Book Round-Up

 Cold Clay by Juneau Black: Sad to say, I didn’t enjoy this one as much as the first. The authors have created fun characters in a delightfully cozy setting, but the actual writing in this novel was not great — both overwritten and messy.

Moon over Soho by Ben Aaronovitch: I’m enjoying the Rivers of London series, an urban fantasy about a police officer learning to become a wizard. This one centered around jazz music and its vampiric fans.

The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly: This book, about a boy who finds himself in a world of fairy tales, was a lot darker than I expected, but it was a moving exploration of grief and growing up, deeply satisfying by the end. The only flaw was the chapter with Snow White, which was completely out of place tonally.

The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-García: This was a bit of a disappointment; it has lots of interesting elements and characters, but it doesn’t quite cohere, feeling more like a draft than a finished novel. Some elements are left dangling — ownership of the land, so critical in 1908, is not mentioned at all in 1998, and Minerva talks about her mother and great-grandmother, but her grandmother is entirely missing. Then there’s Alba’s relationship with her putative lover: Alba, and the narrative itself, treat it as if it were merely inappropriate and not absolutely awful. I don’t regret reading it, but I didn’t enjoy it as much as Gods of Jade and Shadow.

The Other Side of Midnight by Simone St. James: I try to read a Simone St James novel every fall; she excels at mysteries that are spooky and romantic. I didn’t love this one as much as the first two I read, but it was an enjoyable, creepy-but-not-too-creepy story about psychics real and fake.

Hemlock & Silver by T. Kingfisher: Kingfisher's novels have certain commonalities -- middle-aged characters with ordinary jobs, humor to counterbalance the horror and weirdness, and a pantheon of saints and gods -- but the settings and stories are varied and inventive. This one takes the elements of Snow White (queen, daughter, mirror, apple) and puts them together in an utterly novel way. I just can't get enough of Kingfisher, and I'm pacing myself through her extensive bibliography.

I'm Hanging on to Fall as Much as I Can

 Because it is my favorite season, and because I don't want to rush Christmas.

This pattern, from and old issue of Love Embroidery magazine, was designed by Elahe at Momentoell and is now available on her website (along with many other lovely ones). Her thing is using all six strands, and even twelve, of cotton floss, which gives the embroidery a chunky, dimensional look. For even more textural effect, I used wool thread for the pumpkins and linen threads for the stems (but the latter isn't quite so obvious). I'm really pleased with this design, especially the soft fall colors.

Belated Crafty Halloween Post

I was so busy finishing up some crafts, helping my kids prep for Halloween, and the usual ridiculous drudgery I never got a chance to show off what I made in October.

Those cheapo witch's hats you see in stores this time of year are too small to fit my giant head, so clearly the solution was to make one of my own:

The pattern is the Twisted Witch Hat by Stephanie Pokorny. I used two strands of black worsted weight yarn (I have GOT to stop picking patterns with multiple strands of black), and counted on both Stephanie's instructions to go up a hook size at a certain point and my own loose stitching to get the right circumference. And because of said loose stitching, I eliminated a few rows in the crown and brim (also, I ran out of yarn). The curl at the tip is maintained with 16-gauge floral wire. And to make it pretty (we need more beauty in the world) I crocheted some flowers, using the patterns here and here.

Earrings!

I've seen variations of the adorable floral ghost earrings for a couple of years now, so I finally made a pair for myself. The two skull pairs of earrings are part of my ongoing effort to create the perfect calaverita/sugar skull earrings. I'll get there someday.