Unraveled Wednesday, Week 42/2022

Good morning from what feels like winter here in Western Pennsylvania! We've had a cold front from Canada pass through the past two days, and when Rainbow and I had to leave the house at 7 a.m. yesterday to go to an early orthodontist appointment, she said that it felt like the middle of winter rather than fall -- and she wasn't wrong. There are some snowflakes in the area today (though it looks like we'll mostly see drizzle), but we'll be back to the upper 60s and low 70s by the weekend. In the meantime, I'm happy to have all the woollies on me.

It's Wednesday, which means it's time for the weekly link-up with Kat and the Unravelers.

Since finishing the hat, my focus has shifted to finishing up the socks. I did manage to get the pattern written up and laid out, and it was sent to my tech editor yesterday; she's pretty busy right now but promised she'd squeeze it in next week. I'll need a finished pair to take final photos, and I'm getting there!

It's a bit hard to see (the light is absolute crap here this morning), but I am partway through the heel on the second sock, and once I get past the heel the rest of the sock will fly.

I have also finally started my combo spin and about halfway through the singles on the first bobbin. The lighting issue here is compounded that this particular section of fiber is rather dark, but a least you can get a sense for the current state of the bobbin.

Reading has been pretty good this week! I've finished two books.

I'd tagged The Netanyahus as "to read" on Libby when Kym raved about it, but when Mary mentioned that she'd listened to it, I found it was available on Hoopla (which means no waiting!). It was really delightful on audio, as both the beginning and end of each chapter have some mood-setting music and there are some audio effects scattered here and there. There is a lot packed into this relatively short book, including quite of a lot of esoteric scholarship, but there's also a lot of slapstick comedy. You don't need to be Jewish to enjoy it, but if you are, you'll recognize and get a lot of the cultural humor. This is one I might have to reread with my eyes someday to fully appreciate. I gave it 4 stars.

I also finally finished Booth yesterday afternoon; it took me much longer than I would have expected not because I didn't like it but because thinks kept coming up every time I tried to sit down and read it. I found this to be a really fascinating read, having only a slight awareness of perhaps the most famous (infamous?) Booth, John Wilkes, but none at all about his family. And the rest of the family is really the focus of this novel, which is very much grounded in historical fact but does take some liberties with details about the characters about whom less is known. I found it to be a really interesting study of family dynamics set against a backdrop of difficult times in the country, and I was a little surprised that John Wilkes Booth is, until the very end, a relatively minor character. I also found it very interesting how, in the author's note, she mentioned that in an age of mass shootings, we often don't think about how one person's heinous actions affect the members of their family, and she drew some interesting comparisons between the views of Abraham Lincoln as a tyrant and the Civil War as a perilous time in our democracy and more recent events in this country. I wouldn't say I loved this book, but I found it fascinating and worth the read. I gave it 3.5 stars, rounded up to 4.

I have two books I am very eager to start, but first I am focused on finally finishing Braiding Sweetgrass!

What are you making and reading this week?