Susie Cupcakes

The weather has finally become gorgeous and no jackets are required. The magnolia tree outside my office window is in full bloom and the college kids seem blissed out (4/20 notwithstanding) each day that the weather is not raining, hailing, sleeting, or snowing. Hooray!

I don't think I ever posted it but I finally finished the wedding blanket for my sister and her hubs in mid-March. Twas BIG.

I should have done a little bit of math and figured that 40 skeins x 4 oz = 10 pounds. Ten pounds of blanket! I had maybe 30 yards left over, so it's pretty much the full ten lbs. That's a big baby.

I edged it with a pattern from Nicki Epstein's Knitting on the Edge. It took a lot of pins to block it out. But the best part was? When I unpinned it.

MURDER! I thoroughly washed each square, then washed the whole blanket, but that deep red dye is probably always going to be a little fugitive. Now I have a very nice prop for Halloween.

Now a couple more book reviews!

Anastasia At Your Service by Lois Lowry
The Anastasia books were some of my very favorite childhood reading. The characters in Anastasia's family actually seem real, and the parents talk to their children with interest and respect, yet the family also gets upset with each other and argue....it's just so rare to have children's literature with families that aren't gooey or absent. This is one of my favorites, when Anastasia accidentally becomes a maid for a rich woman in town. I've read this book approximately 854 times. But it's always a treat. Also, the Anastasia books are always on the "most challenged" lists because they contain occasional swear words and mention the existence of sex in an entirely age-appropriate way. It boggles the mind.

The Dain Curse by Dashiell Hammett
I really enjoyed this one, although any book with a curse has a whiff of Nancy Drew/the haunted talisman the Brady Bunch found in Hawaii. However, Hammett gets a pass because he's the first of the group. The novel is about a family that is maybe cursed to kill one another and most of their friends and loved ones. It's got a fascinating San Francisco cult subplot. Who knew San Fran was known for its cults even in the 1920s? Not quite as many people were killed in this one as in Red Harvest, but that's okay--the ones who did die did so spectacularly, on cliffs, alters, by their own hand, etc. I like a guy who mixes it up.

Labels: books, wedding blanket