June Hat and Whip Hand

 The knitting is The June Hat pattern and the novel is Whip Hand.

The knitting: The June Hat by Meghan Kelly

This was a lot of purling!  So much purling!  Cute little bumps for every row = purling almost all the time! Except for knitting and slipping the black stitches to make these neat columns.

I think it was worth it because this effect is really neat, and I love that the slipped stitches are pulled into the decreases.  

But I'm a loose knitter and I purl even more loosely, so I'm a little worried that the gauge isn't quite what it should be.  Still, I think it would be really fun to pair some Noro scraps or some kind of gradient-type of yarn with a solid for next time.  For this one, I just used some leftover white yarn from some hat projects, and some black Patons.  This works up nicely in worsted or Aran weight yarn.

This lovely little hat now lives in the gift stash, and I can think of a few loved ones who would be tickled to get this.  

The novel: Whip Hand by Dick Francis

At the end of Odds Against, former jockey turned private investigator Sid Halley was getting ready to get a robotic hand and co-own an investigations company.  Well, he got the hand.  He's investigating mostly on his own, with some assistance from his friend, Chico.  

An owner's wife asks for a favor.  Promising young horses wind up running badly in their races and go on to show signs of heart damage.  And ex-father-in-law, Charles, asks for a favor.  Jenny, Sid's ex-wife and Charles's daughter, is involved with a fundraising charity that turns out to be a scam.  And we're off!

There's a lot of this that's sad--Sid and his ex-wife Jenny fight a lot and she's determined to say hateful things to make him feel bad about the end of their marriage.  The descriptions of violence aren't graphic, but they were still enough to make me squeamish.  Sid is kidnapped by a super vicious character who threatens to hurt his remaining hand if he continues his investigation, and sends him away for a week so that another horse will do badly at the races.  Sid has a crisis about it, and kind of has a crisis about having the crisis.

But there's also a weird chapter or two that tickled me so much in which Sid is investigating one of his cases and gets chased by some scary hired Scottish men who are involved with his other case.  He runs away from them by jumping into a hot air balloon and partnering up with a very determined hot air balloon racer determined to win at all costs.  Not in an illegal way, but just in a very hyper-focused and ridiculous way (maybe a little illegal).  It's oddly hilarious and I loved it so much.  It's a fun side adventure that puts him on the trail of finding one of the bad guys he's looking for.

Other things: Odds Against was published in 1965.  Whip Hand was published in 1979.  The book is set not long after the events of Odds Against, but Sid's robotic hand runs on rechargeable batteries and seems a bit fancier than what would be available in the 1960s.  Sid learns to be a little less self-conscious about his hand, through hooking up with Jenny's nice roommate (!!!).  He also considers just tending to his investments and giving up investigating after several threats, and nearly getting himself and Chico killed.  But he doesn't, even though he has to keep reasserting himself as an independent investigator and not a hired jockey.  And he probably won't be doing much work for the security department of the racing commission, but I can't say why.

I enjoyed this, but maybe not quite as much as I did Odds Against.  Maybe because there's less Charles in this one.  I wanted to drink brandy just as badly as I did when I read Odds Against even though I really don't like brandy.  I enjoy the way Francis has Sid narrate when he's happy.  He likes tracks and horses and, apparently, hot air balloon rides.  If my poor tattered Sid Halley omnibus can stand the wear and tear, I will probably re-read Whip Hand just for the hot air balloon parts.  I'm a simple woman.  I like striped hats and falling asleep while reading.