The Tales of Beedle the Bard

by J. K. Rowling

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Fairy tales and fables told to young wizards and witches. Every Harry Potter fan(atic) will read this book and add it to their Harry Potter collection. Not only is it another clever telling of how good triumphs over evil, but all of the proceeds go to a Children's charity.

9" circular knitting needles

If you knit socks, you have to give the new 9" circular needles a try. They make sock knitting a snap and my stitches have never looked more uniform.

For these socks in the Horcrux pattern by Susan Lawrence from the Six Sox Knitting Group on Yahoo, I used the brand new Hiya Hiya 9" circular size 1 1/2. The yarn is by Schachenmayr nomotta Regia Color in the Strato colorway. The yarn, which I won from the Hooks Books & Needles group on Ravelry, is perfect for the pattern and I think the nice lady who delivers my mail will love her socks.

I haven't decided which pattern and yarn to use for my next socks, but I know I will be using my 9" circulars.

Harry Potter on tape

Knitting has taken up a lot of my reading time, so I borrowed the first four Harry Potter books from Staci to listen to while I knit. There is nothing on television during June and I want to finish Helen's socks as quickly as possible, so I've been listening every evening. I must say that I like reading much more than listening, but that's just me.

After listening to the first two books, I went to Alibris.com and bought books five and six (on tape). Right now I am listening to book five, The Order of the Phoenix. I got book five for $4 (something) and book six for about $23.00 from bookarama through Alibris. The seventh and final book is over $40 so I can wait until the price goes down.

On the 4th of July, Apple Yarns in Bellingham has a 30% off sale on everything in the store. I didn't want to drive all the way to Bellingham, and since they allowed call-in orders, I got a needle holder and four skeins of yarn. Hmmmm, I wonder if they still call them skeins? They didn't have my first choice, but I did find some pretty (at least it looks pretty on the web) autumny colors. Now I just need to find a pattern I like.