50 books in a year, revisited

The last time I posted about my effort to read 50 books this year, I was on number 27. It was July. I am now almost done with book #31.... I don't think the math is adding up to 50 by the end of the year.

Here's August's book list:

28 Extras
29 The Shadow of the Bear
30 Black as Night

I started reading The October Country in August. As of today, I am still reading it. In October I said, I'll have a mini Ray Bradbury read-athon. Didn't happen. Maybe it's because it's a book of short stories. I just can't get into it.

My question is: Can I really read 19 books in a month and a few days? I don't think it will happen, but I'll try to up my numbers just a little. I have 2 young adult novels that shouldn't take too long and a coworker is giving me another one that should be a quick read. Maybe it's time to reread The Giver and some of the others I got in middle school.

Kitty mittens

DSC00178, originally uploaded by a-chan.

Going into Halloween week, I still hadn't figured out what to do for Sabrina's kitty paws. I'd been thinking about some black mittens with pink paw prints on the palms. So I did it. Without a pattern. I'm actually thinking about writing one up. They came out so cute! I still need to get a good picture of Sabrina in her cat costume because it was already dark when we got all the kids dressed and ready for trick or treating.

I've been having a lot of those "I can't believe I made that" moments recently. I feel like I'm tooting my own horn, but I think there's a bit of a difference between when somebody else says a FO is good and actually seeing for myself that it's good. It feels good.

I've got a couple cute sweaters I've finished recently, but again, no pictures.

I think I've figured out what to do for the older nieces and nephew, mitts! I've found a few patterns that I like. The oldest nephew (12 or 13, I forget) will get some very basic black mitts (or hobo gloves as Key calls them) out of worsted weight. Key and Tess will get some either knit or crocheted out of sock yarn. I'm so excited, but I also feel like I'm falling further and further behind. I'm working on that scarf and it's taking quite awhile (size 6 needles, really?)

2 projects, 1 needle

2 projects, 1 needle, originally uploaded by a-chan.

So I'm knitting a Cream of Spinach scarf out of Jojoland Superwash Melody and I'm less than half done, using size 6 needles. I'm also knitting another Confection Baby Shrug out of summer tweed, using size 8 needles.

Now's the fun part. I always go down 1 or 2 needle sizes for ribbing or garter st. With the summer tweed I knew I needed to go down to the 6s. However, this may be lame, but I swear that those 6s are the only ones I have. I had to decide if I should finish the scarf before I finish the shrug or if I should put the scarf on a stitch holder. If I used the holder, I might never come back to the scarf. I didn't want to finish the scarf first.

So I just left it on the needle and used it anyways. Pretty clever, no? Now I'm back to the same decision, though. I finished both arms, so now the only thing left is the main border. And it's knit in the round. I won't be able to do my neat trick. For now, I'm knitting the scarf. But I really want to finish the shrug since it's a nice fall color. Maybe this weekend I'll put the scarf on the stitch holder as long as I promise myself that I will go right back to working on it when I'm done with the ribbing (it's only 3 rows and the bind-off, shouldn't take too long).

I just really liked the picture.