Book Review of the Month: Chicks With Sticks: Knit Two Together May 21, 2008

The second installmant in  the Chicks saga is not for the un-boy-crazy.  Unless, like me, you despise the kissy-kissy parts, and are reading this book to find out what happens to our favorite four teenage knitters:  Scottie, Amanda, Bella, and Tay.  That said, you’ll probobly love this book if you are boy-crazy.  Anyway, Knit Two Together is about Scottie’s struggle to get herself a boyfriend, while still keeping her friends and her love of knitting.  She has a really hard time!  Things climax at YarnCon Chicago, a knitting (and mostly girly) festival.  She almost loses her friends, and, strangely enough, it’s the day before Bella’s b-day.  Scottie goes home in the middle of the festival, makes things right with the guy she likes (who lives in the same building), then goes to sleep.  She sleeps the day away, and, after seeing one of her mom’s paintings, she goes to Bella’s sleepover…. Well, I can’t tell you the rest, but I think you’ll like the end.  More later!

TTFN, Wildwool a.k.a. Lily

Word of the Month May 18, 2008

New feature!  Hope you like it.  By the way, I made this word up myself.

Yarn*uh*chi*no =  Yarn (or WIP, or blanket squares) stored in a Starbucks Frappachino cup

I finally finished Grape Juice! May 18, 2008

No, really!  Of course, I’m now working hard on my other projects (most of which I’d forgotten about)  to fill the gap…  Projects like…my scrap blanket!  Oh, yeah, I need some CIY (Craft It Yourself)  advice:  How do you get images onto those iron-on things?

Grape Juice @ halfway mark!!!!!!!!!!! May 12, 2008

Grape Juice, the hat I’m knitting, has passed the halfway mark!  Woohoo!  Any other hat knitters out there?  Talk to me!  Someone please tell me how to post pics, I can’t figure it out.  Thanks!

 

 

Pattern of the Month: May: Collinette Shrug from Chic Knits for Young Chicks May 8, 2008

Hey, Becky!  This is for you.  If you have a wordpress blog, please post your username in a comment, because (if you want to)  I’m inviting you to write for wildwool.  Here’s the pattern.

Collinette Shrug

Materials:  156 yards of a ribbon yarn, such as Collinette Giotto or Party, sraight needles, #17, and, (optional)  crochet hook, size J, and 60 yards eyelash yarn, such as Sullivan’s Tickle or FunFur.

CO 40 sts with ribbon yarn.

Rows 1-115:  Sl1, *yo, k2tog,* repeat 18 more times, k1.

BO all sts.

Fold up corners and, using mattress stitch or back stitch, seam together, leaving openings for armholes.

Using crochet hook, single crochet with eyelash yarn around all openings for 2 rnds.

Glossary:  CO=cast on, Sl1=slip one, yo=yarn over, k2tog=knit 2 together, k1=knit one, BO=bind off, sts=stitches. 

k&b April 10, 2008

Hey, fans, k&b stands for knitting & books.  Just so you know.

April book review: Once Upon a Marigold April 10, 2008

Once Upon a Marigold is, to quote the front cover, part comedy, part love story, part everything-but-the-kitchen sink.  And the cover is absolutley right!  I loved this book, exept for a little bit at the end where it’s set up for a sequel.  This book doesn’t need one!  It will be hard for the sequel (if there is one)  to live up to the original.  Anyway, I thought this book was fantastic.  It’s about (predictably) a boy, a girl, and a kingdom.  The boy, Christian, (or Chris)  was found in the forest at the age of six by a troll.  Not one of your “Shall we squash them, bake them, or fry them?”  trolls, but a nice troll who lives in a cave I think he must have rented from Merlin.  He has two dogs, an anti-tooth fairy campain, and a collection of found items.  Chriistian is an inventor, and a good one.  So good that, by the age of seventeen, he’s invented a whole new way of communication, (p-mail - read the book and see!) which also happens to be the perfect way of introducing himself (shy guy, isn’t he?) to the lonley and cursed Princess Marigold.  I’ve told you what Chris and Ed (the troll) have, so this is what Princess Marigold has:  A curse, a loving father, three dogs, a truly awful mother, three older, happily married sisters, a whole lotta unwanted suitors, and Chris’s letters.  When Chris takes a job at the palace, things start heating up.  No, not literally - there’s no boiling oil in Once Upon A Marigold.  But be prepared for dungeons, an evil plot, a jealous gaurd, a flirty dairy maid, two botched weddings, and a failed flying machine.  Buckle up, daring readers!

 

TTFN,

Wildwool 

March Book Review: Shiva’s Fire March 14, 2008

SHIVA’S FIRE is about a girl named Parvati, who has an extrordinary gift for Indian classical dance, and has strange things happen to her.  She discovers that she has the “Magic of Possibilities”  (however you spell that!) .  The main location of the book is a dance school in India, where Parvati grows up away from her family, finds (and loses) her best friend, and, for the second time in her life, becomes an outcast among people who fear her gift.  Most of the other students fall into this catagory.  I really enjoyed SHIVA’S FIRE because the characters are so real and human that I couldn’t help getting sucked into the story.  I look forward to reading more by the author!

 As Tigger tells the world, TTFN from Wildwool, teen book reviewer.  More later!

Felting March 11, 2008

Hi, avid fans, I’m embarking on my first ever felted project!  It’s a purse in blue.  If there’s enough yarn left over at the end, I’ll knit a smaller purse, also felted, to make a set.  Wish me luck! 

Wildwool

Project Of The Month: March March 7, 2008

Hey, knitters!  This month’s pattern is from Kids Knitting by Melanie Falick.

 Curly-Edge Cap

Materials:  1 skein bulky yarn, such as Wool-Ease Chunky or Plymouth Encore Chunky, no. 10 1/2 needles, straight.

 CO 72 sts.  Work in St st for 8 in.  Measure with brim rolled aprox 2 in. 

To shape the crown: 

Row 1:  k2 tog, rep across the row.

Row 2: P across.

rep these 2 rows untill 36 sts rem.

rep row 1.

thread tail through sts and pull tight.

sew up side, and weave in ends.