Unraveled, Week 26/2024

Hooray, it's Wednesday! It's been a long week already, so I'm happy to have arrived at its midpoint -- especially because I will be off on Friday, so I'm officially halfway done with the workweek. As per usual, today I'm joining Kat and the Unravelers to talk about making and reading.

My second Bousta Beanie has grown quite a bit since you last saw it, and now those of you who couldn't quite imagine how the colors would look reversed no longer have to try:

I'm getting stained-glass vibes from this one, and the benefit of using the colored yarn as the contrast is that I'm getting mixed up less frequently and thus having to tink back less (I think I've only done it once so far). I've put the hat knitting aside for the moment, however, to do some swatching.

I got selected to test knit Kerri Blumer's adorable new tee for babies and kids (see it on IG here), so I'm going to be making a 6 month size for my niece. I pulled out some LolaBean Yarn Co. Bean Sprout that I bought at Indie Untangled at my second Rhinebeck, I think -- it was the last one before the pandemic, I believe. I'm doing a faux in-the-round swatch, though I'm pretty confident I'll get gauge with the suggested needle size because it's what I usually get with this size. As soon as I'm sure of my gauge, I'll be casting on to get my version done ASAP.

Last week I did something I hadn't done in almost a year: I bought yarn. I wanted to knit another Rift tee and didn't have any appropriate (read: non-wool) yarn in my stash already, plus I knew that Knit Picks' summer sale was starting last Wednesday, so I ordered some CotLin. And I'm sure you all know the siren call of free shipping, so I added some sale goodies to my cart to get it:

Ironically, the only thing that wasn't on sale was the CotLin, the whole purpose for the purchase! But everything else here was -- two skeins of hand-painted Stroll, a skein of Wonderfluff, and five skeins of Chroma Twist. The Chroma, at least, I'm planning to use for charity hats; perhaps the Stroll will become some hats as well. I haven't figured out just what to do with the Wonderfluff, but I already had two skeins of it in a lavender shade and figured I could use this hot pink together with those.

I've had another good week of reading, in spite of being busy at work, and finished two books.

The Comfort of Ghosts, the final installment in the Maisie Dobbs series (sob!) came out earlier this month, and though I thought I'd have a long wait from the library -- it said several months when I put it on hold -- somehow I ended up only waiting a day! Though there is a bit of a mystery in this book, it was resolved about two-thirds of the way through, and it really felt like Winspear was more focused on wrapping things up for Maisie in a satisfying way. WWII is over, and things are changing for everyone in its wake. In uncovering some secrets in her extended family, Maisie takes a good look back at her life and how far she's come from being a teenaged housemaid. I am sad there will be no more, but I also feel completely satisfied with where Maisie has ended up. I listened to this book and, in fact, the whole series. It's been a wonderful companion on many workouts and through many household chores. I gave this final installment 4 stars.

Speaking of long library holds, I'd been waiting quite a long time for Enter Ghost and finally got it a week ago. This finalist for the Women's Prize for Fiction and winner of this year's Aspen Words Literary Prize feels like a timely read for the moment, as it takes place in Israel and Palestine and follows a British Palestinian actress who becomes involved in a production of Hamlet in the West Bank. There were parts of this book that made me uncomfortable because of how Israel and its policies are portrayed, but I welcomed that discomfort because I want a broader view of the ongoing conflict. And I also really enjoyed the writing and structure of the book. This is one that I am going to be thinking about for a while and will likely seek out analysis and discussion on. I gave it 4 stars.

What are you making and reading this week?