Back to work after a fun Saturday

Yesterday, Linda and I took Duane to lunch and supplied cake and presents for her birthday.  We went to several of our usual favorite places to shop including Kaleidoscope where we all made purchases.  Duane bought a set of bookends she had been eyeing, I bought a beautiful trapunto style pillow with the outline of a chandelier and Linda bought a fab pink mid-century serving bowl and she finally broke down and bought the last of the three tile top tables that she had wanted.  This one has a black iron frame and the top is composed of black and green tiles.  Very pretty.  After hitting a few more shops, we had lunch at Mikey's and then headed back to Duane's for chocolate cake.  A fun day.
              

When I got home late in the afternoon, I finished a pair of slipper socks I knitted for my mother's birthday.  The pattern was very easy but I will NEVER use this type of yarn again.  It's called Red Heart Light & Lofty and, boy, was it a pain to work with.  It is incredibly soft and thick so the slippers feel great -- I tried them on before washing and drying them -- but this yarn has a tendency to split and I ended up with too many stitches, etc.  Ick.  I'm also including a gift certificate to one of my mother's favorite department stores with the slippers.    



Now, I'm concentrating on making more squares for the KasCare knit (or crochet) project to make blankets for orphans of AIDS.  My friend Barbara gathered together all of the squares we had finished last Friday and we had enough for one full blanket (60 squares) and most of another one.  I gave her the ten squares I had ready to go so now I'm back to making more.  I crocheted a quick one last night and I'm about halfway through another.  I've also been looking at more of the Amigurumi patterns that I mentioned a couple of posts ago.  I may make Amigurumi cupcakes for my three nieces for Valentine's Day.  There are so many cute patterns for these that it's hard to decide which one(s) to make.

Today, I spent quite a bit of time in my recording booth.  I need to finish up my latest LibriVox solo, Camp-Fire Girls in the Country by Stella M. Francis.  I had fallen behind on my self-imposed schedule due to catching a cold that knocked my voice out of commission for about 2 weeks and then the holidays.  I recorded 6 chapters today so my next step is to edit, edit, edit.  I also recorded the weekly poem for LibriVox.  This week it's "O Hollow! Hollow! Hollow!" by W.S. Gilbert, from the opera Patience.  That's one of the things I love about the weekly and fortnightly poetry readings -- you never know what someone is going to suggest.

I'll have an update on happenings at Iambik Audiobooks very soon -- probably this week.  We're starting to gear up again after the holiday season.  There is one book coming out that I mentioned in a previous posting that's a collection of crime stories by different authors.  I read a story for that one called "Bits and Pieces" which definitely fit the genre.  We also have another collection coming up and some more solos.  I'll post here when they've been published. 

Yarns -- from the recording kind to the craft kind

My first square.

My cyber-friend, Kate, who lives in Ft. Lauderdale, heads up an organization called The Humble Stitch Project.  I've mentioned in previous entries here where I've come across great deals on skeins of yarn and I've mailed them to The Humble Stitch for volunteers to knit and crochet items for the homeless in South Florida.  (Yes, it can get pretty cold there, too.)  After telling my friend, Barbara, about this project she was immediately interested since she's an avid knitter.  She passed the word on to other librarians and friends and it was decided that as many of us as possible would knit and/or crochet squares for another site mentioned on The Humble Stitch. 

KasCare Aid for AIDS Orphans has a site called Knit A Square where anyone may knit or crochet 8" by 8" squares that will then be joined together to make blankets to keep these children warm.  It is estimated that there are 14.8 million orphans in sub-saharan Africa.  1.9 million  live in South Africa.  It takes 60 of these squares to form one blanket.  We're going to try to make at least enough squares for one blanket by the New Year and hopefully many more to follow.  I decided to crochet my first square.  I'm going to knit my second one to see if one way is faster than the other for me.  I hadn't picked up a crochet hook in over 25 years and it's been even longer since I knitted.  I knitted some as a kid.

Ladies black scarf.

I've also been working on items to send to The Humble Stitch.  I've finished a ladies black scarf and I'm currently working on a navy hat for a man.  The scarf is crocheted and I'm knitting the hat.  I hope to have a few more items finished to mail to them before Christmas.  It's amazing how fast these skills return to you even after many years.  

Partial man's hat.

I'm still recording my latest solo for LibriVox -- Camp-Fire Girls in the Country by Stella M. Francis.  I'm actually behind in editing but pretty far ahead in recording which is a good thing in case I happen to be unfortunate enough to catch any of the colds that have been making the rounds.  Nasty colds and voice recording don't mix.  Right now, it's slowed down a bit at Iambik due to everyone (including publishers) taking holidays.  I'll be reporting here on our next releases, though.  Meanwhile, it's a great time to take out my yarn, work awhile, then go back to editing sound files.  Oh, and breaking out the Christmas decorations, too!