My Life in Stitches: Back to Blogging and KALs

(c) Dami Hunter

I didn't make new year's goals or resolutions this year. Why? Because I've done such a stellar job of keeping them (insert sarcasm). What I have do is noticed things that were missing from my life in 2018. The list was sadly too long, but two things were prominent on the list: blogging and Hubby KALs. Although both were a regular fixture in my life, I've fallen off significantly.

So I remedy both problems in one post. Announcing my first Hubby KAL: Salt Point (click here)!

Color 1: Neighborhood Fiber Co.
Truxton Circle

And to be honest, I miss doing KAL with the Hubby. Nothing strengthens a marriage like crafting with your spouse. It gets expensive sometimes, but it's nice to have another thing we can talk about. It's also nice that he gets me when it comes to knitting...mostly.

My husband has been on a cowl kick of late. Interesting since we have yet to see weather cold enough for him to wear a cowl. When I proposed a KAL, he suggested a cowl. Why not. I love cowls. Then came the fun part: selecting a pattern. This is always a challenge because our tastes are so different.

I mean, we are so different. He knits continental. I knit English. He loves to knit with laceweight and I would rather not. He lives for a complicated pattern with a chart and this girl just wants to have fun and save her eyesight. After several hours falling down the Ravelry hole, I found a pattern that we could both agree to and the stash dive began.

Opalessence Fiber Studio Gradient Merino SW
Plum/Royal/Aub

This pattern looks harder than it actually is. We've never done mosaic knitting before so it is nice to try something new. Here is a link for those who want to join us, Mosaic Knitting. And nice to get two skeins of fingering out of my stash. I started on New Years's Eve and hubby cast on a few days later. He's still going to finish before me, and I'm okay with that.

Here's to a new year and a new KAL.

What do you have on your needles/hook? Share in the comments.

My Life in Stitches: Finish Something

My knitting group has been having a WIP war. It’s not really a war. More like a friendly competition. The goal is to finish as many WIPs (works in progress) as you can. It was designed to organize and motivate. And you WIP war can be whatever you wanted.

My WIP war was to be waged against all the unsown ends so I could wear what I actually finished. I hate weaving in the ends. Things did not go the way I planned. I’ve ended up finishing more writing projects that knitting. But I felt frustrated about not finishing anything. So decided that I would finish the two most time-consuming projects on my needled: two sweaters.

The finishing work wasn’t hard. I needed to finish the sleeve on one and a pocket on the other. But for some reason I couldn’t motivate myself to work on them. That’s what it really boils down to, motivation. But I got a few boosts. First, fall is coming and I would like to wear theses sweaters when the weather changes. Two, there is a very specific event I want to wear one of them to. Third, I needed a mindless project to work on during my first Saturday knitting group. So the sweaters came out of hibernation.

As I picked up where I left off, I realized that my reasoning for putting them in hibernation weren’t legitimate. The pocket took less than an hour to finish. The sleeve took longer (I have long arms) but it was only 30 stitches in the round. I had made finishing them this big undertaking but it wasn’t.

The both turned out well. I still have to block one, but I can get away with a steam block. Now all I have to do is sew in the ends...sigh.

Tea & Read: A Study in Scarlet Women

Title: A Study in Scarlet Women

Author: Sherry Thomas

Rating: Three Cups of Tea (4 Stars)

Blurb:
With her inquisitive mind, Charlotte Holmes has never felt comfortable with the demureness expected of the fairer sex in upper class society. But even she never thought that she would become a social pariah, an outcast fending for herself on the mean streets of London. 

When the city is struck by a trio of unexpected deaths and suspicion falls on her sister and her father, Charlotte is desperate to find the true culprits and clear the family name. She’ll have help from friends new and old—a kind-hearted widow, a police inspector, and a man who has long loved her.

But in the end, it will be up to Charlotte, under the assumed name Sherlock Holmes, to challenge society’s expectations and match wits against an unseen mastermind.

I am normally a purist when it comes to my classic books. I am often frustrated by retelling/fan fiction because it is typically worse than the original. Or it takes away what you loved about the original.

A Study in ScarletWomen is not one of those books. This book is delightful.

It is a retelling of Sir Author Coyne Doyle's A Study in Scarlet, a Sherlock Holmes story. But the author adds to the story and makes it more interesting. First of all, Sherlock is a woman named Charlette. That only adds so much richness to the story. Thomas was able to deal with sexism and the limited opportunities of women during the Victorian age. So often in books set in this age, this topic is glossed over, but Thomas presents a different angle.

Also, Charlette has sisters. Her relationship with them shows another difference between the original and Charlotte Holmes. Unlike the original Sherlock, Charlotte is awkward but not calculating and unfeeling. There are other characters, including a love interest, that bring out different sides of Charlotte.

The pacing of the story moved at a manageable clip, even the backstory, and the audiobook narrator was amazing (the narrator can make or break a book). The case was another way it was different than the original. It was impossibly hard to figure out, but it also wasn't the center of the story. Charlotte and her relationships were the real drive of the plot.

Great read and I hope this is the first of many.

Tea pairing: Earl Grey, hot, of course. 

My Life in Stitches: Fixing my Fade

I fell in love with Find Your Fade the moment I saw it. I fell but didn’t buy. And I had my reasons. The huge yardage, the color selection, the fact that my knitter husband didn’t want to knit it with me. But then I had a huge come to Jesus moment about the amount of fingering I have in my stash and realized that this pattern would use 7 skeins. I bought the pattern and immediately cast

on.

Everything thing was going fine until I didn’t like the yarn I used for the first color. So I started over. Liked my second choice so much better and blazed through the first five sections with minor problems.

Then I hit a brick wall. I could not get section six right. I ripped it out and tried again. I did the math and convinced myself that the pattern had an error in it. That was short lived because of the many knitters who had no problems at all with section six. I ripped it out one final time, ready to throw in the towel. I called my hubby into the room and told him I was about to give up on it.

He looked at me and calmly said, “Let me try.”

So I put the stitched back on the needles and handed it to him. And this sweet man quietly worked through the row while I continued to believe that there was something wrong with the pattern. I held my position…until he finished the row correctly.

And then I seethed at myself. I had blamed everything but my inability to keep track of the pattern. It was user error. I already knew I struggle with this kind of lace, shifting repeats and moving markers, but this was particularly bad.

While I berated myself, my hubby did something that is so him. Something that makes our relationship so great. He handed my knitting back and kissed me on the forehead and said, “I love you.”

And that’s why he’s the Wunderhubby. He fixes my boo-boos, kisses me and makes it all better

Bucket List Item Long Overdue-Christmas Novella

People have strange items on their bucket lists. I'm not talking about the "travel the world" or the "skydive." I mean, "write a Christmas novella."

Yes. That was an item on my bucket list. And I can now check it off.

This item was added to my list a few years ago. If one would go back through the archives of this blog, they would see that for many years, I challenged myself to read a certain number of Christmas books in the month of December. I haven't done it in a number of years, but I still remember how much I enjoyed reading Christmas stories.

This year I decided that instead of reading Christmas books, I would publish one. I enjoyed writing The Perfect Christmas Gift as much as I like reading Christmas fiction. It provided a good challenge to write short. It also, I think, made me a better writer.

It took a number of years for my life to line up with this dream of mine and I think that is an important lesson. No matter how much we want or plan to do the things on our bucket lists, some of them will only fit in certain seasons in our lives. Some require a little patience.

As you look at your bucket list, know that if you haven't kicked the bucket, then you still have time.

Walking Right

I was a military wife for twenty years but I remember when I first came into that community. I felt lost and often confused about the rules. I couldn’t hug my husband in uniform. No PDA. Nobody wanted to know my social security number; they wanted my sponsors. I had to closely obey the speed limit. It was a different world than what I was used to.

Now that I’m no longer a military wife, I realized how ingrained the practices have become for me. I don’t go to the base as much as I used to, but when I do, I can see the difference between the military life and civilian life. Occasionally, I have to remind myself of the rules.

Like walking on the right.

This was something that I didn’t realize I did until I was walking from the parking lot to the hospital for an appointment. At first, I was the only one

the sidewalk. Then when another person joined me coming from the other direction, I immediately moved to the right. The person approaching me did the same.

I never realized I had adjusted until another person I passed didn’t move the right. She continued walking down the middle of the sidewalk. I thought, what’s wrong with you? Move to the right. I don’t know the woman’s situation, but I wondered if she was a new military wife and hadn’t been trained yet.

I guess the longer I’m out of the military life the more I’ll notice how I’ve been trained.

My Life in Stitches: Testing my Willpower

Photo by Anna H-G

This year I’m on a yarn fast. For non-knitters, that means I’m not buying any more yarn unless I need it to complete a project. It’s Feburary and I’ve only bought one skein of socks. But there are some yarns out there that are really testing my willpower.

•       Jimmy Beans Wool’s Micro-Brewed Series Chronicles of Narnia. This beauty is called Aslan for the majestic lion from the Chronicles of Nardia series. The yarn is drool worthy, especially for people who are seduced by gradients. The Ice Queen is great, too.
•      Verdant Gryphon Utopia in Bugga. This color way is too of my favorite colors combined. That, combined with the fact that it’s Bugga, makes me want to grab my credit card.
•       Miss Babs K2. I’m not a big chunky weight girl because knitting with big needles hurt my hands, but this would be worth it. I’ve been longing to knit Soho Purl’s Color Dipped scarf and this would be perfect. 

Hopefully I can stay the course with my yarn fast. Not easily with all this loveliness popping up on my FB timeline.

Stay Home!

I am sitting waiting to pick up a persciption. Why? Because I am sick with a viral infection. You know,  that "this is something yucky bit not a cold or flu." That, I sleep all day and have a splitting headache.  And I am contagious. So I will go home from here, go to bed and stay away from other humans.

That's the key. Staying away from other humans. It's the golden rule of sickness. Or at least it should be. If you are sick, stay home.

For people with children, we know this well. If you little darling is sick, you have to keep them home. The daycare or school won't let them come back until they are better. As adults,  we forget that rule and others have to suffer.

This virus won't let up for 10-14 days. I will feel various levels or horrible because someone came out around other humans when they should have stayed home.

This is the end of my public service announcement... unless you're sick. If so, go home!

Night of Romance Book Event, February 12th at Barnes & Noble, Alexandria VA

Join me and four other romance authors as we host a Night of Romance event. This event will be held February 12^th at 7pm at 3651 Jefferson Davis Highway, Alexandria VA. The event will feature:

Lisa Dyson

Elizabeth Staab

Linda Budzinski

Megan Hart

We will talk about the life of a romance writer, our processes and we will read kiss scene from our books. You will also have an opportunity speed date our books.

To RSVP, click this link or call 703.299.9124. Hope to see you there!

Tea & Read January Non-Fiction Review: The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up

Title: The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up

Author: Marie Kondo

Rating: Two Cups of Tea (3 Stars)

Blurb:

Despite constant efforts to declutter your home, do papers still accumulate like snowdrifts and clothes pile up like a tangled mess of noodles?

Japanese cleaning consultant Marie Kondo takes tidying to a whole new level, promising that if you properly simplify and organize your home once, you’ll never have to do it again. Most methods advocate a room-by-room or little-by-little approach, which doom you to pick away at your piles of stuff forever. The KonMari Method, with its revolutionary category-by-category system, leads to lasting results. In fact, none of Kondo’s clients have lapsed (and she still has a three-month waiting list). 

With detailed guidance for determining which items in your house “spark joy” (and which don’t), this international bestseller featuring Tokyo’s newest lifestyle phenomenon will help you clear your clutter and enjoy the unique magic of a tidy home—and the calm, motivated mindset it can inspire.

Terri’s Review:

This book has been on the NYT Bestseller list since it’s been published. One of my coworkers at Barnes & Noble read it and loved it. She raved about it so much, I decided to give it a try. This book definitely makes you think about the clutter in your life in a different way. As a person who loved clean, clutter free anything, this book spoke to me in that manner. One of the best things about the KoMari Method is that it really makes you think about why you keep the things you keep. I was a little indifferent about the litmus test she used of what you should keep and what you should toss, but that was kinda minor. I don’t know if I was ready to get into my feelings about my clutter. This book definitely made me what to clean, but felt a little anti-climatic since Kondo has a method in which you are to clean. I would recommend you not read this book until you are ready to start the purging process. I will put many of the things she suggests into practice. I may have to read her new book, too.

Here are my February reads:

Fiction: A Virtuous Ruby by Piper Hugley

Non-fiction: Infectious Madness: The Surprising Science of How We "Catch" Mental Illness by Heneretta A. Washington

My upcoming reviews will be posted in the sidebar. Comment below if you want to read along!