bunch of things. I'll tell you about them soon. :)