chrysanthemum: Studio: clean. Button: found. Sweater: finished.

I love my library!

Diane Setterfield: The Thirteenth Tale: A Novel
A fat, Gothic novel full of ghosts and mysteries and lots and lots of plot. Yowza. Get yourself to the library now!
Kathleen Kent: The Heretic's Daughter: A Novel
It's such a cliché to say a book is heartbreaking. This is a story of a 9-year-old girl and her mother, imprisoned during the Salem witch trials. Finding a place in your family, in your community, in your own heart, seems like it ought to be simple, automatic even, but this girl's struggle cut right to the middle of me.
Simonetta Agnello Hornby: The Almond Picker: A Novel
What if the main character died on--or even before--the very first page? And everything you learned about her came second-hand, through the voices and memories of the people who knew her? And few of them knew her well enough to say or remember anything true? Well, you'd have a lovely mystery on your hands. And a compelling look at the human tendency to create reality instead of witnessing it.
Amy Bloom: Away: A Novel
I love a fat, 500-page novel with an eloquent, omniscient narrator who can see so far into all the character's futures that I'm left with no worries, only peace, at the end. This novel is pretty much everything I ever wanted, and it's not even 250 pages long. You'll be riveted. It'll take you three days, max.
Tracy Kidder: Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World
It's so hard not to look away from pain and suffering and poverty. Paul Farmer does not look away. He's right there, fighting on the losing side, because it's the right thing to do. I'm glad I read this at the start of the holiday season. I need the perspective.
Luis Alberto Urrea: The Hummingbird's Daughter
The first book for the new book-club year. I started early because it's a nice thick book, and I often have a hard time getting a whole book read in a month (so sad), but then I read it all in about four days. It's fabulous. Makes Mexico seem like it has a magic, majestic soul.
Dodie Smith: I Capture the Castle
How did I manage to check this out of the library at the same time as Cold Comfort Farm? I must have seen them recommended together somewhere. Turns out, this is exactly the sort of novel CCF is spoofing. Happily, I'm enjoying it anyway. If you get a wild hair to read both of these, do read CCF first.
Stella Gibbons: Cold Comfort Farm (Oxford Bookworms Library)
I'd never read any of the genre of novels that this book is meant to spoof, but I enjoyed it immensely anyway. It was especially fun to read semi-aloud in my horrific British accent. The only thing I didn't like about the book was that my edition had awful cover art. I like this cow so much better.
Charles de Lint: Widdershins (Newford)
If you liked Neil Gaiman's American Gods, give this one a try. I liked them both, and think I need to check out The Onion Girl which is evidently the beginning of these characters' stories.
Lauren Groff: The Monsters of Templeton
If this book had sprouted an extra head or a bunch of tentacles while I was reading, thereby assuring that there would have been even more to read, I would have been ecstatic. This is a really good one!
Philippa Gregory: The Other Boleyn Girl
Fiction is definitely my preferred means of learning about history--that's awful, I know, but it seems marginally better than movies, yes? This book is great: very informative with plenty of um, well, OK, sex.... Sex makes history more interesting, don't you think?
Neil Gaiman: American Gods
I'm just a little way into this book and it's so mesmerizing--like watching a big spider weaving an impossible web. I can't wait to get back to it.
Jim Fergus: One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd
A crazy, beautiful, utterly doomed solution to a problem that likely couldn't have been fixed any way at all. There are so many characters with so many conflicting opinions--all right, all wrong, all so human. I loved this book.
Lisa See: Snow Flower and the Secret Fan: A Novel
I was mesmerized by this novel. The setting is so rich and the story so sharp. I'm not sure I can forgive the narrator, but I can definitely identify with her. Everyone has something to be ashamed of, don't they? Also, compared to foot-binding, high heels seem pretty inconsequential....
Barbara Kingsolver: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life
I've said before that I'm not the gardener in this family, and I'm afraid I have that lifelong fear of dirt that Kingsolver disdains, but I've never read anything before that made me want to grow all my own food. And raise chickens. And maybe cows. Goats, too...
Michael Malone: Dingley Falls
I woke up one morning last week to hear Nancy Pearl on NPR say that she's been rereading this book every two years since it was first published in 1980. That's a recommendation I'm willing to take, and I'm loving this town and (almost) all of its inhabitants. Malone's narrator is removed but very tender, and all of these folks seem very, very real.
Joss Whedon: Fray
Shocked, I am shocked to find myself recommending a comic book, but here's the thing: I loved it. It even made me cry a little. If you loved Buffy and Angel, read this.
Erin Hart: Haunted Ground: A Novel
A moody, modern-day archaeological mystery set in Ireland and populated with creative people--singers, musicians, painters, even a weaver who dyes her own wools. There are several storylines going all at once which keeps it interesting, and while some of the details are gruesome, it's never a scary book.
Ingrid Hill: Ursula, Under
This is so good, I almost can't stand to read it, because I know the more I read, the sooner it's going to be over. I'm going slow on purpose. And if you see me crying or laughing or grinning like a crazy person on the bus, this book is totally why.
Jeffrey Eugenides: Middlesex: A Novel
Wow. This is a great book. You'd think that the narrator would resent his incredibly inbred family (grandparents are siblings; parents are cousins) for the compounded genetic mutations that result in his hermaphroditism. Instead, he's unfailingly warm, affectionate and empathetic. I couldn't help but love every character. But damned if I could figure out why his older brother is named Chapter Eleven...

I totally bought this pattern and this yarn on a whim. I really wanted to make this sweater, but the shop didn't have the pattern yet. I stumbled across this one at the back of the Blue Sky folder and was smitten.

Blue Sky Organic Cotton is some of the softest, chunkiest yarn I have ever knit up. I was slightly panicked that it would turn into a pilly mess right in my hands, but so far, so good. I knit it extra tightly, hoping to ward off excessive stretching, and again, so far, so good. It's only the sweater's first day out though... Anything could happen.

I modified the pattern only slightly. I added a couple of extra stitches at the bust, maybe an inch total. Also, I figured I had no need for cuffed sleeves that stop right at my biggest part, so I eliminated the cuffs and shortened the sleeves just a hair. And then I only did the one buttonhole, partly because I couldn't see myself buttoning this baby up, and partly because I only had one of the perfect button in my stash.

If I were to knit this pattern again, I would knit the body in the round. It's been a long time since I last knit a sweater in pieces and the whole time I was doing it, I was thinking this was crazy. I don't hate seaming, but sheesh, why not save time?

I'm jonesing for some more sweater knitting now. Part of me is shouting Yoke! Yoke! Knit it from the top down!, but the other part is saying that ribbon-trimmed cardi would be a really nice way to showcase some extra-special ribbon I have stashed away. And then I also really like this one. That seems a little crazy, don't you think, to want to knit three patterns from one company back to back? Maybe I'll do it anyway--I never claimed I wasn't a little bit crazy.

Comments

You are so pretty, and your sweater is adorable. Nice job! I also love your baby blanket....I think linen is an unusual, but charming choice. Linen is my favorite fiber.

They used to have squeegees at the University Bookstore, or you can easily order them on line. You can also use a plastic putty knife.

Posted by: dana | September 08, 2008 at 09:03 PM

Cute sweater! It looks really great on you, and I love the button.

I am so obsessed with knitting sweaters right now it isn't even funny, so I totally understand. Of course my vote for your next sweater would be for Yoke!

Posted by: whitney | September 09, 2008 at 04:46 AM

i just bought this sweater pattern, too. yours is lovely. and the button is so darling. you're perfectly right to knit another BSA pattern. they're all luscious looking finished objects!

Posted by: rebecca | September 09, 2008 at 07:16 AM

It's gorgeous! The fit on you is really nice.

Posted by: beki | September 09, 2008 at 07:18 AM

Dang! What a lucky guy I am. My wife is HOT!

Posted by: Michael | September 09, 2008 at 09:58 AM

You are such a trouble maker.

How do you do it? It looks totally yummy. Fits perfectly. Looks like something that would be lovely to wear all the time. And (since I'm not there for the process) went together instantly.

You make me want to try to knit a sweater.. which I know would take me years to finish, end up not looking at all like I wanted, with uneven sleeves that are acres too long.

Instead, I am going to sigh appreciatively, not be envious, and go back to the huge list of projects I am currently working on. Man, that is one nice looking sweater.

Oh, and the one with the cabled front you're thinking about? Gorgeous! And cables scare me, so if you make it, it won't tempt me at all. Not that your next project has anything to do with me... ;-)

Posted by: h. | September 09, 2008 at 10:10 AM

wow! looks fab on you - love the button. I want onee exactly the same. Go for a yoke one next...go on. Am ashamed to say the forecast is still hanging on...

that yarn is lovely to knit with - am just about to start another baby cardi in it.Mmmmm

Posted by: annieb | September 09, 2008 at 01:07 PM

Your sweater is fabulous! I'm a felting fiber addict. I may have to learn to knit something other than scarves.

Posted by: Laura | September 09, 2008 at 06:55 PM

That sweater looks fabulous on you! I always forget about Blue Sky's patterns...I guess I had better go take another look ;-)

Great job!

Posted by: Niki | September 10, 2008 at 09:42 AM

The sweater is awesome, but the button just sends it over the top. Way to go!

Posted by: Leah | September 20, 2008 at 09:40 AM

That sweater is so utterly lovely and what a perfect button. Lovely. I am so darned impressionable. I have some blue sky cotton, hmmmmm. But I'm relegating cotton sweaters to spring and summer. I have to get some yokes going. It is top down all the way this winter. Time to knit that yarn right out of my stash.

Posted by: Sonya | September 23, 2008 at 12:18 PM

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chrysanthemum

I love my library!

Organized Craft

Studio: clean. Button: found. Sweater: finished.

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