Unraveled, Week 23/2022

It's officially summer vacation here chez Knit/Wit. My now seventh grader(!) is likely still asleep upstairs after staying up late because she could. She had two hours of school yesterday and then spent the day swimming and hanging out with her best friends, and she told me last night as I put her to bed that she feels like a huge amount of pressure has been lifted off her shoulders. That makes me very happy, even as I'm a little dismayed at how quickly she's growing up.

Today is Wednesday, which means it's time to link up with Kat and the Unravelers to talk about what I'm making and reading this week. Here's the current WIP roundup:

Two of these projects will look familiar: My brother's sweater front now has a completed pocket opening, and Rainbow's socks are a bit more than halfway done. But what are those orange things?

Our first floor and basement are all bare floors -- hardwood and tile. And I usually have cold feet, so I always wear slippers when I'm downstairs. But I have a habit of wearing out the lining of my slippers, so I thought I'd try making some wool insoles to see if I can extend the life of my current pair. I knit these up yesterday afternoon using yarn leftover from my second May(be) Queen. I had two partial skeins remaining, so I pulled from the inside and outside of both and held four strands together to create a dense, squishy fabric. As you may be able to guess from the tool and the foam pad they're sitting on above, I'm planning to needle-felt them to make them a bit more durable and stable. I used some of the instructions from the Woodland Loafers pattern to get me started but went off piste a bit after the middle part. Once I get these in use, I'll be able to make additional adjustments if I want to make more.

Reading has been very good this week -- I've finished four books!

Firekeeper's Daughter is a book that has been on my radar since last year, and I finally caught it when it was available with no wait from the library. It seemed like a good book to read alongside my ongoing reading of Louise Erdrich's books, as it's also set within the Ojibwe community. The main character, Daunis, is the daughter of an Ojibwe firekeeper (someone who is in charge of maintaining the fire used in tribe ceremonies) but isn't an enrolled member of the tribe, as her mother is not Indigenous. But her Indigenous blood is a critical part of her identity, particularly when she discovers that the tribe is being ripped apart by drug addiction and murder. Though this is classified as a YA novel, the subjects it deals with -- drug addiction, murder, sexual assault, violence against women -- are very mature, and I wouldn't necessarily recommend it to a younger reader. But I loved it and could not put it down. I gave it 5 stars.

For something a little lighter, I listened to As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of the Princess Bride, read primarily by Cary Elwes but also featuring the voices of Rob Reiner, Robin Wright, Chris Sarandon, Christopher Guest, Billy Chrystal, and Carol Kane. The movie is one of my all-time favorites; I received a copy on VHS from my parents as a gift for passing swimming levels at summer camp when I was just a kid. Even having seen it dozens of times and being able to recite quite a lot of the dialogue, I still learned new things about the film and the cast from listening to the book. I think this is one that really is better on audio, not least because you can hear Cary Elwes do some rather good impressions of some of his costars. It's not fine literature, but it's very enjoyable, especially when you need a bit of a break from heavier stuff. I gave it 4 stars.

My next finish was in a genre that's very much outside my comfort zone: horror. I am not one to read scary or gory books, but Mexican Gothic seemed to be one everyone was reading last summer, and I wanted to see what all the buzz was about. I really shouldn't have bothered. It is a little creepy when the weird things seem to be psychological, but when the mystery of what's going on is revealed, it's just plain laughable. The book is totally bananas! I didn't find it to be scary at all, and while there is some gore, I was able to skim through it pretty quickly. I'm sorry to say that the writing isn't anything stellar, either, and I only gave this book 2 stars rather than 1 because I have to give the author credit for coming up with a really creative explanation for all the weird stuff. If this is outside your comfort zone as well, don't bother with it.

Finally, just before bed last night, I finished the latest in my Louise Erdrich deep dive, The Beet Queen. Although some of the characters have Indigenous blood, they aren't the main focus in this book the way they are in most of her others, but some of those characters do make occasional appearances. This one focuses mainly on four women: cousins Sita and Mary, their childhood friend Celestine, and her daughter, Dot. We follow their stories over several decades and really get to know them inside and out. All of them are complex characters, with their own strengths and many flaws, and I enjoyed watching them age and deal with the men who come into and out of their lives. I gave this one 4 stars.


I'm currently reading A Girl Is a Body of Water, which is quite different book for me. It's set in Uganda in the 1970s and uses a lot of words/terms that I'm unfamiliar with, but I read a quarter of it in my first sitting, so it does not seem to be an issue. I'm also looking forward to picking up my next Erdrich, Four Souls.

What are you making and reading this week?