Maddie's Mittens from Code Name Verity

I recently read the excellent book, Code Name Verity, by Elizabeth Wein. It's set during WWII, and mentioned in the book are a pair of handknitted mittens which enable the wearer to free the fingers when needed. The author found the 1940's pattern for the mittens while doing research for the book. She included a link to the pattern (see this post for details).

 

Anyhoo, my book club read the book for this month's selection and I decided to knit the mittens as a gift for the person in the club whose birthday it was this month, seeing as it went along with the book we had just read.

 

Here is the finished product. I knitted them with some of my handspun yarn - this happens to be Gotland lambswool. It was the only thing in the correct gauge that I had on hand which wasn't listed for sale already in my Etsy shop:

 

 

You can see that an upper flap is designed to tuck into a lower flap:

 

Here you can see the top flipped back:

 



 

On the hand:

 



And with the top flipped back to free the fingers:

I knitted them with a set of new needles that I recently got. You can see in the picture that they are square instead of round. The reviews said that they helped eleviate arthritis pain and carpal tunnel that can arise from knitting. I have both. These really did help with the arthritis - a lot! The carpal tunnel, only so-so. I think the shape helps the yarn stay on the needles better, so you're not gripping everything so tightly to keep from loosing stitches off the ends of the double points. The only drawback is that they are VERY pointy and sharp:

I had finished everything but the thumb of the left mitten by the time book  club met last night. I showed my friend the mittens and told her I'd get them to her as soon as that thumb was finished, which I was able to do this morning.

 

 

By the way, Gotland lambswool is the same fiber that was used to make the Elvish cloaks in The Lord of the Rings movies. I believe that the cloaks were actually woven with a blend of Gotland and alpaca, and maybe something else, I can't remember. It's not a very soft wool, it's actually rather scratchy, but just fine for mittens and cloaks : )

 

Here is a book trailer for Code Name Verity :

 



Two things...

1. I'm having a sale in my Etsy shop, and two of my books are discounted with coupons over at Smashwords. Follow the links for more info.

2. I'm currently knitting the mittens mentioned in the excellent book Code Name Verity, by Elizabeth Wein, and referenced at the back of the book. Here is a link to the pattern at the V&A museum in England - scroll through the choices of 1940's knitting patterns until you come to "Mittens for Women."

Book Club Centerpiece

Last night my book club met for our monthly meeting. The book we read was Stiff, the curious lives of human cadavers, by Mary Roach. I was the host, so I took the liberty of placing a book-themed centerpiece on the finger-food table.

The old gal had spent the past few years packed away in a closet.

We created her several years ago for a Halloween decoration, and she hasn't had many excuses to leave her closet since then.

I think she was glad to get out and about  for a night.

The book was extremely interesting, if a little nauseating at times, but I would recommend it to the curious.

And also for the curious, if you'd like instructions for creating your own mummy, visit this post.

The Gray Wolf Throne...

comes out on my birthday! What a great birthday present! I still have to wait until the end of August, but I can do that.

This is a terrific series, beginning with The Demon King, continuing with The Exiled Queen, and now, ending (at least I think this is a trilogy) with The Gray Wolf Throne.

Cinda Williams Chima is the author - I have signed copies of all of her books so far : ) She lives in the area and she's given talks at our library and had book signings at our local independent bookstore.

Oh what a happy day August 30th will be!

The Reapers are the Angels

Alden Bell's (aka Joshua Gaylord's) book, The Reapers are the Angels, is a harrowingly beautiful book about the zombie Apocalypse.

If you happen to be looking for just such a book, this is it.

This one is going to stay with me for a while. It's not one of those that fades away and you pick up again thinking, "Maybe I'll read this," not realizing that you already have. No. You will always remember this book.

Highly recommended, even to those of you who are not zombie fans - I'm not either, but this is now one of my favorite all-time books.

There is beauty and wonderment to be found, even in a world full of zombies, if only you choose to see it.

Cakes and Brownies to Die For

I went to my library when local cookbook author, Bev Shaffer, came to talk about her book, Brownies to Die For!. She talked about chocolate and writing the book, and we tasted fair trade chocolates and helped ourselves to treats made from recipes in the book. It was a fabulous evening.

She has a new book out now, Cakes to Die For!.



I used a combination of two recipes from the cake book along with  my own frosting recipe to make my son's birthday cake. It had a lot of chocolate in it.

Two more birthdays are coming up in March. I'll have to keep that cake book handy.

Half Broke Horses

I haven't even finished this book yet, but I'm definitely recommending it. Maybe it's because my forbears lived lives like this out west, maybe because I've lived out there myself, or maybe because we've just driven through many parts of the country where this book plays out, but the narration seems so immediate and real that I'm drawn deeper and deeper into the scenery and situations as each page is turned.

Half Broke Horses is by Jeannette Walls, author of the acclaimed memoir The Glass Castle, which I haven't read but will right after this. While The Glass Castle is a memoir, Half Broke Horses is the story of Jeannette Walls' grandmother, told in a captivating first person voice.

I've just come to a part where Lily, the subject of the book, has gone to teach school in a little Mormon polygamist town in northern Arizona. She's got her two children, Rosemary and Little Jim, with her. Lily is describing the town and its people:

The houses they lived in, I came to see, were essentially breeding factories where as many as seven wives were expected to churn out a baby a year... The girls were raised to be docile and submissive. In the first few months I was there, a couple of my thirteen-year-old girls disappeared, vanishing into their arranged marriages.

Rosemary was fascinated by these kids with all their multitudes of moms, and these dads with all their sets of wives, and she kept asking me to explain it. She was particularly intrigued with Mormon underwear and wondered if it really gave the Mormons special powers.

"That's what they believe," I told her, "but that doesn't mean it's true."

"Then why do they believe it?"

"America is a free country," I said. "And that means people are free to believe whatever cockamamie thing they want to believe."

"So they don't have to believe it if they don't want to?" Rosemary asked.

"No they don't"

"But do they know that?"

Smart kid.

Oh golly, I love this book. If its not on your bookshelf, go rustle it up. You won't be disappointed.

The Reindeer People

This book just came in from my hold list at the library. I've read some excerpts online already - it's a captivating look, via an anthropological study, at the reindeer herders of Siberia.

Can't wait to crack it open today and sink into it. These people are descendents of the peoples who erected the reindeer stones in mongolia thousands of years ago when Mongolia still had the climate to support reindeer. Maybe that's why I like fantasy. I'm an anthropologist by training and sometimes, as evidenced in lore, myth and ancient religion, beliefs can often be quite fantastic - and fascinating. As, of course, can be what has happened to these peoples today.

Blackbringer, by Laini Taylor

This week I was going to start on a new story idea in earnest. I’ve begun gathering information, I have books on hold at the library for research purposes, I have websites bookmarked, I have some doodles and a few fragmentary elements jotted down. The whole process started over a year ago, maybe two, when I tagged some websites and wrote down a couple of ideas, but then it all sat, unlooked at, on my computer for a long time.

I dusted things off a week or so ago and started the wheels in motion again. I’ve been excited to sit down with books all around me, websites at my disposal, a pen and notebook in hand and begin the dreaming stage – when I sit and stare, read through various tomes, look up rosters of ancient names, and let things coalesce into the story that tugged at me, waiting to take form in the first place.

But then everything screeched to a halt. Why? Because a young adult fiction book that I had put on hold a few weeks ago finally came in at the library, and, like a fool, I began reading in on Sunday. I couldn’t put it down and all of my wonderful plans for starting my new story in earnest flew out the window on faerie wings – specifically on wings of the Faeries of Dreamdark.

The book in question is Laini Taylor’s Blackbringer, the first of now two books featuring the Faeries of Dreamdark.

Laini Taylor has one of those minds that can pull forgotten bits of lore from far flung places and twine them together with her own imagination to make something wonderful and deeply satisfying. The world she creates is solid and remarkable and her characters are unforgettable.

Blackbringer is the story of faerie lass, Magpie Windwitch, and her clan of crow friends. She is a bit remarkable, as faeries go, because she travels the world where most faeries stay in their forests. She also hunts devils, something that faeries used to do, but have forgotten all about. But she and her crow friends have learned something about the old days – the days of the devil wars – by traveling with her parents who find the lost, forgotten temples and read through their ancient libraries.

But not all devils are alike, it seems. When Magpie and her feathered friends come across evidence of some new kind of devil, unwittingly set loose from its prison, it’s nothing like they’ve ever encountered before. And Magpie must find the ones who trapped it all those millennia ago – if they even still exist – to see if it can be trapped again before this very old, very powerful force proves to be the unraveling of the world.

I’ve put the second Faeries of Dreamdark book, Silksinger, on hold at the library. I can’t wait for it to come in, and when it does, there’ll be another few days that my own story will be put on hold so that I can once again enter Magpie Windwitch’s adventurous world, and hopefully learn a thing or two about how to write a remarkable story.

Some good books I've read lately - both young adult fantasy

Fire, by Kristin Cashore. It's a companion book to Graceling, and well worth the read. If you like love stories, fantasy, young adult fantasy, strong women, and new and inspiring people and places, and wonderful writing, then Fire is for you.

Fire's father was a literal monster - but monsters in this world are beautiful almost beyond enduring, and can sway the minds of ordinary people. Unfortunately his actions were more like the monsters we are familiar with, and as advisor to the king, he held undue influence and almost ruined the kingdom.

Fire's monster beauty drives men wild, including the new king -son of the ruined king her father advised. He needs her help with traitorous nobles who are closing in on the throne. The king calls for her to help, despite his brother's objections - who bears a hate and a wariness for her because she is her father's daughter.

And Fire, the last human monster, must decide whether or not to help the kingdom that her father put at risk, when it might mean becoming what her father was.

There is so much depth and feeling to the story. If you read this book, I promise you won't be disappointed. Kristin Cashore has a wonderful gift for storytelling.

The Demon King, by Cinda Williams Chima. This book kicks off a new trilogy by this imaginative author. Her first three books, The Warrior Heir, The Wizard Heir, and The Dragon Heir, were contemporary fantasies, set in today's world - mostly in Ohio, as a matter of fact.

Her new book is set in a different world - one with seven realms that have a very interesting history, and a rocky present. With wars going on, a Queendom at stake, some upstart wizards, and a street rogue trying to turn his life around without much luck, Chima weaves a wonderful start to what promises to be an engaging trilogy. The characters draw you in with lots of twists and complexities, and you can't help but wonder what's going to happen next with each of them, and what it will mean in the larger scope of things. I can't wait for the next book to come out.

Zombies! And Jane Austin!

My son gave me this for my birthday - Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. And a chocolate frog.

He knows what I like.

I also got a lawn mower. And a new monitor for my computer for whenever it gets fixed or I get a new one. And a new scanner. And my daughter gave me three elderberry bushes for my very own yard!

The lawn mower wasn't really for my birthday - ours broke last week and we had to get a new one pronto or our neighbors were likely to start dropping hints about our lawn jungle. So the new lawn mower was included in the pile of presents for me to open (so that the pile looked much more impressive, no doubt : )

I'm excited to sit down with the zombies. But I'm afraid the chocolate frog is already gone.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

I recently read this book. It was fascinating (even if felt a bit preachy at times) and as a result of reading it I've begun to look at the things in my grocery store differently. And I've ordered some heirloom seeds for my garden next year.

Barbara Kingsolver and her family decided to live for one year on food that they either grew or raised themselves, or could find locally. This book details that year-long experiment and opens the eyes of the reader to some of the underhanded tricks of agribusiness and to the consequences of the big business conglomeration of our food sources.

If you want to go for a double whammy, I would recommend the book, In Defense of Food, as a companion. Together they may change the way you think about the food you eat.

It's funny that Time came out with an article in the Aug. 31st '09 issue titled, "The Real Cost of Cheap Food," which details some of the issues brought up in the book. I recommend the article, too, while you're at it. (The link will only take you to a picture of the cover, because at the writing of this post, this is the current issue of the magazine and so the article isn't available online yet).

So read, and then go to your local farmers market, or begin planning your garden for next year.

Grave Goods

I recently read Grave Goods by Ariana Franklin, and enjoyed it immensely.

Set in the late 12th century Britain, under the rule of Henry II, this is a nice little piece of historical fiction. Adelia Aguilar is a trained doctor and something of an early forensic scientist. Glastonbury Abby has just burned to the ground, Henry is having troubles with the Welsh, and two skeletons just dug up on the abbey grounds may be those of the legendary Arthur and Guinevere.

King Henry may be able to help the abbey in its efforts to rebuild and help repress the Welsh uprisings if these skeletons are found to be authentic. He calls on his Mistress of the Art of Death - Adelia - to find out what's what with regard to the remains.

But there is more than meets the eye to this tricky diagnosis. A danger lurks around the ruined town of Glastonbury that may mean the end of the Mistress of the Art of Death.

Historical fiction, bones, early feminism, and a good, old fashioned love story thrown in. What's not to like?

I need to take a book with me on my upcoming vacation (for a very long airport lay-over). I'm thinking of taking along one of Ariana Franklin's other books - unless anyone out there has a favorite that they'd like to recommend??

The Queen's Thief

I just found out that the fourth book in Megan Whalen Turner's Queen's Thief series is due out in 2010. Hurray!

The other books in the series are:

The Newberry Award winning The Thief

Book two, The Queen of Attolia


Book three, The King of Attolia

These are extremely clever, extremely entertaining books by one smart author. If you haven't read any of them, I would suggest you pick pick them up an read. Ms. Turner isn't the type of author to chug out one book after another. She takes her time and rewards her readers with clever gems to relish.


Oh, that I could be that clever.....

Sabriel, Lirael, Abhorsen

I just finished (re)reading the three books in Garth Nix's Abhorsen trilogy.

I still like them. In fact, I think that they are some of my favorite books. I will even say that the third, Abhorsen, is one of my top favorite books and it has my favorite ending of any book I've ever read.

I like the feel of the worlds that Nix places us into with these books, and I am in awe of the things that his imagination conjured up for these stories. Things like Charter magic; two different worlds with very different realities separated only by a wall; the seven bells that are used as tools by the Abhorsen; the nine gates of Death; and creatures like Mogget the cat and The Disreputable Dog.

The first book, Sabriel, introduces us to the Old Kingdom, land of Charter magic; and the country of Ancelstierre, reminiscent of an early 1900's England. If the last book contains my favorite ending, this first book contains my favorite beginnning. I listened to this book as an audio book read by Tim Curry the first time I became acquainted with it, and the beginning drew me in immediately. And I was in awe the whole time with the bells and drawing magic down from the ever-flowing Charter. The Abhorsen must use the bells and the Charter to keep the Dead in their place - and the necromancers who would use the dead to wreak havoc and gain power.

Sabriel, daughter of the Abhorsen and raised in a bording school in Ancelstierre, is thrust into being Abhorsen when her father disappears and a terrible and powerful entity is loose in the Old Kingdom. She barely knows the Old Kingdom but must go there to face her duties, find her father, and keep the Dead at bay.

The second book, Lirael, is excellent. It's about Lirael, a daughter of the Clayr - Seers who live in a glacier (another amazing part of the intricate world that Nix creates). In Lirael we are introduced to the title character who doesn't quite fit in, and the friend she creates with powerful Charter magic - the Disreputable Dog. We also come to know Prince Sameth, son of Sabriel, and his struggles to live up to being the Aborsen in waiting.

Lirael and Sameth's paths cross right when things are going downhill fast in the Old Kingdom. A couple of extremely powerful necromancers are on the loose, but something even more dangerous, more powerful, is behind a very carefully laid plan which has loosed all kinds of Dead.

The third book, Abhorsen, picks up where Lirael ends. It's a masterfully drawn conclusion, full of revelations, emotions, tied-up ends, and a few left for us to tie ourselves. Hats off to Garth Nix, this really is one of my favorite books of all time. And that's all I will say because I don't want to give things away.

If you enjoy young adult fantasy, you might give these books a try. And even though there are a lot of dead things in them, it doesn't have a zombie feel. The places in the books feel real with problems which must be overcome, or at the very least, kept under control, and the walking Dead are part of that. Luckily, there is an Abhorsen who can draw upon the well-ordered Charter magic to counter the effects of free magic, which powers the Dead. How it all works is fascinating and not zombified at all.

The Daily Coyote

I just finished reading The Daily Coyote by Shreve Stockton.
It's a wonderful book with beautiful pictures and a heartfelt tale about finding life, finding love, and finding peace.

The author tells how she found herself drawn away from New York city to a new life in the little town of Ten Sleep, Wyoming - population 300.

She is given a days-old, orphaned coyote cub and told, "If you don't want to take care of it, or it gets to be a problem, let me know and I'll drown it in the water tank."

The author - who has sidestepped and is inexperienced with commitments involving the care of something other than herself, those that tie one down, and those which involve a change in one's own life - knows that this is a serious decision. The death of this creature, or the responsibility for it's life, will be placed upon her. And she doesn't make her decision, or take the resultant responsibilities lightly.

You will become involved in the author's life - her struggles to find balance while adjusting to her new surroundings, trying to make a living, tending a blossoming relationship with a neighboring cowboy, and raising a baby coyote along with her cat in a place that doesn't look favorably on coyotes.

It's an absolutely wonderful read, and the story doesn't end with the book. You can visit Shreve Stockton's websites, the old one: The Daily Coyote ; and the new one: The Daily Coyote. Both are full of Shreve Stockton's beautiful photography featuring Charlie, the coyote, and the deeply captivating Wyoming landscape.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

This was a very charming, engaging, and interesting book.

A London writer, just after WWII and digging for an idea for a new book, stumbles upon the interesting lives of several inhabitants of the tiny island of Guernsey in the Channel Islands. They all have interesting stories to tell of life during the German occupation during the war.

A letter-writing correspondence with these people leads to a visit and to a whole new life.

The book will teach you things you probably never knew about the war and about the Channel Islands - and it will keep you marvelously entertained with the wit of Juliet Ashton, the fiesty main character.

The book is presented as a series of letters and telegrams, each one a treat to read. They end up weaving a riveting tale that's easy to read and pulls you into the lives of the characters.

Take it along on vacation, or spring break. You won't regret it.

Robin McKinley

I've recently read a couple of things by Robin McKinley. I'm now looking forward to reading more from Robin McKinley - and she does have many more titles out there.

The first book I read by her was Chalice.

Now, there are different kinds of people in the world. There are some people who like cities and crowds and loud music and night clubs and parties. And there are some people who like walks in the woods, the feel of the sun on their face, and who receive a gentle re-energizing just by soaking in the natural world around them. Chalice is for this second group of people. It's a gentle story full of bees and woods and a woman struggling with a weighty role she's been chosen for by the officials of the demesne - who nonetheless don't care for her, and a new Master of the demesne who is not quite human anymore and is feared by everyone who lives there - except her.

If you are the type who likes cities and crowds and parties and such, I would recommend Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr - which is a wonderful urban fantasy- , but probably not Chalice, which is a fantasy with nothing urban about it.

The second thing I've read by Robin McKinley is a collection of short stories called, A Knot in the Grain and Other Stories.

This collection drew me in from the start and I read the book in one sitting. Included in the tales are herbcraft and mages and princesses and romance between unexpected people, and a young girl having to move away from her friends and start life anew in a small community threatened by a new superhighway - all right before she starts her junior year in high school (even this story has fantasy woven into it).

Robin McKinley's books might be just the thing if you feel like relaxing with beautiful, gentle tales.

The Illiad, Troy, and Brad Pitt

Last night I happened to turn on the TV and what should appear on the screen but my favorite fight/battle scene of any movie - the fight between Achilles and Hector in the movie Troy.

When the movie first came out I was so disappointed in the choice of Brad Pitt to play the legendary warrior Achilles, that I almost didn't go see the movie.

But, as you can see, Brad Pitt was a very nice choice indeed:

In fact, just about all of my favorite scenes in the movie have Brad Pitt in them. Not just because he happens to *ahem* look good, but because of the way the action plays out.

And I must say, too, that Eric Bana was a superb Hector, Hero of Troy:

In the scene where Achilles challenges Hector before the walls of Troy, the two actors didn't use stunt doubles. It was all them.

Now, I've never actually seen combat between two actual warriors before, but if I ever had, I think that it would go something like this:

Before I saw the movie, I got a hold of Robert Fagles' translation of The Illiad and read it. It reads almost like a regular book and not an epic poem written thousands of years ago. I would highly recommend this translation.

And I may be strung up by purists for saying this, but I think that the movie did a very good job of "modernizing" the tale. I think I like what the script writers did with the epic characters to bring some actual humanity to them instead of merely presenting them as iconic warriors, queens, kings, etc.

And lastly, but not leastly, I liked Brad Pitt's pronounciation of Patroclus, his cousin's name. It sounds almost like Patrick, with the emphasis on the 'a'. Somehow that was touching to me, that he pronounced it that way, and not in the grand way with the emphasis on the 'o'.

Anyway. That's my take on Troy and Robert Fagles' translation of The Illiad.

Skulduggery Pleasant

I just finished listening to a wonderful little audio book, Skulduggery Pleasant.

Now, there are audio books and there are audio books. How the book is read is very important. I've listened to some which have put me to sleep simply because of the boring delivery. And I've listened to others which make my head hurt because grown-up readers seem to think that all children have whiny, screechy voices.

And then there are those which are perfectly read. Perfectly performed. This is one of those books. I doubt if I would have had as much fun with this book if I had read it myself instead of listening to it, but by all means, read away if you can't get a hold of the audio book version. You won't be disappointed. My kids would have loved this book when they were younger (they are both in college now). Actually, they might even like it now.

Stephanie's eccentric uncle dies and leaves her his house, his possessions, and one big fat problem involving a friend of his, who happens to be a skeleton. Oh, and the little, eensy feat of saving the world - with magic.

Stephanie's only twelve, but she's got enough spunk to face everything that rises against her with an open mind, and, when necessary, a closed fist and a well-placed kick. Can she and Skulduggery work together to retrieve the incredibly powerful Scepter of the Ancients from her uncle's hiding place? Or will the evil Nefarian Serpine get there first and use it to rule the world?

It's incredibly fun finding out which it will be.