Brown Cloche with Orange flower

I made this last fall. It's a snug little cloche. I wanted to do something off-center and aerodynamic. I played around with sewn and knitted flowers, beads and embroidery. It's a little small but it's fun to wear and goes with a lot of my stuff.

Kiwi Top Hat

Bex from True Blue Fiber Friends asked me if I would knit another top hat to sell at the store. Here is the result. This has a rolled rather than a flat brim. Rose is modeling it just outside True Blue. She could roll the brim up a bit if she wanted to. I think it looks great with long hair. Although Lucy Neatby tried it on with her beautiful wildly colored hair and it looked great. It’s a wonderfully warm and cheerful hat to wear during the winter while waiting for spring.

Finish Line!

Hey, I know I'm not the first but I'll have you know, I am also not the last. I finished the web 2.0 net trek electronic wilderness survival course and I survived! OK, I was so joyous at being done that I was late giving the closing announcement, mea culpa, I am sooooo sorry. Still, very happy, if sheepish to be done.

Exporing the Greater BiblioCommons

Last week I spent some time going through the new online catalogue, BiblioCommons. I worked through the exercises which was actually kinda fun. I learned about making lists which is cool but I had a little trouble figuring out how to request a book for purchase or through interlibrary loan. Maybe it used to be too easy? I, however, am an intrepid explorer and figured it out. It was under "My dbrl" which is funny since the book I wanted wasn't, but I digress. The advanced search was interesting but I found that if I put in "comics, graphic novels" instead of "comic books, graphic novels" I got a vastly different result. Curious, I decided to record my results:
Comic books, Graphic Novels = 1,249

Comics, Graphic Novels = 172

Comic Books = 2,014

Graphic Novels = 1,456
Comic Books and Graphic Novels = 936
I must say these numbers made me ponder. I thought that adding "and" would give me a bigger number not smaller. I didn't change any of the other parameters in the exercise and in fact, I liked it that BiblioCommons did not reset them each time. The other aspect for concern, pointed out by a clear sighted colleague, is that if you place a hold for a patron in BiblioCommons, you must log out or when you place the next hold you will be placing it on the former patron's account. As we get very busy at the Children's desk, this could be a real hazard. So, I may have to place patron holds through Sirsi instead, which is not so easy. As is so often with any exploration, I have the sense of going two steps forward and one back. Obvious progress but not without the occasional setback.

So Much to Read, So Little Time!

So, I have learned about google reader and rss feeds and went on a wild subscription ride. I am currently subscribed to eight different sites, some helpful, some maybe not. I think that Story Time Window (found on Liz' blog from Hilary's blog... sort of like Amy's Uncle/Brother) will be very helpful, while Awful Library books will be funny but not particularly useful. I subscribed to the dbrl feed because it seemed sensible and then Librarian by day, Library Garden and the Book News/Interviews component of Library Journal. I do love a good book review. Then, having done my homework I branched off to the Ravelry:news subscription (knitting addicts, you know who you are) and New York Times>Science. Yes, I am also a closet science junky. So now I know about books on how TV's worked in the 60's, the latest on e-readers (I still hate them) and that there's cool knitting going on in LA and I'm here. Sigh. I think I'll take a break and eavesdrop on some monkeys.

Pandora- music box

When I first started listening to Pandora, I really loved it. It works kind of like a radio but you plug in the songs/artists that you like and then it chooses similar songs and artists for you. They also have notes about the artists and their discography that you can read while a song is playing. It does have some downsides, especially in the last couple of months. The adds used to be visual, but now they are audio and actually louder than the music. So, there you are by the fire listening to Loreena Mckennit when suddenly there is this announcer discussing indigestion and the wonders of Pepto Bismal. It's pretty jarring. The other downside is that the station wants/demands interaction. So, after awhile the station will stop and a written message will ask if you are still listening. You need to click "yes" and then it will continue. This can be awkward if you're in another room. You are also limited to 30 hours of free music a month. If you pay an annual subscription of $36 you will avoid the audio adverts, "Are you still listening?" messages and the time limits. So, while it is free it is limited.

Hats Were a Success!

I just wanted to update about the hats. Both of these hats sold at the St. Nicholas Bazaar in the first two hours. We marked them for $25 each as the money was to benefit local charities. I have also added some more pictures to the slide show in the previous post for those who are interested. I included my first, worst and favorite hats.