The Woman in the Photo by Mary Hogan

In The Woman in the Photo, Lee Parker digs into her family's history after her adoption records are unsealed and she sees a photograph of a woman. The photograph shows a woman, who looks like her, standing amidst a pile of rubble next to Clara Barton, the founder of the Red Cross. What she discovers will change her life forever.

I loved this book! It was inspired by a real life disaster in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, where a dam in the mountains above the town bursts and floods the town.

The story alternates between the past, 1889, and the present. The past features Elizabeth Haberlin, a young woman of privilege and her life at an exclusive country club in the Allegheny Mountains near Johnstown, Pennsylvania. The present features financially strapped Lee and her adoptive mother as Lee digs into her family's past.

I especially like the sections that take place in the past. The setting and the language used by the author felt authentic to the time period. I loved reading about how the wealthy lived and how the young people of the time were expected to behave. The story also highlights the disparity between the wealthy and the working class of the area.

This story features a person from real life, Clara Barton. I love it when real life people become characters into fictional stories. The author includes a lot about Barton's history and how she founded the Red Cross. All of this information was fascinating.

This edition of the book includes an additional section at the back of the book, which contains information about the author, and the real life story on which the book is based, a reading group guide as well as a book synopsis of Hogan's other book. It's definitely worth the read.

I've also read Two Sisters and really enjoyed it. Unfortunately, I haven't written my review yet.

Highly recommended. I hope to read another book by this author.

For more information about this book, please visit the HarperCollins website.

I'd like to thank those nice people at William Morrow for this review copy. Sorry the review is so late.

The Woman in the Photo by Mary Hogan William Morrow (HarperCollins), ©2016. ISBN 9780062386939(Trade paperback), 406p.

Needlework Tuesday - Baby Knits

Needlework Tuesday is an occasional post detailing my needlework and/or crafting projects.

Last week, I mentioned that I had lots of yarn leftover from the Mary Maxim knitted rabbit project. I wanted to use up the yarn before it got lost in my stash, so I decided on a small car seat sized baby blanket. It's rather small, roughly 18"x20", but I wasn't sure how much yarn it would take. I probably should have made it bigger. However, I hate running out of yarn in the middle of a project, especially one that I'm only making to use up yarn. Here it is:

If I had known more (or anything for that matter) about "car seat blankets" I would have put a hole in it to accommodate the buckle(?).   Whatever.  It blocked beautifully, even though it looks a little wonky here.

After finishing that, I found a free pattern for a Basic Baby Hat on ravelry.com. The pattern featured 5 sizes. I figured I'd shoot for the middle, 12 months, and see what I had left.

As it turns out, I have more yarn leftover than I realized. Oh well, these hats knit up so quickly I don't mind making another one. I'll start on the next size up and go from there. For me there's no such thing as too much practice with knitting in a round with double pointed needles. Besides, this soft self-striping yarn is fun to play with. So, it's all good.  These items will be donated.

As for next week, have you seen the lovely leaf stitching over at Bayou Quilts? I'm going to use that as inspiration to see what I can come up with. I'll also finish up the baby hat I started and see what other project I can get into.

Needlework Tuesday is hosted by Heather over at Books and Quilts.    If you'd done any crafting this week that you'd like to share with others, please head over to Heather's blog and use the Mr. Linky to link up your post, so others can enjoy your creations.  

Needlework Tuesday - Rabbit, Scarf, and a bit of lace.

Needlework Tuesday is an occasional post detailing my needlework and/or crafting projects.

This week I worked on three projects, all from the Mary Maxim's Knit Club of the Month.

For this first one, I completed the knitting last month, but didn't get around to assembling it until last week. Here's my finished rabbit:

I could have chosen to knit the arms and legs in similar colours so they'd match, at least each other (by winding off some of the self-striping yarn - an option on the pattern), but I opted to just continue knitting with the yarn as is.  At the time, I didn't think it was worth the bother.  However, now that I look at it perhaps it would look more finished or cohesive with matching limbs.

I'm not entirely happy with it, but it's done. The pattern was pretty vague in the finishing of this piece. There was some direction with respect to stuffing the arms and legs, but none for the head or body. The sewing together, the positioning of the limbs, and the facial features were all left up to the individual crafter. Something isn't quite right, but I think I did okay.

One part I really don't like is that the pattern instructs the crafter to make separate eyes and then sew them onto the head. Had I thought about it more, I would have embroidered the eyes instead. As they are constructed now, the eyes are a choking hazard for babies and toddlers. I wish the designers had thought of that or at least mentioned it in the pattern.

Things I don't like about knitting stuffed items:

• • it's hard to know how much to stuff 
• • it's hard to get the stuffing evenly distributed 
• • it never looks like the photo 
• • it eventually becomes a dust collector 

The kit had enough yarn and stuffing to make two of these rabbits. I don't think I'm going to bother with the second one. I still have quite a bit of yarn left, so I'll be looking for something else to make with the leftovers. Lots of options.

The second item I worked on was the Yin Yang Shawl, October's project, which could also be used as a scarf. I love working in short rows!!!  It turned out okay, I guess. It feels soft and drapes nicely when it's in my hands, but doesn't fit nicely on my shoulders as a shawl and is a little stiff wrapped around my neck as a scarf.  Perhaps some blocking would help??  Anyway, here it is:

At least here you can see the short rows and the subtle colour changes.

The last project I worked on is the lacy Mary Maxim project shawl/scarf I've been working on for months. It's getting a lot easier, but it's still slow going. Here's a close up of the lace:

This week I also took a trip to my local yarn store, which had a 25% off sale on selected colours of Shibui yarns. They're yarns are ultra luxurious and quite pricy, so generally sales have me jumping for joy. This time I actually went to the store with two scarf patterns, so I didn't just add to my stash. The hardest part was combing through the baskets looking for enough yarn to complete the projects I selected. Luckily, I had both my husband and the helpful staff helping me pick colours. I'll feature both of these patterns at a later date.

This coming week I'm going to start a new project. I'm just not sure which one yet. Of course, I hope to continue to work on my lacy shawl/scarf.

Needlework Tuesday is hosted by Heather over at Books and Quilts.    If you'd done any crafting this week that you'd like to share with others, please head over to Heather's blog and use the Mr. Linky to link up your post, so others can enjoy your creations.  

Needlework Tuesday - Knitting and Blocking

Needlework Tuesday is an occasional post detailing my needlework and/or crafting projects.

Last week I mentioned that I had received two Mary Maxim's Knit Club of the Month projects. One I completed "as is", the other I made something else with the yarn. 

Well, one of these projects was a shrug. While the wave stitch looked interesting, I've made at least one other shrug like this and I didn't really like the finished garment. It's basically a rectangle with a couple of side seams. Instead, I found this lovely shawl pattern, Hill Island Wrap, that I wanted to try on ravelry.com. Even though they suggested a cotton/wool blend yarn, I decided to use an acrylic/nylon blend from the kit. I knew it wasn't going to be as nice as pictured, but I figured I'd give it a shot.

The whole time I was knitting, I was thinking I'd wet block it. However, I didn't realize that wet blocking doesn't really work on acrylic yarn. So, I tried steam blocking, which was suggested by my friend Google. I didn't exactly follow the instructions, though. I pinned it all down first. Then I hovered my steam iron over the shawl until I emptied the water reservoir twice. I should have taken a "before" photo, but since I wasn't totally convinced it was going to work, I figured it wasn't worth the bother. I didn't realize how much blocking could change an item.  While I don't love the colour combination, it turned out so much better than I thought it would.

The best part is that I have enough yarn leftover to make something else. Perhaps another shawl. ;) 

The other project I mentioned last week was a knitted stuffed rabbit. I haven't finished sewing it together yet, so I'll leave that until next week.

The other thing I mentioned last week was a circular knitting needle set purchase. I was really tired of buying new needles every time (or almost every time) I started a new project. I bought The Interchangeable Circular Knitting Needles Takumi Combo Set from Clover. It was quite pricey, but I'm hoping it's going to be cheaper and worth it in the long run. It includes 12 pairs of bamboo needles: 3.25mm - 6.5mm, 8.0mm, 9.0mm, 10.0mm, as well as 5 cables: 16, 24, 29, 36, and 48 inches. Of course, they are all interchangeable. One of the best features is the zippered leatherette case that'll keep everything together in one spot. There's also a separate segmented plastic envelope for the cables. So far, so good. I've only used one pair of needles (5mm) and the 29" cable. The yarn (cotton/wool/acrylic blend) is sticking a bit to the needles, so it's a little rough on the fingertips, but otherwise I'm happy with the set.

Here's another look at it:

Last week, another project from the Mary Maxim's Knit Club of the Month showed up in the mail. It's a scarf/shawl. Here it is:

The  yarn I received is coloured differently than those in the photo. I like the ones I got, "Black Denim" and "Grey", but they don't have a big enough contrast to really tell them apart. I think you'll still see the colour changes, it'll just be really, really subtle. Here's small section:

The thing I dislike most about this project is the pattern. It's horribly written and confusing. It's knit in short rows, so you turn the work before getting to the end of the row. That part I understand. However, after turning the work, you're supposed to "PM on last worked st.". I know the abbreviations, but that doesn't help figuring out what the "last worked stitch" is. Luckily, Patons has a video on the their website explaining exactly how to make this shawl. (Perhaps they know the pattern is confusing). If that's not bad enough, the pattern clearly states that "Sl1" = slip next stitch knitwise, but in the video, the presenter clearly slips the stitch purlwise. She even states that the stitch is to be slipped purlwise.  This isn't such a big deal, but it's confusing as to which it should be.  I'm also having a bit of trouble with the stitch counts, but I'm going to chalk that up to me not keeping track closely enough. Overall, this project is a bit annoying.

Next week, I'm hoping to sew up the bunny rabbit and adjust his stuffing enough to take a photo or two. I'm also going to continue to knit my latest shawl from the Mary Maxim's Knit Club of the Month.

Needlework Tuesday is hosted by Heather over at Books and Quilts.    If you'd done any crafting this week that you'd like to share with others, please head over to Heather's blog and use the Mr. Linky to link up your post, so others can enjoy your creations.  

Needlework Tuesday - Projects and New Toy!

Needlework Tuesday is an occasional post detailing my needlework and/or crafting projects.

Wow! Time has certainly flown since I last posted. I could swear it was only two weeks ago, not two months. I've been busy, busy, busy. I've done lots of knitting, a bit of reading, and oodles of workouts, but the biggest time suck has been our kitchen renovation. On top of that, my husband, who's did lots of work to get ready for the reno, but who's been neglecting his physio exercises, hurt his back again. Not good. He's quite a bit better now, but still has to take it a little easy. Oy vey.

Don't worry...I'm going to confine this post to my knitting projects...it is Needlework Tuesday after all.

Since I last posted, a couple of projects from the Mary Maxim's Knit Club of the Month showed up.

Here's the first one:

Here's the second one:

While neither of them is really to my taste, I made one of them "as is" and made something else with the yarn from the other. You'll have to wait until next time to see what happened with each kit.

I also completed this ultra luxurious shawl from Shibui Knits, called Spectrum on ravelry.com. It uses two yarns in two different weights, Rain and Silk Cloud. The majority of the piece is knit with the two yarns held together, while the see-through stripes are knit with just the Silk Cloud, the thinner of the two yarns. It was quite easy to knit, all in stocking stitch. However, the thin yarn was a bit of a pain to work with. It's about as thin and strong as ordinary sewing thread, just a little fuzzier. It definitely kept me on my toes. Here's me and my I-absolutely-adore-this-piece-but-I-can't-believe-how-expensive-it-was-to-make shawl:

Here's another teaser for next time: While I already have lots of knitting needles, for one reason or another I've had to buy several new ones in the past few months. This was getting to be expensive and frustrating. So, I purchased this:

I haven't used it yet, but I'm really hoping it's going to useful and turn out to be a "bargain" in the long run.  I'll write more about it next time!!

Not sure what this coming week is going to bring, but you can be sure I'll be knitting something.

Needlework Tuesday is hosted by Heather over at Books and Quilts.    If you'd done any crafting this week that you'd like to share with others, please head over to Heather's blog and use the Mr. Linky to link up your post, so others can enjoy your creations.