Not Setting Any Speed Records

Since we've been home, I've tried to get my posts up first thing in the morning, but this week, it seems, has been getting away from me, so now I'm trying to squeeze in a post before it's time to go pick Rainbow up from school! As it's Wednesday, I'm joining Kat and the Unravelers to talk about knitting and reading.

I've been juggling a few knitting projects, but the one I'm focusing on this week is my Radiate pullover. I am very confident that I will soon be done with the body.

This isn't a great photo, partly because I stink at taking selfies (especially in a mirror) and partly because we're on day five of gloom, but I think it's sufficient to illustrate two facts: one, it fits, and two, the body has gotten significantly longer. When I measured last night, I had about 11 inches of body done below the arms. I need to get to 13.5 inches to start the ribbing. I'm also only on the third of five blues in the gradient, and it's looking increasingly like the darkest blue won't be touched at all. Based on nothing but supposition, I've been transitioning to a new color when I have 40-ish grams of yarn left. When I'm ready to start the sleeves, I'll divide what I have left of each shade of blue in half and try to match the sleeves to the body as best I can.

My reading has slowed somewhat, in part because I've been trying to catch up on some audio and video podcasts, but I have finished two books in the past week:

With the possible exception of Louise Penny, I would say the James McBride has the most books on my read list this year. The Good Lord Bird was the third, and while I didn't like it as much as the other two, it was still a good read, in large part because of his talent as a writer. His characters are such, well, characters! And I found this book to be surprisingly funny, given that it's about John Brown and the raid on Harper's Ferry, a decidedly serious subject. I'm now interested in watching the miniseries that just came out based on the book, if only to see how well McBride's characters translate to on the screen. I gave the book 4 stars.

Tuck Everlasting was a reread for me; I originally read it in the fifth grade for school. I think I've mentioned that Rainbow attends the same school I did, and while the curriculum has changed quite a bit since I was there, it seems this book is still on the English reading list in fifth grade. She asked me to read it so we could talk about it, and it only took me about a day to do so (you have to love children's literature for that!). I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it -- often books we liked as children fall flat when we revisit them as adults. I think I had more appreciation for the big issues of mortality and immortality now that I'm older (and maybe wiser?). I gave it 4 stars as well.

I'm currently reading just one book, The Night Watchman, which I know many of you have read and enjoyed. I'm about a third of the way through it and am still waiting for it to grab me. I will finish it, but at the moment I'm finding it a little slow and hard to follow because there are so many characters to keep straight. I've got several weeks until my next round of holds from the library, so I'll be making my way through some books I already have. I'm currently at 87(!) books finished for the year, so it looks like I just might make that stretch goal of 100!

I will be back tomorrow with some updates on my other projects, but I would love to hear what you're working on and reading these days!