Unraveled, Week 30/2024

Week 30?! We've really and truly tipped into the downhill portion of this year; I've noticed upon getting up for work this week that it's now not fully light when I'm getting up, and it's all a bit depressing. I will not feel sorry to bid the intense heat and humidity farewell, but I wish we could hang on to the longer days.

But enough whining about the weather and how quickly the year is passing. It's Wednesday, which means it's time for my weekly check-in with Kat and the Unravelers. This week's update contains a finished object!

Pattern: Rift by Jacqueline Cieslak, size 44 in./112 cm bust
Yarn: Knit Picks CotLin (70% cotton/30% linen) in Indigo Bunting, a bit more than five skeins (622 yards used)
Needles: US 8/5.0 mm
Started/Completed: July 11/July 21
Mods: worked to a different gauge; added body length

If you can't already tell from my smile, I'm extremely happy with how my second version of this pattern worked out. I like how my first one looks, but I really wanted some more positive ease and more length so I could wear it as an actual top and not as more of a decorative piece on top of a tank or dress. So this time around, I bought yarn rather than trying to make do with what I had in my stash so that I could be sure I had enough. I have worked with CotLin before and find it to be pretty easy on the hands for something with so high a cotton content, not to mention that it creates a very comfortable fabric, so I figured it would be a good option.

Gauge was elusive yet again for me with my second try. The pattern calls for a gauge of four stitches to the inch for a very loose fabric with a lot of drape. I knit a very generous swatch with both a US 8 and a US 9. I got closer to gauge on the 9's (17 stitches over 4 inches), but the fabric looked very sloppy to me, and I liked it better on the 8's, which gave me a gauge of 18 stitches over 4 inches. So I did a bit of math. My full bust is about 35 inches, and if I worked the second size in the pattern with my tighter gauge, I'd end up with a finished bust of around 39 inches. The pattern recommends 6-12 inches of positive ease, but I knew that if I went any bigger, I'd be swimming in the fabric. Four inches is plenty for me!

My only other modification to the pattern was to add a significant amount of length to the body. The pattern calls for splitting for the front and back when the back measures 9 inches; I worked instead to 16.5 inches. The front of the sweater (the back of the split hem is longer) hits right around my hip bones, which is precisely where I like my sweaters to fall. I'm also relieved that I had plenty of yarn, because deciding when to stop adding length to the body to ensure I had enough yarn to finish the top part of the sweater was a bit of a guessing game. In the end, I have nearly a full skein left, so I didn't have to play any yarn chicken.

If I were to knit this a third time, I might make the V-neck a bit deeper. I know that mine is shallower than the samples shown in the pattern because of a difference in row gauge, and when this first came off the needles, the neckline was even a little tight (but it loosened in blocking). I expect that if I had worked to the specified gauge, row gauge would also have been quite a bit different, so I might've ended up with a deeper V as a side benefit. I don't really have much to show off with a low neckline in any case; I think a bigger opening just would've added to the relaxed feel of the top.

Now that this is done, and quite quickly, I'm feeling the need to work on something a little more frivolous, so a chicken has been started:

This one is going to be for me, and it will end up being a bit smaller than the one I made for my nephew because I went down a couple of needle sizes. I'm using a skein of Fibernymph Dye Works worsted that I won earlier this year in a OOAK colorway. It doesn't photograph well, but there's a bit of a reddish purple tint to the gray in some spots, and I think it goes well with the burgundy yarn (some leftover HipStrings Buoy) that I pulled out for the accent bits of the hen. I'm still pondering names for this one, though rest assured it will be something punny.

Reading has been quite good the past week, in spite of work's efforts to keep me away from my books, and I finished two books.

I was really interested in Songs for the Brokenhearted after reading Bonny's review of it, so I immediately went to NetGalley to request an ARC and was delighted to be approved shortly after. I was mainly intrigued by this book because it deals with an aspect of Jewish and Israeli history that I knew nothing about: the immigration of Yemeni Jews to Israel in the 1950s and the experiences of that group trying to assimilate to a culture that was largely composed of European Ashkenazi Jews. I knew, of course, that there were/are Jews of color and Mizrahi Jews, who came from Arab lands, but I really didn't know anything of their experience. In this novel, which clearly draws largely from the author's own life and experiences, we follow Zohara, a 30-something Yemeni Israeli woman who has returned to Israel in the mid-1990s when her mother suddenly dies, and Saida, her mother, in her early days in an Israeli refugee camp in the 1950s. As Zohara learns more about her mother's experience, she also grapples with her own identity and the Yemeni culture she was so eager to reject as a younger girl. The book also explores the political landscape in Israel at the time of the Oslo Peace Accords and the tradition of Yemeni women's songs. I really enjoyed the book, primarily because I learned so much by reading it, though I'll say I wasn't blown away by the writing (it wasn't bad, just not especially notable). I gave it 4 stars. I received a digital ARC of this book from NetGalley and Random House in return for an honest review. This book will be published September 10, 2024.

My other finish was an audiobook that I listened to over the course of last weekend. I loved Angeline Boulley's debut novel, Firekeeper's Daughter, and had in fact requested an ARC of her second, Warrior Girl Unearthed, though I never heard back about my request. So I've been meaning to read it for a while, and luckily there was no wait at the library when I remembered it. This novel takes place in the same setting as the first book and has some of the same characters, though you don't have to have read the first book before the second. Our main character is Perry Firekeeper-Birch, a Black and Indigenous teen who gets roped into participating in a tribal internship program to pay for repairs to a car after a fender bender. Assigned to the tribe's museum, she learns about the efforts to repatriate Indigenous artifacts and human remains through NAGPRA, the Native American Graves and Repatriation Act. She soon finds that this is easier said than done, particularly when private collectors are involved, and gets involved in a dangerous plan to return the remains of her tribe's ancestors. This book is classified as YA but deals with some pretty mature themes, notably the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women. I gave it 4 stars as well.

I'm still slowly but steadily working my way through A Suitable Boy -- I've passed the halfway point! And I have started the next Read With Us selection, The Ministry of Time, and am enjoying it so far but still have a fair amount to read.

Finally, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that we are all feeling a little more hopeful about the state of things in the United States this week. I know the election is still going to be a nail-biter, but I'm inspired by the excitement and increased level of engagement I've seen since President Biden announced he was bowing out and endorsed Vice President Harris. Mo won't be able to vote until the next presidential election, but she's very excited to have a female candidate to cheer on! I'm rather excited myself, and it's nice to have good news rather than the usual doom and gloom. We'll see what happens and keep our fingers crossed!