Sump'm Sump'm Saturday - 5/26/2018

In continuing my tradition of making only thoughtful purchases of yarn this year, I bought yarn for the fifth month in a row.

Sorry, not sorry.

MK out.

Book Chat - 5/24/2018

(Blinking and rubbing her eyes from the glare of the sun.)

I've read some good books lately and would like to tell you about them.

The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy is set in India, mostly around the turn of this century.  It is full of interesting characters, but it was a little hard for me to keep them straight sometimes. Overall, it was good and I enjoyed reading it.

Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows by Balli Kaur Jaswal is full of Indian characters, but it's set in England. It's setting is more present day. A young woman answers an ad to teach creative writing in the heart of London's Punjabi community to a group of older women who think that they are enrolled in a literacy class. It was very good.

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng is a present day story set in Shaker Heights, Ohio, the author's home town. The lives of two families becomes intertwined when the children become acquainted. It was light, yet complex. I really enjoyed it. I hear this book is going to be made into a movie or mini-series. I am looking forward to it.

That's all for now.

MK out.

FO Friday - 5/4/2018

The dash has been keeping me busy. I finished the first project I'll show you last week. I meant to write about it before now, but again, dash.

Pattern: Just a plain vanilla sock; so, no pattern, except for the Fish Lips Kiss Heel
Yarn: Must Stash Yarn Perfect Self Striping Sock in I Am Fearless, from The Affirmations Collection    and a white Perfect Mini
Comments: I really love Stacie's yarn. The colorways are fabulous. I want to knit all of them. Her base is so squishy! Stripeys shine the best in plain vanilla, in my opinion, and this yarn was no exception.

Pattern: Hiraeth by Rae Gronmark
Yarn: Spirited Fibers Fingering Weight in Malbec, Coffee and a speckled
Comments: I made the small version of this pattern. It was a fun knit. I like the yarn and the pattern.

However, beware. The darker colors have a lot of excess dye that made the cream speckled less cream.

I'm not too torn up about it because I was thinking that there was too stark a contrast between the cream and the other two colors.

In other news, I'm not happy about the excess dye from Tart turning the Antler in my Derecho a pink color...

...despite the cold water soak with the three color catchers.

I've heard of ways to prevent this sort of thing from happening and I need to research it. I want to make a Fading Point Shawl using these skeins:

The two Madelinetosh yarns on the left end are supersaturated colors and I'm worried. I want the gray in the two skeins on the right to stay gray.

MK out.