In addition to finishing the scarf for my dad, I also finished World Made by Hand by James Howard Kunstler. I really liked this book. Good story line and the characters were very engaging. I have the second book, The Witch of Herborn, from the library already and I'm looking forward to reading it.

Mission Accomplished! I finished the Aran Cashmere Scarf that I wanted to get done for my dad. Pattern: Aran Cashmere Scarf by Beth Walker-O'Brien
Yarn: Lion Brand Wool Ease Worsted Weight in Grey Heather, 2 skeins
Needles: Size 6 Harmony Interchangeable
Started: 11/22/10
Finished: 11/27/10
Mods: None

This was a very easy pattern to memorize. The pattern looks really complicated but it's not. After about 3 repeats of the pattern, I was able to go by memory. Would I do it again? Most likely not, it's not it's too difficult, it's just that knitting a scarf is really boring. I'm glad that I made myself finish this because otherwise I'm not sure I ever would have finished it.

Since I was able to whip up a pair of fingerless gloves for my little sister so fast, I thought I'd go ahead and try to get a scarf done for my dad. I hadn't really planned on doing any Christmas knitting this year but you know what they say about well made plans.

I've had my eye on this scarf that I saw on Jared Floods Website, Brooklyn Tweed for some time. I thought it was a really beautiful scarf that was masculine enough for my dad while still being interesting enough for me to knit.

Photo & Knitting by Jared Flood, from his blog, Brooklyn Tweed

The pattern for the scarf is called Aran Cashmere Scarf by Beth Walker-O'Brien. It's from a book called Simple 1-2-3 Knitting. It took a lot of time and research but I finally found the book on Barnes & Noble.com. I'm not sure if the book is currently out of print or not but when I found it I bought it. It was pretty cheap as I recall, about $6.00 not including shipping. I bought it back in January with the intention of knitting this scarf for my dad but with the crazy year I've been having I figured it would be much easier to just do store bought gifts for everyone this year instead of trying to knit everyone something special.

But since I was able to knit up the gloves for Jess so quickly, I figured I'd give the scarf ago and see if I can get it done in time. I have a couple of weeks before I need to get the gifts wrapped and boxed and mailed to my parents house in Oregon but I think I should be able to get it done in time. This weekend is going to be a quiet one around my house since Hubbs is on call for work and it's supposed to be storming.

I stopped off at my local Jo-Anns Crafts on my way home from work on Monday to check see if they had any yarn that interested me. Normally for gift knitting I would pick up something more luxurious from my local yarn shop but since the scarf is going to be for my dad, I figured something that is soft and durable as well as machine washable would be best. I'm sure that my dad will end up wearing this out in shop where it will get wood chips and other assorted shop type stuff on it. And I wanted my step-mom to be able to just toss it into the wash without a second thought. I spent about 30 min's waffling back and forth over a couple of different yarns but in the end, I chose Lion Brand Wool Ease in Worsted weight for my project. I chose a grey very similar to the color that Jared Flood chose for his scarf.

I'm going to put my Moorish Lattice Cardigan to the side to concentrate on getting this scarf done for my dad. If I can get it done in a timely manner, I might decide to tackle a cowl for my step-mom. If there's time, I'm thinking something done in a blue to bring out her beautiful eyes. I've already picked out another gift for her in case I can't get everything done in time. Fingers crossed!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I finished another book this week. This time I finished my at work reading book.

I rated After America by John Birmingham as a three star on GoodReads. It was a decent story but I felt like it left off in the middle of the story and there was no closure. So I liked it but it wasn't great.

Since I need/have to have some break time reading for work, I grabbed The Jasmine Moon Murder off my night stand at home. I'm out of Library books except for the one I'm already reading at home and I won't get a chance to get to the library until tonight. The Tea Shop Mysteries are cute books, easy to read. Plus it's pretty short at only couple of hundred pages and I can finish it up pretty quickly. I got my mom hooked on these books and now she buys them when she finds one she hasn't read before and then passes them to me. Free books are always awesome.

In addition to going to the library tonight I also have to bake a pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving. It will be my first pumpkin pie I've ever baked. Hopefully I'll be able to get it right the first time and it won't require me running to the store for more supplies. I will admit that I bought a ready made crust instead of making my own. Last year I went through about 5 batches of pie dough because I kept screwing it up. I ended up going to the store and just buying the pre-made stuff and nobody knew the difference.

The week leading up to a holiday is always so busy for me. Thankfully I got a bit a head of the curve this by doing part of my holiday cooking on Sunday. Since Thanksgiving got switched from my house to my grandmothers house I don't have to do all the food but I was asked to make my Cranberry-Tangerine Chutney that everyone loves. It's really yummy on the turkey but because it's sweet, I like it over a block of cream cheese with crackers on the side. It's not a complicated recipe but it does take some time and you really have to watch it on the stove so it doesn't burn. You pretty much just dump all the ingredients into a pot on the stove and let it cook down for about 40 min's. But you have to watch it and stir every so often. The recipe says stir occasionally but I've found that if you don't stir it more often then it sticks to the bottom of the pot and burns. And no one likes burned chutney.

Well, I guess I better get my tail in gear if I'm going to get everything done today! Happy pre-turkey day!

Since we all know that I can't go more then 10 seconds without something to read, I started World Made by Hand when I finished Contagious by Scott Sigler.

Jenna over at Cold Antler Farm recommended The Witch of Herborn County by James Howard Kunstler on her November 2 blog post. After I read her recommendation of this author, I ran over to GoodReads to check out the book. When I realized that The Witch of Herborn County is the second book in the series, I requested World Made by Hand and The Witch of Herborn County from my local library.

So far I'm only in about 20 pages of World made by Hand and I'm loving it. Here's the excerpt from GoodReads:

"In The Long Emergency celebrated social commentator James Howard Kunstler explored how the terminal decline of oil production, combined with climate change, had the potential to put industrial civilization out of business. In World Made by Hand, an astonishing work of speculative fiction, Kunstler brings to life what America might be, a few decades hence, after these catastrophes converge. For the townspeople of Union Grove, New York, the future is nothing like they thought it would be. Transportation is slow and dangerous, so food is grown locally at great expense of time and energy, and the outside world is largely unknown. There may be a president, and he may be in Minneapolis now, but people aren’t sure. Their challenges play out in a dazzling, fully realized world of abandoned highways and empty houses, horses working the fields and rivers, no longer polluted, and replenished with fish. With the cost of oil skyrocketing—and with it the price of food—Kunstler’s extraordinary book, full of love and loss, violence and power, sex and drugs, depression and desperation, but also plenty of hope, is more relevant than ever."

Over the weekend, I finished Contagious by Scott Sigler. It's the second book in this series. I read the first book back in September and really liked it. It's a bit creepy and some parts are pretty gross but still a good read. I would have thought that some of it might have given me nightmares but it didn't bother me at all.

From the cover:
"From the acclaimed author of Infected comes an epic and exhilarating story of humanity’s secret battle against a horrific enemy. Across America, a mysterious pathogen transforms ordinary people into raging killers, psychopaths driven by a terrifying, alien agenda. The human race fights back, yet after every battle the disease responds, adapts, using sophisticated strategies and brilliant ruses to fool its pursuers. The only possible explanation: the epidemic is driven not by evolution but by some malevolent intelligence.Standing against this unimaginable threat is a small group, assembled under the strictest secrecy. Their best weapon is hulking former football star Perry Dawsey, left psychologically shattered by his own struggles with this terrible enemy, who possesses an unexplainable ability to locate the disease’s hosts. Violent and unpredictable, Perry is both the nation’s best hope and a terrifying liability. Hardened CIA veteran Dew Phillips must somehow forge a connection with him if they’re going to stand a chance against this maddeningly adaptable opponent. Alongside them is Margaret Montoya, a brilliant epidemiologist who fights for a cure even as she reels under the weight of endless horrors. These three and their team have kept humanity in the game, but that’s not good enough anymore, not when the disease turns contagious, triggering a fast countdown to Armageddon. Meanwhile, other enemies join the battle, and a new threat — one that comes from a most unexpected source — may ultimately prove the most dangerous of all.Catapulting the reader into a world where humanity’s life span is measured in hours and the president’s finger hovers over the nuclear button, rising star Scott Sigler takes us on a breathtaking, hyper-adrenalized ride filled with terror and jaw-dropping action. Contagious is a truly grand work of suspense, science, and horror from a new master."