The Fairy Tale Girl: A Review

Hello, my dears. Are you looking for a lovely distraction from the horrors that have been consuming the evening news of late? Then I have a recommendation for you!

Are you familiar with the work of Susan Branch? She's got a nice variety of happy home sort of books (ideas about entertaining and food without the hoity-toitiness of Martha Stewart). Every year she puts out a variety of calendars and such, and an assortment of other print items. She's a watercolor artist (and makes me wish I could draw more than stick figures) and an author. Her blog is one of my favorites--you just know deep down to your toes you're going to find something good there. Plus, she's my spirit animal (in human form, of course).

A couple years ago, I read her book 'A Fine Romance: Falling in Love with the English Countryside' and became even more smitten. She's just so stinkin' delightful!! So real, so lovely, so whimsical. I might have a crush.... Anyhoodle, she decided to pull out the diaries she kept from her twenties onward and turn them into an autobiographical-scrapbook sort of book. Except that, like yours truly here, she couldn't shut up (and I say that lovingly) and stop at one book, so there will be two books to tell the tale. Eeeeeeee!!!!!

I don't know how, but I was asked if I'd like to review her newest book 'The Fairy Tale Girl' (not by her, just to be clear), and after I picked myself up off of the floor and breathed into a paper bag I shouted through my email "Yes!!!!!! Give it to me now!!!!!" but nicer.

Ahem. So. The book. First of all, the actual physical book--it's so nice! Even the quality of the paper is yummy (I know, a weird thing to notice). Second--I love details. That is where most of my delight comes from in certain things--it's the little things that make the difference to me. And this book is a visual delight literally from beginning to end. Look at the inside cover (the back is similar):

Another tiny detail that thrilled me was this:

Not enough books have ribbons. Now that we've covered the part of the book that isn't the traditional part of the review, let's move to the inside.

This isn't written as a 'normal' adult book. Oh, no. It's classic Susan Branch, with her words, sprinkled with photos, quotes, and her signature watercolor paintings, all in one page making the story cohesive, fun, and never boring.

I don't want to say that I could have written this book because no. But I sat there and nodded along and felt all the feels and was hit with pangs of nostalgia all the way through, thinking "Has this woman somehow been inside my brain?". She writes of universal experiences--childhood, family, heartache, happiness, discovering yourself, and so on. But the thing is that it's never boring. I've read many an autobiography (or tried to) and often found them boring. This is not that way. It's like having tea with a new friend and just knowing you're kindred spirits (because when people ask how old I am I always tell them that I'm twelve, but have been around thirty-something years so I know things. Please note I don't tell this to everyone. Just people who already know me and my brand of quirky). Click the photo below and you'll see the part that almost made me shout "Oh my goodness, me toooo!!!" at too late of an hour to still be up reading.

To put this book in a nutshell (don't you say that before all the words, haha?) the story covers her youth in California, where she was born, raised, and seemed to have jealousy-inducing amounts of fun. There she met her first husband Cliff, and received a crash course of sorts on love and life. She discovered she was an artist. And learned the hard way that life isn't a fairy tale unless you make it one. Reading this book I kept waiting for her to make it across the country to the place where I know her to be from, but alas, we must wait until the spring when we learn the distinction between a fairy tale and a dream--

I once told my mother that I was born in a year that still belonged to the past, and not the future as my sisters were (I sometimes feel like we belong to different generations, even though there are only five years between me and Rachel, and eight for me and Alicia). For example, if you look at pictures of my brother and me as tots you could compare them to photos of our parents as kids and not see much difference beyond the black-and-white vs. color film used. The clothing was similar, houses looked similar, that sort of thing. Same goes for toys, or things "we used to do when we were young." But somewhere in the eighties something changed, and everything all at once took a giant step to a futuristic place where children have existed ever since. Nowadays the difference is even more stark, the change being most notable in young girls. When I see what ten year old girls are wearing, and overhear their conversations, and learn of what they watch on TV, I think I might be appalled. Where are their sticker-books and their pink plastic water pistols and their peel-off nail polish that they can only wear at home? Where are the Care Bears pajamas and hair ribbons? To this point, this, of all of the lovely pages in this book, is my favorite sentence in the whole thing--

Yes, we did, Susan, though decades separate us.

So, wow, that got away from me. I meant to stick with a more objective format, but I guess this way you know I reeeeaaallllly loved this book. If you haven't got your hands on this already, I super recommend this one as a holiday gift (or a hooray-it's-Tuesday-I-deserve-a-treat kind of gift). And if I haven't convinced you, head over to Susan's blog and take a gander. But pour some tea and tell someone else to make dinner, because I'd be willing to bet you'll be there a while. Happy reading!

I was not financially compensated for this post. I received the book at no charge in exchange for an honest review. The opinions are completely my own based on my own experience. For my complete disclosure policy, click here.

Pendulum

Ack! Is it full speed ahead or what with the calendar lately? My goodness! I've just been hit with that "Oh dear, it's coming!" feeling that I get every year at this time when I consider my lists of have-tos and want-tos. I try to get them to sort out their differences in a mental cage match, but it ends in a draw and the end of the year is a mad rush instead of a peaceful stroll towards the finish. 

Let's take a deep breath and look at this lovely sky--

I had an amazing photo of clouds against the evening sky, but I very stupidly deleted it and couldn't recover it even after a frantic search entitled "how do I recover the photo I accidentally deleted even though I said yes, I was sure?" (the thought of getting a virus via a recovery utility I'd never heard of made me too nervous to even try, plus I'm not paying for that, so here we are).

Anyway...why are we here? Oh, yes. I have another shawly-scarfy thing to share with you. While conducting my birthday yarn store splurge, I had a pattern for the 'Pendulum' scarf in hand, but no ideas on color. The store didn't have the recommended yarn, so I had to be a diligent searcher. In a random cubby, I found a few hanks of Manos del Uruguay yarn that made me think of a happy little stream, skipping along stones, under shady trees and by sunny banks. There were a few color choices that would have worked, but I wanted a certain look. I must have sat there for twenty minutes just staring, trying to decide. Someone finally asked if they could help with a choice, and I blurted out "Which colorway makes you think most of a babbling brook?" and without missing a beat they responded "That one!" That's what I love about the crafting community--you can say insane things and people know just what you mean.

Ignore the faded blue carpet--the yarn colors are true to life.

This shawlette utilized short rows to get the fatter-at-opposite-ends effect. I used German short rows because I don't like picking up wraps, but this pattern didn't require you to pick them up, so you can see a little bit where that little hiccup shows up. I just pretend that it's a pebble in the stream and a design feature, not an unforeseen occurrence.

Even this close you can barely see it, but it's just about center. No biggie, just something learned.

The one thing I didn't love but I'm not sure what was going on was the very edge--it looks very pulled and stretched. But it doesn't feel that way.

While I do really love the finished project, after about the midway point I felt numb, like I just could not wait for it to end. I didn't love paying constant attention and counting for short rows, which made an all garter stitch project a wee bit less mindless. I definitely had more yarn to up the size, but I was just very tired of this one at that point. I blocked it well, but the starting point wants to curl a little bit. I think it's just a thing that might happen with certain triangular knits.

The yarn itself I don't know if I'd use again. It loved catching on itself, and wasn't a perfectly smooth twist as I normally like. It worked great for my melodious waterway idea, but I don't know if I'd love that dash of homespun-ness in something like a sweater. 

I do have two more to share with you (I know, I made a lot of scarfy shawly things over the summer), but I'll give you a break for now and show you some purses next.

Fall for Savings (or Something More Clever)

Hey gang! I know that with blog reader services (I still miss Google Reader, by the way) and so much being done on mobile devices that folks might not visit actual blogs like they used to (and I don't think people write as frequently, either). But anyway--I've added a discount code to my sidebar for my wee shop. I've got a large variety of things in there--hardware, some fabric, my amazing pot scrubbies (seriously--they're awesome), and a few other bits and pieces. From now through the end of the month I've got a 15% off of everything deal going on. So stop buy, grab the code, and click on over to grab a treat for you or someone else.

Kind of a Picture Post

Last year around this time I was wearing my winter coat. On Friday it was almost eighty degrees. The leaves have been changing, but not in that vibrant way they usually do. I wonder if that has to do with them changing color later than usual. I want it to get cold soon, as you can't even tell Thanksgiving is a few weeks away (and I don't want it to get here while I'm still thinking it's September because then it will be Christmas and that's just too soon).

A couple weeks ago we had one of those weird moonrise-while-the-sun-was-still-out situations. 

In the summer this shady spot is covered in ivy. A-train always wants to go in this area, but I don't know if there's poison ivy so I tell him gnomes live back here and we don't want to squish them. I don't know if he'll believe it next year. Especially when we jump on these leaves to hear them crunch and he realizes I fibbed (he's quite smart). 

I never understood the obsession with raking leaves. I always thought they'd be a blanket for the trees in the cold weather. A few years ago I read an article saying not only is that true, but that the breakdown of the leaves serves to enrich the soil. 

The sun was fairly low in the sky already, and it was only about 2:30. Love it!! I am constantly being reminded how weird I am that I enjoy this time of year, especially for the "shorter" days, but I know some of you folks get that, right? Sometimes change is nice (but gradual and expected change, not surprising and sudden). 

While weeds are annoying I do admire their tenacity. Everything else is getting ready to go to bed for the winter, and the weeds are still being like "Come on, guys!! One more round! I'll buy!" 

Isn't that just a fabulous shade of red? 

Sunset silhouettes are my favorite. 

While everyone else is running to their cars after work because they don't like driving in the dark, I'm the nerd stopping and taking pictures. People need to look up more.

I finished up my last big project for the year (I think) today. I can't wait to show you!

Hitchhiker

On my birthday I went to an official yarn shop (in the cutest little town that made me not mind the wrong turn I took as I got to see some of the sweetest houses ever). I had a few patterns for scarfy-shawly things I knew I wanted to make, so I was able to splurge a little while being conscientious (did that sound believable? Because I totally splurged).

The shop itself was not very large, and while they had a lot of brands there wasn't a lot of variety within those brands, so I couldn't walk right in and find a specific brand and type, but had to be a bit diligent in my hunt. The first thing I picked up was three skeins of 'Addiction' fingering weight yarn, an extra fine merino wool, in 'Peony,' a luscious hot pink.

This yarn felt delightful even as I was winding it into a ball. The pattern I had selected for it was the Hitchhiker. I'd be willing to bet that if  you follow anyone who even dabbles in knitting on Instagram or Facebook you've seen this before. It's easy mindless knitting, perfect for TV.

Sorry--I forgot about earlier sunsets so the pictures aren't fabulous.

This one started easily enough, and really seemed to move along. The only time you have to think of what you're doing is when you're making the sawtooth edge, which only goes up one side of the scarf.

The thin yarn combined with garter stitch makes this a lightweight yet nice and cozy project. It didn't get distorted or anything while I was working on it, so at the end I just steam-blocked the pointy parts. I used a purl bind off to keep the edge firm, but not tight. It's my new favorite bind-off.

Now all I need is for the weather to turn chilly so I can wear this. Seriously--it's the first week of November and we're pushing eighty degrees. Not cool. No pun intended.

Saroyan

I have spent more time knitting this year than I have total since I learned the craft in 2003. I attribute this to finding the Very Pink website. She makes everything look so easy and accessible that you are immediately overcome by a sense of needing to make everything. Before becoming much more confident in my skills almost all of my projects were made out of your basic acrylic yarn. I had never knit with what would be considered a luxury yarn. So this is my first official fancy-schmancy yarn project.

The project I went with is called the Saroyan scarf by Liz Abinante (find it here on Ravelry). I made it out of Madelinetosh Tosh Vintage in the alizarin colorway. The scarf (or is it more like a shawlette?) has a really pretty leaf edging, and the colors reminded me of fall (mums and leaves and sparkly bits of sunshine in the late afternoon).

I love that leafy border so much!! As this was knit in primarily stockinette (and did curl on the sticks) I was worried I'd be disappointed in the end result. But I simply pinned it and steam-blocked it, and it ended up beautiful. It even looks delightful on the back--

This yarn was so beautifully soft and squishy. Ravelry has a feature where you can shop other users' stashes, and that's how I came across this. The gal I bought it from had this left over from making an afghan. I can't imagine how much all that yarn must have cost as I felt quite extravagant buying just the two skeins. But it was so worth it. The pattern was not difficult, but there were certainly a few bits to pay attention to. Just right to feel satisfied in the outcome but not frustrated with the process.

Ignore the junk in the background--the house is being painted and everything is all over right now. And as I forgot about it getting dark an hour earlier I needed the room with the most light which was also the messiest.

I don't totally love wearing it hanging down as it looks like some weird half sweater vest. But looped just so you still see the leaves and it looks a little nicer.

This is one of those yarns where I think no matter what you use it for it will turn out beautifully. So if you fancy a fun and lovely pattern to knit I recommend this one for sure. A yarn splurge is up to you, but I can recommend this stuff for sure if you put on your winter coat and find some money from last year that you forgot all about.

Socks That Made Me Go Hmm.

Though that fall chill in the air doesn't stick around long (no matter how hard I wish on stars), I figure I'm in an acceptable time frame to share knitting projects (it just seems so wrong in the summer). First up is my most recent finish--a pair of socks. My sister gave me some of the most scrumptious sock yarn for my birthday in a colorway called 'Strawberry Fields' (from this shop). I went on a bit of a shawl knitting kick for a while, so these only recently made it onto the sticks (and took almost just as long to come off--oy).

No matter what I did I could not get the colors to show up just right (why are pinks and reds so difficult to capture accurately?). But they're a dark pink, a medium pink, and a light pink sprinkled with white and a medium green.

I must have cast on the first sock a half dozen times and frogged just as much throughout. I have no idea what the problem was, as the second went swimmingly. These were knit toe-up, and I used German short rows for the toes as I dislike picking up wraps immensely. I didn't do a short row heel, however--I made the gusset and heel flap and all that jazz as I like how that looks.

These socks fit a little snug, which is how I like them as they don't slip and slide (which is better for wear), but I think they could be a little bit looser. I used the smallest needles for the foot, and then increased needle size every few inches as I went up the leg. I used a super stretchy bind off, and they stay up nice obediently. I have a pretty dang high instep, so I should probably increase my cast on a bit as you can see the stitches stretching a bit.

I had a small entanglement issue, so each sock ended up starting at a different color, leading to the matched-but-not-the-same quality they unabashedly possess. Part of the fun was watching how the colors worked up differently in each, more stripes in some places, more pooling in others. A math teacher I had in high school told me once that matching is for narrow minded people, so even though I super super SUPER disliked that teacher I'm going to use that point here.

I do have a question, though, for any sock knitters. I know the techniques, and the steps and all that jazz, but I struggle a bit with fit. The pairs I've made previously all seem to fit the same, even though each pair uses a different needle size (but the same stitch count). How are they supposed to fit? I know not too loose, but mine seem snug enough that they're not uncomfortable and stay in place, but do not slide onto my foot with the ease of store-bought socks (and might even be a wee bit tough to get on, if I'm being honest). I'd love to have a drawer full of colorful hand-knit socks at my disposal, so I'm keeping at it. I would just like to know what's worked best for you folks regarding fit. Thanks for any help!