I should maybe put this on the Life List page, but the list of books is getting rather tedious there. Since I last updated it, I have read Becoming a Psychotherapist, Days in the Lives of Social Workers, The Girls Come Marching Home, Once a Warrior, Always a Warrior, The Three of Us and The Courage to Create. That’s 6 books for a total of 41 books since I started the Musing Mighty Life List, if I haven’t forgotten any, which I might have. If it’s all the same to you, we will skip the backed up reviews and just try to do better from now on, ummkay? Kay.

Speaking of reviews, I think I might have mentioned that I have a horrendously tall stack of TBRs. Actually, I now have 4 reasonably short (approximately 2 feet) stacks. That is a lot of books, right? One of my goals for this year is to eliminate that stack of books, either by reading them or deciding not to read them, and/or giving them away/selling them. But another of my goals for the year is to work on my crafty life, including getting my craft books organized and actually making stuff. Yesterday, I pulled all my knitting books together, except for the ones in those stacks, and this morning, I pulled those out. So, in order to accomplish three goals at once over the course of the month, you get some knitting book reviews. Yay!!!!!

Up first, we have Men’s Knits by Erika Knight. Apparently, I have had this book for about 3 years, since I have been SINGLE for almost that long. Yep, I’m a little behind. We’ll get over it. Of course, it helps that the boyfriend sweater is always in style, and this way I can have the sweater without the boyfriend, right? And also, except for the boobs, both men and women are fairly rectangular in the torso, and while women’s clothes are occasionally over-fussy, things for men tend to be functional. I like functional.

So which patterns do I like best? The “favorite sweatshirt” on page 68 looks fairly unisex. It’s reminiscent of the wonderful wallaby, but without a hood or pocket. I love the wallaby, along with most of America, so this may be a knittable option. I also really, really like the “collegiate cardigan” on page 80. It’s thick and lush and has some great textures. Unfortunately, it’s knit in bulky weight yarn, so I may or may not work it up for myself. I tend to think I am bulky enough with adding fat yarn to the mix. Same goes for the “funnel-neck sweater” on page 110. I like it, but not in fat yarn.

But here’s a little trick I know. It is totally possible, if you know your gauge in a preferred yarn, and a little basic math, to knit a pattern written for a different weight yarn without re-writing the pattern. Just figure out how many stitches it takes to go around the person you are knitting for in the yarn you want to use, and (provided you can find a close enough match), follow the pattern as written for that number of cast-on stitches. This is super simple to do when using a pattern written for men (for instance) in bulky weight yarn (for instance) and making something to fit a five foot nothing shrimp of a girl in a lighter weight yarn (for real). Most of the time, patterns don’t call for a given number of rows, but just “knit until the piece is x inches long.” Just keep knitting until you hit the desired dimension, which may be shorter than called for, so don’t forget to measure yourself!

So, long ago and far away, I was sent a copy of Tweed to review. And I did review it over on Cass Knits! And I started a sweater called Carrick out of it. I knitted the back and I knitted the front. And then I got sidetracked, as usual, and sat Carrick aside. When I picked it back up, a year or so later, I discovered that I had misplaced the book. So, last spring, I ordered another copy. It’s been sitting on my shelf since then. And today, finally, I started the first sleeve of Carrick.

Now, the pattern says to knit the two sleeves flat and then sew them up, then sew them into the sweater and then sew the sweater side seams. Un-uh. Way to tedious! I picked up stitches and am knitting these sleeves in the round. When I am done, I will only have to sew shoulder and side seams.

By the way, since this is a knitting post, I suppose I will share my knitting goals for 2012. I want to finish Carrick, I want to finish the Suzie Hoodie I started last year, and I want to finish Hocks which I started when Drama was 2-ish. And I think that’s actually all I have in progress right now, at least knitting wise. Which is not quite the same as saying I have nothing else on the fire, right? You know me better than that, I am sure. For those of you that don’t….about the only thing I don’t have in the fire right now is applications for Audiologist Jobs.

Ghoulish. Goulash. My cousin. Tiny babies. Little knitted things. There’s my stream of consciousness that I am floating back into the blogging world on. I realized that while I say I lack time to blog, that’s not necessarily true. After all, I manage to make time to do other non-essential things. The fact is, I am AFRAID to blog. Something BAD might happen. I might OFFEND somebody with my words. Oh wait, that did happen, didn’t it? And it was pretty awful. But no one died, and in fact, 20 months later, everyone seems to be much better off. So good.

And my blogging words aren’t the only ones that offended someone. I also managed to alienate someone with yahoo chat, but I still haven’t quite figured that one out, because I didn’t actually SAY anything. But I miss blogging. I miss telling my stories. Sure, I journal every day, but that’s not quite the same, is it?

Now, here is what I don’t have time to do realistically: maintain 6 domains with fresh relevant content. So, I’m not going to try that. What this means for me is that my other blogs will remain active, but they will be primarily cash cows. This blog will get the stories, all of them. Stuff about my schooling, my crafting, my reading, my children, my whole fricken-fracken life. Yay you, yay me, woohoo!

Now then, it seems somewhat traditional to post a list of goals for the year, here in the first week of January, but I am not going to do that. I’m a non-traditional sort of gal. Besides, I already know what my goals are, and I’m thinking you’d rather hear about what I AM doing and HAVE done rather than a mile long list of things I plan to do. So, no goals today, except the blogging ones: I plan to blog, and I plan to do it on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays.

And here is some other stuff I AM DOING:
I’m back into The Artist Way.

I am smoking a fake cigarette instead of real ones.

I am using and loving the WiiFit. I laughed when I heard you could work out by using a video game and your tv, but let me tell you, that thing kicks my ASS. But I love it!

I am getting ready for a new semester. I have decided to go with a dual major. Well, I guess dual degree is more accurate. I’ll be graduating in May of 2014 with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology with a minor in Creative Writing and a Bachelor of Social Work. I am excited about all that, but this semester is going to be tight and tough. I am signed up for 18 hours, and I will likely keep 15 of those. But that’s a minimum of 30 hours per week on school stuff, and probably closer to 45 most of the time. Plus all the other stuff I need to do. And so because of all that,

I am spending this last week before classes begin tightening up my morning, stay home/get home, noon, 5pm, and evening routines. I’ve changed them daily since I drew them out the last week of December, but I am getting there.

Ok, that’s all I’ve got for today. Hopefully by Thursday, I will have found some of the actual stuff that I meant to blog about with pictures but managed to lose when I rebuilt my office/project area. Yeah, I could take a quick shot of that shambles, but I’m not. Ha!

I’ve been busy! I updated my Mighty Musings Life List today, and I was surprised by the amount of stuff I have done. Pleased even!

My Awesome Boyfriend is definitely on the rebound, and he is keeping me hopping. The past couple of nights, he has decided to bark for a couple of hours after I crate him for the night. This is not fun for me, so Operation Puppy Exhaustion is underway around here. I might have over done it a bit this morning: when I brought him in from our walk, he was too tired to lick peanut butter off a fork. I laughed so hard I nearly needed incontinence products. I assure you, he kept up and acted like he wanted to go further while we were outside!

In other news, my yard looks disgusting and I can’t keep the lawnmower running. Blech.

So, I am making lists. What to teach the dog, what to buy the dog, what to clean, what to make, where to go, who to see, what to read, what to watch. Now that summer session is over, I plan to get busy! Especially while my kids are gone. Yes, believe it or not, for the first time in 20plus years, I am going to have several days completely alone, to do whatever I want to do. Well, except for the dog. But he’s simple to feed, he likes to go, and he doesn’t complain much, so it’s all good.

Today, I am specifically looking at dog obedience training websites. I plan to work with My Awesome Boyfriend extensively while there is only one “trainer” in the house. Hopefully, by the end of his confinement, we will be working well together as a team, and I will be able to take him just about anywhere. He gets his first shots next Monday, and the Monday after that, he can go out where other dogs might have been. In this case, freedom for him also means freedom for ME!

You know, our kids learn stuff in crazy ways. And sometimes, life just hands us a very effective teaching tool. Now, “That’s not fair!!!” happens to be one of the most annoying sentences in the English language, at least in my viewpoint. And as you have probably guessed, I have one child who says that in response to every suggestion, directive, or instruction he receives. Last night, he was playing xbox with his sibs, and I told him he needed to let someone else have a turn. And he said….yep, you got it…..”That’s not fair!”

So, I walked over to him, and I said, “Son, this weekend, for my BIRTHDAY, I went out and got a dog that was supposed to be my friend for the next fifteen years.” His mouth dropped open, but I kept on talking. “Now there is a very real possibility that dog may die, and have you ever once seen me stomp my foot and say ‘that’s not fair!’ ” He nodded no. And I continued, “That’s because saying ‘That’s not fair!’ doesn’t change anything and it just makes people think you are a whiner. Sometimes crap just happens and you have to deal with it and move on.”

Did it work? Maybe, because later in the evening, I heard him say, “That’s not……” Nothing, he stopped.

There ya go, better than a Barney video off Netflix, and no vga to hdmi cables required. As for MAB, we are entering day 6 of parvo, and he’s still wagging his tail. It gives me hope that I will eventually need a category called “Cass has a dog.”

So, I went to see My Awesome Boyfriend today. He looked at me and accepted a few pets. The he walked about 18 inches away, turned his back on me and laid down. I’m not sure if he’s angry with me for “leaving” him, or simply ready to die and be done with it. I’m hoping it’s anger, because that’s a powerful emotion, and maybe it will make him hang on. I didn’t let it stop me, in any case. I just moved over to where he was and petted and talked to him some more. He was alert to the sounds in the hallway, and he looked at me a few more times, but his wag is just gone. It’s sad.

By the way, have you ever been out for a walk in the woods and come across some rotten meat? Maybe on a hot day? With maggots all over it? That’s how my dog smells right now. And that’s how my hands smell, even though I have washed them about five times since I touched him.

Who says I can’t still paint an awesome word picture?

I am not quite ready to break out the macanudo cigars yet, but I am tentatively hopeful about My Awesome Boyfriend. His white blood cell count is good, he is quiet but alert, and “certainly still in the game.” That is, he isn’t any worse, and every day he makes it increases the likelihood that he will make it. With parvo, it is usually dehydration and secondary infection that does a dog in, and not the virus itself. With those issues taken care of, it becomes a waiting game.

I have pooper scooped the yard this morning, and today I will bleach the house. It needed/needs to be done anyway, but I mind it less if I think about it as getting ready for him to come home.

Very soon, I hope to be writing stuff about how we went fishing and camping and played with toys. I’m looking into puppy obedience classes and such, and making a list of doggie supplies that I need to buy or replace. I better start with a collar and leash, because I threw that and his harness away after the nurse said “be sure and wash that real well.” I figured that it was better not to take the risk that another dog might one day be infected because I wanted to save a few bucks on new gear.