Some baking, some reading, a little knitting & a lot of babbling

I am currently baking some bagels - just a simple recipe from allrecipes but yummmm...I dislike store bought bagels (well, the bakery bagels are good, I'm talking about the packaged ones) and since I'm out, I thought I'd make some - I just added some garlic & sea salt. Lovely.

A huge thanks to Tamera - I got the Swish yarn she kindly sent to help me out. So sweet of her! Again, I love the internet knitting community. I worked on Wicked a bit more but I checked out One Skein Wonders from work on Tuesday & decided I needed a new pair of fingerless gloves - my Fetchings are too short (the curse of long arms & jackets that don't cover them all the way) and a bit pilly and my long ago Noro poptarts are stretched out so cold air gets up into them. So I cast on for the Wave Handwarmers with my coveted Malabrigo last night - completed one today & the other I hope to complete tonight...we'll see, they do go pretty fast & I have some tv shows to watch (Survivor...shhhh). As for the rest of the book, it's okay, some cute patterns. I haven't decided if I'm going to buy it yet - it seems like there are so many free internet patters that are about the same.

But on the other hand there are so many books about to be released (or have been...the knittyboard is buzzing about them) that I'm so excited for & will buy sight unseen. First of all is the Lime & Violet book that I believe is going to be self published so I'm not sure I can order it from work. But I'm such a freaking addict to that show that I must buy it. Next is Stefanie Japal's Fitted Knits. I really love almost everything I've ever seen by her - her sweaters are nearly always in the round (yah for no seaming!) and fit really well. Apparently No Sheep For You has been released but I sure haven't seen it. It deosn't really apply to me - I have sensitivity to some wools, but most of it doesn't bother me too much - but I enjoy Amy's writing a lot, so it should be a fun book. Last but not least is More Sensational Knitted Socks - man I love the first one so much, it is such a huge help with making socks & I love that you can adapt all the patterns to to what you need. So many lovely books coming out!

But I realized the other day, I don't nearly read as many novels as I used to. I don't know if it's from knitting (and while I can surf the internet while knitting, I can't read a novel) or just lack of books that strike my interest. Since the begining of the year, I've read only new two novels - A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore (good, but not nearly as good as Lamb) and Plum Lovin' by Janet Evanovich (cute but like all of her books, total brain candy). I do reread a lot of books - for instance, my bedtime book right now is Emma by Jane Austen (I'm a total Jane Austen nerd, but I've never liked Emma all that much - I'm hoping I'll get a differnt perpective after not reading it for awhile.) I have to have books I've already read for my bedtime books otherwise I'll never go to sleep.

But right now, I'm totally engrossed in an excellent novel - Midnight at the Dragon Cafe, part of the Portland Everybody Reads program. I am really enjoying this - part of it reminds me of Amy Tan, who I adore, and I'm having flashes of Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood, maybe because the main character is a out of place little girl in Canada, I don't know. Anyway...best book I've read in quite awhile.

I think that's enough babbling and blogger is moving really really REALLY slow so I'm offf. Have a great week all!