arc book review: the wishing thread

The Wishing Thread by Lisa Van Allen (published September 2013)

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Wishing Thread is a lovely surprise! It follows the story of the Van Ripper sisters, and their late aunt’s yarn shop “The Stitchery”. What makes the knitting element really interesting is: the Van Rippers are able to knit magic spells into the objects they make.

The Stitchery is not just a regular yarn shop: it’s also a place where townsfolk can come, and – in exchange for a sacrifice they determine, something they feel is very meaningful to themselves – ask for a spell. Sometimes the spells work, sometimes they don’t. Of the three Van Ripper sisters, only Aubrey (the middle sister) still lives in The Stitchery when the book begins. Her older sister Bitty moved out, got married, and now has two children and problems at home. Bitty left the magical side of knitting behind her at a young age. Her youngest sister, Meggie, ran away and has been wandering the world searching for clues about their mother – who may have died, or may just have disappeared.

Aubrey is the one who still believes in the magic of knitting, and who is destined to take over The Stitchery when the girls’ aunt dies. But complications arise when the sisters discover what their aunt wrote in her will, and it seems like they will never be able to agree on the fate of The Stitchery.

There is an easygoing, small-town atmosphere to the book- it really takes you into the town and immerses you in their quiet ways. The book is quite slow-moving, which was enjoyable for this story because it had the same effect as knitting a garter-stitch blanket… it’s a quiet and easy read.

A romance also crops up in the story, for added interest.

What I enjoyed most about this book were the knitting references, descriptions of yarns, etc. I love yarn. I least enjoyed the part of the plot based around the town council meetings. Honestly I cared about the characters, but I wasn’t all that invested in the whole land battle.

I’d recommend this book to others who love knitting. If you don’t care for knitting, you may become slightly bored throughout some parts. Though the book takes place over the span of the various seasons, I felt it had a summery vibe to it. It would be a good story to take on a summer vacation.

Thank you to the publishers who, via NetGalley, provided me with this advance e-copy for review!

View all my reviews

heart it

Knit today on double-pointed needles! Pattern found here. I also discovered a brilliant photo tutorial on flickr for doing a figure 8 cast-on… it’s like magic, people! So the entire heart is knit in one piece, from the bottom point up, in the round. At the end, you kitchener stitch each of the top sides, and then stuff some cotton inside and close the teeny hole in the middle. (You can use your yarn ends to do this, which I read in the instructions after cutting my yarn ends allllmost too short! eep!)

I love love love them. I made the smaller version, and am going to make the larger one and maybe some cute ones in other colours too. I can’t remember what yarn I used: it’s Red Heart maybe, and it’s pastel colours so maybe it was a ‘baby’ kind of yarn.

{PS: the background of the last photo is some printable gift tags – free!- which I found here via How About Orange. Too cute!!}

{PPS: I’ve been using the ‘winterize’ effect on Picnik for my photos lately… I like the washed-out look it gives}

a bird in the hand

I don’t know if you’ve seen these lovely bird in hand mittens? I’d seen some lovely pairs on Ravelry, but hadn’t considered making my own until a recent visit to my yarn stash produced sport-weight wool/viscose yarn in an awesome turquoise blue and cherry red.

What better way to use two colours of sport-weight than stranded mittens? And bird-themed mittens? Even better!

Here’s how far I’ve gotten; the palm of the mitten will have a really cool chevron design…

… and on the front you can see the bottom of the word “fly”, and there will of course be birds and hearts… which I looove ♥

The best feature is the duplicate-stitch bird which hides in the palm of each mitten. I’m quite nervous about the thumbs, as I’m not an expert mitten-knitter, and the instructions seem alarmingly vague… but I’m sure someone who’s made them before can help answer my questions.

In other news, does anyone else try out random cardio dance workout dvds from the library instead of purchasing them? I hate buying a workout dvd unless I’ve seen it… the instructor can really make a difference. I’ve been doing one I really like (Dance Cardio for Beginners, the review says it’s “basic” but it kills if you do the whole hour…) and it’s super-easy to follow, plus this Petra lady is very happy and nice.

However! I challenged myself with Crunch Cardio Dance Blast. The first session was insane, and I swore at the tv because this gal went realllly fast. But the moves were kind of fun, so I tried it again today, and it’s not that bad. It’s still an awesome workout, but I think it gets easier to follow. Also, I am a complete beginner at physical exercise. I’m assuming the more I do, the better it will be!

Hope your week is moving quickly!

lovely armwarmers

They’re finished! And they didn’t take nearly as long as I’d worried… I started knitting January 6th, which means they only took a month- and I didn’t knit consistently, mostly just on weekends or during down-time at work.

I made them to look like the ones in the Toast catalogue, and I’m super-pleased with how they turned out. They’re basically just knitted tubes, I used dpns because I don’t have short enough circular needles, and I don’t know how to do magic loop.

You can wear them scrunched up around your wrists, or stretched over your elbow. The baby alpaca yarn makes them reallly soft!

Pattern:

• I cast on 65 sts and was knitting with laceweight yarn. Basically I wanted a finished circumference that would stretch around the widest part of my upper arm (for me, this was about 7″). When the armwarmers aren’t being worn, the circumference is only about 4″.
• Then I did k3p2 rib for 47″ and bound off! (The hardest part is making the second one, once you’ve finished the first).
• Voila! Lovely armwarmers to keep my arms toasty at work when I wear short, or 3/4 sleeves (which I nonsensically do in the winter. I don’t know, some of my sweaters have shorter sleeves!)

PS: in case you haven’t read my original post about the armwarmers, I used 2.75mm needles, and Diamond Luxury Baby Alpaca Lace yarn.

knit bow headband

Okay, I went yarn shopping with something particular in mind… one skein of something lovely to use for a bow headband (pattern can be found for free on ravelry, or on the original website).

I bought some Diamond Luxury Mulberry Merino in a wonderful teal colour…

And within one episode of The Office (plus some time for assembly), I made this:

I looooove it!!! I want to make tons more. Anyways, if you’re interested in making one, the pattern is super-easy. I used the idea of attaching the two crochet chain bands to a hair elastic (seen here, scroll down for a photo of what that looks like) because I know yarn by itself would just slide right off my head. The elastic keeps the headband snugly fitted to my head. I crocheted my chains to be about 20 inches, including the length of the hair elastic. I think I have a regular-sized head.

Yeah, so I’m just super-excited about it. I can definitely recommend the yarn- the silk/merino blend knits up awesome on bamboo needles (I used 4.5 mm as the yarn label suggested). And since this project uses such little yarn, buying a luxurious ball is totally justified!

Happy weekend!

PS: oh wow, I did not notice that there’s some serious messy-mess going on in the background of the photos… haha I guess it’s time to tidy up!