The Hula socks are done. The foot is a tiny bit long, but not long enough to bother me (though it does occur to me that the best time to measure socks on my foot is not when I have swollen ankles), and I rather like how the heel turned out.

I also knit up a felted hat (Narrow Brim Hat, Galeskas, Felted Knits) out of two skeins Artful Yarns Shakespeare. The colors are great, and I like how the hat turned out.

And the Fat Bottom Bag is done. (Three skeins RYC Cotton Jeans, about a half yard of fabric that I had in stash for lining, and two 18-inch pieces of chain from Home Depot.)

So it's been a good couple weeks for finishing stuff. Other craft progress:

• Up to row 98 on Heere Be Dragone.
• A few rows on the Ivy socks. It'd be nice to get those done this month, but we'll see.
• A half inch on the Trekking socks.
• An inch or two on the Apple Laine socks.
• A few rows on Flutter.
• Half a pattern row on the Turkish sweater before I realized that I didn't account for the chart error; I'll have to rip back.
• Several rows on the Baby Surprise Jacket; it's almost ready for me to cast off the neck edge stitches.
• A few painful rows on the Microsock.
• A few easier rows on the piano bag. Time to start the chart!
• A few tufts on the latch hook rug.
• The loom cords are conditioned, though I still have to figure out how I'm going to adjust the harness height.

Lois McMaster Bujold, The Sharing Knife: Passage. Read as soon as it got here; later went back and reread favorite parts of TSN: Beguilement and entirely reread TSN: Legacy, followed by a reread of Passage.

While I think that what Bujold's doing with an American-based landscape is interesting, I'm from a different region than the one she used, so it doesn't resonate with me like it does with readers who grew up in Ohio and surrounding regions. But I find the society fascinating, and I very much like how there aren't easy answers. The problems that Dag and Fawn deal with are huge ones, unlikely to be solved in their lifetimes, let alone within one book (or four).

Tom Hodgkinson, How to Be Idle. I didn't finish this book, though I read large chunks of it. The author has some really good points, that apply just as much (if not more so) to American society as to his own British. Why should we look at any apparent idleness with suspicion? Why is it more important to look like we're busy for eight hours than to accomplish something really useful in four and enjoy the rest of our time?

And yet....

The book would have worked better for me if H. had been clearer about idleness as "doing what you choose to do, and yes, that activity might actually resemble work" (which does appear in some spots to be what he ultimately means) rather than idleness as "doing things socially considered fun" (hanging out in pubs, lying in bed doing nothing, smoking, boozing). Many of the activities he talks about as examples of how to enjoy idleness would drive me batty with boredom. It's quite possible that an evening of knitting for the joy of the yarn and the desire to see the final project (and not because I really need to finish this project for a deadline) would fit right into his definition of idleness, but if it doesn't, well, I'd much rather spend an evening knitting than an evening drinking beer in a pub.

Also, I come away from this book with the strong impression that he's speaking to men, not to women. For example, he brushes off the work of childrearing with "train them to get their own breakfasts on weekends as soon as possible". That's nice, but in the intervening years, the kid has to be nursed or bottlefed, diapered, bathed, kept from poisoning itself, civilized into a reasonable human, etc., etc. As a mother, especially as the mother of a mentally disabled kid and a single mother until recently, I don't have much chance for real idleness, and certainly not for any mental activity that requires long stretches of focused alert mind, because if I didn't do the work of caring for my child, no one else was going to take up the slack. (The chapter in which H. sings the praises of skiving, slacking on work and enjoying watching someone else do it instead, raised my hackles to say the least.) The chapter on sex, too, is clearly aimed at men, with a token wave of "yeah, women just lose all interest in sex once they've got some kids". (Speaking as a mother who still has a sex drive, I'm more than happy to while away a lazy afternoon or evening in my husband's arms, but we both need to be sufficiently caught up on sleep that we don't drop off as soon as we get some quiet, and without a babysitter, we're pretty well limited to "after the kid is in bed", which is perilously close to "time we nod off".)

In other words -- an interesting concept, and I would love to see such a book written by a mother, but H.'s take didn't work for me.

After watching Rex Harrison in Dr. Doolittle, all I can think is that the world badly needs a Dr. Doolittle/Doctor Who crossover.

(Which was about the only thing of value I got from the movie. It would've been a much better film if it were just Dr. Doolittle and the animals, or if Emma had decided she was interested in the fishmonger instead. And while it's fun to see "Talk to the Animals", Roger Moore's version on the Muppet Show was much better.)

I've started the Heere Be Dragone shawl and am up to row 72. When I look at it as "row 72 out of about 320" it looks like great progress; when I actually look at the chart and realize I'm not even through the first chart of ten, not so great. And I suspect my gauge is a little smaller than the pattern's, though it'll still be a good-sized shawl when it's blocked. But the pattern is very interesting to work, and I love how the yarn I chose is working -- Chewy Spaghetti's "Capellini", a hand-dyed wool/silk laceweight, in a gray with very subtle color variations.

I'm back up to four pairs of socks on the needles:

• The Ivy lace socks that've been in progress for a year and a half are still in progress; I do have a clear idea now what I'm doing for the heel, though.
• I've finished the heels on the Hula socks and am working down the gusset; after that it'll be just straight stockinette for a few inches and an inch of ribbing. I might even finish them before the end of the month.
• The Trekking socks have toes and a smidge of foot. In spite of my attempts to make them match, they turn out to be fraternal, but I've decided I'd rather have fraternal socks than rip them out.
• The Apple Laine Party Time socks also have toes and a bit of foot. These are my first socks on two circular needles, 16" Knit Picks Options. In future, I may keep doing the toes on DPNs, as I found doing them with circs a challenge, but once I have the full complement of stitches on the needles, the two circs are working well. And the yarn is bright and cheerful and happy.

Update on four sweaters:

• The Aran has a couple more sleeve rows.
• Flutter has been one of my frequently-worked-on projects lately; it's a reasonably mindless knit good for bus rides. I'm a little concerned that the sleeves will be narrower than I find comfortable, and I need to look at the pattern to see whether they're going to be long for me. But if what I have doesn't need ripping, I'm well over halfway through the sleeves.
• I knit a couple plain rows on the Turkish sweater, but I really need to run in more ends on the lower section before I start having to run ends in the next section.
• The Baby Surprise Jacket is through the decreases and into the increases.

As for the miscellaneous projects:

• Haven't touched the microsock ornament.
• The Piano Felted Bag is coming along, though delayed because I had to steal needle parts to work on Flutter for a bit. I've got about eight rows of one color to do, and then I'll probably go ahead and start the keyboard chart.
• All cross-stitch has been ignored.
• The loom is still waiting for me to get some leather conditioner and to adjust the harness height.
• The latch-hook rug hasn't been touched in a while. I'm not too worried about that one languishing; if I get a reasonably neurotypical child this time, in a few years I might see whether he shares my childhood fascination with making latch-hook stitches.

The Flower Basket Shawl is done and in the mail. Yay! I almost started Heere Be Dragone afterwards, but I don't have a one-piece #2 needle, and I don't want to try this with my Boye interchangables, so I'm waiting for the needle to arrive.

Other progress:

• The Dancing Socks are growing, I'm pretty close to the heel.
• I'm on the last skein for the Fat-Bottomed Bag and hoping I have enough yarn. (If not, I'll see what I can find that's similar for the strap holders.)
• The Baby Surprise Jacket is nearing the end of the decreases.
• The Piano Felted Bag is in the top striping section; pretty soon I'll start the keyboard stranded section.
• I did a few more repeats on the Flutter Cardigan sleeves.
• Also a few rows on the Aran sweater.
• I actually pulled out the Turkish sweater (and had to shuffle needles, as there's only two pairs of adapters for the Boye interchangeables -- another reason to build up my stash of KnitPicks Options?) and completed the bottom section. Still have to run in a gazillion ends, though, and I'd better do that before I get too much further.

In a recent episode of completion, I finished the following:

• The Fiber Trends Clogs. Finished and felted the afternoon that the recipients arrived. I didn't start the child's slippers I'd wanted to make to match, but there's enough yarn left that I can do that for another occasion.
• The Vera socks. More precisely, finished, found to be too long, cut apart and had 26 rows ripped out of each, and grafted back together. They're now in the mail, hurrah!
• The green woven towel. I've got the warp for a few more, but I need to take a break and adjust the loom a bit; it's taking me about twice as long to weave as it should due to tension issues.

In a recent episode of startitis, I began the following:

• KnitPicks Dancing socks in Hula. Not my favorite colorway, but it's bright and cheery; I'm just making a generic pair of socks, so it's good mindless knitting.
• Fat-Bottomed Bag. I'd already bought the yarn for it, so I figured I'd go ahead and chain up. It's about a third of the way through, and it's nice mindless crochet at this point.
• Piano Felted Bag. I'd already bought the yarn for it, so I figured I'd go ahead and cast on. I haven't gotten beyond the handle, but it's going to be a nice mostly mindless pattern except for the stranded section.
• Baby Surprise Jacket. I've never made the pattern, and it occurred to me that it'd be a good use for three skeins of random cotton yarn that've been in the stash for nearly ten years. So far I've only got a few rows and am not feeling the fascination, but hey, it's stash-busting. It's also not quite mindless.

In a recent episode of self-discipline, I made progress on the following:

• Flower Basket Shawl. It's further along than I'd thought; I'm on the last repeat if I want to do it as written, but I almost certainly have enough yarn for an extra repeat, so I'll probably do that.
• Flutter Cardigan. It's actually good bus knitting; the pattern is easy, and I just have to remember the increases on the sleeves. (I should check whether the sleeves are fixing to turn out way too long, but we'll see.)
• Aran Sweater -- not much progress, granted, but I've knit a few rows.
• Latch hook rug. A few more tufts added.
• Ivy socks. Two rows, but it's progress.

In a recent episode of apathy, I completely ignored the following:

• Every cross-stitch UFO.
• That damn crane that I should just unload on some unsuspecting person.
• The Turkish sweater.
• The Microsock.
• The moth-attacked Fair Isle hat.
• The black lineny shirt and skirt.

In a recent episode of restraint (or at least of counting the current UFOs) I did not yet start the following, in spite of having materials on hand:

• The big bobbin lace doily.
• Three more pairs of socks, even though I have needles free.
• Heere Be Dragone.
• Ice Queen.
• Several dishcloths.
• A blue jumper.
• Andean Treasure Vest.

A bunch of stuff I read back in November/December, wrote up, and never posted:

Jennifer Crusie, Fast Women. When Nell takes a job as a secretary with Gabe, both their lives get upended. Eh. It was a fun read, but I don't have the urge to reread it on a regular basis (i.e. I decided against buying a copy for 50 cents).

E. M. Forster, A Room with a View. Lucy Honeychurch goes to Italy, meets an unsuitable young man, and tries to deny that she's in love with him. Eh. It gives me a greater appreciation of the movie Stiff Upper Lips, which draws a lot from Forster novels (and presumably the movie versions thereof), and Charlotte Bartlett is a brilliant portrait of a passive-aggressive jerk, but I found much of the story tedious.

Diana Wynne Jones, The Pinhoe Egg. Marianne Pinhoe tries to find out why her family is hiding from Chrestomanci, who's ticking off the rival family, and where her grandmother's cat Nutcase keeps vanishing. Cat Chant tries to figure out how to ride a horse, why the nearby forest seems so odd, and what's in the mysterious egg he finds in Marianne's grandmother's attic. It's an interesting story, and it doesn't have the "you're not just responsible for things you did inadvertently or out of ignorance; you're guilty of them" attitude that really annoys me in many of her other books. If I get the urge to reread it, I'll buy a copy.

Alexander Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo. Still fabulous airplane/travel reading.

Linda Wynstead Jones, The Sun Witch. I made it partway through the prologue and decided I'm not interested enough to continue; the background feels like Extruded Fantasy Product, and while I enjoy a good sex scene, the very beginning of the story is not where I expect it (plus, assuming it's the same guy who appeared earlier in the prologue, he should be too badly injured to get it up).

The world badly needs Jane Austen's novels as performed by Cirque du Soleil.

Still alive.

Did not finish anything else in 2007. (Misplaced the ornament; didn't end up with time for anything else.)

So far in 2008:

• Finished Unbiased bag.
• Finished Regia Bamboo socks.
• Started & finished Urchin hat.
• Started & finished Sweet Pea Shawl.
• Started two pairs of Fiber Trends clogs. One pair is finished except for felting; other pair is half done.

Other progress:

• The Vera socks are close to done; I have about two inches plus ribbing to go on each.
• The green woven towel is about two-thirds done.

Want to start soon:

• Here Be Dragonne shawl.
• Socks from KP Dancing, color Hula.
• Socks from Regia striped yarn, color Circus.
• Socks from Trekking XXL.
• Socks from Lorna's Laces, color Georgetown.
• Socks from Apple Laine Apple Pie, color Party Time.
• Andean Treasure Vest.
• Gloves from Selbuvotter.
• Music felted bag.
• Ice Queen cowl.

Really need to kick my rear into working on:

• Aran sweater.
• Flower Basket shawl.
• Turkish sweater.
• Flutter cardigan.

A couple weekends of travel = a large quantity of stitching. The More Stripes vest is done, as are the Circus Panda Cotton socks. (photos to come) Sadly, the items that were intended as Hanusolskwanzmas presents are not done (in some cases, not started), but my family is generally understanding, and between the Twelve Days of Christmas and assuming that the Eastern Orthodox Christmas season also runs until their date for Epiphany, that gives me until mid-January, right?

I'm very happy with the vest, although I find that the edges do tend to curl. It fits better than I'd expected, and it actually makes me look like I have a chest. The socks are a teeny bit too long in the foot, but otherwise they're great.

Things I expect to finish by the end of the year:

• Holly Heart ornament (assuming I get off my rear and work some more on it)

• Vera socks (still on the foot, but getting close to the heel)
• one pair of felted clogs (haven't started, but they are a quick knit
• first green sampler towel (weaving goes fast when I actually do it)
• Aran sweater (sleeves are close to the elbow)
• Regia Bamboo socks (gusset increases chugging along, almost ready for the heel)=
• Microsock (granted, it'll take as many actual stitches as a normal-sized sock, but hey)
• Fair Isle swatch cap (assuming that the moth infestation I discovered didn't go too far into the yarn; it's currently sitting in the freezer waiting for me to have the oomph to deal with it)
• Flower Basket shawl (got a repeat done while travelling)
• black lineny shirt (frankly, it probably would take only an afternoon to finish the remaining seams)
• black lineny skirt (ditto)
• stupid Crane needlepoint (and if I don't finish it, I should go ahead and unload it)
• Ivy socks (I'm not that far from the heel)

(Note that there is absolutely no way I will finish everything on this list, and it's unlikely I'll finish more than one or two, but it's conceivable that I could finish at least one.)

Things I couldn't finish by the end of the year even if I were childfree and had the rest of the year off to do nothing but needlework:

• Flutter Cardigan (still on the early part of the sleeves; haven't started the body)
• Turkish Rug sweater (I'm finding I hate intarsia more than I remembered, or more precisely, I hate weaving in ends)
• latch hook rug
• Flanders map
• Fantasy sampler
• pentacle
• Ruby

Craft goals for 2008:

• Finish at least one of the big honking cross-stitch projects I've had pending for years.
• Finish all the sweaters I have in process.
• Knit as many pairs of socks as I buy pairs' worth of sock yarn. Okay, let's be more realistic.... Knit as many individual socks as I buy pairs' worth of sock yarn
• Start the big bobbin lace doily.
• Try one of the needlecrafts I have books for but have never done, like Armenian needlelace or Romanian point lace.