I don’t know why, but often the video doesn’t embed – here’s the video
world’s record knitting needles and crochet hook video
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Knit Your Own Dog: The Second Litter 25 More Pedigree Pooches Sally Muir, Joanna Osborne book review
Yeah! It’s time for a craft book review!
From the authors of the beloved and best-selling Knit Your Own Dog and Knit Your Own Cat comes 25 more cute dogs to knit! The list of included dog breeds are:
1) Chihuahua 2) Bichon Frise 3) Shih Tzu, 4) Wire-haired Dachshund 5) Chinese Crested Dog 6) Cavalier King Charles Spaniel 7) Hungarian Puli 
Shar Pei 9) Lurcher, (10) Greyhound 11) Border Terrier 12) Cairn Terrier 13) Staffordshire Bull Terrier 14) Bedlington Terrier, 15) Yorkshire Terrier, 16) Airedale Terrier 17) Weimaraner 18) Pointer 19) English Springer Spaniel, 20) Golden Retriever 21) Irish Wolfhound 22) Beagle, (23) Bernese Mountain Dog, 24) Boxer 25) Doberman Pinscher
Now, I know what you are thinking – anyone who knows me, knows I don’t make stuffed animals! I just have NO talent for it, but it doesn’t mean I don’t admire people’s creativity and talent and doesn’t mean I can’t love the book all the same!
I mean seriously, how can you not love something like this?
Project knit by Fiberdreamer on Ravelry and the book is listed on ravelry here (though most of the patterns are sadly not listed yet).
My favorite patterns in the book are the Shih Tzu (a dear high school friend of mine had one of those) and the terriors. The one I liked the least? the golden retriever, which is one of my favorite dog breeds – it just didn’t really look like a GR to me.
Again, not having made anything out of this book, take this with a grain of salt, but looking through the instructions, some of them seem a bit unclear to me, and sewing up all the little tiny pieces scares the crap out of me.
I received a review copy through netgalley.
friday fo: bath mat & freeform square
Good morning, readers!
Hope you are having a wonderful week!
I have a couple of quick FOs to share with you – first off, my bath mat, that I actually finished in April. I sat on taking photos because it’s really not big enough to be used as a bath mat, but I haven’t been able to find more tees in colors that will match, so I’m officially calling it done! and so I present to you, a tarn bath mat!
I cast on a random number of stitches – in my usual carefree way when gauge doesn’t really matter – and after knitting quite some time, I realized it really wasn’t wide enough. So I decided to finish it log cabin style. I goofed picking up stitches on one of the “logs” so one side is a bit wider than the other, so I’m calling it “wonky” and “planned”!
I absolutely loved making it, loved cutting the fabric for it, and love the squishy fabric. Thank you, Linda, for getting me started! I have two knitting kits my mom gave to me for Christmas that uses fabric & I can’t wait to have time to dig in.
I have one more project to share with you, a little 12″ freeform square I finished.
I am always making swatches, usually for design purposes, but sometimes I start a 12″ and get bored with it, so I just toss it into a pile instead of frogging it. Or sometimes it’s a swatch for a project that I’m planning on starting, but I realize I don’t like the stitch pattern, so again, I save it instead of frogging it. I’m accumulating quite a pile of freeform bits, but don’t have enough to make an afghan with it, so I decided to make a couple of 12″ squares. I finished 2, but the second one literally has about 60 ends dangling off of it. I usually weave in ends / work over ends / knit in ends as I go, with 2 exceptions – granny squares & freeform. So I’ll share the second square if & when I finish weaving in those ends!
The square isn’t a perfect 12″ square – it’s about 11.5″ at one spot and 12″ at another – but put into a larger afghan, it’ll work fine.
What have you made lately?
Boston Jane: book review
Boston Jane: An Adventure by Jennifer L. Holm
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I picked up this book to read for my nook from my local library, when I wanted something quick & fast to read. I didn’t realize it’s young adults (and considered middle school at that, which I don’t normally read too much of) so the book was a lighter than I had planned, but overall was a great read.
Poor Jane – she falls in love with a man vastly unsuited for her, and from almost the very beginning of the book does everything she can to make him love her even more. Very true for its age, this drove me nuts throughout the book. Daughter of a doctor, I kept expecting her to take care of people, which never happened, which also drove me nuts.
All of that being said, however, I just loved Jane. You couldn’t help but groan at her whenever she made (another) bad decision but you couldn’t help routing for her all the same.
So you are probably wondering why I gave this book 4 stars, when I am not exactly raving about the book so far? Well, it’s Miss Hepplewhite – the schoolteacher who teaches Jane how to be a proper young lady. So much of Miss Hepplewhite’s teaching comes from a book actually written at the time, and it’s fascinating to me some of the things she teaches. Though I knew women were raised to be docile and servants to men, it always amazes me to read that women actually acted that way!
View all my reviews
Random Posts
Good morning!
I haven’t done a round up post in a while so I thought I’d share some of the interesting things I’ve seen / read around the internet the last few days. But before I get to that, have you hear of Triberr? No, I hadn’t either until just a couple of days ago. It’s a website built along the idea of sharing blog posts on twitter, facebook, google + and other social sites, in order to find new quality content and to help others find you as well. You can add up to 2 blogs for free & multiple twitter accounts as well (I only have one of each so I’m not sure how many twitter accounts you can add) & join what they call are ‘tribes’ – groups of fellow minded bloggers, such as social bloggers, book bloggers, crafty bloggers or mommy bloggers, and starting your own tribe is easy. I actually started a fiber arts tribe because I couldn’t find any fiber related ones – and then I promptly found a couple (with 2 users a piece, including me) so I guess it’s good I started my own! You can also follow a tribe without actually joining it, which I may do if I find some history related tribes that look interesting (I’d follow instead of joining, so I can easily find posts, but I wouldn’t share any since I don’t write history related blog entries – make sense?)
Please do join, the site seems interesting though it’s overwhelming a bit to me as all new sites are to me! and join my tribe, say hello & let’s find other great blog content !
Gardening/Recipes:
We planted kale for the first time, so ten ways to cook kale
For my fellow designers or others who work from home:
How to work from home with fewer distractions
Free Kindle Book Alert (usual disclaimer: they were free when I grabbed them but might not be now)
I didn’t grab it, but those of you who like Barbara Bretton has a free ebook right now,
Once Around. Barbara wrote a mystery knitting series, starting with Casting Spells. I’ve read the first 2 think & loved them & want to finish reading the series for my Crafty Book Challenge.
In other book related news, there’s a GREAT list of books you need to check out on one of my favorite book blogs, Reading the Past, called Novel Bibliography: a Gallery of Royals and Nobles. If you like historical fiction go check it out, there’s some new to me books in this list!
Midwife’s Revolt
The Midwife’s Revolt by Jodi Daynard
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I received this book as part of a book tour – a book tour that unfortunately was forgotten about, in the midst of everything going on with Jon. I had started reading the book before he got hurt, but had to start from the beginning again when it came time to finish & write the review. My apologies to the author & to the rest of the book tour – there’s a reason why I seldom sign up for tours ;/.
This historical fiction book is about midwife Lizzie Boylston and her friendship with Abigail Adams – yes, that Abigail Adams! As such, this book is a bit unique – it’s about the founding mother’s of our country, not the founding fathers.
The book is excellently written, beginning with being introduced to Lizzie and her husband, who she very shortly loses. She is distantly related to Abigail through her husband’s side of the family and after she loves Jeb, she begins to become closer to the Adams family. The surrounding ladies at first don’t take kindly to Lizzie, whose father was a Tory judge, but she proves to everyone she knows her stuff, and they soon accept her as one of them.
I don’t want to say more than that, and spoil the book for yourself. It’s well written, the characters are great – I was pleased to see that there wasn’t a hundred characters to keep track of!, and the story moves at a great pace, though (for me) got a little slow in between the storyline/characters being established, and when the events really starting getting going.
For my fellow craft loves, you’ll especially love to hear that there are some mentions of weaving, spinning, sewing, etc. in the book.
Why 4 stars? As much as I greatly enjoyed reading about Lizzie (and reading about a time & place I don’t often read about), I didn’t really fall in love with any of the characters, and that’s what truly defines a 5 star book for me.
All in all, this book is great and fast read.
the Rules Stacey Kade book review 5 stars
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is another one of those books I read earlier this year and then forgot to write a review for it, even though I greatly loved the book! I have no idea why it took me so long to get to this.
Ariane, the main character, is a girl with a lot of rules: important rules that are there to save her life. The story is also told by Zane, a fellow high school student.
The best part about these two characters is how real they seemed. I’ve been in a reading funk lately, not really “falling in love” with the characters in my books, but these two are just amazingly written and are great fun to read. Not only that, but the minor characters are just as much fun, from Jenna, the ditzy best friend you just love to hate, to her classmates who torture Ariane.
The book has a great pace, and then there’s a great twist at the end that you probably won’t suspect, and it just kills me not to talk more about it but it’ll completely spoil the book.
I can’t wait to read the next one in the series.
I received a copy of this book for free from netgalley.
Orphan King book review
The Orphan King by Sigmund Brouwer
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I read this book a while ago, and honestly don’t know why I haven’t blogged about it until now.
The book is a medieval sci-fi/fantasy type of book, and from a Christian author no less. I enjoy reading books by Christian authors because the books are always “clean”. I was also interested in the book because it is the first in a series called “Merlin’s Immortals”.
The book is about Thomas, a young man who rescues 3 people from death, and their individual struggles. Thomas makes mistakes, but I think most of this book is about his private struggles with belief in God.
Overall I enjoyed the book, but I didn’t like the pace (I felt it was too slow), didn’t really particularly care for Thomas (I felt he was very stand-off-ish), and I just couldn’t get into the storyline – perhaps why this title sat so long before being reviewed. There was nothing wrong with the book – it was very well written – but some books just aren’t for everyone, and unfortunately this title ended up being that for me.
I received this e-book to review for free from http://www.waterbrookmultnomah.com/’s Blogging for Books program.
View all my reviews
After Long Silence book review
After Long Silence by Helen Fremont
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I was intrigued by the description of this book, “I didn’t even know my mother’s real name”, and so I borrowed this book from the library to read on my nook.
all in all, it was an interesting read. After Long Silence tells of Helen’s family & the secrets Helen’s parents kept from her and her sister her whole life, until she somehow finds out she’s actually Jewish (the book never really explains to my satisfaction exactly how she discovered she was Jewish & that her mother was lying to her). There’s also a lot of past / present back and forth in the book which I’m not a huge fan of, but it was also definitely the best way to write this type of book.
The book’s pace was a bit slow to me and there are parts that feel repetitive, but I felt the unique nature of this biography offsets the negatives in the book. That being said, why only 3 stars? I feel it was not only cruel, Helen’s relentless pursuing of truths her family didn’t want revealed, but not only that – she writes a book & publishes it, revealing to the world all of her families dirty secrets. Writing the book I think helped her deal with the truths, which I understand, publishing was still cruel.
new shawl designs
Any of my readers who are also on my Ravelry group probably already know I’ve been working on several new shawl designs – after taking a break from shawls for a while to work on afghans, squares, American Girl Doll designs, and so on.
Well, I’m pleased to announce two NEW shawl / wrap designs, both top down crochet designs written for two sizes, with notes for making them larger if you so choose. I’m not only really excited about both beautiful designs, but I’m even more excited because I had an absolutely beautiful model to work with, my coworker’s daughter Zoe.
First, the Hawaiian Sea Glass half circle shawl
Shown in Noro Taiyo Sock, size large, 150 grams were used.
Only $5.00
Next up, Peacock’s Plume, a wrap / scarflette that can be worn in many, many different ways… I made two samples in two different weights, but it’s also very easy to resize so can be worked in any weight / any gauge of yarn.
Above shown in Knit Picks Swish DK, almost 4 skeins used.
And the fingering weight version, crocheted up in LB 1878, a fingering weight yarn sold on 1 pound cones – 572 yards were used.
$5
Thanks for looking!
