Enchilada Sunrise » Reviews

I is for Identification

Lou — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 22:37:11 +0000

Not ID: that which establishes the identity of a person; but: to identify with. I finished the first book of Rachel Caine’s Outcast Season series yesterday and started the second one, and I find myself surprised to find that I am identifying more with the ex-Djinn (this is urban fantasy, roll with it) protagonist Cassiel than I do with Joanne, the human protagonist of the original Weather Warden series that Outcast Season has spun off from. Is that weird? I think that may be a little weird. But the thing is, while I like Joanne – and liked the glimpse of her we got in Undone (OS#1) through Cassiel’s eyes – she’s just too girly for me, I think. Joanne refers to shoe brands and car models that mean about as much to me as they probably would to Cassiel. Perhaps because more things have to be explained about Cassiel’s perspective on the world (whereas the reader is already assumed to have a common starting point with Jo?) as having been an “Old Djinn” who’d never even bothered before to take on a human shaped body, it’s easier to get inside her head. At any rate, I like her logic, and I like her developing relationships with the Rocha family. I’m definitely looking forward to reading more of this series.

H (I knew I’d think of something later on) is also for HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!! My brother is celebrating his 30th today. Yaaaaay! That’s 30 whole years I’ve managed to go without “accidentally” shoving him off a cliff. Our parents raised us right. Seriously, I love my little bro and think he’s all kinds of awesome (it probably helps that we have more in common than apparently looking rather alike). We’ve celebrated once this evening, and are doing so again at the weekend. I hope the weather is going to comply, since it’s supposed to be a barbeque…

SP11 Package #3 – at last!

Lou — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 23:44:37 +0000

Due to mania, server crash and my sieve-like memory, I hadn’t posted my final SP11 package squee-ing. So here it is now. I did mention on 3rd December that I’d received it, but that was as far as I got. (In that post I also mentioned that I’d been delayed in sending my final package out to my spoilee. Well, it’s still here – my money situation has meant I haven’t been able to find the postage yet. But it belatedly occurred to me that some virtual gifts were possible, and I’m putting a bit of cash by each week to send the non-virtual things! Also, I said that I had a new design for this site. As you can see, that’s not in place yet either. Hopefully soon, though!)

Anyway! Even though the package arrived at the beginning of December, it was all Christmas themed and wrapped. Hee!

Not that I let that put me off opening everything right then, of course. I did think very briefly about saving it all for Christmas, but… nah. So what was inside all that shiny wrapping paper? The best SP package ever, that’s what!

So, from back-to-front and left-to-right, what we have is:

- Some utterly delicious all-butter shortbread (YUM), two little boxes of Lindt … truffly things that were also utterly yummy (one milk chocolate, one chocolate orange, nomnomnom!), chocolate money (hee!!) and a Christmas card!

- The letter Janey sent me with the parcel, A DROP SPINDLE AND FIBRE OMG!!!!!!!!!! (I may have bounced up and down and squealed with joy when I opened this – thank you SO MUCH, Janey! Seriously, this was the absolute top thing on my craft-y wishlist, and I’m so so chuffed with it :-D ) with instructions for getting started spinning, two skeins of Colinette Banyan in Fruit Coulis (which is one of my top three Colinette colourways) which Janey sent me because I’d been wanting yarn for summery socks – this is going to be ideal. Then there’s two balls of SWTC Karaoke (50% soy silk, 50% wool) in Bluezzzz, which has tints of purple in the blue. It’s gorgeous stuff, and since Janey suggested I make one of my hats with it, I’ve been pondering on designing something cool. I have some ideas :-) Finally in this ‘row’ is the one book I’d been really really dying to own – Interweave Knits’ Favorite Socks. Oh, it’s fabulous! The next pair of socks I cast on has to be from this book – I want to knit them all! Wheeeee :-)

- And at the bottom of the photo are the brilliant socks that Janey knit just for meeeee (yes, there may have been more squealing and bouncing, I’m not ashamed to admit it!) which I’ll babble about more below, two adorable Christmassy pencils which are still in my desk tidy now in defiance of it no longer being Christmas, and last but not least, a fantastic booklet on Magic Loop technique – this is something that I’d mentioned (in my SP11 questionnaire, I think) that I wanted to learn, and I’d totally recommend this little book (by Bev Galeskas, pub. Fiber Trends). The instructions are really clear, and it includes patterns for wristlets, and for both top down and toe up socks. I haven’t yet tried socks using this technique, but where I was totally intimidated by the very idea before, now I’m really looking forward to it! (I just don’t have any 2.5mm or smaller circs, so it’ll have to be for socks that I’m using 2.75mm needles up!)

So in conclusion…. THANK YOU JANEY!!! You’ve been the best secret pal I could possibly have imagined, and I hope we keep on staying in touch. In fact, I hope that since we live not so far away from each other, we’ll be able to meet up some time. That would be lovely :-)

And here’s a close-up of the fab handknit socks that Janey made me. They’re Basic Cabled Socks by Brainylady [Ravlink], and knit in Opal Uni in my absolute favourite colour. And they fit perfectly. Whee :-) This was the first pair of handknit socks I’ve tried with short-row heels (I spent a ridiculous amount of time peering at the construction and ooo-ing and aah-ing over the stitch pattern etc etc before I even tried them on. I’m such a geek) and they inspired me to try short rows for my Fireworks socks that I’m knitting at the mo.

To round up, doing SP11 was a brilliant experience. I met two lovely pals and I hope I’ll be keeping in touch with them both, I got some wonderful gifts (more than I ever would have expected, in fact!) and had a great time sending stuff to my downstream pal, Katie… although of course I do feel bad that I haven’t been able to send the final things I have for her over yet. Stupid money, grrrrr! But on the other hand, that means she’ll be getting a surprise package at some point. Mwahahaha!

Will I be doing SP12? No, I don’t think so – not because I didn’t have a good time, but because of the current money stuff. A future SP exchange, certainly. Perhaps the UK Swap one on Ravelry. We shall see :-)

Just going through my photo album

Lou — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 12:04:37 +0000

Trying to decide which utterly stunning knitted object I’ll ramble at you about next ;-) Any preferences, anybody? Anything you can’t figure out what the hell I was thinking when I went and made it?
Meanwhile, have a podcast rec: Stash and Burn is put out by Jenny and Nicole, and frankly, it’s great. Funny, quirky, engaging, and fuuuuull of ~~peppery~~fibrey goodness, it’s very small and neat… no, wait, that’s a Finger of Fudge. But my point remains! Plus, it’s all about busting your stash (or trying to), which is something that I really need to get onboard with. So, if you’re not already doing so, you should go and sign up, and download those back-episodes too! Listen, laugh, and embrace your knitting fantasy life.

And relax

Lou — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 04:17:47 +0000

I feel a lot better now I’m eating. It’s the wrong time of day completely to have a meal, so I haven’t eaten all of it yet (I did go for the quorn sausages, new potatoes and baby sweetcorn – yuuuuuuuuum), but I’m feeling more energised. I think moving around cooking and so on helped a lot as well.
So anyway, now I’m still nibbling at that and listening to this podcast – it’s definitely one I’d recommend if you don’t already listen and are into knitting casts. The link is over on the right in my Blogroll under Podcasts (funny that).

[Listening to: Show 11 - A long thread - David Reidy - Sticks & String Podcast]