Unraveled, Week 39/2023

Good morning and happy Wednesday, friends! I'm still dragging a bit this morning -- I had the hardest time falling asleep Monday night (even a single cup of coffee at break fast is apparently enough to keep me up), and then last night I kept waking up coughing. But coffee has been drunk and I'm ready to check in with Kat and the Unravelers!

Today I've got another finished skein of handspun -- yes, friends, the pace is continuing!

Please forgive the quality of the photo; the sun is hiding here today. This was the second of two Southern Cross Fibre prize colorways from last year's Tour de Fleece. This one, called Racing Red, was a luscious blend of 50% Bond wool, 25% Suri alpaca, and 25% mulberry silk. As with the last skein, I split the fiber vertically into four strips to break up the colors, spun all the strips end to end, wound the singles into a center-pull ball, and and plied from both ends. I'd call the finished yarn a heavy lace weight to light fingering weight. It's approximately 522 yards, so that gives you an idea of the grist!

For those of you keeping track, this is the 27th bag of SCF fiber I've spun this year, and I now have just one more 2022 shipment left unspun. That one will be the next to go on the wheel.

When I haven't been spinning, I've been working on my Woolens and Nosh socks. The first one is ready for a toe!

Reading has been rather slow this past week, I think due to a combination of being busy at work, the holiday, and still getting over being sick. I finished just one book.

I listened to How Much of These Hills Is Gold over the course of several days. I'd first heard about it maybe a year ago, but it came to my attention again recently when it was mentioned on the What Should I Read Next podcast (in part because the author just released a new book this week). This is the story of two Chinese American siblings struggling to survive in the West in the time following the California gold rush after their parents are both gone. I thought it was well written but also heartbreaking, and in the end the harshness of their lives in spite of all their efforts kept me from really loving it. I gave it 3 stars.



I'm still reading The Bee Sting and have only about 160 pages left, so I'm hoping to finish it this week.

What are you making and reading this week?