Unraveled, Week 12/2021

It's Wednesday again, and this week I have the day off for a "self-care" day, which frankly feels a bit weird in the middle of the week (we're getting this day off to make up for not getting a day off on the Friday of spring break week), but I'll take it. As per usual, I'm joining up with Kat and the Unravelers to chat about knitting and reading.

In addition to finishing my sweater in the past week, I've also finished my Folia Hat (Ravelry link). I worked the last of the crown decreases yesterday and blocked it right away. The contrast is a touch more subtle in real life.

I used the recommended needle sizes (US 2/2.75 mm and US 3/3.25 mm) and Fibernymph Dye Works Ridgetop Fingering in Graphite (100 yards) and Warm Honey (88 yards). The yarn did bloom nicely in blocking, though I still need to manipulate the hat a bit more to even out the tension at the spots where the cord of my needle poked out (I worked the whole thing magic loop). I can definitely see working this pattern again, likely in something with a stronger contrast. Rainbow has said how much she likes this one, and I'd give it to her were it not for the fact that she finds the yarn scratchy. So she will likely be the recipient of the second version.

I did end up ripping out the shawl I started and shared last week, and I'm going to try another attempt with a slight variation (namely a different increase) to see how it goes. But I also wanted to free up the needles I was using for a different project, which I just started last night:

The pattern is Aldous by Isabell Kraemer (Ravelry link), and I'm being a bit cheeky by casting on without swatching BUT! the stitch gauge is the same as the Darkwater I knit last year and I'm using the same yarn, so I'm pretty confident I won't have an issue. The sweater is knit from the top down, so I can try it on as I go. I'm knitting the second size (37.5 in./93.5 cm bust), which gives me at least a couple of inches of positive ease, so I figure I have some wiggle room, too. Fingers crossed!

Reading has been good this week. I think I felt like I had to make up for my diminished reading time last week, and I've actually finished three books since last Wednesday! These three are all finalists for the Aspen Words Literary Prize; I had already read the other two and wanted to read them all.

The Office of Historical Corrections is a collection of short stories and a novella that gives the collection its name. I'm usually not a big fan of short stories because they often either feel incomplete or leave me feeling frustrated or wanting more. This is a collection that, for the most part, does it right (there was one story I didn't care for). All the stories felt like they could easily be a chapter or two in a much longer novel, but they stand alone quite well, too. The writing is quite good, and there's something different about it that I can't really put my finger on but that made me go back and reread portions more slowly from time to time. My favorite of the stories was definitely the novella, which falls at the end of the collection and really packs a punch. I gave it 4 stars and definitely recommend it.

One of the items on my 21 in 2021 list was to read a book outside my comfort zone, and Against the Loveless World fits that to a T. This novel, which reads like it could be a memoir, is the story of a Palestinian woman raised in a family living in exile in Kuwait and then, following the Gulf War, Jordan. She eventually moves back to Palestine and becomes involved in resistance activities; the story is told in retrospect from her "cube" in an Israeli jail after she is convicted of terrorism. I wanted to read this book because I've really wanted to gain a better understanding of the Palestinian perspective of the conflict and reconcile the very one-sided pro-Israel perspective I received as part of my religious education. While I didn't love the book -- I think mostly because it was difficult to read, for reasons beyond the political -- I did find it worthwhile to read. I gave it 3 stars.

I knew nothing about the story collection If I Had Two Wings or its author before I borrowed it from the library, but I feel like I had a pretty good idea of his general biography from reading these stories and noting what he chose to focus on. The short stories in this collection are tied together by the fictional town of Tims Creek, North Carolina. The characters in one story sometimes pop up in another, but the narratives stand on their own. My favorite story in the collection was "Resurrection Hardware, or Lard & Promises." Several of the stories are still confusing to me, and I hope I'm able to discuss them with others. It felt like an interesting coincidence to me that James Baldwin came up several times, as a Baldwin quote is responsible for the title of Against the Loveless World. This was a quick read -- I read the entirety of it yesterday! I gave it 3 stars.

Now that I've finished the Aspen Prize short list, I'm moving on to the long list for the Women's Prize in Fiction. I've already read two of the books on the list, Transcendent Kingdom and The Vanishing Half, but there are still plenty of titles to read; I'm not sure I'll get to all of them, but I like the idea of trying. My first selection, which I'll be starting today, is Exciting Times.

I'm looking forward to hearing about what you've been working on and reading in the comments!