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.  

Needlework Tuesday - Old and New

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

This week, I was been busy knitting my shawl (almost done!!), but I did manage to find a few minutes to complete a project I started in December 2014. It's one of the decorative snowman mittens from Mary Maxim. I didn't have much to complete, just the side seam and some finishing touches. But here it is:

I remember knitting this way back when and it certainly wasn't fun working with that many yarns hanging from the work. That's double the number you see on the front because there's another snowman on the back. I still find it odd that it was the same motif on both sides. The packaging shows the trio hung on a mantel, so you'd never see both sides at once. Unless I read the pattern wrong.... Anyway, while this guy is cute as hell and I love the shape of the mitten, I won't be making the other two anytime soon. In fact, I've been thinking of some options:

• not make them at all and use the yarn for something else
• make the mittens but forget the snowman motives
• make the mittens and only put the snowman on one side
• make the other mittens as I did here, with motifs on both sides.

I'm not going to decide right now.

I also had a little time to plan my next project. I have a number of Mary Maxim's Knit Club of the Month kits sitting about. Some of them started, others waiting to be started. Here's what I've lined up:

 

The first is a spa set. I wasn't happy with this kit at all. First of all, the pieces of the set were made from differently coloured Scrub-it yarn. While the colours mostly coordinated with each other, they didn't really look like a part of the same set and definitely didn't say "spa".  At least not to me. Second, the kit didn't some with enough yarn to complete all of the pieces. I contacted the company after running out of the one colour and they said they could send me one extra ball. After I said that I'd more than likely run out of two more colours, they said there was nothing more they could do, but I could order more if I liked. Since I didn't love this set anyway, I declined to order anymore. I think I'm going to rip out what I've done so far and make myself a few dish cloths instead. I think there are some free patterns online.

The second project is a Kitchen set. Again, another kit not to my liking. I only made a few of the pieces before running into problems. I'm going to go through this one again to see if there's something I can salvage.

The third one is pink baby blanket. I started another one of these and didn't get too far last year. I'm not interested in finishing that one yet, but this one is entrelac, which I haven't done before, so it might be fun to at least try.

First things first, though. I'm going to finish up the shawl I showed last week.  I have less than 20 rows left before casting off.  Then I'll take a look at these three projects to see which of them I'll tackle first. 

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 knitting

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

This week I have a quick update on two projects.

The first one is the shawl/wrap, Sand Layers, from my local yarn store, Wolseley Wool. I'm about a 1/3 of the way through. It's still not laying flat, but that might change once it's off the needles. 

Speaking of needles, I've been reminded of why I dislike knitting on circular needles. It's hard to explain, but I just can't seem to hold it the right way without it curling in a direction I don't want it to.  I'd love to buy an identical one and just use them as really long needles.  However, since this shawl has already cost me $85+, that won't be happening.  I'll just have to continue to fight with it. 

Other than this, I'm loving the shawl.  The pattern is really easy to follow with lots of straight knitting, which is great because I like to knit while watching TV.  It increases 2-4 stitches EVERY row, though, so it's getting quite wide very quickly. Now that it's growing, I'm not sure how I'm going to keep up with that number of stitches (+500 by the end). I'd rather not keep counting them all, so I'm going to have to come up with a system, but since the pattern adds stitches on both ends, it'll have to start in the centre. Hmmmm....

Anyway, here's a shot of the shawl so far, followed by a close up of the slip stitch and garter sections.
 

Notice the stitch marker in the first photo.  That's marking the right side of the piece.  It's something I picked up from a previous project.  Such a simple thing, but it never occurred to me to do this.  Since much of this project is garter stitch, it's really handy.   

I also have an update on the second temperature scarf (mentioned here in a previous post) that I started back in June of 2014.  Sometime in February of this year, I discovered that I wouldn't have enough orange to complete the project. Get more orange you say? Sure. If only it were that easy. *HUGE SIGH*

First off, I checked my local yarn store. They don't carry the brand anymore, so it would have to be special order and they couldn't just order one skein...I'll have to take and pay for 10 skeins...of bright orange yarn. That didn't sound right to me, but whatever. I wasn't going to argue.

Second, I figured I'd find some online instead, even though I don't shop online. Well, as it turns out, that the colour is discontinued. Not the end of the world yet because some websites still had a few (very few) left in stock. When I looked around, I discovered that the price of shipping was more than the yarn!!!! In fact, quite a bit more than the yarn.  Crazy!

I hummed and hawed for a couple of weeks unsure of what to do. I had already completed 5-6 months of the scarf and had lots of yarn left...just no orange. Darn! When I went back to a few of the websites, they were sold out. If I wanted to finish the scarf, I had to act fast. Finally, I decided to bite the bullet and pay the outrageous shipping price. I went to a website where the price was the most reasonable, but when I tried to place the order, something wasn't working properly and it just sat there spinning. I contacted the website administrator, but didn't hear anything back. However, a week later, I did hear from my bank saying that someone was charging thousands of dollars to my credit card. Sigh. I can't prove it was that website...I guess I could have a virus on my PC, even though I have antivirus software installed. Luckily, my bank caught it and I wasn't responsible for any of the charges. Needless to say no more online shopping for me. And the scarf? Well, I'm going to rip it out and make something else.  ;)  

Next week, I'll have an update on a Christmas item I started last year....I just have to finish it first.
 
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.