From Joanna's bookcase:

I have been working on The Eyes of the Dragon by Stephen King for a while now. King is one of Jordan’s favorite authors and he thought I would enjoy it. After banging my head against The Casual Vacancy, I was willing to give anything a try.

The Eyes of the Dragon is described as an epic fantasy. It begins with the not so stellar King Roland and his two son’s. The favored eldest son and heir to the throne is Peter. Peter is everything you want in a future king: smart, disciplined, and beloved of all he meets. His young brother Thomas is far more like their father. As King points out, he is not a bad boy, but a bit dim. More importantly, Thomas is malleable. He longs for the love and attention his father gives to Peter and is easily misled by his longing and jealousy.

Naturally, this is not a simple story of sibling rivalry. The kingdom is thrown into turmoil when King Roland somewhat unexpectedly dies and Peter is imprisoned for the murder. The sinister Flagg, your classic evil King’s magician, is behind the crime and imprisonment. Flagg is quick to mold Thomas to his liking. Will all things get set to rights? Will the kingdom be saved from the chaos? I’ll let you read and find out.

I enjoyed the story. Some of the narration wasn’t thrilling for me and I could certainly have done without over a page of detailed descriptions of a guard picking his nose (I was eating lunch, so I just skipped ahead). I found some descriptions were lingered on a bit too long and became tedious. It may just be the narrator in this particular book that I did not care for. I’d probably have loved it if the book was condensed into a short story or novella, instead of a full length book.

I did like how King reminds the reader at several points that certain characters are not really bad people and others truly are. They become more sympathetic. Just like real people, most of his characters are the product of their upbringing and circumstance. King does a good job of laying the groundwork for understanding his characters in the present action of the story.

Despite not loving The Eyes of the Dragon, I would willingly give King another go. I suppose I don’t have a choice. Many years ago I promised Jordan (prior to entering the shackles of matrimony with him, actually) that I would read the Dark Tower Series in exchange for him reading one of my favorites (The Dresden File). He has fulfilled his end. One of these days I need to fulfill mine.

But… for the moment I’m shifting genre. Apparently, I am in a nonfiction mood.

 So, I am reading. I promise. Not much, but more than I was. Hopefully, I will post about some reading rather than knitting soon.

I have been knitting a decent amount of late, but you can’t tell by looking around my knitting zone on the couch. There was been a lot of what we call frogging. You take your needles out of a problem project and riiiip it riiiip it. I got so frustrated with my attempted projects that I frogged the latest attempt at a cowl and started knitting something I dread. A project, or series of projects I don’t particularly enjoy but need to get done. Christmas stockings.

Anyone who has been around for the last 6-7 years probably knows about them. For those who don’t know many moons ago someone (no one seems to know who) knit matching Christmas stockings for our dad and his siblings. Every year we hung dad’s stocking up as a decoration. One day, shortly before my nephew was born, I was paging through Mason- Dixon Knitting Outside the Lines by Kay Gardiner and Ann Shayne and Dad spied something in the margin. His stocking! Thanks to the powers of the internet, the 1945 stocking pattern is still around. Naturally, he asked if I could knit us all stockings to match his. Thus began a lifelong project.

At the time, the goal was to make stockings as close to his as possible. It meant acrylic yarn that I do not love to work with and some swatching. That year I believe I knit two stockings. One for my nephew and one for my grandpa. Each year I chipped away at the stocking queue, adding and subtracting as I went. Each stocking has the person’s name and birth year on it. As needed, I was able to remove a name portion and replace it. That got me out of knitting a few. This year I have three stockings to knit.

As I said before, these are not my favorite to knit. The yarn is unforgiving for my hands and squeaks on my needles a bit. The colorwork is a bit tricky and the faces more than a bit creepy. (The internet calls the figures demon children, only in part because they are annoying to knit.) I have the added challenge of names that are too long to fit on the band. I hope everyone has a shorter nickname. I promised Dad matching stockings, so I will keep knitting them anyway. One day they will get linings and a bell on each toe… maybe. Hopefully.

I drag my feet on these every time, so I was a bit surprised last night when I ditched a whole list of projects for a Christmas stocking. I am even more puzzled by the fact that I’m mostly enjoying it. Maybe this stocking will be the beginning of a happier relationship between me and this life long project. For now I have started the stocking for our dear friend Miss Claire and mostly look forward to the process.


Oh! I have been working a bit on the fiber page for the blog. Hopefully you will see it soon, but I’m curious what people would enjoy seeing. Feel free to chime in with requests and don’t forget that our Books page includes a form to make book recommendations. We love a good book recommendation.

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From Joanna's desk:

I know it has been too long. Truth be told, I haven’t been reading much and feel rather guilty about it. I started working on The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling a while ago. After 130 pages, I’m still not sure I like it or if I’m just reading out of loyalty to Rowling. I love Harry Potter and her Strike series, but this book… I was forcing myself to work on it. Naturally, this means I was barely reading anything.  After far too long, I have decided to give up and start something new.

Enter Stephen King. Jordan, my darling husband whose battlecry scares the mastodon, likes his writing and thought I would enjoy him too. I started reading The Eyes of The Dragon last week. I’m still in the early stages, but things are looking more optimistic. We shall see how it goes.

On the knitting front, I have been far more productive. Two shawls are finished, along with a pair of socks. A baby blanket has been started and half knit. In an effort not to overwhelm you, I’ll start with the shawl I have mentioned before and leave the rest for another day.
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Mayella is an asymmetrical shawl by Corrina Ferguson. Anyone who knows me probably already knows symmetry is more my thing, but I couldn’t resist. I went a bit more luxurious for the yarn too. Knit Picks Gloss fingering is 70% merino wool and 30% silk and 100% delightful. It is soft with a bit of shine and drape.

Yellow has long been one of my favorite colors, so Honey was an easy choice. Picking a neutral to go with it was harder, but who doesn’t enjoy a nice grey? What I didn’t consider is the amount of contrast between the two. I’ve been reading and researching a bit about color choices for projects. Finished items look best when there is an appropriate amount of contrast between colors. People will take black and white photographs of combinations to make sure that they are not too similar in tone. I haven’t done that with this shawl, but I’m a bit worried they are closer than is optimal. Maybe I’ll try it before I post.

The actual knitting was enjoyable, not too hard but not too easy either. I could listen to podcasts or watch familiar shows with little trouble. I’d say I’ll knit it again, but I’m trying to be more strategic in my project choices from here on out. Maybe someday. I need to figure out how to wear the thing first….

From the desks of Kate and Joanna:
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​We do this thing on quiet Saturday mornings. We watching things together. Sometimes we also knit ... while watching things together.
 
Today we had a quiet Saturday morning, so a movie was in order.
 
And since we love Mr. Winston Churchill... Darkest Hour was in order.
 
For those who aren’t familiar, Darkest Hour is about Churchill’s early days as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during WWII.
 
It was cinematically lovely and the acting was amazing. We highly recommend it.
 
With Gary Oldman as Churchill! Who needs to know more!
 
It led us to discuss other things that we might do together, as together as we can from two states away.
 
We have long discussed doing a few knit alongs. For the non-knitters, a knit along (or is it knit-a-long?) is when multiple knitters complete the same pattern in unison. Some are organized for large groups over a set amount of time. We are not quite that structured.
 
We just pick a project and do something nerdy while knitting together, like watch West Wing or period British pieces. We have been having a little trouble deciding what to knit this time around. (Last time, we spent three years knitting sweaters... luckily they still fit our measurements by the time we were done.)
 
The sweater project was epic, if I say so myself. I’m quite proud of our sweaters.
 
Here are the sweaters:

In the past, we each purchased some of the same yarn and discussed using it for the same projects. Perhaps the time has come to put that lovely yarn into action?

But then we couldn’t decide which project to pick... so we thought we would let you pick!

Take a look and vote in the comments!

​​This discussion took us down the rabbit hole a bit...

Before long we were discussing a read along as well. Oh the possibilities.

You have two weeks!

Cast your votes!

And then, the update blogs will begin!

​Such Fun!

Somewhere there is a snappy title written down for this post. I wrote it down so I wouldn't forget and then I put it somewhere safe... I'll let you know when I find it. 

From Joanna's bookshelf:

It has been a regrettably long time coming, but I finished Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. It has undoubtedly been at least 10 years since I bought it and many since I last attempted to read it. I’m fairly certain this was my 4th attempt at making it past the halfway point. Unlike other books I’ve struggled to get through, (I’m looking at you Pride and Prejudice) I really enjoyed Good Omens every time I attempted it. Life simply got in the way.

Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch is a delightful collaboration. Many people are able to tell who wrote which part, but I cannot. I’m simply not familiar enough with their writing to tell, but that isn’t really important to enjoying this delightful tale about the end of the world. I assure you, looming apocalypse aside, this is a comedy.  You would think the agents of Heaven and Hell would welcome the end times, but for Aziraphale and Crowley, it means the end of their way of life. As both sides prepare for the final battle, it becomes clear that someone has misplaced the Antichrist….

Good Omens keeps things light, while taking on a rather bleak topic. Aziraphale and Crowley were probably my favorite part of the book. I like counterintuitive pairings. An unlikely buddy story of two guys just trying to maintain their lifestyle a little bit longer. Their relationship is an opportunity to explore how the two sides are different, as well as how they aren’t. They both skirt the rules set out for them, which I always enjoy. I also enjoy one thing they agree on: humans are far better at being good and evil than they are.

I wasn’t a big fan of the Antichrist until the end. The reader needs to know where he is and what he is up to, but I spent a lot of time wondering where Pratchett and Gaiman were going with him. I wasn’t bored, but underwhelmed by him. They make all the exposition come together nicely in the end. Nothing like the end times brought on by an 11 year old boy.

As delightful as I found Good Omens, it does drag a bit from time to time. There are a few jokes that go on too long. I’m told those are Pratchett bits. I also found a few side plots trying. They redeemed themselves in the end, but I’m guessing reading the book over a shorter length of time would have helped too.

I can understand the cult following the book has, but I’m not sure I love it with the same fervor. Would I read it again? Of course! Would I recommend it? Yes, but you better get a move on: armageddon could be any day now. 

- Joanna

From Joanna’s stove top:

​I used to think that knitting was a gateway craft. Knitting lead me to spinning.  Spinning has led me down a rabbit hole into a new world. So far, the actual crafting has been limited to knitting and spinning. I haven’t managed to knit with my hand spun. Weaving is on my list, but I don’t have to space to dive into that one. Not yet anyway.

I’ve expanded a bit into more accessible areas. With a bit of help from a friend, I learned how to card wool. With the help of the internet, I learned about dying wool with egg dye.
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The wool in question was from a local farmer. For the more sheep minded, it is a suffolk Hampshire cross. Think dark faces and legs, white and fluffy everywhere else. These sheep are common in the US and primarily used for meat.  I carded the wool I was given and spun it over the course of a few months, finishing it last November. As a beginner, prepping and spinning was a learning adventure. With no project in mind, the finished yarn was tucked away.

I’m not sure when I first read about dying yarn with egg dye kits. I’m sure I just stumbled into it online somewhere. Unlike some dying techniques, food dyes don’t require dedicated equipment, so I figured it was worth a try. Then came the waiting. Why buy kits now, when I could wait till the post Easter sales! My handspun yarn was the only undyed wool hanging around, making it the best option for my little adventure. The process is pretty easy. Put wet yarn in a pot of water and heat it up with some vinegar. Add dye tablets.

Naturally, there is a bit more to it. I had a general idea of what I wanted to end up with. More vinegar early means the dye bonds to the wool faster, leading to more concentrated color. Adding vinegar later allows the color to dissipate, producing more even color. I went for the former, I got the latter. Yay learning. The color is still fantastic. I want to dye more… much more. I guess I have a new fiber hobby… oops. Guess I stepped through the gateway
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- Joanna

I bought Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of Nuclear Disaster by Svetlana Alexievich back when she won the Nobel Prize in Literature for it 2015. I was intrigued. And if she won the Nobel, it had to be good right? 

For those of you who don't know Alexievich and aren't a Nobel Prize nerd like me, in this work, she crafts a unique and striking narrative style as she collects interviews with people who were touched by the disaster of Chernobyl. When she won the Nobel the committee stated that she had won it “for her polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time.”

It is an accurate description of the work.

Here are some of my thoughts:

This is not a book you binge your way through in a long weekend. This is a book that requires - no demands - that you take it all in. Word by word. Piece by piece. Horror by real life horror. The way she is able to capture the emotion and the personal history in each interview is unparalleled. 

I think we all know what happened at Chernobyl from an intellectual standpoint, but I was blissfully unaware of some of the events that transpired as the Russians tried to cope with the reactor.

The men that were sent without protection to clean radioactive material off the roof of the crippled reactor. The pilots who made trip after trip over the site to collect readings. The food that was still harvested and still put into the food supply... quietly... The people that returned. The wives and sisters and mothers that received them at home. The children who went to school with piles of radioactive dust on their roofs. 

It is an incredibly human story and yet somehow otherworldly. Page after page, I kept finding myself in a state of disbelief. How could this happen? How did they think this was okay? How could they not see that none of this was alright? And then, Alexievich would show you the answers... and then a part of me suddenly understood.

This disaster is one of the great lesson of life. We make the best decisions we can in the moment that we make them and have to find a way to live with the outcome. 

I highly recommend the read. There are sections that will be hard to stomach, but 
every word will be worth your time. Alexievich is a master of her craft and deserves every word of praise spoke about this work. It was courageous to collect. I cannot even imagine what it took for her to gather all those interviews and put their emotions before her onto the page. The weight she carried for them is immense. 

She has done history a great service. She has given the men and women who have died or are dying as a result of this tragedy a voice. She has given them a place and, hopefully, helped ensure that we will never forget the cost of the folly of man. 

- Kate

I finished reading Starman last week! I can’t remember when I started reading it. A bit of background is probably the best place to start. Starman, by Sara Douglass, is the third in the Wayfarer Redemption fantasy series. Depending on where you are in the world, it is two separate trilogies, but for our purposes it is a set of 6 books. Starman is the culmination Prophecy of the Destroyer. The prophecy ominously and vaguely describes events that will either reunite three groups of people into the land of Tencendor or result in destruction for all. Our key prophecy player are Axis, Starman, and the Destroyer, who happen to be half brothers. Like most fantasy, there is a whole host of characters, regions, and people to get the hang of. You can decide if you want to dive into all that. Starman is the culmination of the prophecy. The final showdown.

I enjoy fantasy in pure form or variants. The slow, and hopefully steady, world building is okay with me so long as I know we are going somewhere. Exposition is to be expected along with big ramp ups to epic endings. Starman was chock full of ponderous exposition. We plod along as a variety of characters take their places and prophecy is fulfilled. I’m not sure all the waiting and trudging paid off. The ending was fulfilling, I suppose, just fairly anticlimactic. Instead of a big ramp up to the ending, there are many small builds to small climactic moments. The most thrilling show downs took place in the first two thirds of the book. Scenes that could have been quite exciting were a bit… meh. Overall, the book was pleasant enough, but rather lackluster.
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I enjoyed Starman, but it was not my favorite of the three I’ve read. The first book, The Wayfarer Redemption, was the high point, full of excitement and intrigue. The second help my attention just as well. I would recommend the books to you, or anyone else. I just might not read the other three books in the series.

Now, to pick the next book. I can’t figure out what I’m in the mood for, maybe some non-fiction? I should probably focus on Good Omens.