Knitting Notes

Here’s the state of the Wrap Me Up Puppy – puppy is done other than the eyes and nose (though I may have to anchor the ears down a bit), and the blanket is started.

I also did cast on the Telja sweater (by Jennifer Steingrass) last weekend.    And got to the end of sleeve one, which I tried on.    And promptly ripped out so I could go up a size.   (She offers so many size options I really waffled over which one to make.   I ended up going for more ease.)

In a change for me, I’m actually using the yarn called for in the pattern – Quince Owl.   I’m using Barred (dark brown) as the main color, and Bubu (naturalish-white), Papuan (medium natural brown), Cranberry and Straits (blue) as the contrasting colors.

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Dark Lands – Tony Wheeler

Tony Wheeler is one of the co-founders of Lonely Planet – one of my favorite guide book publishers. This book is vignettes of his travels to a number of countries that most people are not going to travel to, because they’re not the safest places in the world to travel.

It’s an interesting mix, because some places are not as bad as the used to be- like Colombia, but others just seem to be getting worse as time goes on.

I found the inclusion Nauru personally interesting – I knew absolutely nothing about it, so would not have known to include it on any list of this sort. The other countries in the book, running the gamut from Papua New Guinea, to Israel, to Haiti, are more expected.

What kind of sticks out is there is still an ordinariness of traveling to these places – they may be hard to get to, and there may be wars or other crises in the area, but there are regular people too, and places they are proud to show off to visitors. This was an interesting diversion from normal travel literature.

Knitting Notes

Pattern:  Willowfall Cowl by Erin Kurup
Yarn: Shibui Knits Staccato in the Velvet colorway
Needles: Size 6 circs

Here’s the final picture of the blocked Willowfall Cowl.    I liked this pattern – having the lace gradually come in against the plain opening was a little different, and enjoyable to work on.

This yarn is lovely.    It’s got enough silk to give it a nice hand, but not make it too slippery.

 

Knitting Notes

We’re getting the first real snowstorm of the season, so it seemed like a good time to take stock of my knitting.    The above is as far as I got with the Hermione Loves Ron Hat -turns out I did not have enough in that leftover yarn to make that.  So that was frogged Friday night.

The Willowfall Cowl as currently drying on the dining room table – I should be able to do a finishing post on that by next weekend at the latest.   (Barring a replacement to the trip to VT we were going to be doing this weekend before the weather intervened.)

In the quest to use up ends, I cast on a Wrap Me Up Puppy by Susan B. Anderson.    The body is in I Knit or Dye Killing Me Softly Aran.    And it’s a wicked quick knit.    Since I took this picture this morning, I’ve finished and stuffed the body, and made both ears.

I’ll make the blanket for this in the MadelineTosh I just frogged from the hat – a nice bright red seems good for a toy.

I also went out and bought yarn for a new sweater yesterday.   I knew I want to make one, but have been waffling about which kind exactly.    I occurred to me this weekend that one more heavy weight I could wear around the house would be more useful than another sweater I could wear to work (though I do still have a few candidates for that).    I’ve had the pattern for Jennifer Steinglass’ Telja for a while (got it on sale), so I want to my LYS and bought some Quince and Co Owl to make that.    Whether or not I start it this weekend will depend on if my printer has enough color juice to print at least the charts.    I’m not starting until I get a good print of the charts.

Lies Sleeping – Ben Aaronovitch

We’re back to the world of Constable – now Detective – Peter Grant, London police officer and wizard in training. After a bit of an interlude in the last one and a half books, the Faceless Man and Lesley are back. And I don’t feel like I can talk about it much, because it’s all a whole bunch of spoilers.

I will say that how this relates back to some earlier stories is unexpected, and great. And I did not see the very end coming. I really can’t wait to see what comes next.

Knitting Notes

The great new year yarn purge continues- here’s the last of the Shubui Knits Stacato, in hexipuff form.I’ve also cast on a Hermione Loves Ron with my leftover Madeline Tosh Vintage yarn.   It’s technically the wrong weight, but I’d done one of these before in the same weight yarn, and really liked the way it came out.   I’ve got pretty exactly the same amount of yarn left that I used for that original hat, so here’s hoping it’s enough.

 

The Future Falls – Tanya Huff

This is the last book in the trilogy about the Gale family. Charlie, the Wild Gale, is back in Calgary, watching her cousin Allie give a good go at getting the seventh son of a seventh son of a seventh son into the Gale family. And Jack, half-Gale, half-dragon prince, is growing up a little too fast. He’s one of only three Wild Gales, and both he and Charlie realize they like each other just a little too much considering their age difference.

And into the middle of the family drama comes drama on a whole other scale – an asteroid (obscured by another asteroid for a bit too long) is not too far out from hitting the Earth, and it’s not going to be pretty. The Gales have never dealt with danger this great in scale. Can Charlie figure out what to do, and settle all the family drama at the same time?

I felt like the ending to this story was just a little too pat. I didn’t mind how it solved Jack and Charlie (this is so not a spoiler, so I don’t mind mentioning it here), but some of the hows to get there are just a little too far fetched. (Yes, I realize I’m talking about a fantasy book here, but there’s something about things that went a little beyond the belief I’d suspended.) I didn’t hate it, but I do like the first two books better.

Knitting Notes

I’ve decided to do a temperature scarf for 2019, but I really wanted to get both the highs and the lows.     I couldn’t figure out a good way to get them into one scarf without making things muddy, so I finally settled on doing two scarves.      Temps were be taken from the Weatherunderground station closest to my house.   They’ve started out surprisingly warm.    I’m using KnitPicks’ Palette yarn, and have a whole scale developed.   (It’s noted in the Ravelry project page.)

I’ve finished up the sport/DK scrappy blanket with the ends I had available for that.   So very purple…

Mastiff – Tamora Pierce

This the final book of the Beka Cooper books, and it’s a doozy. She and her partner are summoned with some haste to the Summer Palace, where they find that half of the servants and guards there have been slaughtered, and the young prince has been kidnapped. Beka promises the frantic queen that she will find her little boy.

They’re joined by a mage named Farmer, and a lady knight, and begin a trek into the wilds of Tortall, tracking the prince. It’s a journey unlike any other that Beka has ever been on, and it will test her and her friends like nothing before. For a YA book, this one goes fairly dark, which is a good service to the story – all of the politics surrounding this kidnapping are deadly serious, and are dealt with very accordingly. It’s really good book – a fitting end to Beka’s tale.

2018 Books Read

1. Sweep in Peace – Ilona Andrews
2. The Trees in My Forest – Bernd Heinrich
3. Gateway to Fourline – Pam Brondos
4. The Bands of Mourning – Brandon Sanderson
5. The Faery Reel – ed. Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling
6. Prudence – Gail Carriger
7. The Edge of the World – Michael Pye
8. River Marked – Patricia Briggs
9. Foundation – Mercedes Lackey
10. The Raven in the Foregate – Ellis Peters
11. Magic Rises – Ilona Andrews
12. Intrigues – Mercedes Lackey
13. Frogkisser! – Garth Nix
14. Cybele’s Secret – Juliet Marillier
15. Shadow and Bone – Leigh Bardugo
16. Scrappy Little Nobody – Anna Kendrick
17. Maps and Legends – Michael Chabon
18. The Folk of the Air – Peter Beagle
19. Changes – Mercedes Lackey
20. Frost Burned – Patricia Briggs
21. Devil’s Cub – Georgette Heyer
22. One Fell Sweep – Ilona Andrews
23. Tortall and Other Lands – Tamora Pierce
24. The Enchantment Emporium – Tanya Huff
25. Pawn of Prophecy – David Eddings
26. Queen of Sorcery – David Eddings
27. Magician’s Gambit- David Eddings
28. Castle of Wizardry – David Eddings
29. The Library, the Witch, and the Warder – Mindy Klasky
30. Enchanter’s End Game – David Eddings
31. Among Others – Jo Walton
32. Queen Victoria’s Cousins – Christina Croft
33. Guardians of the West – David Eddings
34. King of the Murgos – David Eddings
35. Demon Lord of Karanda – David Eddings
36. Sorceress of Darshiva – David Eddings
37. The Seeress of Kell – David Eddings
38. The Queen of Blood – Sarah Beth Durst
39. Jane and the Wandering Eye – Stephanie Barron
40. Matilda Bone – Karen Cushman
41. Belgarath the Sorcerer – David and Leigh Eddings
42. The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry – Gabrielle Zevin
43. The City of Brass – S. A. Chakraborty
44. Dreams of Distant Shores – Patricia A. McKillip
45. The Species Seekers – Richard Conniff
46. Cryoburn – Lois McMaster Bujold
47. Polgara the Sorceress – David and Leigh Eddings
48. Arcanum Unbounded – Brandon Sanderson
49. The Shakespearean Botanical – Margaret Willes
50. The Midnight Queen – Sylvia Izzo Hunter
51. Night Broken – Patricia Briggs
52. It’s All Too Much – Peter Walsh
53. A Tapestry Garden – Marietta and Ernie O’Bryne
54. Look for Me by Moonlight – Mary Downing Hahn
55. Redoubt – Mercedes Lackey
56. The Raven King – Maggie Stiefvater
57. A Midsummer’s Tempest – Poul Anderson
58. In a Unicorn’s Garden – Judyth McLeod
59. At Day’s Close – A. Roger Ekirch
60. Bastion – Mercedes Lackey
61. Friday’s Child – Georgette Heyer
62. Voices – Ursula K. LeGuin
63. Tomorrowland – Steven Kotler
64. Lord Darcy – Randall Garrett
65. The Bards of Bone Plain – Patricia A. McKillip
66. Signs and Portents – Jane Killick
67. The Coming of Shadows – Jane Killick
68. Point of No Return – Jane Killick
69. Little Tea Book – Sebastian Beckwith with Caroline Paul
70. Bloodhound – Tamora Pierce
71. The Fairy Godmother – Mercedes Lackey
72. The Rivan Codex – David and Leigh Eddings
73. Atlas Obscura – Josh Foer
74. Closer to Home – Mercedes Lackey
75. Closer to the Heart – Mercedes Lackey
76. Penric’s Demon – Lois McMaster Bujold
77. The Rose Rent – Ellis Peters
78. Stuff Matters – Mark Miodownik
79. The Eyre Affair – Jasper Fforde
80. An Ancient Peace – Tanya Huff
81. Jane and the Genius of the Place– Stephanie Barron
82. The Black Swan – Mercedes Lackey
83. Between Two Thorns – Emma Newman
84. The Fire Rose – Mercedes Lackey
85. Blood Price – Tanya Huff
86. Kitchen Table Tarot – Melissa Cynova
87. Maiden, Mother, Crone – D.J. Conway
88. The Wild Ways – Tanya Huff
89. Harrowing the Dragon – Patricia A. McKillip
90. Weeds – Richard Mabey
91. The Curiosity Keeper – Sarah E. Ladd
92. The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter – Theodora Goss
93. Faeries and Nature Spirits: A Beginner’s Guide – Teresa Moorey
94. A Spirited Manor – Kate Danley
95. The Sleeping Beauty – Mercedes Lackey
96. Closer to the Chest – Mercedes Lackey

Here’s the 2018 crop.    Didn’t quite get to 100, but I was close.    That was due to quite a few rereads this year.     We’ll see if that keeps up for next year or not – it’ll depend on how much I need comfort reading.