Unraveled, Week 25/2023

Happy Wednesday and happy Summer Solstice! Today is the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, so I'm making sure I drink every last drop of my coffee. It's also time for my weekly link-up with Kat and the Unravelers! Let's start things off with a finished skein of handspun:

You saw this yarn as singles on Monday, and I took literally all afternoon to ply it; I was hoping to finish it earlier in the day so I could leave it outside to dry in the heat, but it took so long to ply and then skein it up that I wasn't able to wash it until after dinner. On the plus side, there's a lot of yardage! The finished yarn is in the fingering/sport range and about 440 yards.

This was another fractal spin, which means I split the fiber in half lengthwise, then split one half in half again. There's not quite as much barberpoling as there would be had I split up the second half into more pieces, but I'm quite happy with it. This spin was particularly special because I inspired it, in a way. Periodically, David of Southern Cross Fibre asks members of his Ravelry group to post photos for color inspiration and then selects several of them to inspire new colorways. This particular colorway, Hens and Chicks, was inspired by this photo that I shared:

I've now spun 13 club shipments so far this year, and I've pulled out three more to do a combo spin for my next project.

I'm still working on my brioche cowl and hope that I'll have it finished to share on Friday. But let's turn to reading, shall we?

I've finished three more books since last week, including a Big Read.

I didn't want to be too far behind Katie, so put in extra time to make sure I could finish Doctor Zhivago over the weekend. I adored the movie version when I saw it years ago, and reading The Secrets We Kept several years ago piqued my interest in reading the book. I had high expectations, and I have to say that I was a bit disappointed. I did buy the cheapest ebook version available, though in conferring with Katie, I'm not sure it's to blame for the abrupt shifts in time between one paragraph to the next. Overall, I did not get the romantic story I was expecting, and instead I found I thought Zhivago was kind of a jerk who took advantage of one woman after another. There were moments of beautiful writing, so it wasn't entirely a waste of time, but I didn't love it. I gave it 3 stars.

I was in need of an audiobook late last week, so I went back to Ann Patchett's backlist and borrowed the last of her novels that I had yet to read. Taft, despite its name, is really about John Nickel, a bar manager missing his young son, who has recently moved away with his ex. The titular character is the deceased father of the bar's newest waitress and her troubled brother. As is typical of Patchett's books, the characters are vividly drawn and the writing is good, but the story was strange and I didn't quite see the point. Also, I think it's inexcusable that the narrator mispronounced the author's name THREE TIMES (as "Pratchett") in the recording and the publisher didn't fix it. I gave it 3 stars.

Thankfully after two so-so reads, I had a real winner. Pigs in Heaven was technically a reread for me; I read it for English class in eighth grade, though I remembered only the general outline of the plot. I also suspect that reading it as a mother myself was an entirely different experience compared to reading it as a teenager. A sequel to The Bean Trees, this book follows Taylor and Turtle as their unusual story comes to the attention of the Cherokee Nation. The novel addresses the Indian Child Welfare Act, the importance of heritage and community, and what makes a family. The characters are quirky but lovable, and the writing is superb. I really loved this reread and gave the book 5 stars.

I'm now fully immersed in an advanced reader's copy of Happiness Falls, which Bonny spoke about so highly of during our last Read With Us Zoom that I immediately requested a copy. I only started it yesterday afternoon and am already nearly halfway through, and I'm hoping work cooperates enough today to allow me to get lost in it again.

What are you making and reading this week?