Come Along, Pond.

I’m knitting socks.

Okay, okay, try not to faint in shock. I know this is unusual and a little bit baffling. Polo, knit socks? Never! Except for those dozens of times, and all those socks I have planned for the future and all the skeins of pretty sock yarn and all the pairs suffering from Second Sock Syndrome…

These ones are made from glorious Manos del Uruguay. If you haven’t knitted with it before you need to head to your local yarn store and get some as soon as possible. It’s luscious.

The pattern is Business Casual and I’ve kind of stopped looking at it because it’s very intuitive, though considering my recent track record of messing up things when I glance away from the pattern for three stitches, maybe I should reconsider this. (You will be hearing more about that later, since I did the dumb thing and gifted the resultant mittens without getting photos.)

I’ve named them Come Along, Pond. Why? Well. Because they’re ginger, of course.

Come along, Pond!

That’s what they look like inside but in natural light they’re far more red than it seems there. It’s orangey-red rather than just plain orange. This is a closer match to the colour:

Can’t you feel how soft and smooth and fluffy that yarn is through the screen? You know you can. And isn’t it pleasing that the two-stitch cable pattern splits from the 2×2 rib of the cuff? Yes, yes it is. These socks are a dream to knit and my saviour in between fun but difficult patterns.

As an aside: I’m knitting them on my only pair of cubics and they’re great. No better than ordinary DPNs for me, though some people swear by them. The best thing is how they line up so neatly when you lay them down on the table. No more abrupt squats to pick up escaping needles!

Though squats do give you a fabulous derriere.

Amy Pond is one of my favourite characters in Doctor Who because she gets to live out such a huge part of her life and, more than most companions, she has the control. She says when she’ll go with the Doctor and when she won’t. She manages a life with her husband and the rest of their family and yet still gets to go off on adventures with her alien friend. She’s also totally hilarious and a bit mental, so I dig her.

These socks are in her honour as I come to the end of Eleven’s time in the show in my binge-rewatch.

 

My favourite colourway: Archangel

I might have mentioned it a few times, but I really love Malabrigo’s Archangel colourway. It’s beautiful.

Archangel Malabrigo

Doesn’t yarn make everything better?

Procrasti-knitting

When you’re looking at a pile of WIPs that need finishing, what do you do? When you realise that it’s also November and you have to figure out how to squeeze in at least 50,000 words for NaNoWriMo, what’s your plan of action? Oh, let’s not forget a dedication to writing comic reviews and a book review assignment due at the end of the month for your other site.

If you’re sensible you’ll write a plan of action and get going on all your commitments. If you’re me, you’ll find a project you haven’t touched for months and start procrasti-knitting.

On the plus side these socks are necessary, though not urgent. They are a gift for a dear friend who once had me knit her a lovely green dress out of Manos del Uruguay while I kipped in her bedroom, cut adrift from my partner while I waited for my Permanent Residency in Canada. Lucy is one of the best people I know in the world; she’s the kind of friend who hears you’re stuck in the wrong country again and the first thing she does is offer her spare room, hundreds of miles away. She’s a wonderful musician and artist, and we had an intense eighteen months leaning on one another before my PR came through and she moved to Glasgow with her partner.

When I was on my way back from Manitoulin, where I bought this yarn, Lucy texted me to ask ‘Aunty Eag’ (me) whether I can please knit her lots of baby things. I burst into tears and announced the socks I was knitting had to be for her. If I finish them today then I can get them sent to her before Christmas, thereby breaking my trend of never getting any gift to anyone on time ever.

If you’re wondering about the Eag thing, her neighbours were some young kids with broad Geordie accents and one day they were leaning over their wall telling us they were learning to spell. They asked what my name was, then said “I can spell Laura! E-A-G!”.

Yes, my ‘real’ name is Laura. Forget you knew that, please.

The yarn is crunchy and amazing, and it is dyed with natural colours. I’m looking forward to washing it because it’s superwash and turns much softer after, or so the dyer told me.

On the plus side I’ve already finished two out of the Kickstarter rewards and written 10,000 words for NaNoWriMo, so this is just a case of November being my most productive month. If I indulge in a little procrasti-knitting between important things, well, at least Lucy will be getting her Christmas gift on time.

For the Love of a Book

I’ve probably told you this before but when I was a child, I hugged books in bed. I had my teddy, sure, but the books had an important place in my life and that has never changed.

My Dad can take the blame. When I moved in with him it was a struggle to navigate the narrow hallway between all the bookcases and piles of books that didn’t fit on the many bookcases. When I was a child and I lived with my Mum, Dad used to take me out to the fancy bookshop in Dorchester (well, it seemed fancy then) or to the second-hand and antique bookshop in Weymouth to treat me to whatever I felt like reading.

When I was ten he took me to buy a new book that everyone was talking about called ‘Harry Potter’.

“Harry Potter English Australian Series” by B.Davis2003 – Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

I was not convinced. Standing at the bus stop by the brewery with my head between the pages, I emerged when the bus arrived and complained that the title was very misleading; the first few pages had been about some baby called Dudley. Yet Dad insisted I would like it so I kept going, leading to a cascading series of events that resulted in a completely ruined 11th birthday where I did not, through some administrative error, receive an owl inviting me to Hogwarts.

Anyway.

I grew up with Harry Potter. I was the same age as him until the last few books thanks to the occasional delay. When the final book came out I quit my crappy cleaning job because they wouldn’t give me the morning off, read the whole book in one sitting, and then… never picked it up again.

About three weeks ago the craving came. Yes, it took years, but since that day I’ve read nearly all of the series. I’m near the end of Half-Blood Prince and enjoying myself more than I remember. I love those characters and the world they inhabit. I love J. K. Rowling for writing a book that helped me shape my understanding of the world and the people around me.

Maybe I should knit myself a Ravenclaw scarf.

This is mostly a post to say that books are a huge part of my life and they will be a bigger part of this blog from now on. I’ve been reviewing Advanced Review Copies of books for a while and this blog will be my platform. I read a lot, but at most I’ll post a review once a week.

Consider that forewarning while I go find myself the yarn to cast on a Ravenclaw thingy.

Five Ways to Do The Thing – General Knitting Edition

Okay. You’ve got yourself some needles and some yarn. You’re all set, right? You can get yourself knitting in no time at all, except now you’ve cast on you don’t know where to go from there. Or worse, you’re most of the way through your project and you have no idea what to do next. Oh, man. This is some hard stuff.

Thankfully you don’t have to start screaming into the void because there is good news: you are on the interwebs! I know this to be true, because the chances are you are reading this from a screen rather than directly from my mind. If you’re doing the latter, sorry about all the Robert Downey Jr. stuff floating around in my grey matter. He’s kind of a big deal.

Anyway.

Here are some places I go when I’m stuck on the whole knitting thing with a brief explanation of why they’re so useful. Please let me know about your favourites if I’ve missed any – we could all stand to learn some more hints and tricks, right?

How To Do The Thing

1. YouTube. Okay, okay. Predictable start. But seriously guys, this is like having a knitting teacher who doesn’t get frustrated when you ask her to show you the purl stitch for the twentieth time in a row. It’s like magic. Whenever I don’t know a stitch, this is my first stop. And there are so many awesome YouTubers helping us out!
2. Knitty. Yes, they do some awesome patterns but that’s not all. If you need to crack out the kitchener and can’t remember how to start, Knitty has a great post on that (and many other awesome things).
3. Ravelry. This should probably be first in line. If you can’t find an answer for something online, head over to the Ravelry forums and find a thousand useful answers for your troubles and woes. Plus, awesome people and awesome fun!
4. TECHknitting. So you’ve got the basics down and now you want to figure out the fun fiddly bits. Perfect! Hop on over to TECHknitting where your mind will be blown and you’ll feel like a genius in no time. It hasn’t been updated in a long while but the archives are fabulous.
5. Knitting Fool. I would argue that beyond Youtube this has been my most useful site. The stitch galleries mean I can get a taste for all the things that are possible, and was what originally prompted me to be daring and try knitting something without a pattern. Excellent site.

Yay! Five ways to do the thing, knitting edition, should help you on your way to a more comprehensive knitting ability. It helped me, anyway, and what’s the internet for if not sharing our knowledge?

Oh… it’s for porn? I’ve got it so wrong all this time.

Why Frida Kahlo Inspires Me

When I truly discovered Frida Kahlo I was at a dark point in my life. I was sick and it was the latest in a long line of chronic, painful illnesses and I was tired of struggling through it. Though I was fortunate compared to many in that I could still (mostly) function with the things wrong with me most of the time, I longed for a life where I didn’t know any pain. I grew jealous of those who never got seriously ill and I began to get bitter.

I’m sure anyone who has been through chronic illnesses will understand that feeling. It’s not one I’m proud of but when your body is betraying you it’s difficult to keep on smiling.

Though I already knew of Frida Kahlo in an abstract sense I didn’t know much about her. She was that Mexican woman with the awesome sense of style and a huge amount of pride. She was that painter with the eyebrow and the facial hair. She was that woman who painted her pain onto the canvas and transformed it into beauty.

Okay, no, I didn’t know that last part until I was sick. I started reading about her and exploring her art and I discovered just how inspirational she was. She had gone through so much pain and suffering in her life and yet she consistently turned it into timeless art that still inspires people today. She did not shy away from herself or her pain; she painted both with equal honesty.

“Block Kahlo Rivera 1932” by Carl Van Vechten. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons – https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Block_Kahlo_Rivera_1932.jpg#/media/File:Block_Kahlo_Rivera_1932.jpg

I realised something from understanding Frida Kahlo’s art: pain could be beauty. It did not have to be hollow and meaningless. Though I had no choice whether or not to go through the pain, I had the choice of what to make of it.

Did I want to sit around and mope like so many before me, or did I want to channel all of what I had seen into something better? Frida Kahlo made the answer clear.

Lately I’ve been going through some relatively mild medical nonsense. It’s nothing huge but it’s persistent and therefore tiring, so I’m revisiting the people who have inspired me through my life to keep going when it’s easier to lie down and stop. Frida Kahlo is a huge part of that and when I picked up a few random skeins of mohair/silk yarn a week ago I thought it appropriate that I’d somehow managed to pick a colourway called ‘Kahlo’ without noticing.

Debbie Bliss Angel Prints in ‘Kahlo’. It’s actually a lot softer-coloured than this photo suggests.

This is not a yarn I would normally pick up. I don’t like pink that much and the mohair/silk yarns scare me. Yet I had a migraine and wasn’t thinking straight (or seeing clearly, literally since half my vision was flickering at the time) when I picked it up, and it worked out just right.

Gawd, I love this yarn.

For the last week I’ve been knitting this yarn into a random tube that may or may not end up being a little stop. I don’t like the way the colours fall in the pictures of other people’s projects, so I’m doing short rows to mix it up a bit. It has the added bonus of looking sort of like one of Frida Kahlo’s skirts, though far more muted. I have many things I should be knitting right now but instead I pick up this yarn and I remember how much she inspires me to be a more positive person.

Do you have anyone you look up to in that way?

King of the Nupps

It took me quite a while to realise that the ‘nupps’ people wrote about on Ravelry were the same as the ‘noops’ one of the my friends talked about occasionally, and even longer to figure out why they are so intimidating. Upon figuring out what they were I made a few attempts to do them but always gave up in frustration. That is… until I started my Damask shawl.

First up, maybe I should talk about what a nupp is. It’s a stitch that comes from Estonian knitting, a gorgeous lace-heavy style. According to Google Translate the word ‘nupp’ means button which is totally adorable and I love it. Basically a nupp is a bunch of knits and yarn overs worked into the same stitch, then on the following row you knit through all the loops in one go, leaving a little bobble-type thing on your object. There are other ways to get similar effects but nupps are smart and neat when they’re done right.

If you’re curious how to do a nupp, check out this video. I think I watched this many years ago and this isn’t how I do my nupps but I’ll come to that.

Okay, so on the video the woman uses the crochet hook for the nupp and the reason I think that I did watch this video years ago is that when I came to the first nupp on the Damask I had the thought that I should use a crochet hook. However instead of doing the whole thing on it like in the video, I did the nupp the normal way on the first row and then on the way back along the wrong side I used my crochet hook to grab the yarn and tug it through all the stitches before purling the resulting stitch. It worked out beautifully.

After the first row.

This was my first attempt and for the first row of the Damask they all look like this. I’m not sure what I did, but I think I may not have purled them and instead carried on as if they were knit, which dragged the yarn across the front. They all look like wrong-side nupps and I was not at all pleased with them but nor was I willing to break my momentum and go back to fix them.

Once I figured out how to do them they turned out much neater and worked well for the rest of the shawl.

Much bubblier, don’t you think?

By the end of the shawl nupps became quite boring which is a sign I’ve come far since the beginning of it. As ever I’ve found that pushing myself past a thing that intimidates me makes me much stronger in the long run.

At one point I dropped the nupp mid-crochet which almost made me burst into spontaneous flames. Thankfully I managed somehow to wrangle the three-inch strand of yarn back into a nupp and it’s only slightly messier than the ones around it.

I’ve still got a way to go before my nupps are as perfect as I want them but I’m still pleased with the progress.

Have you ever tried a nupp? How did it go?

Review of Romy by Nirina Stone

ROMY: Book 1 of the 2250 Saga by Nirina Stone

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book was provided for free via Netgalley in return for an honest review.

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Romy is a dystopian drama along the lines of Hunger Games, though the stories are very different. Romy follows the main character, Romy Fifty-Two, along her life as a prisoner until she is auctioned off to the highest bidder. The last thing she wants is to end up sold to a Soren terrorist and used as a baby-making machine, yet what happens to her is far more complicated than that.

Nirina Stone crafts a believable world where the richest survived by climbing into their literal towers, while the other Citizens climbed beneath the ground. Then there are the Sorens, the mysterious terrorists revered and despised by the others who bomb clothing factories and kidnap indentured Citizens.

The titular character is a pleasure to follow, at least for the first half of the book. She is smart and adaptable despite her heart condition and she always fights when she is cornered rather than backing down. She is inquisitive and sharp with an interest in robotics and though she can be arrogant, she is open to change.

If we’re going down the comparisons to Katniss Everdeen road, Romy is a slightly less fleshed out version of her. She does take a more active role in her liberation than Katniss did; she does not need to come out kicking and screaming. Yet there’s a darkness to Romy that you don’t see as much elsewhere.

Though I enjoyed this relatively short book and swallowed it down in just a couple of days, I was less than enamoured with the last quarter of the story. It seemed to become unfocused and though the progress was rapid, it did not make me feel invested in any of the characters; not even Romy towards the end. It touched on some interesting philosophical and ethical concepts and then abandoned them at the last minute, leaving me unfulfilled.

If you are looking for a quick and pleasant read with a believable world this summer you should check out Romy by Nirina Stone, but don’t expect to be swept off your feet. As it’s the first in a series I remain hopeful the story will flesh out further as time goes on.

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Book Review: The Book of Speculation by Erika Swyler

The Book of Speculation by Erika Swyler

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book was an advanced copy from Net Galley.

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It is a certain kind of irony to enjoy books about books. The cover of The Book of Speculation promises a plot involving some form of antique book, or at least some form of book-based adoration. Based on the cover alone you might think this is a story about the love of books along the lines of A Shadow of the Wind.

Don’t judge this book by its cover: it is so much more.

The Book of Speculation opens with the arrival of a priceless antique book. Simon, a librarian whose house is at risk of crumbling into the sea, discovers the book was sent to him from one Mr. Churchwarry after buying it in an auction. It seems there is some link to Simon’s family in the archaic book and Simon, ever the librarian, begins to research it.

If this had been a tale of a family line told through this unusual book, that would have been interesting enough. But Erika Swyler delivers a gorgeous and melancholy story of travelling carnivals, mermaid women who hold their breath for minutes at a time, and mute Wild Boys. Simon dives into this world and discovers a troubling coincidence: a long line women in his family die on July 24th, and they all drown. So when his errant sister announces that she’s coming home for the first time in years at the beginning of the fateful month, Simon believes he must protect her from the same disturbing end.

The quietness of this novel is beautiful. It starts slowly without being dull and rises like a flash flood to a stunning conclusion. If I had the time I would have swallowed this book whole in one sitting, dragged forward by the magnetic cast of characters and the promise of intertwining lines across generations.

I’ll admit I’m biased; The Book of Speculation was written for me. Not literally, although when I realised it was the tale of coast-dwelling book lovers I did wonder. Though I live inland now I grew up metres from the edge of a cliff surrounded by a room full of books with sea spray hitting my bedroom window. I will hold a fascination with it for the rest of my life and that love and occasional horror distilled into a pure form in this book.

Giving a book a five star review often makes me uncomfortable but I have no doubt that The Book of Speculation deserves it. Not only are the characters real and vivid, the story twists and turns in a quiet and effortless way and the ending does not disappoint. It is all I can do not to start it again straight away. Give the book a try when it comes out on June 23rd; it is worth the time.

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Review: Paladin by Sally Slater

Paladin by Sally Slater

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

There’s something different about Sam of Haywood, trainee to the Paladins. Though as brash and skilled as the rest of the recruits, Sam has a secret. She is the daughter of a Duke determined to make her way as a warrior in a world full of demons.

The book opens on a tragedy which scars Sam for the rest of the story and spurs her to action. She is to be trained by Paladin Lyons alongside another recruit, a half-demon named Braedon. Sent out of the camp on a new mission, they bond and grow stronger on their journey.

Sam is one of those rare characters who knows her own mind and won’t back down, not ever, not even when it’s in her best interests. There is always the risk with gender-bending stories like this that the woman will give in after the battle is over and go back to being a wife or a girlfriend or something other than herself, defined by her relationship with men. Yet although many of the characters of this story are men, Sam is not defined by them. Even romance does not make her lose her independence.

There’s a thousand things I enjoyed about this book. It was an easy read and addictive too. I could not wait to find out what happened next and though there was one particular plot point that was obvious long before it twisted, there were satisfying and unexpected ones along the way.

The best thing about this is book is the way the relationships are handled. Without giving too much away, Sam gets entangled with someone who could do her harm and yet it reads more like a Black-Widow-and-Hulk than your generic Twilight romance. Yes, there’s a risk involved, but Sam can handle herself and makes sure everyone knows it. A lot.

Sam of Haywood deserves a place in the zeitgeist as one of the best characters around. The only reason I haven’t rated this as five stars is because the ending drags its feet too much but it didn’t take away from the quality of the story as a whole.

If you’re a fan of well-written and fun fantasy books with believable and interesting characters, give Paladin a try.

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