I’ve frogged the Joshaqan Socks – they didn’t look good with this yarn. It needed something a little simpler. So, I’ve switched over to the Woodland Walks Socks by This Handmade Life. I do like the look of this with the yarn better, so far.
Month: October 2020
Garden Notes
The community garden summer bed is officially put to bed – I’ve signed off on removing everything except the winter greens. Those are still looking pretty good, though it got into the 20s last night, so not sure what the chard looks like this morning.
Steel’s Edge – Ilona Andrews
Charlotte is a healer – probably the best of her generation, which has brought her into the highest circles of nobility in the Weird. She flees that after some terrible heartbreak, and ends up in the Edge. That’s where she meets Richard Mar (brother of Kalder Mar – one of the two main characters in the last Edge book).
Richard is after some slavers that have been preying on the people of the Edge, and when some people very dear to Charlotte are hurt by those slavers, she decides to help him, even though it might mean using her gifts in such a way that may destroy her.
This book goes fairly cloak and dagger – it also features George, Jack and Lark. It’s nice to see them growing up. It’s solid adventure with the typical fun romance I expect from the authors.
Embroidery Notes
Block three (which was really just half a block), is done, which means I’m done with the entire center column of the design. It’s fun to see some of the repeats starting to come through.
Fate’s Edge -Ilona Andrews
Audrey Callahan belongs to a family of con artists in the Weird, but she’s gotten out. However, when her brother gets into some trouble, she agrees to one last heist with her father, to take care of him – then she’s done with her family for good.
Unfortunately, that heist puts her in the path of some very bad people, as well as Kaldar Mar – cousin of Cerise Mar- the main character in the last Edge book. Kaldar very quickly realizes that he needs Audrey’s help to get to the bottom of the can of worms stirred up by the heist.
I love that George and Jack are back in this book – it’s nice to see them in teenhood – between the events of On the Edge, and when they later show up adults in the Innkeeper series – definitely helps explain why they end up where they are when the events of the Innkeeper series happen.
It’s a good solid heist book, and Audrey and Kaldar are a fun romance, though I think the romances in the two prior books of this series were better – this one hurries along a bit too fast.
Six of Crows – Leigh Bardugo
This book is set in the Grishaverse, but definitely comes across as grittier than the books in the Shadow and Bone series – those are more fairy tales. This is a heist book.
Kaz Brekker has been given the heist opportunity of a lifetime, and each member of the crew he assembles has good reason to want the amount of money they’ll be swimming in if they manage to pull things off.
The story was really well done, but I found this one harder to read than the previous books. It somehow managed to be way darker. (I do maintain that I’m dealing way less well with dark this year than in the past.) I had to pause several times while reading this before I could push my way through again. It really has been a weird reading year.
Garden Notes
I pulled the peppers and tomatoes out today. We’ve had frost locally, but the driveway is such a sheltered micro climate that it hasn’t touched those yet. So they’ve still been ripening, even if the plants aren’t looking the best because they have been feeling the cold.
We’ve got something in the works that is probably going to keep us pretty busy on weekends through the end of November. Since the community garden plot is still producing greens, and it also has things I need to do to it with dates attached, I decided it would be better to get as much cleaned up here as possible so I knew I could devote any free time to the other plot. So I might have left the peppers and tomatoes in in another year, but out they went today. The herbs are at least still going strong.
Knitting Notes
I’ve decided to make this the socks for Moms Christmas. Made a pair for my mother, so I’m moving on to my MIL. This is Joshaqan by Hunter Hammersen. I’m using Koigu Painter’s Palette Premium Merino in a nice autumny mixed colorway.
The North Wind and the Sea 