Unraveled, Week 18/2022

Is it only Wednesday? This week has been ... A Week. Yesterday I was just angry all day, on top of feeling pretty crummy because my semi-annual sinus crud decided to make its appearance at the same time that I got a knot in my neck that also likes to bother me from time to time. But I didn't come here to complain. It's Wednesday, which means it's time for my weekly link-up with Kat and the Unravelers and to talk about making and reading.

After finishing my giant shawl over the weekend, I've been doing some spinning and some work on Rainbow's crochet blanket, but last night I cast on a new knitting project. And surprise! It's another Hitchhiker.

This one is for Rainbow, who loved mine so much that she asked very nicely if I would make her one. I even let her pick out a skein of handspun for it, and she selected this skein of laceweight South African superfine/silk that I spun back in 2015. The colorway (from Southern Cross Fibre) is called Peacock. I have 700+ yards of yarn in this skein, but because it's so fine I've gone down to US 2/2.75 mm needles, so I don't think it'll end up being too huge. (When I took my shawl off the blocking towels yesterday and measured the top edge, it came out to be 9 feet wide, so it's something I have to wrap about three times around my neck!)

Though I haven't cast on yet, I have swatched for my next project as well:

Way back in 2018, my brother asked me if I could knit him a "grandpa"-style sweater -- a cabled cardigan with a shawl collar. I remember exactly when this was because several of us went to see a performance of Fiddler on the Roof downtown and then met the rest of the family out for dinner. While we were at the dinner table, I pulled up Ravelry on my phone and did a pattern search using his criteria, and he picked the Edinburgh pattern, which I conveniently already had in my pattern library. I then ordered yarn for it -- and it's been sitting in my stash ever since. But because I am trying to use up yarn in my stash and because his 35th birthday is coming up this summer, I figured now was a good time to finally knit the sweater. I had my sister-in-law measure one of his well-fitting sweaters when he wasn't around to pick the correct size and knit up a swatch over the weekend, so now I'm ready to get started just as soon as I feel like I have the right amount of concentration.

As for reading, I have finished two books this past week, one just this morning thanks to Rainbow's dentist appointment before school:

I know several of you have already listened to Miracle and Wonder: Conversations with Paul Simon. Those of you who haven't who are fans of Paul Simon should go listen to it right now! I was able to get it from my library through Hoopla (it was strangely not available at all via Libby), and at only about 5 hours in length, it was easy to listen to in a couple of days. This doesn't really feel like a book because, while there is narration, large sections of it are conversation and musical clips; it really feels like a long podcast. I suppose that's why it's only available in audio format. But it is wonderful and hugely entertaining. I will note that if you're used to listening to audiobooks at a faster-than-normal speed, you'll want to slow down to normal speed for this one because the music will sound very strange otherwise. I gave this 4.5 stars.

This morning's finish was Louise Erdrich's The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse, which I really had to finish this week because those of us who are participating in the Erdrich-along are discussing it this Saturday! I did take my time with this book, as much as I wanted to rush through it, because the writing is simply exquisite. It is rare to find a book that will make you both cry and laugh out loud; this is one of them. I loved every page! If you're interested in reading it, I suggest you do so without reading the jacket copy or looking at the family tree diagram in the front of the book, as both contain pretty big spoilers. One of them is revealed up front, but the other reveal isn't until almost the very end, and trust me when I say you don't want that spoiled for you. I gave it 5 stars.

Currently I am actively reading The Wrong End of the Telescope and have about 125 pages left. I thought of Katie's love of serendipitous moments in books when I came across this line this morning near the end of The Last Report:

I'm also hoping to return to Young Mungo, which I started (but didn't get very far into) about a month ago. And thanks to a visit to my local bookstore for Independent Bookstore Day over the weekend, I have an even larger TBR stack than before:

What are you making and reading this week?