Almost Perfect : a review

Logan is still trying to get over his ex-girlfriend when he meets Sage, who just moved to his small Missouri town. Sage is like nobody else he has ever met- she is loud and wacky and sews her own wild clothing. She also has incredibly strict parents, isn’t allowed to date, and has been homeschooled for the last five years. Although Sage tries to keep her distance, Logan finally kisses her – a wonderful, perfect kiss that leaves him wanting more. And that’s when Sage tells him the truth about herself. She is really a boy.

You can imagine the conflicting feelings that Logan has after this revelation, and their relationship becomes a veritable rollercoaster as Logan and Sage try to figure out what sort of relationship they have, if any. This is the first young adult novel I’ve read (or heard of) about a transgender teen and it’s fun and sweet and sad - I didn’t want to put it down! If you are into YA books, this is a must-read.

I'm knitting a scarf

I may have mentioned before how much I dislike knitting scarves. But the fact cannot be escaped - I really need a nice snuggly warm scarf. A few months ago I bought a couple of skeins of Malabrigo worsted, suspecting that it would never actually become a scarf, but I surprised myself a few days ago by casting on for the Scrunchable Scarf. The pic on the site makes it look unappealing but there are some nice shots on Ravelry.

Originally I wanted bulkier yarn for nice big squishy scarf, but I also was leaning towards Malabrigo and none of the bulky colors jumped out at me. This pattern knits up nice and snuggly and squishy, so I think it will be great. And the color is amazing. This picture doesn't quite capture the subtle shades, but maybe I'll get some better pics later.

The pattern is super easy and it makes for great tv/movie knitting. I haven't had a project like that for a while.

Progress shots of scarves are very boring, so I won't show this to you again until it's done!

Blame : a review

A young college professor with a drinking problem wakes up in jail one morning to find out that she hit and killed two Jehovah’s Witnesses in her driveway the night before. Patsy stops drinking in prison, and after she gets out she begins to rebuild her life. The guilt she feels about the accident contributes to many choices that she makes as she begins friendships and navigates romantic relationships.

The story began in an interesting spot. It picked up at the end of Patsy’s boozy years, and then extended beyond her time in prison – when she got out and was getting settled, it started to feel like the story wasn’t going anywhere. But I knew from the jacket flap that additional details would emerge about her accident. When all is said and done, it makes sense that it started and stopped where it did, but while reading it, it felt like the plot meandered.

I can’t decide how much I like Patsy. I actually have trouble reconciling Drunk Patsy with Professor Patsy. When we first meet her, in the first chapter of the book, she doesn’t come across as anything other than a party animal/train wreck who isn’t very bright and it’s hard to believe that she has an academic career. It’s also hard to believe it’s the same person that we meet later, sober. Anyhow, she is a bit of a martyr in parts of the book, denying herself certain pleasures because she wants to be responsible. I’m not saying she should have cheated on her husband necessarily, but…well. I question her choices. I think she made a rather calm and bland life for herself.

Guilt and responsibility are, of course, big themes in this book and not just in regards to the accident. There is lots of food for thought and discussion here, and I think this would be a great book group choice.

A romance and a graphic novel

It's more difficult than I thought to review every book I read. I finished both of these a couple of weeks ago and just realized I hadn't posted the reviews. Whoopsie!

Isn't It Romantic? by Ron Hansen

A young French couple on a bus tour get stranded in Nebraska at a turning point in their relationship. They are welcomed into the homes of some locals and hilarity ensues. Nobody seemed to be clear on which person they should be paired up with, and the language barrier causes various humorous misunderstandings.

This book wasn’t what I expected, which was a quiet little romance. Instead it was farcical, a comedy of errors. I kept picturing it as a movie, certain scenes in particular. But it was an enjoyable story with delightfully interesting charactors. A short, quick read.

The Plain Janes by Cecil Castellucci and Jim Rugg

I recently stumbled upon this graphic novel while shelving in the library. It’s about a girl who survives a bombing in Metro City only to have her parents panic and move the family to the suburbs. She is very upset at having to leave, especially because she has been visiting a comatose stranger injured in the bombing. She takes his art notebook and writes him letters from her new town. At her new school she struggles to fit in and, along with some other misfits, starts an underground art group. Under cover of night, they stage “art attacks” like putting soap bubbles in the town fountain and knitting hats and scarves for fire hydrants. Not everyone in town gets their message though, and they are targeted as vandals.

Although the theme of not fitting in is so common – especially in graphic novels – I loved the story about her newfound friends doing something that was so outrageous and fun and secretive. And I loved that she got the idea from a comatose guy, or his notebook anyway, and that their (mostly one-sided) relationship was so important to Jane throughout the book. There were some great parent/teen interactions – her parents were so protective that Jane worried she would become as scared as they were and never experience anything in the world. Just for good measure, there were also some awkward romantic situations thrown in. All in all, a fun enjoyable book!

The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane : a review

Graduate student Connie Goodwin has passed her oral qualifying exam and now must begin her dissertation, while simultaneously fixing up her grandmother’s house which needs to be sold after sitting in disrepair for 20 years. When she finds a mysterious key in a bible with a note inside it saying only “Deliverance Dane” her graduate research and her personal life begin to converge in a way she could not have foreseen.

I’ll admit I had my doubts early in the book. There was a chapter or two that ended with Connie seeing something and gasping, which was a bit too Dan Brown for me. There was also a scene in which she and a friend were in a car headed to her grandmother’s house and her friend asks “Who’s house are we going to? And why?,” the sort of scene which always leads me to wonder what could have possibly brought them to this spot. “Hi Liz, please pack your bags and get in my car. We are going to a house. That is all I will tell you.” And then I proceed to imagine other ways in which the author could have written that scene which would have conveyed the needed information in a more realistic way.

But I digress. And those were just minor blips in a book that overall was rather fascinating. I’m kind of a sucker for colonial America, witchcraft, and libraries so really it would be more shocking if I didn’t like this book. I loved the thrill of the chase, the mystery that unraveled in musty archives and an old house filled with secrets. Interspersed throughout the book were chapters that took place in the 1600s leading up to the Salem witch trials, and they painted a very different – and more fleshed out – picture of daily life in this period than I have read before. The author had a rather different take on the trials, and witchcraft, than the usual and it really made the book much more interesting. She was able to add a bit of supernatural to the story without making it a total fantasy, if that makes sense.

Very fun book, and I expect that someday we’ll see the movie, too.

Heather Hoodie Vest

This shouldn't have taken me four months to make. It's made of bulky yarn and has no sleeves. I started it in early September thinking that it would be perfect in November or so, when it's gotten colder but isn't freezing yet. Maybe I'll be wearing it in March.

Pattern: Heather Hoodie Vest from Knitscene, Fall 2009
Yarn: Lamb's Pride Bulky in Blue Flannel
Needles: 10.5

Despite my feelings that I should stick with skinnier yarn for sweaters, I couldn't resist this cute pattern when I saw it. I've never been sure about the color choice, but definitely wanted something sort of neutral-ish. It was a pretty easy knit, I just kept setting it aside to work on other things.

Many who have made this have been unhappy with the bizarrely ginormous hood, so I skipped a lot of the decreases which doesn't seem to have helped much. I've also found that the hood has more problems than just it's vast size - it is oddly shaped so not only can I not really wear it up, it doesn't sit right on my shoulders either.

But the fit is great. Most importantly, it is long enough!

I posted a preview of the buttons, but forgot to discuss my conundrum with attaching them. Pattern instructions will sometimes say to sew them on with some of the yarn, but I don't think I've ever had buttons with large enough buttonholes for that. In the past, I have unplied yarn to sew the buttons on, but doing that reduces the strength of the yarn and now that sweater is in a pile waiting for me to find matching embroidery thread with which to reattach the buttons. Finding matching thread can be difficult though and while I prefer embroidery thread for its thickness, in this case I couldn't find any in a close enough color so I ended up using regular sewing thread I had at home. What do you use to sew on buttons?

The buttons were a bit of a challenge themselves. The day I went to Windsor Button to buy them, it was extremely crowded there and the buttons aren't self-serve. I usually end up lining up a whole bunch of different buttons on the sweater in question before making a decision, but this time the man helping me got busy with a long line of customers and I decided that the first ones I tried really were the best. They are a little darker than the yarn, but shot through with a bit of a lighter blue so I think it works quite well.

For the most part, I'm quite happy with how this sweater turned out. It's not super fashionable and I don't know if I'll wear it to work, but it's very comfy so I'm sure I'll get some use out of it. All in all, a successful project!

Buttons

I took a little trip to Windsor Button this weekend and bought buttons for my Heather Hoodie Vest. Today I sewed them on using regular sewing thread.


It's blocking upstairs now. I blocked the pieces separately before seaming them together, but then added the button band, which definitely needed blocking. Normally I wouldn't sew the buttons on until afterward, but the button holes are at regular intervals, measured by the rib pattern so it was easy to put the buttons in the right spots. I just sprayed some water on the button band and the ribbing around the sleeves and pinned it out. The part around the hood was harder to pin out but I think it will be ok.

I'm so glad this sweater is done and I can move on with my life. I've been working on it for way too long, especially considering that it's made with bulky yarn and doesn't have real sleeves. It was intended as a quick project to be done sometime in October so I could still wear it before it got too cold. Oh well, there's always next year. I'll have modeled pics soon!