First of all:



My first ALA conference! ^_^

And now on to the knittery . . . I've nearly finished the first installment of The Great Christmas Stocking Endeavour! (I had the idea recently to knit all the "sock" parts first, then go back and do the fuzzy fluffy Suri Dream cuffs at the same time.)

I decided to knit the stockings in seasonal order, starting with the MacNamara colourway (spring) for my mum. I'm calling this one Primavera on Ravelry because, well, I think the Italian's pretty. ^_^



Since this was My First Sock, I tried to make a point of taking progress picture at (some of) the different stages of construction.

( More pictures under here! (9) )

I've been wanting to knit the Knit Picks Holiday Stocking for quite a while—and for several reasons (some of which [well, one] are actually "practical"): 1. I heart holiday stuffs (decorating, baking, the music, gifting—I've definitely got holiday cheer to spread!); 2. it looks like a fantastic way to learn how to make socks; and 3. I less-than-three Shamrock in its woolly, tweedy, happiness. ^_^

A few months ago, I came up with a completely mad idea: why not make four of them (one for each of my family members, me included) . . . before coming home for Thanksgiving holidays (because that's when we start decorating for Christmas). And then I had the mental image of these hand-knit stockings in alternating greens & reds as they progress down the banister . . .

I ordered the yarn & have had it since mid-September, but haven't quite started on the stockings yet. However, as I've got my swap gift for tardis_day nearly finished, I do think I'm going to ball up the first colourway & start swatching. Now, how about a picspam of yarny goodness? (Yes, I posted these pictures on my personal journal already, but I didn't explain why I picked each colour)

The Great Christmas Stocking Endeavour

Preview of colourways:


( Nine more pictures &c. under here )

Before I get to the aforementioned mittens, however, I have two new fibre-arts skills! Go me!

Back in May (I thought it was much more recent than that—oops!) I followed paxieamor's crochet tutorials and learned how to single & double crochet!

( Crochet & cables, away! )

Now, on to the mittens! I love mittens, but I hadn't made a proper pair yet (though the Be Speckled fingerless mitts I made a while ago were pretty close!). Since my mum's hands are always cold (even with mittens/gloves!) during wintertime I thought I'd make her a pair of toasty, woolly mittens for Christmas last year. I decided to use Knit Picks Shamrock due to its wooliness & somewhat tweedy properties (the Reilly colourway I used has since been discontinued.)

While wandering around Ravelry looking for a mitten pattern that would be fairly easy and have a rounded top, I found Classic Mittens, originally published in Free Vintage Knitting (the second link leads to the pattern page—not on Ravelry). It was indeed rather easy! I ended up marking it as a slightly tricky "easy" on Ravelry as I still have no concept of making proper thumbs. Sigh.



( Modifications & more pictures under the cut )

I now have an account on LibraryThing! Yay! I set it up last week and have been having great fun cataloguing my books at home (when I go back to school on Monday I'll have more things to add, woot! Yes, I like organising things. Cleaning, not so much.)

The "regular" blog widget apparently doesn't work on LJ as it uses scripts, but I just finished coding a "graphical widget" using the tutorial here. I think it came out quite well. ^_^



(It's also in my sidebar—I do rather like having a journal style with a sidebar [and a tag cloud!]. I'll probably switch my personal journal . . . eventually.)

Bringsvaerd, Tor Age and Thore Hansen, illus. (2008). Ruffen: The Sea Serpent Who Couldn't Swim. San Fransisco, CA: Mackenzie Smiles, LLC. [63 pages].

Summary and Evaluation: Ruffen (whose real name is Arthur—but no-one calls him that) can't swim. He doesn't get to join the other little sea serpents in their swimming races, or go fishing, or even try to scare ships (which doesn't work if you giggle). Why can't he swim? Because he was sick when all the other little serpents learned how to swim and is embarrassed he doesn't know how. When Ruffen frees the octopus 1492.25 (named after Christopher Columbus's voyage, of course) from a pair of rocks, the friendly cephalopod decides to teach him how to swim (since he's on vacation). After a while, Fourteen Ninety-Two has nothing more to teach our sinuous protagonist and heads off. A huge storm breaks out, causing a nearby ocean liner to begin sinking. Seeing the distress signals, the sea serpents agree they must help—but no-one wants to go out in the hurricane (they are much safer in their castle, after all). Ruffen decides to help and goes after the ship. Will one little sea serpent be able to save the day? Possibly more importantly, will the presence of a sea serpent cause mass panic?

I first found out about this picture book from an ALA newsletter earlier this year announcing it had just been translated into English (Ruffen was originally published Norwegian in 1972) and immediately decided I had to read it (I'm a fan of friendly sea/lake monsters). The text itself is humourous and placement is varied: some pages have only a sentence or two, others have full blocks of text (but never more than half-a-page). The illustrations (pen and watercolour, perhaps?) are charming! Sea serpents are mainly black-and-white, with accents of green and red; this colour scheme carries over to the backgrounds (rocky outcrops, the ocean liner, the sea serpents' strange castle). These are not scary creatures—they knit, have hot cocoa, and sing songs. Uncle Ludwig blows smoke from his nose (he's distantly related to fire-breathing Chinese dragons)—but that's only so nobody finds the secret island. Most of the emphasis on the page is on the illustrations—this might be a good choice for a read-with-me book (although the text is probably too small for a very new reader). Likewise, the story's message of friendship, learning new things, and courage is a good one. As an added storytime bonus, the song Ruffen sings is included at the back of the book, along with notes and the guitar chords! I was very pleased to find out that a sequel has now been translated—Ruffen: The Escape to Loch Ness!

Booktalk Hook: This would definitely be a good addition to a programme for younger children on sea monsters—especially since Ruffen and his family aren't the scary sort! I think the eye-catching cover would do very well faced, as well. The opening lines of the book might be good for a very short booktalk: "Far out at sea lies a mysterious island. It can be seen only on Tuesdays and Fridays. That's why it isn't on any maps. On this island is a castle . . . and in this castle lives an old and eminent family of sea serpents. So eminent, in fact, that it has a grandmother who says sea dragon instead of sea serpent" [Bringsvaerd, 1-2].

It seems I haven't posted on here in quite a while—March, to be exact! The book reviews I'd posted previously were following the reading journal assignment format for my YA lit course; others I post may or may not follow this format (they'll probably be similar, but I may leave off the booktalk "hook" if I can't think of anything in particular).

I took a children's literature class this spring and am planning to write up a few reviews from said course. (Teaser: Holes, Redwall, and a few others might show up.)

I'm also thinking of getting a LibraryThing account. If available, I'll probably use this handle/username.

And yes, knitting pictures, &c. are *long* overdue. I really ought to put something together, postwise!

The ubiquitous Four Scarf makes up a good deal of the projects on who_knits. During (or perhaps a bit before) last year's Good vs Evil Knitalong, several discussions were started about what types of scarves the *other* Doctors might wear, including a FO or two of a Ten-inspired striped scarf. After the KAL (of course, I had intentions of making several projects . . . and still haven't finished the first one I started—sorry, Murray!) I decided I would attempt to make a pinstripe TenScarf for lowc's Christmas present. One, she's a knitter too (and when she *finally* joined who_knits I had to stop posting updates); Two, she's the one to blame for my Who obsession; and Three, I was pretty sure she'd love it. ^_^ Two big problems (??) however: first, I had to come up with a pattern; second, I'd never made a vertically-striped scarf before . . . and I was making a pattern for said scarf! To attempt to be sneaky, I referred to the Scarf as the "Covert Knitting Project" in my regular journal and on Ravelry (I was also sneaky in colour names—I believe I had the blue as "light" and the brown as "dark").

One of the tricky bits, I found, was that I had to figure out how much yarn I was going to need beforehand . . . because I couldn't just stop a few stripes early if I ran out of yarn—like I could do if I were making a horizontally-striped scarf. I had to do a bit of knitting maths to figure this out—I'm not going to post it, but if anyone wants me to, let me know and I'll type it up as well.

Before the pattern, however, how about yarn picspam?

( Wool of the Andes is love )


Pinstripe TenScarf


(Yes, the wrong side *still* looks like pinstripes!)

( Pattern and more pictures under the cut. Yay for pinstripes! )

This is a free pattern, but I would ask that you please not sell the pattern or finished projects. Thank you.

Yolen, Jane (1997). Twelve Impossible Things Before Breakfast. New York: Harcourt Brace & Company. 175 pages.

Summary and Evaluation: This is a collection of twelve short fantasy stories, three of which had not appeared in a book beforehand. The stories range from the purely fantastic (“Harlyn’s Fairy,” “Sea Dragon of Fife,” and “Brandon and the Aliens) to the more shivery (“Wilding,” “The Baby Sitter, ” “Bolundeers”) to those that revisit familiar tales (“Tough Alice,” “The Bridge’s Complaint,” and “Lost Girls”). I’m always surprised at how much authors can pack into a short story and these are no exception. Each is completely separate from the others and relates an interesting tale, such as the girls of Neverland going on strike (“Lost Girls”), teenagers in New York City who turn into animals and run around parks (“Wilding”), Alice facing down a Jaberwock with a surprising weapon (“Tough Alice”), and a traditional monster story (“Sea Dragon of Fife”). The “Running in Place” section at the end of the book tells how Jane Yolen came up with each story, which I thought was a fun addition to the collection.

Booktalk Hook: I’m not exactly sure how I would booktalk this one as it’s a collection rather than one novel. Likewise, a read-aloud booktalk would probably give away too much of any one story. I might recommend this book to readers who enjoy fairytales, fans of Robin McKinley, and those who have read other works by Jane Yolen. The short-story format might also appeal to reluctant readers or those with shorter attention spans—when compared to a longer book, these stories could be seen as bite-sized.

Jinks, Catherine (2005). Evil Genius. New York: Harcourt, Inc. 486 pages.

Summary and Evaluation: Cadel Piggott is a genius. At seven he was already an accomplished hacker. By thirteen he was in twelfth grade (only taking three years to get through high school). From his psychologist, Thaddeus Roth, Cadel discovers that his real father is Dr. Darkkon (formerly Vernon Bobrick), known for his work in making people hallucinate and his plan to use a retrovirus to wipe out most of the human race. Before he became an evil genius, Dr. Darkkon became rich by starting a business that mapped people's genes and gave them according advice. With this fortune, he funded the Axis Institute, which is basically a University of Evil. Roth (the current chancellor of the Institute) enrolls Cadel in the School of Deception, where he takes such courses as Embezzlement, Infiltration, Disguise, Loopholes, and Pure Evil. Cadel has something else in his life besides learning how to become Evil, however. While still bored in high school, he created Partner Post, an online dating service (and study in human behavior) in which he makes up most of the partners. This is how he meets Kay-Lee, a nurse with a brilliant mind whom he converses with as a Canadian math professor named Eiran.

While the novel is fairly long and has quite a few characters, the pace moves fairly quickly and the plot seems to thicken at every turn. A mystery component is also present as strange "accidents" start to befall the students and teachers at the Axis Institute. I thought it was interesting that it seemed Cadel wasn't sure whether he really wanted to become a supervillain—most of his devious deeds (especially at his high school) were not meant to cause permanent damage (chiefly psychological) to their victims and he states several times that he doesn't want to kill anyone. Likewise, his relationship with Kay-Lee makes him start to think about what’s really going on in his life.

Booktalk Hook: It's a University of Evil! Fans of superheroes and supervillians (comic books or otherwise) would probably enjoy this novel as well as readers who might be interested in a twisty adventure story with a bit of espionage. A booktalk of this novel might start out with the question of where supervillians go to study Evil (although there is no degree in Horribleness, so Dr Horrible must have gone somewhere else—unless he's faking his doctorate).

Beddor, Frank (2006). The Looking Glass Wars. New York: Speak (Penguin). 358 pages.

Summary and Evaluation: What if Wonderland truly existed . . . but Lewis Carroll got it wrong? On Princess Alyss Heart’s seventh birthday, her evil Aunt Redd storms the palace with card soldiers and the Cat (an assassin with nine lives), murders the Queen, and declares herself ruler of the queendom. Hatter Madigan, the Queen’s personal bodyguard, escapes with Alyss through the Pool of Tears into “our” world, where they are separated. Alyss is eventually adopted by the Liddel family; nobody believes her stories about Wonderland, but the Rev. Charles Dodgson revises them into a fairytale. Tired of being made fun of and wanting to fit in, Alice convinces herself she did make up those stories as she begins to grow older. Meanwhile, Madigan spends years trying to find Alyss and her friend Dodge Anders is leading the resistance movement against Redd. Both know Alyss must come back to Wonderland to rightfully rule the queendom.

I was intrigued by the concept of this novel when I first saw it—revisionist Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland? Excellent! The book didn’t disappoint, either. The characters we know and love are nearly all here: the White and Red Queens (Genevieve and Redd, respectively), the Cheshire Cat (Redd’s assassin), the Mad Hatter (Hatter Madigan, head of the Millinery), the White Rabbit (Alyss’s tutor Bibwit Harte), the Caterpillar (a mystic species living in the mushroom forest), Tweedle-Dum and Tweedle-Dee (General Dopplegänger, who often divides himself into two bodies), even Jabberwocky are present. In this Wonderland, looking-glass travel is the fastest way to get from one place to another (rather like fireplaces on the Floo Network in the Harry Potterverse) and Imagination is the greatest weapon. The story moves back and forth between Wonderland and mid-1800s England; both settings are richly described. The battle scenes (yes) are not as intense as one might see in other novels, but I hadn’t been expecting as many. Fun bonuses include a map of the Wondernations (with a fierce Jabberwock hiding in the corner!), a color section depicting several of the characters (almost like in a junior movie novelisation), and a timeline with events in the Wondernations corresponding to those in “our” world during the time Alyss spends here. The Looking Glass Wars will be a trilogy; the sequel Seeing Red (2007) has been published, along with the first volume of a graphic novel-style comic series (Hatter M, 2008).

Booktalk Hook: This might be a good book to display faced (if there is enough room in the collection to face books)—the cover shows several card soldiers, which look rather similar to the battle droids from the first Star Wars prequel, marching menacingly toward the reader. To booktalk this novel, I would perhaps read the second half of the prologue (almost two pages)—this is where we see Alyss’s feelings of disappointment and betrayal upon reading Carroll’s book.