It's Monday, What Are You Reading? #14

Well, I didn't get to read much this past week as I was concentrating all my free time at home on the bookmark dressing project as it has the urgency of an past due commitment. Watch for pics of them in tomorrow's post (which might not go up until late night.)

So I started The Help by Kathryn Stockett as stated last week. But I only made it ten pages. I could tell within two pages that this was not the kind of story I could read in brief snatches. I need to be able to sit with it uninterrupted for a minimum of 30 minutes but 90-180 would be better. I was holding it out as a reward for getting the bookmarks in the mail but now that that's all but done, I am looking at the likelyhood of needing to spend a couple days with Jamie at her apartment as they are releasing her from the hospital this week.

Plus my date to return home has been set for Sunday so that means I need to start packing now as that always takes me a couple days and that's the most I have before Jamie will need me.

So in those spare moments in which I couldn't be working on the bookmark project I read snatches in three NF books: How to Read and Write About Fiction by Dr. William Kenny, A Voice From the Attic by Robertson Davies (on the same topic by one of the great reviewers of the mid 1900's), and Unwritten Rules of Social Relationships: Decoding Social Mysteries Trhough the Unique Perspectives of Autism by Temple Grandin and Sean Barron.

I will probably continue to dip into those three and if possible a few others off the same list as I posted last Monday--one of the twenty-some books I have out on my sister's card which I cant' get at home.

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Sunday Serenity #191

Creativity is a primary source of serenity for me. This week two major creative projects are occupying my time and thoughts. One is dressing several of the bookmarks I crocheted. The other is creating a new and very challenge design for a bookmark. I'll have pictures of the dressed bookmarks sometime this coming week I hope.

The pic at top shows the new pattern in the making. I'm teaching myself two new things: starting and stopping a thread color in mid row and making shapes via contrasting colors. In this case I'm making a triangle as seen in the picture. There will also be a diamond in the center which is just two triangles placed base to base.

The colors were chosen in order to use two of the new threads (new before last night's four additions anyway), the bright yellow and orange. I added the purple because my nephew loves purple with bright colors and as he was describing combinations I thought they sounded brilliant myself. I added the Kelly Green because it was the only bright color that played well with yellow and orange. It won't come into play until I near the far end where it will be the background for another yellow triangle. the middle section will be a purple diamond on a yellow background.

I'm itching to get back to work on it but I'm only allowing myself to work on it when dressing bookmarks isn't an option. I'll probably get to work on it in the car later today on the way to see Jamie as well as in her hospital room.

Jamie is progressing well and may possibly be getting to go home later this week.

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Craft Shopping Spree

My sister took me shopping at Michael's craft store this evening. Everything I got relates to the bookmarks craft. Among them:

• 4 new crochet thread colors (navy, light peach, mint green, shades of blue)
• 19 new ribbon colors (there was a 25% discount off the entire ribbon purchase so I went a bit wild rectifying the fact that my ribbon rainbow had more holes than my thread rainbow had last February before the first Joann.com order)
• 3 small pkgs of small primary colored wooden buttons (it would seem I hardly need anymore buttons what with the thousands in Mom's collection, but those buttons have relatively few bright colors other than reds and even fewer duplicates and fewer under half an inch in diameter which make them useless for attaching to double dangling ribbon ends to weight them which prevents the large bead or button on the other end from pulling the bookmark right out of the book)
• a bag full of assorted sequins and spangles to be used the same way as beads and buttons and also to decorate a length of ribbon not just the ends
• a pack of blue and white paper flowers
• a set of 3 fine work scissors (the most expensive item but with a %50 off coupon still cost less than the single pair I ordered from Joann.com last month)
• a set of repair needles including long big-eyed dull pointed ones and curved ones among others--for tucking tails as the short needle I've been using is very frustrating and the new bodkin won't fit through the stitches themselves
• a box of mini clips that I'm hoping will work to replace the bigger clip I've been using to hold a stack of ribbons together as I'm prepping them for a tassel (these are even small enough I might be able to keep the ribbons clipped as I thread the ends through the loop)
• fray check (some of the ribbon ends need it but I don't need two that size so one is for my sister)
• a bobbin winder for cardboard floss bobbins which I need for the braiding I've been studying so I can make braided tassels and bookmarks (my sister bought that in exchange for the second bottle of fray check)
• a pack of 58 cardboard bobbins

Moving on.

I finished the dressing of four bookmarks last night, taking pictures of each step of several of them and of course the finished product. Was planning to make that tonight's post but that would have taken much longer to put together what with a dozen photos to prep and then telling the stories that go with them. My sister and I didn't get home until after nine and by the time we'd eaten the Subway sandwiches we picked up after leaving Michael's it was after 10. So I decided to make the Michael's shopping spree the topic but that meant setting up the display for a pic and by the time I had the pic off the camera and and prepped for posting it was after midnight.

This post came close to not getting done at all tonight as I almost fell down the basement stairs before I started writing it. I was going down to ask my sister something and I stepped on Bradley, my nephew's cat. I wasn't holding the rail but did have a hand on each wall which helped to steady me but wouldn't have prevented me from toppling forward if my foot had hit the edge of the stair after Bradley squirmed free or if I'd had more forward momentum. I was going slow because the light bulb on the stairwell is burnt out. We need a big tall man to change that light bulb. It's not only hard to reach it is inside a decorative castiron lantern that is hard to get open. It's especially hard to do without light.

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Adorning Bookmarks

I was hoping I would have all, or at least most, of the bookmarks I targeted for dressing this week ready for their pictures to be taken so I could post them tonight. But I got too involved in the button and bead sorting project and so totally lost track of time that I was really startled to notice the window light about 6:45. It took me another hour to get my mess put away and get ready for bed and when I woke up the focus of the day was getting ready to go to Vancouver to visit Jamie in rehab (post ICU rehab not that other) getting there and getting to visit and getting something to eat and getting home. Pretty much eight hours were ate up by that whole process.

Jamie is progressing nicely it appears. They are tentatively estimating a week or so before they release her to go home. She'll continue to have the trach for a time but hopefully not too much longer.





I could easily get caught up in the buttons and beads again tonight. There are sooo many and thus so many possibilities. But I've set my mind to focus on dressing the bookmarks tonight. I've already decided what will adorn each one for the most part. Two or three maybe are sitting in my mind with two or three options but that is way better than the dozens of options for each one that I started with in my imagination and the dozens more that occurred to me as I organized my ribbon boxes and sorted through buttons and beads and thread and ric rac and...

I put a few dozen beads and buttons of the right sizes and colors to go with the sizes and colors of the bookmarks into the blue tray (lid to a blue box full of sewing etc) along with the ric rac I selected for one.



I cut one ribbon early in the process but it got creased before the sun went down that day so I held off on cutting any more ribbon until the moment I am dealing with the bookmark it is for.

As I was getting the mess put away before I went to bed at dawn, I knocked that blue tray on the floor. All the organizing by color and by bookmark caput just like that. And I had to spend several minutes on my hands and knees crawling all over the floor petting the carpet, sweeping my palms under the couch and the stationary bike and into and out of shadows.

There were probably three to four more items in the tray by then then there were when the above pic was taken yesterday afternoon.

Today I started working on a new bookmark using a new pattern that uses two of the colors from the stash of new thread plus two more. I'm making up the pattern for this one and it is another first as it involves changing colors in mid row and attempting to create a recognizable shape. I spent the entire ride to Vancouver plus the entire visit with Jamie working and ripping out portions for one row. I'm itching to get back to it but I am requiring myself to get those bookmarks dressed first or at least a decent showing for several hours of work with them.

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Wardrobe Wrangling

The right hand two-thirds of the workstation on Mom's bed.

For the last 20 some hours all my spare waking moments have been devoted to the dual projects of getting 8-10 bookmarks dressed and sorting/organizing the wardrobe components and the tools. From after lunch until Mom's heads to bed about 9PM I'm set up on the bed in Mom's room then I move to the couch in the living room.

The right hand two-thirds of the workstation on the couch.

The left hand two-thirds of the workstation on the couch.

It takes me at least 30 minutes to make the move between stations. But I'm whittling it down for setting up the first one took over an hour.

The bookmarks to be dressed next to one of the boxes full of buttons and beads which I was sorting through for possible accessories.

On the left, the tray with selections waiting to adorn a bookmark along with a few of the most used tools and to the right, the two ribbon boxes.

The two of these represent the most productive accomplishments of the day. I have over 50% of the accessories selected. And I got my ribbon boxes sorted out again. My ribbons have been a jumbled mess with yards of ribbon falling the spools since March when I didn't put them away properly after dressing the 50 some bookmarks for the display at the library. The ribbons weren't the only thing I left in a jumble that week. This was one of the biggest hindrances to the bookmark dressing project. That along with not having a good way to store the dressed ones that protects the ribbons from getting wrinkled and creased.

It's a hassle to have to dewrinkle ribbons that are already woven through the bookmark:

My mini iron setting on my portable ironing board/cutting board. A tool designed for quilters.

But at least not as big a hassle as getting out the big iron and standing ironing board--assuming I had one which I don't. My Mom does of course but it is down in the basement where there isn't good enough light for me to use it. That is where my portable ironing station comes in handy. Here it is set up on a cutting board in the kitchen which is one of the best lit areas of Mom's whole house.

OK I'm off to get back to work on it. I'm hoping to get half or more dressed before I sleep.

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For Snooze Button Addicts, the Cure Is...

A hungry cat.


This is going to be a rambling and I sincerely hope a short post. I'm anxious to get back to my bookmark dressing project.

We just got back from my brother's house in Portland where we had dinner after a couple hour visit with Jamie in rehab in Vancouver. Jamie is making great strides. She is getting up and walking around unassisted now. We heard her true voice again for the first time since the surgery July 20 as she can now use a valve in her trach that allows her to speak. But it takes a lot of effort to breath that way yet. We also saw her full personality in evidence for the first time. Her normal affect is back I guess is the medical term. In other words her facial expressions, body language and voice tones and speed are again what we always known.

Can you believe that I forgot to take the bookmark I made for her. (see pic in yesterday's post) I was packing my bag and almost put in in but decided to first find something to put it in to keep the ribbons from wrinkling or creasing. But something distracted me and I never thought of it again until we were ten miles out of town.

During the ride to and from and the visits with Jamie and my brother's family, I crocheted every second I could get away with. I made three of the original patter (the granny stitch) with three of the four new variegated threads. Last night after posting I made one with the 20 weight Egyption cotton using the cross stitch stitch from top to bottom but only three across from top to bottom and no inserts of solid colors. That makes four in twenty four hours.

I was going to get pics to post tonight but I drained my camera batteries last night when I forgot to unhook the USB from my computer and turn off the camera for over four hours. There are plenty of batteries in this household so I could have replaced them and taken the pics but I decided that the risk of distractions out in the front rooms was too great and I was already sitting here with Blogger open and I just wanted to get it done.

So what did I do? I went to icanhascheezeburgers.com to catch up on two days worth of funny kitty pics in hopes of finding something suitable to top this post. Not more than two or three posts down on the front page was the video I posted here. I watched it three times and then started watching the related vids. They are hilarious. I recommend besides this one, The Fly Man, Let Me In, and TV Dinner. Those are all the ones I have watched. There are several more which I expect will be as funny but I forced myself to stop and get posted.

So much for avoiding distractions!

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Rainbow Diving: Ready. Set. Go!

My 14 new crochet threads. Not 15 as that pastel blue in exile upper right duplicates one I already have.

I unpacked and unwrapped the new thread tonight (except for the duplicate Delft Blue for today I finally finished with all the tasks I'd set myself to complete before I could dive into my newest box of crochet thread which arrived in the mail last Tuesday. Today I finished the last two of the three bookmarks I had on hooks last Tuesday, including tucking tails and dressing two of them. This one is for my sister who runs Mom's house and cares for her and her 16 year old son:



The only task still to be tended to is the prepping of the bookmarks for mailing to my RIF mini-challenge winner's from April. I'd begun that project two weeks ago but got interrupted by the daily trips to Vancouver to visit Jamie in ICU. I could and did crochet in the car and waiting room and even ICU beside Jamie's bed but I couldn't pack around and spread out the buttons, beads, ribbons and other paraphernalia in the wardrobe. Since I already had the crocheting done for the winner's bookmarks I had to wait until I was able to spend enough time at home to spread out the bling.

I'm going to allow myself to play with the new thread anyway but only if it is to make a bookmark for one of my winner's since there are a couple of threads that match one or another's preferences better than anything already made. So I'll prioritize the dressing and prepping for mail whenever I can spread out those projects and crochet when that's not possible. Like in the car and in Jamie's room in rehab tomorrow as Mom and I get to go see her again. We went for an hour on Monday but not today as my sister's schedule wasn't flexible enough.

So tomorrow I'll get to give Jamie the bookmark I started working on soon after I heard she was in ICU:



I just devised the use of ribbons of varied color, width and texture for tassels. These are the first two made. They are both unique in pattern as well for I have taken the pattern I learned last February and changed it up by using a half double stitch in place of the double stitch and varying the width of the stripes.

The original pattern:

Actually I've been changing it up almost from the start. The second one was black with five bright inserts. The next was black with all turquoise inserts. The next several were different solid colors with inserts of compatible variegated threads. After a few of those of original length I shortened it to three inserts and made dozens of solids with variegated and/or solids with a single contrasting solid for the inserts. Then I made several long ones again, a couple longer than the original and that's also when I started varying the pattern of the stripes. I made several with white like the original and the same length but with inserts of all red, all black, all pastel blue. Then I made one with red and blue inserts. Then I made several that left out the inserts and did the cross stitch stitch all the way in a single color and full length. Then I made a couple like that but with only three cross stitch stitches per row instead of four.

What am I sitting here still yapping about it for when I could be crocheting?

I think for the first one I'm going to use the only size 20 I got. This variegated blues and lavenders called Caribbean:


This was the most expensive of the threads and the only one not discounted that day. I originally had another one in my shopping cart--called Red Burst--that was several shades of dark red. But I had to take it out when other choices overrode my desire. After all, with only 210 yards it was only half the amount on the typical size 10 thread I get and yet it was more than twice as much with the size 10 discounted 30%. There were several other colors--mostly variegated--that I drooled over. It would be nice to have a few solids too tho, so I could do versions of that pattern above in size 20.

What makes this one so pricey? Well it is 100% Egyptian Cotton. It is 6 cord Cordonnet (which I am clueless about) and hand dyed. Lizbeth is the brand name. (no I'm not getting free thread in exchange for beating a drum for it--tho come to think about it...)

This is the only size 20 I have. I have two size 30, both variegated. And a size 50 and size 100 in white. Note the size of the thread gets smaller as the number goes up. By size 50 it is similar in size to regular sewing thread tho much stronger and durable. Sizes 20 and up are also used for tatting and lace making.

Seriously! Why am I still here?

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It's Monday, What Are You Reading? #13

Finally, finally, finally. I finished The Book Thief last night.

Sadly, sadly, sadly. I finished The Book Thief last night.

Finally because now I can crochet, read other books, surf blogs, write, play solitaire--all those things I deprived myself of after choosing to start a 535 page book with difficult typeface two days before it was due. On my sister's library card!

Sadly because there are no more pages to turn, no more fresh and startling metaphors and similes. No more Liesel and Rudy and their escapades. No more looking on breathless as 9yr old Liesel morphs from a terrified young girl who can't read into a child obsessed with words and books and eventually into a teenager who is able to write her own memoir. All this while living near Munich, Germany between 1939 and 1943 and witnessing the power of words and story to mold a people into a monstrous killing machine, tear apart families and friends and create an atmosphere of hate and fear and paranoia. During several of those years she helps her foster parents care for the young Jewish man they are hiding in their basement, the son of the man who had saved her Papa's life in the first world war.

Oh. Almost forgot I wasn't writing a book review here. :)

So. What's next?

Well, I currently have 22 books out between my sister's two library cards (Longview and Vancouver) 5 are novels of which I've read 2. Of the remaining 3, I'm passing on one because it isn't want I expected and I have to make choices. That leaves two novels, both chunky. One is available back home and the other isn't. Yet I'm choosing to start the one my home library has because I've been in queue for it for months and yet still won't get my turn before New Year's. Here, I put myself into a short queue for the large print edition of The Help by Kathryn Stockett before I left home and my turn came last week as I began The Book Thief. The 5th novel is The Book of Dave by Will Self, which our system doesn't have and it looks very interesting. But the font is going to challenge me. I will see where I am with The Help by next weekend before I decide whether to continue hoping to read it this trip. I would hate to start it and not finish and have to wait for another chance to get it the next time I visit my Mom.

My leave date has not been set yet but it will be by labor day weekend.

Of the 17 NF two are thread craft--Japanese Braiding and The Crochet Stitch Bible. The latter I've been checking out over and over at home since last summer but the first one isn't in our system tho I've been checking out a different one on the same craft repeatedly for months as well. I may learn one or two new stitches or stitch patterns to use on my new thread and I may attempt to start a braid sometime in the next two weeks but neither of those books needs to be read cover to cover before I leave.

Of the 15 remaining NF 5 I was reading at home and can get again just about whenever I want to as none are high demand. I may or may not be advancing my bookmarks any further while I'm here. For there are 10 NF which I can't get at home and 2 more waiting at the library for my sister to pick up. Those 2 are both about how to read and write about fiction and I'm hoping to get as much as possible out of them before I leave. They are older books and out of print but I've found them useful in the past. One of them is Robertson Davies' A Voice in the Attic which I first checked out while still living in Longview in the mid 90s.

Of the ten NF already at my side which I can't get in Phoenix there are seven which I will be focusing intensely on in the time I have left here:

The Art and Craft of the Short Story by the short story writer Rick DeMarinis

The Art of the short Story: 52 Great Authors, Their Best Short Fiction, and Their Insights on Writing. There are two sections that talk about the form and the craft of the short story with 52 stories sandwiched in between coupled with a short piece by its author. This looks like and Anthology/Textbook. I hope to at least read those fore and aft sections and maybe a few short stories. I am participating in the short story challenge after all.

Aladdin's Lamp: How Greek Science Came to Europe Through the Islamic World. I started this one last summer not long before my six month visit ended in June. I think I read a couple chapters but am not sure how far I actually got so I'm probably going to have to start over, skimming over the familiar paragraphs.

Unwritten Rules of Social Relationships: Decoding Social Mysteries Through the Unique Perspectives of Autism by Dr. Temple Grandin and Sean Barron. Temple Grandin herself has a high-functioning form of autism. I've been reading her memoirs back at home but our system doesn't have this one and I really find it useful. I find social interaction mystifying and my anxiety issues are all rooted in an it so it is helpful on that level. But I'm finding it especially helpful in creating my fictional characters and the scenes when two or more are on stage at once and interacting. I think I would like to own this book as a writer's reference.

The Religious Case Against Belief by James P. Carse. His thesis stems from the significant difference between the meanings of belief and faith. They are not synonyms. I started this last summer and checked it out again during my January visit.








Believer, Beware: First-person Dispatches From the Margins of Faith. had this one checked out last summer and again in January as well. It's a collection of essays by individuals from many faith communities who have taken a different path from the one they were raised in.





Banquet at Delmonico's: Great Minds, the Gilded Age, and the Triumph of Evolution in America by Barry Werth. I have a good chance of finishing 1 to 3 of the above NF but I will be lucky to advance my bookmark in this one even one chapter past the introductory materials but I will plug away at it as best I can. This is a bit more dense than any of the other NF and the only one longer is the anthology/textbook on the short story. I've had this checked out while here both last summer and last January and only managed to browse in it. This time I hope to do more than that.

One of my favorite ways to learn about science (or anything else that intimidates me) is through a historical narrative whether of the particular discipline or discovery in general or a biography of a scientist responsible for significant discoveries. My first such book was a bio on Marie Currie which I read in 10th grade. This book is as enthralling as that was. Granted, the focus is directed more at the history of the spread and eventual acceptance of the concepts and theory developed by Darwin than on the theory itself but that is exactly where one of my abiding interests lies.

Having been raised a fundamentalist Christian I was indoctrinated to cringe with disgust and smirk with derision at the very mention of Darwin; to shake my head sadly at the poor benighted souls who succumb to the enchantment of a 'science' that puts man discovered 'fact' above God's Word or tremble with fear and anger at the thought of children being forced to study it. I purposely flunked a genetics class exam in 11th grade by refusing on principle to give the answer the teacher wanted because he had worded it such that my answering it correctly would imply assent. It was partly because of this F that my guidance councilor suggested that my longtime dream of becoming a child psychiatrist was not achievable as I showed no aptitude for science.

Since I took back my right to think for myself in 94 this has been one of the topics I've been trying to at least learn how to think about--not what to think just how to think. And to learn the history of the idea as well as the history of the conflict between the religious and secular thinkers over the idea--especially over the legitimacy of teaching the idea to children and teens.

It took me years to shed the intense anxiety triggered by even approaching the subject but now I enjoy reading about it. I still haven't settled on what to think about it other than I am adamantly in favor of everyone's freedom to think how and what they choose. Because, after all, once a president were set to curtail one groups right to think one way, all other groups would be in danger of having their right to think their way curtailed, including the group that 'won' their showdown with the suppressed group.

I don't know how much reading time I can actually count on this week. There is the visiting with family and the traveling to Vancouver to visit Jamie in rehab (post ICU not drug) and the desire to crochet with my new thread and the need to get on the mini-tramp and some major hints of the urge to write in my fiction files again and of course the blogging and the several projects and tasks associated with it including book reviews! Speaking of which, I hope to get the notes I need from The Book Thief for a review before I sleep as the book must go back tomorrow and I will likely not get my hands on a copy again for months.

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Sunday Serenity #190

Can't get enough of books; reading them, gazing at them, taking pictures of them. I also used to draw them between grade school and high-school. Did one painting in a high-school art class. Which of course came no where close to the perfection of this painting. by Judy Gibson. I would love to have this poster on the wall of my study. Once I have one. Am even thinking of turning it into a needlepoint project.

Well I'm in the home stretch on The Book Thief. Less than a hundred pages. Two, three hours maybe. So I should be able to crochet to my heart's content tomorrow.

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Still Turning Pages

Have been attempting to designate all free time to reading The Book Thief since Tuesday night as it was due at the library Thursday on my sister's card! Have even been depriving myself of crocheting with the 15 new colors of thread that arrived in the mail Tuesday!

Finally passed the halfway point last night. But can't let up the pressure as the grace period ends Monday evening.

The story is everything I was anticipating. I am triply in awe that the author appears in his photo to be still in high-school. He's not, I'm sure. Probably closer to 25 than 15 but still. This isn't even his first published novel. His metaphors and similes are fresh, startling and just right. The intricacy of the plot lines competes with that of a single thread in one of my crocheted bookmarks.

OK. Back to turning the pages.

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Wen u finish dat already?

I'm supposed to have reached page 300 of The Book Thief by bedtime tonight but have gotten only half way there as of bedtime last night which was 50 pages short of yesterday's quota. In spite of my best intentions I got sidetracked with a Spider card game yesterday which I'd been trying since Wednesday to win. Finally beat the sucker tho it took me 6116 moves as compared to the normal range of 800-900. Just about wore out the control-z keys.

So a lot of good it did to deny myself crocheting with my new thread. Well now Spider, in fact all computer games go on the 'not until you finish the book' list. And I'm thinking I may have to put LOLcats on the list.

Part of the problem is the chaos and interruptions and fear of interruptions here at Mom's. That's how I ended up playing the game all night last night, having meant to play only until the house was quiet. But I'm hoping to put in five hours reading after everyone's in bed. That should allow me to reach page 300 and maybe a bit further. I'm hoping whatever obsessiveness that kept me at that silly game for six hours last night will focus itself on the story which I am loving so it shouldn't be hard to stick with it. I just need peace and quiet.

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Got My Nose in a Book

Been reading The Book Thief and am completely captivated. Waited too long to start this post. Am dozing off between keystrokes.

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Giveaway Scout

Someone's trying.

All blog giveaways, contests and sweepstakes in one place

This looks like a good concept but I can't tell without trying it for awhile how well it is executed. But in order for my blog to participate (be scanned for giveaways and have them announced on their site, in their emails to subscribers, and on facebook and twitter) I must first post a few lines about their service. That seems like a fair exchange of value.

Of course anyone wanting to be informed of current giveaways across the blogosphere need do nothing but subscribe to their emails or even just visit the site and browse. There are a number of different categories. To name just a few: books, jewelry, electronics, music, movies, gift certificates and cards for many different merchants, products and services.

To check them out click the logo or the blurb beneath it at top of post under the LOLcat.

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A Rainbow in the Mailbox

My Rainbow in the Mailbox

My order from Joann.com came in the mail this afternoon. I allowed myself to open it and oogle for a short while and then later fiddle around setting up and taking these pics. But I'm not allowing myself to start crocheting with them until two requirements I am making of myself are met.

First I must finish The Hour I First Believed (40 pages) and reach at least page 100 in The Book Thief. Which is due Thursday but the Longview library has a 5 day grace period so I have until Tuesday but I don't want to take complete advantage since I know someone is waiting. So I will continue to require of myself 100+ pages per day before allowing myself to pick up the crochet hook.

The second requirement is to finish the two bookmarks on the hook already. They are both half done. They are two of the three I was working on in the car and waiting room and Jamie's ICU room all last week. *

Until then all I can to is look and dream. But not too much. :)

My sister picked up several more books for me today at both the Woodland branch of the Vancouver library and the Longview library. Now I have way more than I can possibly finish in the two weeks or so remaining of my visit. But then I never expected to finish more than a few just advance my bookmarks a few more chapters each.


The bodkin didn't show up well in the photo at top and my battery went low after taking it so later after removing them from their packages I took a picture of the bodkin and the detail sewing scissors with a crochet hook between them to indicate size.

The bodkin is a metal rod about 7 inches long with a large eye at one end and a tiny ball at the other. It is slightly curved as well. It is about the same thickness as the steel crochet hooks but about an inch longer. It's purpose is for threading items through things. There are a lot of uses in a range of crafts but I sent for it in hopes it would make tucking the tails of the bookmarks fresh off the hook easier and also the threading through the finished bookmark of ribbons and tassels. Instead of poking the ribbon through one hole at at time I can thread the bodkin through all of the holes and the ribbon through its eye and pull.

I'd been using a tapestry needle like that for tucking tails but the eye was too small to do it without a needle threader and it was quite awkward and challenging to hold the bookmark with the needle threaded through the weave while trying to insert a needle threader into its eye and then the tail into the threader and then pull the thread through the weave without dropping something or allowing the needle to slip free of half or more of the loops it was woven through. Very frustrating. Especially when I started making patterns that required ending and starting threads several times.

A single colored bookmark will have only two tails--the beginning and ending one. The patterns I've made so far range in tail count from 2 to 22. I'd developed a habit of leaving the tail tucking until I'd accumulated a bunch of the fresh off the hook bookmarks. And by a bunch I mean a dozen or two. Once I spent five hours doing nothing but tucking tails. After that I've been fairly disciplined to let no more than 20-30 tails accumulate before stopping to tuck them.

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* For Jamie's story read the week worth of posts beginning with Breathe Sister-Friend.

The latest: We were told this morning that Jamie was being moved out of ICU but they didn't know her new room number yet. My sister had to take the respit care child to meet up with her Mom for a doctor appointment in Portland and was going to drop Mom and I off at the Vancouver hospital to visit Jamie but not having the room number by the time she had to leave made it hard to justify dropping off two visually impaired women to navigate an unfamiliar route through the maze inside that building.

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It's Monday, What Are You Reading? #12

So, I did not keep to the plan I stated in last week's post. I'm not quite finished with Wally Lamb's The Hour I First Believed. Nor did I drop it regardless of where I was to start The Book Thief yet.

BTW I've been calling Lamb's book 1100+ pages but there are qualifiers. It is a large print edition and the pages after 1092 are not part of the story but an Afterward, Acknowledgments and a source list. I hadn't even realized about the end sections until the middle of last week.

At any rate, I lugged the book with me back and forth to the Vancouver hospital all week but didn't get to read much until Saturday when we began to spend long stretches of time in the waiting room between brief visits to to Jamie's ICU room.

It was beginning to feel like we lived in that room.

But we've all, Mom, Carri and I, have had a break this week as Jamie's biological sister flew in from Alabama Saturday night and has been making the visits with Jamie both Sunday and today but she has to leave Wednesday afternoon. Here's hoping Jamie is out of ICU by then. One good sign is that the nurses, this morning told my sister Carri that they were hoping to have Jamie sit in a chair for a bit this afternoon but I don't know yet if that happened. Carri went with Jamie's sister this evening and will fill us in when she gets home.

Anyway between the time in the waiting room and the 40+ minute car rides Saturday and the lengthy wee hours stints I pulled Sunday and Monday and a few more hours this afternoon, I am approaching the last 100 pages of The Hour I First Believed and expect to finish it before I sleep tonight (ie way into the wee hours of Tuesday).

Then I will start The Book Thief. I really will. And probably immediately or at least within the hour of finishing The Hour. As I need to get well and deeply involved in Book Thief before that box of new crochet thread arrives possibly tomorrow but definitely by Wednesday.

My sister is also picking up more of the books I ordered from both the Longview and Vancouver libraries this week. I have a goodly stack of them already. Many are titles I can only get when I am here yet I chose to spend time with two books available in my Jackson Country Library System. And now I've got only two to three weeks of my visit here left and there is still no telling how much reading time I'll get once the visits to Jamie's bedside start up again. She has several weeks in rehab ahead of her before she will be released.

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Sunday Serenity #189

Above is a picture taken in the late eighties of me (middle), Jamie (right) and my cousin's daughter (left) not long after Jamie became part of our family. In that pic I am within a couple years of the same age Jamie is now. She was between fourteen and sixteen there and I was in my early thirties.

My posts for over a week have been about Jamie's post-surgery stay in ICU--12 days now. I said last night that I was going to stop posting daily on that crisis as it could continue for weeks and I need to take breaks from it when I can. To clear my mind, refresh my spirit etc.

Today's post isn't an update though. For this Sunday Serenity I'm featuring thirteen photos taken by Jamie. She has had no formal training. Neither have I so I can't speak with authority but I know when something pleases my eye. I see in her photos a natural eye for composition and an ability to startle the viewer and cause them to pause and look. Really look. And to see things they didn't know were there in their surroundings all along. Gazing upon them feels like gazing upon music or poetry.

I copped the shots from various posts on Jamie's blog.

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