Unraveled, Week 44/2023

Yes, I'm posting again -- third day in a row! But you know that I would never willingly miss posting on an Unraveled Wednesday! Today, as per usual, I'm linking up with Kat and the Unravelers while I give you and update on my crafting and my reading.

First, I finished a charity hat over the weekend. I used my top-down any-gauge hat pattern and knit the biggest size I could and used up just about all of my yarn. It's big on me, but it looks better on a head than flat.

The skein was the odd man out from a six-skein set from Fibernymph Dye Works; the other five were a gradient and were used in my COVID blanket. This skein technically had the same colors but looked a little too much like camouflage for me. I'm sure someone will like it, though, and that's all that really matters.

I've started a new crochet project, and the yarn might look familiar:

Originally I had four skeins of this Hedgehog Fibres Skinny Singles that I got from Bonny, and I used most of two of them in my Love Note. These colors are so gorgeous and saturated that I had to find another use for the skeins that remained. Rather than another pair of socks, I decided to make my mother-in-law a scarf for a holiday gift this year, and because I've enjoyed crochet so much recently, I decided to do it as a corner-to-corner. This is very simple and easy and should come together quickly. It's about eight inches wide, and I'll make it as long as I can with my two skeins.

I've also started another spinning project (I know you're all shocked!). I'm doing my usual three-ply fingering weight, or at least I hope so, using Comeback wool from the Southern Cross Fibre. This Australian breed was created from mating British longwool sheep crossed with Merinos back with Merinos. The wool is fairly soft but has some body and toothiness to it, and it's a favorite of mine. I'm also loving these saturated colors:

I'm on the second bobbin of singles at the moment and hope to finish that one up today, so it's entirely possible I'll be plying by this weekend.

Reading has been good this past week, even though I have only finished one book since this time last week.

The Barbara Kingsolver book group hosted by Mary will be meeting this weekend to discuss The Lacuna. I have a hard copy of the book but decided to listen to the audio, primarily because it's read by the author. I'd missed this book entirely when it it came out, I think because it was published the year Mo was born and I was a little preoccupied, so I'm really happy to have had an excuse to read it now. It follows the story of a fictional writer, Harrison Shepherd, who lives an usual childhood thanks to his American father and Mexican mother. He encounters real-life figures in Diego Rivera, Frieda Kahlo, and Leon Trotsky and even comes under the scrutiny of HUAC. It's a really wide-ranging novel with a lot of history, but at its heart, this is the story of a man struggling to find a sense of home. The writing is, as you'd expect, quite beautiful, and I really enjoyed it. I gave it 4 stars.

Currently I'm trying to finish up An Immense World, and I'm pretty much exactly halfway through In Ascension, which has really been tempting me to stay up late reading. I hope to have both of these done by this time next week.

What are you making and reading this week?