Unraveled Wednesday, Week 43/2022

The number up there for the week of the year is getting awfully big -- I don't know where this year is going! Soon we'll have turned the clocks back and it will be dark earlier and the days will be getting shorter, truly my least favorite part of the year, but the upside to the increased time inside is that it's prime knitting season, both for doing it and for wearing what I've knit. We've had several days of warmer weather, but today a front is coming through that I think will allow me to comfortably wear lighter sweaters again.

Many thanks, as always, to Kat for hosting the weekly link-up of Unravelers -- even from on vacation this week!

You all had some good guesses as to what I was knitting for Rainbow's costume, despite the fact that I didn't have much to show. Here's the completed piece, though I'm not sure it'll be much more helpful:

She made the rest of her costume, but I told her I could help with this piece, which was basically designed on the fly. I used some leftover Berrocco Vintage from stash that just happened to be the right color. Here's the big reveal:

She's an old-fashioned gumball machine! The only part that's missing here is a piece she made with the place to put in a quarter and the knob that you'd turn to get the gumball out. She came up with this idea on her own and put most of it together herself. The "gumballs" are pompoms that she hot-glued onto the t-shirt. Pretty clever, don't you think? I still haven't figured out what I'm going to be for my brother's Halloween party; he gives us a hard time if we don't dress up, and I'm not sure I can top last year's costume. Easy and funny costume ideas are welcome!

After winding that set of mini skeins and taking them with me over the weekend, I didn't actually end up casting on until Monday night. I don't have much to show at this point, but I have at least started!

I've also been spinning this week, and yesterday afternoon I finished up the first bobbin of singles for my combo spin:

What I lack in knitting this week I can more than make up for with my reading -- it's been a great week for books, with four finishes!

After nine(!) months on my nightstand, I finally finished Braiding Sweetgrass, and I feel the need to clarify that the reason it wasn't finished for so long wasn't anything to do with the quality of the book or my enjoyment of it; rather, this is a book that is nonfiction and doesn't have an overarching narrative, so it was very easy to read a chapter or two every now and then and to dip into it in between other books. But I loved it. I learned so much about ecology and Indigenous traditions and general respect for the land. It made me wish I could be one of Robin Wall Kimmerer's students, and I now know exactly how deserving she is of a MacArthur Foundation Genius Grant. I gave this a very enthusiastic 5 stars!

Over the weekend, when I was in need of a new audiobook, I borrowed one that Mary had just recommended. Dinosaurs just came out and amazingly was available on Hoopla, which meant no wait necessary. It was a fast listen, too (it's about 6 hours long, if I remember correctly). There isn't anything terribly exciting that happens in this story, but it is a lovely story about unexpected kindness and found family that I thought was really lovely. The title refers to birds, which are said to be descended from dinosaurs, and the title of each chapter refers to a different kind of bird and has some relevance to what happens in that chapter. I quite enjoyed this and would recommend it. I gave it 4 stars.

Back before the Booker Prize winner was announced and a couple of us were discussing Treacle Walker, Mary mentioned that it reminded her of The Ocean at the End of the Lane. I borrowed it via Hoopla right after finishing Dinosaurs and listened to it over two days. I had not read any Neil Gaiman before, but I know that he's loved by a lot of readers, so I really wanted to like this book. I found it very inventive and well written, but I suspect he's not the writer for me. My main issue is not the supernatural element of the story but rather that things are never fully explained, and I like to have the details. It was still an interesting listen (the author narrates it), and I gave it 3 stars.

Finally, after a long wait at the library, I finally got to read Sea of Tranquility and positively flew through it (I think I spent maybe three hours reading). Had I started reading earlier in the day on Monday, in fact, I probably could have read it in one sitting. This book features some of the characters who appeared in The Glass Hotel, but it's not necessary to have read it first. This book, in my opinion, showcases what Emily St. John Mandel is so skilled at doing as a writer: telling multiple stories in multiple time lines that seem unrelated and then bringing them together in a satisfying way. This newest book has a bit more science fiction that her two previous works (the only other two of hers I've read), and that's not typically a genre I read, but I still really enjoyed it. I gave it 4 stars.

I'm currently reading The Round House, the next book up for discussion in the Erdrich-along. I'm roughly 75 pages in and plan to focus on it so I can be done in plenty of time for our discussion next weekend. I will likely also start an ebook soon; in addition to a nonfiction title I have from NetGalley, I've also added quite a few titles to my Kindle library thanks to following Erika on Instagram.

What are you making and reading this week?