Unraveled, Week 51/2022

Greetings from Southwest Florida! We arrived Monday evening after a truly uneventful flight (I wasn't even that bothered by the bit of turbulence we experienced as we passed over the jet stream). We were welcomed with a gorgeous sunset as we made our final descent, too:

Today is Wednesday, which means I'm linking up with Kat and the Unravelers -- a perfect way to get back on track after an eventful few days!

Before we left, I finished up the two projects I wanted to have done before we left. First was the baby sweater, which you saw on Friday when it was still drying. Here it is all complete, just before it was presented to the recipients:

This pattern didn't have a way to line the pockets with a contrasting color, so instead I used buttons with a bit of light blue to match my brother's sweater. As you can imagine, it was a big hit with my brother and sister-in-law.

I also finished up the Twirl Away hat -- believe it or not, on the day of the bat mitzvah, when we were resting at home between the service and the party!

It has not been blocked yet, but I will take care of that when we get home. This is for charity anyway, so there's no rush. I knit the adult size of the pattern, and my only modification was to double the length of the ribbing at the brim because in the photos in the pattern, the hat looked a tad shallow to me. That turned out to be a good move.

I've brought WIPs with me on our trip to finish up -- Rainbow's handspun Hitchhiker, my Recalibrate, and a pair of socks -- as well as an extra skein of sock yarn just in case. I'll share my progress on Friday.

After having no finishes last week, I have three for this week's reading update!

I found A Psalm for the Wild-Built to be such a nice, easy read last month that when the sequel was a Kindle Daily Deal, I snapped it up. A Prayer for the Crown-Shy continues the story of tea monk Dex and robot Mosscap as they travel through towns and meet people (and continue to contemplate their meaning in life). This was a nice, easy read, though I didn't like it as much as the first book. Perhaps that's due to reading it during a particularly stressful time in my life, so don't be dissuaded from reading it simply because I didn't love it. It's a nice palate cleanser and a lovely story. I gave it 3 stars.

Leaving Everything Most Loved is the tenth book in the Maisie Dobbs series, and in this installment Maisie is trying to solve two murders that may have been motivated by racism as well as the case of a missing teenager. There are changes in store for Maisie as well, as she has determined that she needs to travel far from home to gain the necessary experience and insight to truly follow in her teacher's footsteps. I enjoyed this one and am really looking forward to seeing where Maisie's story goes next. I gave it 4 stars.

Finally, a big finish: Literally minutes before we left for the airport on Monday, I finished the last chapter of Demon Copperhead. I'm pretty sure I read David Copperfield years ago (in college, actually), but I've forgotten all the details about it and purposefully didn't look up a summary because I frankly did not want to be making comparisons between the original and this retelling/reimagining. I really enjoyed this modern version, even though I found it to be absolutely heartbreaking. I know some people find Barbara Kingsolver to be a bit preachy, but I think she did an excellent job of illustrating just how devastating the opioid crisis has been, especially in poorer areas of the country. I was also very impressed by her ability to convincingly take on the voice of her main character, who I loved but also wanted to throttle from time to time. There were parts that dragged a bit, but overall I really enjoyed this book and gave it 4 stars. And I'm glad I splurged on the fancy hardback edition, which will look beautiful on my bookshelves!

Right after I finished the book and was taking it back upstairs to my bedroom (I still want to read the afterward), I looked at my phone and saw a notification from the Libby app that after a long wait, my hold on Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow was up! I started it on the plane and should finish it later today. I also brought hard copies of The Sentence to reread for the Erdrich-along and The Transit of Venus as well as small volume of poetry, and I'm sure I'll get to a couple of audiobooks while I'm here as well.

What are you making and reading this week?