A Braided Cable Hat and The Outcast Dead

 The knitting project is the Lopi Braided Hat and the novel is The Outcast Dead.

First up, the hat.  I've knit this pattern a few times and I always enjoy it.  When I impulse bought a few skeins of Loops & Threads Eco-Cozy yarn, I figured that they would make good hats or cowls.  There's even less ply to the yarn than I realized when I bought it, and it's a weird answer to the question "Hey, what if polyester was like roving wool?" that I'm pretty sure no one asked.  

The color is great, though.  The yarn snagged on everything--the needles, anything in my purse, my rough hands--but I'm still probably going to wear this hat a lot.  It's fun to get a new hat so close to the end of the cold weather season and this big, dumb pom pom makes me smile.  Also, CABLES.

I love cables, but I almost always mess them up.  Braided cables are pretty intuitive (or I've finally gotten the hand of this pattern), and I love how they look.  

On to the novel!  It's another Ruth Galloway mystery, so I loved it.  Ruth is called to consult on a dig featured on the TV show Women Who Kill, when a body is discovered that could be that of a woman called Mother Hook.  Another talking head is a handsome American, Frank.  He is a sexy historian.  (As if there's any other kind.)  He and Ruth become engrossed in investigating the possibility of Mother Hook's innocence.  Also, children get kidnapped.  Even Judy the police officer!  And Cathbad's daughter, Maddie, is nearly an adult and badgers DCI Harry Nelson at a press conference and he has her stay at his house for a few days.  Cathbad is still up north, but comes home when Judy's son is abducted.  Because that's also his son.  Don't worry, he's fine.

Also, Ruth's brother and his two sons come to visit.  Why not?  Somewhere in there are musings about women being judged by society and the unfair expectations that people place on mothers.  There are also some seaside dates with Frank.  Inspector Clough consults a psychic when Judy's son goes missing because she asked him to.  Judy and Cathbad are going to be a family.

There's something sweet about these books--Clough doing everything he can to help his partner, Nelson and his family bringing Maddie into their home because she's in town and the daughter of his friend and they all get along well, Frank and Ruth hauling three-year-old Kate around on their long walks and afternoons out, Ruth and her brother becoming friends while his boys are patient with their little cousin.  All of it.  It's those details that often aren't present in cozy mysteries, and I love them.  

Other recurring characters: Janet, the historian from A Room Full of Bones.  Irish Ted, who is not Irish.  Ruth's mother, but only as a voice on the phone and in a flashback from when Ruth told her she broke up with Max (nooooo!).  Blessedly little about Erik.  Perfect for a Ruth Galloway mystery.