Unraveled, Week 1/2021

Good morning! I'll say this for taking a Monday off -- it's nice to wake up and have it already be the middle of the week! And because it's Wednesday, I'm joining Kat and the Unravelers to talk about what I'm knitting and reading, this time with a bit of catch-up because last week's post was more of a year-end review.

First, let's talk knitting. My first finished project of the year was one I'd hope to be my last FO of 2020, but it was not to be, mainly because I decided to spend much of my time on December 31 doing other things. It was a conscious choice that I don't regret, and it also meant that a bit of work on January 1 enabled me to start off the year with a finish.

These are a pair of Snow Day Mittens (Ravelry link) that I knit for me. I've knit several pairs of these in the past, both for Rainbow and for charity, but never managed to make myself one, so that was one of my goals last year. I used mostly Fibernymph Dye Works yarn for these -- leftover variegated Cozy (superwash Merino) from my Radiate pullover for the cuffs and a combination of Ridgetop DK (Romney/Falkland blend) and Floof (mohair/silk) for the hands -- but as you can see, it wasn't quite enough. The darker purple at the top of the hands is a wool/alpaca blend from a sweater I unraveled last year. I added it in, still holding the mohair/silk along for the ride, when it became clear that I would not have enough of the Ridgetop to knit all of both mittens. I knew I'd be cutting it very close from the beginning, so I'd already divided the Ridgetop in half to start with, and when it became clear that I'd need more yarn to finish, I added in the wool/alpaca so that I'd have enough of the Ridgetop to finish the thumbs and so that both mittens will match. While these are done in terms of knitting, they still need to be felted for them to be done done, and that will happens sometime this week. I'm going to be felting them in the dryer, and I'll be documenting the process because a couple of people have asked me how I do it.

In addition to casting on the new sweater for Rainbow, I've also started another new project that I'd intended to cast on last year but never got around to:

This is the start of my handspun Bousta Beanie (direct PDF link) using Southern Cross Fibre Scarlet Woods on BFL/silk and natural Clun Forest, I believe, from Ross Farm (it was spun from a small bag of fiber that I brought home from Rhinebeck in 2019, the leftovers from a giant bag of processed roving that we had divided up into smaller portions for the booth).

Now, on to the reading! I ended up finishing one more book on New Year's Eve to bring my 2020 total to 101 books, and I've already finished one book so far this year. Here is the last round of reviews:

Kym had recommended Girl, Woman, Other to me after our discussion of the last Read With Us book, so I'd put it on hold at the library and read it over the course of a week or so after I received it. I really enjoyed it, though it took a bit of time for me to get used to the unusual style. It's written without much punctuation, almost like a stream of consciousness, and while that bothered the editor in me at first, I soon came to like the way it seemed to push me along through the stories. The book seems like a collection of short stories focused on a group of women, but eventually it's clear that they're all interconnected -- and the ending brought that home in a way that I didn't expect and that, quite frankly, brought me to tears. I rated it 4 stars on Goodreads, but really I'd say it's closer to 4.5 stars for me.

I'd been meaning to read The Island of Sea Women for some time after I won a free Kindle copy in a Goodreads giveaway and finally got around to starting it in early December. It was an interesting story and certainly taught me quite a bit about Korean history that I didn't know before, but parts of it were a bit of a slog for me. It reminded me in many was of two earlier reads, Pachinko and The Mountains Sing, in that it details a period of great suffering and a volatile political situation and that it has gotten some good reviews, but all three fell a bit flat for me. This one, I think, could have benefited from a glossary of Korean terms; there were quite a few that were used a lot whose meaning I never was never able to figure out. I gave it 3 stars.

My last finish of 2020 was a bit of a dud. Confessions of a Curious Bookseller was an Amazon First Reads freebie for December, and I only chose it because I wanted something light and fluffy to counteract all the sad news. It was billed as "book club fiction" or some such, so I thought I'd give it a go even though it didn't have great reviews on Amazon. Although the writing wasn't bad, the main character was utterly unlikable -- and not in a dark, twisty way that can make for a great read, just in an annoying way. I joked in my review on Goodreads that a better title would have been "Delusions of a Curious Bookseller," and I only finished it because it was quick to read (and I made sure to finish it on New Year's Eve because I did NOT want it to be my first finish of 2021). I gave it 2 stars.

 My first finish of 2021 was the perfect antidote. Many of you have known about Anne Bogel of Modern Mrs. Darcy fame for a while, but I've only just started listening to her podcast, What Should I Read Next?, and when she mentioned on her last episode in December that her book I'd Rather Be Reading was a Kindle deal, I snapped it up right away. It was delightful. If you're a reader who loves to talk about reading and books, then you'll love it. It's a quick read, too, at only about 120 pages, so I was able to finish it in just a few short reading sessions. An added bonus of the book is that it includes a bibliography at the end of other books about books and reading! I gave it 4 stars.

Right now, I am reading Monogamy, which I had put on hold at the library after Bonny reviewed it, and am about halfway through. I was hoping to get through a good portion of it yesterday, but I had to do actual work for much of the day (can you believe that?). I'm hoping I can finish it up today, because I just got a notification from the library app that The Splendid and the Vile is ready for me to borrow! I've set my Goodreads challenge at 65 books for this year, an increase of five over last year, and I feel like I'm already well on my way.