My First Scary Socks of 2018

I've been crossing my fingers that the first pattern for this year's Super Sock Scarefest wouldn't be inspired by a movie I hated or include techniques that I won't do. (As impressive as the pattern is, I wasn't about to knit a pair of colorwork Babadook socks.) 

I liked Return to Oz well enough when I finally watched it with the boys last year, and I love handknit cables, so the first pattern, Finding the Yellow Brick Road,  is making me very happy. I don't think I've knit closed ring cables before.

This is fun!

This is Very, Very Pink

The inspiration for the current Super Scary Sock is Suspiria. After watching the movie for the first time, the only reaction I have is "Wow, that's sooooo much pink!"  And I don't think blood is that color. Pink nail polish is that color. 

The movie didn't impress me much, but I'm having fun knitting the socks. What looked like an impossible lot of purl stitching wasn't bad once I got going. And my clearance yarn is an appropriate shade of pink. I didn't have a plan for it, so this is perfect.

September Scare Socks

Pattern: Jack or Not

Yarn: Knitpicks Stroll  

It took me a full month, but I got the pair done before the first Supper Sock Scarefest pattern was released. I'm a little surprised by that, and very happy!

As I type this on Friday afternoon, there are at least seven hours to go until the next pattern is released. So now I'm on pins and needles, waiting to see if the socks are based on a horror movie that I actually like. Last year I couldn't bring myself to knit Babadook socks. I didn't enjoy the movie and I don't do much colorwork. But I did do The Fly and The Wicker Socks and a couple of pairs from earlier years.

There's Hope...

If I knit quickly, I may be able to get my September Scare socks done before the first Super Sock Scarefest pattern is released next week.  Last year, I only managed to finish two pairs -- neither of them within the deadlines. This year, I hope I can do better.




The thing I loved best about You Will Know Me by Megan Abbott was the author's voice, which was like watching a crime drama with a dispassionate narrator explaining what led up to the tragedy and its aftermath. I still felt close to the characters, maybe because the entire book focuses on one woman, the mother of an elite young gymnast, and she's not hiding anything from the reader as she figures out the ugly truth. If you're looking for a thriller that isn't too far-fetched, this one may be for you.

Disclosure -- I was provided with an advance review copies by the publishers. All opinions are my own. This post is linked to Patchwork Times, Yarn Along, Crazy Mom Quilts , Wrap up Friday  

Do You See the Pumpkins?

I spent way to much time at the doctor's office last week and fell behind on my September Scare socks, but things are looking better now. (No more welts! Still no explanation, but as long as they stay gone I'm happy.) Two more evenings of knitting and I'm halfway through the second foot and the heels are straight forward short rows. Depending on the leg pattern, I may get these done before the next sock pattern is released.

Or not. I still haven't decided how I feel about the pumpkins. They're a neat trick, but mine look a little messy. I think I need smaller needles or tighter stitches or something.

Luckily, feeling too yucky to knit isn't the same as feeling too yucky to read.

Hellhole by Gina Damico is a fun black comedy. The trouble all starts when Max Kilgore steals a sparkly pink plastic kitten from the convenience store where he works, hoping it will cheer up his sick mother. It's a small crime but, combined with the pit to Hell that he just dug, it's enough to unleash a devil with an insatiable taste for junk food (but only if it's stolen) and reality television. Max hopes that if he gives the demanding devil something extra, his mother will be healed in exchange. And we all know how well deals with the devil tend to turn out...

Disclosure -- The book came from the library. All opinions are my own. This post is linked to Patchwork Times, Yarn Along   

September Scare, the Second Clue

When I saw the chart for the second September Scare clue, my first reaction was "not gonna happen." Then I started to see pictures of what the other knitters were doing and it looked really pretty and I already had the toes done from clue #1, so I figured I might as well give it a shot.

The knitting is way easier than the chart looks, elongated stitches that travel a bit and are easy to keep track of. I'd hoped to have one  sock's worth done by the time clue #3 came out, but I'm having a whopper of an allergic reaction and spent yesterday first trying not to pass out in the Urgent Care waiting room and then home sleeping.  I've never had anything like this before -- red welts from head to toe, swollen face, swollen and throbbing wrists (which forced the no knitting part.)

The doctor says that most of  the time people never figure out what triggered it. There's absolutely nothing new in my life to blame, but I'm looking around my house and hoping that whatever it was isn't waiting for me to get into it again.




Music City Salvage needs a big job, one that will get the family business back onto stable footing. The Withrow house looks like exactly that, in pictures at least, so the owner scrapes together the cash for the purchase and sends his daughter and her crew to start pulling down everything they can sell. Leaded windows...marble fireplaces...copper roofing... the house exceeds their wildest expectations.

Because the characters spend all of their time in old houses, there's no discussion of whether or not ghosts are real. They take their existence for granted and don't panic once things start to happen. For them, it's all part of the job. They're troubled when they discover an unmarked cemetery on the property but that's just a Halloween prank dating to the last century, unclaimed stones made by the the family business a century earlier. The graves aren't real. Even after Dahlia and her crew realize that whatever spirits linger in the Withrow House are different and more dangerous than what they've encountered on previous jobs, they just turn on every light and stick together. They can't afford to leave the job unfinished.

The Family Plot by Cherie Priest is a genuinely scary haunted house novel. I can't tell you the last time a book made me think twice about pulling back my shower curtain and turning on the water. (Actually I guess I can -- but it wasn't a book, it was the made for television version of The Shining twenty years ago.)  If you like scary stuff, I can't recommend this one enough.

Disclosure -- I was provided with an advance review copy by the publisher. All opinions are my own. This post is linked to Patchwork Times, Yarn Along,