Happy Bun-Day!

My husband, with his Rain-man like capacity to remember dates, reminded me that today is Charcoal's birthday.

Here is Charcoal's cake (being that he is a vegetarian/vegan, we picked out one that the other members of the family will enjoy):



He sat in Tom's arms while we sang to him,



then adjourned to his pen for some edible flowers, organic Belgian endive and a scoop of fragrant botanical grass hay.

It's official

My oldest kid is a knitter.

I had tried to teach him a few times in the past, but this summer, one of his day camps featured classes in Fiber Arts. He learned how to knit and purl, and used some of my leftover yarn to practice. I was shocked by how quickly he became comfortable with the motion and by how even his stitches are. He whizzed through a washcloth (see how diabolical I am? extra incentive to actually use the washcloth while bathing), not even batting an eyelash at the garter stitch edging, and started a hat:



This is some yarn I dyed and he asked if he could use it. The hat is nearly ready for the decreases and I have no doubt he'll manage those easily. I'm trying to convince him to go halvies with me on a sweater for him: I'll do the front and back if he does the sleeves...

Overheard in my car this morning

My mom: Did you hear about that teacher?

Me: What teacher?

My mom: The one who they found in the river.

Me: Where? in Wilkes-Barre?

My mom: No, in New York.

Me: Oh. No, I try not to read too much about local crime that they put on the national news. I think it creates a climate of fear that isn't good for people.

My mom: You're right. It's terrible to hear about. It's because those news channels have all that time to fill up. So this teacher disappeared in August and they kept seeing her different places, then they saw her floating in the river so they sent a tugboat out to rescue her. She's still alive.

Me: Sad. She is probably mentally ill and needed care. Like I said, I try not to read too much about crime stories like that. It's not really related to anything around here, and I don't like wallowing in the creepy stuff.

My mom: Yes, you're right. Oh, my heart goes out to that baby.

Me: (smacking self on head) What baby?

My mom: That Anthony baby.

Me: Huh?

My mom: You know, they think the mother did something to the 3 yr old daughter ---

Me: I don't think I want to hear any more about that.

My mom: It's somewhere in the south. North Carolina maybe?

Me: (SIGH.)

I love her dearly, but she's driving me crazy.

Knice Knitters

Watching what's going on in Texas and other hurricane-ravaged parts is very upsetting. Chrissy Gardiner, of Gardiner Yarn Works, has created this lovely sock pattern, called Hurricane Socks:



with the proceeds being donated to the Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund (through Oct. 15th). You can buy the pattern here. It's a very generous gesture for a very good cause!

Another knice knitter is Dr. Mel, who is coordinating donations via his Raffle for the Critters. Make a donation to the Center for Wildlife, a Maine shelter that helps sick and injured wildlife, caring for them until they are able to be released back into the wild -- and in addition to knowing you did a good thing, you'll be able to enter a raffle for some goodies from Mel's stash (and a skein of BBF sock yarn....). Another generous knitter lending a hand.

Kitteh-topia (or Bridget C. is a big, fat liar)

I've been feeling my lack of kittehs deeply lately. It might have something to do with Mindy's little CJ or the Amputeehee's Ganja or whatever the hell her kid named it, and I'm sure it has something to do with stress.

Luckily, Bridget had invited me over for lunch today. She had been threatening me via email bugging me sweetly inviting me for a while now, and we finally found a date that worked for both of us.

Bridget sets out a really nice lunch table: four (4!) kinds of cheese, homebaked bread (Tim rocks), and all sorts of other delicacies, including freshly-baked brownies. Also real ice tea with real lemon. And we laughed and had a great time, yada, yada, yada.

But I really went over for a dose of kitteh therapeh.

There's Tess, who's a little old lady (did you know that "senile felines" is a palindrome?):



and friendly and playful Jetsam:



and then there's the matter of Garden Kitty. Now I think that the poor cat should have a real name instead of an adjective and a noun, but whatever. According to Bridget, this cat is terrified of strangers, hides under furniture when guests come, quakes and will never let new people pet him.

I don't know what kind of airplane glue Bridget's been sniffing, because this kitteh was perfectly sweet and friendly, and as you can see, quite willing to let me pet him and take his picture.

Thus



and



and



Does that look like a scared kitteh to you??

Updates (or today, it's all about ME)

Listen to me

You can hear my mellifluous voice on the WEBS podcast from this past Saturday; it's downloadable from this link or via I-Tunes. Kathy and I have a great time doing these and we talked about some of the things we were looking forward to in the knitting world this fall.

Read me

I'm also pleased to announce that I have become a staff member of Knotions, the new on-line knitting magazine, and one of my first regular jobs will be to do monthly book reviews. If you haven't discovered Knotions yet, the link is here. I'm waiting for my first review book to arrive. . .

Knit with my yarn

Today is a long overdue update to Black Bunny Fibers, featuring some limited edition yarns (meaning I can't rely on being able to get the base yarn again). One is a sportweight 100% Blue Faced Leicester, each skein about 167 yds/50g:



and the other is a cashmerino blend (80% superwash merino/10% cashmere/10% nylon); each skein is 113 yds/50g, so we're talking worsted to DK weight. I'm told 2 skeins will make a decent-sized pair of socks given the gauge, but this would also be nice for fingerless gloves or mittens.




Stop by Black Bunny Fibers around 2 p.m. EST if you're interested. I'm trying diligently to get caught up with my BBF stuff -- I'm working on shipments for the various clubs and general restocking of the store.

Blog Tour: Casual Elegant Knits, by Faina Goberstein and Dawn Leeseman

Today I'm pleased to be hosting a blog tour for the new book Casual Elegant Knits: Classy Designs for Men and Women by Faina Goberstein and Dawn Leeseman (Martingale 2008; MSRP $29.95 but available for 19.77 by following that link).

A little background on the book: Casual Elegant Knits is a collection of 24 patterns for men and women. In their introduction, Dawn and Faina explain:

There is something for everyone in this book; the majority of patterns are written for several sizes and many of the designs are unisex. ... We have always admired fashionable knitwear for both genders, complemented by unique accessories.

The patterns are organized into three "stories" or collections:

• City Life shows pieces knit in red, gray and black, giving the knitter a feel for how to combine some of the projects either with existing items from one's wardrobe (the gray and black pieces are neutral enough to go with lots of different styles, and the red items provide of a shot of color for the neutrals you may already own). The patterns include a tunic with elongated cowl-type neckline; a funnel neck sleeveless shell; a skirt with pleats at the hem; three bags; two berets; two scarves; and a men's/unisex sweater.
• Elegant Afternoon contains pieces knit in sage green, purple, and brown, including a silk tank, a more tailored skirt, a scalloped-edge purse, a shawl, a bag, a driver's cap, and a textured polo. These designs have a more relaxed feel than the City Life designs; think Saturday afternoon rather than on the train to work.
• Gotta Have It is all accessories: a flapper-inspired hat, a beanie with button-up brim, a lacy scarf, a cabled scarf, sheer gauntlets and fingerless gloves.
  

CEK is a paperback book, approximately 96 pages, all in color, and one thing I noticed was that the book has a lot of big photographs of each item, from different angles, which is always helpful in a knitting pattern book. Another interesting aspect about the photography/styling was that instead of showing each piece by itself, with clothing or accessories that a stylist has selected, the photos throughout the book show different combinations of the patterns in the book. For example, in the Elegant Afternoon section, we see the tank top featured by itself; it is being worn with the skirt; it's worn again with the shawl over it; and with the scalloped bag. If you'd like to combine pieces, this gives you a better feel for what they'll look like together.

The size ranges vary but are extensive. For example, the tunic top goes from a finished bust of 34.5 to 49.75 inches; the Tweed Polo from 37 to 52 inches finished bust (it's shown on a male model but I think knit in a smaller size with less ease, it would look cute on a woman, too); the Tailored Skirt goes from finished hip measurement of 35.5 to 55 inches. The accessories tend to be one size fits all.

So with that background in mind, let's chat with the authors.

FG: Carol, thank you very much for having us here today. We appreciate the chance to share with people about our new book. As you know, we have included 24 projects in this book. Each of our three collections includes designs for both men and women.

CS: Since I am always interested in the creative process, tell me what inspired you to design these projects.

FG: Well, the main inspiration for us was coming from knowing what it feels like to live in a big city, work, and still want to catch a movie or meet a friend at a nice restaurant. There is no time to go home and change. Your clothes must be suitable for all the activities. That was our driving force. I strongly believe that we have achieved our goal. The “City Life” collection, for example, consists of stylish, classic-line garments that could be dressed up with the necklace or silk scarf, or dressed down as it is featured on the book cover. For our “Elegant Afternoon” collection we envisioned a restful and pleasant time off work. You can think of going to a museum or a theater, strolling along the river embankment or in the park. The garments for this collection are lighter and more colorful, ready for your mood. The “Gotta Have It” section is exactly that. We offer six fun-to-make accessories that are small gratifying projects for any knitter and are great for gifts.

We did have an incredibly good time designing for this book.

CS: Can we talk about a particular design? Let’s take for example, Watercolor Shawl. I understand that, Dawn, you designed it.

DL: You're right, Carol. This is one of my designs. I designed this shawl before our book project. I find myself drawn to hand-painted yarns, especially rayon and silks. They show the color beautifully and it is fun to work with such yarns. When I came across this particular yarn (Gelato from Fiesta Yarns) I just had to come up with the design from it. After I played a little bit with different stitch patterns, I decided on an open-lace stitch pattern, which complemented the yarn very well. To add to the design, I wanted to create more texture, but stay with the chosen colors, so the Rayon Bouclé from Fiesta was the natural choice since the colors were the same. Alternating these two yarns every two rows gave the shawl a look of a watercolor painting. The finishing treatment of the project is necessary to achieve the beautiful drape that you see on the photo. I am very pleases with the way it turned out. Faina liked it also, so when we started to work on the book and we included the shawl as an accessory for the “Elegant Afternoon” collection. I made a few shawls using different colors and they are all gorgeous.

CS: I was curious about the Lacy Scarf. Who designed it and what was the inspiration behind this design?

FG: The Lacy Scarf is my design. It has a little story behind it. I was born and raised in the large Russian city called Samara. Let’s just say I was wearing a lot of hats and scarves in my life! When I was a university student, I knitted a long black scarf using that same dropped-stitch lacy pattern that you see in the book. I loved that scarf. It was soft and warm, but also very long. Some days I was fine wearing it as all normal people do. Some days the length was driving me crazy. So, what did I do? I found hundreds of ways to wear it. Sometimes it became a hat with the rose on the side and the scarf coming out of it. The more I played with it, the more compliments I got. People who know me are not surprised when they see my scarves being twisted and swirled in all directions.

Many years later, before the work on this book, I recreated that scarf. It became one of the accessories in “Gotta Have It” section. Actually, the Vintage Hat was inspired by that same scarf.

CS: I like the fact that your menswear designs strike a balance between being classic enough for a real guy to want to wear without being plain stockinette stitch (and thus boring to knit). What inspires you to create patterns for men? Do you run things by a husband/son/father/male friend?

FG: Both my husband and my son love classic and clean lines in their garments and accessories. When I designed the scarves and the hats for this book, I was keeping them in mind. In fact, my husband was such a sport all throughout our work on the book that he was our initial model for the photo shoot I had to do for the publisher. We will be talking about men’s wear when we will be visiting other blogs.

CS: Great! I think the unisex idea, making garments that can be worn by men and women, is a fascinating one! Make that cabled scarf in a different color, maybe with a finer gauge yarn, and it'll be lovely for a woman, too!

FG: Carol, what is new with you? I know that your book Knit So Fine is a big success. I actually got to know you when I was interviewing you for that book. Is there another book coming?

CS: Yes, I have a book called Knitting Socks with Handpainted Yarn that will be out in December. Thanks for asking!

FG: Carol, thank you very much for this interview. It was great talking to you again. Tomorrow we will be visiting with Cindy Moore.

Blog tour coming up: Casual Elegant Knits

I am pleased to announce that I will be participating in a blog tour for a new knitting book, called Casual Elegant Knits: Classy Designs for Men and Women by Dawn Leeseman and Faina Goberstein. (You may recall that Faina was kind enough to host us for the Knit So Fine
blog tour.) My day is Friday, Sept. 5th and here is the full schedule so that you can follow along:

Sept 4 ColorJoy
Sept 5 Go Knit In Your Hat
Sept 6 FitterKnitter
Sept 7 Amy Polcyn
Sept 8 Connie Chang
Sept 9 Marie Grace
Sept 10 Susan Lawrence/KnittingasfastasIcan
Sept 11 Marnie McLean
Sept 12 Tikru
Sept 13 Terry Ross
Sept 14 Liz Moreno
Sept 15 Donna Druchunas
Sept 16 Jennifer of Pieknits
Sept 17 Kristi Porter
Seept 18 Joanne Seiff
Sept 19 Simona Merchant-Dest

Now having just waved off all three children for a full day of school via the friendly neighborhood schoolbus, you'll have to excuse me as I try to catch up on the last ten years of my life...

By the way, my comments function has been wonky lately. I'm getting comments that disappear, comments that appear multiple times, and comments that are approved that don't show up. This leads me to believe that I'm also getting comments I don't know about. So if you are having trouble leaving a comment, or if it takes longer than you think it should to appear, it's not you. Or me.

Eulogy

I first met M. when I was in junior high school. We began by studying geometry together and ended up best friends. That was thirty years ago, and although there have been times when we’ve been closer and times when we’ve been farther apart, we’ve pretty much stayed best friends. And from the time I first met M., I’ve known her parents.

One of the things that so closely bonded M. and I from day one was our parallel family dysfunction. My father is an alcoholic; her mother is an alcoholic. My mother served as an oasis of sanity and unconditional love in the chaos that swirled throughout our house; M.’s father was her oasis. Very quickly I came to love her father dearly. For the person that he was, and for the person he was that my father wasn’t.

M.’s dad was quiet, a private person. But there’s a reason the saying “still waters run deep” has become a cliché – it’s so often true. M.’s dad was like that. He might not say much, but he didn’t miss a trick. If you didn’t pay attention, you might miss one of his dry remarks – and that would be a shame because he was clever and funny. After a while I noticed that when M.’s dad spoke, the savvy people in the room would immediately shut up and listen to what he had to say. If you could get him to tell a story, you’d probably end up wiping tears of laughter from your face.

M.’s dad didn’t have a fancy childhood. He worked hard all his life, but in a matter of fact way, asking for no pity and expecting no accolades. He gave his kids a better life than he had and was proud of that. He saw his son and daughter go to college, not just go to college but excel there, and go on to have satisfying careers and comfortable lives. That meant a lot to him. He saw his two children get married to loving spouses, and welcomed three grandchildren and three granddogs into his life. I’m sure they were the light of his life. I’m sure it made it easier for him to leave this life knowing that his children grew up to be such impressive people: hardworking, responsible, family-focused, able to appreciate the small joys of life as well as the large, full of humor and irony – all the traits that I saw in him.

You may recall a few months ago, when I made a pair of Notre Dame-themed bed socks for Molly’s dad. He was a passionate Notre Dame supporter and felt a great attachment to his Irish roots. (I’ll never forget the time, about 15 years ago, when I had fallen asleep on the couch watching TV, and the phone rang, and I picked it up, and it was M’s dad, singing the Notre Dame fight song because Notre Dame had just beaten Michigan – my alma mater – in football.) M’s dad was a Fighting Irishman to the end: roots firmly planted in the soil, hardworking, spiritual, equally appreciative of the joy and the pain in life, stubbornly refusing to die except on his own terms.

I loved him and I mourn him.

Itteh Bitteh Kitteh Sweateh

If you read Mindy's blog, you know that there are very few people in the world who love animals more than she does. And you also know that she has a soft spot for animals who need extra care. So Mindy recently brought home a little kitten with a parasitic infection who likely would not have made it had she not brought it home from the crapful pet store in which it was living.

Mindy knows that whenever she wants to adopt another critter, all she has to do is email me and ask me if she should and I will tell her to go for it, because (and it's the God's truth) any animal that is lucky enough to be adopted by Mindy will live a better life than it could almost anywhere else. So I egged her on to bring home this kitten, this itteh bitteh kitteh, and out of gratitude (or revenge?) she named it "C.J." (My middle name is Jean.)

Now I feel a proprietary interest in this kitteh. The kitteh needs to be kept extra warm while it recovers and so in an attempt to procrastinate from redoing the buttonhole band on my second sweater for KnitScene, I knit this:



An itteh bitteh kitteh sweateh.

Because I piteh the itteh bitteh kitteh. And I don't want the itteh bitteh kitteh to feel shitteh.

Feeling proud

I am a Democrat and I've never been prouder.

This week, I watched as Hillary Clinton was officially entered into the books as the woman who has come closest to the American presidency, the first serious woman candidate of a major political party. If you think we haven't come that far where sexism is concerned, you might remember the tone of the dialogue years ago, when Geraldine Ferraro was selected as the VP pick for Mondale. (Comments like "I don't want someone with PMS to be second in line to the nuclear button" -- and worse -- were commonplace.) But Senator Clinton was taken seriously as a candidate because she had the credentials.* And I am proud of that and I am proud that my party was able to smash that glass ceiling. Or at least bash a very large crack in it.

I also watched last night as Barack Obama was officially named the Democratic nominee for president. I've made no secret of my admiration for Obama, but even if he's not your first choice, please celebrate with me that our country, or at least one major political party, has nominated a person of color for president. Less than two centuries ago, people of color were officially considered less than human (3/5 of a human, to be precise), pieces of property, disposable things rather than human beings with rights and dignity. (By the way, women were also considered chattel, without equal rights to men and they had to wait fifty more years to get the vote and an extra ten years for their civil rights movement. But I digress.) Last night, we saw a barrier break open and I will tell you that it brought tears to my eyes.

There's still a lot of nastyness out there -- racism, sexism, homophobia, and so on -- but today I'm basking in the glow of a dream at least partially realized:

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

P.S. Last chance to donate to the Knitters for Obama raffle (win BBF yarn! a copy of Susanna Lewis' out-of-print lace book! a complete set of Gardiner Yarn Works or French Girl patterns! and more...). Details here.


*I know that there was sexism going around during the primary season, so please do not fill up the comments with a discussion thereof, or a rehashing of old grievances about the primary. Today I'm all about looking forward.

A real live FO

I can finally show you a project I worked on this past spring. As part of Ted's Fiber to Scarf Exchange, I received a mass of Louet Northern Lights top in the mail from a mystery sender. Made of 100% wool and space-dyed, the colorway was called "Marmalade": golden yellow, dusky orange and sage. Part of the fun was not knowing who sent me the fiber and being given purposely vague instructions (unisex scarf).

You have probably heard me say that I'm still a fairly new spinner and when I spin, I need to let the yarn take me where it wants to go (generally it wants to go in the thicker direction) rather than to decide "I'm going to spin a four-ply DK and knit X pattern with it" ahead of time. I was delighted to find that his wool spun very easily. The spinning was fast and enjoyable, and made me feel like a much more experienced spinner than I am, with fairly consistent and smooth singles.

Here's a photo of the singles on the bobbin:



and here is what it looked like after being plied:

and after setting the twist:



and after putting it into a ball:


I ended up with a yarn around chunky weight without major variations between thick and thin. I chose the Irish Hiking Scarf pattern by Hello Yarn, making one modification: I omitted one of the cables, so that my finished scarf had two instead of three. I needed to do that given that my handspun was thicker than the worsted weight yarn called for by the pattern.

I really enjoyed this pattern. It was fun and easy to memorize but gave a very professional looking result:


It was especially satisfying for me to do the whole thing, beginning to end, from spinning to selecting a pattern, to knitting the scarf, and to be pleased with the way the yarn came out and the way the yarn looked knit into the pattern.

I was highly amused to see that the recipient of my scarf was (drumroll, please) Ted himself. I suspect he assigned me to himself in case I blew the deadline. Which I did, but mostly because I couldn't find my blocking wires and didn't want to send the finished scarf unblocked. I hope he will forgive my tardiness. It took me a little while to get over the notion of sending my beginner's stuff to someone who spins as exquisitely as Ted, but since I consider him a friend and an absolutely wonderful person, I gave up obsessing over it.

You can see some of the other finished scarves (including the gorgeous one I got from Katherine) at Ted's summary page here. (He has a few more to add, I think, in addition to mine, but I know he's been on vacation and had some computer mishaps so check back in a little while to see the rest.)

All in all, I heartily enjoyed participating in this project and would gladly do so again. I felt a great sense of satisfaction at having done a project from beginning to end and also felt that it was a good way to appreciate how much my spinning has improved over time. A huge thank-you to Ted for doing all the thankless work of collecting roving, mailing it out and keeping us all on track.

I thought I saw

my dear friend Kathy Merrick today in downtown Cape May


but I was mistaken.

(Hey, Kath, are we going to see any more of your beauteous cro-shay designs in Interweave Crochet this fall, I hope?)

Images from the seventh circle of hell

For me, going to the boardwalk at Wildwood is the seventh circle of hell. Even though I usually enjoy doing kid stuff, the combination of heat; icky overpriced food; annoying overpriced carnival games; and vertigo-inducing rides is enough to make me crazy. So I entertained myself by taking the campiest photos I could. Fortunately there was lots to pick from.

Lemonade from lemons, indeed.

Look who learned to knit!

Nope, not Charcoal.

I couldn't be prouder.



P.S. Extra points for anyone who can guess what yarn it is. . .

Cinderella gets busted

Please don't tell my six year-old daughter, but yesterday, Cinderella, Tinkerbell and a few other of her no-good gangsta beeyatches got arrested. What's the world coming to?

In other news, I have two finished objects: one is the KnitScene sweater, which I can't show you, but the other is the baby sweater for a baby shower that I didn't attend:





It's a Louisa Harding pattern from her book Natural Knits for Babies and Moms: Beautiful Designs Using Organic Yarns (which is rapidly becoming my go-to baby pattern book for shower gifts because the patterns are quick, easy and cute in a way that would appeal to a lot of different tastes), knit in Plymouth Encore (you can't beat it for machine-washable kid knits).

We're leaving for our second week at the shore this weekend (we're the champions of the non-consecutive weeks), so you'll be getting some beachy updates during the coming week. But when I get back, it's going to be fall, fall, fall. Book reviews, yarn previews, all that fun stuff. Plus the dye pots are going to roar back to life with some new yarns and new fibers.

Now I've got to go meet the exterminator to deal with some kind of bee or yellowjacket infestation. In our kitchen, no less. It's been freakin' Wild Kingdom here as I've spent more up-close-and-personal time with the insect world than I care to ever again.

It's no wonder I'm in a mood...

In a mood

This is the time of year when everyone in my house gets in A Mood.

I think it's partly because the novelty of the summer has worn off, and partly because the organized activities are coming to a close. But there's also something about this time of the summer. The summer feels used up. The flowers in the windowboxes are straggly and leggy. The grass isn't growing as fast. You can just start to see how the days are getting shorter. There isn't as much traffic -- lots of people are away -- and usual routines are put on hold (i.e., no piano lessons 'til September). It's a waiting game. We know the summer's rapidly drawing to a close and in a way, we're ready for it to end.

I'm sure my personal mood has also been affected by the family stressors I wrote about last month. I've definitely sensed a drawing inward in myself, a desire to be alone (hah! at a time when the kids are around more than ever!), and a desire to lose myself in reading and knitting. I've got emails to answer (so many), calls to return, projects to finish. One of the cruel ironies of the design world is that the big push for finishing spring projects happens at the time of year when the kids are lounging around the house, sick of their usual activities but not yet in school.

So this week I'll try to muster up some initiative to finish this:


A baby sweater for a shower I didn't get to (it's actually a very pretty shade of blue, but you can't tell because I took the photo in less than stellar lighting).

And I will show Charcoal his new bowl, which was on the clearance rack at Target:


Doesn't every bunny need a bowl with carrots around the outside? I may just fill it up with Ben & Jerry's Brownie Batter and try it out before I give it to him, though. You know, just to make sure the bowl works properly . . .

Catch-up Book Report

I spent the last week reviewing page proofs for Knitting Socks with Handpainted Yarn and it's very exciting to see it so close to final form! However, as you can see, my blogging has dropped off a little, so today I'm starting to play catch-up. I noticed that I hadn't done a book report since March or April or something, so here goes. (Remember, I'm a freakishly fast reader, and this report covers over three months. . .)

When You Are Engulfed in Flames, by David Sedaris. I love David Sedaris, and there were many moments in his latest book where I laughed uproariously. I took this on vacation with me, and Tom kept asking me what was so funny, and I ended up reading passages of the book out loud to him, causing us both to crack up. My only quibble is that the last quarter of the book is written as a kind of impressionistic journal chronicling Sedaris' battle to quit smoking. While I appreciate how difficult that is, this portion of the book didn't seem to fit with the rest of it, and, quite honestly, wasn't as funny. But I still wouldn't miss a David Sedaris book for anything in the world.

You know how I love my murder mysteries, so there were quite a few of those, including Not in the Flesh, Ruth Rendell's latest Inspector Wexford mystery. This wasn't her best novel, or even her best Wexford novel, but even an okay Ruth Rendell is better than most of the crap out there.

I discovered Tana French when I found In the Woods in the library's new books section. Set in Dublin, this is a story within a story, told by a police detective investigating the death of a young girl. However, the detective has his own personal agenda, as he, along with two friends, were kidnapped at the age of twelve in the same woods in which the young girl's body was found. He's got to fight his own demons as well as try to solve the present-day mystery. This one doesn't have an ending that neatly ties everything up in a bow, but I found that to suit the book's theme of the frailty and mutability of memory. I followed it up with French's follow-up, The Likeness, which features the In The Woods detective's former partner, as she gets involved in a murder case. It seems the murder victim looks exactly like her, and so the police pretend the victim lived, and send the lookalike detective "undercover" to impersonate the victim to try to figure out who the murderer might be. Once you get past how ridiculously improbable this kind of identity-switching is, the book is filled with tension and emotional intrigue, and I enjoyed it very much.

Also on the new books shelf (we've got a good library! and I swear they read the NY Times Magazine Book Review section when they add new books) were I Shall Not Want, by Julia Spencer-Fleming, and Where Memories Lie, by Deborah Crombie, the latest mysteries in two series that I have been reading. The Spencer-Fleming was much more vivid and suspenseful than the Crombie, which disappointed me a bit. Also in the new mystery section was Black Seconds, another dark, spare Scandinavian mystery by Karin Fossum. I liked this one and it was a fairly quick, suspenseful read.

In the political realm, I read The Real McCain: Why Conservatives Don't Trust Him and Why Independents Shouldn't and I urge anyone who thinks they might vote for McCain, or who still believes that he is a "maverick" who thinks for himself and is full of refreshing candor (i.e., "straight talk") to read this book -- it's short -- or if you prefer, to take a good hard look at McCain's political positions over the years. McCain has flipflopped a staggering number of times on a spectrum of issues that are important to me: military intervention in other countries, abortion, ethics legislation, gay rights, campaign reform, and on and on. The Real McCain is written by someone who once donated to McCain's 2000 presidential campaign but became disillusioned by seeing his political opportunism. If you feel this book is too partisan, then do some objective research yourself. You just might be surprised at what you find.

I balked for a long time before trying the Outlander novels by Diana Gabaldon. After numerous people recommended them, I tried Outlander and the first sequel (which are huge!) and enjoyed them way more than I ever thought I would. I don't read much science fiction, and I mistakenly thought this series was more science fiction-y than it is (it really isn't at all, except for the time travel thing); instead, it is a weird blend of time travel and historical fiction, with a bit of romance novel thrown in. Since I'd been reading a lot of historical fiction, I gave these books a go and found them oddly compelling.

Let's see, what else did I read?

I'm about to finish My Cousin Rachel by Daphne DuMaurier, which is quite an excellent Gothic-style mystery. DuMaurier is best known for Rebecca which is a great book if you've never read it. My Cousin Rachel is about a man whose beloved uncle meets and marries a distant cousin while abroad. The uncle dies abruptly in Italy, and his widow comes to visit the nephew. The story is told from the point of view of the nephew, who is attracted to the widow in a kind of Mrs. Robinson way, yet he grapples with his ongoing suspicions about her motives -- is she a fortune-hunter? did she cheat on his uncle? did she murder his uncle? Very well done and if it hasn't been made into a movie already, it should be.

So there you have it: my summer reading list. And with another couple of weeks left in August, I'm sure I'll add a few more to it. If you've read anything good lately, leave a comment -- I'm always looking for new authors to try.

No-Bull Book Review: Knitting New Mittens and Gloves by Robin Melanson

Think of the challenge facing poor Robin Melanson. People have been knitting mittens and gloves for hundreds (thousands?) of years. In the past year, at least three books with "mittens" in the title have been released. And the design of handgear is largely constrained by the odd shape of the human hand: narrow at the wrist, abruptly widening for the palm, thumb sticking out on one side, fingers of different lengths. How do you reinvent the mitten or glove when faced with such challenges?

Luckily, Robin was up to the task, as you'll see in today's No Bull Book Review of Knitting New Mittens and Gloves: Warm and Adorn Your Hands in 28 Innovative Ways (Stewart Tabori & Chang 2008).

Knitting New Mittens & Gloves is part of a series of books seeking to put a different spin on a traditional genre of knitwear. (Knitting New Scarves: 27 Distinctly Modern Designs, released last year, was the first.) The books are on the smaller side and paperback (most STC books are quite a bit bigger and hardcover), a good size and weight for slipping into a knitting bag without being so small that they restrict content. MSRP is $21.95 but you can score it for just under fifteen bucks at the time of this writing by clicking on the link above.



Melanson grew up in Canada and credits harsh North Atlantic winters for her love of gloves and mittens -- a necessity when you live on the coast. She has filled the book with 27 or so patterns for mittens, gloves, fingerless gloves and armwarmers -- basically every possible permutation that will fit on a human hand or arm. For the statisticians among you, I counted 2 pair of armwarmers (meaning tubes that fit on the arm without extending onto the wrist and hand); 1 handwarmer (something more than a tube but less than a mitten); 6 gloves; 9 mittens (one of them is a "flip-top" style, to make it easy to do things like use keys without taking the whole thing off); and 10 fingerless styles, plus two additional fingerless versions that are given as variations on a regular mitten or glove design. Sorry, crocheters: all the designs are knitted.

Gauges are all over the map: the thickest yarn I saw knit at just under 3 sts per inch, and there are a few patterns using fingering weight in the 7 to 8 sts per inch range; you'll find several patterns knitting at 5 sts per inch and several more at 5.5 per inch, but there's something for just about any yarn in your stash. Melanson doesn't stick to traditional pure wool, either; you'll find lots of wools, of course, but also cotton, a silk/viscose blend, silk/seacell, alpaca blends, mohair blends, and so on. Some of the yarns are crunchy or tweedy in texture, while others are variegated, fuzzy, or thick-n-thin. Melanson does a good job of matching the various types of yarn to the patterns, keeping in mind the texture, fuzziness, elasticity, and so on. Considering that mittens and gloves don't take much in the way of yardage, there are plenty of patterns here to help blow through some of those orphaned skeins in your stash.

So what are the patterns like?

Well, just as Melanson includes lots of fibers and gauges, she also includes lots of different styles. You'll find traditional styles, like this classic pair of gloves, worked in Jamieson's Shetland Spindrift, with a fair isle stranded design at the wrist. Melanson was inspired by Celtic motifs in creating the band, which she describes as resembling a golden bracelet on the wrist (she has a degree in Celtic studies, and its influence can be seen in many of her designs).


These Norwegian mittens are also inspired by traditional stranded work and have a traditional shape, but the dash of electric lime gives them a modern spin (and if you don't like modern spins, or electric lime, easy enough to pick a different color for that design element).


If you are looking for less traditional, you'll have choices, too:



These mittens, called "Sheltie," at first glance seem odd: why wear mittens that are more holes than fabric? But take a closer look, and you'll find a soft, mohair layer underneath (it's white, and maybe a different-colored background in the photo would help make this more clear). The two layers help to insulate the hands more, in addition to creating a funky mesh look. Not my usual style, but clever and looks great. I'm having fun imagining all sorts of color combinations, too (a really bright mohair underlayer with a neutral overlay? a solid color underlayer with a multi overlay?).

Again, this doesn't happen to be my personal style, but these gloves, called "Blackthorn" after the tree that produces sloe berries (sloe gin, anyone?), invoke a Robin Hood kind of feel, with the lacing on the back of the hand.

These armwarmers combine a Latvian-type braid as edging with motifs inspired by medieval tapestries.


And there are plenty more good-looking patterns, like these gloves with a ruffled cuff

these striking cream gloves, with a long cuff to show off the German twisted stitch pattern:

beaded fingerless gloves, using Mountain Colors Bearfoot yarn (anybody wanna make 'em in some Black Bunny?)

and these mittens featuring cables and bobbles:


I especially like that most of the patterns involve something more than just a plain pair of mittens -- e.g., stranded design, beading, cables, traveling stitches -- to make them more challenging and more interesting.

As far as the production quality, this is a paperback book, with around 144 pages. It is color throughout, including all color photos (lovely work by Tyllie Barbosa) and color charts for the stranded knitting. Each mitten or glove is shown in a full-page photo to give an overview of its appearance, and most patterns also include a close-up of a specific design element. (And several of the patterns are shown in different variations, i.e., a long cuff and a short cuff, using different colors and yarns, to give you a feel for how you might want to individualize them.) Personally, I found the pattern type to be a wee bit small for me; however, I am not too proud to admit that this may be a function of forty-plus-year-old eyes. There are no schematics since they are mittens/gloves/armwarmers. Sizing varies; more than half are written for one size, an average woman's hand (around 7.5 to 8 inches circumference). Two are written for a wide range of sizes from child through men's. The rest are given in various permutations of two or three sizes (e.g. small child, medium child, woman; or women's small/women's medium-large).

It's also worth noting that no pages are wasted on how-to-knit instructions. The back, however, features some material that might be helpful to newer knitters who know the basics but will appreciate tips on how to select yarns; types of needles; beading basics; blocking (something we don't always think of for accessories like mittens); some alternate cast-ons; embroidery basics; how to make I-cord; and so on. I especially liked the index to projects by yarn weight. If you've got some, say, DK-weight yarn in your stash, one glance and you can figure out which patterns are written for that gauge.

So I give a mitten-covered thumbs-up to Knitting New Mittens and Gloves. It's a nice blend of the classic and the funky, it features interesting and sometimes challenging designs, and it will help you burn through your stash while having a lot of fun. (And if you like to knit holiday gifts, I'm thinking you could check a lot of different folks off your list with the variety and quantity of patterns in this book.) When you consider you are getting over 25 patterns, plus variations, for less than fifteen bucks, I'd say it's a bargain.

And speaking of bargains, it has come to my attention that Stewart, Tabori and Chang, the publisher of Knitting New Mittens and Gloves, is offering a free mitten pattern from the book here. The Alternating Current Mittens are knit in a bulky yarn, in both mitten and fingerless form, and STC is suggesting that if you download the pattern, you might consider making an extra pair for a person in need. (In fact, if you are so inclined, you can mail them to me and I will add them to our knitting for homeless vets charity drive that is still on-going.)