Sometimes you start reading a book and for whatever reason, you quit. In my case, it's often the bad language. Certain words really grate on me, especially in an audio book, where you can't slip past them. A book has to grip me to keep me going - there's too many books out there to endure something that's boring or offending. So here's the most recent list of books that I began but gave a pass to. This was all in the same day, mind you.
A yarn that I have come to love is Cascade 220 superwash. Unfortunately, I can't get it locally. But wool-thyme.com has reasonable shipping, so I ordered a swack of the stuff to make slipper socks. The pair I just finished are going to a former pastor who just lost his wife. I hope that they will keep his feet warm in the winter now that she is no longer able to. The pattern is from tropicalyarns.com. The cool thing is that if you're on Ravelry and find projects for this pattern, the featured pair is mine! These are really easy to make with 100 grams of worsted weight yarn, which is knit doubled, so they work up quickly.
Do you know why they call it "220"? It's because there are 220 yards in the 100 gram skein. It took me a while to figure that out.
Monday, July 13, 2009
A while back I read and reviewed a book called "Shackleton's Stowaway", by Victoria McKernan. Her writing impressed me so much that I bought "The Devil's Paintbox". I tried to borrow it from the library first, but no luck. Once it came in the mail, the cover illustration was enough to convince me it is a book I want on my own library shelf. But that might just be rationalizing a purchase :).
This story is set in the late 1800's, as a wagon train sets out on the Oregon Trail. It was well researched and thoroughly fascinating as a brother and sister encounter page after page of new adventures and set backs. Three stars.
I forgot to mention in my last post on the bunny toy - a new technique I learned was double knitting. To do this you slip every other stitch on one row and then coming back you knit (or in my case, purl) the slipped stitch and slip the knitted stitch. This results in a double fabric. I did it for the bunny head and was then able to stuff the head in the pocket created. Cool! I see online that there are other ways to double knit as well that involve two colours, but I'm not there yet.
A few years ago I visited an art supply shop with my oldest son. They had a life-sized wooden skeleton for sale there that I almost splurged and bought. What stopped me? The price, of course. It was $600 and hard to justify. And where do you hang such an item? Skeletons do fascinate me, though, and I have a little Halloween one hanging on my bedroom closet door.
Boneman's Daughters by Ted Dekker was a murder mystery having a lot to do with skeletons. Or at least, the bones contained within human flesh. Having read a number of Dekker's books that had a Christian theme, I was surprised by the storyline of this one. But he didn't let me down. There was definitely a redemption message throughout the whole book. Boneman's Daughters is not a book for the squeamish. But it was a good read - a quick read by necessity, as it was only a 7 day loan from the library. I'll give it three stars.
My newest yarn choice was a sale item from www.elann.com. I had been wanting to try knitting linen and this yarn jumped out at me as the perfect fit for a woman I've been hoping to knit a prayer shawl for. She recently lost a friend who she was also the caregiver for. The shawl was easy to knit and there's enough left over to make another small one, so I may get one for myself. The pattern was a free one from Lion Brand - the easy triangle shawl. The yarn is Needful Yarns Geranium (acrylic, linen, rayon blend).
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
I have had a pro-life stance ever since I had occasion to view in-the-womb models of fetal development. That opened my eyes to the reality of the humanity of the unborn. Much later I became more involved with activism and through much reading and listening came to understand the heartache associated with abortion. Not only is a life lost, but the remaining lives are changed forever as well, and not in a good way.
So I was interested to read Jodi Picoult's book "Handle with Care", as I'd heard it took on this issue. And indeed it does, as it tackles the subject of wrongful birth. Early into the book I made the decision not to read it. The story threatened to be a heartbreaker and I didn't think I wanted to put myself through it. But...I was hooked and went to the end. You will find yourself moved by the struggles the characters go through as they try to make sense of tragic circumstances in their lives. Ultimately this book confirmed my prolife stance and I came away comforted by the reassurance that there is a God in heaven. He knows the beginning and the end and everything in between. Did Picoult state this? No, but that's the message I got and for that I'm satisfied to have finished the book. I'll give it three stars.
Lazy hours of summer-time knitting haven't arrived yet, but I did finish something. A cute little Bunny Blanket Buddy toy to add to a baby blessing basket being given to a new mom in a few weeks. It was a spur of the moment distraction that grabbed me after I saw someone else's version on Ravelry. I made it out of Lion Brand cotton-ease, so it's washable. I'm sure it will spend a lot of time in the baby's mouth.
Some books I must have choosen because the contrast between me and the subject matter fascinates me. For example, the allure of reading about the Arctic and Antarctic is that it's unconceivable to me that anyone would choose to spend time in absolute cold. "The Woman Who Can't Forget" is a true story about a woman who remembers everything she ever did or read or heard. It boggles the mind! I have a hard time with several hours ago! She even remembers things from others people's lives. As long as she had contact with the person or information, it's filed away in her brain. In a instantaneously retrieved mind file.
I can often remember information. It just takes my file manager several hours to bring it up from cold storage to the front of my mind. Of course, by then the moment may have passed when I needed it. Such is life - I've always had a memory like this, it just gets worse as time passes. This quote sums up my experience with memory: The advantage of a bad memory is that one enjoys several times the same good things for the first time. ~Friedrich Nietzsche
Even more than a look into this woman's life story and what having the most remarkable memory known to science means to her, this book gives a great deal of insight into how the mind works and memory in general. An absorbing read. Three stars.
I learned a new knitting technique the other day. The project got frogged and turned into something else (see Aviatrix baby hat), but it was a learning experience in any case. To get a knitting project started, you must first cast on (CO), which is setting up the yarn onto your needles so that you can proceed with the actual knitting. I have always CO in the manner that I learned as a child - a form called the long-tail cast on. I really didn't know there was any other way to do it until I took up knitting again in the last few years. Now I know that there are many, many different ways to cast on. The cable CO is the one that I just learned. It created a nice looking edge, but was more time consuming than I'm used to, so only if the pattern calls for it will I use it. Here's a video that shows how it's done:
Good beach reading would be "Bone by Bone" by Carol O'Connell. A murder mystery that kept me turning pages long past the time I should have been in bed. I'll have to check out her other books. I'll give it two stars.
I told a friend recently that since I had so many knitting projects started I wouldn't be casting on anything else till some were finished. Well...a tiny baby hat that matches the baby blanket from the last post doesn't count. After all, it's part of the same project (in a way). It's the same yarn. And it worked up so quickly that someone blinking might not have noticed. It sure was fun to knit, though! Pattern: Aviatrix Yarn: Paton's Decor Needles: 5mm & 3.25 mm
Dean Koontz is an author that I can't always be sure of. Some of his books I love and some I have to put down rather quickly. "Odd Hours" was one that kept me reading, even though I contemplated giving up several times. The supernatural nature of the storyline was unsettling to me. But his writing fascinated. The protagonist in this book has psychic powers. He is also a very transparent, funny person. It was his personality that kept me going. And Koontz has a way of turning a phrase that, while not elevating him to the classic book realm, gives real pleasure to a literary mind. Will I be giving myself away as a non-scholar if I rate this book three stars?
I recently finished a baby gift - a cozy blanket knit from a washable acrylic/wool blend. The pattern ended up being adapted from the original it started out as. A math miscalculation made following the pattern impossible. Of course, the baby will never know what the gift was supposed to look like. Pattern: Hap Blanket, adapted Yarn: Paton's Decor Needles: 10.5 mm and large crochet hook
Unknown ~ Get your vision across through a story. A real vision story connects with people in a way that shrinks today's frustrations in light of the promise of tomorrow. Mother Teresa ~ If you can't feed a hundred people, then feed just one. C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity ~We mustnot suppose that even if we succeeded in making everyone nice we should have saved their souls. A world of nice people, content in their own niceness, looking no further, turned away from God, would be just as desperately in need of salvation as a miserable world—and might even be more difficult to save.
St. Augustine ~ Our hearts were made for you, O Lord, and they are restless until they rest in you.
Abraham Lincoln ~Sir, I am not concerned as to whether God is on my side; what concerns me is, am I on God's side, for God is always right.
Robert Louis Stevenson ~Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you plant.
Michael Yang (Internet millionaire) ~ There isn't a lot of space on a tombstone. At the end, I just want people to say I was a good son, a good husband, and a good father. And most of all, I hope they say that I was a servant.
Robert Louis Stevenson ~ Keep your fears to yourself; share your courage with others.
