Unraveled, Week 30/2023

Happy hump day, friends! This week has felt weird, what with my return home on Sunday afternoon; I kept thinking it was already Wednesday yesterday. But today is the day, and it's time to link up with Kat and the Unravelers!

Despite being at a knitting retreat for several days, I actually did not get all that much knitting done while I was away -- too busy talking and having fun, I suppose! Here's the current status of my WIPs:

I added maybe a section and a half to my Mas Vida Shawl, but I'm still not quite to halfway through my yarn (it's the type of shawl where you increase until you've used about half your yarn and then start decreasing). The sock you see here was cast on in the car on the way to the airport at the beginning of my trip; I finished the toe on Sunday evening at home. This pair is for my mother and is being knit in Fibernymph Dye Works Bounce (I know you're shocked) in the colorway Cosmic. The color isn't quite accurate here -- I'm already noticing that the light isn't as bright in the mornings, sob -- but the good news is that I started the second sock and it looks like the stripes will match up pretty darn closely.

Last night I started a new project, a cute modular bag that I'm test knitting for Shana in three colors of Knit Picks Dishie (I actually had to steal a couple of skeins from Mo!).

The colors are way off here; they're suppose to be a coral and a honeydew green.

I had signed up for this project before I left for my trip, but I'm extra excited about it now that I've actually met Shana in person and gotten to know her a little better. It turns out that she's originally from the same area of suburban Detroit where my aunt and uncle live!

In addition to not getting a lot of knitting done while I was away, my reading also wasn't plentiful, though that was partly because of technical difficulties with the Hoopla app. I've been having issues where it signs me out of the app and then doesn't recognize my username and password, and the only way to fix it seems to be to reset my password. I've gotten in touch with Hoopla about the issue and they're investigating it, but there was nothing I could do when this glitch happened while I was on the plane. As a result of the issue, I have only finished one book since last week, and that is largely due to the reading I've done since I've been home.

The translation of The Postcard just recently came out, so I was excited to find it on Hoopla. This is a book about WWII and the Holocaust in France and about uncovering the truth about family when many forces have conspired to hide it. I'm still not completely sure if this book is meant to be fiction, but it's certainly quite autobiographical. Anne is trying to discover who sent a postcard with the names of four family members who were all killed in the Holocaust and why it was sent, and in the process of investigating this mystery, she uncovers the history of the two generations of her family who came before her. She also reveals a lot about the complicated involvement of France and the French in WWII. There are some heartbreaking details of what happened to Jews in France but also some heartwarming stories of those who fought in the resistance. I gave it 4 stars.

When Hoopla crapped out on me on my return trip home (despite having worked while I was waiting to board my flight in the airport), I started Poverty, by America, which I'd bought not too long ago when it was a daily Kindle deal because the author is part of the upcoming speaker series. I haven't gotten too far in it but have already highlighted quite a lot. It's nice to be reading some nonfiction for a change, even if it's quite devastating nonfiction.

What are you making and reading this week?