The making this week has been of the “small” variety but I wanted to take a moment to identify the photos for you all from Monday’s post:
- 1. A chive blossom
- 2. an African violet
- 3. Bee balm and
- 4. the Tri-colored
birchbeech (thank you, Kym) in my back yard.
Monday the most strenuous thing I did was that blog post, lol. The rest of the day I napped on the sofa and it was early to bed for me as well! However, I woke yesterday free of all effects from my COVID booster and I spent the day catching up on all I did not get done on Monday as well as the usual Tuesday things I do, some of which included some knitting time!
The first clue of Imagined Landscape’s Mystery Gnome came out last Friday and I did cast on over the weekend. Clue Two came out on Monday and I managed to get myself all caught up yesterday. Clue Three drops tomorrow and I am all ready for it! (and no spoilers here… yes, it is inside out!)
I also have been knitting Sam’s sock… I am contemplating an “afterthought heel” but I have never done one of those before. (Or is it a fore-thought heel… I want to do the one with the row of waste yarn…) If any of you have done that heel I’d love your input. My reasoning behind this is that I feel like the striping will be more uniform without the heel flap. Anyways, I look forward to all your knitting insights!
The reading this week… well it is just epic. I finally finished The Books of Jacob, which I deemed to be a 4-star read. I now have a bunch of much, much, much shorter books in my queue and so I think by this time next week I might have 3 books completed, lol.
However, I loved the 2 months I spent with Jacob Frank… it was truly an amazing book!
The Books of Jacob by Olga Tokarczuk
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I am not sure where to begin with this incredible story, there is just so much to digest and all of it fascinating. If I had read this book in my 20’s I would not have liked it, or even finished it. My much younger self was not as comfortable with thinking about things from all opinions… but at 61, this epic work has much that inspired me. First… by how similar all things are (i.e. religions… Christian, Jewish, Muslim)… much more than I think I realized. I loved how this story of Jacob Frank was true but Tokarczuk took that story and wrapped it in a bit of mystical wonder, as only she can do. I really loved the time I spent in Jacob’s world.
But all that said, this book is long and it dragged a bit for me at about the beginning of the last quarter of the book, however, I am not sure how it could be edited to avoid that as there were important bits in that part, however, all at once the dragging feeling stopped and the ending just flowed beautifully. I loved, loved, loved the page numbering… my gosh that was so fun!
The translation to English by Jennifer Croft is excellent and I am profoundly grateful for her work in bring this book to an English speaking audience.
If you are a Tokarczuk fan, you will love this book!
That is all I have for today… and I am eagerly awaiting your thoughts on afterthought heels!
As always, if you wrote a post to share please leave your link below and thank you!
I love your inside-out gnome and Sam’s sock. Those colors are great, but I’m sorry I don’t have any afterthought heel insights. I’ve just done my regular heel turn and grumbled about it with striped yarn. I don’t know if I’m ready for the books of Jacob but maybe later in the summer. I imagine reading it while lying in the hammock even though that’s not really how summer goes around here.
You are correct that an afterthought heel will look great in self striping yarn, but they often don’t fit as well. if he has a high instep or other issues it might not suit. I quite like them for calf length socks. This pattern https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/halfbaked-vanilla-sock by my friend and talented dyer Dani will talk you through doing one if you decide to.
I saw that pattern… and especially the “gusset portion” to get a better fit! Thank you for your input!
Your knitting looks great, Kat! 🙂 I’ve never done an afterthought-heel, but I can see where you might want to employ it with those very cool stripes. I have been planning to dive into The Books of Jacob over the summer. I am sometimes an Olga Tokarczuk fan and sometimes not, so we’ll see where my mood takes me! (And did you mean tri-color beech???) XO
I like this video tutorial for an afterthought heel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBsX9MzTxfI
Fit can be an issue with afterthought heels because they fit more like a short-row heel than a flap heel. If you need more depth, you can work straight rounds before starting the decreases as well as space out the decreases.
I have mixed feelings about Books of Jacob. I didn’t realize he was a real person until I read the notes at the end, and I found myself getting annoyed with him. I really felt like he didn’t have any true beliefs other than that he wanted to be admired and worshiped. But it was a really interesting book in many ways, and certainly the writing was good! I can’t imagine what an undertaking it was to translate such a tome!
Thank you for that link! I am gonna give it a try… with a bit of extra rounds for fit.
And Jacob… well, I did very much like him but he was rather stuck on himself, I agree.
I’m so curious about the inside out gnome!! LOL The sock looks great. I’ve never done an after thought (or fore thought – HA!) heel and stripes getting goofy don’t bother me, so I probably would not try that. Don’t think I am quite ready for Jacob…
I love your pile of knitting and can’t wait to see the gnome. They are all so cute!
I still haven’t finished The Books of Jacob and find the whole thing massively annoying for a myriad of unpopular opinions. BUT! I do want to finish it. Other things are just so much more compelling for me right now. I am so glad you made your way through it and enjoyed it though… it allows me to see that it’s a possible undertaking 🙂
those shots really take the wind out of anyone’s sails!! Lovely knitting and I hope you are 100% back to being normal!!
I’m glad you’re back on your feet! I know Sarah has used that afterthought (I agree with you – seems like it needs to be a forethought, too!) heel and glad she shared that video link. It does seem perfect for keeping the stripes going. …and I had similar feelings about Books of Jacob. It was a tour de force for the author, the translator, AND the reader!! The last book was my favorite – probably because of the setting. I’ve actually been to Vienna and some of the places/palaces that were mentioned brought it to life better than the cramped villages I was imagining in my head for much of the rest of the book.
I have not done an after thought heel but I’m going to have to learn since the striped socks currently on my needles are set up for it.
I am curious about the inside out gnome. The colors in the sock are pretty. I made after thought heels following a pattern by Susan B. Anderson. She writes a good pattern although I prefer the fit of a heel turn and gusset.