But I’ve been busy all day and I have yet to pick up my knitting.

See first, I moved all of my cookbooks. All these years, they’ve lived in my bedroom closet, but I’ve wanted to get them onto the same floor as the kitchen (so I wouldn’t have to carry the books and recipes up and down the stairs whenever I want to bake something). Except Mom–who’s been awfully gracious about bookcase-encroachment–had drawn the line at putting a bookcase downstairs. However, we have this huge, old computer desk in the family room . . . It dates back to college, when I got my first computer, and Dad went out and bought this so I’d have someplace to put it, sweetly picking out a roll-top model because I’ve always liked roll-top desks. (It’s not his fault that it’s really kind of . . . large. Huge, even, and kind of unsightly in its lower half. But he was being thoughtful, so. . . it’s been in the family room ever since. (Partly, I’m sure, because it’s too darn heavy for any of us to move!)

Anyway, it’s been a catch-all for the last 19 years or so. Old video tapes, old coffee-table books, old dog toys, old computers. (You can’t see it, but my original laptop computer is still in there–the one I got for graduation in 1989. It’s rather dinosaur-like, and I haven’t even turned it on in years, but I can’t bring myself to get rid of it.) But ultimately, the desk isn’t being used for anything . . . so, I decided I was going to convert it to cookbook storage and thereby free up two more bookshelves in my closet for knitting books and magazines (which, needless to say, have been overflowing their alloted shelves). One of the desk shelves is still miscellaneous stuff, and there are still things like computers and video tapes behind the rows of books, but, here they are–mere steps away from the kitchen at last.

Which isn’t to say I haven’t done anything with yarn and knitting books. Oh no. I’ve moved them, too. I moved all the knitting and craft books and supplies out of the closet. (Well, everything in the bottom half–the bins of yarn on the closet shelf didn’t move today–a girl can only do so much!) I switched the two bookcases from one side of the closet to the other. One is a 3-shelf case filled with fiction, the other a 2-shelf case better suited to the size of knitting books, and I wanted the craft books to be on the same side of the closet as the actual yarn. So, I switched those. Then moved the overflowing magazines. Then realized that the basket I keep stray pattern booklets and such wouldn’t fit on the floor on the yarn side anymore, since the 2-shelf case is deeper than the other one–so now that’s on the “wrong” side of the closet . . . but since it’s the one the magazines are on now and they’re kind of glorified pattern leaflets, that’s okay. Except now I have to put the quilt rack (which lives in the closet) in front of the knitting books . . . unless I can come up with a way to store my down comforter and two handmade quilts in the trunk that’s moving into the office . . . why does down have to be so bulky? I managed to fit all my spinning wheel accessories into one box, too (which is to the right, and out of the picture).

The rest of the library is coming along. I’ve got most of the books on the new cases shelved at least close to how they need to be. The fiction is done and alphabetized, the grammar and writing books are categorized. The poetry, folktales, travel, how-to, science, math, and religion sections are pretty much done, as are the comedy/comics/children’s books (all on one shelf). It’s the history/biography/social sciences sections that need sorting. That’s about 9 out of the 12 new shelves that need to be completely reshuffled. Kind of intimidating, really. I mean, easy after all the rest, and yet . . . it’s so close to being done, is there really any harm in letting that reorganizing slide? At least for another week?

Of course, next weekend, I have to tackle the yarn, which has been getting kind of unruly. I was thinking of buying a bunch of those mesh laundry bags–the kind you use for delicates–to start storing my yarn in. I’ve got the collection in storage cubes, which mostly works fine, but inevitably, stray balls try to attack me when I reach up there for anything, and I think it would be better for all of us if the yarn was a little better contained–but still able to breathe and be seen. So . . . yarn in mesh bags that will then be collected in the storage cubes on top of the closet . . . that’ll work, right?

I never did clean the bathroom as I planned. And the only vacuuming I did was piles of Chappy fur that have migrated into the closet. (Hey, how often do you vacuum your closets?) Those, I really had no choice. Once I’d moved those bookcases and seen the dust-puppies wandering around in there, I had to clean them up. We got Chappy out for a walk around the block, too, and I’ve been reading my way through Anne McCaffrey’s Pern books in my spare moments.

And, oh yes, I baked a cake, too. A “Grandma Cake,” so called because it’s the cake my grandmother used to make for our birthdays, and it was the one cake that everybody loved. (I remember, she’d bring it on a plate, covered by an old butter-cookie tin–it’s never been a tall cake.) I may not have been foresighted enough to get her pound cake recipe, but this one, I’ve got! It’s forever known in my family as Grandma Cake. (She, incidentally, always frosted the sides, but I was too tired.) It’s a simple little butter cake recipe, and yet wholly unique in that, for one, it pretty much doesn’t rise at all, and yet it’s not heavy too eat. And the chocolate frosting? Unlike any other recipe I’ve ever eaten, and not one I’ve ever seen anywhere else, either, and so it remains one of the few secret recipes I’ve got. (So, sorry, no, I can’t tell you.) Anyway, though, it would have been her 100th birthday yesterday, and so I baked her a cake! The cake. Yellow cake with chocolate frosting is my favorite, but this is one by which all others are measured in this house.

If you’re at all curious at a better look at some of my books, here’s a picture of the craft-section and the cookbooks, and now, I’ve got to go get my laundry out of the dryer before it (gasp!) requires ironing!

Tags: Baking, General, Reading // 2 Comments »