Unraveled Wednesday | Week 7 of 2021 | Books & Knitting

Kat at As Kat Knits hosts Unraveled Wednesday each week. It’s an opportunity for a great group of bloggers to share their current reads and knitting projects – if you’re looking for some inspiration, please be sure to visit everyone participating! This week I’m sharing a handful of finished books and a small knitting project that should just jump off my needles if I actually gave it any attention!

Finished Reading This Week:

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I’ve had an excellent reading week. I’m embracing the cold weather life and curling up with books that are downright fun – escapism at its best!

The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder
I put The Long Winter on hold at the library on December 23 and it finally came available last week. This book detailed a treacherous winter in South Dakota. I remember reading this one as a kid and being enchanted by the idea of all of that snow. Rereading as an adult, I focused more on the fact that this family – and nearly everyone else in the little town – nearly starved to death. I cannot imagine how fraught with fear Pa and Ma must have been as they scraped the barrels on all of their reserves with no hope of anything else making it into town until spring. I cheered when the trains finally started arriving!

How to Fly (In Ten Thousand Easy Lessons) by Barbara Kingsolver
This was a lovely book of poetry that I enjoyed savoring over a couple of weeks. Most notably for me was how often Kingsolver featured knitting. In fact, her longest poem focused on knitting and our connection to the natural world. I don’t usually “get” poetry, but this slim volume was totally approachable and easily consumed in small bites.

The Dragons of Blueland by Ruth Stiles Gannett
The last book in the My Father’s Dragon series. We finally learn the baby dragon’s name – Boris. After Boris drops Elmer Elevator off at his home, he flies back to his own family in Blueland. Imagine his surprise when he discovers his family trapped in a cave by hunters. Boris returns to Elmer for his help rescuing his family, which he does in the most Elmer way possible. This was a very fun series to read aloud and I’m very thankful we found it!

The Book of Lost Names by Kristen Harmel
I believe this is my first WWII fiction of the year! This book enchanted me from the very first lines and it was difficult to put down. Eva and her mother narrowly avoid being arrested by the Nazis in WWII Paris and escape to a picturesque village near the mountains. While there, Eva helps the Resistance by forging documents for refugees seeking safety. She is desperate over the fact that she often helps small children with no hope of remembering their true identities as adults, so she keeps a secret book in which she encodes birth names with the hopes that it may help people in the future. This book kept me on the edge of my seat and was one of the best WWII books that I’ve had the pleasure of reading.

Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo
Lately I’ve been leaning into the winter weather and this book, although set in an alternate world, feels just like a Russian Winter. The main character, Alina, uncovers an incredible power within herself and she doesn’t know who to trust to help her control it. This book was full of adventure and I loved every second of it! I’m looking forward to diving into the second book in the series.

Knitting

I started this hat for Bryce a few weeks ago and haven’t been giving it the attention it deserves. I made two of these hats this fall for my youngest children… and was able to finish each in just a couple of days. But knitting hasn’t been too exciting for me lately so I’ve struggled to make much progress on it. Soon I’ll get to the decrease section and the rows will get shorter and shorter, so it will start moving faster.

Okay – that’s it for today. No blog post tomorrow – I’m going to try to catch up with everyone else’s blogs before writing another post. Wish me luck!