So this happened...

Every so often, I get to experience something that reminds me I definitely live in Hawaii.  Sometimes it's a local/cultural thing.  And sometimes it's something like this.

I was running on Saturday on a trail near where I work.  The trail loops around a series of saltwater marsh ponds, and (though sometimes smelly at low tide) makes for a rather calming run, away from roads and still convenient to my daily routines.  Anyhoo, I came around a bend and saw this in the water:

Hadn't seen anything like this before in the ponds, and these bumps were only a few of the ones I saw breaking the surface.  Being a good little Southern girl, my first thought was "Gators?" followed immediately with "But they don't have gators in Hawaii, do they?"  Dismissing it from my mind as mud sticking up at low tide or probably something I didn't want to consider poking out of the water, I kept on my run.  Until I rounded the next bend and saw a face breaking the water.

 

 

These are sea turtles!!  There were a couple dozen of them just hanging out in the ponds!

Needless to say, my run got put on pause!  Sometimes you saw their fins breaking the surface of the water first, often in parallel, like a butterflyer's stroke.  More often you just saw their faces coming up to get some air.  The sound they made as their faces broke the surface sounded like a whale spouting or a diver's noise on surfacing and clearing water from their snorkel - kinda a wet puff-and-splash sort of noise.  The trail is set back from the roads at this point, so there wasn't a lot of background noise, other than birds and bugs.  I hung out for probably a good ten minutes taking pictures and listening to them swim, just me and the turtles.

This particular one was hanging out right underneath a footbridge on the trail, so I was able to get a few good pictures as he floated about.  He was with another one, a little guy, whose shell was only the size of a dinner serving tray maybe?  Much smaller than the other ones I was seeing.  So cute!!

 

Growing up on the East coast, I've seen sea turtles before.  I've seen them both in the wild and in aquaria.  I've never seen this many at once though!  Apparently it's a thing they do from time to time,.  A friend (who's lived here on O'ahu a lot longer than I) said that they are also often seen at a couple other saltwater ponds and estuaries through the islands.  First time for me, though, so extra exciting :)

As I finally broke myself away and got back to my run, I passed two families heading in on the trail.  The parents in each had seen the turtles and were bringing their kids back to see too :)

Vocab lesson:
honu = Hawaiian word for the green sea turtle (don't know if these were greens, as we have a couple species around here, but the greens are the most common)
bale = a group of turtles (yes, same word as hay bale)

I did take a video too.  It's over on Flickr.  You can hear me narrating and trying to not squeal!

Review: Mother Bruce by Ryan T. Higgins

Another funny kids book.  I picked up this one because a third Bruce book is coming out in September (Bruce's Big Move, due out Sept 26, 2017, according to Goodreads) and was being discussed in one of the Upcoming Releases webinars I was listening to.  Almost right after listening to that one, I spotted Mother Bruce on the shelf and had to give it a try. 

 

Mother Bruce by Ryan T. Higgins

 

 

 

My Rating: 5 of 5

 

Plot Summary:

 

Bruce the bear is a grump, through and through.  Doesn't like anything, anyone.  But he does like eggs.  However, when stealing from Mrs. Goose for eggs for his latest recipe, something unexpected happens: the eggs hatch.  Bruce is now parent to four goslings, so what's a bear to do?

 

Thoughts:

 

This one isn't a deep picture book, but I wanted to write it up anyway.  What makes this book great are the illustrations and the sense of humor.  A little silly, a little sarcastic, laugh-out-loud funny for kids and adults.  That balance is always a hard one to achieve, but this one manages beautifully.  While the text is funny (Bruce loves eating gourmet recipes found on Pinterest, for example), it's really the illustrations that steal the show (he goes shopping for his recipes in the forest using a shopping cart).  His attempts to raise the goslings, despite not liking anyone or anything, are priceless (even when they are stubborn teenage geese).  And the goslings always have that spacy look on their face, four little feathered heads concentrating on four different fluffy thoughts.  Made me giggle every time.

 

 

 

For story times and lessons, I've seen online how teachers and librarians have used this book to introduce terms such as hibernation, migration, and imprinting, and to talk about adoption and unusual families.  My story times are usually for the 3-5ish age group (preschoolers and young kindergarteners), and this would be a good story time for my older kids.  The story's probably a bit too involved for little-little guys (our toddler time, or my younger preschoolers), and the idea of dinner hatching might be a little stressing.  My older kids would get a kick out of Bruce though!

As I mentioned, Bruce #3 is coming out in the fall.  For those interested, Bruce #2 (Hotel Bruce) came out last fall (2016). 

Overall:

 

This is one of those books that kids will like and parents will enjoy reading to them.  I think it'll be a good older kid story time book too.  While the plot isn't deep or complex, it is fun, and the illustrations are just too cute.  And don't we all know someone like Bruce?  I laughed out loud several times while reading this (slightly awkward when reading quietly at one's desk at work) but you just can't help it.  Bruce and his goslings are a hoot!  I'm definitely looking forward to Book 3 coming out in the fall!

Review: Death at Wentwater Court (Daisy Dalrymple 1).

With my long commute to and from work, I've found that I can get in a good 20-30 minutes listening to an audiobook while I'm driving.  Sometimes on the way home, I listen to All Things Considered instead (yes, we have NPR again!!) but if I'm in a good book, then it's definitely the book.  With almost an hour of listening time each day while I'm driving, I'm finding I can get through an average book in a week or two of commuting.  Obviously, I'm expecting it will take a lot longer when I tackle Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall - I think that one's over 20 hours!  This one, though, was a light and fluffy one, a change after the Napoleonic battles of Sharpe and the 95th. 

The first in the Daisy Dalrymple mystery series: Death at Wentwater Court by Carola Dunn

My rating: 3.5 of 5 (closer to Really Liked It, but definitely have a few issues keeping it from 4 solid stars)

Plot Summary (as per Goodreads - yes, it is a bit flowery, as summaries go):

This first installment of a cozy mystery series transports listeners back to the bygone era of 1923 Britain, where unflappable flapper and fledgling journalist Daisy Dalrymple daringly embarks on her first writing assignment—and promptly stumbles across a corpse.

No stranger to sprawling country estates, wealthy Daisy Dalrymple is breaking new ground in having scandalously traded silver spoon for pen and camera to cover a story for Town and Country magazine. But her planned interviews with the inhabitants of Wentwater Court give way to interrogation after suave Lord Stephen Astwick meets a dire fate on the tranquil skating pond. Armed with evidence that his fate was anything but accidental, Daisy joins forces with Scotland Yard to examine an esteemed collection of suspects and to see that the unlikely culprit doesn’t slip through their fingers just as the unfortunate Astwick slipped through the ice.  

Story Comments:

Oh, look.  Lara has found another cozy historical mystery series she likes.  Quelle surprise!  (/dry sarcastic tone).

 

But seriously, though.  I like Golden Age mysteries, I like historical mysteries, I like British mysteries, and I enjoy a good cozy mystery.  While I also enjoy the puzzle presented in grittier "modern" mysteries or in hardboiled detective stories, I enjoy the simplicity and neat ends of a cozy mystery when I'm looking for a bit of escapism.  This definitely falls into that category.  If you like Mrs. Bradley, Lord Peter Wimsey, or especially the Phryne Fisher series, you'll probably enjoy this one too.  The Maisie Dobbs series and Rhys Bowen's Royal Spyness books  are others that I've heard fall into this category, though they are still on my To Read list.

 

Daisy is a pretty likable heroine.  She's clever and sympathetic, the type people naturally confide in, which makes her well positioned to be an amateur detective - people involved in the case just open up to her.  She's not perfect though, as the conclusion to the mystery demonstrates. Her police counterpart is Detective Chief Inspector Alec Fletcher, another very clever and capable character - no bumbling flatfoot here. There is the interesting dynamic of the well-born Honorable Miss Dalrymple and the more "common copper," which we'll probably see more developed in future books - at least, I'm hoping so!  A lot of the other characters were pretty standard types in this sort of story: a villain to be killed off, and enough other characters to create some mystery - characters both likeable enough to support and questionable enough to consider them as suspects in murder.  My favorite side character was Daisy's childhood friend and sometime suitor, Phillip.  As he's constantly described: sweet, but not the sharpest knife in the drawer (or words to that effect).  Hopefully we'll see him pop up again as well.

 

The plot itself is a pretty standard cozy mystery.  Not the actual events, but the whole "if they'd just talk to each other this wouldn't be nearly so big of an issue" type of plot.  There were a few side story arcs which felt almost unnecessary.  For example, the whole jewel robbery storyline felt very underdeveloped somehow.  And as almost required by the cozy mystery genre, there is a romance looking to develop.  Daisy will probably be seeing a good bit more of DCI Fletcher as the series proceeds.  I'm looking forward to that, especially with how the ending took their characters - besides the class differences, will the case's conclusion here prove an obstacle to the budding romance?  I'll just have to keep reading and find out, won't I?  And yes, like many cozy series, this is one which has to be read in order. 

 

The book is well written, with a good vocabulary and period slang incorporated well (I've read some where the period jargon was used so heavily that conversations were actually hard to understand).  There are some light moments, and a good amount of humor, but there's still a good amount of mystery.   I was actually betting myself on picking out who would be the culprit, and I was wrong, so that means there were enough red herrings to keep me guessing.  That being said, it was still pretty fluffy, not a "heavy" read.  The style of writing is very similar to Golden Age authors; if you like Dorothy L. Sayers or Margery Allingham or Ngaio Marsh, this will be a good one to try.

 

The period feel is emphasized by some details - make-up, fashion, some slang usage, the cars, etc. - and also by current events.  Daisy is a working girl because her brother was killed in the War (as was her fiancé) and her father passed away in the flu epidemic; the result was that a cousin inherited the title her father had held.  That doesn't mean it's a piece of Historical Fiction.  There is a good bit of artistic license in the period details, too, in order to make the story actually work.  Reminds me of Downton Abbey - some period details very accurate, but others are a bit more fast-and-loose in order to make the stories work.  Doesn't mean you enjoy it any less, as long as you take it for what it is.

The biggest downside to me was the ending.  After presenting such a suitable victim with lots of potential motives, the actual solution felt... rushed, I suppose?  Like as if the actual detecting stopped and the solution was just dropped into Daisy's lap.  It felt as if Dunn cut a few corners in both plot and accuracy to finish up the story quickly.  This type of cozy mystery often incorporates a good bit of artistic license, or standard suspension-of-disbelief - think of an average Lord Peter Wimsey story.  How the crime happened was way more important than the actual real-world probability or feasibility of it happening in that particular way.  Even taking that into account, the conclusion still didn't feel real, somehow.  Basically, don't just suspend disbelief - chuck all disbelief out the window when you start getting close to the end and just roll with the events as they're written.  WITHOUT ANY SPOILERS, yes, this was the early 1920s, and some things were done a certain way, and class and wealth still played a very large roll in social dynamics, but the police would still have had some procedures and actual rules to follow.  It felt like Daisy (and Dunn) had just waltzed right over/past them.  One other Goodreads reviewer said that it felt like Dunn had come back to working on the novel after a period of absence, and just wanted to hurry up and finish the book.  That seems a pretty accurate description, actually.  This is the first in the series, so I will cut her a bit of slack for that.  There are at least 20 Daisy Dalrymple books right now, so I'm assuming that Dunn'll grow in confidence in the mystery genre as she works more in it.  A lot of series take a book or two to really get their feet under them, so to speak.  I enjoyed Daisy, Alec, and the other characters and the rest of the story, so my frustrations with the conclusion won't prevent me from picking up the next one in the series.  But, this ending (with my associated frustrations) is what keeps me from giving this one a full 4 stars.

Audiobook Comments:

Bernadette Dunne was the reader for this one, and for the majority of the series, I believe.  This is the first time I've listened to her, and she's not bad, though nothing exceptional.  There wasn't tons of distinction between the voices of the different characters, particularly the women, but I did like her version of Daisy's voice.  I read the reviews on Audible before trying this as an audiobook (a bad narrator can be very off-putting, even for books that you love).  Several people have commented on the quality of Dunne's British accent and pronunciations - some very negatively so!  Being an American myself, it wasn't jarringly bad for me to listen to.  Too many years in Latin classes did tell me that the words "pater" and "mater" were mispronounced, but that was the only one I caught, and it wasn't frequently enough to be either overly irritating or distracting. I'm sure if I was a Brit, I'd probably be more bothered (I know that bad TV/movie Southern accents drive me nuts). 

Overall:

 

I enjoyed it.  Though not entirely satisfied with the ending, I enjoyed it enough that I've got the second in the series ready to read (listen to).  Take it for what it is, though.  It's a fluffy historical cozy mystery series - a "potato chip" read (can't read just one), a palate-cleanser between darker or weightier stories, an enjoyable bit of escapism.  Think Dowton Abbey, remember. Books can be just fun, you know.  Don't read it if you're looking for extensive historical or procedural detail (or accuracy).  And if you're looking for a really hard-core heroine or a very gritty story, this isn't the series for you; try The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo or Harry Hole or Wire in the Blood instead.

Review: The League of Unexceptional Children by Gitty Daneshvari

Children's services includes more than just story time and picture books.  I also get to order the middle-grade books!  So my reading list just gets more and more eclectic.  It already included classic and cozy mysteries, urban fantasy, romance, traditional fantasies, the occasional nonfiction, and has now expanded to picture books and elementary school chapter books.  Which is not a problem at all.  Of course there are classic kids books that I still love rereading - Avi, Roald Dahl, M.M. Kaye, Patricia Wrede - but there are a lot of really good authors writing for kids and young adults today.  And really, "it's for my job!"  :)

This week's read: The League of Unexceptional Children by Gitty Daneshvari

 

 

My Rating: 2.5 of 5 (between It's OK and I Liked It)

 

Plot Summary (courtesy of Goodreads):

Are you average? Normal? Forgettable? If so, the League of Unexceptional Children is for you! This first book in a hilarious new adventure series is for anyone who's struggled to be noticed in a sea of above-average overachievers.

What is the League of Unexceptional Children? I'm glad you asked. You didn't ask? Well, you would have eventually and I hate to waste time. The League of Unexceptional Children is a covert network that uses the nation's most average, normal, and utterly unexceptional children as spies. Why the average kids? Why not the brainiacs? Or the beauty queens? Or the jocks? It's simple: People remember them. But not the unexceptionals. They are the forgotten ones. Until now!

Comments:

Well, they do say that spies shouldn't be like James Bond, but blend into the background instead.  Why couldn't average, nondescript children be used the same way?  And with that idea, Jonathan and Shelly find themselves roped into saving the United States when a security breach at the White House ends up compromising all existing agents in the field.  The newest members of the League of Unexceptional Children have to learn the ropes and save the world all at the same time!

Somehow the adventure never really clicked with this premise, though.  It's not that this is a bad one, but it just doesn't come together somehow.  There are some great mysteries and adventure stories for this age group (heck Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys are both in this same section of our library).  So it is possible to have some exciting adventures or suspenseful mysteries and still be suitable for a middle-grade audience.

The characters are kinda weak.  Granted, Shelly and Jonathan are supposed to be nondescript and forgettable, but thankfully, they do grow up a bit with their successful mission.  Shelly got kinda irritating after a while, honestly; she's a chatterbox with no filter on her stray thoughts popping out of her mouth.  Sometimes a bit funny, but sometimes a little tiring.  The adults are more caricatures of old adventure/spy story characters than actual characters - the boss talks like a film noir cop, for example.  The morbid nurse is just a little weird, personally.

The humor worked pretty well, though - best part of the book in my opinion.  While the whole book is a take on society's focus on Exceptionalism, there are parts that are laugh-out-loud funny.  There were just absurd moments, straight up slapstick - the League's messaging system via produce, for example.  My favorite bits were the satirical points about living in Northern Virginia, though.  Having grown up in Virginia myself, with family on the Maryland side of DC and several good friends in suburbs in NoVa, I've visited the DC area enough to be familiar with the suburbs.  And as mentioned, with friends living there, I got some insider commentary on life in Woodbridge or Stafford or some of the other DC suburbs.  The Stepford mentality seems pretty accurate, and made for a very funny (for me) backdrop to the kids' adventures.

As an adult reading this, it was a so-so book, but middle school students who feel that they themselves are pretty unexceptional might enjoy it more than I did.  I know that I don't fall into that particular demographic - no longer a middle-schooler and never having been an Unexceptional (definitely more of a Brain).  But, someone who feels themselves to be very average might enjoy that aspect of the story, giving the book a little bit more of spark than what I felt for it.  I definitely wouldn't discourage anyone from reading it, but it wouldn't be my first recommendation either.

It is the first book in a series (there's one more out now, and another due out in the fall), so here's hoping that the author can find her footing a little more solidly in this world through the subsequent books.  There are well written parts of the story, and some very sly humor, but not quite enough pieces coming together to really click for me.  A shame, when it's such a fun idea.

Overall Thoughts:

This is a cute book with a fun premise, using a network of the average and nondescript children for espionage and adventure.  It was pretty funny, but it missed on the suspense and adventure side of things.  Yes, it's possible to be all of the above - a funny story with adventure and mystery too - but the suspenseful side never really clicked together, and at times it felt more rushed or forced than anything else.  I wanted to like it, I really did, and it's not that it's a bad book, but it's not great either.  It's fun, a quick read, but not really memorable.  In it's own way, unexceptional.

Review: Sharpe's Rifles (book)

I blame Mom for this one ending up on my To Read list.  Not that it's a bad thing, but it's definitely her influence that got Richard Sharpe and a historical war/adventure series on my radar - not my typical sort of book.  She was hooked on the BBC series ages ago (by ages, I mean her copies are on VHS), and thereby spread the love into subsequent generations.  Because Crazy is inherited ;)

So, for the first Sharpe I'll be reading: Sharpe's Rifles: The French Invasion of Galicia, January 1809 by Bernard Cornwell

My rating: 4 out of 5

Plot Summary (courtesy of Goodreads):

"Bernard Cornwell's action-packed series that captures the gritty texture of Napoleonic warfare--now beautifully repackaged.  It's 1809, and Napoleon's army is sweeping across Spain. Lieutenant Richard Sharpe is newly in command of the demoralized, distrustful men of the 95th Rifles. He must lead them to safety--and the only way of escape is a treacherous trek through the enemy-infested mountains of Spain."

Story comments:

This is the 6th book in the Sharpe series, if you're going by the internal chronology.  It's the 9th by publication date, and the 1st that was made into a TV episode.  So, take that for reference. 

The Sharpe's series is a really good historical adventure series.  For both the TV show and the books, it's a good one to try if you've enjoyed the Horatio Hornblower stories or the Aubrey and Maturin books (the Master and Commander series).  Or vice versa - try those if you like Sharpe.  Just land adventures as opposed to ones at sea.

Cornwell didn't write the Sharpe series in chronological order.  It's one of those commonly asked questions on book sites like Goodreads - "do I read these in chronological or publication order or does it matter?"  Well, personal preference, I suppose.  I started with Rifles as I like the men in the 95th.  Figured it's as good a place as any.  As mentioned above, this is the 6th chronologically (set in 1809), but 9th by publication.  Looking at Goodreads and Amazon reviews, some people found this a bit frustrating.  It means that continuity can be a little off, that characters might not have quite the same presence or developed personality that they did in a earlier/later book, that things referenced might not make 100% sense, that the writing style might not be quite the same.  That makes sense from a writer's perspective - it's a bit of a challenge to keep things flowing completely smoothly when the "next" adventure was really written 8 or 10 or 12 years after a particular story.  Heck, even some series written chronologically have trouble keeping all the details straight and having the characters develop smoothly.  In the grand scheme of things, though, it's not a big deal most of the time.  At least not to me - though there are series where names are inconsistent between books, major details, that sort of thing; then it does get to me.  For Sharpe, it's not a series that has a tight overarching storyline anyway.  Sharpe and the others get promoted, the war proceeds, and events in previous novels are mentioned, but it's not like you need to read the series in completely chronological order in order to follow along.  Just pay attention to the dates given in the novel and remember, "oh yeah, this is before/after (battle name here)"

Just because there's not tons of overarching storylines, doesn't mean there's not a lot of development within the story too.  The characters certainly grow within the individual stories too.  Sharpe starts the story kinda depressed, actually.  He's a fighting soldier, raised from the ranks to an officer, and has been relegated to quartermaster.  So, going from fighting to paperwork and supplies, with no respect from above or below.  Yeah, he's not a happy guy.  He's kinda an antihero to start, not a dramatic born leader ready to inspire men into battle.  Through circumstances, he's now in charge of the men who don't respect him, who have no reason to follow him, and who are stuck in the mountains in winter with not nearly enough supplies.  And honestly?  As a reader, I'm not even sure I liked him and would have followed him.  He grows in confidence and in his leadership, though, and by the end of the story, they really are Sharpe's Rifles.  No, that's not a spoiler - if he didn't grow into being an officer, the series wouldn't really have anymore to do, would it?  A lot of characters are introduced in this one who I know will appear in other books (I have watched the TV show a number of times, after all).  We'll see how their development goes.  The most noteworthy was Sgt Patrick Harper, who will become Sharpe's best friend and ally.  Here, he leads a mutiny and gets into a knockdown-dragout with Sharpe, before eventually getting promoted and gradually coming to respect his Lieutenant. There's the uneasy truce and trust there, but not the close friendship yet, so we'll see how they come to trust each other more as the stories proceed.

Reading other reviews on Goodreads, even people who like the series have split opinions on individual books.  Some like this one, some aren't as fond.  Like most series, I suppose.  Even if the series overall is a good one, individual books can vary. Not having read any of the others yet, I don't have an opinion one way or another.  I suppose that in later posts, I might have more opinion on which Sharpe book is my favorite, but as it is...

Cornwell definitely does his historical research.  Even though the Historical Note at the end of the book basically said, "this isn't how the events really happened," there's a lot of research that's obvious in the details of the fighting, the uniforms, the weapons, the setting.  It is very easy to picture the scenes, given all the description and Cornwell's eye for detail.  For the actual events... the French occupation of Galicia and the British retreat are pretty accurate; it's just the actual events of the story that Cornwell took liberties with. I suppose if you're wanting complete historical accuracy, that might be disappointing, but certain liberties should be allowed in order to make a good adventure.  It's not like he was using lasers or dragons or even machine guns, right?

At times all the historical detail can get kinda tedious, actually.  Mom calls it techno-babble (she uses that description a lot with Tom Clancy books), and just specifies that in Sharpe's stories, it's Napoleonic techno-babble.  If you don't mind a lot of historic detail in your adventure, then it won't be a deal-breaker.  But if that sort of thing turns you off from a book... well, you've been warned.

Favorite quote?

Harper commenting on Sharpe: "He'll fall in love with anything in a petticoat. I've seen his type before. Got the sense of a half-witted sheep when it comes to women... It's a good job he's got me to look after him now" (p.265).

Your hero, ladies and gentlemen: sense of a half-witted sheep.  Not even a full-witted sheep!  And it's true.  Though there are some recurring female leads, Sharpe really is a Napoleonic James Bond (though less suave - more in the new-girl-every-book sense).

A few points comparing it to the TV series:

• Sharpe has black hair???  No.  He is Sean Bean, end of story.
• I missed Teresa.  When the TV writers were adapting the stories to film, they brought her into this story, instead of introducing her later (she first appears in the novel Sharpe's Gold, 9th in the series chronology).  Louisa Parker wasn't bad as Sharpe's love interest - she did have a bit of spark to her - but she wasn't La Aguja. 
• Besides Theresa's appearance, there are a lot of other differences in the events of the book versus the TV episode - a whole chunk of the main mission in fact.  But, quite honestly, there's only so much marching through frozen wasteland that you can film and keep a story entertaining, and large cavalry charges do take lots of horses, extras, and choreography.  So, for filming purposes, the changes are rather understandable.  The "take-homes" are the same - characters are introduced, the gonfalon is raised at Compostela, Harper and Sharpe fight and then come to terms, and Sharpe grows into his role in command of the 95th.  Everything's now set up to head to Talavera.

Audiobook comments:

The narrator for the Sharpe's series, and thus for this book too, is Frederick Davidson.  He does a lot of classics and a good number of mystery series, as well as the Sharpe's series, so I've definitely encountered his readings before.  Never really had any issues with his voice before, but I honestly wasn't crazy about his reading this time.  He has a very flat sort of delivery, a bit dry and pinched at times, which was fine for a lot of the narrative.  It actually really suits some of the other books I've listened to (I though he was the perfect voice for The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth - very much like the 1960s-70s British newscaster-type voice that appeared in the movie).  It wasn't so much the narrative portions that bothered me here, as much as his accents and the associated voices.  The Spanish voices were very deep and gravelly, and sometimes hard to understand, but it was the Irish voices that bothered me the most.  They all went up in range, getting higher.  Which is fine, I suppose, except I really like the Irish characters (and their actors) in the TV series, and a higher voice just didn't work with what I had in my head, or even in the text.  Sgt Harper is constantly described as such a big man, and he's played by Daragh O'Malley in the show - again, a very big guy (he's 6'4" according to IMDB).  A high voice just doesn't fit with that sort of build.  And then there's Hogan, played by Brian Cox in the series.  And I'll be honest, Brian Cox has one of those voices that I could just sit and listen to him read a phone book (also Patrick Stewart, Benedict Cumberbatch, Morgan Freeman... ).  So that's a hard mental image/expectation to beat, or even live up to. 

At any rate, higher tenors just didn't work for either Hogan or Harper, at least IMHO, and that kinda grated on me a bit.  Otherwise, though, Davidson did a pretty decent job with the story, and his reading won't be a deterrent to listening to the rest of the series.

Overall comments:

The story itself is a 4 of 5.  The audiobook version might get docked a half star or so, mostly because of the voices.  But either way, that still is enough stars that it's worth a try.  If you like historical novels or adventure stories, these are good ones to add to your reading list.  Lots of well described battles, good characters, and certainly an eye for periodic detail.

Review: Narcos

Zach and I have been incredibly pleased with the Netflix original programming, and have become outright hooked on several of the titles.  With him being gone for so long last year, I was (incredibly!!) patient and waited for him to get back before catching up on OITNB, Narcos, Longmire, Marco Polo... Like I said, we've been pleased with their original programs :)

 

Which means, now that he's back in the states, that we are catching up.  I know Narcos season 3 is already due out sometime this fall, but here you go: my thoughts on the show thus far.

 

 

 

Plot:  The series so far has followed the rise (and eventual downfall) of cocaine king Pablo Escobar and his cartel, and the efforts of the Colombian police and US DEA agents assigned to bring him down.

 

This has been a very well-done series. 

 

The acting was solid.  No big names, though a few familiar faces, and they all did a good job bringing the characters to the screen.  The standout definitely was Wagner Moura as Escobar.  Unfortunately, he won't be back next season, at least in anything other than a flashback (season 2 ending with Escobar's death, and all), but he was definitely worth watching.  And a bit of trivia?  Moura is Brazilian, so his native language is Portuguese, not Spanish.  He actually learned Spanish for this role!

The story is very well paced.  The plot is really what pulls you in, more than particular characters, and the writers paced things very well to keep the action and the tension going pretty consistently.  Definitely got us hooked.  If you're expecting a generic crime drama, prepare to be pleasantly surprised.

 

Historical accuracy?  Well, as the disclaimer at the start of each episode says, some events, characters, etc. have been dramatized for the purposes of television (or whatever the actual legal wording says).  Obviously, some things have to have been based on imagination, because these are conversations where all participants have since died - Escobar talking to his sicarios, for example.  Some minor characters were based on real people, who may or may not have experienced the same fate as their fictional versions.  And some things were streamlined time-wise to fit the pacing of the show, or were sensationalized a bit for TV - all those little changes to turn Real Life into a Show, you know?  I read an article interviewing the two agents featured in the show, and what they thought about the accuracy.  Pena laughed that his love life wasn't nearly as exciting as it was in the series.  That sort of thing - dramatization.

Part of the dramatization, too, is the good-guy-bad-guy dynamic.  Escobar was a truly violent drug czar, but at the same time, was beloved by a lot of people and considered a Robin Hood-type, supporting communities that the government was practically ignoring at the time.  And let's face it, the US was not squeaky-clean, white-horse, white-hat in their actions, either.  In order to bring down the Medellin cartel, drug enforcement agencies were willing to tread in some rather murky waters.  Though it does get more into the grittiness of reality in the second season, the show did, in some ways, have to simplify these issues.  Part of it was the need to water it down for TV audiences, and part is probably just the challenge of trying to capture how complicated reality actually was.

 

And yet, there are a lot of things that they tried to get right.  The make-up and costuming staff did a great job getting many of the actors to look very much like their real-life counterparts.  There are even articles you can find online comparing pictures of the actors and real photos of their characters.  And the two DEA agents, Murphy and Pena, acted as consultants for the series, so there's input from people who were actually there which (for better or worse) does make a difference. 

 

One of the (very) effective techniques they used to emphasize the realism of the series was including real photos and footage from the time.  There were times where it was almost seamless, the blending of old footage and show footage.  They were getting very good at this through the second half of Season 2, as the drug wars were heating up.  Using news coverage of the bombings and murders really drove home the images.  Very well done.

 

Aside from accuracy, the mark of a good historical piece (to me, at least) is that it makes me want to read more about the real events.  Same way that a good movie from a book should make me want to read the book.  And I've definitely been reading on Escobar as we've been watching this - just like I've been reading on Marco Polo and Ghengis Khan, and on Thomas Cromwell (Wolf Hall).  Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction, but just doesn't film as well, you know?  There are some incredible stories out there, and as I'm a curious little mind and into everything, I like when a series does a good job of planting the seeds.

 

Biggest complaint so far?  The sound.  There was something up with the sound of the second season, where the Spanish dialogue seemed much softer than the English.  Don't know if it was something in the show itself, or in the Netflix streaming, or in our devices, but it was a little frustrating.  A shame too.  Even though we don't speak Spanish, it's still fulfilling to hear the dialogue, the sounds and tones and inflections of it.  The acting is well done, and it's a waste to not be able to hear it.  Hearing the emotion, even if we can't understand the words, is part of the experience, after all.

 

SPOILER (though not really, if you know anything about the history told here, or can look up Escobar in Google):
Escobar does die at the end of S2.  This was an incredible episode, very effective - a good emotional gut-wrench.  The inter-splicing of actual news footage and photos was very well done.  Zach and I both had just a stunned moment as the episode ended, one of those "wow" type feelings.  Like I said, very, very well done.

And the questions circulating now, looking at different websites, are where will they take us for S3 and 4 (both of which have been signed for on Netflix)?  The way things look, the Cali cartel will be the next focus, but we shall see in the fall what else they bring to the table!

 

Overall:  4.5 of 5.  Not a warm and fuzzy show (drug wars, after all), but good cast, well written, and well produced.  The story drives it more than anything else, but you still enjoy watching the characters and their interactions.  A few things that could be improved, but still definitely worth watching.  Consider it another win for Netflix original programming.

 

And because I like character-based poster series, here you go :)

 

        

 

Season 1 (above) had pictures of everyone with cocaine and powder sprays/splashes (is it a splash, if it's powder?).  Season 2 (below) had pictures with bullets.  Pretty appropriate really - Season 1 was the building of the Medellin empire, and Season 2 was the war that resulted.

 

       

Review: Telephone by Mac Barnett, illustrated by Jen Corace

As you know, dear reader, I finished my library science degree last year, and am now working in a real-life library.  What you might not know yet is that I handle children's programming there.  I've been tracking the books I read as part of several reading challenges, but I'm also keeping notes (via GoodReads) of books that I'll use for story time, STEM programs, my next book order, etc.  An unexpected side effect of that, is that my Total Books Read list for this year is already over 100!!   I've already had to update my expected/goal number twice, and I'm still ahead of schedule!  Looks like I'll be upping it again soon - gotta keep the motivation up after all ;)

 

No, not all of them are picture books! I've always got a book on my Kindle App for on the go, and an audiobook going in the car, plus several others at any given point in time, so a lot of what I've read so far this year would be considered "my" books as well.  But, there are a lot of picture books for story time in my list, I will admit.  And some of them are really clever and deserved to be chattered about just as much as my thoughts on my latest mystery.  So expect to start seeing a smattering of picture books and mid-grade reads appearing here too. 

 

First up:  Telephone by Mac Barnett, illustrated by Jen Corace.
 

Plot: A fun illustrated version of the game Telephone, the message transmitted courtesy of an eclectic collection of birds on a phone line.  Will the message get to Peter Pigeon in time to make it home for dinner?  And will he even understand it when it reaches him?

 

I enjoyed the different birds, and how their hobbies obviously affected what they were hearing.  In a larger sense, it's the idea that what we are personally interested in will color how we see (or hear) the world - one of those Big Picture Ideas snuck into kids' picture books :)  I also enjoyed the connections between certain birds and their activities - the cardinal with a baseball bat, for example (any St Louis fans out there?).  My favorite birds were the (spherical) turkey and the owl.  The facial expressions were great!  The owl just looks so deadpan, listening to the Crazy that has reached him on the line.  And I also liked the two little penguins up on the wire with Peter at the end.  Just like the turkey - what are they doing on that phone line?

Extra Bonus?  Chronicle Books has a wallpaper with the owl on it for free on their blog!

 

 

 

Personally, I enjoy Mac Barnett's works quite a bit.  He was a presenter at the Texas Book Festival a few years ago when I was able to attend, and just cracked me up (he was presenting with Jon Scieszka, another favorite, so definitely enjoyed myself).  I've found that his books have a quirky, rather absurd sense of humor, and this one's no exception. 

 

Jen Corace's illustrations are wonderful.  They aren't Heavy Artistic pictures, or overly detailed, but they carry a lot of the story themselves - the ostrich with the feather duster?  The worry on the turkey's face?  Her illustrations add that depth to the simple story.  The simplicity of the illustrations make it a good choice for a story time too.  Books that have incredibly detailed illustrations are wonderful in their own way, but they can be a little too much for 20 4-year-olds at a time.  Barnett himself summed it up well: "Her birds are so bold and bright and charismatic, and can command the attention of a rowdy mob of kindergarteners, but there’s plenty of clever and delicate details you can study with a quiet kid in your lap."

 

As an adult reading the picture book, it's silly fun, but a little simple for me, missing that bit of oomph that would really make it a classic.  However, this is a good story time book, one that will tie in nicely with activities with the kids.  I'd have preferred a little more similarity between the garbled statements as they passed between birds, especially as I'll be reading it aloud at story time, but you could still see how one statement warped into the next. 

 

My rating: 3.5 of 5 (somewhere between Liked and Really Liked)

The other bulky cardigan

Like I mentioned in the other post today, I've made two cardigans out of the Air Wool I was gifted.  This is the other one.  This was started for NaKniSweMo waaaaaaaaay back in 2010, but between finding buttons, figuring out the pockets, a cross-country move, and it becoming lost at the back of my knitting closet... let's just say it took me a bit longer than a month to finish.  And then another year and a half to finally write up...  Love it a ton, now that it's finished, though!  I know some of what I'll talk about below are points I've already mentioned, but it'll be good to have them all together in a (Finally) Finished Object post.

The Yarn

As I have already said, it's Filatura Di Crosa Air Wool.  Lovely, squishy, soft, easy to work with, hard to color-match, sadly discontinued. 

The Pattern

Cumulus by Cirilia Rose.  It's available for free on the Berroco website.

It's a pretty straightforward pattern, and knits up very quickly.  Yay for bulky yarns!  A note on the Berroco website read that this sweater can be knit in 24 hours (not one day, but 24 hours knitting time).  I didn't knit it up that quickly, but I still got it mostly done in a month!  Aside from the above delays in the finishing and the writing up, the knitting time itself did fall within the NaKniSweMo goal :)

Raveled here.

Notes, Alterations, Etc.

Quite a lot on this one, actually.

• Smaller Gauge - After swatching, I decided to go with the US 10 1/2 needles, instead of the 11s.  I reached gauge with the US11s, but by making the gauge a little denser, I get closer to my size (I'm between sizes in the pattern).  By making the bigger size at the smaller gauge, I'll end up with both a warmer sweater and one that's closer to my actual size.
• Long Sleeves - Didn't like the sleeves in the original pattern.  I'm not crazy about 3/4 sleeves anyway, and the puff sleeves just are not flattering on me.  Also, it's a wool-blend sweater, in a heavy yarn, and I knit it in a little bit denser (and therefore warmer) gauge.  Doesn't make sense if the sleeves aren't full length.  Why have a warm sweater-coat with short sleeves?  I made just basic straight sleeves, based off EZ Percentage Sweater math.  Started with 23 stitches, increased 2 stitches every 6 rows (and only 1 stitch on the last increase) to give 42 stitches at the top of the sleeve as required in the pattern.
• Sleeves were knit in the round - I was altering the sleeves anyway.  Besides, I don't like seaming if I can help it :)
• Sleeves grafted - 7 stitches put on holders at underarm (means that line of increases is centered on underside of arm).  The stitches were then grafted to close the seam.  The pattern had called for 6 stitches at the underarm, but of course, my sleeve construction was a little different than the pattern anyway.
• No Puff Hem - Like the puff sleeves, just not flattering for me.  Not a major change in action, just meant that the body was knit on all one needle size, instead of changing to a larger needle after the border.
• No Pockets - I had debated for a long time about how to do the pockets.  I love pockets, but I didn't really want them knit out of the Air Wool.  With a yarn this bulky, there'd just be too much weight and bulk around my upper leg.  Not flattering, and not really a convenient place for pockets for me.  So, I'd debated making pockets out of a lighter weight yarn and sewing them on as patch pockets.  I had left the opening for them, as per the instructions, then eventually changed my mind and seamed them shut instead.  Invisible seaming, and you don't even notice the opening was there.  
• Smaller buttons -  I found 1.5" not 2" buttons, as called for. However, as I mentioned on the other sweater, it's a hard color to match.  I found shell buttons for this one too, but they are a little smaller than what the pattern calls for.  Oh well, they look pretty and still close the sweater :)

Overall, I love this sweater.  It is warm and snuggly and soft, and had enough pattern details that there's some interest, and it was a relatively quick knit, even with having to calculate sleeves and then the delays in finishing.  Yup, one of my favorites that I've made.

Test Knit: Bulky Cardigan

Yup, more knitting.

The title during this test knit was Under the Sea Cardigan, but it was ultimately published as Down the Sloquet River (available for purchase on Ravelry).  I just referred to it in my head as the Bulky Lacy Cardigan.  Obviously, I'm not always creative in my naming!

Yarn

Filatura Di Crosa Air Wool, an unfortunately discontinued yarn.  It's a merino-acrylic blend, machine washable and super squishy-soft.  I really enjoyed working with it. This is actually one of two cardigans I've made with this yarn, which was gifted to me by my wonderful knitting buddy (more on the other cardigan later).  It's a very soft purple-grey color, and since Sarah doesn't wear purple, it got passed along.  I love it!

Honestly, the biggest downside to this yarn was trying to find buttons to coordinate with the color.  Silver looked off, and black or white buttons were too stark.  I ended up using shell buttons for both cardigans.  Since there were so many soft pastel colors on the buttons, they coordinated beautifully with the pastel yarn.

Altogether, I used just about 300 yds for this sweater.  Yay for super bulky yarns!

 

Pattern

The cardigan is a top-down, seamless, cables-and-lace pattern.  And you know me - I love my cables and lace.  So of course, this was a test knit I had to sign up for. 

The set up at the top is a little involved - I had to undo my neck several times to get the short-row shaping correct - but once you get past that, the pattern is very straightforward.  The fiddliest parts are at the cable crosses across the lace.  Just be careful not to drop your stitches!!  Don't ask me how I know... :)

The sizing does offer a good bit of ease, since it's so lacy.  To give you an idea, my cardigan measured 16 inches across the chest (32 inches around).  The chest size I usually knit is 36/37, or thereabouts.  So, yes, this is a very stretch, very forgiving pattern.  A nice plus, in my opinion.  Part of the reason I like lacy patterns - even the more form-fitting designs are relatively stretchy and giving in their sizing :)

Raveled here.

 

Notes, Alterations, Observations, etc. 

It helps to go through first and circle all numbers related to your size first.  I know this is a good rule of thumb anyways, but it REALLY helps on this pattern.  Each size has slightly different stitch counts in fitting the pattern, and no one size is too complex, i.e. the knitting itself isn't too bad.  However, there are a lot of sizes that this sweater is designed for, and it makes for a very big pattern file (I got it electronically for the test knit).   With so many sizes in the pattern and each with their own stitch counts, you don't want to make a mistake and end up following the wrong size.  So, save time and headache and make note of your size in the directions before you make a mistake and have to frog it all.

And on that note, remember to use your lifelines.  I mentioned that the cable crosses in the lace are fiddly, right?

Only one change to the pattern for me.  I did one less lace repeat through the body.  (A) I was running out of yarn and (B) it was long enough (I'm not exactly long-waisted).  The sweater grew a little with blocking anyways - that whole lace-is-forgiving thing - so there wasn't really the need either.  Not a critical change, but one to note.

So what ELSE are you doing in Hawaii?

If you were just reading my last few posts, then you might think that we moved all the way out here to Hawaii, and then I do nothing but knit.  Well, you'd be wrong ... at least a little :)

Quite honestly, it is WONDERFUL being in a real Place again.  Our last 8+ years have been spent in very hot, very dry places, where you have to drive a good bit to get to almost anything one might want to do.  I mean, in CA, we were 40 miles from the closest town; 73 miles from the closest Target, bookstore, and movie theater; 2 hours from the closest Chick-Fil-A (important landmarks, you know); and a bit over 2 hours from either a lake, beach, or wooded mountain.  In Texas, things were a bit better (Target and bookstores were in town, at least) but we still were looking at several hours of driving to get to decent hiking, museums, or most events or activities we wanted to do.  This is really the first time in almost a decade where we're in a Real City again.  Let's face it, the Army doesn't really send you to cities all that often.  The Navy at least almost has to send you to a port (which will also be a City 95% of the time) but the Army... they like their space to drive tanks around and practice blowing stuff up.  Being in a city doesn't really give you that sort of space.  So, we're in a city for now, and we plan to enjoy it!

 

Being in a real Place again, we are facing the relatively unfamiliar position of having to make choices about what to do on a weekend!  I mean, more than one thing might be going on that we want to go to!  Craziness!!  There are cultural festivals, plays, concerts, independent movie theaters, museums (plural!!), sports events, historical sites... plus tons of hiking and beaches and natural activities too.  And people to do it with!!  It's a really nice feeling to be able to get out of the house and do stuff again, without tons of driving to plan in.

 

Even with driving to plan in, though, it's still not ridiculous (assuming traffic cooperates).  My commute to work is across the island, and it's still only about 25-30 minutes (usually).  I have blocked off that amount of time just to get across town in some of the places I've lived. Some people plan on that time (or more) just to commute within Honolulu, and I know people in TX that commuted up from Austin or its suburbs, and they had a 45-60 minute commute.  But the fact that I work "all the way over" on the Windward side... I think it's the mental distance more than the time.  I had to pick something up from a business over in Kailua (Windward side), and when the lady called to tell me it was ready, she said that it could be mailed to me, if I couldn't pick it up myself.  She didn't actually say it, but that "all the way over there" was certainly in her voice.  Coming from driving-happy Central TX, where driving "just down to Austin" (90 minutes away) is no big deal, it really made me chuckle.

 

In total honesty, yes, Honolulu traffic is a bear.  One accident on the H1 and it will back up for miles.  But, as I remind myself, we have traffic here because we have people here.  People are here because they want to be here, because there are things to do here.  So if I want the one, the other comes with - hard to escape it.  And then I turn on my audiobook or the radio (we get NPR again!) and try to relax a bit.  Traffic is what it is, not much you can do to change it.  Years of driving the HRBT taught me that!

 

And just because this post needed some pictures, here's a shot from a sunset hike I did back in the fall.  Several groups around here head to different trails to go hike at sunset on full moon nights.  This one is the view from the trail to the Makapu'u Lighthouse, looking back toward the sunset over Hawaii Kai.  Very, very pretty.

 

A finished project to celebrate a new job!

This was knit up in the fall, so still pretty recent, compared to a few of these others!  I wanted a quick and relatively mindless project as I was going through my Netflix queue, waiting to start my new job.**  This one was waiting in my Ravelry queue, and it just seemed like the time to do it.  Yes, I do realize that it'll probably be in my cedar chest for a while until we get somewhere with enough winter to be able to wear heavy wool again.  But living in Hawaii isn't going to stop me from knitting, sorry!

 

 

The Yarn

Plymouth Yarn Trabajos Del Peru.

A thick-and-thin yarn, which Plymouth has unfortunately discontinued. I seem to find those a lot - yarns I like and have no issues with, but that have been discontinued (possibly as trends and fads change, making way for new textures or materials or colors).  Part of shopping sale bins, I suppose!  Still good finds, great for one-skein projects, and of course more affordable - just disappointing when you find you can't work with the yarn again.

This one is nice and soft and doesn't split.  It's a single-ply yarn, though, so you can inadvertently stick your needle through the yarn itself; something to be careful about.  Like when using most thick and thin yarns, it's best to use a simpler pattern.  The texture on thick and thin yarns tends to overwhelm more intricate patterns (or, alternately, the texture of the yarn is lost, and you might as well have used a smoother, less 'fancy' yarn).

The Pattern

That's One Sexy Librarian! Neckwrap by Brian Atkinson at An Excellent Source of Fiber.

Yes, I totally made this one for the name!  I've graduated, have my degree, and will actually be working IN my field in a few weeks time (something to celebrate for any military spouse!).  So, like with quirky race names (here's to you, Santa Shuffle), the name was a factor in my decision :)  I don't know the story behind his naming of the pattern, but I like it.

The neckwrap's a pretty quick knit, mostly garter stitch, with the loopy X's for something of interest.  It's a great pattern for yarns that you want to show off, ones with some character or texture, but that you don't necessarily have a lot of.  I used the thick and thin yarn, while other Ravelry users knit with tweeds or homespun yarns.

It's truly a neckwrap - or a scarflette, if you prefer.  It's a great one-skein project, but one-skein projects don't make for very long scarves.  So, this one's a nice cozy tuck-around scarf, rather than one that you loop around multiple times.  With the soft wool yarn, though, it's still nice and cozy.

Thoughts, Notes, Alterations, etc.

The only real change I made was in needle size.  I started on US 8, as the pattern called for, but with this yarn, that gauge was making a very tight piece. So, I went up needle sizes to US 10. This created a little bit softer fabric, a little bit more drape, and you can see the thick-and-thin of the yarn more than on the 8s.

I didn't count my rows, the way the pattern called for.  But, using a different yarn than the original pattern, I had slightly different yardage in my skein.  To make the scarflette balanced (with mirror image ends), and still use as much yarn as possible from the skein, I pulled out my kitchen/postage scale and weighed my skein repeatedly as I worked along.  Then, with a bit of math, I could figure out when I needed to start the X's on the second half of the scarf.  Yeah, I'm that knitter :)

**This project was finished back in October, while I was indeed celebrating a new job.  All hired and signed and everything, but had extra time before actually starting to work.  I had to wait extra time for my background check paperwork to clear, since there was a software upgrade at my new workplace right as I was being hired.  So, new job, plus still Netflix & Knitting time - trying to finish up some series I'd started while my toe was healing after the move!

A pair of finished projects!

Like the Stormcloud Shawlette, these two have actually been finished for a bit, but as I was writing up the ones that I needed photos for, I realized I had not written these up either.  You can tell it's been a while if you look closely - the background in a few pictures is our apartment in CA and my hair is really long.  ;)  But here they are, finally!

Monet Neckwarmer

Free pattern in Ravelry.  My project raveled here

This was originally a plain white yarn (well, off-white) which I used when Sarah and I played with dyeing our own yarns.  I like the finished colors much better, but then, plain off-white isn't hard to surpass.  And Julie, be proud of me: As I painted this yarn, and watched the colors set, and then knit it up, the only thing that I kept thinking was how these colors reminded me of a Monet painting.  All these years related to an art teacher have rubbed off!  :)

The neck-warmer is a lovely little pattern.  The slip stitch pattern is very mindless and quick to knit.  I was so excited about this yarn that I needed a quick knit to use it in.  The slip stitch pattern also worked beautifully with the painted yarn, playing up the watercolor-esque look.  And since I only had 1 skein, a neck-warmer was a good solution.  The longest part of the whole process was finding a button I liked to match!  I couldn't find a button in exactly the same shade of any of the blues or greens or purples in the yarn, but I did find a good dark blue/indigo sort of shade that is a nice contrast.  I'm satisfied. 

Yes, it was indeed a very quick knit.  Two movies, maybe?  Perfect for my excitement level!  I did make a few changes to the pattern to suit my own preferences.  The 15 stitches cast on by the pattern were a little narrow for my tastes, so I cast on 17 stitches instead.  Also, for the I-cord loop, I added it to the bound-off edge, as part of the bind-off.  The pattern called for you to bind off, then sew the I-cord onto the cast-on edge.  Instead, I bound off 5 stitches, used the next 3 stitches to make I-cord, closing the loop to next 3 stitches (effectively binding off 6 stitches with the I-cord), then bound off the remaining 6 stitches.  Really, I just didn’t want to sew on more than I have to :)

 

The yarn (besides being beautiful, if I do say so myself) was pleasant to work with.  And it's nice and squishy and soft, so is a good addition to the winter neckwear in the closet.  The yarn is Lion Brand Kool Wool, now discontinued.  Another one of those yarns that was really nice to work with but got discontinued to make way for new trends.  I've another project's worth of it in my stash in plain black, so I know I'll enjoy that when I get to that point on the queue. 

Stashbuster Striped Cardigan

Pattern available free on Ravelry.  My project Raveled here.

One of those widely popular patterns out there: the Anthropologie-Inspired Capelet.  I've actually made this pattern before!  Me, who almost never does repeat patterns!  Yes, I liked it that much :)  It's a simple top-down raglan cardigan, but it's easy to adjust to be long-sleeved or short, or cropped or full-length.  Really, the pattern is just a nice basic starting point, and the 3,000+ projects on Ravelry show some wonderful variations!  In my case, I kept it as a cap-sleeved cardigan, but kept working until it was a full-length sweater.  I solved the "when should I stop" problem by knitting through the first skein (about one stripe past the armholes), then working the sleeve cuffs from the outside of the second skein, then finishing the body with the rest of the second skein.  I just knit til there was no more yarn!  By knitting from the outside of the second skein to do the cuffs, I didn't interrupt the stripe pattern in the body - one thing to be conscious of when the stripes are so bold!

 

I really, really liked the Plassard Symphonie I used for this sweater.  I had two skeins of it from a sale at Knit Wits back home that I'd been saving for a sweater like this one.  Finally got around to doing it!  :)  As I started, I worried about the stripes, that they would be too bold, too wide, but by the time I had a whole sweater's worth of them on my needles, they looked much more proportionate.  It's brighter than some of my usual colors, I guess, but not too out there, and I LOVE that dark teal color!  The yarn was a little scratchy as I was working with it, but not too bad (that's one of those things I'm sensitive to) and when I washed and blocked it, it softened up beautifully.  And the yarn spit-splices like a dream!  A little thing, I know, but it does make joining skeins sooo easy (though it does mean I have to be careful washing, as it will also FELT like a dream!).  Would definitely use this yarn again.

Knitting Done!

Yup, one of those "more knitting posts to come" :)
 

This one is another one-skein wonder with a skein from a Yarn Crawl: Stormcloud Shawlette (I call it my Stormy Greys shawl).

 

The yarn:

Mini Mochi, colorway 307, which looks in my pictures like a lot of relatively uniform dark gray, almost a solid color.  It's not; it was just bad lighting.  The color is really several shades of grays, including some teal-greys and burgundy-greys.  It's really pretty!  You can see it a little more clearly on the color card at Crystal Palace, but even there it's only a glimpse.  The picture where my shawlette is blocking is probably the closest you come to seeing the stripes. 

 

 

This stuff is soooooooo soft!  I loved working with it.  Some people have mixed opinions on Mini Mochi, but I really like it.  The biggest complaints are knots (but Crystal Palace has a pretty good exchange policy) and that it's a rather loosely-spun single-ply yarn.  That might make a difference for socks and how they wear, but since I don't really make socks (and even less so, now that I live in Hawaii), the single-ply is just fine for scarves and shawls.  Yes, I do still wear those living here - I work in a notoriously AC-ed environment after all.  Humidity is bad for books, not just for curls!
 

The pattern:

Stormcloud Shawlette by Hanna Breetz.  It's a free pattern available on Ravelry or at the designer's blog, Ever Green Knits.  It's a semi-circle of extended garter stitch (one row, k1 yo; second row, drop the yarn overs) with a bit of a ruffle at the edge.  Nice and basic, and a perfect one-skein project - just keep on going until you run out of yarn!

The shawl is fluttery and drapey and makes a nice warm little scarf at the size I made.  You can see in the pictures, it's just a little flip-around-the-neck sort of shawlette.  The single ball of Mini Mochi yielded 74 rows of knitting, just barely past the last increase row (the one where you need to knit straight across).  So, I have a teeny-tiny little ruffle.  If you have a bigger skein, you will have a bigger ruffle and a bigger shawl overall.  Like I said, it's one of those patterns that you can just keep going til you run out of yarn. 
 

Notes, Adjustments, Overall Opinion:

A nice, easy, mindless pattern that's been perfect for binge-watching Netflix.  I made this one as we were watching old Law & Order episodes (seasons 1-8 available were on Netflix - we missed the window when they had more seasons to stream). 

No adjustments, really.  To get a gauge I liked, I used size 8 needles with the sock-weight Mini Mochi, and then size 10 needles to bind off.  I also used a lace bind off (k2tog, slide stitch back to first needle, k2tog, all the way across).  You want the bind-off as loose as possible so that the ruffle doesn't pucker up oddly.  Remember: loose, ruffly, drapey!
 

And here's a clearer shot of the stripes, though it still kinda blends into my grey blocking mats.  And as you can also see, I block aggressively.  With a loose stitch pattern like this one, that actually worked very well,  The resulting scarf feels very light and airy, but being Mini Mochi (i.e. wool sock  yarn) is still nice and warm.

My project is raveled here.

 

Tittle Tattle Shawlette: Test Knit

Now that Zach is back home, I recruited him to help me take a whole bunch of pictures of finished projects.  Some of these are older finished projects that I finally have "Project Completed" pictures to share, while others are ones I've done in the past year or so.  At any rate, I now have a ton of knitting projects to finish writing up.  Expect a flurry of knitting posts coming your way (You have been warned!)

This first one is a test knit I finished up about a year and a half ago.  I do enjoy those test knits, and hope my schedule calms down enough to start picking them up again.  They are after all (a) fun, and (b) keep me on a schedule.  I'm trying to be good about knitting regularly and from my stash. Yarn diet!  Since the test knits all have a due date, I have to keep at it, you see.  No projects slipping into hibernation.  And that strategy does work - lots of finished test knit projects on my Ravelry page :)

 

This test knit is a shawlette pattern.  I know I've mentioned before that Zach laughs at me about that - I think he thinks that all I knit are cowls and shawls!

The yarn

A good classic, Lorna's Laces Shepherd's Sock.  This particular skein came from a Ravelry swap a few years ago and had been lurking in the stash, waiting for a project that would be worthy of it.  The colorway is Mountain Stream, but it reminds me of sunsets.  Whatever you call it, though, it's a beautiful combination of jewel tones.  I love how the bright blue just pops out with the garter stitch.  Just lovely.

Shepherd's Sock is one of those yarns that people gush about, and with good reason.  The colorways always are gorgeous, and it's soft and easy to work with - no splitting or anything obnoxious like that.  And from what I've read in comments, it wears beautifully too.  As a shawlette, this won't be getting hard wear, like it would if this was used in socks, but it's still nice to know that it won't be pilling immediately or anything like that.

The pattern

Tattle Tails Shawl by Jeannine Hoeffler.  I just keep calling it Tittle Tattle because I watch too many British mysteries.  A character in the Jeremy Brett Sherlock Holmes series talked of 'tittle tattle,' and the phrasing stuck in my head in the character's voice.  So, on reading the name of this pattern, the voice came to my mind, and just stuck after that.  However, if you're looking it up on Ravelry, it's Tattle Tails, not Tittle Tattle :)

The pattern itself is a lovely little one-skein project, though you could make it larger if you wanted, I suppose.  With the pattern as-is and the amount of yarn I had, it's a good shawlette size - drapes across my shoulders, or wraps around my neck a time or two, but not really enough to bundle up in.  The tails are knit as you go along, which is rather fun, really.  The rest of the scarf is garter stitch, with just the increases along the sides.  It makes for a portable, relatively mindless project, but producing a lovely result.  Always a nice combination!

  

I added a big button at the end, for when I wear it all wrapped up around my neck.  I can button it in place, and it'll stay tucked up as I want it.  The button's a bright blue, about the same shade as the bright blue 'pops' in the yarn itself, so it's a flash of color itself.  You can see it a bit in the picture below (sorry it's dark; even with the shadows, though, you can see the blue of the button).

 

Raveled here.

Notes, Alterations, Etc.

For my skein (215 yds, an older skein - skeins now are 435 yds), I was able to fit 24 tails before beginning the end fringe.

It's a very easy pattern - all you really have to think about is keeping track of your rows to know when to make your next tail.  I found that tracking my stitch count at each tail helped.  You are increasing along the neck edge (the smooth side), then cast on for a tail at 10+ stitches from the previous tail.  You should end with 3+ stitches from the previous tail when you're done with that tail's bind-offs.  So, for you algebraically-inclined types:

x= stitch count
x+10 = stitch count when you’re ready to cast on for the next tail
x+3 = stitch count when you’re done with the cast off from that tail

With real numbers:

tail 1 ended with 4 stitches left (x = 4)
tail 2 was cast on at 14 stitches (x+10)
tail 2 post-bind-off was 7 stitches (x+3, new x=7)
tail 3 was cast on at 17 stitches (x+10)
tail 3 post-bind-off at 10 (x+3)
and so on… (13 stitches, then 16, 19, 22… hut hut HIKE!)

And if you want to make things really numerically fun (read: dorky), the number tail you are on is stitch count after the tail's bind-off minus 1 divided by 3

N = (x-1)/3

So, when you finish the tail with 61 stitches left, you will have 20 tails on your scarf

20 = (61-1)/3

I realize this might not help the majority of people who read this (there are a surprising number of knitters who are math-phobic), but it helped me keep the counts straight.

And of course, my helper: