What I Have and Haven't Done

I did work most of the summer trying to get the new library up and running at school (kids start Aug. 13).

I didn't blog for most of the month (I think there's a correlation there).

I did get a chunk of the "Cotton Candy" yarn spun.



















I didn't meet my Tour de Fleece goal.















I did annoy Lady Jane by being so busy (which means less play time for her).















I didn't find the mini-clothespins to complete this baby room decoration for a friend of mine.
















I did (almost -- do buttons count?) finish this sweater for her upcoming baby, since baby's mommy and daddy are big football fans.















I didn't take a picture at the baby shower I went to in Chicago this past weekend.

I did visit a yarn store while there and scored some neat alpaca/silk laceweight, which I have plans for already.

Now I must be off -- her royal highness needs more cat food, and I have to go to the library before joining some friends for the Radical Lace and Subversive Knitting exhibit.

Mostly Books (a.ka. the Attack of the Parenthesis)

Last year on this date I arrived in beautiful Cape Breton. Sigh. I'd love to take another road trip, but it doesn't look like it's on the agenda this summer.

However, for those of you who like to browse here for book suggestions [Laura :-) ] here's a "few" I've read lately.

• Several in the Daisy Dalrymple 1920s mystery series by Carola Dunn: Damsel in Distress, Dead in the Water, the Winter Garden Mystery
• Halsey's Typhoon: The True Story of a Fighting Admiral, an Epic Storm, and an Untold Rescue by Bob Drury & Tom Clavin -- the story of a 1944 typhoon that struck the Pacific Fleet during WWII. Not my usual type of read (as much as I like history, World War II is not one of my favorites and the book had some harrowing passages) but it was on audio at the public library so I gave it a try. Coincindentally, John McCain's grandfather featured prominently.
• The Tomb of Zeus by Barbara Cleverly -- another 1920s mystery, set at an archaeological dig on Crete
• Pushing Up Daisies by Rosemary Harris -- landscaper Paula Holliday stumbles upon body in the course of her work. I really liked her interaction with the cops, especially "MOM," Sgt. Mike O'Malley. Unfortunately this seems the first in the series and I don't think any others are out yet.
• Barometer Rising by Hugh MacLennan -- a novel set at the time of the Halifax explosion in 1917. I picked it up last year on my trip (in Halifax, of course).
• Several children's books: The Court of the Stone Children by Eleanor Cameron, Magyk and Flyte by Angie Sage (my oldest niece is two books ahead of me on this series), Moxy Maxwell Does Not Love Stuart Little by Peggy Gifford (my younger niece would like this; it's a hoot), and The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander. That last one I'd read when I was young and thought I'd reread it since I bought a copy for the new library.
• I also got on a fantasy kick and read or listened to several Tamora Pierce books: Wild Magic, Wolf Speaker, The Circle of Magic Quartet, Trickster's Choice.
• I listened to A Distant Mirror: the Calamitous 14th Century by Barbara Tuchman while I did a lot of my quilt work -- kind of a downer, what with the plague, wars, exploitation of peasants, etc. And not being able to see all that French written out (I'm such a visual person) drove me crazy. But it was very informative.
• A Very Dangerous Woman: Martha Wright and Women's Rights by Sherry H. Penny and James D. Livingston -- an interesting biography picked up at Women's Rights National Historical Park in Seneca Falls, NY, last summer.

I've started exercising again. I figure if Dara Torres can make the Olympics at 41, I can get into shape (although, round is already a shape). Note to self: taking the iPod to the gym does no good if you leave the earbuds in the car.

Tour de Niece, Tour de Fleece

So my nieces were staying with Grandma and Grandpa this past week, prompting a visit to the Indianapolis Children's Museum, one of the coolest places in town (whether you're a kid or not).

There's the 1917 carousel that I rode as a kid.

Science Works, where you can get wet.

A race car where you can pretend to be the next Danica Patrick (or Sarah Fisher).

A really cool climbing wall which Niece the Younger termed "Mt. Everest."

And my favorite, Dale Chihuly's Fireworks of Glass.

You can go to the lower level beneath the sculpture and look up at a "kaleidescope."

So now the nieces are back in Iowa and Aunt Ariadne is on to the Tour de Fleece.

My goal is to finish spinning this bag of wool I bought back in April. It is a wonderful color (close in the second picture, although it's almost impossible to get an accurate color with my camera). But it is very course and so doesn't draft extremely easily and "wants" to be spun thinly, so it's taking a while. If I spin about an hour a day surely I'll have it done by July 27?