So much fiber, so little time

Sheep mystery

I came across this eccentric and amusing mystery at the library yesterday: Three Bags Full. The sleuths are a flock of sheep, headed by Miss Maple (no "r"), and they're trying to find out who killed George, their shepherd.

(Oh, and if you flip the pages of this edition, you'll see a little animation of a jumping sheep in the lower right corner!)

I'm it

Valerie tagged me with this book meme. Consider yourselves tagged if you want :)

1. Hardcover or paperback, and why?
Doesn't matter - I'd cheerfully read a series of cereal boxes.

2. If I were to own a book shop, I would call it…
Many Dead Trees

3. My favorite quote from a book (mention the title) is…
"Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes" from the Aeneid (it just plumb rolls off the tongue ...)

4. The author (alive or deceased) I would love to have lunch with would be…
Mark Twain

5. If I was going to a deserted island and could only bring one book, except for the SAS survival guide, it would be…
A toss-up: The Oxford English Dictionary or the Dictionary of American Regional English

6. I would love someone to invent a bookish gadget that…
Turned pages for me while I did something else with my hands.

7. The smell of an old book reminds me of…
Flooded basements.

8. If I could be the lead character in a book (mention the title), it would be…
Claudia Kincaid, From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

9. The most overestimated book of all times is…
Anything Oprah mentions, even if it's a decent book.

10. I hate it when a book…
Has grammatical errors and typos. (Do you want to hear my "it's/its" rant or the "they're/their/there" one? I didn't think so.)

A munchkin book club and other news

I talked to Emma tonight to make sure she had received the doll sweater - which she did and thankfully purple is still one of her two favorite colors. We had a long conversation about books, wherein I pointed her towards the copy of From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler I gave to her brother a few years ago. Garrett liked it because it was a "chapter" book rather than a picture book, but I suspect Emma will appreciate the anarchic nature of it more. It's just a shame she hasn't already had a field trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to understand the setting a little better. (I do feel sorry for my sister, who is a wonderful person at cross purposes with a weird-ass daughter much like her aunt. I like who I am, but us'n's ain't easy for the rest of the world.)

In re the OXOX sweater: I am planning to write out a pattern using Dale of Norway Baby Ull - a more wearable yarn than the heavier one I used for the doll sweater - in newborn through 4T sizes. Miss Steffy next door will be my 4yo test model.

Currently, though, I'm swatching for another Andrea commission. I'm still somewhat torn between a shawl and a really nifty vest, but I think the shawl will win out, despite how appealing the vest swatch is. Math degree not withstanding, I nitpick too much to trust the numbers without knitting each size myself, and I don't really want to do that.

And for anyone who's looked at the Knit'N'Style beaded shawl: because of the chart key snafu, the corrected pattern should be available from Schaefer Yarn stockists shortly. I just went through a final(?) edit, which incorporates the correct key and a few more corrections/clarifications.

Ooh, ooh, Vavmagasinet is publishing a book on rag rugs in both English and Swedish. Subscribers have until the end of October to order it at a discount - my order's going out tomorrow because there are a few rugs I'd like more details on.

Dog news: Miss Cookie will donate blood for the PHPT study on Friday. She has done so before, but since they now have a very good fix on the location of the errant gene, they need more blood from affected dogs. That's a delicate phone call for the team to make, since they don't necessarily know if said dog is still alive. Fortunately, Cookie, "Dog of Mystery", continues to defy the odds :)