Baby Sophisticate and Odds Against

The knitting is the Baby Sophisticate by Linden Down and the novel is Odds Against by Dick Francis.

Jockeys turned private eyes and baby sweaters?  A perfect combination!

I've made this pattern a few times over the years, but it was nice to re-visit this.  The yarn is regular ol' worsted weight acrylic and the buttons are from Michaels.  I never quite remember how to knit up my wrapped and turned short row stitches, but my mistakes are hidden by the curled up part of the shawl collar.  

I love a shawl collar for a baby sweater.  Why would they be dressed up to look so serious?! Who knows or cares?!  It's just really fun to see babies in sweaters and I like to knit small projects!  

Mods: I did 1x1 ribbing for the cuffs instead of garter, and that was about it.  

The hat is a mashup of a couple of my go-to patterns.  The recipient is the daughter of a couple of old friends and I was so tickled to send this to them along with the Santa Baby hat.  Any time I get to send a package containing two hats with stuffed pompoms is a good day!

Now, the novel: this was really fun!  For all its violence, this was kind of cozy and heartwarming?  Sid Halley is a jockey who had to retire after a racing accident injures his hand and now works for an investigations company.  The novel begins with him recovering from being shot in the stomach.  He's not so much stoically hard-bitten as he is reserved.  We soon learn he's good at chess, and has a great relationship with his soon-to-be ex-father-in-law.  The reason he was a jockey is because he's tiny and his mother apprenticed him to someone when he was 15  she knew she was dying of cancer. Halfway through the book we learn he's really good at investing.  He has a good sense of humor.  He's kind, and sharply analytical.  

My parents had a lot of Dick Francis books around the house when I was growing up, and I read one in which the protagonist is a jockey who thinks he has the ability to telepathically communicate with horses and his twin sister.  He was surly and bitter and I didn't care for it.  But I was short on books this spring and borrowed Under Orders--the fourth Sid Halley book--from my parents.  I enjoyed it, and checked out Odds Against as soon as the library opened back up.  I found this three-in-one book at a used bookstore and have really been enjoying myself.

The book is set in the mid 1960s, because that's around the time it was published.  There are digressions with a secretary for an investor Sid is investigating and she and Sid become friends I guess?  They bond over their scars and learn to bear them more publicly.  There are shady business deals.  Itty bitty racing tracks.  A bad man and a fairly bad wife.  Some fights.  Some chapters about boilers.  A lot of violence and some quick thinking.  The book ends with Sid short a hand, technically homeless because his apartment blew up, and really excited to take the lead at the investigation company that also got blown up.  He's a spunky one, that Sid.  

The book was a nice treat.  Also, it really made me want a brandy, even though I don't really like brandy.  As soon as I finished re-reading Odds Against, I immediately turned the page to read Whip Hand.  A woman shows up to his apartment on a rainy night to ask a favor.  I can't wait to see what happens next!