Category Archives: Book Reviews

Revidere Shawl – I’m Baaaaaaack

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I’m back to where I was 9 days ago . . . . .

 

Very careful notes this time . . . .

So now I truly am only about 2 dozen rows from the end. God help me . . . .

 

Thanks for all the comments on my last post, about reading while knitting. I have to tell you since yesterday I have been almost obsessively listening to Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca, and while I am enjoying it (thanks Janie!) I am overcome quote often with the desire to slap the narrator around a bit and say “Get a backbone!” They are just preparing for the Manderley dress ball and the unnamed narrator is the only one who can’t see the freight train bearing down on her. It is hard sometimes to read a book from another era, when women were not as emancipated as they are now, and swallow whole the condescension and sexism inherent in its time. And this one was written by a woman! But the book carries such a fine sense of the atmosphere and the suspense of the story is addicting. I shall listen – and knit – on.

 

Listening While Knitting

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For a long time I’ve been meaning to write a post asking what makes a good audiobook, and more especially, what makes a good knitting audiobook? By that I certainly do not mean a book about knitting, but I am asking are there special qualities an audiobook can have that make it especially good to listen to while clicking away on the needles?

I think there are – though those qualities probably change with each knitter. For me, I like a story that takes me away to another time (so I read a lot of historicals). I also prefer fiction, because when I am knitting I wanna worry about anybody else’s troubles but my own. I like the main character to be a woman (though not always) and to not be a doormat (always). I have no objection to young adult novels – some of these, like Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games and Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials series have given me some of my greatest reading and/or listening pleasure. But in most cases, talking animals are right out (except in the case of the bear in His Dark Materials, who was such a fully realized character with no cuteness about him – worked for me!).

With that definition in mind, here are some of my favorite knitting audiobooks:

*Just damn good books – These books would have been great no matter how I read them, but the required concentration it takes to listen while knitting drew me even deeper inside their world. The Thousand Autumns of Jakob de Zoet by David Mitchell (which may be my favorite audiobook of all time);  Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann; Sarah Dunant‘s Italian Trilogy (In the Company of the Courtesan, Sacred Hearts and The Birth of Venus, which can be read in any order) The Given Day by Dennis Lahane. Actually, if I had to make a list of the 10 audiobooks I’d take to a desert island, all of these would be on it.

*Some books are great knitting audiobooks because the narrator gives much more than reading; he or she gives a performance, or an interpretation, that makes you experience the book in a way reading it inside you own head never could. Here I’d list The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers, read by Cherry Jones, who absolutely lives every character of that Southern drama, and Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel, read by Simon Slater.  I’d also repeat myself here, with Lahane’s The Given Day read with guts and gusto by Michael Boatman. Wow!

*Then there are the ones where the author has a such a distinctive voice of his or her own that you want to hear them read you the story – Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell and Bossypants by Tina Fey. Both of these books made me laugh out loud.

*Stuff about ancient Rome – In this category I love Pompeii by Robert Harris and the Medicus series by Ruth Downey. Both authors write historical mysteries, but their characters are so rich and interesting that you care more about them than you do about who dunnit.

*All those English classics you have either already read, or should have read, but now can have read to you by great British actors. My favorite narrators here are Simon Vance, Anton Lesser (Little Dorrit), Edward Petherbridge (Where Angels Fear to Tread) and Juliet Stevenson (she does the best with Jane Austen). Honorable mention goes to Nadia May (The Enchanted April) and Wanda McCaddon (A Room with a View)

*Anything by Neil Gaiman. I am not a fan of science fiction or fantasy, but this guy is such a good writer and sees so clearly into the hearts and minds of his characters that everything of his I have listened to has resulted in hours of knitting/listening pleasure. Among my favorites are Neverwhere, Stardust and American Gods. This last one may be one of my favorite audiobooks of all time – and again, not usually my genre, but so well written and so beautifully narrated by George Guidall who gives another of the interpretive performances I mentioned above.

Then there are the stinkobombs:

River God by Wilbur Smith- Lousy book with lousy narration. Yes, Wilbur, we know you’ve done your homework on ancient Egypt. Should have been edited by half. I turned it off when the very limited narrator, a eunuch, started to tell me how moistening the inner lips of his mistress was like watching a waterlily or a lotus bloom. GACK.

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout – really just a bunch of short stories strung together and, because of the amateurish narration by Sandra Burr  (“Here’s my old man voice” and now, “Here’s my little girl voice”) failed to endear the main character to me at all.

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield – What was the big deal? I slept through the end. Seriously.

The Prestige by Christopher Priest – HATED IT!

The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger – Note to self: never believe the hype about time-traveling fiction. Even Diana Gabaldon could not sustain the illusion through all her books. The only really good one I ever read was Time and Again by Jack Finney.

Juliet by Anne Fortier – the less said about this chick lit/Da Vinci Code wanna be the better. Perfectly wretched. Rotten narration, too.

ALL RIGHT. That’s my rant for the day. I am now listening to Daphne Du Maurier’s Rebecca, the recommendation of my friend Janie Rose. What else do you all recommend as a knitting audiobook and WHY?

Just think of all the knitting and listening I could have been doing while I was creating all those links!

Buy This Book

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This blog is about things I and some of my friend make. Today, I wanna talk about something my friend and colleague, Don Lattin, made – a book.

As I write, Don is on the radio talking to Bay Area public radio host about Michael Krasny, The Harvard Psychedelic Club, his third book. The book documents the people and events that surrounded the experiments with LSD at Harvard in the 1950s. The players include Timothy Leary, Huston Smith, Andrew Weil and Ram Dass. The New York Times reviewed the book about a week ago and said, “I enjoyed just about every page of The Harvard Psychedelic Club. This groovy story unfurls — chronicling the lives of men who were brilliant but damaged, soulful but vengeful, zonked-out but optimistic and wry — like a ready-made treatment for a sprawling, elegiac and crisply comic movie, let’s say Robert Altman by way of Wes Anderson.”

NOT BAD!!!!!!!

Don is a friend of mine from the world of religion reporting. He was the religion reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle for many years, and he wrote some of the best pieces I’ve ever read. I’ll never forget his series on Mormonism at a crossroads – excellent – and his interview with Elisabeth Kubler-Ross as she faced her own death was gripping. He’s written two other books for Harper One, both of which were excellent, and we all hope this will be his breakout book. He is such an entertaining writer, such a fun man and a good guy. I am thrilled for him!!!!

Don is going to be reading in Berkeley this Thursday at 7 p.m. at Books Inc on Fourth Street. I am going, tho I may have to show up late as I have to work til 8. But I’ll be there. Anybody else wanna go?

Knitting to Vancouver

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On the train

On the train

I love to take the train. Even more than taking the train, I love to knit on the train. Last week, I hopped Amtrak‘s Coast Starlight in Emeryville, CA and rode it all the way to Seattle, an approximately 18-hour trip with nothing to do but sleep, read and sit and knit and look out the window at the rugged mountains and rolling rivers that weave through the Pacific Northwest.

I was on my way to Vancouver, BC where I was meeting my mother and then joining up with 10 or so other knitters on the Norwegian Cruise Line‘s Norwegian Star for a 5-day repositioning cruise. The trip was organized by K2Tog, the yarn store where I work, as a “knitting cruise” – we would have an on-board workshop in toe-up socks, knitting time, and trips to local yarn shops in the ports of call.

But the first leg of the trip was just me, my knitting and my iPod. I picked up the train in Emeryville at about 10:30 p.m. Friday night. With the help of a Tylenol PM, I was able to sleep okay in a coach window seat. I was kinda cold – they really air-condition the hell out of those cars – and my seat was opposite the staircase to the lower level of the traincar, so there was a light in my eyes. But I slept enough.

Sunrise

Sunrise

In the morning I awoke to this view outside my window. I am not sure what mountain this is, but it is not to far south of the California-Oregon state line and is as pretty as can be. The sky was pink, the rising sun turning the snow on the mountain a pink, too. There were lots of pine trees, low shrubs – maybe sage – with yellow blossoms on the ends of their scrubby branches. We passed rivers and lakes and saw lots of birds. No people. No cars. Just what was probably a state park. It was a great way to wake up.

another sunrise shot

another sunrise shot

Throughout the day, we continued north through Oregon, stopping in Klamath Falls, Eugene and Portland. I had a seat mate all the way, including one woman in a hijab who was traveling from Klamath Falls to Portland to be with her family for the Eid-al-Fitr. Most of the day, I sat in the lounge car, which has a dome-like glass ceiling, and watched the world go by as I knit and listened to a book on tape.

Which brings me to a book review: I was listening to American Gods by Neil Gaiman. I had purchased it from Audible in early Sept with some trepidation. I am not a fan of fantasy or science-fiction, but I have listened to three other books by Gaiman (Wall, Stardust and Neverwhere) and count them among my Audible favorites. This book surpassed them all and may be my all-time Audible favorite. No one can match Gaiman in terms of creativity and fanciful imagination, and this book was enormously aided by the choice of narrator – WHO – who acted each character perfectly. All of the characters – men, women, young girls, gods and crooks among them – were fleshed out in three dimensions and were entirely distinguishable one from another. I kid you not – if you enjoy a bit of magic in your fiction, check this book out. Listening to it really enhanced my enjoyment of the entire trip and made my knitting more fun, too.

Bobble baby hat

Bobble baby hat

Okay, back to the knitting. On the train, I started and finished a baby hat. I made it with one ball of Crystal Palace Taos yarn and designed it myself (this is a big deal for me). The pattern is below. I love the way it came out! When it was finished, I picked up a ball of Manos del Uruguay silky wool and started the first of a pair of fingerless gloves from a pattern I picked up at Churchmouse Yarns and Teas on Bainbridge Island outside Seattle when I visited there last year. What a yarn store! The pattern is free with the purchase of the yarn – ask for their welted fingerless gloves pattern. I am going to finish them off with a set of vintage pearl buttons on the welts, slightly offset from the center of my wrist.

We were due to arrive in Seattle at about 9 p.m., at which time those of us continuing to

Amtrak wine

Amtrak wine

Vancouver, BC would board a bus for another 3 hours. At 5 p.m., I decided I had earned a drink, so I headed to the café car to buy myself a glass of red wine. The attendant said the only wine he had for sale was a half-bottle of white. I don’t like white – and how good can Amtrak wine be, right? But I was set for a glass of wine and some sunset knitting, so I paid for my half-bottle and took it and glass to a table in the window. The attendant went on break, so I had the café car to myself. I looked at the wine – a pinot

Our Trento view

Our Trento view

grigio – and I saw that its label said it was from the Veneto region of Italy. My husband and I were just there in May, and when I turned the bottle around, the label said it was imported by a company in Trento. Trento was one of my favorite cities we visited on our trip! I had an instant flashback to the evenings my husband I spent in Trento, sitting on our terrace and drinking wine as we looked out across the view to the Castello del Buonconsiglio and the Duomo. At the same time, I was looking out the window at the coastline of the Seattle-Tacoma area speed by. Double vision! It was very cool. I called my husband at home to tell him.

My Amtrak view

My Amtrak view

The rest of the trip was unremarkable. We arrived in Seattle early (!!!), waited around for the bus for an hour, left there on time and got to Vancouver at about 12:30 a.m. Sunday morning. I hopped a cab to the Sheraton, checked in, and there was my mom asleep in her bed! Yeah! I went to sleep (oh, man, was I ready to be horizontal!) and prepared for the morning when we would head for ship.

Okay, here’s the pattern for the baby hat:

YOU WILL NEED:

1 ball Crystal Palace Taos (or about 200 yds of worsted weight yarn)

1 set of size 5 double point needles (DPNs)

stitch markers

Tapestry needle

ABBREVIATIONS:

k – knit

p – purl

pm – place marker

mb – make bobble

kfbf – knit into the front, the back and the front of a single stitch = 3 stitches

kfb – knit into the front and the back of a single stitch = 2 stitches

RH – right hand needle

ssk – Slip 2 stitches, one at a time, as if to knit, and knit them through the back loops

k2tog – knit 2 stitches together

s – slip 1 stitch knitwise

psso – pass slipped stitch over stitch closest to tip of RH needle

Cast on 72 stitches. Divide stitches evenly on 4 DPNs (18 stitches per needle). Join for knitting in the round, being careful not twist stitches. Pm for beginning of round. K 5 rows. Begin Bobble Pattern.

Bobble Pattern:

At the beginning of next row, k7, *mb (see below) in next stitch, k7*, repeat around, ending k3. K 3 rows. At the beginning of next row, k3, *mb, k7* repeat around, ending k4. K 3 rows. Repeat from the beginning until 5 rows of bobbles have been completed.

Make Bobble:

Kfbf – 3 stitches on right hand RH needle. Turn work. P3. Turn work. Kfb, k1, kfb – 5 stitches on RH needle. Turn work. P5. Turn work. Ssk, k1, k2tog – 3 stitches on RH needle. Turn work. P3. Turn work. S1, k2tog, psso – 1 stitch on RH needle. Continue knitting to next bobble placement.

K all rows until hat measures 4.5 inches from cast on. Begin decreases for crown.

Decreases for crown:

At the beginning of next row, *k10, k2tog, pm,* repeat across row until you reach the first stitch marker. Next row: *k until 2 stitches remain before marker, k2tog,* repeat across row until you reach the first stitch marker. Continue in this fashion until there are 6 stitches left on needles. Cut yarn, thread onto tapestry needle, run the needle under the 6 live stitches and remove from needles. Pull needle and yarn to inside hat and work in end of yarn.

Listening and Knitting

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One of the greatest pleasures I know is listening to a book on my iPod while knitting. Of course, it can be just any book. I have downloaded some turkeys in my almost two years with Audible.com. But I have had some really memorable listening/knitting experiences, too. Here are some of my favorites.

Right now, I am deep into Sarah Dunant‘s Sacred Hearts, her most recent novel about two women in a convent in 15th century Ferrara. I have read and/or listened to her two previous works in this unrelated trilogy of the Italian Renaissance, and The Birth of Venus, In the Company of the Courtesan, and loved them both. In fact, for our trip to Italy this year, I took along the paper version of Venus and the audio version of Courtesan and managed to listen and/or read both in the cities in which they took place – Florence for Venus and Venice for Courtesan. All three of these books have plots that keep you turning the pages/listening, wondering what is gonna happen next! All three have very well-developed characters driven by desires and needs that a modern audience can understand – the passion for one’s art, the desire to be loved, the need to be free. And the two that I have listened to have excellent narrators. Dunant has said that she thinks she is done with this period, which is a shame. I cannot recommend them highly enough.

The very first book I ever put on my iPod was another great knitting read – The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman. I quickly followed them up with the sequels, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass. One reason they were so good is that they were read by the author with all the character parts spoken by actors – it was kind of like listening to a radio play. These were published as children’s books, but I promise you, there are some very adult themes at the core of these works – original sin, guilt, redemption and the nature of God and the origin of the universe. The world Pullman creates in them is so real I have actually had dreams about it. Yikes.

Another good listen was J.M. Barrie‘s Peter Pan. I had never read the original, but this version was a joy because it was narrated by the excellent Jim Dale. I could listen to him read the obituaries. Ditto on Carson McCullers‘ The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, which was read by Cherry Jones. She is a pied piper of narrators. And if you’re into Jane Austen, I recommend the Audible versions that are narrated by Juliet Stevenson. Sometimes, when I have read a Jane Austen book, I get bogged down in the wordiness of the characters’ speeches and can’t figure out what they really want or are trying to say. Stevenson, a great Shakespearean actress, takes care of the by acting the characters and giving them motivation behind the words.

Back to the adult side of the aisle. I will listen to anything Sarah Vowell reads, and her Assassination Vacation made me laugh out loud so much I almost developed my own stitch. She has a very jaundiced, but very precise eye that she turns towards American history in a way all her own. I wish I could have written this book, and I don’t know a bigger compliment than that. I just downloaded her new one, The Wordy Shipmates, about the Puritans, and I’ll let you know how it is.

Also really good were Pompeii by Robert Harris. I don’t normally like mysteries, but this one – about who tried to cover a murder by destroying an aqueduct just before the volcano erruption that felled Pompeii – was excellent. I felt like I had sat down in a time machine. And I recently listened to and really enjoyed Three Junes by Julia Glass for its quiet examination of one family’s lives and tangled relationships.

How about some good, smutty bodice-rippers? I have found only a few on Audible, but chief among them have been Josie Litton‘s Dream of Me and Come Back to Me. I love Vikings, but what really drives these books are decent plots and excellent characters. Just for fun, tho. And you will get hot under your cast-on.

And in the category of stink, stank, stunk – The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane, Leonardo’s Swans, The Priest’s Madonna, Love Only Once. Didn’t finish ‘em and want my credits back. I’ve linked to my Audible reviews, if you’re interested.

Anyone have any recommendations to share?

Je Suis une Femme Francaise

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From amylovie.blogspot.com

From amylovie.blogspot.com

Wouldn’t Mrs. MacKay, my French teacher at Kingwood High School, be so proud of me?

Last night, I cast on a little lacy shrug I found in French Girl Knits, the new book by Kristeen-Griffin Grimes. I want to share with you a review of that book I wrote for K2Tog’s website. Here goes:

Mon Dieu, I wanna be a French girl! If this book is anything to go by, a French girl has tons of sexy style and can knit like there is no manana (wait, that’s Spanish). Designer/author Kristeen Griffin-Grimes (a.k.a. “The French Girl”) applies her Francophile tendencies (she lives in Seattle, but leads tours in France) to her life-long passion for knitting. The result is a book of patterns that are remarkable for their attention to detail (lace inserts, appliqués, inset sleeve ruffles, ribbon and leather ties) and innovation of design (almost all are seamless in their construction). My favorites are the lacy tees and blouses, especially those with delicate ribbon-joined necklines (Delphine, page 79 and Louisa, page 129). But this is not a book for the knitter who is faint of heart – I do not think any of these patterns could be completed by a beginner, and most would challenge the intermediate knitter. But that’s part of the fun, I think – to take on something that will improve one’s skills and expand one’s knowledge of the craft. And, happily, Griffin-Grimes makes a huge and worthwhile effort to explain many of the techniques needed to complete the garments, with special tutorial-like notes included with many patterns. I plan to buy this book and make several of the pieces. I wonder if it will improve my French?

Okay, that’s the review. I liked this book so much when I reviewed it, I bought a copy. I decided to start easy, with “Veronique,” an “airy shrug” pictured on page 137. This sweet little pattern is all stockinette stitch – TV knitting – and I am using an Anny Blatt “Fine Kid” mohair I inherited from my friend Sandy. You like the way I am using a French yarn for this French knit? Huh? Huh???? Kinda cool, huh? Total accident. But the yarn is HOT PINK! OOOH LA LA! I have no picture to show you ’cause all I have is the cast on. Stay tuned.

I Become an Arbiter of Taste

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For quite a while, I have been having a mid-life crisis. My chosen profession, newspaper journalist, has hit the skids as jobs and freelance budgets have dried up. I have been thinking about what my next act will be – firefighter? Sky-diving instructor? Sex therapist?

Well, I am happy to report that this morning it came to me in a flash – I am now an arbiter of taste. At least, of crafty things. That’s me now – arbiter of crafty-things tastes. The business cards are on order.

So it is with great pleasure, I give you my first book review – at least, my first book review on this site. You may all read and adjust your tastes accordingly to mine. I am sure your thanks and congrats are already on their way to me. I pre-emptively thank you.

Here goes . . . .

Sally Melville's Knit Stitch

Sally Melville's Knit Stitch

The Knitting Experience: The Knit Stitch, By Sally Melville

This book is a must-have for all beginning knitters. In fact, I think it was the first book I ever bought. It came back into my mind over the weekend as I was working at K2Tog and two knitters came in with the Your Basic Bag (page 98) on their needles. Both were completely different than the one I made as my first non-garment project, and both were utterly beautiful.

What a book. Where else can you find 25 cool, chic and flattering patterns that only require one kind of stitch to complete? I remember this book being my constant companion, helping me master slipped stitches, increases, decreases, short rows and – most important – seaming, through its excellent combination of close-up pictures and detailed descriptions. Five years later, I still refer to it. The patterns are great too, and have held up in stylishness since the book was published in 2002. I have made the Knit Round Scarf (p. 48), Knit Flat Hat (p.54), and will confess to having had an Einstein Coat (p. 82) on the needles for a long time. My friend Merle made the Sally’s Favorite Summer Sweater (p. 104) a couple of years ago and still wears it and collects compliments. And as several customers have come into K2Tog and asked me for a legwarmer pattern, I can report that Sally has a great one – p. 50. Many of these projects would be perfect to take on a trip, as some are small, all are simple and require few notions. If you have this book in your library and have not looked at it in a while, crack it open. I did, just this weekend, and found myself looking at a couple of projects with new eyes – the eyes of the more experienced knitter I am now, much of it thanks to this book. Thanks, Sally.

The Facts:

Number of Patterns: 25

*PPP Ratio: 79 cents per pattern

Skills required to start: knit stitch

Level of Difficulty: – “Easy-Peasy” to “Pretty Easy”

Bottom line – Required reading for the new knitter who wishes to gain confidence in basic knitting skill.

* Price Per Pattern