{Yarn Along} Vacation Socks

While we get where we're going, I knit. It keeps me from fidgeting too much and makes the time pass more quickly. Some of stretches of desert are absolutely amazing and some just aren't. These are my vacation socks. I cast on the toe of the first one just before we left and had all but three or four rounds of the second one's cuff done by the time we got home. A full pair of socks in just over four days of knitting. Yikes!

I wish you could see how these needles (Knitpicks Caspian) look in the sunlight. I knew they were pretty, but what they look like in my dimly lit corner of the couch is nothing compared to how gorgeous they are in really good light.



I enjoyed The White Magic Five & Dime by Steve Hockensmith and Lisa Falco so much that I jumped at the chance to read the second book in the series, Fool Me Once. Alanis has settled down in the small town of Berdache, Arizona, taking over her mother's shop and trying to make amends with as many former customers as she can, without letting them know that they'd been conned in the first place. It's going well until Martha, one of her mother's victims, realizes that Alanis hasn't been honest with her.  Hurt and betrayed, Martha returns to her abusive husband. Before Alanis can find her and explain, the husband is dead and Martha has been jailed for the crime. Alanis isn't like any cozy mystery heroine I've come across before. She was raised by a pair of con-artists and, while she's distanced herself from their ways, she doesn't hesitate to use the skills they taught her to clear her friend's name. I can't wait for the next book in the series. The authors do an amazing job of capturing the part of Arizona the books are set in.

In Awake by Natasha Preston, sixteen-year-old Scarlett Garner has no memories of her early childhood. Her parents say her memory loss was caused by a traumatic house fire. When Scarlett starts to remember things that don't match up with the stories she's been told, she begins to suspect that her life is a lie. I can't share more details than that without getting into spoilers...which means I can't tell you what caught my interest in the first place. (I think the cover copy changed a bit after I requested my review copy.)  It's a young adult book and reads like one, complete with the perfect new boy in school who's happy to help Scarlett find out what really happened in her past. The scary secret, when it is revealed, is two dimensional and not all that scary.

For more pretty knitting projects to drool over, check out On the Needles at Patchwork Times.