Susan K. Coleman's Blog

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

While the idea is kind of cool, the execution was not there. Exceedingly long descriptions meant to fascinate and beguile were simply too much. The author spends too much time insisting how magical everything in the circus is without really giving the reader much reason to buy into it.

I never became invested in any of the characters. There was a very long buildup, where all the characters were introduced (well most, except for the rat...

The Outlander by Gil Adamson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Wonderful prose, beautiful descriptions of the landscape and conditions encountered by the main character while on her flight from her pursuers. I think the author shared just enough of the main characters backgrounds to answer any questions about why they ended up in their respective circumstances at the storys onsetyet she didnt offer so much as to leave nothing to the imagination. I often find that, when authors divulge a great deal...

Last year I had the idea to make a little keepsake pillow as a housewarming gift for my friend who bought her first home in Brooklyn (the same friend who gave me the wonderful German knitting pattern book described in my last post). This friend is a fairly well-recognized photographer of street art and graffiti, so I knew I wanted the pillow to feature her artist’s moniker, Luna Park. But it took me a very long time to figure out how to have that name appear on the pillow and determine...

On Saturday I completed my first finished object of 2020. It’s a simple top-down sweater called the Book Keeper by Alicia Plummer knit in Shelridge Yarnsworsted-weight 100% superwash Merino. I bought a set of the five earth-tone colors, one skein each, at the 2017 New York Sheep and Wool Festival. The yarn was lovely to work with and softened nicely after a brief soak. The pattern was very simple and clear, with no real modifications necessary. I was a bit surprised that it called for size...

Last year I attended my first craft retreat. Though it was organized by Trips for Knitters, there was so much more than just knitting going on. Billed as a “stitch-makers retreat,” it was an ideal introduction to craft retreats for me. In the almost week-long stay, each of our days was split in half, with work on one type of project before lunch and then a different type of project after lunch. Even with some daytime (visit to a yarn shop, natch!) and evening outings (live music at a local...

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Though not a slow year from any other perspective, my count of finished knitting projects was abysmal in 2019. I wrapped up only five FOs in the entire calendar year. Though I did complete my first colorwork yoke sweater (seen above, the SnowFlower), the remainder of the projects were not that impressive: two pairs of socks, a cowl, and my first WestKnits pattern, the Batad poncho/scarf.

The year began with a bout of the flu and work stress due to yet another reorganization at my company....

This past March I spent a long weekend in Montreal with the family to celebrate my birthday. At the end of the trip my mother and I took a side excursion to the city’s southeastern suburb of Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville to visit Les Laines Biscotte.

Though the store carries a wide variety of yarns from diverse producers, it may be best known for its sock yarn. On the website, you can join Biscotte’s Mystery Sock Club to receive a skein of sock yarn and a pattern every other month. In-store, how...

I’m brand new to the “Once upon a sock” posts, but as an avid sock knitter, I’m thrilled to join in the fun.

This year for Christmas my mother requested knee socks. Actually, I had to coerce her into it. You’d never meet someone less enthusiastic about receiving hand-knit socks than my mother. She’s an extremely thrifty, practical person, and the fact that she doesn’t technically *need* any socks means that she’s reluctant to have me knit them for her. I’ve tried to explain that need doesn’t...

Many times when I’m planning a vacation or work trip, I’ll do some research ahead of time to locate the yarn stores and decide which ones I want to visit. And other times, I consciously steer clear of the temptation to fill any spare room in my luggage with yarn by not doing any research at all. But, even when I’m trying to be good, the yarn sometimes finds me.

For a number years I didn’t travel much. It seemed like I was constantly changing jobs or moving from apartment to apartment in New Y...

Today is November 30th, which means that writers and knitters around the world are making a last frantic push to reach their 50,000 goal.

Eight years ago I successfully participated in NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month. Every November, would-be novelists sign up on the site and pledge to write 50,000 words during the month. That’s an average of just under 1,667 words per day. It seems a relatively reasonable goal … until you miss a day and realize you have to write 3,333 in one day to...