While I was playing with my beads...

So, was playing with my beading stuff anyway (the bookmarks), and decided to knock out a few stitch markers as well.  They are such a simple project to do, after all.  This is just a quick post highlighting a few that I made.

 

One of the most common souvenirs here in Hawaii (besides food stuffs) seems to be plumeria jewelry and hair pieces.  Lots of stores selling little silk or foam or clay flowers on necklaces, bracelets, paired clips, hair ties... you name it.  Some hibiscus pieces too, but mostly plumeria.  I took a bracelet and a set of earrings that I found on sale, and repurposed them into stitch markers.  With some headpins and silver beads from the stash, ta-da!  New stitch markers, Hawaii-themed!  The smaller flowers are from the bracelet, and the larger one is from one of the earrings. I haven't decided what I'll do with the flower from the other earring yet - a pendant for a casual necklace maybe?

 

 

And while I was making Hawaii-inspired stitch markers, I pulled out some flower beads I had, and made a set with rainbow-colored accents.  A bit more muted than the other set, but still all flowers and rainbows (yes, that stereotype of the islands is very accurate). 

 



A quick bookish project

So, playing with my beading supplies, and ways to use the odd bits of leftover ribbon I've got stashed, and found this idea online.  There are tons of variations, of course, as simple as it is.  Searching on Etsy provides multiple ideas, as well as searches on Pinterest or in the blogosphere.  Flamingo Toes, for example, is a crafting inspiration favorite of mine (and has more than one version, as you see), but there are tons of others too.  Everyday Beauty by Andrea Singarella , Adventures of a DIY Mom, A Creative Life by Debbie Saenz, Rings & Things, Shelterness, Country Living, Intimate Weddings... the list goes on.  Oh, not all those are instruction sites - some are just finished projects or photos of things available in their shops.  Still, as simple a project as this is, that's really enough.

The instructions can be found on several of those websites, or at least variations thereof.  A lot of the variation comes in the attachment of the beads to the ribbon - are beads on both ends of the ribbon?  Are they attached by crimp bead or by larkshead knot or sewn into a fold in the ribbon?  More personalization can be added by the ribbon and bead choices.  Fancier ones use velvet ribbons and sparkly beads or old jewelry findings.  I used what I had in my stash :)

  

So what did I do?

1. Start with a length of ribbon that is longer than the book(s) you would be using it with.  I just used the lengths I had left on some of these (I was stash-busting after all).
2. Add a ribbon clamp to each end.  Ribbon clamps can be found at jewelry or craft supply stores, or just big-box stores.  They come in different widths, usually corresponding to standard ribbon widths.  I think I got a multi-size pack from Wal-Mart, so it doesn't have to be fancy if you don't want it to be.
3. Add beads to the loop on the ribbon clamp.  These are just attached on head pins, like I attach dangles to my stitch markers.

And, ta-da!  All done and in use!

 

The Penguin crochets now too!*

*more accurately, the Penguin CAN crochet, though she definitely still prefers to knit.

 

 

One of the programs we have at our library is a knitting and crocheting program.  Knitters meet in the evenings on 1st Tuesdays, crocheters on the 3rd.  Mostly basic learn-the-craft type instructions, but that's all good too.  Everyone has to start somewhere, right?  And no, I actually don't run them. My shifts are usually during the day, because of my own programs and duties, and we have another knitter on staff who leads these groups.

 

Last month, it looked like there'd be a night where I actually did have to lead the group, though.  And of course, it wasn't the knitting night.  It was the crocheting.  So I had to brush the rust off and fill in some gaps in my crafting knowledge.  It's only a beginning group, like I said, but I still need to be able to answer questions, right?  The way things turned out that week, I didn't need to cover the group's meeting after all, but that wasn't before I'd already knocked out two and a half dishcloths relearning the crochet stitches!

 

Not wasted time and effort though, since I might have to cover one or the other group again in the future (the only other needlecrafter on staff), and it gave me the motivation to actually figure out crocheting.  I've known the basics (in theory, not in practice) for a few years now.  I am comfortable making a chain, and using crocheting to edge my knitting or to seam it or to add tassels or something.  But an actual crocheted object?  Not until now...

 

 

One of the biggest hurdles was the act itself, not just making the stitch.  You hold a crochet hook usually one of two ways: like a pencil or like a butter knife.  This is INCREDIBLY awkward for a lefty holding a hook in her right hand.  It took a good bit of repetition to just feel remotely comfortable doing that motion alone!  Why don't I just use my left hand, you ask?  Because as I'm re-teaching myself, I'm depending on images and videos online or in magazines; I don't have someone I can easily ask in person.  And there are many, many more righty directions than lefty.  So, to make my movements match the directions, I have to use my right hand (easier to do than trying to mirror everything while still learning).  Plus, whenever I feel brave enough to try a crochet pattern, that'll be written for someone using their right hand.  I've learned to transpose my knitting directions as needed, but I'm not quite ready to do that crocheting!

 

So what did I actually make? 

 

 

I ended up making 5 dishcloths (4 shown above - the 5th is just another round one like the 4th).  For the first three, I chained about 20-25 stitches, then worked a stitch until the piece was dishcloth-sized.  Left to right below (and above, actually), we have a single crochet square dishcloth, a double crochet, and a treble (triple) crochet. The single and treble crochet squares actually came out pretty neatly.  I don't know what happened to the double crocheted one, coming out wonky like that.  I mean, I know it's because my stitch count changed between rows, but why I was not tracking... a mystery for the ages.  Probably got too absorbed in the episode of whatever I was watching!  :)  Still, very good practice and it's perfectly functional as a dishcloth.

 

   
 

The last two were ones worked in the round.  I found a basic diagram and just worked it in single crochet until, again, it was dishcloth-sized.  I'd provide the link, like I always try to, but I probably couldn't find it again if I tried.  It's a pretty basic crochet-in-the-round circle, though, nothing too fancy.  And like I said, I made two round ones.

 

 

Overall, yes, I do definitely prefer knitting.  My hands got more tired crocheting than they do with knitting.  When I knit, I don't turn my work; I'm always looking at the right side.  This is a little unusual, but it also means that I'm not ALWAYS doing the same movement.  Gives my hands a little bit of a break, which means that I can keep going longer without getting sore or stiff.  In practical terms, I can knit through a whole movie without feeling cramped or stiff, not just a TV episode (standard units of measuring time, right?).  Crochet uses the same motion all the time, and always with my right hand.  And I probably grip my hook a little tightly too.  A consequence of still learning and being a bit unsure of what I'm doing.  Perfectly understandable, but it is more tiring on the hand.  It's like writing really long essays by hand, if you remember those days in school.  Your hand just gets tight and stiff and a little sore if you keep pushing it.  That's how crocheting was for me.

And in general, I like the knit stitch and it's resulting fabrics better than I like the crocheted equivalents.  Not that there aren't cute or pretty crocheted pieces.  Just in general, I prefer the look of knitted fabrics.  Personal preference, so just take it for the quirk it is!

 

 

Still, crocheting is very fast, and can use up a lot of yarn very quickly (the crochet stitch uses more yarn per stitch than the knit or purl stitch does).  Perfect for gifts or for using up craft acrylic or dishcloth cotton!  And it is always nice to have another crafting skill under my belt, just in case I want to make that super cute amigurumi...

Requisite kitty-crafting picture, you ask?  Take a look at the very first picture.  Yes, those are kitten toes at the edge of the frame.  Scruffy has to investigate anytime I'm taking pictures of my crafting stuff, but I was able to snap the shot before he decided he wanted to sit on it to gain my attention. :)

Geekin' out

One of the coolest 'toys' at the library where I work now is the 3D printer.  Yup, we've got one, and it's available for public use (send us the files, and we print it up).  I'm taking a course online, too, learning more about using the printers, designing 3D files, tons of applications, and so on.  Very, very cool. 

 

The model we have is a Makerbot Replicator.  It's about the size of an average kitchen microwave. The final products are all solid-color plastic (we can't change colors on our machine mid-project), though there are models out there that can print in other materials too.  It's really neat what people are researching as possible printing material - metals, circuitry, cellulose (wood pulp), food... As for what ours can print... pretty much anything that fits on it's platform and within it's frame.  You can even print things with moving parts, printed all at once!  That's one of the really cool things about 3D printers.  Anything that's bigger than the Makerbot dimensions has to be broken down into smaller pieces, then fitted together after all the parts are printed (i.e., you could print a life-size R2D2 model, but he'd have to be printed in pieces and assembled after the fact).  But other than that, yeah, sky's the limit.

 

 

So, how does it actually work?  The machine is loaded with a plastic filament which reminds me of spools of weed-whacker line.  Not quite as stiff as weed-whacker line, though.  The plastic line is fed through the machine, where it is heated up at the extruder tip.  (FYI: That's why we do the printing, not the general public - that tip gets very hot in order to melt the plastic - not something you want people getting curious around).  The heated plastic is then extruded through the tip and fed onto the platform.  It comes out in very thin strands - reminds me a little of hot glue, out of a much finer point than your average glue gun.  You even have little threads of plastic to clean off your finished object, just like hot glue threads!

 

 

The 3D printer processes the 3D design by slicing it into very thin layers.  The printer then prints each layer of plastic, stacking them one by one, until the 3D object is complete.  The extruder move back and forth across the platform according to a grid to lay down one slice of the object. Then the platform drops a little lower, and the next layer gets added on.  It's a process called additive manufacturing (as opposed to taking a big block of the original substance and chipping away until your object is done).  It can be a pretty slow process, depending on the size and complexity of the object.  And you do feel the layers (they aren't two dimensional, after all).  If you run your fingernail across the side of a 3D printed object, you'll probably be able to feel the ridges of the printed layers.  People who have created smooth 3D printed objects have either used a different type of machine (there are several types of 3D printing) or have smoothed or sanded the finished object until it felt seamless.

 

 

So where do you get 3D files to print?  There are some websites out there where you can design your own, or see what other people have designed and then shared.  Thingiverse is more a sharing site than an actual designing site, but it's a pretty good place to start if you're just getting exposed to the possibilities.  There are ways to make shared files customizable, though, which a lot of people have done.  The project pages are just marked as "Customizable," so just keep an eye out for that.  Like signs or name tags, where you can customize the text.  Or tools or figures that you can customize the size.  Some of the users that are my favorites are computer science teachers who've shared files like that, with some notes about how they use it in their classes.  Good learning tools.  Not all files are customizable, of course, but  you can still start playing around with design on Thingiverse, if you want.  I find it very easy to maneuver, based on a pretty simple key word search system. So if you're looking for chess pieces, or replacement Crock-pot knobs, or Christmas ornaments, or desktop storage cups, or cell phone cases, or whatever else, you can just search for that and see what turns up!  From there, a free account lets you build collections (save-for-later type sorting), download files for printing, upload your own design files, mark favorites, and share pictures of completed projects.

 

When you're ready to start getting a little more into designing, TinkerCad is a good next step.  It's a basic 3D drawing site, where you can start building your design from scratch, or import a file and tinker on it.  Don't be intimidated.  They have some very handy lessons for learning the tools and controls, so you can play around some before you start actually tinkering, if you want.  It's a pretty usable set-up, with similar tools to other drawing programs you might have encountered.  The hardest part for me was getting the hang of the camera controls; you can move in three directions, after all.  When you're done tinkering, your files in TinkerCad can be downloaded for printing, or you can share them onto Thingiverse, if you're so inclined.  If you're moving on past TinkerCad, there are more complex designing and drawing programs out there (we're learning a few in my courses too).  But Thinkiverse and TinkerCad are pretty good starting points if you just want to be introduced, get your feet wet, and see what all the fuss is about.

 

People have been really excited about our printer, and part of it is just seeing one in action or seeing the final products.  The printers have become more affordable, so they're appearing more in the news, in tech articles, in computer store sales specials even.  And they are becoming more common in libraries, in colleges and universities, in Maker hubs, and so on.  But people really aren't sure what they can make yet, so seeing ours is a great opportunity to be introduced to it all.  Society's still very much in the mindset to just go and buy what we need, even if that's not quite a perfect fit.  3D printing allows for repairs or inventive improvements to things we already have. I mean, a lot of things in Thingiverse are repair parts and adjustment pieces for existing objects.  Crock-pot knobs, for example (or any other plastic knob).  Or a clip for your shirt to hold your earbud wire in place as you run.  One patron submitted a rotor for a model helicopter that his kids had.  The rotor had broken, so they printed up a new one.  And it worked - very stylist copter too, with those bright yellow blades :).  A lot of businesses use 3D printing to print customized objects to sell - form-fitted earbuds, for example.  Unlike with big mass production efforts, it doesn't cost proportionately more to print one set of earbuds for one person, tweak it, print a different set for a second person, and so on.  With most mass-production methods, this is just impossible to afford, since each set of earbuds would require a different mold.  With 3D printing, it's the same cost per printed set of earbuds.  This same cost benefit makes 3D printing really good for mock-ups and models for companies during the design phase.  They can easily and cheaply print and adjust plastic models before actually producing a finished product in another material.  These sorts of benefits and uses are part of what we've been talking about in my courses; besides the design aspects of printing, we've talked about the economic possibilities and importance too.  All really very interesting, so if you get a chance to see or interact with one, take advantage!

 

 

This is a final project that I submitted.  No, I didn't design it (not quite that experienced yet).  I just submitted it to print as I was learning about the machine.  Yes, it's a yarn bowl.  It's still me, after all. :)

 

 

 

Once you're a librarian...

You can never NOT be a librarian!

One of my New Year's Resolutions is to get back to reading.  Ok, so maybe not a resolution so much as an aim to return to normalcy.  I'm a bookworm (surprising in a librarian, right?) and yet haven't really been able to read over the last few years.  Grad school kinda dominated my recent reading, so I'm getting back on track and tackling the reading list that kept growing even as I was buried in articles for school.

To that end, I'm taking on some reading challenges!  Yes, more than one.  Because it's me.  But they are each different, and they'll all getting me reading, both things on my To-Read list, and some new stuff that might or might not be something I'd normally grab off the shelf.

So, here they are:

Goodreads has an annual reading challenge.  This is a straight quantity challenge - you set the number of books that you'd like to read, and log them with Goodreads as you begin and finish them.  It will track the books and let you know how many you've read and if you're on pace to reach your goal.  Goodreads is a free account, and there's an app as well, if you'd like to log on the go.  Goodreads is a pretty handy account to have, anyways, if you haven't looked into it.  I like it for this challenge, for tracking my reading, and for making notes for books to read in the future.  I also use it to tag ("shelve") books to possibly use in storytimes in the future.  I don't use it to catalog my home library; my LibraryThing account is still best for that. Goodreads doesn't let you log multiple editions of a single title, so it's a challenge to inventory my collection.  After all, I've got 4 copies of the Hobbit, among others...

Funny side story:

I was telling a friend here about Goodreads (she hadn't encountered it) and she saw my Currently Reading shelf. 

"You're reading seven books right now??" 

"Yeah..."

(Is that odd??)

Zach found a challenge from The Goodwill Librarian on Facebook, to read 26 books with these different characteristics - over 500 pages, written over 100 years ago or in the last year, etc.  It averages out to a book every two weeks.  I like challenges like this because it will stretch my reading.  When I read for escape or comfort, I tend to go to the same authors or genres.  Lists like this expand my reading.

Another "expanding" reading challenge is the one my childhood home library system is running this year: a reading marathon.  Yes, the pun was intended :)  The idea behind the marathon is to read 26.2 books in the year.  Again, that's a book every two weeks.  The 0.2 book allows you to start a book and abandon it if it turns out to be something that you reeeeeeally can't get through (no need to make yourself suffer, right?  It's supposed to be fun!).  They have an Extra Mile challenge too, keeping with the marathon theme.  The Extra Mile, like the Goodwill Librarian, gives you 26 types of books to read, different categories again, to push your repertoire, expand horizons, all that fun stuff.  For those of you from that area, the categories are pretty much the same as the Summer Reading Program Bingo.  Not that that's a bad thing - the same categories can still push you to read something new - but yes, they might sound familiar.  And some of the categories do overlap with the ones in the Goodwill Librarian's list, too, but not all of them.  And since my Goodreads goal is well above 26 books this year (I do work in a library, after all), I'll be able to check off items on both lists :)

Obviously being a librarian, I'm very pro-reading, pro-books and media.  Kinda comes with the territory.  There are tons of reading challenges out there - a quick Google search turns up dozens online.  You're sure to find one that meets your needs and interests.  Read all Jane Austen books in a year, read a certain number of banned books (check the ALA for lists of popularly challenged books), read from the BBC Big Read (over 10 years old now, but still a GREAT list), PopSugar has one, and dozens of blogs do too.  I like challenges like these because there are always new authors or new titles out there to try.  As much as I love rereading favorites ('visiting old friends'), it's always nice to read new ones too, maybe make some new favorites. 

Review: Cross Kill by James Patterson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Plot Summary:

From GoodReads:

Along Came a Spider killer Gary Soneji has been dead for over ten years. Alex Cross watched him die. But today, Cross saw him gun down his partner. Is Soneji alive? A ghost? Or something even more sinister?  

Nothing will prepare you for the wicked truth.

The story begins with Alex Cross and his partner John Sampson working at a community soup kitchen.  Shots ring out and kitchen workers are injured.  In tending to them, the two men are also attacked by the shooter.  Sampson is shot in the head, and Cross in the chest, protected only by his Kelvar.  Even more of a blow, Cross sees the shooter as a man whom he saw die over ten years previously (for perspective, Along Came a Spider was the first Alex Cross book, while this is #23.5).  While Sampson fights for his life in the hospital, Cross hunts for the shooter.  He doubts his eyes and his memories, trying to find answers about one of the worst criminals he has encountered in his long career.

Story comments:

This is one of the first Alex Cross stories I've read (or listened to). I think it might even be the first, though it seems hard to imagine, as many Cross stories as Patterson has written.  Maybe I'm just familiar with the few which have been made into movies.  At any rate, there it is. 

Book Shots are novellas, really, designed to be single-sitting (or single-day) reads.  They are written to fall in-between the full-length novels in the series.  This one, for example, is listed as #23.5 in the Alex Cross Series.  In terms of listening length, I listened to the audiobook during my commute to work, and it took me less that a week.

Part of the story centers on Sampson's shooting and recovery. It honestly felt like those sections dragged a little, lots of hospital visits and emotional build-up over whether Cross would lose his childhood friend and partner.  Good emotional build-up (especially in such a short book), but not having read others in the series, I just didn't have the same emotional investment in John Sampson that others might have. 

I also was probably more interested in the mystery of the man rising from the dead to shoot at Cross and his partner. That side of the story really drew me in. There were so many questions and potential twists and clues and suspense, that the big reveal at the end was a bit of a let-down, quite honestly. The solution seemed a bit simple and rushed, but it is only a BookShot after all.

My BIGGEST frustration was by far the huge cliffhanger! I don't mind books in a series carrying subplots over between books; characters do have to develop, after all, and some series create an archnemesis (a Big Bad, to quote Buffy) or extreme set of circumstances, which may take several books to solve or overcome.  I am not, however, a fan of huge cliffhangers where you MUST go out and get the next book to find out what happens in the main plot. Just makes it feel like you've read an excerpt of a book, and not a book in itself (at least in my opinion).  If you don't mind these, or are already well-invested in Alex Cross and his world, then you probably won't mind the cliffhanger nearly as much as I did.  For me, it was almost a, "Wait, what just happened??" moment.  At which point the audiobook credits began playing...

Audiobook comments:

Ruben Santiago-Hudson does a good job putting emotion into the character, and I enjoyed listening to him. Of course, Alex Cross now looks like Capt Roy Montgomery (Castle) in my mind, but that's a minor issue. My only real complaint was that they put in sound effects for the sirens, gunshots, etc.  Other books I've listened to just had the narrator say something ("bang!", "crack!", etc.).  The actual noises were very startling, especially if I was listening as I did something else (driving, running, etc.).

Overall comments:

As I said, this is my first Alex Cross book.  I'm interested to read more, starting at the beginning.  Even though I know Soneji died in that book, I'm interested in Patterson's writing now.  The suspense and tension he built in the story was very well done.  My minor complaints are really partially my own fault - who starts a series 23 books in, after all?  The biggest reason I gave it only three stars was the cliffhanger at the end.  It'd probably have another star from me if that wasn't there (side note: the plot twist was a good one; I just wish it had been developed and resolved in this book instead of the next).  If you're already sucked into Alex Cross's world, or if you don't mind huge cliffhangers in your books, then you'd probably not mind that nearly as much as I did.

Now this was unexpected

Over the last couple years, I've started getting into Geocaching.  For those who don't know that hobby, it's like an Easter egg hunt for adults, assuming the Easter bunny is rather quirky and (sometimes) sadistic in his hiding spots.  Players use GPS handheld devices to locate the caches (the Easter eggs), and with the advent of smartphones, everyone has a handheld GPS now.  The caches can be big, like an ammo can or lunchbox.  Birdhouses are common too.  Or they can be small, like a film canister.  Or they can be evil, like a bolt that's not really a bolt, but a magnetic hiding spot tucked underneath a bench.  Caches will all have a log for people to sign once they've found the actual cache, and you can record your finds online too.  They can be very involved too.  Some are puzzles that you have to solve in order to find the coordinates to the actual log.  Others can be multiple steps, finding one cache that leads you to the next, which leads you to the actual log.  Like I said, if the Easter bunny was quirky and sadistic.

I've enjoyed it though, because they get you looking at the places around you in a little bit different way, noticing things you might not.  Or making average places (like boring suburban Central Texas) seem a little more interesting.  Caches might be up hiking trails or in the middle of a shopping mall.  Often people will place them near landmarks or points of interest or scenic views.  Pretty fun to do as you're travelling about.

And now all of this has been background leading up to the point of this post: the Berlin Wall. 

No, seriously.

Geocaching does challenges every so often, asking players ("cachers") to find caches with x-many favorites (like Facebook Likes for geocaches), or find one that's a puzzle cache, or whatever.  This time it was finding one that had a certain number of favorites.  Near where I live in Honolulu, this was the closest.  It was also really cool.

Honolulu Community College has a piece of the original Berlin Wall.  The piece of the wall is incorporated into a memorial, the Berlin Wall Freedom Monument.  The wall was erected, protected by glass, with concrete wall sections extending out from either side, to give a greater impression of what it must have once been.  A bit of trivia, they oriented it the way it was in Germany: plain side facing east and the graffiti covered side facing west. When they set up the memorial, this was only the third piece of the wall in North America, so something very unusual.  And it's still there on the HCC campus, tucked away between academic buildings behind the library. 

And on a more somber note, in the 20-odd years since it was set up, the Freedom Monument has expanded.  Right near the wall in the same little lawn, is a memorial to the 9-11 Trade Center attack, with pieces of rubble from the towers and from the Pentagon. 

So, if you're in the area, it's worth the little detour as you drive to Pearl Harbor from Waikiki (or whatever other tourist stops you're hitting).  And I wouldn't have found it if someone hadn't hidden a cache there!