I may have mentioned before that I tend not to give a lot of thought to Halloween costumes until the day of (or, maybe the night before). I have an interesting closet of “normal” clothes that lends itself well to a set of concepts, and I find that procrastinating encourages my brain toward creative combinations.
It does mean that some aspects of costumes get inadequate attention, but I learned years ago that as long as you give people the suggestion, they’ll usually get there in the end. (The exception to this was Raggedy Ann, which pretty much no one got, in part because I resorted to red hair spray, rather than yarn.)
This year, my wings came up a little short. If I’d thought about this last weekend, I could have knit wings, but I didn’t. So I made do with tissue paper around jewelry wire and fastened to my cycling visibility “vest” contraption beneath my jacket. Sometimes they looked like wings and other times leafy epaulets.
On a warmer Halloween, I might have opted for a different top. But since the high today was in the low 50s and I was spending the evening at a concert in the park, I wanted warmth. I did trade out my wreath for a hat (but with the tiara on top of it) and added long mitts.
I should also add that it’s particularly challenging to get a full-length shot by yourself, so apologies for it not being the best exposure/angle. I had to use the selfie timer and prop it up against my bag of tomatoes and herbs on an upside-down water barrel.
And I will add a thank you to my parents, who feed my quirky tastes. My mom made the tulle skirt for me a few years back. The velvet jacket is also from them, as are the sparkly Chucks, the bag (for storing fairy dust, hand sanitizer, knitting, and candy corn), and the bubble wand. The fake fur muff was a gift from my brother decades ago.
What fun combinations did your closets offer up this Halloween?
This week brought some literal unraveling as I was knitting in the dark and managed, in a move I still don’t quite understand, to wrap the yarn entirely around my cuff without noticing until several rows later. I attempted to just rip back to where I made the mistake, but did I mention it was dark…?
Anyway, even if I do not finish by Halloween, I will finish in the next week or so, and I vote these are autumnal colors and I will wear them with pleasure in November. Then maybe I’ll finish the socks I started in March 2019…
In the last week I finished How Rory Thorne Destroyed the Multiverse and read more of We Ride Upon Sticks. (I’ve reached Halloween night in Salem, Massachusetts.) I started a middle-grade nonfiction book written by a guy I grew up with, but it’s about dinosaurs and I don’t feel like reading about dinosaurs right now.
So I started listening to Nothing Is Wrong and Here Is Why by Washington Post humor news columnist Alexandra Petri. Have you read her Petri Dishes column? May I suggest it may be the only thing to make you laugh over the next couple weeks while we battle for the soul of our country?
I also picked up two novels to keep my mind occupied in the next week. First, I’m going to read Brandy Colbert’s The Voting Booth, because it’s about young people being hugely invested in voting, and I’m desperately hoping they come through for us this year.
Then, while we wait to find out our fate, I’m going to read Evie Dunmore’s Bringing Down the Duke, which is feminist historical fiction and seems likely to have the happy ending I will require in every book until real life presents us with the same.
What sort of comfort reading do you have lined up for the next couple weeks?
Head over to As Kat Knits to see how others are channeling their stress.
I planned to share “Zombie Jamboree” with you today, but then I realized I’d posted it last year at this time. So instead you’re getting my second favorite Halloween song, “Monster Mash,” by Bobby Pickett.
“Monster Mash” was written in 1962 by Pickett and bandmate Leonard L. Capizzi, apparently after Pickett did a Boris Karloff impression on stage one night. They recorded it as Bobby Pickett and the Crypt-Kickers (the band also included Grammy winner Leon Russell) and was produced by Gary Paxton, who had an earlier novelty hit with “Alley Oop.” The female backing vocals were sung by The Blossoms, who, at that time, included Darlene Love.
Interestingly, the BBC banned the playing of the song, dubbing it “too morbid” for the air. Were they listening to the same song?!
Today’s Top Ten Tuesday topic from That Artsy Reader Girl invites us to share a Halloween-themed list.
I’m not a fan of horror or thrillers, but I do like cozy mysteries and detective stories, so I thought today I’d share ten series I’ve enjoyed to date:
Phryne Fisher by Kerry Greenwood — Set in 1920s Australia, a wealthy single woman has grand adventures in between solving mysteries for those with nowhere else to turn.
Lady Sherlock by Sherry Thomas — A Sherlock Holmes adaptation featuring genius Charlotte Holmes and Mrs. Watson.
Hamish MacBeth by M.C. Beaton — Hamish is a constable in the Scottish highlands, charged with keeping the peace, except when it comes to poaching or other minor crimes.
Commissario Brunetti by Donna Leon — A Venetian detective with a loving wife, beautiful penthouse, and happy home life deals with crime on an off the canals.
The Discreet Retrieval Agency by Maia Chance — Set in Prohibition Era New York, a once-wealthy widow and her Swedish cook are supposed to be in the business of retrieving items that could be embarrassing, but instead keep getting sucked into solving murders.
Veronica Speedwell by Deanna Raybourn — A Sherlockian series in Victorian London featuring a female lepidopterist and a male taxidermist with tons of chemistry.
Fox and O’Hare by Janet Evanovich and (mostly) Lee Goldberg — Technically a heist series, this pairs a by-the-books FBI agent with one of the world’s best thieves to take down bad guys.
Chief Inspector Armand Gamache by Louise Penny — A Quebeçois detective ends up in a small village solving a number of well-plotted murders while befriending the townspeople.
Mary Russell by Laurie R. King — If you don’t mind May-December romances, this one has the great Sherlock Holmes, retired and raising his bees in the country, mentoring a young orphaned woman with a keen mind.
Constable Evans by Rhys Bowen — A Welsh village constable solves crimes during the day and sings in a choir by night.
