Monday, October 12, 2009

I had a grand time yesterday with Lynn Barr and Cocoon and my Christmas project. Cocoon is lovely stuff – it ought to be, at that price – merino with a bit of mohair. The pattern I chose is extremely effective (you can count on that, from Barr) and really pretty easy (that you can’t).

But big needles and big yarn made me feel stupid and clumsy, and I shall return with joy to my ASJ today.

I’ve given the Christmas Project a progress bar, as you see. EJ, I thought there must be a way to link Ravelry progress bars with a blog, because when you click on one of the Faculty Meeting Knitter’s projects, you find yourself in Ravelry. I’m grateful to you for the link.

I went and had a look. It’s not crystal clear (to me) how to do it, and anyway my Ravelry WIP page is sadly out of date. When I first joined, I fell upon it with enthusiasm, put in lots of WIPs, past and present, and photographed and catalogued my entire stash. But since then, things have slipped. I now drop by mostly to look for patterns, or to see who’s doing a pattern I am interested in.

Non-knit

Angel, I neglected to thank you for the tip-off about Kindle International. There was a big article about it in the Telegraph that day (but I had heard it from you first) and when one logs on to amazon.co.uk these days, the first page is devoted to it. It’s not yet for sale over here – you have to order it from America and pay shipping costs and customs duty. But that should soon change.

I don’t have much of an excuse for getting one. Except for reducing clutter around here by not buying impermanent-type books. Or even semi-permanent ones, like Hilary Mantel and Jhumpa Lahiri. And I’m curious about how I would like the experience of reading a Kindle.

5 comments:

  1. Dawn in NL9:36 AM

    Jean,
    I used to read e-books, from Project Gutenberg, on my Psion (obsolete and overtaken by Palm and its ilk). I found it a nice way to have several books available at once during my long train commute.

    My husband and I are seriously considering buying an e-reader but he wants to wait for a colour version so that we can take guidebooks and maps on holiday along with my reading matter. I also see it as a possible way to reduce my physical book collection, but we will have to find a way to scan my books.

    Anyway, there are two issues that need to be solved for e-readers. Publishers are charging too much for e-books and the book is not really yours after purchase, you can't easily switch it to another reader so you can't lend it to someone or sell it secondhand.

    Just my tuppenceworth,
    Dawn

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  2. GrannyPurple1:15 PM

    I'm right up there with Dawn--it's the not being able to lend it afterward that hurts! Besides, "Books do furnish a room"!
    Re Ravelry--my experience has been like yours, Jean. Uploaded my entire knitting history (well, what was still around), and no pix since, because Flickr won't cooperate, and Yahoo won't respond to my queries. But looking up patterns and yarn substitutions, and keeping in touch with others are still favourite uses.

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  3. I've done a cabled hat in Cocoon and loved it. That can be seen on my Ravelry page, but like you, I am sadly out of date. Most recently I've finished a hat in BigWool and I'm longing for my 2.75mm needles. It feels like working with very soft rope and telephone poles. I've put myself on the library waiting list for Hilary Mantel's Booker winner, but I hadn't heard of her before. Other recommendations of hers?

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  4. I've had a demonstration of the Kindle but it's not for me even though I have sore shoulders from carrying all the books I end up buying.

    I recently knit a square for a comfort blanket and used size 10 needles and thick wool - it was much harder to knit than lace weight on smaller needles. No thanks again.

    As for Ravelry, I too scarcely look at it and am way behind in uploading photos.

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  5. Like I said before, I use my Kindle for all my "trashy" books that way they aren't sitting on the shelf next to Emerson and the sermons of Jon Edwards... but I do travel a lot, so that is the main reason why I use it...

    So it appears that I have been hit with the flu (H1N1). I began to feel rotten last night but made it in to give my lecture (and I was so dizzy that I had to sit down and read the lecture. Usually I lecture off the cuff as I wander around the classroom.) Anyway I came home and went so sleep and woke up to take the dog out, with fever, a dry cough and really bad dizziness. Called the doc and they said not to come in, they can't do anything since I am a healthy young person because the region (south Texas) is short of Tamiflu and they are saving it for people with pre-existing conditions. They told me to just tough it out ad stay home.... its pretty miserable.... no knitting, just watching bad TV and I wish I had my mom to make me soup....

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