Life LackaDaisiCal

"easy fairisle knits" Martin has created a  collection of contemporary simplified fairisle designs. 14 designs including hats, socks, scarves and cushions plus a slipover, bag, throw and garland  - all with only two colours in a row. I love "Kitten and Stripe" scarf featured on the cover! (Check out that bag too!) Look at the "Soft Stripes Gloves and Hat" combo! A band of fair isle...then some fabulous stripes! Great "Plaid and Diamond" socks with fair isle on the leg portion only! Love those boots too Martin! And look at the collection of pillows, all with fair isle motifs  to brighten up your home! (L-R Little Circles, Paper Dolls and Simple Spots) Want to see more of the designs in "easy fair isle knits" - click on through to the KnitRowan web site! Rowan Yarns Felted Tweed DK is the yarn used for these projects. Felted Tweed is o ne of my favourite Rowan yarns - yes it is! Why?  Because it comes in  28 g...

Who would have guessed that knitting could be so fun when you have NO IDEA what the finished project is going to look like. The first "clue" for the Stephen West 2012 Mystery Shawl KAL was released on Friday - and I got down to some serious knitting......it was strangely compelling to complete the clue 1 knitting and be ready for the next clue to be released this friday.......here's what it looks like so far..... WARNING - SPOILER ALERT! close up - both Opal sock yarns - a solid and a variegated.... Clue 1 completed! In the garden, with the heat staying in the 80's, the bird bath is getting a lot of attention....especially for you Bev  - I caught these photos the other morning - at about 5:30 - before it got too hot! The male Indigo Bunting has been hard to catch in a photograph  - but I think he's getting used to me out there with my camera and the telephoto lens....... The female Indigo Bunting spends a lot of time in the bird bath too! Daisy and Lackie need a h...

Just walking by the table right at the entrance - and there it was! (I have the hard back version.) Edited to add:  Visit Sally's Web Site

When I think of colourful Fair Isle........I think of Mary Jane - coming in October!  Click on the photo to go to Amazon to pre-order!  (no affiliation, just happy to see this book) I've admired Mary Jane's work for a long time - ever since I knit her Fair Isle Sampler Hat.  I don't wear it often, but when I do I really enjoy it! For more information on Mary Jane - visit her web site Mary Jane Mucklestone Hand Knitting

Although I'd heard a lot of comments about the subject of this book being distasteful, and that it wasn't the kind of book they'd like to read.......when my friend mentioned that she'd read it and found it, while hard to describe as enjoyable, a good read. Yes, the fact that the main character of the book is a young girl, murdered while on her way home from school is something that we don't want to hear happening - yet it does happen all the time - but the point of view in the book is this young woman looking down from heaven, at her family and friends, how things have changed because she is gone....it was an amazing book and I'm glad I didn't let the opinion of others deflect me from reading this book. From the back fly leaf of The Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold "The Lovely Bones is luminous and astonishing, a novel that builds out of grief the most hopeful of stories. In the hands of a brilliant new writer, this story of the worst thing a family can fa...

It turns out that all three of the Stieg Larrson books have been filmed in Sweden. Swedish Author, Swedish Story, Swedish Actors - makes sense to me. Noomi Rapace plays Lisbeth Salander, and after seeing this first movie, it's hard to imagine anyone else in this role. Of course, Hollywood wants to get in on the action -- after all, these Swedish films have taken in more tha $100 million worldwide. Columbia Pictures has made a deal with the Swedish production company and with the Father and Brother of the author - who now own the Stieg Larrson book rights. Rumour has it that the Director will be David Fincher - I've never seen any of his movies - Fight Club, Se7en and Alien 3??? Casting rumours are Carey Mullligan or Natalie Portman for Lisbeth Salander....and for the male role - the big 3 - Johnny Depp, George Clooney and Brad Pitt for Michael Blomkvist. Oh dear, I see a disaster coming up here LOL!!! I read a comment suggesting Daniel Craig for the Michael Blomkvist part -- y...

I had heard about the Stieg Larrson books, about how he wrote all 3 of them before he approached a publisher, about his activist life, about how he died unexpectedly at the age of 50, and about how these books were published posthumously to great acclaim. These books have sold more than 20 million copies world-wide.  Check out the link above for fascinating information on the writer and his life. I bought the first book - The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo to see if I liked it.......followed by the second......and I had to get the last one that had just come out in hard cover.   I usually save hard cover purchases to the authors that I collect.....but with 30% off as a best seller and an additional 10% because of my Chapters card, well, 40% off made it just a bit more expensive than a paperback! The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo was a compelling book -- even though I was disturbed by parts of it, I had to keep reading.   If you don't like graphic violence - don't read this boo...

The end of the story? The peace and quiet on Sunday morning was the perfect time to finish Ann Cleeves' Blue Lightning....the fourth and final instalment of her Shetland series.  I could never have guessed what was going to happen - it stunned me, and I was glad to be alone - to think about it and to reflect on how life can change so quickly.

My neighbour told me about "Raven Black" a mystery set in Shetland by Ann Cleeves a few months before we (her and I) made our trip to Shetland in 2006. I scoured the shops in Lerwick (not hard as there aren't that many LOL!) and found, I believe, the last copy of "Raven Black" for sale in Shetland. It seemed appropriate to start the journey with Jimmy Perez while in Shetland. This series of books is being called "The Shetland Quartet" as Ms. Cleeves always felt that 4 books would tell the story of Jimmy, and I've followed "Raven Black" with "White Nights" and "Red Bones".......now comes "Blue Lightning". It looks like these books are going to be made into a television series for UK television....and hopefully it will be available internationally eventually..........fingers crossed. Here's an interview with Ann Cleeves that appears April 2009 in The Scotsman. I do hope they film it in Shetland - how exc...

The summer has flown by in a rather unusual way this year.....can't tell you exactly why the time has passed so quickly. Things that I wanted to do haven't been done...people I wanted to see haven't been seen........ I'm hoping to catch up this fall . After such a strange, and short! summer...I'm hoping for a beautiful long Fall. Grimes Update -- I fell off of the Grimes schedule for a while -- read the first two books in the Twilight Series - Twilight and New Moon - wouldn't have thought that these would be my cup of tea......Twilight was good, New Moon started to drag a bit but the ending was "you've got to read the next book to find out how they work this out!".....so I'll continue the series later. I also read "Alice in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking Glass" - classics that I thought I'd read at one point, but actually I hadn't.....thanks to Renee for giving me my copy! Another book recently read was ...

Published in 1989 He had seen her earlier that day in the museum behind the parsonage. Jury is on his way back from Leeds.....but he's tired, he's irritable, he's making bad decisions, and he can't sleep.....so he's decided to have a couple of days of anonymity in Haworth Yorkshire - Bronte country. He's intrigued from the first glance.....and when she pulls out a gun and shoots her husband in the dining room of The Old Silent inn - he's a witness. Although it's not his case, Jury just can't let go....and he takes sick leave to do some unofficial investigating himself.....he just doesn't understand why she would do it...... There's a wool connection in this book too -- the Citrine money had come from the woolen mills. Plant is in the area, having just dropped Aunt Agatha off to visit her friend Teddy in Harrogate .....so of course he wanders over to see what's happening with his friend Jury. Jury is in The Old Silent, but the inn is f...

Published in 1987 What else could you think of but getting your throat slit. Jury is packing for a vacation to be spent with his friend Melrose Plant, the ex Earl, Count, etc. in Long Piddleton. He held up a Shetland sweater, inspecting it for mothy bites. He frowned. Jury looked over the top of the sweater where he had found a moth hole big enough to put three fingers through. "Do I hear bells?" We are introduced in this story to more Long Pid characters - "Joanna the Mad", Theo Wrenn Browne (the bookseller), Diane Demorney (maneuvering to the Countess of Caverness), and Jurvis the Butcher.........as well as "the regulars" Vivien, Marshall Trueblood and Aunt Agatha up to her usual tricks. But when Marshall Trueboood shows off his latest acquisition, a "secretaire a abattant", a fall front desk, and a body falls out, well....... and when another body is found in a boat in Limehouse.......things start to fall into place and everything centres arou...

Published in 1986. "The headlamps of the car picked her out through the fog and the rain; she was standing on the shoulder about a hundred yards from the cafe, her backpack on the ground beside her." The first time I read "Jury had to reach across Susan Brendon-Hunt...." it came somewhat as a shock somehow.....had I really expected him to remain chaste throughout the whole series??? Melrose has his share of women right how -- he's reading Polly Praed's latest novel, Vivien is back in town (without the Italian fiance) and Lucinda St. Clair who has blown into Long Piddleton in her Porsche to convince Melrose to come to Somers Abbas because it seems likely that David Marr , her neighbor and close friend.........might be needing some help to prove his innocence....... Someone is strangling women with their scarves.......don't wear your scarf with the ends dangling over your back! Macalvie and Jury are again on separate cases that are undeniably rela...

Published in 1985 "The little girl stood in her flannel nightdress holding the telephone receiver. She carefully dialed the numbers her mother always did when she wanted the operator." Introducing Chief Superintendent Brian Macalvie of the Devon-Cornwall constabulary . "Who the hell are you?" are his first words to Jury. Macalvie is sure that two current cases are somehow tied in to a 20 year old murder that had been blamed on a young medical student and sent him to Dartmoor prison. Macalvie was sure he didn't do it, but had been unable to prove it......and it still bothered him. Despite Macalvie's independent ways, he and Jury form a working partnership ....and even more surprisingly , Macalvie and Wiggins become inseparable - it must be the Fisherman's Friends. Not surprisingly , Jury calls upon his friend "an Earl with a Silver Ghost" to befriend Jesse, the young orphaned heiress who lives with her Uncle, a string of governesses, an...

Published in 1984 "Feeling sorry for yourself Jury? No kith, no kin, no wife, no ..." It's Christmas, and Superintendent Richard Jury is on his way to spend the holiday with his Cousin in Newcastle........when he meets Helen Minton in the graveyard of the Catholic Church in the village of Washington. "Will you be back?" A gust of snow had pulled at her sweater collar, and he reached up and drew it together, drawing her, at the same time, a little closer. "Now, you know I'll be back." They looked at one another for a moment before she smiled, and said, "Yes, I expect you will." The next time he saw her, she was dead. Vivian is back, and she's invited to a Christmas house party....she takes Melrose with her and unfortunately Aunt Agatha gets herself invited along. Jury shows up, to inform a fellow guest, Helen's brother, of her death. Little Chrissie at the pub provides the clue. Happy Reading

Published in 1985 Una Quick had been searching for two days for her dog Pepper. Polly Praed is in Ashdown Dean, on a road trip for inspiration for her latest novel, when Una's body falls out of a telephone call box at her feet. What's a girl to do but phone her friend Melrose Plant, tell him that it's murder and that his friend Richard Jury needs to investigate. Neither pets or residents of Ashdown Dean are safe. And jury leaves his new neighbour, Carole-Anne Palutski, who will fast become part of his London family....to answer his friends call. Young Carrie Fleet, local animal rights activist, saves Polly's cat Barney and finds her own beloved dog Bingo has disappeared. Plant is jealous that Polly only called him to get Jury to come....but it's lucky for Jury that Plant is covering his back..... Happy Reading and Knitting!

Published in 1984 "Aunt Agatha" has relatives from the US visiting......the Randolph Biggets from Milwaukee, Wisconsin......and to avoid having Ardry End besieged , Melrose agrees to take Auntie to Stratford to meet the family.......he books the Falstaff Hotel for his stay -- he books the whole hotel, all of the rooms, just so that he can ensure his privacy LOL!!! DS Jury is in town because he's heard that Jenny Kennington is here. There is an exclusive tour group in town also.....and James Carlton Farraday , a young but resourceful member of he group has disappeared.....now one of the tour members is found murdered in a public washroom down by the river. While Plant is avoiding the visitors ,Vivian Rivington shows up and drops the bombshell that she's getting married -- to an Italian Count no less! "No one just happens to be a count." All Melrose could visualize was this black-caped stranger. "Can he see his reflection in a mirror?" Later o...

Published in 1983. "It was a dead time in the London underground - after lunch and before rush hour - when the last plaintive notes of a Chopin nocturne floated from Katie O'Brien's violin down the tiled corridor." How are 3 totally different crimes related? The stolen necklace, the young girl attacked in the London underground station, the woman found dead in the Horndean Wood of Littlebourne. Melrose Plant meets Poly Praed, mystery writer - who when invited to visit Ardry End (Melrose is smitten) - but she wants to know how much a Police Superintendent makes. Richard Jury meets Jenny Kennington for the first time. We meet the unforgettable Cripps family. ....and Emily Louise Perk holds the key.

She came out of the fog, her face painted half-white, half-black, walking down Grape Lane. Published in 1982 Instead of giving an overview of the plot of each book, I've decided to do some detecting myself. Our main character, Chief Inspector Richard Jury, and his untitled side kick Melrose Plant by all description are intelligent, handsome men in their 40s.....they are sensitive, Jury holds down a good job while Plant is rich, they are imminently eligible and yet they aren't married. In this book we find out that when Jury was just 7, his Mother was killed in the last blitz of London, and his Father had died at Dunkirk. As an orphan, he was handed around within the family until 14 when he "lit out on his own". And Plant admits to himself..... "He kept his own home as it had been when his parents were alive He had only added a few pieces; he had removed none. to him the past was perfect as it stood, preserved beneath the glass bell of Ardry End. It was another re...

Outside the Jack and Hammer, a dog growled . Published in 1981, this is the first Richard Jury novel.....debuting our lead character - tall, dark and handsome Detective Chief Inspector Richard Jury. While the first three chapters are set in the village of Long Piddleton and introduce us to the eccentric villagers that live there.....Chapter 4 gives a look into the contrast of Jury's life in London. It's late December and while most people are getting ready for the big holiday, Jury and his Sergeant Wiggins are sent to this small village to investigate the death of a stranger who's body has turned up in a most unusual place. The local squire "Melrose Plant" is titled, rich, good looking, intelligent, and fascinated by the process of detection. The eccentric bunch of recurring characters, both in London and Long Pidd, meld together into a family of characters that inevitably become involved in Jury's investigations. Although at first you might think that this is...