Unraveled, Week 47/2021

Good morning, friends! It's the day before Thanksgiving here in the United States, traditionally one of the busiest travel days of the year. I am very thankful, as I always am, that we only have to travel about a mile to our Thanksgiving celebration, and this year I am extra thankful that we will be able to celebrate with our family again. Last year it was just three of us around the table; this year, we'll be 17, all of us full vaxxed (and many of us boosted) except for the youngest kids.

Before that, however, there's still some baking and cooking to do (we are in charge of the pumpkin muffins, roasted Brussels sprouts, and green bean casserole), and of course it's Wednesday, which means it's time to link up with Kat and the Unravelers to talk about making and reading.

I shared a photo of Rainbow's finished hat on Monday, but that was preblocking. Here it is now, after a nice soak and a bit of a stretch and properly folded up:

It's now wrapped up and in her pile of gifts for Chanukah, which starts Sunday night.

I also finished my brother's socks on Monday and blocked them (and the two other pairs of gift socks I knit earlier in the fall), so all that's left is to wrap them:

I am amazed at how much yarn I have leftover from these -- about a quarter of the skein! My brother's feet are 10.75 inches long, and I made the legs 7 inches long. Granted, this yarn is a fairly skinny base and has something like 437 yards in the 100 g skein, but it feels a bit like magic even so!

Today's mission is to finish up this charity hat -- I just have the rest of the crown decreases to go:

After that's done, I'll likely cast on for my own version of the hat I knit Rainbow. I'll be using the same numbers, but I think I might go down half a needle size for a snugger fit. It'll make for some good mindless knitting for the rest of the holiday weekend!

As to reading, I have finished only one book in the past week, but it was 700+ pages, so that has to count for something!

You've likely seen something about Great Circle even if you haven't picked it up yourself; it's been on a number of award long and short lists. It's a long book because it's a bit of a saga. There are two story lines, one starting in the first half of the 20th century and one in almost present day. The main narrative is about Marian Graves, a spunky woman who grew up in rural Montana with her twin brother and who is determined to be a pilot. The great circle referenced is a longitudinal circumnavigation crossing both poles that Marion is known for attempting to fly. The more present-day narrative follows Hadley, a young actress whose personal life has been ravaged by scandal and who has been cast as Marion in a biopic. I didn't care for Hadley much, but her research into Marion serves to allow the reader to discover more about Marion's life. I adored Marion's story, though, and I actually cried when I finished reading the final sentence of the book, I think because I was so sorry to have to say good-bye to her. I did struggle with how to rate this book, and if you follow me on Goodreads, you'll have seen that I changed my rating several times. Ultimately I settled on 4.5 stars because I loved most of the book and the parts that I didn't care for didn't detract too much from my overall enjoyment.

I am hoping that I get lots of reading time this weekend because the library holds are starting to pour in! I've got about 200 pages left in Cloud Cuckoo Land, which I'm hoping to get through today because I just got a notification from Libby that Harlem Shuffle is ready for me!

I'd love to hear what you're working on and reading this week, and I hope if you are celebrating Thanksgiving tomorrow that you have a delicious meal and many things to be thankful for!