If you look (with my theme du jour, over to your left) at what I’m currently reading, the list looks quite small for me.. today I returned my weight in books to the uni libraries. Ok, it was only 9 books… but they total many pages and were all library-bound hardbacks. I did not finish all of them before they were returned. Since I don’t want to make more trips to campus this month than I have to (half the batch was due this week, half on the 31st), I returned all of them this afternoon. Any unfinished books are ‘on hold’ of my reading list until I take them back out from a library. My night stand looks empty!

But do not despair, I will fill it back up again..

Luckily for me and my book obsession, One Spice, Two Spice was on hold at the nypl branch near campus so that satisfied my need for a book today.

Mostly.

You see, this morning I left my knitting at home. My subway rides were not quite pleasant .. if it wasn’t for my headphones and the attached iPod.. (with charged batteries)…

So, after dropping off all those books with some new found space in my bag, I stopped by a news-stand and picked up the Summer IK and the May/June Piecework. YAY! I read them through twice on my way home. I love the piecework and have always been intrigued by tatting and the Costume article was quite nice too. I sometimes wish E would go for that sort of thing.

So, what *did* I finish this week? Not very much.

Spin to Knit: The Knitter’s Guide to Making Yarn By Shannon Okey
We all know by now that I really really really want to spin, and that I really do not have the ability to take my understanding of the process work with a spindle (either top or bottom whorl). I had placed this book on hold ages ago in an attempt to see if it would teach me any better what I needed to do that I just wasn’t doing. I like the explanation of drafting as it came with some nice pictures.. We’ll see. I think it’s mostly that I have to practice. I also really enjoyed the explanation and pictures of what happens to overspun (energized) singles as I had no idea what any of this would knit up like. My experience with handspun being very limited beyond petting it at shows and in shops (with exception of a little bit, described below). What little yarn I have actually spun is quite overspun. A typical newbie error I’ve been told. I think I’ll get there eventually.

A History of Modern Computing By Paul E Ceruzzi
Honestly, I would rename this an “Economic” history of modern computing. Ceruzzi has done a very thorough job describing the economics of why certain computer components/brands/culture survived and others did not and how that mostly lead up to what we are experiencing today. I technically had a computer at an early age, but it wasn’t really used much (TRS-80? it had no floppies that I recall, so as I have no idea and am just looking at pictures, I assume it was a model I). My mum and I did do some basic (hah) programming with it (mum was good aka patient and actually finished them, I got bored). I found it amusing years later that she became scared of the “modern” computer .. Looking now at how much they cost I’m more likely to believe it was the model I as we didn’t have that type of money so it was probably on super duper clearance. Mum??? Anyway, this is a nice history of the field I’ve been (somewhat) actively involved with for the past decade. There were things I just didn’t know as I am too young to have experienced them and I think they are useful for understanding why things are as they are today. If you want more specifics I’ll look at the book again, but I did enjoy it and feel after reading, that I stand a little more solidly in a relatively fledgling industry that I came pretty late to.

Scarf Style Edited by Pam Allen
Last week I read grumperina’s post on Nancy Bush’s Ene’s scarf. Wow. I fell in love. I went to the library the next day to look and see if any spinning books had been returned, but oh my! this book… it was just sitting there on the shelf waiting for me (yay!) i have knit two scarves in my career. One was quickly frogged. The other is from lavendersheep and is handspun and beaded which was knit up with Stephanie’s nice reversible pattern, one row handspun scarf. In my future I see a summer of socks (did you go sign up?) and scarves (and lace, as I don’t see myself finishing mum’s lace by sunday). I could see myself making most of the things in this book at some point in the near future: Here and There Cables (Norah Gaughan), Braided Mischief (Teva Durham), Ene’s Scarf (Nancy Bush), Lady Eleanor (Kathleen Power Johnson) [at least now I know where the pattern came from], Backyard Leaves (Annie Modesitt), Turtleneck shrug and Blue Collar (Teva Durham). I also liked the crochet patterns and the design notebook in the back. This is a beautiful book and I wish Ms Allen much success in her new adventures post IK editing..

Stress, Self Esteem, Health and Work By Simon L. Dolan
To say I’ve been moderately stressed these past four six (?) months would probably be the understatement of the year. Dolan has written a very nice book which discusses the threats of stress on us and how it impacts everything we do. He has nice worksheets to see how stressed you are and overall I really enjoyed this book. I wish more companies would care about stresses and move to flex time for all employees if requested. I have lots of thoughts on how to help out employees with stress especially with the massive blur between work and life and time-for-self … my one regret of my undergrad years is that I didn’t take tai chi or yoga as one of my PE requirements.. (I did enjoy fencing and badminton however!) ANYWAY …

And lastly,

Teach Yourself VISUALLY Handspinning by Judith MacKenzie McCuin
I picked this up at Carolina Homespun yesterday and read it as Eli was navigating his way out of the parking lot. I am soo happy I bought this book. I am a huge fan of the Teach yourself Visually series as I think they have a nice blend of photos and words to get you through and understand your task (note: I’ve only offered these to my tech clients.. and my mum.. I can’t speak of their other non-tech books). I think with this book by my side, I might get it. Maybe. I will say that I wish there was more on drafting (and am happy I had a bit of the Spin to Knit to help. All that said, I mentally grok the “fold&8212;>spin” method (used for spinning wheels?) and may try to get that working for a spindle as it makes more sense mentally .. you should see the tangle I currently get into with the roving no matter how i wrap it up. The pictures in this book are really nice and I highly recommend it!

As for the books over there in the sidebar, and some others that haven’t yet been moved to active status.. I’m slogging through them. Each summer I move into a desire for some fun. I think this might be a summer of Anne McCaffrey. I’m pages away from finishing Acorna (it probably will be finished later today) and then I’ll start on the rest of her adventures. I want to finally finish a few books that are gathering dust on my bookshelf, some of which do not appear to your left on the sidebar, that is how long they have gone unread. We will see.

I saved the best for last. Amy tells us of wonderful things!! Oooh! i can’t wait.. I need to find a dæmon.. I wonder who he will be.