Unravelled Wednesday - the one where I went off piste

Last week I said I was going to read The Emergency by George Packer, but we were going away for the weekend and I didn't want to read dystopian fiction. One of my travelling companions was Bee and she is the romance queen (funny story - Bee didn't read fiction for a good long while and then she fell in love with romance. Now she reads more than anyone I know We have different tastes - she loves first person dual POV, I don't.) So I requested Silver Sky by Taylor Gray from NetGalley. It was perfect! Well written, lovable characters, third person. It's the second in a related series and I loved it so much I've bought the first one. (I think its on KU for those of you who subscribe).

Now I've gone back to The Emergency. I'm having mixed feelings - there is a lot of exposition and I'm not finding the main character at all sympathetic. Additionally, things just sort of happen and I can't see why - although that might be because our main character can't see why.

I'm going to give it another go on my lunch break today, but I may put it aside. In which case I will read one of the many books I have in my library TBR pile - whatever is available.

I was also surprised to be approved for a NetGalley audio book I requested a while ago Under the Eye of the Big Bird by Hiromi Kawakami . It's a Japanese book about a future where humanity is dying out. It's managing to be eery, strange and soothing at the same time.

In knitting I cast on a pair of Zigzagular Socks for my father as we headed away last week.

I got more done than I expected and I imagine I'll get these finished this weekend, when we are going away again.

I also signed up for Joji's mystery knitalong. The first clue was pretty quick! No photos because of spoilers, and also because it's currently a purple blob! I

To read my all my book reviews, and to see everything I knit, you can find me on Ravelry as Sharondoubleknit and on GoodReads as Sharondblk. I'm on BlueSky as Sharondblk.

I'm joining in with Kat from As Kat Knits for Unravelled Wednesday, Kat from the Bookdate for It's Monday, What Are You Reading and Sam from Taking on a World of Words for WWW Wednesday where we talk about what we are currently reading, what we have just finished and what we are going to read next.

Why Andrea Mowry, why? (A rant and a rather nice finished object)

As mentioned, prior to our hiking trip I suddenly, and rather randomly, decided to knit Andrea Morwy's Traveler Shell . It's basically an open fronted rectangle in a knit purl pattern. The pattern is FOURTEEN pages long. Why is the pattern 14 pages long? Because, instead of explaining the ten row repeat and then putting the shaping on top of that (e.g. decrease while continuing to knit in pattern), she writes out the entire ten row knit purl sequence every time something changes. Additionally, most of the time she starts with even number being the right side and wrong numbers being the right side,which is just plain odd. It's confusing and it's like she wants to keep you looking at the pattern for every row, rathe than following the very intuitive stitch pattern, which I had memorised after one repeat. The instructions for the band just say 'pick up x number of stitches'. No ratios, no acjnowledgement that different bits of the band have different ratios. Afte...

Geogradiant MKAL Part 1 - that was unexpected (spoilers)

Stephen West released the first MKAL clue on Thursday night. I started knitting it without looking at spoilers. When I got up on Friday he had sent through an "alternative" clue one. I then went and had a look at the spoiler thread to try to work out what was going on. Which was that some people thought the pattern looked like a "German hate symbol". I knit on anyway, since I was half-way through. Then he took down the original clue, replacing it with a mitred square in garter stitch. The Ravelry forums and Instagram are a complete shit-show, even though Rav is being moderated. It's been a bit disheartening, having something that is usually quite light and fun weighed down with all this. I admire Stephen's quick and sensitive response to this drama. I also feel that anything can look like anything if you squint. To me this looks like a Celtic knot. I think mine is pretty, and I'll knit on through all crises.

Linky Wednesday - the one with the pause

In meditation it's said that the pause between the in breath and the out breath is a gap, a space to rest. Well, I'm in that in-between space for reading, listening and knitting. This is a random photo of a highlight of my week - I filled up my lolly jar. These are just supermarket party mix. During the lockdowns, we sources a great pick-and-mix delivery service, but at some point they started sending from the UK, which is a bit silly. Rachey messaged me a new one she found, and I impulsed purchased a kilo of mixed lollies, and then she sent me a link to the biggest lolly shop in Melbourne, which also delivers sweets by the kilogram, so i think I'm sorted for the rest of the year! In reading I've just finished The Beckoning Lady by Margery Allingham . It's the second last book in the Summer of Mystery, and I have to admit, having now read nine Margery Allingham books, that they are OK. I wouldn't have read them if they were not connected to this club, but on...

Becky (Aidanvale)05 November, 2025
Not book related but I taught myself to knit - i've begun with a scarf
CLM06 November, 2025
I'm very impressed that you can knit socks so quickly! I can basically knit scarves and that is all but I do sometimes think about taking a class so I could knit a sweater.
shelleyrae @ book'd out10 November, 2025
Dystopian doesn’t really vibe with holidays :)

Wishing you a happy reading week
Kathy Martin11 November, 2025
Interesting sounding assortment of books. I haven't read anything dystopian for a while. I seem stuck in mystery/thrillers. Come see my week here. Happy reading!
Kathryn T11 November, 2025
POV is interesting was just listening to a podcast about it. I prefer 3rd person but evidently older people do! 1st person evidently is more used in romance. And I read quite a bit of that. I put up with it!

What I made, by Sharon

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