Look at This!

Look what I got!

Isn't it beautiful? I found it on Facebook Marketplace, for just $60. (Not my first purchase through FBM, but this is even better than the last one.)

And think of how much yarn it will hold!

There is a very faded sticker on the back, which says Matter Brothers, and the original price of $769.99. How long ago was that, I wonder?

As soon as it was in the door, Maggie was sniffing it very great interest. She knew the sellers had a cat, I guess.

(You can see the black Ikea square thing in the background behind her, which is where I put the chest; the new spot for the Ikea thing is below.)

Sniff, sniff, sniff! Happily for me, I can't smell anything other than a faint wood scent. I have a fairly good sense of smell for a human, but not like hers must be.

It fits perfectly here.

And will hold SO much yarn! You may have noticed that I've bought a lot this year, and it has to go somewhere.

There are a couple of scratches on the top, but nothing serious.

It's solid, without being so heavy I can't move it myself. Not easily, mind you (says the bruise on my foot), but I moved it.

And the Ikea thing got moved next to another one that was on the opposite wall. I think it will work there!

Less than an hour of driving to get it, sixty bucks, and a little sweat equity. Well worth it! Time to start playing around with yarn arrangements.

 Do you have any fun bargain stories to tell?

Thinking About Starting to Get Ready

I'm at the very early stages of planning a trip up to Boston* next month, and if you know me, you won't be surprised that after flights and telling friends, my next thought was what knitting to bring.
*By which I really mean New England, not the city itself

My current project is going well---it's the Beachy Keen shawl that I mentioned I might do---but the stripes mean I need 7 balls of yarn to work on it for more than a few rows, so that's out for travel knitting.

It's coming along well, though!

It took a bit of time to get a hold of how to do the trickiest rows, but it's now social knitting. Just not travel knitting.

However, Dawn Barker, the doyenne of assigned pooling projects (like the Roam shawl I did in 2022), has a new pattern out, called Swell, and I thought it would fit the bill. Like the edge of Roam, it mimics linen stitch, which I like the look of, and I have two skeins of an assigned pooling yarn from Wonderland that I could use.

I started it now, even though I'm not traveling until late May, because if it didn't work as travel knitting, I would still have time to figure something else out. But it's going to be just fine.

So that's one thing crossed off the list---just one thing, but an important one!

What the what?

I have an appointment on Monday with my gynecologist for an annual exam and to discuss menopause. 

I went to check in online.

Page after page of questions, some of which have the previous answers carried over and some do not.

On one page, I had to put a zero in for number of pregnancies AND number of full-term births AND number of preterm births AND number of abortions AND number of miscarriages AND one other thing I forget. Of all things not to carry over, I think to myself---though I suppose a patient could have had more of any of those since their last visit, but at age 55 and when I'm coming in to talk menopause, hmm?---and go on.

A few pages later, there is this:

As you are pregnant or have recently had a baby, we would like to know how you are feeling. Please select the answer that comes closest to how you have felt IN THE PAST 7 DAYS, not just how you feel today.

...what?

I am not pregnant, because I never have been, as I just told you. I'm not answering a whole list of questions about my mood over the last week related to being pregnant or having a baby.

But of course it wouldn't let me go back, to see where on earth it got that idea, so I guess I'll have to finish checking in at the office. Sheesh.

Dishing on the Dish

I recently had a little fun crafty excursion with some women I know locally, to a glass-making place, where we all decorated glass pieces: bowls, plates, a cheese board, and in my case and a few others, something they call a swoop dish. This is a plate divided into four quarters, which is first put in the kiln flat to melt everything in, and then kilned again over a mold to make it swoop. Thus, this is what I made:

And the overhead view:

It was great fun picking small pieces and moving them around, considering the effect, moving them again. Because unlike painting, you can change your mind! (At a quick search, I can't find that I wrote about doing a painting session, but I did do that, twice, with friends a few years ago, and while it was interesting, I found it very stressful, trying to keep up with what the instructor was showing us, and not being very good at the actual painting part. I tried the second time to see if I would relax and enjoy it more, but no.)

I started with these four squares, because the colors appealed to me.

Then I picked through the many little bits they had, laying them out.

Moving them around. 

Adding and removing and tweaking.

And finally, I settled on this. (If the layout is working right, that is the pre-firing on the left, and the finished piece on the right.)

It's an interesting learning experience, seeing what works better or not as well. I can see a few things I would do differently, if I do it again, and I'd like to! But I'm very happy with my dish.

Do you see the letter C? What about the outline of Florida? Anything else?

That Was Worth a Phone Call

This morning I was looking at a bill from the podiatrist who I saw recently for a little problem with my toes. I was surprised by how high it was, so I went to my health insurance website to look at the benefit statement that would explain it from their side.

They broke the visit down, as they like to do, into three parts: the office visit, the X-rays, and the actual treatment. For the first part, they covered it minus my copay, fine; for the second, they "covered" it but said that it had to count toward my deductible, so I had to pay the adjusted amount for that, which pffft but fine; and the third part it said they didn't cover at all. 

I went down to the footnote to find the code that explained why, and it said, and lord knows I quote, "Your plan does not cover routine foot care or associated expenses."

I mean. What? "Your plan does not cover routine foot care" at the podiatrist? The one I picked from their website, which said he was in-network? In-network for what if it doesn't cover treatment? "You can go see him, but he can't do anything" hardly seems to have a point.

I called them, and the very nice woman I spoke with agreed that that sounded wrong; she looked here and clicked there and finally said that, yeah, no, that ain't right (not a direct quote, obviously). She said it should have been covered, and either she could send it back to the claims department to fix, or if I had 5 or 10 minutes then, she could adjust it while I waited. I chose that, of course, and after listening to the jaunty hold music for a while, she said it was fixed and should show up in about 24 hours.

Whew! So that's $65 back in my pocket. As well as relief from the utter ridiculousness of thinking that they agreed I could see a podiatrist, but he can't treat me. Because that made my head want to explode.

Health insurance in this country is such a scam, I tell you what.

Opting Out

My dad died in late April, and in the US at least, Father's Day is in June, which meant that in that first year, I was dumped headfirst into the massive marketing push that reminded me constantly and repeatedly of my loss. It made a hard time in my life that much worse.

Back then, I don't think any companies offered you the option to bypass specific marketing, but some of them do now, and I am here for it! 

So far, I've received two emails asking if I want to opt out of Mother's Day messaging, and I don't, but I so, so appreciate the offer.

Thank you, Sok-It! You make good products and you get this.

Thank you, Garrett Popcorn! I love your caramel crisp, and also you rock for understanding this.

I Bought a Thing

I was in the city yesterday, on a little adventure I'll tell you about later, and I had a nice browse around an interesting store that was full of stuff. And things. Furniture and linens and lamps and pillows, and jewelry and candles and doors and just things.

And I bought a thing. A thing with, or of, shell.

Hard to get a sense of scale, isn't it? Here it is with my hand.

So it's large! For a shell, anyway. And the side is sparkly shell.

And the bottom is more of the same. So pretty!

And it opens up! To hold who knows what.

Because no, I don't know what I'll put in it. But I had to have it.

Wouldn't you?

Help Me Choose

I got an email about my Discover card, offering me the choice of new card designs, and I clicked through to take a look. There are so many options! And of course many that I don't want. But more than one that I do. What do you think?

a) NHL. Now, if it was the Bruins? Sold. But I don't know that the NHL logo grabs me.

b) But maybe the Stanley Cup?

c) Pride. you know I love a rainbow, and supporting Pride appeals to me.

d) Mix tape cracks me up, but I'm not sure it's enough to want it.

e) Scenic beach, part one.

f) Scenic beach, part two.

g) Palm trees?

h) Like the mix tape, this one gets me in the nostalgia. I had one very similar to this!

i) They have more dogs than cats, but the cats don't quite grab me. Maybe the big kitty?

Too many choices! How would you vote?

An Enthusiastic Bath

No, not me: Maggie! She was going wild on the footstool last night.

But my favorite shot was this one.

Is she missing a part, or does she have one too many? Put together wrong? Part spider? Discuss.

And the Hunt Was Good

On the day after Easter, I completed my usual post-holiday hunt, and this is what I brought home, for half off.

• Ghirardelli caramel bunnies (because caramel, of course). 
• Traditional Peeps, of course--none of this flavored nonsense--and today I slit the bag open so that they could become properly stale, because that's how I like them.
• Junior Mints Eggs, which look different but taste just like regular ones.
• And the wild card, which Engie mentioned having tried, lemon KitKats. Surprisingly good! Not much like the regular ones, to me, but I liked them just the right amount: enough to happily finish the bag, but not so much that I'll be sad when they're gone.

I was sorry not to find Cadbury mini eggs, thought not surprised. Next year I'll buy some for full price, I guess.

Do you like Easter candy? What are your favorites? Did you try anything new this year?

Library: Fail and Succeed

I finished my strong reading month* of March with another win, a Sharon Shinn fantasy novel called Troubled Waters, which I very much enjoyed. 
*I finished 20 books in March, of which only 8 were re-reads. A whole dozen books I liked enough to finish! 

I looked it up and was pleased to find that it's the first of a series, but was less pleased to discover that my local library carried books 1, 3, and 4. Where is book 2??

Fortunately, I recently renewed my reciprocal borrowing from the library system north of us (I love that I can borrow from them, but you have to renew it every January, which is kind of a pain). And as it turns out, they have book 2 in both physical and e-copy. I got it electronically, which is much easier as it doesn't require a trip up (it's an hour to the nearest branch) to get the physical book and then another trip to return it. 

I requested the physical copies of 3 and 4 from "my" library as well. Then it will be back to the farther library, electronically speaking, for book 5, which just came out last year. So much fun to look forward to!

Just One Thing: Five-Minute Push

I wrote before about the strategy of doing "just one thing" and how it can help chip away at the to-do list. I am happy to report that I did a little bit yesterday in that vein, and it really felt good!

I was in my closet getting clothes for the day and it struck me how silly it was that I have all these shirts and I only ever wear the same ones. I pulled out the shirts I never choose, which was about half of them, and piled them on the bed. 

Later, after work, I took them off the hangers and folded them so they can go to the thrift store. So happy, looking at that not-crammed-in hanging space!

Then, inspired by how fricking easy that was (after I got over the mental obstacle of "but I like some of these" and reached peace with "but I never wear them"), I pulled out the stack of yoga pants, pajama pants, leggings, etc., that was toppling over, and pulled some of them into that pile to go. Now I have room on the stack and don't have to reach over the ones I never wear to get to the ones I wear.

And, seriously, it probably only took five minutes. There's still plenty to do, but just with that little bit, my closet is a happier place, which makes me a happier person. Baby steps.

Book Reviews and Mentions: Jackie Fraser, Kristin Cashore, KJ Charles

I hope this good-book streak of reading I'm in keeps going! I've been reading a lot lately, almost all winners, and it helps make up for the frustrating times when I dislike one book after another. 

I mentioned in passing a good book I read recently by Jackie Fraser, and I liked it enough to get another of hers out of the library, this one called The Bookshop of Second Chances. I liked this one as well! It's set in Scotland, and again features a character in her 40s, which I found a nice break from the young things. Turns out I like a bit of been-there done-that for a change! (I suspect I may be aging out of reading about characters who don't know who they are, if that makes sense. Or maybe this is a blip, who knows.) Her two main characters have a better idea of what they want and don't want, and I'm there for it. I'm sorry that these two are the only ones she's written, so far at least; I hope she does more.

Now, I have been able to read two more advance copies of new books, which is exciting for me, and I liked both of them--it's so nice when that happens!

The first is There Is a Door in this Darkness, by Kristin Cashore (thank you to PENGUIN GROUP Penguin Young Readers Group for the ARC); it comes out in June (I'll report this then, as a reminder).

The publisher describes it thusly: 

A magic-tinged contemporary YA about grief and hope from the acclaimed New York Times bestselling author of the Graceling Realm novels.

Wilhelmina Hart is part of the infamous class of 2020. Her high school years began with a shocking presidential election and ended with a pandemic. In the midst of this global turmoil, she also lost one of her beloved aunts, a loss she still feels keenly. Having deferred college, Wilhelmina now lives in a limbo she can see no way out of, like so many of her peers. Wilhelmina’s personal darkness would be unbearable (especially with another monumental election looming) but for the inexplicable and seemingly magical clues that have begun to intrude on her life—flashes of bizarre, ecstatic whimsy that seem to add up to a message she can’t quite grasp. But something tells her she should follow their lead. Maybe a trail of elephants, birds, angels, and stale doughnuts will lead Wilhelmina to a door?

I have read Cashore's fantasy books, the Graceling series, which I highly recommend, but this one is regular fiction (mostly: see 'seemingly magical' above), and in fact it's pandemic fiction, which I emphasize as I know it may not appeal to all readers. I do think that a year or two ago, I wouldn’t have been able to read about this time period, with first the political upheaval and then the pandemic, but at this point, though certain things made me wince in vivid memory, I was able to focus on Wilhelmina and what growing up in this time had done to her and those around her. (I wonder how readers will feel about it in 10 or 20 years?)

I liked the touch of the inexplicable—is it magic? How else to explain it?—while still feeling fully real-world. And how people you love can drive you crazy—a theme that still resonates in my life! After I finished reading this, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. Definitely recommend. 

The second book is Death in the Spires, by KJ Charles (thank you, Storm Publishing, for the advance copy), an author I was familiar with, as I mentioned last month, from seeing her on panels with other authors I love (such a good recommendation, isn't it? Hey you, next to Martha Wells and Ursula Vernon/T Kingfisher and Malka Older? Bet I'd like yours too). It officially comes out April 11, but the author reports that copies are appearing in the world now.

They describe it like this:

The newspapers called us the Seven Wonders. We were a group of friends, that’s all, and then Toby died. Was killed. Murdered.

1905. A decade after the grisly murder of Oxford student Toby Feynsham, the case remains hauntingly unsolved. For Jeremy Kite, the crime not only stole his best friend, it destroyed his whole life. When an anonymous letter lands on his desk, accusing him of having killed Toby, Jem becomes obsessed with finally uncovering the truth.

Jem begins to track down the people who were there the night Toby died – a close circle of friends once known as the ‘Seven Wonders’ for their charm and talent – only to find them as tormented and broken as himself. All of them knew and loved Toby at Oxford. Could one of them really be his killer?

As Jem grows closer to uncovering what happened that night, his pursuer grows bolder, making increasingly terrifying attempts to silence him for good. Will exposing Toby's killer put to rest the shadows that have darkened Jem’s life for so long? Or will the gruesome truth only put him in more danger?

Some secrets are better left buried…

(That's a little long, but I feel it's worth reading.)

I really liked it! I was a little concerned that it might go back into the past storyline and stay there, which seemed like it might have been heavy-handed given we know from the start that Toby will be killed, but it fact she leavened scenes from the past into Jem's present investigating in a way that really supported the plot, and I thought it was very well done.

I don't read a ton of mysteries these days, so I don't know how it stands up to the genre, but I really liked it---what more can one say?

Also, I don't think this is too much of a spoiler, but when some of the characters pile into a 'motor car' and go racing off, the line "Jem feared she was doing well over thirty miles an hour" made me laugh.

Caption This Photo

 

A) "What, I'm helping!"

B) "But I'm not ON your knitting!"

C) "Tails don't count."

D) other

Maybe Next Knitting

On Monday, a friend asked me if I knew what would be my next knitting project, as I'm close to finishing my current one, and I said that I didn't know for sure yet. (I have plenty of WIPs [works in progress] that I could pick up in the interim). But then when I was putting photos into my post yesterday about yarn, I saw the picture I took of a shawl at the yarn store on Saturday, and my mind started thinking about what yarn I could use in it, hmm...

The pattern is called Beachy Keen, and you can see better overall pictures on the Ravelry page for it, but I took a closer picture of the stitch pattern that interested me. Fun!

The color combo possibilities are endless, but it may not surprise you to learn that I'm leaning toward rainbow.

The rainbow is a Pride set, Shades of the Rainbow, that I got a few years ago from Neighborhood Fiber Co, and the natural is Anzula Squishy---I actually got a skein of white of the same yarn as the rainbow pack, but this pattern would need two*, so I looked to see what else I had on hand, and this was in the massive windfall of 2023.
*Actually, the pattern suggests using 2 background colors, but I think I want to do it all the same background.

The big question, of course, is do I want to do the rainbow stripes once, or repeating? I'm leaning toward repeating, but who knows.

As for the current project, I'm doing the edging on the Illumine shawl, which is 4 rows but can be repeated as much as you want; I've done three repeats and then I weighed the yarn and have enough for another four rows, anyway, before binding off. I'm excited to finish it, but also want to use as much yarn as I can. Without playing yarn chicken on the bind-off!

Even before blocking, I'm loving how it looks, but the blocking will make a huge difference as well. Can't wait!