Skip to main content

Unravelling Wednesday - Week 26

Our numbers go down, and our freedoms very gradually go up. We are now allowed to meet with small numbers of people, outside, in public places. Shops, restaurants and all that are still shut, so I've still got a lot of time at home for the knitting and the reading.

And I read a  very good book this week, Why Birds Sing by Nina Berkout.


I got a review copy from NetGalley, but it is unreservedly one of the best books I've read recently. Focussing on an opera singer who is having career problems, it brings together a band of misfits, who help each other see what they need. It reminded me of Bennett Sawyer's The Hard Truth About Sunshine, but was less contrived. Nina Berkout handles her material well, never mawkish or overdone. I don't know a lot about opera, and that didn't detract from the book. And now I knit more than I ever thought I would about domesticated parrots. All in all, a thoughtful, at times sad, sometimes uplifting and overall very satisfying book.

I'm not enjoying  my audiobook that much, Queenie  by Candice Carty-Williams. I am still loving the cover though!

 The main character is a frustrating mess. It's an "own voices" book, which is great, but there is a whole chapter where she basically explains Black Lives Matter to the reader. And there is one jewish character, who is  a rich, spoiled princess. Diversity is good, but seeing my people stereotyped is  just as off putting as seeing stereotypes of other people. Anyway, I'm going to finish it because I kind of want to know if Queenie sorts herself out and I have a whole bunch of boring electronic filing to do for work.

In knitting I am very, very close to finishing Leon's jumper. I think it will be ok, but I won't be knitting large projects in dull colours until we are in a more lively situation here. Bring on the Westknits MKAL!

I tried to take a more artistic photo, but it doesn't really show anything.

As usual on a Wednesday I'm joining in with Kat from As Kat Knits and the rest of the crew for Unravelled Wednesday. I hope your crafting and reading has been treating you well this week.    


Labels:

Comments

  1. AsKatKnits02 October, 2020

    Okay, I am off to find your book recommendation! And, lovely sweater! Westknits things are just so vibrant! :)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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...
1 comment
Read more

Slowly slowly

I haven’t posted about my actual knitting for a while. This might be because not much has changed since the last time I talked about my knitting. This is the edging of my Village Sweater Wrap:  The picture fails to capture how much further there is to go. I'm just past the first arm hole, so just over a third of the way through. It’s 47 stitches of relatively simple lace. I’ve been knitting it since Monday two weeks ago. It’s quite pleasant, and slowly growing but I can’t quite work out why it’s growing so slowly. One reason I know is that the first week I was knitting it during Good Beer Week, so I didn’t take it out and about with me. I knit other things, and when I’m knitting two things it makes everything feel like it takes forever. But the main reason, I think, is that this is just a slow knit for me. I love the needles I’m knitting on ( Karbonz of course) I love the yarn, I love the way the lace looks. So really, what’s the rush? I’m not going to be cold...
Post a Comment
Read more

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...
5 comments
Read more