Still Stuck (2017) by Shinsuke Yoshitake. Published by Abrams Books for Young Readers.

BOOK TALK: Still Stuck by Shinsuke Yoshitake

May 09, 2018 in Book Talk

It has been a while since I have found a picture book that has made me laugh so hard I actually cried. Still Stuck by Shinsuke Yoshitake tells the story of a young boy who finds himself in a very curious predicament: his shirt is stuck over his head. What would happen if he remained stuck forever? Could he still drink if he was thirsty? What if the cat kept tickling his tummy? Our clever protagonist manages to problem solve everything with an admirable perseverance... well, almost everything!

Using cartoon-style visual tropes and a deadpan narrative style, Still Stuck is a delightfully surprising and hilarious picture book that may make grown-ups laugh a little harder than the kids. When I read this book aloud to a colleague at work, we could not stop laughing - like it was that from-the-pit-of-your-belly kind of full laugh that makes your eyes crease. Oh, this book is a winner!

Want a peek inside? Check out the short Book Talk video below:

Find this book at your local library, independent bookstore, or through Amazon. Have you read it and loved it as much as I do? Let me know in the comments!

New semester, new commitment to blog!

May 07, 2018 in MLIS

When I started this website, I had some big dreams to use it as a way to chronicle not only my knitting life but my library life as well. It can be pretty tricky to carve out the time to write blog posts, especially when watching Netflix or knitting podcasts feels so much easier. However, May 7th marks the first day of a new semester and I thought this would be the perfect time to commit myself to blogging about library stuff!

For those that may not be familiar, I am currently in the middle of my Master of Library and Information Studies (MLIS) degree at University of Alberta. This graduate degree takes place 100% online, which means I spend a lot of time in front of a computer reading and typing, but mostly trying not to be distracted. Online education is definitely not for the faint of heart as it requires a lot of self-motivation and discipline, which is especially true in the spring/summer months. Oh, it is so hard to focus on reading when bike rides and cold pints of beer are calling! Thankfully, the research I have planned for this summer is super fascinating and will keep me engaged despite the urge to play hooky whenever the weather is nice.

While my program suggests that all students take two courses per semester, I have committed to only 1 course in an effort to keep a good work/life/school/art balance. The course I'm taking this term is pretty exciting because it is probably the most relevant class I'll ever take during this degree. Library Services for Children and Young Adults is a course that has not been offered at University of Alberta since 2011 and this is the first time it has ever been offered online. Which makes me wonder - are folks in Canada just not looking to youth librarianship as a viable option for their post-MLIS career? Maybe the fact that it is being offered again and there is such a big enrolment of students in the course means that trend is shifting.

And because this course has not been offered for such a long time, the professor has decided to do a complete overhaul of the course outline and content so it reflects the current trends in youth librarianship. The main reason I find this so incredibly exciting is that the library I work for has seen some significant changes in the way services for children and teens are designed, facilitated, and delivered. I have been working in children's services in some capacity at the public library for the past seven years, and it is an area of librarianship that I'm really passionate about. This semester presents an opportunity to fully immerse myself in all this children and libraries! Rather than trying to tailor every class I've done to reflect my interest in children's librarianship and having it fall on stiff ears, this course is going to open a lot of doors - I can feel it!

So, as I move through this course I am going to use this blog to help articulate some of the ideas I have racing through my head. You can look forward to book recommendations, my personal thoughts and experiences with library service, interesting research, and whatever else that comes up. I hope that there may be some of you interested in this journey and I promise there will be some knitting along the way too :)

PODCAST | E32 | The perfect shade of "Don't Kill Me" orange

April 29, 2018 in The Podcast

A brand new episode of my video podcast has just been published over at my YouTube channel, KNITLIB the podcast. It has been almost a month since my last update but for very good reason - I have been dealing with an injury that has basically whooped my butt for the past two weeks. You can hear the whole sordid story in Episode 32 above.

And despite having a broken elbow, I did manage to finish a few knitting projects that I'm quite excited to share. Along with some new endeavours, including some solar dyeing and a new ambitious cast on.

Interested in the patterns I talk about in this episode? Find them linked below!

Finished Objects

Carbeth Cardigan by Kate Davies

The Weekender Pullover by Andrea Mowry

Works in Progress

Rose City Rollers by Mara Catherine Bryner

Fremont Skirt by Kristina McGowan from More Modern Top-Down Knitting

Dye Talk

Acid Dyes from Jacquard in Bright Yellow, Chartreuse, Brilliant Blue, Turquoise and Hot Fuschia

Stuff I’m Loving

Sourdough by Robin Sloan

And we begin again.

March 30, 2018

I think this is pretty much the story of my life. As soon as everything gets super busy, my immediate reaction is to back up real quick as if I walked in on a grizzly bear. Is anyone else like that? During my first semester of school in 2016, I managed to finish way more knitting projects than I had planned because stress caused me to cast on, like, all the things. And while I knit, I kept telling myself "Oh, Suzen! You shouldn't be knitting!" but I kept knitting anyway. Sigh.

The same can be said for the amount of times I redo the blog and website. For those that have followed me over the years, you're probably used to it by now. What I mean is how fickle I can be with my Internet life, how impulsively I change things around. I can kind of equate it to starting a new bullet journal or diary, how satisfying it is to put that first mark on a new page and how exciting it is to look at that blank book and daydream about all the things that will fill it. This website is all of that. Well, in addition to the guilt I feel about procrastinating my other work in favour for new creative pursuits.

Really, I should just quit apologizing for it. When faced with large and overwhelming projects, sometimes it is just good to step back and take something smaller on to give yourself that sense of accomplishment back. A little creative pat on the back. A confidence boost.

And that is what this new website is all about. Oh, and the new project I'm about to share. Let's jump right to it!

The Mount Pleasant Top

So, I've cast on for another Mount Pleasant Top, a cropped beauty designed by Megan Nodecker, a knitwear designer and podcaster living in British Columbia. I worked up a version of this last summer using stashed yarns and it quickly became my favourite knit because it is so easy to wear. The original version I knit used superwash merino singles, striping them to make up for the fact that I didn't have enough yarn to knit anything in a solid colour. The result was unexpectedly delightful, even if it was a pain in the ass to stripe every few rows.

The versatility of this top is great and while I wouldn't necessarily consider a wool top to be a summer wardrobe staple, my Mount Pleasant is light and airy when worn on its own, while acting as a squishy warm layer over dresses in the spring and fall. Yes. This top is a winner!

Which is why I have decided to cast on another. This one, however, will be worked up in just two colours rather than the three. Let's talk about the yarn:

The main body of the top is being worked up in Madeline Tosh's Tosh Sock, in the colourway Electric Rainbow. This is 100% hand dyed merino wool, fingering weight and oh-so-squishy. These skeins were part of a new order of Madeline Tosh that came into my local yarn shop and I just couldn't resist because it looks almost holographic. I chose two of the most vibrant skeins and I can't get over the depth of shade and layering of colours in these skeins. Unlike some hand dyed yarns I've picked up over the years, this one definitely shows how much work was put into it. There is so much variety in colour placement that there is no real chance of pooling, especially at the gauge I am knitting, and the speckling of black dye on top of it all just adds that pop that keeps the yarn from appearing muddy.

As I mentioned previously, I only purchased two skeins of this yarn and I knew that it wouldn't necessarily be enough to knit the entire Mount Pleasant top so I am supplementing it with a skein I purchased from Tayler of Fiber for the People back when her shop first launched. The colourway is Hypercolor Shirt and it is on sockweight yarn base that she no longer carries but is very similar in texture to the Madeline Tosh I am using, meaning that it is a plump plied yarn that has beautiful stitch definition. This colourway compliments the Madeline Tosh beautifully. I've used it for the scalloped lace edge of the top and have plans to use the rest for the ribbing around the neckline and sleeves. Oh! It's just so pretty!

The top itself is coming along nicely. At this point I have just started knitting the main part of the body and finished the second set of increases. I still have quite a ways to go yet before I separate for the sleeves. Normally I am not one to enjoy knitting bottom-up sweaters because I hate having to knit the sleeves separately to join them with the yoke. I'd much rather pick up stitches and knit the sleeves from the garment itself. Luckily, Mount Pleasant only requires a minimum amount of rib around the armholes and given the boxy nature of the garment, the capped sleeves just kind of knit themselves. It's great!

Anyway, here is my progress thus far: