Unraveled, Week 37/2024

Hump day again -- time to join Kat and the Unravelers with an update on my making and my reading over the past week!

Over the course of Monday I was able to ply up my two bobbins of singles, wind the finished yarn into a skein, and give it a soak. It took almost a full day to dry (even though I squeezed out as much water as I could, then rolled it in a towel and stomped on it!), but I think the wait was worth it.

The green-to-pink gradient turned out pretty much just as I wanted it to, and though I was hoping for fingering weight, I was also pretty much just going with the flow as I spun, so the finished yarn is generally sport to DK (though there are definitely some much thinner spots in there). I ended up with approximately 296 yards, so enough for a small shawl, a cowl, or a hat. Or I could use it in the yoke of a sweater with other yarn. There are many possibilities!

After using up one batch of fiber that came home from SSK 2023 with me, I decided to spin the other one next. It was also fiber that I won as a door prize, some Charollais wool from Into the Whirled. I've spun this breed once before and wanted to try it again, so it was a nice surprise when my ticket was drawn for it.

Though this fiber came as combed top, I'm spinning it using a supported long draw, so my singles are very fuzzy and there's a fair amount of color blending. It's also a very fast way to spin! I'm planning to spin the fiber end to end on one bobbin, wind the singles into a center-pull ball, and ply from both ends.

My knitting time over the past several days has almost exclusively been focused on the lace baby blanket, and it's growing quite quickly!

I've got it on a set of 40 inch circular needles, and as you can see, I've already surpassed that measurement in the perimeter. I've completed five of the eight recommended repeats of the main chart; the pattern says you can do as many as you'd like, but I plan to put stitches on a spare needle when I reach that point so I can fully stretch out my work and see how big it is. I'm sorry to say that although the yarn has been mostly nice to knit with, I've already encountered two knots in this first skein. Yes, I know a few knots is considered acceptable in the industry, but I still don't like them -- especially when I'm buying a large skein with the expectation that it will mean fewer ends to weave in!

I've done some excellent reading in the past week and finished four books!

After both Mary and Katie raved about it, I ended up buying Held (on Kindle) and was eager to read it. This is a book that I suspect is going to be very divisive: The writing is beautiful but very spare, and there's a lot that is going on in the story that is not on the page. It also jumps back and forth in time, and I noticed that there are some character names that appear in different times but that may not be the same people. This is one of those books that I think would really benefit from more than one reading and would likely be understood better if discussed with others (and if you'd like to discuss it, let me know! I still have a lot of questions!). I already the author's earlier novel on my "want to read" list, and now I am even more interested. I gave this one 4 stars.

On the same day, I finished The Road Home, which was the winner of the Women's Prize for Fiction in 2008 and was this month's book to discuss in our little group reading earlier winners of the prize. This book follows Lev, a widowed middle-aged man from an unnamed former Soviet republic who has made his way to England to try to find a job and make some money to support his young daughter and aging mother. He soon finds that doing so is a lot more complicated than he anticipated and that he has to deal with guilt over being abroad in addition to the challenges of being a foreigner seeking to make a living. There were some things about this book that frustrated me, namely that Lev's native country is never specified and the time in which the book takes place is a little vague, but the characters are well written and Lev's humanity and determination are heartwarming. I gave it 4 stars.

If you're the sort of reader who can appreciate gorgeous writing that makes you think about all sorts of philosophic questions and your place in the world and can tolerate a book where there's not much of a plot, then I'd highly recommend Orbital. This slim novel (I read it in a day!) follows the multinational crew on the International Space Station over the course of 24 hours, during which they complete 16 orbits of Earth. As they go about their schedule of conducting experiments, exercising, performing maintenance on the spacecraft, and photographing different views of the Earth, we also get a window into their thoughts on all sorts of things -- climate change, loss of loved ones, wars, religion and faith, the possibility of intelligent life in other galaxies, the knowns and unknowns of space and time. It's another one I want to reread. I gave it 5 stars.

Finally, after a surprisingly long wait given that the book is more than a decade old, I listened to Rules of Civility. I had previously read only one book by Amor Towles, though I have his two most recent on my bookshelves. Kym encouraged me to read this one before Table for Two, so I put it on hold at the library. I suspect many of you regular readers have already read this book, so I'll keep my summary short: In the late 1930s, twenty-something Katey Kontent is finding her way in the various worlds of New York City -- the jobs available for working women, the club and bar scene, and the social world of high society. She encounters memorable characters (and is rather one herself) and finds herself in surprising situations. And the writing is superb! I gave this one 4 stars -- and am looking forward to getting to those Towles books I already own!

I'm now in the middle of another Booker Prize longlisted title, My Friends, and am doing a buddy read of September with Kat.

What are you making and reading this week?