Knitting, Sci-fi and other stuff...

      I finished and mailed my swap package so I'll show off my hat.  I took a quick poorly lit picture before I blocked it and then neglected to get a good picture before I mailed it. The color is brighter and more vibrant in real life.  This is the free pattern  Lake Reed .  The only modification I made was to make the brim shorter.  As I mentioned in my last YOP post I did a tubular cast on for the first time for this hat.  There was a link to a tutorial in the pattern and the tutorial was a good one.  It was a fun pattern and I really like how it turned out.  I may use a true worsted weight when I do this pattern again.  The pattern calls for a DK weight, but the gauge is what I normally knit worsted at.  I could have gone down at least one needle size for the Mal Rios; I prefer to knit it at a bit tighter gauge.  Either way I was really happy with how this turned out.  I hope my recipient likes it. I've star...

  5 ★ 2🌶 I finished Leather & Lark by Brynne Weaver on Friday.  I enjoyed this one as much if not more than the first book.  This one didn't seem as spicy as the first but when the spice finally did happen it was pretty drawn out.  I enjoyed the characters in this one immensely.  The two meet at a party and really hit it off, then discover they've met before and their actual first meeting did not go well.  The MMC had triggered the FMC's PTSD and there was other fallout from their first meeting.  The two characters get inconveniently paired off together and the MMC spends the rest of the book redeeming himself from being a continual "asshat".  The FMC also has a ton of stuff to work through and Lachlan actually sees she's struggling and helps out.  They slowly fall for each other and Lark starts revealing her true self to Lachlan over time, something she hasn't even been able to do with her best friend Sloan, the FMC from the previous bo...

  5★ 1.5🌶 In the Veins of the Drowning by Kalie Cassidy.  I think this book broke me.  In all the good ways that a book can break you.  This was phenomenal and I'm legitimately in a book slump now.  This story was very interesting; very different from other fantasy stories out there now.  The Sirens in this were very unique.  I also really liked the magic system in this.  The characters who had power by in large had it from lineage because they were blood descendants of the gods.  The gods being flesh and blood and living very lengthy lives.  There was spell magic as well, but it was not common and took a great price from the user.  There are blood bonds and undead creatures beneath the sea.  I was intrigued with the narrative right from the beginning in this one.  This was a seriously slow slow-burn.  The tension in this was thick and nearly palpable.  There was spice but it was sparse and hard won at the 73% p...

  5★ 3🌶 I finished Butcher & Blackbird by Brynne Weaver a couple of days ago.  It. Was. Amazing.  Going in I honestly wasn't expecting to be blown away by this book.  I'd seen enough about it on Bookstagram to know what some of the book was about and I wasn't sure if I was going to be down for murder and gore.  The death and destruction is really secondary to the plot and I do work in the medical fields so it wasn't that big a deal for me.  The banter in this book between the two main characters is next level.  The FMC is smart, independent and a bad-ass.  She does however have some anxiety and sociability issues; she's a loner.  Apart from the murder aspects I could see bits of myself in both of the characters.  I also appreciated that this entire story took place over the better part of 4 years, so it wasn't insta-love and truly a slow burn.  I really enjoyed Brynne Weaver's writing style.  This was also a duel POV first...

     I've actually done some crafting.  I signed up for two swaps so I need to get some knitting done for these.  I won't mention which swap this is for just in case my partner stumbles across my blog.  I'm knitting a hat currently.  It's the free pattern Lake Reed.  It called for a tubular cast-on.  Truth be told I've never done a tubular cast-on before but the pattern had a YouTube link.  The tutorial was very nicely put together and I successfully did my first one. It was a touch on the fiddly side but the result is 100% worth it.  I'm using Malabrigo Rios in the Cian colorway for this.  The wording in the pattern is a bit questionable in a couple places but I like the way this is coming out. I've finished the hat but I don't have an updated picture.  I also need to give this a really good wash and get it blocked. I have a game plan worked out for the hand made items for the other swap. Not much else to report here....

4🌟 I finished reading The Moorwitch by Jessica Khoury last evening.  It was a mildly steamy romance set in Scotland.  This was the authors first adult fiction book.  It was a solidly good read that was left a little open-ended so my hope is there is a sequel in the works perhaps.  The FMC is a witch who teaches magic at an impoverished school in London.  When she was a child she made a bargain with a fae to escape her abusive aunt.  Now the fae is calling in the favor and Rose must find the portal to the fae realm before her 21st birthday or else she'll lose her magic abilities.  In Scotland she runs into Conrad North and winds up becoming a governess to Conrad's much younger sister.  Turns out no one is really what they seem and both Rose and Conrad are keeping secrets from eachother.  The magic system is based on various fiber crafts which was interesting and decently described.  It was a good solid read and I enjoyed it....

    I use StoryGraph to track my reading progress.  I started using StoryGraph in addition to Goodreads a few years ago.  I chose StoryGraph for the statistics feature and ease of use compared to Goodreads.  I recently started looking more closely at the various features.  Now that I've read consistently for two months I looked at monthly comparisons and some other features.  I find this sort of data interesting so I thought to share my wrap-ups from September and October. My average time to finish in September was thrown off by Dance of Kings and Thieves which I had started back in January of 2024 and then finished in September.  The print media vs digital is also incorrect because I selected the wrong version of Broken by Daylight.  I'd have to delete that one entirely and put in the dates for the digital version I did read, and frankly, I can't be bothered with that much fiddling.  Now, I'm much more careful about picking the correct ...

  4.25 ★ 2🌶      I've been slacking, oops.  In my last post I mentioned I was reading the novella These Wicked Lies which is Halvar and Kari's story.  It was enjoyable.  I liked seeing more angles/scenes from other character's perspectives. 4.5 ★ 2🌶     Then I immediately read These Vicious Games which is Nik and Junie's story.  I enjoyed this one a bit more.  In the series when we see Nik and Junie, they have been married for a long time and are still very much in love with each-other.  This story goes back to just before they met.  We also see Kase as a child and the start of the Kryv guild.  This story was emotional and gripping and I loved it.  We also got to see some of the events from the Northern Kingdom from Junie's perspective as well.  Since I read those books back in '23 it was a nice refresh to see Stieg and Callista back at the beginning.  I'd love to get more back story on Stieg too....

5 🌟, 3 🌶 I finished Song of Sorrows and Fate by LJ Andrews Thursday evening.  This was book nine, the final book, in The Broken Kingdoms series.  It was a very good conclusion to a very very good series.  As I predicted in my last post when I was only one chapter in, there was a fair amount of carnage.  At least one side character from each realm perished.  The one that hit hardest for me was the one I mentioned.  There was also a death of a main character but I knew about that plot point from The Ever King, so I knew his death wasn't permanent.  Overall this book tied up all the loose ends and set up the "spin off" series very nicely.  The pacing was a little more jaunted because there were pivotal events happening in several places at once.  The book was broken up into sections to take this into account.  I rather liked that setup.  We also got POVs from a few of the sides characters which I also liked.   I...