Read-a-Thon Day #3 – Look at Me, I’m Sandra Dee!

Hello again friends and neighbors! I am really sorry to be doing this whole two posts a day thing but so much love and effort has been put into this read-a-thon that I think they deserve their own posts. I hope you enjoy this one as much as I did!

** Look At Me, I’m Sandra Dee! Participation Post **

Introduce us to your favorite fictional female – What does she look like? Is there an actress that you think of when you think of the character? Is she tough or timid? You could do a mock interview with your character, or create a bio/resume for her.

With so many strong female character’s out there, how can I choose just one? Well, I can because I have to for the purpose of this post I suppose – so let’s see.

I think my all time favorite female fictional character (wow, try saying that one 5 times quickly) would be Frannie Goldsmith from Stephen King’s The Stand. I know I talk about this book all the time but I just love it! This is a collection of completely amazing characters facing the most horrific situations – good or bad they flourish in that role, right to the very end.

Frannie is…amazing to me. When I first started to write up how I felt about this character I was being overly dramatic about the whole thing. I was trying to write like a literary critic – which I am not – so I scrapped the whole thing. Instead, I would like to outline for you the reason that I love her as a character.

• She remains undaunted by the horrible plague that swept the world. While it of course affected her, it was her resilience to take it day by day that I was so impressed with. Frannie did what needed to be done, stiff upper lip, strong willed and determined to keep living.
• Pre-plague she didn’t want to marry Jess, the boy who got her pregnant. She was young, but old enough to recognize that what she wanted was the baby – not the man.
• She fell in love with Stu Redman (my favorite male character in the book) in a very non-sensational way. They were thrown together and yes, she felt safer with a man, but she would not settle for Harold or anyone else. She found love in tragedy, and embraced it much the way she would have pre-plague.
• She had the strength to carry on with a pregnancy that was a 50/50 shot of being doomed. As someone who has had so many reproductive problems – this strength was startling to me. She defended her life and the life of her child right till the end of the story.
• Even after being confronted with copious amounts of reasons to just give in, she never – ever – did.

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↑ Molly Ringwald in The Stand Miniseries – NOT WHAT I PICTURED! ↑

I have often imagined Frannie in my mind, and these are the actresses that came closest to looking how I pictured her (if you morphed these three together in some way it would be perfect):

Jennifer Lawrence

Rachel McAdams

Elizabeth Olsen

Well that about covers my love affair with my favorite female character. I hope you’ve enjoyed (or survived) this post. If you haven’t read The Stand – go read it – seriously! 🙂

Read-A-Thon Day #2 – You’re the One That I Want!

Okay friends and neighbors, it’s day 2 of the read-a-thon and I just finished The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry by Jon Ronson. I have to tell you, this book was delectable! The book discusses so many different aspects of psychology that I just found fascinating. It included; Scientologist views (very anti-mental health care), criminal profilers, psychopathy in the incredibly successful (i.e. CEO’s, Career Military, Politicians, etc.) the Bare Method, mental institutes – I could go on and on. I never believed I could be so naive of how the industry works and the  subtle nuances of how mental health is evaluated.

I suck at reviewing books (I’d rather talk about them and inevitably spoil them) so I guess I will just say this: If you enjoy non-fiction books that; make you squirm, make you think and generally keep you reading even though you know you’re starving then pick this puppy up!

My Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ 5 Stars!! – Well, they’re hearts but you get the point.

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“You’re the One That I Want” Participation Post

• List your must-have summer reading (the ones you read over and over again) or give us some of your favorite recommended summer reads.

Summer is a fantastic time for reading, the days nice and long and the sun refueling me from a long winter. I tend to read books I haven’t read in the summer, eager and ready to venture into new and exciting places. I save my favorite for the long winter months when the books are as comforting as a knitted blanket and a cup of tea. For the sake of this read-a-thon I will give you a list of a few books that I can read over, and over, and over, and over again and again!

• The Flame and the Flower by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss – First romance novel I ever read and I will admit it, I bet I’ve read it more than 10 times…all 600 pages of it.
• The Stand & It by Stephen King – Comfort food, book style. These rather epic tomes feel like coming home to family the characters are so vivid. Sometimes, being reminded that humanity and the belief in magic is not lost is what the doctor ordered. What can I say? I am a Stephen King fan.
• House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski – Every time I open this book, with its warning “This is not for you” I am once again reminded that not everything has already been done. The style, format and narrative is so unlike anything I have ever read before, and every time I read it I discover something new.
• The Fault in Our Stars by John Green – This is the newest to the collection. I’ve read it twice already and seem to itch to want to read it again. Working in the ICU all through school, life with illness resonates very deeply with me and this is a heartbreakingly beautiful book.

The Flame and the Flower

The Stand

It

House of Leaves

The Fault in Our Stars

There are more, and if you are interested click →HERE← for more information!

Getting bored yet? NO! There is still so much more good to come….although Max sympathizes.

Max Feels Your Pain at My Diatribe.

* New Books to Get My Greedy Hands On *

Books that I want to read this summer? Good grief, the list is ridiculously long. I feel a bit behind in all my reading because I have spent so much spare time knitting and stupid, pesky work takes up way too much time! I have a list for this read-a-thon by it is by no means all-encompassing – so here are the books I am itching to get my greedy hands on!

• The Shinning Girls by Lauren Beukes
• Joyland by Stephen King
• Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal by Mary Roach
•  The Good Nurse: A True Story of Medicine, Madness, and Murder by Charles Graeber
• The Execution of Noa P. Singleton: A Novel by Elizabeth L. Silver
• The Girl in the Green Raincoat by Laura Lippman

The Shinning Girls

Joyland

Gulp

The Good Nurse

The Execution of Noa P. Singleton

The Girl in the Green Raincoat

** Click on the links to read a real review and summary of these amazing books on Amazon. This is not a marketing ploy, they’re just better at summarizing than I am! **

Congratulations, you have made it to the end of a post that was far too long! I cannot help it, something about talking/typing about books just prevents me from keeping it short and sweet. So, friends and neighbors, PLEASE share what books you want to read or think I should read…your suggestions are freaking priceless!

 

Slouchy Hats & My Happy Places

Sometimes I search out comfort, things that resonate in my mind as safe and inviting. Tea with orange blossom honey, my grandmother’s lemon meringue pie or even better, a good book.

There are some books that just holding them brings back a flood of memories and a sensation of falling into a time when life was just less complicated. The Flame and the Flower by Kathleen Woodiwiss was the first romance book I ever read and it was enjoyed by the fireplace because we had lost power to the blizzard that took over the entire midwest that year. Perfect setting for romance I might add. When my grandfather was dying, I turned to The Stand by Stephen King. It may seem an odd choice, it’s content largely based around life and death, but the characters being so rich, so familiar brought ease to my troubled mind.

Certain things just bring us back to a place where we can be fearless, where we can handle anything. I am a lucky girl, because I can add knitting to the list of happy places.

My Happy Place Hat

For the life of me, I have no idea where this pattern came from. I have looked through all my books, magazines and scoured knitting websites looking for its origin. All I have is a pattern my scrawl to go by – Bonus for you because I am going to put it at the bottom of the page though!

This was the first hat I made in the round, the first project that had cables in it and the knitted object I have made the most. I have made dozens of these hats, they fly off my needles and into my friends and families hands like hotcakes. Even my niece wanted her own, which made me giddy. So, when I am stressed or need to feel like a superhero, I do this pattern.

As an added bonus to saving time knitting, I spent more time with Photoshop than I think is healthy. I have all the books I can handle and have been playing around with it all night. So you get to see the fruits of my labor, misguided and goofy as they may be. This is the best way to learn I suppose, trying things over and over till you feel you got it down. I am most certainly not there yet, but hey….step in the right direction.

Full Frontal

Full Frontal – Edited

Close Up Top

Close Up Top – Edited

Left Side

Left Side – Edited

Close Up Back

Close Up Back -Edited

Right Side

Slouchy Beret

Sure, it’s amateur hour here at All Night Knits but who cares? It was fun to play around with the filters, concentrations, hues, saturation, blah blah blah…yada yada yada. I was working my way through an instructional book and it built up my confidence – a bit. Either way, it feel like a step in the right direction

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The Pattern

(If you find this pattern’s origin, please contact me and let me know. I want to acknowledge its creator and thank them for years of fantastic knitting!)

Needles: Sizes 9US and 11US

Yarn: Worsted

The Cables: C3 over 3 Left: Slip 3 Sts. onto cable needle, hold in back, K3, K3 from cable needle.        C3 over3 Right: Slip 3 Sts. onto cable needle, hold in front, K3, K3 from cable needle.

With size 9 Needles, Cast on 72 Stitches (long tail cast on). Join in the round and Place stitch marker.

Knit 5 rows in 1by 1 (K1,P1) .

Change to size 11 Needles and work cable pattern as follows:

-Rounds 1-4, 6-10 and 12: Knit

-Round 5: *C3 over 3 Left, K3. Repeat from * till end of round.

-Round 11: * K3, C3 over 3 Right. Repeat from * till end of round.

Work rounds 1-12 1(one) time as written above.

-Next round (increasing round): *K2, M1. Repeat from * to end of round.

-Work rows 2-12 of cable pattern one time, then work rows 1-6 one time.

-Next round Being Decreasing: *K7, K2tog, K7, SSK. Repeat from * to end of round.

-Next round: *K6, K2tog, K6, SSK. Repeat from * to end of round.

-Next round: *K5, K2tog, K5, SSK. Repeat from * to end of round.

– Next round: Work row 11 from Cable Pattern the work one round even.

-Next round: K10, K2tog till end of round.

-Next round: K9, K2tog till end of round.

-Next round: K8, K2tog till end of round

-Next round: K7, K2tog till end of round.

Continue in this manner decreasing your knit stitches by one until you K2tog across the round, Leaving you with 6 sts.

Cut a long tail and weave through live stitches twice. Pull tight and weave in the ends.

Block lightly over a plate or pie tin by lightly misting the hat.

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So there it is friends and neighbors, I hope you enjoy the pattern as much as I did. I wonder, is there anyone out there reading this that has a happy place? Found in either a place, food, book, pattern or the multitude of things I didn’t list? Please share if you would like to, I would love to listen!