Book Review: Annie's Attic Mysteries #2 - Medals in the Attic - Cathy Elliot

Medals in the Attic

 In this episode to the series, Annie finds a carved wooden case with a glass top. Nestled in the case are two military medals. She knows they aren't her grandfathers, those are proudly displayed in the living room.

So who do these medals belong to and why did her grandmother Betsy have them?Annie knows she needs to find the owner of these medals and this sets her on a journey that reveals a secret that causes someone to become very angry with her.

It also creates misunderstanding with a new friend that causes hard feelings within the hook and needle club. Let's face it. Women can be difficult. But then so can men and as it turns out, it is a man that causes this little scuffle. Sometimes it's not easy being the new kid in town.

While she tries to solve the mystery Annie is also renovating her kitchen at Grey Gables, and looking for things to donate to the local charity auction, plus she's getting closer to the local mayor Ian Butler.

The wonderful thing about a series whether it be books or TV shows, is that there's time to flesh out characters and revisit favorite places. If you like New England fishing towns, cozy mysteries, people with imperfections, and crafts, this is a lovely series to read.  As stated before, the writing isn't the best but that's because of the formula aspect of having all the works sound the same.

It will leave you wanting to visit Stoney Point, Maine again and again.

*****

Cathy Elliott is a retired librarian and the author of a few books. You can find her amazon link here. 

Cathy Elliott on Amazon

Crochet Bombs: When You Just Don't Know What To With All That Yarn

When I was five I learned how to knit. I didn't make anything, just a lot of holes, but I learned the basics enough so that when I was 18 I was able to pick up a set of needles and start making and redisigning sweaters.

When I had five year olds I couldn't figure out how my mother taught me how to knit. These people that I had, although intelligent, couldn't do anything with a set of knitting needles except poke people's eyes out or make holes in the couch.

I taught myself to crochet as well. I was quite happy with these skills until a three year old got a hold of an intricately cabled sweater that I was working on and cut holes in it. I put the knitting/crocheting away and discovered that I really loved needlework.

All those beautiful pictures that I could paint with threads! I was in heaven, especially since my artistic ability stopped in the first grade. But I could make the most detailed works of art just following little blocks of color. I even did a little designing.

Lately I have returned to yarn. Perhaps my desire for homemade sweaters have returned. The patterns are more beautiful than ever.

Now crafters are known for going a little crazy. I think most crafters have an excess gene. The one that makes us collect more patterns than we can possibly make, and more fabric than we can sew and more yarn than we can knit.  And it appears that some crocheters just don't know when to stop crocheting. Personally I'm happy making sweaters and an occasional afghan, but some crocheters just have way too much time on their hands.

Need proof?

 Take a look at transporation. A new paint job just ain't enough.

Now, if you saw this coming at you, would it scare you?

On the other hand. This might be clever. Get your enemy rolling on the ground laughing and you can pick them off.

 Remember the Partridge Family? Except Shirley didn't make the kids crochet the bus cover, she just had them paint the bus, otherwise they wouldn't have had time to rehearse.

I always think these cars look silly in the first place. Usually you see a big guy squeezed into them looking like something out of a cartoon. I've always thought in a car accident they would just be squished like a bug.

This car is just asking for it.

 Not only did someone crochet a car cover using the pepto bismal yarn they had that no one wanted for sweater, but they also created covers for the friends that laughed at her.

I'm telling you, there's dead bodies there, cleverly disguised as art.

Take this to school and the kids aren't going to laugh at you at all.

And they won't throw things at you either.

And you won't be labeled as the wierd outcast.

Honest.

Yeah. Really, No, I mean really. It won't happen.



Filet Crochet

It has nothing to do with how you cut up a fish.

Okay, this is gorgeous.

But really, wouldn't it have been better to spend the time actually practicing the piano?

This is beautiful too.

But it won't stay that way when you have kids with sticky hands and cars that drive by spraying mud.














Yarn Grows on Trees

 Trees are apparently judging from all the pictures out there, the most popular thing to clothe.

I guess some crocheters are offended by naked trees.

I remember socks that looked like this in the seventies.

Do trees really get that cold?

Why?

When I think of all the babies and the homeless these blankets could cover.

There's actually some pretty cool crocheting going on here, but...but...

why?

Book Review: Annie's Attic Mysteries #1 - The Lady In the Attic by Tara Randel

To find out more about Annie's Attic Mysteries check the tab at the top of the page. Annie's Attic publishes craft novels.

This is the first in a series. Randel has the job of setting up the series for all the other authors who participated in this series.

Widow Annie Dawson leaves her home in Texas to go to Stoney Point, Maine, a fishing town, to take care of the estate of her now deceased grandmother Betsy Holden, a famous cross stitch designer who has left everything to Annie including the Victorian home, Grey Gables, and everything in it.

It's in this book that you first meet the important characters in the series, including her childhood friend Alice, the owner of the craft shop "A Stitch in Time", the members of the hook and needle club, and the mayor of the town Ian Butler. And you get to listen to the whiney voice of Annie's grown daughter LeeAnn on the phone who doesn't like the idea of Annie actually moving away for awhile and getting a new life.

The Lady in the Attic refers to a cross stitch piece that Betsy Holden left behind and that Annie finds in the attic of Grey Gables that no one has seen. Betsy did scenery, yet in this picture there's a woman on a porch, not the usual Betsy design but her work is unmistakable.

There's something familiar about the woman and her surroundings, so Annie sets out to find out who the woman is with the help of The Hook and Needle Club. What she doesn't expect is the animosity that she experiences from the town people while on her search. They don't take well to strangers even if Annie spent childhood summers in the town and she is the granddaughter of their most celebrated citizen. She's still an outsider.

As I stated in the Annie's Attic page, I'm not crazy about the writing style. However I recognize that a lot of it is editors creating a formula.

Having said that, I found the characters interesting and multi-dimensional. I figured out the mystery but I was still excited about the ending. The story kept moving along and I cared about the outcome and I looked forward to the other books in the series.

Important Links Regarding this Book

Tara Randel's Website

Annie's Attic Mysteries

Stash!

Let's talk stash. Specifically yarn stash.

Maybe you are one of those ultra disciplined people who only buy enough for one project at a time. You finish that project and then head down to the store to buy just enough for your next project.

I admire you. I used to be like you.

But then for some of us, the collection bug hit. We go into a store and see a yarn we love, we go to a sale, we buy a magazine and find several projects we want to do, and before we know it, we have...

STASH.

We're not talking about a couple of lonely balls of yarn, we're talking...

STASH.

I'll bet that no one has as much as this lady.

The World's Biggest Stash?

That's her private stash. Not store stash. She did an interview later.

The World's Biggest Stash Update and Interview

I'm sure you're all feeling better about your stash, unless you want the Guinness World Record.

Although we call it all stash there's different types of yarn stash.

Leftovers: This is the stash that is unavoidable. It's the leftovers from those projects you made. It may be half a skein. Too much to throw out, but not enough to do something with. If you have a skein or more left over you can make a matching hat, or mitts, or a cowl. But it's the bits and pieces that make up this pile. One day, you will make a crazy scarf out of it all, or an afghan. Or something!

Staples: You know that it's designated for socks but you haven't picked out the pattern. You love lace shawls so you collect beautiful lace and fingering yarns, you just need to pick the pattern. You have a ton of dish cloth cotton and you know you'll make those dishcloths one day. Those skeins of yarn are for scarves. These ones over here are your basic worsted weight that you go back to again and again, and that pile over there is your baby yarn because there's always a new baby on the way. You know where it's going, you just haven't decided on the project. But you are ready for the pattern when you find it.

Ingredients: You know specifically what you're doing with this yarn. You have the pattern, you have the needles, you may have even put it in a special spot. You just haven't got around to making it yet. But you will. You will.

Gourmet: You were in a yarn shop and fell in love with an exquisite skein of cashmere and silk that was way too much money but you bought one ball anyway. You went to a sale that was so fantastic that you walked away with an entire bag of gorgeous alpaca. You have five skeins of that really lovely Debbie Bliss but you don't know what to do with it. One day you will find a use for this yarn but right now, it just sits quietly in your yarn pantry waiting for you. It calls out to you sometimes, and you gaze at it, and you may even go looking for a pattern for it, but the perfect pattern hasn't appeared yet.

Expired: And then there's the stash that you just don't know what to do with. Someone handed you their bag of leftovers. Or you thought at one point that the color was nice but now you don't. You bought up the big box store yarn in your early days of knitting but now you don't want to touch it. There's that skein of yarn that was all the rage but now it's dated. And then there's the project of shame. The yarn that you tried out on a pattern but found out you hated it. Either the yarn or the pattern or both. There's really nothing wrong with any of the yarn. It hasn't gone bad. It's just taking up space. But you spent money on it so it's hard to give away.

But if you give away stash you are perfectly justified to buy new stash!

It's okay. We all do this - well except for those one project at a time people.


One piece of advice. Never show anyone your stash. They will either think you're crazy and want to send you to therapy, or they'll want it. They will bug you about it. They will ask for it. They will pout if you don't share.

I even heard of a woman who would sneak into her mother-in-law's basement where her stash was kept and take what she wanted without asking, because it was in the basement. We do not approve. We think people should have their own stash collections.

Whatever your stash situation, we understand. At the beginning of the year I thought I would go on a yarn diet. No more new yarn until I made a dent in the yarn I already have.

I work in a yarn shop. Do you know how crazy that resolution is? My boss brings in a beautiful line of tonal alpaca and common sense goes the way of the dodo. She has a 50% off sale and the yarn I've been eyeing for months is now in my studio. Kaffe Fassett does a knit along, and I want to knit along. I found a wonderful pattern and none of my yarn works for it.

So it would help if everyone came down to the store and bought yarn so it would quit yelling at me to take it home.

Book Review: Things I Learned From Knitting...whether I wanted to or not - Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

I want this woman's job.

This is another short, stick in your purse, read on your lunch break when you're not knitting type of books. Each entry is a page or three. She numbers them and titles them. "The 4th Thing: Everything is funny as long as it's happening to someone else", "The 12th thing: Three men can keep it secret if two of them are dead" "The 10th thing: babies grow".

One of my favorites is "The 23rd thing: There's no accounting for taste" where she tells the story of knitting in a store on a beautiful cabled sweater while one woman loudly says to her friend that cables are ugly. I won't ruin the story, but let's say that we are all guilty.

Stephanie talks about the generosity of knitters - unless there's a half off sale of yarn. What you can do on a plane if they won't let you knit. And that your yarn stash, as big as it is, is really okay. Another favorite is her very firm letter to her yarn stash.

So if you're like me and love to read about knitting almost as much as knitting, this is a nice little book to stick in your knitting bag or purse (especially if you're on a plane where they won't let you knit.)

Adventures of the Noro Scarf Part 1

The following first appeared on The Crafty Lady blog. I can copy it here because I wrote it.

******

There is some gorgeous Noro lace weight yarn that's been sitting on our shelves feeling neglected. It's been (drop my voice to a whisper so it doesn't hear) discontinued.

Noro Knittng Magazine Premier Issue

Kirameki is a rayon, nylon, wool and cashmere blend that comes in beautiful colors. Noro is famous for its long colorations and unusual pairings.

My scarf and the Kirameki that's giving
birth to it. Color # 164.

 I decided to make a scarf so everyone can see what this yarn looks like. By everyone, I mean the millions who come into the store and read this blog.

 You can't tell by looking at the skeins. The skeins in the same color all look different. If you look at this picture with the scarf and ball of yarn they don't look like they match at all. It's like fraternal twins who have different hair, eye and skin colors and different body builds. Think Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny Devito. That's right. Darny Schwarzenvito.

Scarf at turning point where we stop knitting drunk and
start knitting straight.

At one point after working this gorgeous purple the rust started taking over. Now I'm not a huge fan of rust and I'm thinking rust and purple? That just doesn't work! That's so wrong! As I knit this rust color I kept arguing with my scarf. "You can't turn rust, you're a gorgeous purple. It's wrong! Wrong! Wrong...oh wait." Hot Pink came along and suddenly Purple and Rusty were best buddies.

Diagonal Eyelet Scarf from
Noro Knitting Magazine Issue #

  It's like 1 and 1 equal 67. It doesn't make
  sense.



 This is the diagonal scarf. I picked a Noro  pattern from  the premier magazine of Noro.  Because I was using  Noro yarn. See,  we've got a theme going on  here.


 We have several copies of this particular magazine and several copies of the one that followed.

 The original pattern calls for Shiraito, a cashmere, angora and wool blend. The magazine says it's a fingering weight yarn, but it seems heavier than that. Like a generously sized woman who claims she weighs only 110 and wears a size 2. Shiraito, it's okay to be who you are. We like heavier yarns too. Embrace your ampleness. Artists love fuller bodies.

We do have Shiraito in stock. She's just hanging around waiting for someone to pick her up.

However I chose the lace weight. It's a scarf. You can use any yarn you want with a scarf pattern.

You can use any yarn you want with a
scarf pattern. Well almost. 

I also discovered that I wasn't crazy about the increase on the ends in this pattern, so I ripped it out - it takes me about three false starts to actually get going anyway - like a ten month pregnant woman getting off the couch.  Instead I used a slipped stitch and then an increase. Much nicer ends now!

I plan on keeping you all updated on this scarf. I know you will all be waiting breathlessly for the next installment.

Posted by Anna Maria Junus (happy employee who makes lace weight scarves for the store because somebody has to).

Book Review: At Knit's End: Meditations for Women Who Knit Too Much - Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (The Yarn Harlot)

I wish I had thought of this. I'm a writer. I'm a knitter. I'm funny.

Okay, sometimes I'm funny.

Okay, I'm not very funny but I try.

This is a short little book that reads like peanuts or popcorn. Brief thoughts about knitting stash - there's no such thing as too much, knitting relatives - yes they do come in crazy and understanding non-knitters and their hopelessly void world.

She begins each page with a  quote from a famous person (usually a non-knitter), and then relates it briefly to knitting, and then has a conclusion that helps her do better at whatever she wants to do better at.

For the most part it's funny with some wisdom thrown in.

Excerpt example:

 ****

Ordinarily he was insane, but he had lucid moments when he was merely stupid. - Heinrich Heine

"I have been trying to get my stash of yarn under control. My husband thinks this means that I am trying to get rid of some yarn. In truth it actually means that I have been trying to find much, much better hiding spots."

I will remember that there is more than one way to get control of an issue.

****

Each short musing takes one short page. It's a nice book to tuck into your purse or knitting bag when you have a moment. I've become a big fan of this woman and I'm on the lookout for more of her knitting essays. I just wish I didn't have to give this copy back to the friend I borrowed it from.

Stephanie Pearl-McPhee is a Canadian writer who writes about knitting. Her blog is at Yarn Harlot.

Sigh, I wish I had a cool nickname.