Which is why I always make sure to blow out the candles

The other day, I bought a new knitting book that I am CRAZY for. I was telling my sister how bonkers bananas I was for this knitting book and I told her it was one of the items I would go out of my way to rescue in case of a house fire. Here is the rest of that list:

1) My favorite knitting book

 The book that started the whole conversation, The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns has absolutely changed the way I design and has me actually knitting gauge swatches just like a real knitter. Erica told me about it months ago, but I was resistant because I thought I had enough knitting books (I do have a fair few). But finally at her urging I checked it out from the library. The minute I opened it, I ordered my own copy from the local bookstore. It's a series of charts which allow you to either make basic hats, mittens, gloves, etc or a pattern upon which to base your design. It is the most useful book I own and I would encourage any knitter at all interested in designing their own work to take a look at this book.

2) My favorite cookbook

The Joy of Cooking is as valuable to me for cooking as the pattern book is for knitting. It has a great index in the back so that when I bring home a butternut squash from the farmer's market because it looked pretty, I can look it up and find a couple of options of what to do with it. Joy has more information than I may ever use about setting a table, nutrition, stocking a pantry and certainly more recipes than I'll ever try. But it is my go-to resource in the kitchen.

3) My favorite kitchen tool

For my birthday last year, my sisters bought me this immersion blender. Before I had my immersion blender, I got squash all over my ceiling. I made that same recipe this weekend and voila, no squash anywhere but in the soup pot! I love my immersion blender so, so much!

4) All three copies of Jane Eyre




I have been trying to get my book collecting under control. I work in a library for goodness sakes, and in the interlibrary loan department for that matter! I can get most any book I can think of! But there are some books that deserve collecting which is why I have three editions of Jane Eyre. There's the Signet Classic edition that was the first edition I owned and it is in tatters (I read Jane Eyre at least once a year). Then, I picked up a Norton Critical Edition at a used bookstore in town a few years ago. And then. The jewel of  my library, the best gift I have ever in my life received (yes, even a notch or two above the immersion blender). A copy of Jane Eyre in Thai. My ex-boyfriend Casey went to Thailand when his brother and sister-in-law got married and brought this back to me. His family thought he was nuts because I can't read Thai but I love it so much. It's not pictured above, I couldn't find it anywhere online, which actually just makes it cooler.

So while clearly I would be most concerned about my cats were a fire to break out, while I would of course want to rescue pictures and other sentimental objects, and while there's no way I would ever actually take the time to rescue any material thing from a house fire (my police officer father didn't raise any fools), these are my "Things I would save from a house fire" type of possessions, my favorite things.