The Crabs Have a New Home

The Red Crab and the Blue Crab are in their new home. Last night I had the pleasure of gifting them to Katelynn Corinne (age 1 week). She stuck out her tongue, but I think she liked them. Her mom and dad sure did. I'm glad, because knitting crab legs is the most tedious job in the world and I'd hate to think it was in vain.

Also Norberta the Dragon moved in with Katelynn Last night. She's been with me for months, and I kind of miss her, but she's already found a good spot in Katelynn's room.


So that leaves me with only 4 WIPs: Angee Socks, Fern Lace Scarf, Ballet Camisole and Whisper Cardigan. Next up on the list is the Cold Mountian Stole. I have to wait until I get to a certain point on the Whisper Cardigan before starting because they share the same needle. I know I could just buy another needle, but I'm trying to resist the temptation.

In book news, I passed the 75 book mark at the end of July so everything else is gravy from this point out. I've only gotten through four books so far in August, but they've all been really good.

Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates: Intense, incredibly well written story of what happens to a couple when they realize that they are not destined for greater things. Not recommended for anyone with relationship problems.

Look to the Lady by Margery Allingham: Third Albert Campion mystery. I'm reading these in order and Albert, as a character, is really growing on me. These were written in the thirties and they always remind me of Cary Grant for some reason.

The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe: Fun book by a first time author. Connie is a Ph.D candidate at Harvard researching early American History. She has two tasks for the summer: clean out her grandmother's house and get it ready to sell and select a topic for her dissertation. She finds out a lot about her family and herself while completing both tasks. The book is set in 1991 when cell phones were scarce and there wasn't anything on the internet so she has to spend a lot of time doing research the old fashioned way.

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman: This is supposedly the most popular children's book in the world right now. I thought it was cute, but it wasn't Harry Potter. The book is a series of vignettes about the life of Nobody Owens a kid who grows up in a graveyard (because a psycho killer is after him). The illustrations are great and the book is well-written. It just wasn't for me. I would recommend it for kids age 10+.

There. Are you happy Lizann?

Whipping the WIPS!

I'm very proud of myself. I finished two WIPs in the last two weeks.

First: Aran Weight Victorian Lace Shawl

I started knitting this in the winter of 2007. It knit up fairly easily and I finished the knitting part of it in early 2008. I don't know if I was sick of it or if I was too intimidated by the idea of blocking it, but I just put it away and haven't thought about it since.

Well, over 4th of July weekend I finally decided to block it. I knew it was going to be too big for my blocking board, so I brought home some load center door boxes from work to extend the area. I commandeered the living room and set to work.

The yarn I used for this project was Peruvian Uros Aran by Elann. 50% Wool. 50% Llama. I was out of Soak, so I washed in in the sink with a little bit of off brand woolite. It reacted fine but the yarn made that part of the house stink like wet Llama.

It took over an hour to block, but it wasn't nearly as traumatic as I thought it would be.

Second: February Lady Sweater

So, according to Ravelry, I'm the 3316th person to finish this sweater. Go me! This version of the FLS is made from Knitpicks Crayon 100% cotton yarn. Special thanks to lynknits for the yarn inspiration on this one. The yarn is incredibly soft and washable.

Because I'm an incredibly loose knitter, I had to go down a needle size from the original to a size 7 even though this yarn is DK weight instead of the recommended worsted weight. The great thing about this pattern is that it can be adapted to almost any weight of yarn. My only frustration is that the pattern instructs you to continue knitting in garter stitch after the increases until the piece almost meets at the underarm. What the heck is ALMOST!?!?!?! I finally decided that ALMOST = 1 inch and it worked out really well. I didn't have any bunching in the underarm (unlike many folks on ravelry).

The buttons I picked out have a great coppery, southwestern look--even though they're plastic. I had two on a card that I bought years ago for a project that has since gone to project heaven--or hell--and, in a stroke of good fortune, I found a matching card at Joann's last Friday. The price had only gone up 54%.

The only thing that remains to be done is to stabilize the collar with a row of reverse single crochet (crab stitch). But since I'm not a hooker, I'll have to leave that to either Lizann or yarndork.

Vision in White

I know I'm going to get a lot of flack for this but here it is: I am getting tired of Nora Roberts. For those of you living in a cave, Nora Roberts is the best selling author in the universe. She's written well over 100 books, maybe 200 by now. Lately I've felt like she was recycling material. Nora generally releases 3 to 4 new books a year and there are about 5-10 reprints on the shelf at any given time. The new releases generally consist of a mass market paperback trilogy and a hardcover standalone novel. The Hardcovers are generally awesome. The MMP? Well the quality is sliding there a little bit. For the past few years all of the MMPs have been paranormal romances. And please don't be mistaken: I love that genre. LOVE IT! For the most part she does OK. But, there tends to be a "Nora Roberts Paranormal Romance Mass Market Paperback Format" (see below), and I've got to say it is getting old.

"Nora Roberts Paranormal Romance Mass Market Paperback Format"

Six people (three men and three women) live in an idyllic small town. Most of them are childhood friends but approximately 40% are there to write a book or "just felt an urgent need" to move to the boondocks (almost always from NYC or similar large metro area).

The Men:

One All-American Type
One Intellectual
One Bad Boy

The Women:

One Academic (usually a writer or "people scientist" [anthropologist, sociologist])
One "brought herself up from nothing" small business owner
One single mother with abusive (either physically or emotionally) asshole exhusband

Any one of these characters can be someone's long lost sibling.

The Mission:

These characters are contacted by some sort of paranormal beings who cryptically give them their mission: SAVE THE WORLD FROM EVIL.

In the process they pair off and fall in love.

Vision In White is the first in a quartet of Trade contemporaries and it's a welcome change. Well, it's not that big of a change. Four couples instead of three and the only evil they encounter are bridezillas. It' a fun book. Four friends own a wedding business. Mackensie is the photographer. Carter is the brother of one of the brides. Mackensie's mother is a train wreck as well as a financial and emotional leach. At one point she borrows her daughter's car and doesn't bring it back for a week. Carter and Mackensie fall in love--but will Mackensie's fear of commitment derail their future happiness? Three guesses.

Where Have I Been!?!?!?!

It's been almost a month since I posted last and I truly apologize to my three readers--or maybe they're thanking me. Lots of fun reading and knitting projects this month to talk about. Here's a preview of posts to come:

Book reviews:

Vision in White - Nora Roberts
Dead and Gone - Charlaine Harris
Dark Lover - JR Ward
Tourist Season - Carl Hiasson
The Piano Teacher - Janice Y.K. Lee
Tap and Gown - Diana Peterfreund
The Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingsolver

Current Knitting Projects:

Fern Lace Scarf
February Lady Sweater
Ballet Camisole

Also, if you're counting (if not, lucky for you I am), The Poisonwood Bible was my 50th book this year!!! (cue fanfare and balloon drop!) So, more posts to come. Happy book knitting and sweater reading to all!

-L

His Dark Materials

I've never really understood what all the fuss was about The Golden Compass. I read it a few years back and while there an anti-religious undertone, I never understood why Christian groups were so upset about it.

Recently, I listened to a full cast recording of all three books in the series: Compass, The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass. Of the three, The Subtle Knife is by far my favorite. I love conflict and this book is where all the action is. That and I really like Will and I find Lyra kind of annoying. Lyra spends most of this book in a drugged sleep--thank you Mrs. Coulter.

Throughout all three books, Lyra's relationship with her parents is fascinating. Azriel and Mrs. Coulter are such awful parents. Mrs Coulter grows to love Lyra in a very Emily Gilmore type of way ( I love you, but I refuse to get to know you--I'll just use my mental picture instead) but I'm not sure that Azriel loves her at all. I know he doesn't like her. The closest thing to love he ever shows her is grudging admiration.

I wasn't really happy with the ending. I understand why it ended the way it did, but I think that after I invested over 20hrs listening, it should have ended happier. These two kids sacrifice everything throughout the course of the story (including body parts) and still manage to carve out a little bit of happiness for themselves only to have it snatched away in the end.

The religious/anti-religious themes are blatant and at times Pullman comes across as preachy. I think that there will be a lot more backlash once the movie version of the Subtle Knife is released. They ended the Golden Compass before the audience learned of Azreil's agenda. It will only add more fuel to the ridiculous "war on christianity" fire.

April Socks

Well, I finally completed my April socks. These are the first socks I've ever done two at a time and I must say that I'm completely sold on the technique. Second sock syndrome is completely eliminated!

The pattern for these is "Magic Mirror" by Jeannie Cartmel. It's free on Ravelry. The design looks intricate and for the most part it is--but it's fairly easy to memorize. I'm not a huge fan of ktbl, but I have to say that the effect is pretty cool.

Next month's socks: Angee from the new book Sock Innovation by Cookie A.

Election

I have this vague memory of seeing the movie adaptation of Election by Tom Perotta. I can't really remember the details and I kind of feel like I didn't like it. I just don't think it was that memorable a movie.

When opened to the first pages of this book I was immediately hit with two realizations. First, the book is wayyyyyyy better than the movie. And second, Reese Witherspoon was perfectly cast as Tracy Flick. The second I started reading from Tracy's POV , all I could imagine was the movie Tracy.

The book alternates between a half a dozen characters in the first person and while I usually find this device annoying, the self-centeredness of the teenaged characters (and the adult characters too) lends it self well to the writing style.

This is is a short book and a fast read. I promise you'll laugh out loud.