A Return to Reading

If you listen to the Doubleknit podcast you know that my reading habits have been pretty lax in the last few years. Each time we record Erin rattles off a huge long list of books she's read and I usually have nothing to report.

The last few months have seen a change. My days are so different now with my new (always changing) work schedule. Most days I start work at 7 or 6 AM. This has meant a massive shift in my sleeping schedule. As part of my Going-to-Bed-Before-the-Sun-Sets routine I have been making myself take time to wind down and relax. And that has meant reading.

Credit must also go to Kate Atkinson. Every time she publishes a new book, I buy and read it right away. I just love her. Ever since reading Behind the Scenes at the Museum I have been hooked on her books. She has a dark, wry sense of humor and air of magic around her stories that grabs me. Her latest is A God in Ruins. It tells that life story of one of the peripheral characters in Life After Life, a wonderfully original novel. In Life After Life Atkinson tells a series of possible lives of Ursula Todd. In the first iteration she is stillborn. Then her story begins again. And again. And again. Her younger brother Teddy is a RAF pilot and as Ursuala's possible lives unfold so do various fates for Teddy. A God in Ruins is Teddy's story. It skips through time capturing moments of his adulthood, childhood, life during the war, his child, her children, tying all the threads together, as Atkinson so deftly does in all her novels, into a deeply moving piece of writing.

Once I wiped away my tears I jumped into a new book that I had heard was in the vein of an Atkinson novel. A Reunion of Ghosts by Judith Claire Mitchell is narrated by the Alter sisters. The three adult sisters use the book to tell their family history as the descendants of some troubling, and troubled, historical figures, and the book also serves as their suicide note. Sounds great, doesn't it? Mitchell manages to strike the right balance between humor and sadness as she reaches back through generations of family history and lore. In the end the story is fascinating, funny and tragic although I didn't find it held together quite as well through the ending as I had hoped.

When these two novels were feeling a bit too heavy I read from Talking to Girls About Duran Duran: One Young Man's Quest for True Love and a Cooler Haircut. It's a series of short personal essays of the author's life as a young man and music of the 80s. I like the premise (and the music) but the essays never really go anywhere and the attempt to shoehorn them into a theme dictated by an 80s song is fairly awkward. I picked this book up from a Little Free Library a few years ago and will definitely be releasing it back into the wild once I finish it.

Next up, A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki that I just picked up from the library.

Book Review: Extra Yarn

I was sent a review copy of Extra Yarn by Mac Barnett. I've been sent books before to review but I never liked any of them and chose not to share them with my readers. This book I am happy to share.



Extra Yarn is a children's picture book that tells the story of a girl named Annabelle, who lives in a muddy-colored world, and her discovery of a box of colorful yarn. She uses the yarn to knit a sweater and finds when she is done that there is still extra yarn in the box. No matter how much Annabelle knits there is always extra yarn in her box. (Every knitter's dream!) She proceeds to bring color and happiness to her town with her knitting with her seemingly endless box of yarn.



The story and illustrations are delightful. There's an evil archduke, adorable animals and lots of knitting. I love that Annabelle is a young girl who knows her own mind. She is kind and will not be swayed by other people. She changes the world around her for the better with creativity. It's a lovely, funny and magical story and I think any knitter would enjoy reading and sharing it with a child.

Sweater Quest

A customer loaned me her copy of Sweater Quest: My Year of Knitting Dangerously
by Adrienne Martini. I thought, "A book about knitting. What's not to love?" Well, sadly, a lot. My first moment of disappointment came on page 4 when Martini, while quoting Elizabeth Zimmermann for the first of many times, misspells her name. That bugged me. She also misspells Veronik Avery's name on the page facing the paragraph in which Martini derides Alice Starmore for misspelling Spuyten Duyvil. Oh, you've never heard of it? It's an area of the Bronx. I grew up 20 minutes from there and I can't spell it. I think Ms. Starmore could get a pass on that one.

The endless quoting bothered me too. A large portion of this book, a challenge to knit Alice Starmore's Mary Tudor in one year, relies on quoting other authors or figures of the contemporary knitting world. She goes to Nashville to visit Ann; She goes to New York to visit Kay; She heads to Toronto to meet Amy Singer and Stephanie Pearl-McPhee. It's more of a survey of other knitters than a memoir. In all I felt the story was not interesting and the writing was slapdash and in dire need of an editor. As a knitter and a reader I felt insulted. Don't publishers think we deserve any better than this?

Standard Knit

We made a trip to Kinokuniya, our local Japanese bookstore this weekend. I looked through lots of crafting books and while they were all pretty I didn't think I saw anything I needed to take home. I even thought to myself, "I shouldn't get anything unless it makes my heart race a little." Then I pulled a book with a very inauspicious name off the shelf, Standard Knit. It's a book of such simple sweaters--nearly all garter stitch--and I don't understand the instructions and yet it made my heart race a little. Take a look.

Not Kid Stuff

Older Son was stocking up on comic books at the library yesterday. He often tries to sneak home book with some not kid-appropriate content. One of the books he grabbed yesterday, X-Men: Magneto Testament, had a parental advisory label on it. I told him I would check it out and let him know if it was okay.

The purpose of the book is to tell the story of X-Men villain, Mageneto, in his youth. I'm not an X-Men expert. I knew that surviving the Holocaust was part of his backstory. The authors, one of whom Wes and I know, pieced together whatever clues about Magneto's childhood with an accurate history of Jews in Germany, Poland and at Auschwitz. It's a sparingly told story but incredibly effective. There are numerous notes in the back of the book to flesh out the narrative. There is also a teacher's guide and a bibliography.

There is a brief bonus comic that tells the story of Dina Babbitt, a Czechoslovakian Jew, who artistic talent was discovered and used by Josef Mengele. She paintings she produced while a prisoner are held at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and State Museum. She had fought for decades to get them back. And just now, as I tried to find a link about her to include in this post, I found she died this past August and the museum continues to hold her paintings.

This morning I gave my son the book to read.

In Lieu of Knitting, a Book Review

I finished Kate Atkinson's One Good Turn after months. I enjoyed every moment of it. Atkinson writes wry, funny, miserable, dark stories. I laugh out loud at her narrator's snark. I love her. The book is the second in a trilogy of sorts starting with Case Histories and ending with When Will There Be Good News? I started the third book (a holiday gift from Wes) immediately and am loving it as well.

I should finish the second side of the ACS collar tonight--only half an inch to go. Then on to the sleeve tabs. Inching every so slowly closer to the finish.

Melusine Inspiration

I'm generally not a huge fan of The Anticraft. Yes, they did have an issue devoted to bacon. But how many impalement themed hats does one need?

But today I saw this new shawl and I have to say I am smitten.



The pattern on the shawl is a very simple leaf lace (okay, they call it scales but I see leaves) but the hand-painting after the shawl is knit is really lovely. I'm deep into sweater mode but I will definitely tuck this idea away for another time.

The name of the shawl, Melusine, has had me thinking all day about Possession which features epic poem about the creature. It's a stunning book. I highly recommend it if you haven't read it.

Knitting, Reading, Watching

I'm well on my way on my second mitten. So far it looks a lot like the first one so I won't bother with a photo.

I actually finished a book recently. My reading has been slow and sporadic for months now. I just read Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith by Jon Krakauer. He's a very engaging writer and weaves together many threads of the founding of the Mormon church, the growth of fundamentalist sects of Mormonism and a very brutal double murder committed by fundamentalists in the 80s. It's all very interesting and well told. In the end though the book is utterly lacking in resolution. It felt incomplete to me. It reminded me of why Capote putting off finishing In Cold Blood until Perry Smith was executed. Not that I'm hoping for an execution but two men sitting in prison for twenty-plus years is not a very satisfying end to a story.

Last night I started One Good Turn by Kate Atkinson. She wrote Behind the Scenes at the Museum, a novel I adore. I started this a long time ago when it first came out and for whatever reason I didn't get into it. I picked it up again last night and I am really enjoying it. I read the first two chapters last night and had to make myself put it down to get some sleep.

There has been a lot of movie and tv watching lately. Most has been mediocre but lightly entertaining.

Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story is a seriously uneven but seriously hilarious pastiche of every musician's biopic ever made. Gross, raunchy, stupid but definitely funny.

Becoming Jane is a fictional imagining of a love affair that leads Jane Austen to...well...become Jane Austen. Pretty, sweet, too predictable. James McAvoy co-stars. This is a plus for me.

The Long, Hot Summer. Holy crap. Paul Newman just oozes movie star charisma all over this one. The cast is stellar with Orson Welles, Angela Landsbury, Lee Remick and Joanne Woodward. A gorgeous and entertaining film.

Twilight. Teenage vampires. They're in love. Yadda yadda yadda. If you liked the book then you know the drill.

Encounters at the End of the World. Werner Herzog goes to Antarctica and shoots mermerizing footage of the landscape and bizarre interviews with the people who choose to live and work there. Herzog inserts himself solidly in the center of the film. It's very interesting.

So there's a sampling of what I've been up to lately.

Hola

I'm back from my retreat. I got some knitting done and lots of spinning. I chatted. I relaxed. It was wonderful. I also shopped at the stash sale. A lot. I came home with a big bag of stuff.

1 cone of Euroflax Linen (green)
1 skein of Cherry Tree Hill Supersock (also green)
1 skein of Tofutsies (blue)
4 skeins of Shepherd Sock (green--I know!Shut up!)
14 skeins of Noro Cash Laine (20% cashmere in browns and blacks)
Sweater Design in Plain English
Folk Mittens
Knitting Around the World
Knitting Ganseys
Patterns for Guernseys, Jersey's & Arans
Knit Your Own Norwegian Sweaters (Dale, 1974)
4 Old Interweave Knits
Knitter's magazine tribute to Elizabeth Zimmermann
Vogue Knitting Book (Spring and Summer 1955)
Shells for Every Occasion (1965)

These items were all being sold at amazing prices. Some were free.

Guess how much all this stuff cost and win a prize! Guess how many unread items were waiting for me in Bloglines and win a prize!

I will try to get my few, meager photos up tomorrow or Tuesday.

ETA: Contest closes at midnight Monday night. And a hint, I read lots and lots and lots of blogs.

Knitting Lace Triangles

Evelyn Clark's new book arrived in the shop earlier this week. It's a great little volume that provides four lace pattern that you can mix and match to create a lace shawl in any size or gauge.

If you'd like to order it from the Fiber Gallery you can call us at (206)706-4197. You should also be able to find it locally at shops that carry Fiber Trends patterns.

Amazon Knitting Book Insanity!

Knit 2 Together for $5.50!

Greetings from Knit Cafe for $4.99!!

ETA: Sasha just alerted me to Knitting Nature and Last Minute Knitted Gifts for $10.99!!!

But wait, there's more: Stitch 'N Bitch Nation only $3.19!!!!

Great Deal for the Exceptionally Patient

Amazon has Sharon Miller's Heirloom Knitting on sale for a mere $37.09 with free shipping! The only catch is that it ships in "4 to 6 weeks."