Unravelled Wednesday - the one with 2 review books

It's been a big week in NetGalley land.

I started reading A Million Dreams By Dani Atkins. It's pretty good, although in order to avoid spoilers, the blurb completely fails to accurately reflect what the book is actually about. It's a good read, accurately compared to Jodi Piccoult with relatable flawed main characters. There are a couple of small things that are bugging me disproportionately,like that it is set in a generic English city. And I get not every book has to have a really strong sense of place, but she describes parks, and suburbs and I keep wondering if it's Manchester or Devon. I don't know why this is irritating, the writing is good and I'm three quarters of the way through after three days. Although I think it might be about to take a turn for the over dramatic. We'll see.

The other review book is knitting book!It's Baby's First Knits by Debbie Bliss (which I would link to, but it's not up on Ravelry yet, even though it is release day). This would be a great book for someone who wanted to learn to knit and the associated skills. The projects work up in complexity, with full instruction for everything from how to do the knit stitch, mattress stitch, colourwork, lace, cables intarsia. the full set of skills. Really good book, and some cute patterns. That said, she knits everything flat - including the "fair isle" baby jumper. It repeats that old capitalist advice about how you HAVE to knit in the prescribed brand of wool, or your results might be TERRIBLE. She talks about the importance of gauge only in relation to stitch counts, not getting a fabric you like - and while gauge is important for a fitted jumper for an adult, babies come in all shapes and sizes and then change, so I wouldn't have thought it was that important. All needles sizes are in US only. Maybe I'm just far too used to the indy patterns that I usually knit from, and then scrouging around YouTube for any techniques I need to learn. So basically a very pretty comprehensive knitting book that feel like it would have been great in the early 90s. But then, I don't think I've bought an actual knitting book since 2009, just pattern and e-collections and subscriptions. I'm clearly not the target audience for this publication. 

That's Tarragon's belly. Sometimes it's just easier to let them be in the picture.

I'm knitting my third pair of sOctober socks - Cusp by the always interesting Cookie A. The pattern is written up to look very complex, but when I actually sat down to knit it it started to make sense. I'm using yarn left over from my Reagan and I really like the way the lace pattern in the socks and cardigan look similar. 

 As usual on a Wednesday I'm linking up with Kat from As Kat Knits for Unravelled Wednesday. You can find me on Ravelry as SharonDoubleknit and Goodreads as Sharondblk.