Wednesday, November 30, 2022

Unraveled Wednesday 11/30/22

 Good Morning!

First of all, Happy Birthday to Mailing!  I could not ask for a better daughter-in-law.  She is smart, cute, kind, funny, and she loves my son!

It is a gloomy day here.  Rain is on the way and it will most likely rain all day...but it should be mild.  I'm glad I got out for a little walk yesterday afternoon.  I walked just under 2.5 miles along the Perkiomen Creek and the Schuylkill River.  The only thing I noticed was Tinseltown which I had never heard of.  Honestly it was very ugly in the daylight - just a mass of white trees and lights set up in a parking lot with lots and lots of trailers around.  I looked at the web site yesterday when I got home and it costs around $20 just to get in, but then you have to reserve time (and pay more) to skate on the ice rink or slide down the ice slide.  With temps in the 50's it doesn't feel so holiday-ish anyway...

Let's talk making (in my case, knitting) and reading.  Time to link up with Kat and her Merry Band of Unravelers.  My knitting is progressing.  No giant leaps or bounds, but steady progress.  The first Turning Leaves sock (the one that Dee and I are knitting together in a very loose KAL) is now ready for a heel to be turned.  An Eye of the Partridge heel flap has been completed.


The colors in this yarn are just so beautiful.  I'm glad we are knitting a plain vanilla sock and letting the colors just shout out all on their own.

The other sock I'm working on is a Christmas one (Hollyberry yarn from West Yorkshire Spinners).  The first sock in this set has had the heel turned and the gusset decreases have begun.


This just looks so festive to me.  As of now I'm thinking these will be a gift for someone...but who knows?  I could easily change my mind and keep them for me!  LOL

I'm happy to report two book finishes this week!!  Woo-Hoo!  Fletch and I finished listening to Graceland, At Last by Margaret Renkl.  As I mentioned in a previous post (or 2) the first half of this book was way too political for me.  The second half was better, but it still seemed a little preachy.  If you've never read anything by Renkl, I would suggest Late Migrations - I would also recommend this in book format rather than audio as the book includes lovely drawings by the author's brother.  Last night we started listening to The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd.  Too early to say how this one is.

The other book finished is The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O'Farrell.  Oh how I just loved this book!  I would start reading and find it difficult to put the book down; yet at the same time I did not want it to end.  Sarah commented to me a little bit ago that she felt the same way and that she also had a feeling of dread as she neared the end of the book.  I know that feeling so well, but like Sarah I liked the ending of the book.  I felt hope as I finished it last night.  True confession:  I have not read Hamnet as the idea of the story has not appealed to me.  However, after reading "The Marriage Portrait" I have added "Hamnet" to my TBR list.

Last night as I crawled into bed, I started Thunder Bay - book #7 in a series by William Kent Krueger that I am enjoying.  His books are a quick read, and I think I managed 40 pages before I turned out my light.  I still have several other library books waiting on my nightstand.

Today I will venture out in the rain.  I want to return "The Marriage Portrait" to the library as I know the wait list is long.  And after avoiding paying bills yesterday, I need to buckle down and get that done.

I hope this Wednesday finds you all well.  Be sure to make time to head over to Kat's blog to check out what others are making and reading.  I'm sure you will find inspiration!

16 comments:

  1. I'm so glad you enjoyed The Marriage Portrait! I loved the ending, which I very much did not expect. Hamnet is really beautiful, though it is sad. But you know why it's sad from the get-go. I thought the Cartographers was a fun read, not great literature but entertaining.

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  2. I have The Marriage Portrait waiting in my TBR pile. I savoured Hamnet--quite possibly the most beautiful and beautifully written book I have ever read, and that is saying something, coming from me. The way you felt about TMP is exactly the way I felt about Hamnet.

    I finished (a while ago) The Sweetness of Water; I was meh about it. It felt like it tried to do too much, and so many things weighed down the narrative. It had some places of lovely writing, but the story suffered with too many themes and characters, imo. I could not get engaged very deeply.

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  3. You've really soared ahead on your sock. I will be bringing mine with me on Saturday and hopefully get several rounds done.

    Happiest of birthdays to Mailing.

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  4. We have something like that here in Nats stadium every year. I spent a fortune on tickets a few years ago on Bring Your Dog night only to have it rain buckets and then to be told Pup needed a kennel cough jab certificate before they would admit her. We never even went in.

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  5. Pretty socks! I’ve been listening to a lot of audiobooks recently and stumbled upon some by Marc Cameron that I’ve enjoyed. Happy Birthday to Mailing!

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  6. Happy birthday to Mailing! (My daughter-in-law's birthday is tomorrow. They're almost "birthday twins"!) I'm so glad you enjoyed The Marriage Portrait! (I think Hamnet is even better than The Marriage Portrait, so I'm glad you've added it to your to-read list.) Love your socks, Vera -- both sets. :-)

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  7. Happy Birthday to Mailing and a happy Unraveled Wednesday to you, Vera! You are really moving along quickly on your socks and they both look quite nice. I'm glad you liked Marriage Portrait and I bet you'll love Hamnet. I gave it 5 stars and only 4 to Marriage Portrait, but they're really both pretty great books!

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  8. You may have inspired me to make Christmas socks (next year!) Yours are so festive. I want to read The Marriage Portrait, but so many books are in front of it :-(

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  9. Happy Birthday to Mailing. I like the socks, both of them, and think you and Dee made a very wise decision in letting the yarn be happy. My Christmas socks haven't had much love with the kids here.
    Take care my dear friend.
    Blessings,
    Betsy

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  10. Your socks are so pretty! I'm glad that you're enjoying them. And I've been so excited about The Marriage Portrait for so long and yet... haven't picked it up yet! Thanks for the nudge to get to it. And I agree with other commenters - I think you'll really enjoy Hamnet. The Cartographers is on my list!

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  11. First! Happy Happy Happy Birthday to Mailing! I hope this trip around the sun is the best one yet!

    Both your socks are so fun! (But I think the mini-KAL socks are the star! That yarn! Wow!)

    I finished Marriage Portrait last night and let me just say that while it was not bad, Hamnet was just so much better. Better writing, better story, just better in every way! I think you will enjoy it tremendously.

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  12. Those socks are wonderful, the colors are just gorgeous! Happy Birthday to Mailing! And I'm so glad you enjoyed The Marriage Portrait.

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  13. What pretty socks you have on your needles. I might be tempted to keep the holiday socks. I enjoyed Late Migrations and especially the art work. I might pass on Graceland, although I do like to read the author's columns in the NYT's. Happy Birthday to your DIL.

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  14. I have been enjoying Margaret Renkl this year and I loved the Cartographers. It was so fun to visit the main branch of the NYC library in October and imagine that story.

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  15. Love the socks--what different colors; fun to work on both of them!

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  16. Happy birthday M!!! I will be finishing a pair of fingerless mitts and then it's back to me me me knitting!! So excited.

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