Unraveled Wednesday – Week 23 of 2020

Dear friends, it’s Wednesday. That means I’m linking up with the best group of bloggers on the Internet. Please join Kat at As Kat Knits and share what you’ve been reading and stitching lately.

I finished several books at the end of last week, but have found it hard to read anything since Friday night. It’s okay – I don’t have to read a ton every single day. Especially not when there’s so much going on in the world that I feel like I need to witness. Here’s what I’ve managed to accomplish despite it all.

Reading

Finished This Week:

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The Glass Hotel made my May highlights – it was definitely one of the best books I read last month! I thought it was edgy, mysterious, and just dark enough. Emily St. John Mandel has quickly become one of my must read authors.

How to Raise a Reader didn’t offer any new strategies, but it’s worth reading for all of the lists! There are so many suggested books for all ages and stages and topics, so that made this a fun book for me.

The Body in the Library was a reread for me. I must have read it nearly 20 years ago and thought that I’d forgotten everything about it… but I hadn’t. I remembered just enough about the twist at the end and, admittedly, that kind of ruined the ending for me. It also ruined a lot of the story because I could see right through Agatha Christie’s misdirections, dang it. That’s okay. I’m looking forward to continuing with Miss Marple this year!

Currently Reading:

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I can’t say that I’ve been reading anything with much fury in the last few days, to be honest. My distraction with the news remains high and I’m okay with that.

Technically I have The Splendid and the Vile set aside right now. I took the advice in the comments section last week to listen to it on audio, so I’m on the Overdrive waitlist for it but the wait is several months. I’m including it in today’s post just as an update, but won’t keep including it until I actually have access to the audio and am actively listening to it.

White Nights, the second in the Shetland series, is my current audio. I haven’t spend much time with it and am only about 1/3 of the way through. It’s creepy and enjoyable, but my evenings have been full of the news and not books.

The Library of Legends has the most gorgeous cover. I’m a sucker for those purples and aquas. Sigh. I’m only a few pages into this and can’t say much about it, sadly. I hope I can share some progress with you next week!

Knitting

I continue to make tiny bits of progress with my Birkin sweater. I have about another inch or so completed on that blasted sleeve – only about 3 inches left before I start the ribbing. I’m trying to vary the locations of my pictures so it doesn’t look like I’m recycling the same pictures over and over!

Most exciting is that the TTL MKAL began on Monday. I’m happy to say that I’ve completed Clue 1. I rewatched Andrea Mowry’s tutorial on cabling without a cable needle and it’s made this pattern much more manageable for me. I hope I can stay current as each clue gets released, but I make no promises!

Last night I had a bit of a heart attack. I was almost finished with the second repeat of the second chart and had my knitting bag tucked away, high up on a shelf in the living room. I left the room to wash dishes and when I came back, this project was crumpled on the floor and the needles were ripped out. Some little pair of hands managed to get my bag down! Luckily, I was able to pick up all of the stitches, but it left my yarn overs on that row a little bit messy – you can see the row that got ripped out near the far right side of the project. I’m not too worried about it – I don’t think anyone in my life will actually notice! But lesson learned. I’m putting all of my knitting projects under lock and key!!

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I’m finding that I have more knitting time now that Bug is back at his autism treatment center. Even with Bear and Birdie home, things have slowed down a lot. I can resume my habit of knitting while Birdie naps because Bear is excellent at independent play and I’m finding that I can knit a bit while we’re all outside playing in the morning. I miss Bug a lot when he’s gone, but I’m definitely taking advantage of the slower pace.

Thanks to my library’s curbside pick up, I was able to snag a fresh stack of library books yesterday. So I’m hoping to be more intentional about how I watch the news this week and spend some more time with books in the evenings. Wish me luck!

I hope you all manage to have a week full of books and wool. It’s so nice to find activities that bring comfort and peace during these distressful times. I hope to see you all again on Friday!