Book Report: Size 14 is Not Fat Either by Meg Cabot

After taking a class on Readers' Advisory last semester, I thought I'd try my hand at writing book reviews. (It will also motivate me to read more, since I have a huge to-be-read list.)

Size 14 is Not Fat Either
by Meg Cabot

Cabot, of Princess Diaries fame, is also the author of a series of Chick-Lit Mysteries featuring Heather Wells, one of the most delightful characters I've come across in recent history. Heather is a former child-star-turned Assistant Residence Hall Director of a college in New York City. In this book, the sequel to Size 12 is Not Fat, Heather is trying to figure out who killed a cheerleader and put her head in a pot.
Not that these books are grisly. Like I said, I call these books "Chick-Lit Mystery"; all the fluff you like in chick lit books but with the added element of a whodunit.

WIP Wednesday-the first of many I hope!

In an effort to get myself to make continuous progress on my WIPs, I'm reinstating WIP Wednesday. We'll see how it goes.
At the top, the blue is the beginnings of the
Amanda Hat. I mentioned I'd joined a KAL for this hat? Well, apparently I'm a year late to the party. However, it's already on the needles and it appears it will be a quick knit, so I might as well finish it. It also gives me a chance to show off the neat project tote I got for Christmas.
The insanely colored mess to the right of that will become a blanket for a new niece, she's expected in about 5 months. I'm calling it Victoria's Raspado Blanket on account of the yarn reminding me of all the colors you see in snowcones.
The dark teal will hopefully become a FO by the weekend, that's the Gossamer Stars Scarf I've been working on since last May.

New blog name!

I've changed the name of my blog. I'm still a newbie knitter, but I think the new title better reflects what I would like to blather on about...

My plan of attack for 2009

Despite my only having one FO for this year, I've got a huge list of items I'd like to accomplish. It's still January, so I'm still allowed that feeling of "yeah! I can do it! No problem!" that will disappear in a panic come October.

But I have a plan. A pretty good one, If I do say so myself. (It's the sticking to it that's hard.)

My plan is to have 3 WIPs going on, strategically placed so that one is (theoretically) always near at hand. One in the living room (currently the Gossamer Stars Scarf that I started last summer); one in the bedroom (baby blanket for my sister-in-law); and one portable project that will be kept in my bag (currently a second Endpaper Mitt, but will soon change to Baby Socks because I'm trying to knit one pair of socks a month.)

I also joined the "Do the Amanda" KAL, I've been meaning to knit this hat with some yummy Malabrigo I got in a swap last summer. It will be the first hat I've knit for myself!

OMG, an update!

It's taken 21 days for me to post my first entry of the year. I do have some things to report though, the most important being the brand new look of my blog! I think the small typeface was what irritated me the most about the old look; it made the pics look way out of proportion. I spent quite a bit of time on the redesign, adding a Twitter feed and a tag cloud (I don't care what some people think, I happen to like tag clouds and find them useful.) I still have to add in my Goodreads feed; it somehow got lost.
Anyways, I hope this will motivate me to update more.
My first FO of the year is a hat, no surprise here:
Pattern: Dizzy by Berroco
Yarn: Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Worsted in Strawberry Smoothie

My friend Kim turned 30 the first week in January. She's a tiny thing who knows how to fly helicopters and can drink most guys under the table. She likes microbrews, Hello Kitty and the color pink. So for her birthday, we got her 2 bottles from one of her favorite breweries and I made her the hat.

Does this count as a sweater?

Back in January, I wrote on a paper leaf for our resolution tree at work that my New Year's Resolution would be to knit a sweater. Since I already had the yarn and pattern picked out, I figured I'd be able to get it done.
Well, the 10 balls of yarn are still in a storage container somewhere. I'd come to the conclusion around late September that there was no way I'd have time to knit a sweater in the remaining months of the year. I was taking 2 classes for the Fall semester, which left very little knitting time, much less time for anything else, housecleaning included.
Come December and the end of the semester however, I found myself with some extra knitting-for-me time, probably because I decided not to do handknits for Christmas. The only exception to this was this cute mug cozy I whipped up for a friend when I learned I'd be seeing her on Christmas Eve:
I got the yarn for this project from a great group on Ravelry called the Karma Yarn Swap.
But back to my sweater story...I'd been planning to make the Anthropologie-Inspired Capelet for a while now, and in going through my yarn bins for stuff to offer up to the Karma Swap, I found the yarn I'd bought for the project. Could I actually make the capelet by the end of the year and sort of fulfill my New Year's Resolution?
Here it is, my first sweater! Finished on December 31, 2008.

My resolution for next year? To knit that other sweater.

Blogstalkers 3.0 Week 6

This week's theme is another two-fer: Virtual Potluck and Favorite Holiday Tradition.
Virtual Potluck
I'd like to share a kinda-recipe for a Chocolate Trifle, basically you take a box of brownie mix, bake them up, and use that instead of cake. So it's bits of trifle sprinkled with coffee liqueur, chocolate pudding, bananas, whipped cream and chocolate shavings on top. The first time I made it I didn't even get any when it was served.
Favorite Holiday Tradition
Even though we haven't been for the past couple of years, our favorite holiday tradition is going to December Nights here in San Diego. "December Nights" is the new PC name for the event; we still call it by its former name, Christmas on the Prado. It's held the first weekend of December in Balboa Park; all of the museums are free to visit, plus there's a tree lighting ceremony, Nutcracker performances, other musical performances, and people selling Christmas gifts. There's always someone to buy apple cider or hot chocolate or nachos (hey, it is San Diego after all) from. The International Houses are open and usually have traditional holiday fare to sample.
We missed it this year because we were in Tucson for the Arizona (yay Wildcats!)-ASU game, but hopefully we will make it for next year.