The Zen Leaf

Winter Wear: Hat Edition

Posted on October 7, 2016 by Thistle

I’ve moved to northern Wisconsin, and I have way too much yarn. It only makes sense that I create tons and tons of winter accessories to wear! Today’s post features hats, headbands, and other head-wear that I’ve crocheted over the last few months.

First up is a quinby, pattern from One Skein Wonders. This pattern called for chunky yarn and a fairly big hook, not in a size I had. I should have gotten the right hook, but instead I used one just slightly smaller than requested, and ended up with a green quinby that is more kid-sized. Of course, it turned out that my skein of green yarn – which I inherited from a friend – didn’t have quite enough meters to it, so I barely finished the hat. A larger hook would have meant for an incomplete project, so I’ll just give the green version away. I got the right hook for my burgundy yarn, and the hat came out awesome! [Yarn: Bernat Softee Chunky (green); Lion’s Pride Woolspun in Claret]

The next hat I attempted was a puff-stitch beanie from The Hook Nook. Once again, my first attempt came out unsatisfactorily. Most of that was my own fault. I built the band to fit a man’s head, because women’s hats usually fit tightly on me and it was only an inch difference between the two. Only by the time I finished the puff stitches, the band had stretched another three inches. !!! So it was way too big. Then the skein I used, which had the amount of yarn called for by the pattern, ended up being much less than I needed, probably because of the band issue, and so I had to either cut the beanie short or buy a new skein. Since the band was too big anyway, I cut it short. Lastly, I wasn’t a fan of the way the beanie closes in the pattern, and will tweak this the next time I attempt the hat. I’d really like a good hat from this pattern, because the puff stitches are so much fun, especially with color-changing yarn. But yeah, not this one…call it a practice round! [Yarn: Caron Simply Soft Ombre in Grape]

Ooh, these are better. Tweaked the design, played with colors, now I have two I like! [Yarns: Caron Simply Soft Camo in Snow, Caron Simply Soft Camo in Mash, Caron Simply Soft Paints in Peacock Feather]

Next up was my favorite kind of beanie, from One Skein Wonders. It’s my third time making this beanie in different colors, and remains my fave pattern ever. I was longing for fall when I made it, and so made it candy corn colored. Despite not actually liking candy corn! [Yarn: Caron Simply Soft Ombre in Gold]

This stylish flared hat is from Crochet That Fits, which I checked out from my local library. Super easy pattern with cute results. I added a pompom at the top for a little extra flare! Honestly, I think the yarn I chose was a bit soft/floppy (original pattern calls for a stiffer tweed yarn) but I still liked the results. I can see myself making a companion hat with this pattern in the future, and I’ll know to choose stiffer yarn next time! [Yarn: Lion Brand Woolspun in Pumpkin, Lion Brand Heartland in King’s Canyon]

Next up, I got a bit silly and decided to make kinda-sorta matching hats for Jason and me. These two patterns – Speckled Ridge Beanie (Jason) and Northern Lights Beanie (me) – are both from Northern Knots. I made Jason’s first, and absolutely adored this particular pattern! The end result came out so well. Mine came second, and I admit, I had a bit more trouble with this one. I kept wanting to tweak the pattern, but figured I should follow it completely the first time. My middle son wants a similar hat (he loves rainbows), so I’ll tweak a bit when I make his. Added bonus: Jason and I look so cute in these semi-matching hats! [Yarn: Lion Brand Woolspun in Cranberry, Linen, and Oxford Grey; Lion Brand Landscapes in Desert Spring]

And finally, these are my two younger boys. Originally when I started making winter accessories for everyone, all my boys said no thanks. Ambrose and Laurence changed their minds, though, and asked for hats around the end of September. Ambrose wanted a rainbow hat that’s a combination of the two Northern Knots patterns above, and Laurence wanted a puff-stitch beanie. They picked out their own colors and buttons – I take no responsibility for that, and I did refuse to put all five cat-buttons on Ambrose’s hat. They ended up really cute, and hopefully the boys will end up liking them as winter comes. [Yarn: Lion Brand Woolspun in Aquamarine, Lion Brand Landscapes in Desert Spring, Caron Simply Soft in Dark Country Blue]

Posted in Crochet | Tagged I made a thing., Yarn Art | 6 Comments

Crooked Kingdom, by Leigh Bardugo (audio)

Posted on October 4, 2016 by Thistle

Crooked Kingdom is the followup to Six of Crows. As far as I’m aware, this is a two-book series and there won’t be further volumes. (There are, however, some indications that there might be more books coming in this world – hints that never panned out, stories with no endings, etc. So we’ll see.) I will avoid spoilers both for this book and the series in this review.

To Begin: Last year, I read Six of Crows and had mixed feelings on it. I’m not generally a heist or vigilante justice or criminal-protagonist fan, and this series had all three. I did like some characters and I grew to understand others, so I’d planned to read Crooked Kingdom, though with a wary eye. However, earlier in the month, I revisited Six of Crows on audio. Either my foreknowledge of the book/characters or the audio production changed my mixed feelings into positive ones, and I was excited to experience Crooked Kingdom on audio.

The Story: Six of Crows had a very specific plot arc. There were lots of intertwined stories, but there was one big thread – the heist – to pull it all together. Crooked Kingdom had a more general thread (revenge) and so it felt less like a full story and more like a bunch of disparate stories all in the same book. I think perhaps when I reread it after some time/distance, it’ll all come together a bit better for me, the same way Six of Crows did. For now, though, I felt like there wasn’t enough cohesion throughout. I often felt like I was drifting, even when everything came back together by the end.

The Characters: That’s not to say I didn’t like the book, however. Honestly I think perhaps my drifting was due to reading the book way too fast. That often happens to me, and I do plan to revisit – particularly because I enjoyed most of the characters. The main character, Kaz, is the one exception to this. I feel sorry for him, because instead of watching him grow as a person, we get to watch him become identical to his archenemy. I wanted more redemption for him, but at the same time, I’m glad I didn’t get it. It would have been too unrealistic to ask for him to become a better person after he’d spent so much of his life becoming the thing he hates. That was probably my favorite thing about the book: there were no unrealistic character transformations. Jesper still struggles with his addictions. Wylan doesn’t miraculously overcome his particular affliction. Inej is permanently scarred by her time in the Menagerie. Etc. Even as they grow, they are all hindered by their pasts, choices, and traumas.

The Audiobook: Crooked Kingdom, like Six of Crows, is read by different performers. With the first book, I mostly liked the performances, with some minor dislikes. Some of the cast changed from the first book to this one, however, and there was one performance that I really, really disliked (Wylan). This was contrasted with a few I really loved (especially Jesper!), and a few consistency things that were strange. Van Eck’s first name was pronounced differently by different performers. Genya’s name was often pronounced in different ways (with a hard or soft G) by the same performer in the same section – sometimes only a sentence apart! Added up, the audio version of Crooked Kingdom wasn’t nearly as good as the audio of Six of Crows. Ironically, when I revisit this book – which I will likely do in the next year – I’ll probably revisit in print! How’s that for full circle?

Posted in 2016, Prose, Young Adult | Tagged audio, dream-invader, LGBTQIA, RIP-worthy, speculative | 1 Comment

Sunday Coffee – Moving Along

Posted on October 2, 2016 by Thistle

September was a crazy month. As I mentioned before, we’ve had a bit of a tough time settling in here due to multiple circumstances. I’m really hoping October is quieter. Jason is home after two weeks down in Texas, and I realized with amusement that that’s the longest we’ve been apart since we got married nearly 17 years ago. We’ve accepted an offer on our San Antonio house and are currently in the option period. Cross your fingers that all goes well to close in early November! We’ve also started looking at houses here. We now have Wisconsin licenses and license plates, and soon we’ll be able to register to vote here (yay!). So we’re moving along.

Some things, though, are going slowly. We’re currently living with my in-laws, mostly out of boxes. My computer is in a corner of the guest room, and it’s much harder to spend time on it, whether that’s socializing, blogging, or writing. I’m going to miss the readathon this month, and NaNoWriMo next month, and I haven’t been able to look at my feed reader more than once or twice since we moved here. And I imagine that’s going to stay the situation until we settle into our own house, and who knows how long that’ll take?

I’m hoping, now that Jason is home and we’re settling into a more solid routine, that I’ll have a bit more time to spend on things I love. I’d like to be able to blog and read all your posts. I’d like to write again. I’d like to exercise! Hopefully October will see an improvement in all those things.

September was at least a good month for books. I read 8 books, all but one of which was on audio, and a good chunk were RIP-related. There was a good mix of rereads, highly-anticipated series continuations, and new-to-me books. The surprise book of the month was my reread of Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo. I liked-but-didn’t-love it the first time around, but the audio version tipped me over into love. It was just so much better on audio! As for my favorite of the month? That is The Creeping Shadow, though honestly there are a lot of contenders for the top in September. Let’s hope October proves to be just as entertaining!

Aaaand that’s about it to wrap up my month. I hope you’re all well, and look forward to the day I can more regularly visit your blogs, interact on comments, etc etc. In the meantime… *waves hello*

Posted in Book Talk, Personal | Tagged Sunday Coffee | 4 Comments

September Yarn Art

Posted on September 30, 2016 by Thistle

If you’ve been watching my Instagram or Facebook at all, you know I’ve been crocheting a lot over the last few months. It’s been a good way for me to deal with stress while all this moving business has been going on. Mostly, I’ve concentrated on winter accessories (hats, scarves, gloves), and I have dedicated posts for these in the upcoming weeks. I’ve worked on some other projects as well, though, and those are the ones I want to feature here.

So okay, yes, technically this is a hat and cowl, so could be featured under the hats and scarves posts mentioned above. This was a matching set, though, and I didn’t want to post about it twice. It goes here instead! This was my first-ever cowl, taken from a pattern called an Apple Crisp Cowl from Little Monkeys Crochet. It used a stitch I hadn’t tried before (ribbed HDC or a modified crocodile stitch) and I loved the way it came out. I didn’t think my original skein would be long enough for the full project, and honestly, I thought it would be nice to have a bit of softer, gentler-on-the-skin yarn for the top and edging. The bamboo yarn I chose worked perfectly and it feels so very nice! Then, after it was all done, I had enough of both skeins leftover to make myself a matching hat! No pattern, just doodling, and it came out quite nice. [Yarn: Lion Brand Scarfie yarn in Oxford/Claret; Bamboospun in Cream]

This summer, I ran across a really good yarn sale featuring mostly Caron Simply Soft and Lion Brand skeins all for sale for $1-$2 each. This is the big reason I’m so stocked on yarn and trying to use stuff up! This particular pale green yarn is one of the skeins I got a great deal on – three skeins for less than $5. Because there was so much of it, I decided to make a matching winter accessory “outfit” for my sister-in-law, and chose some intricate patterns that would benefit from solid-color yarn. First was the Peacock Hat from One Skein Wonders, followed by a Fan-Centered Scarf from the same book. Last, I rounded off using Key Tab Fingerless Gloves by Calleigh’s Clips & Crochet Creations. The two from OSW were both patterns I’d wanted to try for a long time, and while neither would work me (scarf too short, wrong hat shape for my head), they were perfect for Tenille. The gloves? I’ll have to make a pair for myself, too!! Love pattern, especially with a picot edge added to the top. And hey, all three projects used less than two skeins of yarn, so I still have some for the future! [Yarn: Caron Simply Soft in Woodland Heather]

I have tons and tons of cotton skeins in my yarn box right now. Right before we decided to move this past July, there was a huge sale on cotton – skeins for $1 each – and I grabbed nearly three dozen. I knew I wanted to work on place-mats for my family and some general kitchenware (towels, washrags, pot holders, coasters, etc). I’ve tried to be more disciplined this month in using up older yarn (and not buying too much new yarn), and so I’ve dug into all that cotton. Above is a sample of the kitchenware projects I’ve completed so far. Double-thick pot holders. Textured washrags. A couple coasters for me and the beginnings of a baby shower coaster set. Silly, but I’m having fun! [Yarn: Lily Sugar ‘n Cream in many different colors]

A couple months ago, I started work on an afghan consisting of clusters of mini-granny squares. I only made a couple before September, and decided that I wanted to put some real effort into the project. The pattern calls for over 400 grannies total! I’m currently up to just over 100 grannies, trying to make about 30-50 per week. I won’t go into yarn/pattern details until the afghan is complete. I will say that this is going to be an absolutely amazing project when it’s over. The grannies are a bit tedious, but I love the way these colors work together and I love the design.

So that’s it for September! Lots more crochet projects in the near-future.

Posted in Crochet | Tagged I made a thing., Yarn Art | 4 Comments

Ross Poldark, by Winston Graham (audio)

Posted on September 28, 2016 by Thistle

Earlier this month, I watched the first season of Poldark and rather enjoyed it. So of course, I had to start reading the books. I’ve finished the first book on audio, and here are my thoughts in handy little bullets:

– The TV series stayed remarkably faithful to the story. Some timelines are condensed and a few things left out, but I was very impressed.

– I didn’t realize the series was started in the 40s. I was expecting it to be more modern historical fiction, which isn’t my favorite genre, and was glad to discover I was reading a classic!

– Of course, because I was reading a classic, and historical fiction at that, there was some iffy morality involved. There was, for instance, a lot of talk about how if you love someone, risking or taking a beating is no big thing. You’d rather continued to be married to your husband, even if he drinks himself into a stupor and then knocks you around. Um, no. As with most classics, though, I try to place both the characters and authors into their respective time periods for evaluation, and therefore don’t condemn the book for that.

– I’m not sure how much I would have enjoyed the book if I hadn’t seen the series and gotten to know the characters beforehand. It’s a novel where not a whole lot happens – people live and struggle and scheme through the years, but there’s no real rising action or climax. I might have been bored if I didn’t already know and love the people in the story.

– The audio, read by Oliver Hembrough, was fantastic.

Posted in 2016, Adult, Prose | Tagged audio, classics, historical, place-character | 6 Comments

Top Ten Books on my Fall TBR

Posted on September 27, 2016 by Thistle

It’s been a while since I made myself a seasonal TBR! There’s a ton of excellent books coming out over the next couple months, though, and there are others waiting for me to begin ASAP. I have a very definite top ten:

Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo (today!)
Like a River Glorious by Rae Carson
Aerie by Maria Dahvana Headley
Heartless by Marissa Meyer
A Torch Against the Night by Sabaa Tahir
The Swan Riders by Erin Bow
The Trespasser by Tana French
Demelza by Winston Graham
Sandlands by Rosy Thornton
My Unscripted Life by Lauren Morrill

For the first time, I actually think I’ll get through the majority of one of these seasonal lists! Normally I only get through about three, heh. What’s on your list?

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

Posted in Book Talk | Tagged lists | 7 Comments

Sunday Coffee – A True Autumn

Posted on September 25, 2016 by Thistle

My family arrived in Wisconsin on August 30th. In the month since, the world has exploded into color. Reds. Oranges. Yellows. Chunks of vivid color nestled in green. I love when trees change piecemeal: a single branch of color followed by bushy clumps followed by a full turning. This is the prettiest time of year!

I’ve enjoyed being in the Midwest for this again – watching the corn harvested, feeling the roller coaster of temps, tasting all the abundant produce available here. This week, there’s been football. There have been TV season premieres. There have been sweaters one day and shorts the next. There have been pumpkin patches and corn mazes. There have been spooky audiobooks and lots of crochet. There have been guests and travel and a husband who is finally home this weekend. And color. Fabulous, beautiful fall color.

Posted in Personal | Tagged Sunday Coffee | 4 Comments

The Creeping Shadow, by Jonathan Stroud (audio)

Posted on September 23, 2016 by Thistle

Book 4 in the Lockwood & Co series. This review will have minor spoilers from previous books but no spoilers from this volume.

So this book begins a few months after the abrupt end of The Hollow Boy. Lucy is coping – somewhat – with her new independence, and her gifts are getting stronger. Several events throw her and the rest of the Lockwood team together again. Darker plots within plots start to come to light.

I don’t know how long this series will continue, if Stroud has a planned finish or will keep going for as long as people are reading. Either way, I’ve loved experiencing each book as they get thicker into this world and the people that inhabit it. The character development, world-building, and politics are excellently written. Everyone – even minor ghosts – have their unique voice. I’m constantly coming up with theories as I read. Some turn out to be right and others are utter garbage. The whole thing is brilliant fun, and I already can’t wait for volume 5.

Can’t say much more than that without giving away giant series spoilers. What I will say is that this is a perfect spooky ghost-story- RIP series, and I’m so happy that whatever random twist of fate led me to it. (I still can’t remember where I first discovered the books.)

Performance: The first three books are each read by different narrators. Emily Bevan, the narrator for book three, reads this one as well. I’ve had a difficult time with the changes, especially because I adored The Screaming Staircase (Miranda Raison) so much. Perhaps I’d be fine with Bevan’s narration if she hadn’t been the third reader of the series, with the third set of different voices for the characters. Because I heard differently in the beginning, the current voices don’t sound right to me. Not saying they’re bad – just that it’s jarring to me after two other narrators. Still, the series is spine-tingling excellent on audio, so I’ll continue it this way even though the current narration isn’t a favorite.

Posted in 2016, Children's, Prose | Tagged atmospheric, audio, circus horror, favorite, RIP-worthy, speculative | Leave a comment

Top Ten Books that are Better on Audio

Posted on September 20, 2016 by Thistle

I’m a huge fan of audiobooks, though I’m very picky about my audiobooks. Some books, however, just beg to be listened to. These are my favorites:

1. The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater (narrator: Will Patton) – I originally tried this in print. Didn’t work. Years later, revisited on audio and fell completely in love.

2. Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones (Jenny Sterlin) – Ditto.

3. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke (Simon Prebble) – Ditto.

4. Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo (multiple narrators) – I’m not sure if it was purely the reread that made this more enjoyable, or the audio, but I suspect the latter.

5. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov (Jeremy Irons) – I adored the book long before I listened to the audio, but listening to the audio helped me to wade through all the thick language and really get more from the book.

6. anything by Thomas Hardy – Pretty much ditto. I like Hardy, but I find him much easier to listen to. Especially when Alan Rickman narrates.

7. nonfiction – Sooooo…this is a category of books rather than a single book, but I claim it counts, because 95% of nonfiction works better on audio for me.

8. The Screaming Staircase by Jonathan Stroud (Miranda Raison) – Reading the book in print = good. Listening to it on audio = creepy chills running up and down my spine phenomenal. I just wish Raison had continued to narrate the rest of the series!

9. Gentlemen and Players by Joanne Harris (Steven Pacey) – Honestly, I can’t say why this particular audiobook captured me so completely, but the experience of listening to it the first time has stayed with me, and every fall, I’m compelled to listen to it at least once. The print version is great, too, but I prefer the audio.

10. the Dublin Murder Squad series by Tana French (multiple) – Each of these is read by a different narrator, and I haven’t enjoyed every production. I always listen to these books, though. There’s something about them that is so much more enjoyable on audio, even when the performance isn’t my favorite. I think perhaps it might just be the genre, because I tend to like thrillers and mysteries on audio generally.

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

Posted in Book Talk | Tagged audio, lists | 16 Comments

Sunday Coffee – Bullet Journal (Part 2)

Posted on September 18, 2016 by Thistle

By now, just about everyone has heard of bullet journaling. People either love it or hate it, and everyone who uses it seems to have a different way of doing so. I began my first bullet journal in late August last year, and reviewed the technique in October. As I see people going through their planners and bullet journals on Instagram, I’m struck by something I said back in that review: “It’s not a pretty way to journal.” I further clarified that I’m not really a pretty-planner, scrapbooking, stickers and colored-pens kind of person, and so this functional type of planner worked very well for me. A year later, this still holds true, though I now know it to be a partial truth.

Sure, my bullet journal has evolved over the last year. I now have a daily tracker for certain goals, but I still just mark stuff out with Xs instead of colored indicators. I use post-it flag now to keep often-used pages (like my monthly calendar) easy-to-find. I have a blog-tracker, though it’s basically identical to my monthly calendar, with blog posts instead of events written down. I sometimes use colored pencils if I’m designing a crochet pattern in detail. Mostly, though, my bullet journal still serves as a functional place to store my calendar, to-do lists, goals, trackers, tarot spreads, grocery/meal lists, crochet project plans, wishlists, and other sundry bits. It looks nearly identical to the pictures at the above link, as you can see if you wanted to compare the pictures there to the one at the right.

There’s nothing pretty about my bullet journals and they are certainly no pieces of art. I admire all of you who can create art out of planners and such, but I just don’t have the drive or intuition for it. I like my little function planner, and crossing out my tasks, and having my calendar all at a glance. That’s it for me. More recently, though, I’ve loved discovering that this technique is so adaptable, so that someone with stickers, tape, colored pens, and beautiful handwriting can use the exact same methods to make a piece of art that I use to quickly-and-unartistically organize my brain. This was not something I foresaw when I reviewed the technique last year, and I’ve loved watching what others do with their own bullet journals! This is why I say “partial truth” above. I personally still love my no-frills way of bullet journaling, but I understand now that this is not the only way to use the technique. And as dorky as this makes me, I get a little thrill every time I see someone adapting the technique in their own, unique manner. Ha!

Posted in Personal | Tagged Sunday Coffee | 3 Comments