Needlework Tuesday - New Year, Same Old Projects

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

I wasn't going to post today, but I figured that wasn't a good way to start off the new year. This will be a short post about the two projects I've been working on.

First off, the baby blanket. I think it's going well and is about 2/3 done. The pattern is getting a little boring, so I can't wait for this one to be done already. One good thing is that I'm getting way better at picking up stitches. A skill that will no doubt come in handy in the future.

Second, the toque made with sock yarn. It, too, is going well and is probably a little more than 2/3 done. I'm still having a little trouble with stitches falling off the needles, but it's not too bad. I think I'll start the fingerless mitts next, but I'm not sure.

Well, that's it. I told you it would be short. No sign yet of the next project from the Mary Maxim's Knit Club of the Month, but it should definitely be here this week or early next week.

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.  

Nine Lives: A Lily Dale Mystery by Wendy Corsi Staub

In Nine Lives, Bella Jordan and her son seek refuge in Lily Dale, New York after a storm delays their drive to Chicago. Bella's husband has just died and she needs a change of scenery. As it turns out, Lily Dale isn't just an ordinary small town. It's filled with psychics and mediums. Soon after she arrives, Bella is asked to help out at the local hotel, who's hostess has just died. Murdered, in fact. Even though she's new in town, Bella is determined to find the killer.

This is definitely a cute cozy mystery. The mystery was fun to follow and all of the characters were likeable. A few things felt a little contrived, but all and all I enjoyed it.

I'm not a huge believer in psychics and that sort of thing, but I found that I liked reading about this community and its inhabitants Some weird things definitely happen, but it's only not clear whether or not these happenings are supernatural. Perhaps the author is leaving that up to the reader to decide or maybe answers will be forthcoming in the next installment of the series.

Chance the Cat and her movements were among those unexplained things. She certainly had a knack for getting around. She turned up in the oddest places without a seemingly rational explanation. Max, Bella's son, knowledge about certain events was also left open-ended.

There was lots of talk about psychic readings, but I don't seem to remember one actually taking place within the storyline. Or maybe I just missed it. Anyway, that might have been fun to read about.

Recommended for cozy lovers. I think those who believe in mediums and psychics will enjoy it more than those who don't. Also, if you like cats, that would help, too. I enjoyed reading the book, but I don't know if I liked it enough to seek out the next book in the series. We'll see, I guess.

For more information about this book, please visit the Crooked Lane Books website.

For more information about the author and her other books, please visit Wendy Corsi Staub's website.

Thanks to Sarah from Kaye Publicity for this review copy.

Nine Lives: A Lily Dale Mystery by Wendy Corsi Staub, Crooked Lane Books (The Quick Brown Fox & Company LLC), ©2015. ISBN 9781629532486(Advance Reader's Edition), 279p.

The Stages by Thom Satterlee

In The Stages, Daniel is an American translator living in Copenhagen and is known as one of the best translators of Danish philosopher, Søren Kierkegaard. When his ex-girlfriend dies and a invaluable manuscript goes missing, Daniel, who has Asperger's syndrome, must break out of his comfort zone to search for the truth.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The blurb at the back of the book mentions that it's reminiscent of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime. While I enjoyed that book, I think enjoyed this one more.

The Cast of Characters provided at the beginning of the book lists the characters as well as how to properly pronounce the names. Because of this, I learned a lot about Danish name pronunciations. For example, Søren Kierkegaard is SIR-in KEER-ka-gore. Apparently, the Danes use lots of silent letters and pronounce some letters differently than the English do. As I was reading, I really tried to use the given pronunciations, even though it slowed down my reading.

Two aspects of the book were particularly interesting to me. First, I'd heard of Kierkegaard, but didn't know anything about him. Since it's one of his manuscripts that is missing, the author included a little information about him and his life. Intriguing stuff. Even though this book is a work of fiction, I assume that the information given is factual. Second, Daniel's Asperger's Syndrome, which is on the autism spectrum, is fascinating. I especially loved learning about how he dealt with his job and his personal life.

I think this is the first book I've read in Copenhagen. I don't know anything about the city or the Danes themselves. The details in the book about Danish life were all pretty interesting.

Highly recommended. I'd definitely love to read another book by this author.

For more information about this book, please visit the Crooked Lane Books website.

For more information about the author, please visit Thom Satterlee's website.

Thanks to Sarah from Kaye Publicity for this review copy.

The Stages by Thom Satterlee, Crooked Lane Books (The Quick Brown Fox & Company LLC), ©2013. ISBN 9781629534190(Advance Uncorrected Proofs), 209p.

Needlework Tuesday - Dishcloths and more

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


How was your Christmas? We rented a chalet in a provincial park for a few days and it was awesome. I didn't get to spend a lot of time knitting, but it was wonderfully relaxing. The chalet had a two person jetted tub (among other amenities), while the lodge next door featured a salt water pool and spa as well as a small fitness centre. Even with all of that "relaxing", I managed to get a few things accomplished.

Before we left I started the latest project from Mary Maxim's Knit Club of the Month. If you remember, it was a hat/fingerless mitt set made with sock yarn. Since the yarn is quite fine, a hat made from it wouldn't be that warm. Therefore, the pattern gives the knitter the option of either making two thinner hats or making one doubly-thick reversible hat, essential one thinner hat inside the other. Cool idea, eh?

I wanted to start it to see how this yarn was going to knit up. That is, to see if a pattern would emerge like the photo accompanying the kit. I know a number of you assured me that would be the case, but I had to see for myself. Here's the beginning of one hat:

I'm having just a little trouble with stitches falling off the needles, but otherwise I love it!!

While we were away, I worked on two small projects...dishcloths. The first one features my all-time favourite pattern. It's a basket weave pattern surrounded by seed stitch.

The second is a pattern I made up myself. When I made my shawl, I learned how about using slip stitches in a pattern. I essentially used the same technique in this dishcloth. It turned out a little small, but it was an experiment after all, so I'm quite pleased with the result. Here it is:

The left-hand edge is a little wonky, but it has all of the yarn joins on it. I think I made it worse by trying to carry one of the yarns up the side.  Next time, I'll have to make it a little bigger and be more consistent with joining yarns.

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I like big dishcloths and the ones I made at that time were a too small for my liking. To see the difference, here's the latest two along with the one that's too small:

In addition to these, I've been working on the pink baby blanket I mentioned two weeks ago and am still enjoying the entrelac technique.  I'll have an photo to show of that next week.

This coming week I'm going to continue to work on the baby blanket as well as the sock yarn hat. Another project from the Mary Maxim's Knit Club of the Month should be coming next week, so I might have a look at that project.

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 Online Christmas Party - Collections

Instead of Needlework Tuesday this week, Heather is hosting an online Christmas party and asked me to "attend" and share something about our Christmas.  I decided to share a few of our decorations.

Some years ago, my husband's sister bought him a Nutcracker for Christmas. Then the next year, she bought him another one. We wondered if she 1) forgot she got him one the year before or 2) was trying to get him to start a collection. We decided it was a "collection" and ran with it from there, usually purchasing one or two a year since then. I'll admit many of them were purchased at after-Christmas sales for a discounted price. There's no sentimentally attached to any of these, so there's no use spending big bucks on them. Here they are on the landing:

There's a candle nutcracker on the window sill still wrapped in plastic.

Many, many, many years ago, my mother had started a collection of nativity pieces from Avon Collectibles. They are now in my hands and I love them. I like that she didn't collect all of the pieces. There's just enough to know it's the nativity, but not too many pieces that take up a lot of room to store or display. Here they are on the mantel (along with a not-so-Christmassy backdrop):

Lastly, our Christmas tree. We usually put up our tree (artificial) around the first week of December and then take the next several days (or even weeks) to do the decorations as time permits. We usually put on Christmas music and do it together. However, this year I already had lots of other things to do...not sure what, but I was busy. I managed to help my husband put up the tree and add the lights, but I then let him take over the decorating. Since he was doing such a great job, I didn't feel the need to step in to "help". "We" had a few missteps, but I decided to "let it go"...almost. For example, I had a few boxes of decorations that were CLEARLY labelled "not for the tree". Sometimes, I like to scatter things around the house either on window sills or in baskets to make each room a little more Christmassy, but somehow these things ended up on the tree anyway. Can you tell I'm the only "reader" in the family? Oh, well. The tree turned out rather well.    Here the tree in the dining room:

Believe it or not, this represents less than half of our decorations.  *sigh*  There are a few vintage pieces, but the rest are part of another "collection" we've amassed over the years.

Thanks for hosting this party, Heather. It's such a brilliant idea. I hope you consider it again for next year. The more the merrier, so if you'd like to take part in the celebrations and share something about your Christmas, head over to Heather's blog, Books and Quilts and use the Mr. Linky to link up your post.

Merry Christmas and a joyous New Year!!

Needlework Tuesday - Baby Blanket and More

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


Even though I spent a lot of time knitting this week, I don't have much to show. I spent all of my knitting time on the baby blanket that I showed the start of last week. Here's what it looks like now:

It's actually easier to knit that I first thought it would be, but I still need to keep the pattern nearby. Because I'm left-handed, the direction of the knitting is slanted the other way (from the photo provided with the kit) and when the pattern says "right corner triangle", I'm actually knitting the "left corner triangle". If I just remember that when I'm reading the pattern and trying to figure out what to do next, I think I'll get through it okay.

This entrelac knitting is kind of fun to do, even though I still don't love picking up stitches or turning my work every 12 stitches or so. Also, the "look" of it is sort of growing on me. I'm still not wild about the variegated pastel yarn, but I'm determined to keep at it for now.  

A new project from the Mary Maxim's Knit Club of the Month showed up last week. It's for a slouchy hat (which can be worn turned up like a regular toque) made from sock yarn. The vibrant colours are much more my style. Apparently, the kit contains enough yarn to make two hats (I'll write more about that when I start the project) and a pair of fingerless mitts. I'm just hoping it knits up like it shows in the photo...in some kind of pattern rather than random variegation. I don't know when I'll start this one, but I'll post more about it when I do.

One last thing...I found some cool colouring books at Costco. They are from Color Me Your Way. I haven't started any of them yet, but I might do this over Christmas instead of knitting. Not sure yet. Anyway, there's lots to love about these: approx. 11"x16.5" (huge compared to others I've seen), spiral bound (they lie flat when colouring), heavy paper (less likely to bleed through), single sided (so you can pull them out for displaying or framing). I like most of the designs, but there are a few that don't really appeal to me. I might use those for trying out different mediums.
 

This coming week I'm going to continue to work on the baby blanket.

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 - Busy week

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

Last week, I was trying to figure out my next project and showed three kits that have been sitting around for some time, two of which I had started and abandoned. I managed to take a look all of them as well as do a little on each of the three.

For the spa kit (that didn't come with enough yarn to complete), I decided to keep one of the pieces I completed and rip out the others. I'll be making a few dishcloths or facecloths out of the remaining yarn. Here's a shot of the salvaged piece as well as a sampling of what's left:

There are several more small balls of yarn as well as another skein of the variegated blue/pink shown on the right.

The kitchen set was more completed that I had originally thought. All I needed to do was tuck in some ends on the finished items. Three dishcloths and one scrubbie turned out okay-ish:

I love the scrubbie, but the dishcloths are a little small; barely bigger than my hand. I like my dishcloths to be at least another two inches wider and longer. Also, these patterns are not my favourites. While they knit up really quickly, they are the plainest, most basic patterns around for these cloths.   Something a little more intricate would have been fun to do.    Do you have a favourite pattern for dishcloths?  

The other two pieces in the kit were for those tea towel-like things that you (or maybe your mother/grandmother) hang from your oven or refrigerator door. On this one, the top part loops around the back and the flower-looking thingy (or button on most models) goes through a buttonhole to secure it.
 

 

I don't care for them that much, so I won't be making the other one. The thing doesn't really lie flat or hang nicely. When I first made it that flower-thingy didn't fit through the hole. At all. I tried and tried and tried. When I looked at this kit again this week, I decided to try again and really FORCE it. I pulled it through several times to enlarge the hole. I figured I had nothing to lose because the next step was to rip it out and make something else. Well, it goes through now, but it's still not easy. Silver lining....at least the thing won't come undone and fall to the floor. I still have quite a bit of yarn left and will be making a few decent sized dishcloths.

The last kit was for an entrelac baby blanket. I certainly don't need a one of these, but I thought it might be fun to try a new skill. So far, it's going okay. I don't have much done yet, so it's really hard to photograph.
 

All of it is a bit weird. I don't love picking up stitches or all of the "turning" that's involved, but I'm getting the hang of it. I'm hoping that when I get to the part of the pattern that says "continue as established", I'll have learned enough to continue.   Have you tried entrelac knitting?    

Lastly, I finished my shawl/wrap, the pattern of the week called Sand Layers, from my local yarn store, Wolseley Wool.  I love, love, love it!!! The colours are so vibrant and rich. The slipped stitch edge is pulling a bit (as the pattern said it would), so it's still not lying flat, but that's okay because it'll never be displayed like that. Also, it might be a bit better after it's blocked, which I plan to do this coming week. By the way, the curly end is supposed to be that way.  Isn't it cute?   Here it is:
 

The last row (at 500+ stitches) seemed like it took forever to complete...as did the castoff. However, I learned two new methods for cast off, which might come in handy for future projects. Since I have quite a bit of fingering weight yarn leftover from another project I might make another of these. This pattern is quite easy to do and the designer has added another option for edging, so it'll be like making a different shawl. Kind of.

This coming week I'm going to continue to work on the baby blanket. A new project from the Mary Maxim's Knit Club of the Month should be arriving any day. So, I might start that. I'll also be going through my projects to see which one I can work on over Christmas. I'm thinking something small that doesn't require a lot of thought.

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.