Recent reading, recent needlework, etc.

[bunrab]

Not as much recent reading and needlework as one might think, because given the lack of rain, and the overall nice weather, I have been out on the bike more. However, today was a car day because we needed to hit up Trader Joe's - our regular monthly-pay-day purchase of assorted lower-sodium snacks and frozen things.

So. Needlework. I have been crocheting coasters out of #3 or #5 crochet cotton, using beads.
First, some using 3/0 beads, mostly, and some larger E-beads. (A lot of companies now seem to regard 6/0 and E beads as the same thing, but it used to be they weren't - the E beads had a slightly different profile/shape, which made them a little larger than 6/0, sometimes almost as large as 4/0.)

Closer look at one:

These went to Cindy as a gift.

A couple more that I made, this time with 6/0 seed beads instead of 3/0 - it gives them a different look. (The letters in the center are my parents' initials - gonna be a gift to them.)

Both coasters:

Close-up of one coaster:


The downside to using 6/0 beads, of course, is the need to string more of them - 324 beads in each of those coasters. Doesn't actually take that long if one can hold a map and count in one's head, and string the beads from piles rather than having to lay out every bead in order first. But still takes longer than using the larger beads. And for more insanity, I am now working on a beaded purse, same method, for my niece E, which involved stringing *1500* 6/0 beads on two strands of #10 cotton. Pix forthcoming in, oh, say, 2 months.

Then, reading. I have started reading a murder mystery series by Claudia Bishop, featuring a hotel in upstate NY and the two sisters who run it; I am on the third book. They're cozies. They're adequately well written to keep reading, so far, though there are some of the silly elements that sneak into cozies sometimes, where the eccentric characters are just a little TOO eccentric.

Also, Destination: Unknown by Gary Braunbeck. Science fiction/fantasy, sorta, one novella and two longish short stories, all having to do with cars/highways. The novella, Road Mama and Daddy Bliss, is pretty good, if predictable in a few spots. A must for fans of HO cars.
And Missile Gap by Charles Stross. This isn't actually a novella, it's an outline for a novel. Obviously, Stross submitted the outline - a page or two of each proposed chapter - and the publishers just printed it as is. It's the outline of what could be quite an intriguing novel. Alternate history, sort of, plus insect aliens. (Shades of Harry Turtledove!)
And The Reason-Driven Life by Robert M. Price. Intended to counter Rick Warren's Purpose-Driven whatsis that pushes evangelical religion, Price does a chapter-by-chapter retort to Warren. So I suppose some of the repetitiousness of Price's book is because Warren's was repetitious. There are some useful pieces in there, and since Price has been a theologian himself and a bible scholar, before becoming a full-time heretic, he is able to present clear and convincing objections to the way Warren and other evangelicals and fundamentalists MIStranslate the bible while telling people to take it literally.
Gah, I had another book on here, and some accidental brush of a key wiped it out. More later.

Comments

[o-jenny.livejournal.com]

Those are cool! Love the bright colors you chose to use.

[avanta7.livejournal.com]

Oooh! Those are nifty! How do you do that? String the beads on the yarn before starting the piece?

[bunrab.livejournal.com]

Yep. All 324 of them. The secret is to only use the beads on even rows; slip stitch odd rows back to the other side. That way, the order of the beads is always the same; one doesn't have to plot complicated back-and-forth maps. So I can just mindlessly go "6 blue beads, 6 green beads, 6 blue beads. Next row: 6 blue beads, 6 green beads, 6 blue beads. Next row:" and so on, for 6 rows, then switch to mindlessly threading 6 green beads, 6 blue beads, 6 green beads for 6 rows - the sort of thing that, as an accountant at heart, I can keep track of effortlessly, so that I can string all 324 beads without conscious though, then start crocheting.