Oh the making! It sings for me this week!
I am almost done with Clue Three (Clue Four is out, but I have not peeked…yet) and this shawl is singing to me! AND!! It is spurring me to get some sewing done – this will be perfect with a denim Uniform Tunic this fall! I know that high contrast is key sometimes…however, I have several high contrast shawls and I just don’t wear them much. I like this muted contrast so much better…and this will get worn!
Not much to look at just yet, but that inky color and the stitch definition!
But the best thing of all was getting gauge ( I was deeply worried when Mary told me that she could **NOT** get gauge with Coast to knit her Purl Strings) However, NO WORRIES AT ALL! I was spot on on gauge once I washed and laid the swatch out to dry! So… last night I cast on my Indigo Purl Strings and began. Of course I twisted the damned cast on and did not discover it until **after** I had completed all the short rows for the upper back section. So, I unraveled one row, twisted the crochet chain of my provisional cast on, and moved on. I will have to cut the chain there, but that was far better than starting over! (and it is singing in tune now! lol)
The reading this week was powerful. When I saw the Now Read This selection for May, I got on the wait list at my library. It is not a new book, it was published in 1946 – but the message in the book is eerily relevant to life today.
The Street by Ann Petry
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Like all the masters of noir, Petry looks into the abyss without falling in. This is a story that is dark, but not depressing. It is disturbing, yet intriguing. Tayari Jones
Teyari’s introduction set the stage for Ann Petry’s novel. It is an incredibly dark story. This story changed my thoughts about what life in Harlem was like… I had fairy tale beliefs that sadly show my ignorance and my white fragility. Ann Petry invites me in to real life in Harlem. Real life is gritty, it is not fair, and it does not always have a “nice” ending. This story is Lutie Johnson’s though… and Ann tells her story masterfully.
Streets like the one she lived on were no accident. They were the North’s lynch mobs, she thought bitterly; the method the big cities used to keep Negroes in their place. And she began thinking of Pop unable to get a job; of Jim slowly disintegrating because he, too, couldn’t get a job, and of the subsequent wreck of their marriage; of Bub left to his own devices after school. From the time she was born, she had been hemmed into an ever-narrowing space, until now she was very nearly walled in and the wall had been built up…
Yes, there is lots of despair but through it all Lutie does not give up. Her struggle is this story. I had originally rated this book 3-stars, because the ending was so “not white” but I have not been able to stop thinking about Lutie and through her the struggles that are real daily life for much of the Black community. I highly recommend this book!
That is all I have this week! What about you? Any good reads? Is your making singing in tune?
As always, if you wrote a post to share, please leave your link below and thank you!
Your shawl is gorgeous. I love those colors together! And I can’t wait to see your progress on Pearl Strings.
You’ve inspired me to start sewing again. But I’m super slower and bad at it. Just know that I’m going to be in my basement and cursing at my sewing machine this week!
Love your shawl Kat and I think you are right – it will look great over denim! “The Street” sounds really good – thanks for that info.
Oh, you will be so very happy with your yarn selection when you peek at Clue 4! Yours will be a winner — and will look great with denim. (And, oh do I hate twisting my cast on. So glad you found a clever solution so you don’t have to start completely over.) 🙂
Your shawl is looking great. I will have to get a copy of The Street. Have you read Nella Larsen’s Passing? Set in 1920s Harlem.
I’m so glad to hear you singing your songs of making! Your shawl looks lovely, and I love that it’s inspirational for sewing. More Me-Made!
I love your mystery shawl! It’s such a different look from mine even though everything about the pattern is exactly the same — it’s amazing what a difference yarn choice can make! I think you will like Clue 4.
Thank you for an excellent book recommendation!
what’s this gauge that you speak of? (ha ha ha). I’m so glad you are rocking that pattern and I love the texture in your yarn.
oooh, your muted MKAL is so pretty and it will surely ROCK a denim uniform this fall! Yay for getting gauge too … my doubled Coast is an honest 5st/in … how wonderful that all knitters are different! I am halfway through McBride’s latest Deacon King Kong and thoroughly enjoying it (Brooklyn has all the grit in this one).
it’s been years since i read an anne perry….sounds like just the thing. maybe a good one to listen to? thanks for the suggestion
eep…that’s what i get for reading blogs without my glasses…ann petry!!! Now she’s a new one to me!!!! oops.
Well, after reading Kym’s post about her TTL Shawl, I went to take another look at spoilers and, as I mentioned to her, the ones with LOW contrast are the ones that sing to me… even way back at Clue 2. I think this design would be a stunner in one color. So bravo you! And yay me for not even picking out my colors yet.
Very pretty blues – the shawl and the swatch. Sounds like you found a great fix for a twisted cast-on. Interesting book too – I’ve never heard of it.