Unraveled, Week 37/2025

Greetings from Nashville! Molly and I arrived safely, albeit a bit delayed. We found out later it was due to weather wherever it was the incoming flight was coming from, but at the time, we thought it was because of this:

In case you can't tell, that's Air Force One -- we saw it as we were taking off.

Though we arrived two hours later than anticipated, it all worked out well. We shared a cab with two other retreat attendees and only had to wait about 15 minutes before we could check into our Vrbo rental.

But enough about our travels -- it's Wednesday, which means it time to check in with Kat and the Unravelers and give an update on my making and my reading.

Before we left, I finished up the neon sock yarn hat I'd been knitting (though I'm sorry to say I didn't check it see if it measured a full Ruthie):

I used my Same as It Ever Was pattern (Ravelry link) and a slightly overweight skein of fingering (it weighed 104 g to begin and I had 3 g remaining). I haven't blocked it yet, obviously, but I plan to stretch it out a bit to make it slouchier and then it'll go in the charity pile.

Finishing up that hat meant I was officially without any projects on the needles, and I'm sure you all know how that makes me feel! So I had to figure out what to start and take for our trip. First, I cast on another hat:

This is using a skein of Fibernymph Dye Works Bedazzled that I bought years ago intending to make socks or something for Molly and never did, and as the colors aren't really me or anyone I knit for regularly, it seemed perfect for another charity hat. I got the increases done on Monday so that it would to the mindless point by the time we left.

I also wound two skeins of sock yarn. One I'd bought at a local fiber festival a number of years ago. Then last year I got another one as a gift from my friend Margene -- and they were the same colorway! Seemed like a perfect way to get Molly in sock knitting, something she's long said she wanted to do. So I wound both skeins and knit a cuff for her (to make it easier for her to work on magic loop):

And I cast on mine in the car on the way to the airport and worked on it while waiting at the gate and while on the plane:

It's entirely possible that I will finish a pair of socks and a hat while we're here, especially without having to work or walk a dog many times a day, so I also brought a spindle and some fiber because the Tour de Fleece is happening right now and I haven't done any spinning since Ruthie came home. And there's also a little market happening on Saturday and a "free to a good home" table throughout the retreat, so I'm sure I could get my hands on more yarn if needed.

I've had a phenomenal week of reading -- I finished four books!

After reading Geraldine Brooks's memoir last week, I decided I should read the last of her novels that I hadn't yet read. The Secret Chord tells the story of King David told by his advisor, the prophet Natan. While the king has achieved mythic status in biblical history, Brooks presents him very much as a fallible man who has weaknesses, jealousies, and insatiable appetites. Some of the story deals with the previous king, Shaul (Saul), and the prophet Shmuel (Samuel), who abandoned him. I can understand why this book would not appeal to some readers and might be confusing to some. Brooks notes that she intentionally uses the Hebrew names of the main players, which are likely to be less familiar. But Shaul and Shmuel were both familiar names to me; the Haftarah I read at my bat mitzvah was from the book of Samuel and dealt with his relationship with Saul. I can't say this was my favorite Brooks novel, but I found it to be compelling because it felt a bit like I was reading about my people's history. King David is perhaps most well known for uniting several kingdoms in what is today Israel and Palestine, and I'd bet most of you have heard of his son Solomon, known for his wise decision making. In any case, I wouldn't rush to reread this one, but I did enjoy it and gave it 4 stars.

Next, I read ahead of schedule a bit and finished The Map of Love, a book from 1999 that Mary, Juliann, and Margene are reading over the course of the summer as we did last year with A Suitable Boy. This book has two timelines nearly a century apart. In the early 1900s, a recently widowed Englishwoman travels to Egypt, keen to see its wonders for herself, and falls in love not only with the country but with a handsome Egyptian man. In the late 1990s, an American falls in love with an Egyptian conductor and travels to Egypt to seek the help of his sister in unraveling the love story of the earlier couple. The older story is told through letters, diary entries, and how the more modern women imagine things playing out. This book has a lot to say about colonialism (there's enough about Kitchener, even though it's only a pretty brief mention, to make you call the stitch to finish a sock toe "grafting" forever). I enjoyed most of the story, but there's a lot about politics, particularly the politics of Arab/Muslim countries in the Middle East, that wasn't to my liking. I liked it but didn't love it. I gave it 3 stars.

I listened to Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space over the course of a week. Though I was alive when the Challenger disaster happened, at the time I was too young to be aware of it, so I only learned about it as an event in history. What this incredibly well-researched book makes clear is that what I learned was very little of the full story and perhaps not even the truth. It goes back to long before the existence of the space shuttle to examine the earlier history of NASA's space efforts, takes side trips to visit the contractors who produced components for the shuttle, and of course gives a full picture of the lives of the astronauts on board. There are a lot of names and positions to keep track of; though the audio begins with a cast of characters, so to speak, I didn't worry too much about trying to keep straight who was who and let the audio just pass by me. In the end, it didn't really matter because the lessons to be learned from the disaster are so much bigger than any one person. I gave it 4 stars -- highly recommend.

Finally, my favorite from the past week was Isola, a work of historical fiction set in 15th-century France. Marguerite is of noble birth, but when she is orphaned, her life and large fortune fall under the control of a cousin, a man with dreams of fame and fortune -- and debts. When the king sends him on an expedition to "New France" (aka Canada), he takes her along, and when she and his secretary fall in love, he abandons them (along with Marguerite's nursemaid) on a remote island. The most stunning part of this book is that is based on a true story. It felt to me like what you might get if you crossed two of Lauren Groff's books, Matrix and The Vaster Wilds. It won't appeal to everyone, but if you like stories of resilient women who are ahead of their time, you might like it. I loved it -- and it reminded me of how I loved Island of the Blue Dolphins as a child. 5 stars.

I'm currently reading We Do Not Part as part of my effort to read the work of the most recent literature Nobel laureate.

What are you making and reading this week?