Magazine Review: Oct/Nov 2011 Issue of Knitting Today!

The October/November 2011 issue of Knitting Today! came out this past week and I love it! There are so many great patterns in here. Everything from quick holiday-themed items like the Haunted House & Candy Corn Pillows by Monica Rodriquez Fuertes to beautiful, wearable basics like the Grace Sweater by Deborah Newton. The very first things that I'm casting-on for, though, are the Pup & Puss Bags by Noreen Crone-Findley. They're super cute and I know that Robert and Venetia will love them!

 Since this is their holiday issue, Knitting Today! has a Countdown to the Holidays section where they give you porject ideas for each of the 3 months leading up to the Holidays. Most of these projects are very do-able. (Like 3 months for the Gift Box Blanket by Bobbi Anderson and 2 months for the All Wrapped-Up Scarf by Sarah Wilson.) However, I don't know a single knitter who would knit a family's worth  of mix-and-match hats and scarves in the month before the holidays (All in the Family Set by Jamie Strong). The patterns in the set are very pretty and knit with chunky yarn, but I still think that I would have to start that sort of gift project in July if I actually wanted to have it finished by December.

There really are just so many great projects in this magazine that I want to make. Almost all of them recommend some sort of Red Heart yarn so I'll be making lots of substitutions, but the patterns are still very nice for holiday knitting. Some of the other ones that I'll be casting-on in short order are:

• Vroom Vroom Set by Jodi Lewanda
• Baby Lamb Booties by Noreen Crone-Findlay
• Sugar Plumb Stockings by Pam Kee
• Advent Calendar by Brenda K. Anderson
• Twinkle Table Runner by Katherine Vaughan
• Sweet Treats by Monica Rodriquez Fuertes
• And someday I am going to buy all the yarn for the Alphabet Monkey Blanket by Melanie Fraser that's being published as a series in the magazine this year. It's just too cute not to make (even if it is intarsia) and I know just the little person that I'm going to send it to when it's done!

Every knitting magazine has product reviews/recommendations. Knitting Today! does too, but they also have Charity Knitting recommendations each issue which I think is wonderful. Sometimes it's so easy to focus on all the new toys that we want that it's hard to think about how we can be using these tools and skills to help others. Knitting Today! gives you an overview of the organization, their goals and how you can help. This issue the focus is on making scarves for the athletes of the Special Olympics. "Handmade scarves donated as a result of the 2012 Special Olympics USA Scarf Project will be a symbol of unity, support, compassion and empowerment, as the Special Olympics athletes, coaches, families, volunteers and supporters wear them with pride in knowing they have become part of the Special Olympics family." (Taken from the 2012 Special Olympics Scarf Project page.) As someone who has had family members participate in the SO for a number of years, I can assure you that this is a wonderful organization that helps people of all ages feel good about what they can do while making friends and having lots of fun. I encourage everyone to make at least one scarf for this charity because the recipients truly do enjoy these events and a handmade reminder is something that they can use for years to come.

^_^

Yarn Review: Dream In Color Starry

I was part of the Dream In Color Club for 6 months this past year and Starry in the Honeymoon color-way was our yarn for February. I loved it as soon as I saw it, but wasn't sure if I really wanted to knit the pattern that came with it or if I should make something else. So I decided to let it marinate in the stash for awhile. After the frustrations with my Devon Socks, I decided that I just needed something pretty that was simple, but fun. So, I went for the brightest thing in my stash... This beautiful, hot-pink, sparkly, Barbie-esque yarn!

The picture doesn't show it as well, but there is a slight tonal variation to the pink which gives this yarn a depth and lets the super bright pink work. Without that, this yarn would definitely give off a plastic-y, acrylic vibe because of the brightness of the color and the metallic strands. The yarn doesn't have that cheap feel like most yarns with metallic do. It's super squishy and wonderful and I can't wait to finish the shawl pattern so that I can wrap it around me. I have a feeling that this is going to be one of my favorite scarves just because the yarn is so wonderful!

I did notice that the yarn can be a bit thick and thin in places. It isn't enough to notice in the finished project, but you can see it while knitting with the yarn. Also, even though the yarn is super-wash and promoted as "Sock Weight" on the ball band, I would shy away from making socks that will be worn quite a bit just because there is no nylon content in the fiber mix.

All in all, though, I think that I've found a new yarn that I'm going to need in every color I can get my hands on! I just love it so much!!

^_^

Time-Out

Normally, I'm pretty good about always intending to finish a project completely once I've found it as a UFO in my stash pile. I almost never have to put a project aside because it's too frustrating. They usually just get shoved aside because something that seems more exciting comes along.

Durring our move at the end of June, I found all sorts of projects that I had completely forgotten about. One, in particular, was a pair of socks from Cookie A's first book "Sock Innovation". I love the yarn that I was using because it's soft & has bright colors in gradual color changes. The pattern that I picked for my first Cookie A. sock is called "Devon". This pattern is what I would imagine you would get if you made argyle a texture instead of a color-work technique.

I haven't worked much with charts or lace (never lace in the round) and this pattern had 5 separate charts for the lace. After a few issues with getting going on the first sock I finished most of it then, apparently, it was absorbed back into the stash when I was one repeat away from starting the toe. And that's where it's been languishing since February. When I found it and realized that I was so close, I started back in on it and didn't have any problems with finishing it up in a day or so.

Thinking that I had this whole charted-lace-in-the-round-thing down, I cast-on the second sock and got to work on the ribbing. I made it all the way to starting the first chart and was a couple of rounds into it when I realized that the ribbing didn't match with the pattern. After looking closer, I realized that I worked the chart for the cuff backwards and was working the lace pattern in the opposite direction. So, rather than confuse myself further, I just ripped out the whole thing and started over.

This time I made it all the way through the first few rounds of the gussets before I noticed the mistake. I'm not sure how, but somewhere along the process of starting the chart for the top of the foot and shaping the gussets I messed-up the patterning. Severely. I tried dropping down and re-working the pattern a few different ways, but I just couldn't get it to sit right. So, I ripped it out again out of frustration.

I'm putting this project in time-out for a bit and maybe I'll pick it back up in another six months or so when I've forgotten why I banished it. Hopefully, I won't make the same mistakes again and will just be able to enjoy knitting it rather than being super frustrated. Maybe I'll find some easier lace knitting to work on in the meantime...

^_^

Pattern for Eddy Bear is up!!

Eddy Bear

By: EdwardRad

Eddy is an energetic little fellow who loves to scamper through the forest playing with his friends all day long. He’s always getting in and out of mischief so keep a close eye on him. Make him today, he’s perfect for little hands and sneaking into your backpack for an adventure!!

Book Review

Northfield: A Western Story by Johnny D. Boggs

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I love the writing style! Each chapter is told from a different person's perspective. Sometimes they overlap so that you really get a feel for what happened in, before, and after the James/Younger gang attempted to rob the bank in Northfield, MN. The book is short enough to hold your attention throughout, but had enough details to make you feel like the author was there doing interviews of everyone involved. All in all it was very well researched and set out in a very readable and enjoyable manner.

(Also, Jesse James' jump at the Palisades in SD was mentioned in first person, which was super exciting!! Lame, I know, but I've been there lots and it just makes me happy. Like it's part of my life story to or something...)  ^_^





Shoe Addicts Anonymous by Beth Harbison

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


This book was kind of like if you mashed "The Friday Night Knitting Club" and "The Devil Wears Prada" (the book, not the movie) together and then put a shoe-fetish twist to the whole thing.

It was definitely a fluff book and was pretty enjoyable until you got to the last few chapters where it felt super rushed and poorly executed. These chapters just felt like the author didn't spend as much time with the exit details as she did with introducing the characters and their plot-lines. I was left with the unsatisfied feeling of having been promised a nice, original ending and instead getting a bunch of bad cliches thrown together quickly and poorly just to wrap things up for the publishers.


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If you get your own copy of "Northfield: A Western Story" by Johnny D. Boggs or "Shoe Addicts Anonymous" by Beth Harbison, tell me what you thought of it/them. I'd love to discuss these books with someone!

Book Review

The Strain by Guillermo Del Toro

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This book was kind of slow going at the beginning, but it did pick-up and get pretty exciting at times. The biggest problem was that there were so many different storylines going that some of them got somewhat repetitive after awhile. That, in turn, kinda killed the mood.

The writing style the authors used in this book was very reminiscent of my experience with Stephen King's "Under the Dome". I liked it, it had it's slow times and its quick times, the characters were well written and connected logically with each other. "The Strain" wasn't as gory as Stephen King, but it wasn't a fluffy vampire story by any means.

The twist that the authors put on vampire-ism was pretty neat and makes it seem scientifically possible. (Yeah, it's still a pretty good stretch, but it's more believable than some theories.) There's still some aspects of the story that were left open and I'm hoping that they will be addressed in the next two books and not just dropped. With as thorough as the authors have been with everything else in this book, though, I'm not too worried and am kind of looking forward to the next book in the trilogy: "The Fall".

(P.S. Setrakain really reminds me of an older Van Helsing.)



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Frustrated

So, I'm slightly irritated right now. When I was making Charlie, my favorite crochet hook snapped in half. It was an Addi, so it wasn't the cheapest hook that I could find. You would think that they would have just continued the metal through the core of the handle to prevent something like this. (Like they do with the good sets of knives.)   -_-

All Sorts of New Stuff!!

I'm so super psyched!! I spent a good portion of yesterday updating my blog and generally geeking-out with it. There are still a few things that I want to tweek, but it's eons better than it was and I love it.

Yesterday was a day of accomplishing things. I got most of the living-room-mess gone through, found my deep cleaning book (Yes, I do have a book on how to clean. The peanut gallery can remain silent, thank you. Dan has already pointed out how sad it is that I need one.), bought household stuff, groceries, and some Christmas, Birthday (literally), and Halloween gifts. Also, I tackled the kitchen and am half-way through with getting it thoroughly scoured. Those dust bunnies didn't know what hit them!

While I was out shopping, I stopped by a few craft stores because they were having sales. You have to check out the sales, right? Jo-Ann's didn't have much for yarn (no surprise there) but I made a huge find at Michaels:

STITCH NATION by Debbie Stoller!!

(In the perfect shade of orange, no less...)

I bought one ball of "Full o' Sheep" in the Clementine colorway. "Full o' Sheep" is an Aran weight, 100% Peruvian Wool. This means that it's a hand-wash only yarn, but it's so buttery and delicious that I don't care!! The spin on it kind of reminds me of Brown Sheep's Lambs Pride Worsted. The yarn does tend to shed a bit if you have to frog/tink back so I'm thinking that it will have a high-pill-factor in garments. (Or anything else that will have a decent amount of friction, for that matter.) This yarn is so soft and lovely, though, that I'm seriously thinking about getting enough to make a sweater for myself out of it.

Until I have the money saved up for that, though... (At about $5 per ball, weighing in at 155 yards, I'm gonna need about 10 balls to make the sweater that I want.) I had to at least try out the yarn that I have, right? So, I made an Amigurumi Happy Pumpkin. His name is Charlie, and he's too amazing for that leaf. (Besides, the leaf kinda makes him look like an apple...)

Dear Old El Paso,

Why did you change your mild enchilada sauce recipe? It now tastes gross and smells even worse reheated. These enchiladas were my fall-back recipe that everyone loved and that tasted amazing. Now what am I supposed to make when I don't really feel like cooking?

I suppose that I could look at this as a way for me to be cooking healthier at home. I'm pretty sure that a pound of hamburger and 1 1/2 cups of shredded cheese isn't the best dinner ever. (No, we didn't eat it all in one sitting, but still...)

I guess that I'm now on a quest to find another enchilada recipe that Dan will eat...

Thoughts

So, our apartment is disgusting. Everything, but our bedroom needs cleaning because we hit it so hard in there the other day that it just kind of exploded into the rest of the apartment. I've got a few hours today so I'm gonna try to do some power cleaning. If anyone wants some free crap, I'll be happy to share.

Yesterday, I opened at the store and have decided that the extra-caffeine gas station coffee is a life saver. Sure, it doesn't taste that great, but, what do you expect from a gas station? I just gets me going enough that I don't feel like a zombie for the rest of the day. Which is really helpful when you're trying to convince people to buy stuff from you and give you their e-mail.

I'm kinda thinking about getting a new e-mail, myself, due to all the spam. However, I'm not quite sure that I've convinced myself that it's worth it. Where do you draw the line on who is acceptable to share your e-mail with and who isn't? Because I guarantee you that the moment you release the new one anywhere online, even if it's just in a post, some spy-ware engine will pick it up and sell it to someone else. That someone else, in turn, will spam the hell out of your nice, shiny, new e-mail account. So is it really even worth it?

Last night I saw The Social Network with a few friends and it was pretty good. Mark is such a super-dick to everyone, but it did make me want to totally geek out and get into web-design again. I have been thinking for a few months now that I want to do a make-over on the blog because it's not really what I want anymore. Besides, coding is just so amazing to me. It's kind of like magic, and I love it.

On the reading front...

The Strain by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan.

So far, I rate it: Meh.

The authors will start with a neat idea, but they focus so freakin' much on details that are irrelevant to the storyline that you really get pulled out of what's actually going on. Also, can we please not have anymore beginnings? I've never read an author who liked to start a new story so much. The first 50-ish pages were nothing but intros to various storylines and the next 50 pages were nothing but a pointless over-exaggeration of an eclipse. Other than the fact that, apparently, everyone in New York was creeped-out by this five-minute event, I can't understand why this emphasis is needed. There was one event that occurred during the eclipse that was key to the storyline, but it didn't need 50 pages of covering everybody else in the entire city. Put simply: the first 1/3 of the book has been pretty boring.

Now that I'm past that part, though, the story is progressing at a pretty good clip. I'm wondering if the interludes with Abraham's story are written by one of the authors and the rest of the book is by the other author. These parts tend to hold my interest more and keep me turning pages. The writing style just feels different and isn't so chopped-up with technicalities.

Book Review: Super Sad True Love Story

Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This is one of those books that you can just live in.

I love that the characters are so real. It isn't some sappy love story about a tragic pair of star-crossed lovers. You could pass these people on the street. They're just normal individuals living there lives and you, the reader, are just along for the ride for a few months.



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Book Review: Mockingjay

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Page 379. The discussion between Plutarch and Katniss. This is what earns Mockingjay 3 stars instead of more. Suzanne Collins, you're a better writer than this. In the future, please don't degrade your readers by spoon-feeding us what to take away from your work.



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Book Review

The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner: An Eclipse Novella by Stephenie Meyer


My rating: 3 of 5 stars
For being just another way to make a few more pennies off the Twilight Series, this book really isn't too bad. I'm glad that it was short, though. It would have gotten somewhat boring if it had been a full-length book since you know the ending from the get go.

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What's (New) On My Needles: Ashley's Baby Blanket

I've finally started work on Ashley's Baby Blanket. The original pattern is free from The Running Yarn. As written, the blanket is large and worked in intarsia. I wanted to have it a bit more portable (and baby-sized), though. So I'm making it with 3x3 blocks using double knitting to avoid having a wrong side.

The method that I'm using involves carrying both colors of yarn across while you knit a 1x1 ribbing. Color A is used for the knit stitches and Color B is used for the Purl stitches. The nice thing about this method is that when you wnat to add a design to the pattern, all you have to do is reverse which color is used for which stitch. (Example: Color B will be used for the knit stitches and Color A will now be used for the Purls.) If you are following a graph for the image, keep in mind that each block on the graph will actually be 2 stitches (one knit and one purl) so that you get the same image on both sides of your fabric.

I had some hesitation with using the double knitting method for this blanket because the fabric it produces can get very dense and I had also been told that this is a very tedious form of knitting. However, I've found that I really love this technique. Watching the double-sided fabric emerge from the needles is still just as thrilling to me as when I started and, in my opinion, the fabric is a nice thickness for a blanket. If I was planning on making a reversible sweater with this method, though, I would definitely use a yarn of a thinner weight (think sport or fingering).

As far as I'm concerned, though, double knitting will probably be my choice for any color-work projects that I attempt in the future. It's much less fiddly than Intarsia and Fair-Isle and it produces no wrong side. (For whatever reason, having a wrong side on a knitted object really really bothers me.)

Ashley is due in about a week, so I doubt that the blanket will be done before the baby is here. Hopefully, though, I'll have it ready shortly thereafter. Right now I'm just really hoping that the doctor is right and that it is a girl. ^_^

Book Review: Under The Dome

Under the Dome by Stephen King


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I loved this book!! This was my first experience with reading a Stephen King. (If his other books are just as good, I'm hooked!) While listening to the audio-book, I was constantly amazed at the amount of detail that was included in every aspect of life under the dome. Everything from the eco-system, to nuclear missiles, to lists of extensive biblical quotations was researched very thoroughly to create a truer sense of what it would have been like had a dome actually descended on a small farm town.

Stephen King had an extensive cast of characters to personalize and orchestrate, he did so amazingly well. All the main characters were well developed, of course, but I loved that even the side characters had their own lives and traits that rounded the story to include perspectives from every person trapped in Chester's Mill. The ending certainly held no twist (in my opinion), but I think that it was better that way. This book really was one that had a pretty obvious beginning and ending, but the way that you got from one to the other was what made it so very enjoyable.

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Hat #4

033 2-19-10, originally uploaded by EdwardRad.

Hat #4 for the 2010 Ravelympics!!

Hat #3

Hat #3, originally uploaded by EdwardRad.

Hat #3 for the 2010 Ravelympics!!

Hat #02

Hat #02, originally uploaded by EdwardRad.

Hat #2 for the 2010 Ravelympics!!

Hat #1

Hat #1 for the 2010 Ravelympics!!

Merecedes Christmas Socks 2009

Merecedes Christmas Socks 2009, originally uploaded by EdwardRad.

A little late, but better than never. Here's the second sock about 1/2 done.