Finished! I did a good job matching up the stripes, eh? That’s not so easy with a multicolored yarn.
All details on my Ravelry page (no log-in required):
http://www.ravelry.com/projects/kayray/little-prince-socks
To avoid that little gap, hole, or loose stitch at the top of the heel flap when picking up the gusset stitches:
http://wisehilda.blogspot.com/2010/01/on-picking-up-gusset-stitches-avoiding.html
WOW. Why did I never think of this? In case that link breaks — all you do is, while picking up stitches along the edge of the heel flap, pick up one more along the same column after you reach the top (bottom?) of the heel flap. On the other side of the heel flap, just start picking up stitches one stitch below the corner where the flap meets the leg, in the same column that becomes the edge of the heel flap. (It takes a lot of words to describe this trick, but just try it; it’s as simple as can be.)
Presto. No gap, no hole, no need to twist anything.
More details about these socks on Ravelry: http://ravel.me/kayray/lps
Look, no gaps, no holes:
Good job, little nephew! :)
Well I haven’t written a blog post in a very long time. So I just thought I’d write a quick one here and try to get back in the habit. I know no one reads blogs anymore but I like being able to read old entries and see what I was doing.
Today I went to my board game meetup and we played three games that were new to me — Boss Monster, Modern Art (an auction game — nothing to do with actual art. Pity.) and Race for the Galaxy. I had lots of fun! I find it so very pleasurable to learn new board games. I don’t know… there’s just something so satisfying about knowing nothing at all about the components or how to play, and having it slowly come into focus. Race for the Galaxy, in particular, has millions of seemingly indecipherable little symbols on millions of unique cards, but then BAM — one at a time the little symbols take on meaning, and it becomes a game instead of a mystery. Still not super-clear about the “consume” phase… but I’m sure on the next play I’ll master it.
Look what Elli sent me for my birthday (the package just arrived)! Books and yarn and a Zelda game for my gameboy!
And look at my handsome 18-yr-old boy. He’s the best, I tell you, the best.
On the librivox.org forums we have a thread where people can post general thank-you notes for the whole team (there’s a different thread for thank-you notes to individual readers).
This recent note warms my heart:
I teach in a maximum security prison. Most of my students had never read a book before. I have been using librivox audio readings with them to help them read the book as a class. It has made a tremendous difference for these men. Every time we finish a book they are anxious to start the next one. Thank you to all those who have put forth the time and energy to do the readings. You have made a great impact on these men’s lives.
Wow :)
Hey Melendy fans,
I just recorded the second chapter of Spiderweb for Two. It’s the one where Cuffy tells a wonderful story about her childhood on a farm in Wisconsin and her adventures with a boy named Francis.
Both chapters are already up on my Archive page. To make it easy for you, here are links:
Spiderweb for Two 01 The Shadow’s Peak
Spiderweb for Two 02 A Loving Heart
(I’ll put links to the whole book on my “Kayray Reads to You” page when the book is finished)
P.S. The book that is mentioned, Little Lord Fauntleroy, is a real book by Frances Hodgson Burnett. I haven’t recorded it yet, but there are a couple of versions on librivox:
Burnett, Frances Hodgson. “Little Lord Fauntleroy” (group version; I read six chapters.)
Burnett, Frances Hodgson. “Little Lord Fauntleroy (version 2)” (solo version)
Back in May I went to the bookstore to buy a gift for my soon-to-be-born niece. While I was there I spotted a charming picture book, Water in the Park, about a park in the big city and all the water-related things that happen there on a hot summer day. It was so well-written and had such lovely illustrations, the kind that have lots of interesting details to examine, that I just had to buy it for someone!
I have a couple of little cousins who live in NYC, and I thought the book would be perfect for them. I planned to send it to the older one for her 4th birthday in July, but time got away from me, what with all the crazy things happening in my life…
I finally mailed it off a couple of days ago, but first I recorded it so that little Ginny and Jo can listen to me read it to them at any time :)
It’s probably not super-interesting without the pictures to look at while you listen, but maybe you have a copy of your own, or can buy it or get it from the library, so here’s my recording:
Water in the Park: A Book About Water and the Times of the Day
Enjoy :)
UPDATE! (June 17, 2014) A commenter has just let me know that you can now purchase an ebook of “Poo-Poo and the Dragons” with the original illustrations! So if you enjoyed my recording, please support this publisher and buy your own copy of this wonderful classic.
http://enetpress.com/books/Poo_Poo_and_the_Dragons.html
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I just recorded and uploaded the last chapter of Poo-Poo and the Dragons! I’ll be podcasting about 2 chapters a week, but you can download the whole book right now if you’re impatient. Visit my “Kayray Reads to You” page.
I wish you could see all of the illustrations, but here are two:
And yes, NOW I will get back to work on Spiderweb for Two :)
I’ve been getting a lot of email asking, very politely, when I will record the last book in the Melendy Quartet, “Spiderweb for Two” :)
I’m so glad you guys are eager to hear it! I recorded the first chapter a while back, and then real life happened for a while, and then I got distracted by Poo-Poo and the Dragons, which I had to check out from the library because it is too expensive to purchase my own copy. So now I need to finish the last few chapters of Poo-Poo, and then I’ll go back to recording Spiderweb so you can hear about the interesting things that happened to Randy and Oliver while Mark, Mona, and Rush were away at boarding school…
UPDATE! (June 17, 2014) A commenter has just let me know that you can now purchase an ebook of “Poo-Poo and the Dragons” with the original illustrations! So if you enjoyed my recording, please support this publisher and buy your own copy of this wonderful classic.
http://enetpress.com/books/Poo_Poo_and_the_Dragons.html
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Have I got a treat for you! Chapter 1 of “Poo-Poo and the Dragons” by C. S. Forester (yes, the guy who wrote the Horatio Hornblower books).
Poo-Poo and the Dragons Chapter 1
I’ve recorded 11 of 17 chapters but I have added the finished chapters to my podcast feed already. I’ll get the whole book done soon because I have to get it finished before the library wants it back. I don’t have my own copy because it’s out of print and used copies are rare and expensive. If you have a copy, hang on to it! The illustrations are by Robert Lawson. You would recognize his style — he illustrated Ferdinand!
I hope you like the adventures of Harold Heavyside Brown (a.k.a. Poo-Poo) and his dragons!
P.S. A big thank-you to the Lindsay kids for donating to my birthday Charity: Water campaign! :)
My 44th birthday is a month away! Happy birthday to me! :)
Instead of gifts for me, I am asking my friends, family, and audiobook fans to donate to Charity: Water.
Millions of kids around the world don’t live to see their fifth birthday because they don’t have access to clean, safe drinking water. We can help change that.
I’m asking for my age (or half my age, or whatever you can spare) in dollars from everyone I know. Every penny of the money raised will directly fund clean water projects in developing countries. Even better, charity: water will show us exactly which projects we funded once they’ve been fully completed (which takes about 18 months). That means we’ll know the locations and names of the communities we helped.
Help me reach my goal. Please donate to my birthday campaign! Thank you so much :)
If you enjoy listening to librivox audiobooks, would you please consider making a donation to help us with our infrastructure costs? Any donation will be helpful, large or small. And because we are under the wing of the wonderful Internet Archive, your donation will be tax deductible!
Click this link to go straight to our donation page: http://librivox.org/donate-to-librivox/
Here’s a short excerpt from our explanatory blogpost:
We have rebuilt all the software that runs our project management systems, our cataloging system, and our book uploading systems; in addition, we’ve done a complete redesign & implementation of our website. All this will be revealed to the public shortly… but there is more work to do.
We’d like your help to raise money to support the following things:
* technical infrastructure additions that were outside the scope of what we could achieve with the Mellon grant
* ongoing system administration costs
* ongoing development support and improvements on our new software systems
* ensuring the LibriVox site is properly internationalized
* to make sure that volunteers don’t need to pay out of pocket for big-ticket items that need paying forOur 8-year anniversary is coming up, on August 10, 2013.
Our target is to raise $50,000 by then. Can you help?
Many thanks!
Another old favorite picture book. Try to find a copy of this one so you can see the beautiful woodcut illustrations! I don’t understand why it’s out of print. Sigh.
The Day the Sun Danced, by Edith Thacher Hurd
http://archive.org/download/KayrayReadsToYou3/the_day_the_sun_danced.mp3
Dan and I are visiting my sister, her husband, and their newborn daughter! Little Emma Rose is a dear sweet wonderful baby.
Looking through their books, I was delighted to find lots of childhood treasures that I thought had been given away years ago! One of them, Aldar the Trickster, was a huge favorite of mine when I was little. I can’t tell you how happy I was to see it again. I recorded it this morning using iTalk on my iPhone.
http://archive.org/download/KayrayReadsToYou3/aldar_the_trickster.mp3
I’ve just updated my “Kayray Reads to You” page to include The Grey King, Bagthorpes Abroad, The Sweet Smell of Christmas, and The Adventures of Little Bear. As always, if you like these stories please buy copies of the actual books.
http://kayray.org/kayray-reads/
I’m almost finished recording the third Melendy family book — Then There Were Five. Just one more chapter to go, so check back soon! I might even finish this afternoon.
Also yesterday I knitted a cunning little iPhone pouch to hang around my neck when I wear stupid pocketless girl-pants. :)
Now that Kirsten has had her baby shower, I can show off some of the things I made for my baby niece! Links go to each item’s Ravelry page in case you want more details.
Adorable little bonnet (modeled by a large orange)
I’ve been making a lot of things.
What most of you are wondering is — am I recording anything for you? And the answer is yes! I’m just finishing up Elizabeth Enright’s “Then There Were Five” for the “Kayray Reads to You” podcast, and I’m also working on “Just William” for LibriVox.
I finished this big warm sweater back in November and wore it all winter, but then I decided it needed a shawl collar and pockets, so I ripped off the button band and reknit it, and added lovely big patch pockets.
More details at ravelry:Â http://www.ravelry.com/projects/kayray/splash-of-blue
And here is a rather adorable knitted cow:
http://www.ravelry.com/projects/kayray/milk-cow
Also, when I was looking for something one day, I found a set of four vintage linen napkins with cutwork designs stamped on them that I bought from ebay 8 years ago and never finished! So I’ve finished them. They make wonderful hankies.
In progress:
Finished:
Ok, I know language changes over time. I know I should just be flexible and not let the changes bother me too much. But when reporters on NPR use “pleaded” as the past tense of “plead” it sounds as awkward to me as if they are saying “He writed a good book”.
What sounds better to you?
He pled guilty.
He pleaded guilty.
I’ll admit that I have a weakness for strong verbs (“those which mark their past tense by means of changes to the stem vowel”)*. For example: write, wrote; run, ran; sing, sang; plead, pled. I worry that they’ll go extinct because we’re not making any more of them. All newly-coined verbs are weak — that is, they take regular endings to change tenses: google, googled; text, texted; type, typed.
Here’s a list of English irregular verbs (not all irregular verbs are strong, but all strong verbs are irregular). Use them, love them, don’t let them die!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English_irregular_verbs
*for more on strong verbs in Germanic languages, of which English is one, see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germanic_strong_verb
Thank you for all the well-wishes, dear blog-readers and story-listeners!
In the middle of January I came down with another horrible virus and was knocked flat for several weeks, but I am, finally, feeling like myself again. My cough is much better so I hope to get back to recording any day now!
Happy New Year!
I’m still sick, believe it or not. Getting better every day, but very slowly.
This seems like as good a time as any to suggest some apps for your iPhone or iPad. (If you got one for Christmas, congratulations! You’ll love it.) I try a lot of apps, if they get good reviews and are free or only cost a buck, but very few are worth mentioning.
Here are some current favorites, with links to iTunes:
Spaceteam. Maybe it’s a little bit premature to call this a “current favorite” since it’s brand-new to me, but I installed it last night and found it to be extremely fun and totally different from anything I’ve ever played. It’s free. You need 2 to 4 players, each with his own i-device. Dan and I played a couple times and then Henry and I played together; we’ll probably try a three-player session today. I am ITCHING to play again so I hope my family wakes up soon :)
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/spaceteam/id570510529?mt=8
Ski Safari. Not your typical “go fast and collect coins” game! Give it a few plays and you will see its charm. I’m crazy about it!
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ski-safari/id503092422?mt=8
Dan gave me a wonderful pressure-sensitive Pogo Connect stylus for Christmas because I love to draw on my iPad. My two favorite drawing apps are “Paper by FiftyThree” and “Sketch Club”.
Paper is simple and sleek. I like it for doodling and quick sketches when I don’t want to fiddle around with too many choices.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/paper-by-fiftythree/id506003812?mt=8
Sketch Club is a more traditional drawing app with layers, many tools, importing etc., plus a great online community with daily challenges and tons of helpful tutorials.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sketch-club/id404414176?mt=8
ÃœberDoodle — Spirograph-esque, and you can make your own gears and rings!
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/uberdoodle/id372062013?mt=8
Letterpress — strategic word game. I LOVE it and have been playing for months. Start a game with me. I’m KaraShallenberg on Game Center.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/letterpress-word-game/id526619424?mt=8
CRUX crosswords. I’ve tried most of the crossword apps, and this is by far the best. I’ve been using it almost daily since April 2011. You can connect your NYTimes account and play the NYTimes puzzles in this lovely app, or choose from a variety of free puzzle sources.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/crux-crosswords/id409309617?mt=8
That’s enough for now. Have fun!
