Bead Candy Eggs

Cath Thomas has a wonderful modification of her bolas tutorial to make beaded stripey Easter eggs. So of course I made a bunch (you can't stop at one!), playing around with colors and sizes: 

 I've got decades of experience in mentally flipping stitching instructions from left to right, because I'm a lefty in a world of righties. But this tutorial defeated me; there was no way I could figure out the join until I finally turned my beadwork inside out to force it to match the images in the tutorial.  The zipping up, though, is the best part 😍.

Spring!

 Cherry blossoms are beautiful and I wanted to make a little hoop of them:

I free-styled a branch with snippets of brown wool felt, then cut little flowers out of pale and very pale pink wool-blend felt and stitched them down with dark pink stitches. As soon as I find a wooden 5-inch hoop I will rehoop it, and maybe iron the cotton fabric, haha.

I work on this little hoop every spring, choosing a couple of the blooming trees and bushes in my neighborhood to represent:

Most recently I stitched the cherry blossoms and large yellow flowers at the bottom, above the pink knots. 

I'm lucky to live in such a pretty neighborhood.

Book Round-up

The Eighth Detective by Alex Pavesi: This was an interesting novel -- a mathematician devises seven necessary conditions for a mystery and writes seven short stories to illustrate them before disappearing from the public eye. Eventually a young editor seeks him out to get his permission for a reissue, and the novel consists of the seven stories alternating with their conversations about them. There are, of course, twists to be had and secrets to be revealed. It serves as a minimalist contrast to the maximalist Everyone in my Family Has Killed Someone, which elaborated the (technically unnecessary) tropes that populate most mysteries.

The Little Village of Book Lovers by Nina George: an unexpected treat mailed to me by an acquaintance. That it was a sweet paean to good books and a simple life was a given; that it was also wise and funny was not. It's magical realism, too, so of course this was perfect for me.

Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery: my next (out of order) purchase to replace my tattered paperbacks. As an adult I have a newfound appreciation for both Montgomery's characterizations and her sense of humor.

The Sinister Pig by Tony Hillerman: I didn't love these as much as the earlier ones; too much time spent with the bad guys and not enough for Bernadette Manuelito to do. I did enjoy it, though.

No Two Persons by Erica Bauermeister

This was a original and moving novel about reading; more specifically, how no two people will read a book the same way. It's tightly structured, taking us chapter by chapter through the creation of a book -- the author's inspiration and creation, the agent who recommends publication, the actor who narrates the audiobook, and all the readers who pick it up. Amusingly, not all of them actually read it; one artist resents its popularity and the fact that it was her mother who gave it to her; nonetheless, it becomes a part of her masterpiece sculpture.

There are other elements besides the book that link the stories together, such as a traveling nurse who knows several of the readers, an essay written by one that inspires another, the image of slipping under water. These are, I think, ultimately unnecessary, because the crux of the novel is how each character encounters the book and is affected by it. For one, it inspires hope, for another, it forces a change of perspective, for a third it represents a life-long achievement. One character finds healing and another wrestles with a long-buried trauma. All of them come out of their encounter on a new path. I can't think of a better way of demonstrating the power of a good book.

Honeycomb by Joanne Harris

 I discovered this book by pure happenstance; I had no idea Harris, most famous for writing Chocolat, had written a collection of fairy tales. There are fables and just-so stories, but the bulk are fairy tales of the kind that used to be told, with fairies -- called Silken Folk -- who are as capricious as they are beautiful. Many relate the adventures and misdeeds of the Lacewing King, a prince of the Silken Folk who steals the Spider Queen's crown, aids the Clockwork Princess, and spars with the treacherous Harlequin before finally meeting his fate. Linking all the stories are the motifs of bees and honeycomb, by which stories are transmitted through the nine worlds. "This is a story the bees used to tell ..."

The stories are elegant but also deeply cynical. Kindness is rare, and virtue is never rewarded. A set of fables inspired by Animal Farm illustrate modern ills such as fascism and influencers, and the morals can be heavy-handed; others simply reflect the cruelties of the world. Each story is by itself clever and amusing, but read collectively they wear on the soul. What a shame to see such beauty in nature, in insects, in storytelling, but not in humanity.

Emily Wilde's Map of the Otherlands by Heather Fawcett

 The second in Fawcett's series was just as delightful as the first. The fairies in this novel are enchanting, dangerous, and illogical, just as in the old stories, and as a result humans take different approaches to dealing with them: some try to bargain with them, some placate them, some do their very best to ignore them. 

And then there are people like Emily Wilde, who want to study them. Emily makes for an unusual protagonist: she's a brilliant academic but a terrible people person, and often has to rely on her friend (and fairy prince in exile) Wendell to smooth things over. She's very good at getting herself into and out of danger, but she's no warrior princess and sometimes she needs to be rescued. She's dorky and prickly, and some of the funniest scenes are because of her own obliviousness. 

Emily is not the only scholar this time around (Wendell doesn't count, he's too lazy to actually learn anything); she's joined on her adventures by professor Rose, who is a welcome addition to the story. He is more experienced than she is but also more conservative and old-fashioned in his approach, making him a good antagonist who is nonetheless an ally when it counts. I don't think we will see him in the concluding novel, but maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised.

The covers of the American editions are gorgeous, and having embroidered a pendant based on the first novel, earrings made sense for this one:

Maybe a pin for the last one? Or a bookmark.

A Bit of Crochet

Well, more than a bit. I lost on the bus the wonderful hat my mom knit, and because of her arthritis she can't make me another (and I'm terrible at knitting, so that's out). It was big and slouchy and perfect for covering my ears, so I set out to find an hat to crochet that would be easy to adjust for maximum coziness. The "Ribbed Wonder" fit the bill; I especially liked that the rows are vertical, making it super easy to adjust for my giant head. Of course, I was so focused on the width I didn't pay attention to the fact that it is much too long for me, and I have to cuff it twice to avoid looking like "Dumb" Donald. But I love it!

 I find it amusing that as I've learned how to crochet I've gone from a ridiculously complicated hat to a moderately complicated one to the easiest possible style.

I also needed a way to store in my shower bars of soap that are likely to melt away if they can't dry properly. With only the vaguest idea of what to look for, I stumbled upon the notion of soap savers, and found an easy one to crochet. I didn't have any fancy linen yarn but acrylic seems to do the trick, and if it doesn't last I can always make another.

I still have to finish my sweater. Two years and counting!

Book Round-Up

 A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab: A month later, I'm still not sure how I feel about this novel, the first in a series (that can stand alone). There was a lot I liked about this book, including the concept of four Londons with differing levels of magic. And there was a little I didn't like at all, such as Lila's not-like-other-girls status and the unrelenting cruelty of White London. But either way, Schwab is a compelling writer. And I'm adding this to my imaginary shelf of alternate Londons.

The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien: I read this first in high school, dipped in and out of it over the years, and finally settled down for a reread in January. To my surprise, it wasn't as challenging as I remembered (all that reading over the last 30+ years has paid off!), and the stories were still as melancholy and beautiful as I remember. Anyone who thinks Tolkien only writes simplistic, black-and-white stories with happy endings needs to read about Feanor.

The Clocktaur War by T. Kingfisher: This duology about a small group of ordinary people -- naive scholar, allergy-prone forger, traumatized paladin, and cynical assassin -- sent on an impossible task to put an end to unstoppable war machines was so much fun. Kingfisher has a knack for putting ordinary people in deadly situations without losing sight of her characters' humanity or sense of the ridiculous. She is rapidly becoming one of my favorite writers.

Annual Late Winter Jewelry Photo Dump

 My mom bought me a Riverstone bracelet for Christmas. It was lonely so I made two more:

Humblebeads had a cute, Spring-y necklace made with waxed linen and assorted charms and beads; I used dyed hemp cord (so rough, my poor hands) and beads and charms from my stash, making it the perfect easy project.

 

I bought this lovely Anne Choi bead decades ago and made it into a necklace that I really liked but never wore:

So I remade it as a chunky bracelet. I hadn't intended a Valentine theme but that's how it worked out; fitting, given the inscription on the bead: lux et umbra vicissim sed semper amor.

 I've been telling myself for two years to make a pair of small brass earrings to wear with brass necklaces. I finally did!

Book Round-Up: Better Late than Never Edition

The Shape-Changer's Wife by Sharon Shinn: Shinn's debut novel is about an apprentice wizard who studies under a powerful mentor and his odd wife. It's often (rightly) compared to Peter S. Beagle's The Last Unicorn in style and vibe, but it also reminded me of Naomi Novik's Uprooted.

In Search of Lost Books by Giorgio van Straten: This is less a deep dive into known books that have disappeared, and more an idiosyncratic meditation on those books colored by Straten's tastes and experiences. Enjoyable as it it, but I would have preferred a more investigative work.

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman: My battered paperback disappeared, so what better excuse to buy a lovely hardcover with Gaiman's preferred text? It's a gritty, magical, weird exploration of an alternate London that also forces us to think about the parts of society we'd rather not deal with.

Murder in the Family by Cara Hunter: The premise is that of a TV producer who creates a true crime show to explore a brutal death that happened in his childhood. The text, then, is a transcript of the shows, plus emails and research, that gradually reveal what happened. But transcripts are an awkward thing to serve as the bulk of a novel. The mystery wasn't hard to figure out, either, but it was enjoyable enough.

Cat Tales by James Herriot: A collection of some of his anecdotes and stories involving cats, and just as sweet and comforting as you'd expect.

This Bird has Flown by Susanna Hoffs

It took me a shamefully long time to realize Hoffs' debut novel is a riff on Jane Eyre. Jane, a one-hit-wonder trying to make it many years later as a singer-songwriter, flees a bad breakup and a bad gig by hopping a plane to London. On that flight she meets her Rochester, and their relationship develops astoundingly quickly while Jane also prepares for a musical comeback. The book is full of literary references and song lyrics, and I'm positive there are many more I missed (like, say, the really BIG one I almost did!).

Modern retellings of Jane Eyre sometimes flatten Jane's morality, misunderstanding her integrity as simply a certainty in the correctness of Christianity, and try to present a more inclusive point of view; this is partly why I think Margot Livesey's novel, while thoroughly enjoyable on its own, failed as an Eyre retelling. Hoffs, on the other hand, understands that Jane's integrity is what matters. Like Livesey's novel, the antagonists are not caricatures of evil. Tom's ex does some bad things, makes some poor choices, and even starts (accidentally) a little fire, but she is neither evil nor crazy, just suffering deeply. Tom's handling of the matter is terrible, but not because he is arrogant or misogynistic; he just truly doesn't know what to do. And when Jane learns the truth, she is compassionate and understanding, but it doesn't stop her from doing what she knows is the right thing, no matter the cost to her personally. It makes her a character to root for whole-heartedly.

And it's not just in love that Jane keeps true to herself; the B-plot of the book is about her comeback performance with the mega star* who wrote the song that made her a star. Jane wants the acclaim (and, more importantly, the steady income) that a collaboration will bring, but she can't quite manage to stop wanting success on her own terms, in a way that is meaningful to her. The novel is full of sex, drugs, and rock and roll, but through it all Jane does not lose her core; as a result she gets what she wants, even if it doesn't quite look like what she thought.

*Clearly an analog for Prince, although I sincerely hope he was a better person to Susanna.

Book-Round Up: Christmas Edition

 Blackmail and Bibingka by Mia P. Manansala: I didn't love Manansala's third in the series as much as the first two, but it was enjoyable and I'm looking forward to the fourth, which I hear is very good.

Winter in the Air and Other Stories by Sylvia Townsend Warner: Not all of the stories in this collection were wintry, but they were thoughtful and melancholy, with hints of Warner's sly wit. Many of the stories depicted characters on the verge of a transition, looking uncertainly to the past and the future -- appropriate for end-of-year reading.

Another Little Christmas Murder by Lorna Nicholl Morgan: An old-fashioned Christmas mystery, complete with a snowstorm, impassable roads, eerie manor house, and suspicious characters trapped together. A fun read for the season.

The Little Library Christmas by Kate Young: I loved this mix of recipes, memories, and literary quotations, and I wish I had time this season to make some of the delicious (I assume) food. Next year!

Holiday Romance by Catherine Walsh: This was a step above the usual Christmas romance, with endearing relationships (including the protagonists' families) and low-stakes but meaningful drama. I highly recommend it.

An Ex for Christmas by Lauren Layne: I wanted one last holiday read for the season and I found this on the Libby app. I enjoyed it while I read it, but the more I think about it, the more annoyed I get with some of the decisions the characters made.

Holiday Stitching Photo Dump

 Well, December did not turn out like I had expected. My oldest went in early on for surgery and ended up getting very sick after, not coming home until New Year's Eve. A lot of stitching got done in his hospital room, but very little social media and posting.

But before then, I participated in Wild Olive's ornament SAL in November, which gave me an excuse to finally make some of the designs from one of her patterns, which I bought ages ago.

Beatrice's 2022 Adventrees pattern was the perfect thing to keep my hands occupied during the long hospital stay. I had lots of fun choosing stitches and colors for each tree.

At night I got a little cross stitching done, enough to finish Praiseworthy Stitches' Snowflake Dreams and Elizabeth's Needlework Designs' Red Bird.

In early December I traced and cut out all the felt and fabric pieces to make a bunch of "bowl fillers" from Debbie Busby's Jingle all the Way pattern book; none of the stitching got done until January, though.

The mat is a design by Annie Lippincott, from an old issue of American Patchwork & Quilting.

Not a bad amount stitched for a crazy season!