Desert Island

Finally! It's been a crazy couple of weeks here with two knitting project/pattern deadlines, both of which bit me in the derriere at the eleventh hour and involved far too much reknitting. But they're good, very different from each other, and I'm quite happy with them.

Then, after some return to a semblance of order involving much laundry, vacuuming the bejeesus out of the apartment and actually cooking a meal or two, Noro hit. And not the colorful yarn-y Noro but the really gross one that involves more laundry, plus floor scrubbing. Sigh. Isobel got it last Friday night, starting in our room before heading to the bathroom. In her defense, our room is en route, but we had a little chat with the kids about heading directly to the bathroom for future ... gastric episodes without popping in to let us know. If you have small people in your house who haven't thrown up lately, you may want to educate them on this important notion. Noro seems to be sweeping the nation, so I highly recommend this chat, folks. Your floors/rugs/walls/furniture, as well as your hands/knees/housemaid's elbows will thank you.

So, I kind of feel like I've been on a desert island. Knittingknittingknitting, then writing, doing math, followed by lots of cleaning. And I've had this yarn staring at me from my dressing table:

Solitude Wool's tweedy alpaca/merino laceweight

Habu Textile's Wool Stainless

Jill Draper Makes Stuff Aurora laceweight in Leaf - I wound this up during that panel discussion

Makes it kind of difficult to concentrate on the business at hand, doesn't it? These are my spoils, along with an Addi US6 40" circular needle, from VKLive. I had been kicking myself for not bringing home a goodie from Solitude Wool's booth in 2011 - they focus on heritage breeds, which I find pretty neat - so this year I wanted something of theirs; however, with two sweater lots of yarn breathing down my neck for the aforementioned patterns, a small skein of lace seemed like the best choice this year. I love that the alpaca and wool aren't dyed - that's the color of the fleece and fiber; the nepps are dyed, though. The Habu Stainless is something I've been pondering for a while and have a pattern idea kicking around. And that Leaf color of Jill Draper's has been haunting me since Rhinebeck, so when I found her booth at VKL, I had to bring some home - the silk just makes that color sing. It's not even really my color, but I had to have it!

Other than that, I'm getting my sample together for the upcoming Folklore Crafts project. I'll blog more about this as we get closer to publication. I've also been pondering a print version of Avast No. 1, since I'm a firm believer in, you know, actual books and stuff. Come the robot revolution, the "cloud" isn't going to do you much good when you're hiding out in a cave :) But, seriously, my first career was as a print book designer and art director. I should probably print this baby. What do you think? I'll really have to up my sales-and-marketing game, though. There are so many options out there that I have to really decide what I want.

The other reason I called this post "Desert Island" is that in replying to a lovely PM on Ravelry, I mentioned EZ's Knitter's Almanac as one of my desert island books, so I thought I'd play the game out here and make a proper list of my desert island books (I should put links in there, but it's getting close to lunchtime - you're smart; I bet you can find them):

1. Persuasion - just ... my favorite, the best, though I'd love to have a complete works of Jane Austen if I could on the island
2. Knitter's Almanac - hopefully with some yarn and needles, too, but even without there is so much information to ponder and clever writing to enjoy
3. something (or everything) by Dorothy Dunnett - Checkmate or King, Hereafter if there can only be one, but for anyone who enjoys the swoony Jamie of the Outlander series, Lymond is to die for, and Lady Dunnett's writing spoils you for most other things
4. The Odyssey - my college minor was Ancient Greek so I could read this in the original, though these days I would need a Greek dictionary, too, so I'd be fine with a translation (except for the lines Nick translated for our wedding - all set with those)
5. Possession - I first read this at a moment in college where it was just perfect for me, and I still dig it
6. A Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns - if I can only have one in Barbara Walker's invaluable series, this is the one, since it has the lace borders and edgings sections
7. Ulysses - so I'd finally read it
8. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - so much loopy fun
9. Bossypants - Tina Fey's my girl crush, unsurprisingly, and my nickname at a former job was Princess Crankypants. What? I got cranky when people didn't clean up after themselves or do their jobs properly. Come on!
10. Oh, I don't know! SO many possibilities for the last spot that I just can't decide: Goodnight, Moon; The Secret Garden; Little House on the Prairie; Villette; The Crying of Lot 49; Alice Starmore's Aran Knitting; some book from The Met's Costume Institute or the V&A; How to Find Water on a Desert Island. That last one is probably the wisest, but they're all good, as are so many more!

What are your desert island books?