Saturday, March 18, 2023

An exciting development

 I don't want to alarm anyone, but there has been progress with The Hat That Wouldn't Die.

Yes, this hat, which requires knitting on treacherous super pointy needles. With yarn so fine it shouldn't really be called sock weight, but is. And so many stitches per round I had to put in markers to keep track of them all.

I've been diligently working away at it for a few weeks now, picking it up even if only for a few minutes, spurning any and all sock knitting (which I have to say I miss desperately - those needles never hurt me and I always feel like I'm getting somewhere with them) and finally, the other night, I thought - Huh. This seems to be getting into a lot of hat.

So I measured, and saw I was pretty close to the 8-3/4" I need to reach to knit in the eyelets before the ribbing at the end.

 
 
Then I thought, Wait a minnit, this fabric is wrinkly. And when I pressed it flat, Voila! Eight and three-quarter inches on the nose.
 

If that isn't an exciting development I don't know what is. Admittedly, and despite the snow we had again today, I might not be in a position to wear it before next fall. There is still a lot of ribbing to do. But wearing it next fall is still wearing it, which would be wonderful closure for the hopes I had when I cast on lo these many years ago. 


 I really love the stripes in this fabric. It's like forest colours at dusk.

Another thing that happened this week is I managed to get a third round of one-week library loan on Fredrik Backman's The Winners. It is dense reading for the current level of chaos here at my house, and despite my best efforts, I've been unable to sink into a chair for the long haul. I haven't even been able to do much of my own writing! and that's saying something. I keep renewing the book though because I enjoy the characters and have grown curious as to how all this comes out.

I realize I'm no good at reviewing books any more, assuming I ever was - I read them as a writer, looking for different ways to tackle the same old problems. But I did notice something about The Winners, as contrasted with Taylor Jenkins Reid's Carrie Soto Is Back (apart from the fact that Carrie Soto is about half the length.) 

The plot of The Winners has as many sightlines as its forest setting, and even once you've caught the thread of the main storyline, there's no way to predict how it's likely to come out in the end. So despite its approximately 6.2 million characters, which can be a challenge to keep straight, the writing quality and the sheer range of possibilities are enough to keep you going. 

The plot of Carrie Soto Is Back runs fairly quickly to, Will Carrie win or won't she? Which means the writing quality is everything. Since it's Taylor Jenkins Reid, the writing quality is plenty good enough for that.

Also worth noting: even though I have done all my reading of these two novels on my Kobo, which perches on my knee and frees my hands to knit, I did not pick up my needles. I was too interested in the stories.

And now we're having another Saturday, and I'm assessing my week - what I got done, what I still need to do, what I'd like to do. The immediate answer to that last question is, drink the tea I brewed while I was writing this. And what I still need to do is also pretty obvious:


Yep. The hat. Wish me luck and I look forward to seeing you here next week!

 

 

 

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