Photo fun!

Looking through my first craft-blog over on LiveJournal (it's still all there!), and found the results of my first Ravelry group's first Photo Scavenger Hunt. Fun, go look!!

Austen Sequel - Not Too Shabby, Actually!

A Match for Mary Bennet, An Inspirational Pride and Prejudice Sequel., by [Sister] Eucharista Ward.

I have to admit that I was so charmed by the text on the back of the book that I forgot "Inspirational" is publishing shorthand for "Appropriate Reading for Christian Persons, Especially Young Ladies". I do not, as a habit, read Inspirational Books, although I don't avoid them if they look interesting. This book did, and while it placed a much heavier emphasis on religion than the original Austen material (and it was there), it was *completely* appropriate, and in keeping with the character of Miss Mary Bennet. The prose is lighter than Miss Austen's, making the book more accessible to younger readers, but Miss Austen's spirit is present, indeed.

The story takes place a few years after P&P, and follows Mary as, basically, she grows up and learns to understand love and compassion. There are new characters, including Mr. Stilton, a rakish young man determined to secure his fortune by marrying a Proper Young Lady; Mr. Oliver, the companionable young cleric granted a living by Mr. Darcy; the frequently rambunctious girls that make up the choir led by Mary, who - much to her surprise and pleasure - becomes Independent and the organist at Mr. Oliver's church; and the wonderful library at Pemberly). The story deals with the questions of love, the role of marriage in one's life (Mary spends most of the story feeling it really isn't for her), forgiveness, and discovering what is truly important to one. Although one or two of the paragraphs dealing with the role of religion in life read like the author is trying to get a point across, rather than letting the characters converse naturally, in the main, the book feels very much like a continuation of P&P, which is all one really wishes in a sequel.

The Back of the Jacket: Caveat: The blurb on the back of the book is actually much more heavy-handed about the religious theme of the book than is warranted (and yes, the book is fairly classed as "Inspirational" - but really!), and is actually incorrect in the first sentence - and in the rest of its plot description, so I'm not reproducing it here. Whoever wrote it - and it wasn't the author, I'm quite certain - did the book a disservice.

Genre(s): Literature, Historical
Audience: Adults, Young Adults
Online Extras: None
Reading Time: Four days
Recommend: If the idea of Austen sequels usually makes you squirm, try this book. The familiar characters are lovingly and respectfully handled, and ring truer than in other sequels I've read (and I'm an Austenphile; I've read lots of P&P sequels many listed here, and some are barely worthy of the name).

I read a lot. Given how much I knit, I really shouldn't have time for eating - but I tend to eat at least two meals a day at work (by myself), and I don't want food on my knitting, so - I read. I'm not reading as much as I usually do, since the Monster Yarn Pattern Project thing is taking over chunks of my evenings (it's going to be a while before there's little enough yarn left for it to be a "portable project"), so I'll share what I've been reading. It's pretty eclectic, and I'm not a critic. Pretty much anything I pick up, I read; I don't tend to pick up things I don't think I'll finish. Don't expect anything in-depth, but you may find something you hadn't heard of that you might want to track down to read yourself.

Monday? Already!

Busy at work today - post tomorrow.

Really, there's progress...

First, I'm not feeling so hot today, so I'm not actually posting Much Stuff Done. To alleviate any lack of nifty finished item photo content here is BUNNY!


I did get some stuff done this week, though. I wrote out (in picture form) a mirror-image of Alana's original pattern for the fifth (and final) block of the front of the Hello Kitty Scarf. Oddly enough, this will be the pattern - colors reversed - for the first square of the back of the scarf. The "back side" of the scarf will have the colors inverted from whatever's on the "front", plus be mirror-imaged - I'm hoping it will look like "oh, look, it's just knit so the image is on both sides, just mirrored".




I'm also trying to get a stripe-a-day during commute days done on the SmarTrip Scarf. This translates to about 4" a week, so it should be done in... um.... August. Which is the perfect time to wear a lovely, warm scarf in DC. NOT. By using one of the tricks I learned doing Masters Level I (yes, I'm still intending to turn everything in ... eventually...), I'm keeping the outside stripes all pretty. Here's what the inside looks like:


Hopefully, I'll feel better soon. I should at least have a report about my new stitching group (yay, meetup.com!), assuming there really "isn't much snow" on Saturday!

Yarn on Thursday - Stitch Edition: Week 4

The project: Knitting all the stitches in KnittingOnTheNet.com's Stitch Directory.
The yarn: Anything you want. I'm using a Phentex "Monster Ball of Yarn" (32 oz. 100% acrylic), which won't block, but will give good stitch definition.
The needles: Again, whatever you want that goes with your yarn. I'm using my beloved Lantern Moon size 7s, because they're pretty.
Why this is happening: Because lots of people want to learn new stitches this year!

This week's stitches: Elongated Chevron (#13), Embossed Diamonds (#14), and Embossed Moss Rib (#15)

Since it's only the fourth week, and I've already got fifteen stitches up, I'm going to take it easy this week, and just do three.

Elongated Chevron is a multiple of 18+1 - so, 19 pattern stitches. That's pretty easy. I chose to put 6 stitches at the beginning of the RS row, with 5 stitches at the end. It's another "whatever you did on the RS, do it again on the WS" patterns, so it works up quickly.


Things I noticed about this pattern: In the photo above, you can see that the knit part of the pattern really curls in on itself, making nice little half-circle ridges. This means the pattern *really* pulls in on the sides. The photo below - the swatch is flat, not being pulled in any direction - and look how much it pulls in! This pattern really, really has to be blocked, unless, I suppose, you want a garment to go in at a particular area. (No-thought waist shaping, anyone?)


Embossed Diamonds is a big one. It's a (multiple of 10) +3. I originally thought I'd just do the pattern across 20 stitches, with the actual pattern repeat happening between the two green stitch markers, and the "extra stitches" happening between the green and the red. This got too confusing for my poor befuddled brain (even though I wrote out the whole pattern), since I didn't really know what I was going to get. (I'm not looking at the photos on-line before I knit; I want to see what I get from the pattern without any preconceived notions.)


I caved, finally, and just put the pattern over 23 stitches. I put four edge stitches at the beginning of each RS row, and three at the end. This is the narrowest area of border yet! Now, since I wanted a clear break between the pattern and the seed-stitch border at the top, I did a k-across row on the RS, then started the seed stitch border on the WS. This gives me just 5 rows of seed stitch border at the top, but that's OK, since the other borders are so tiny compared to all the others!


Things I noticed about this pattern: It's actually really pretty! The stockinette areas do try to pull in a bit, though, so it would benefit from blocking.

Embossed Moss Rib is a (multiple of 7) +3 pattern. While I *could* go out to a 24-stitch pattern area, I chose not to (I want my seed-stitch borders to have some heft to them!), I decided on 17 stitches, instead. I put 7 stitches at the beginning of the RS rows, and 6 stitches at the end. (Which gives me 6 at the beginning of each WS row… you get the idea, just in case I wasn't clear about that earlier.) Since both sides of the pattern are interesting-looking, I switched to stitching the "Wrong Side" of the pattern after twelve rows.


See? It's knit across!
Things I noticed about this pattern: This is one to be knit if you've got very clean knit-to-purl transitions - any deviations really show up (as you can see from my swatch). It does act as a rib, but doesn't pull in nearly as much as a traditional rib.

That's it for this week! Next week, more stitches, and I'll be starting on Stripe #2 - in a new color!

A note on the whole project: Since there are 139 stitch patterns (some are listed under multiple headings), plus 7 different edgings in KnittingOnTheNet.com's Stitch Directory, I'll be trying to do two to three stitches a week, minimum. This should get everyone a goodly number of new stitches by the end of the year, and hopefully get me a blanket. No worries if you "fall behind" or "start late" - this is for fun & education, there isn't *really* a time limit of any sort on it. If you're just discovering this project, this link will take you to the beginning, and this link will pull up all the related entries. Just knit on, and have fun!