Joining  Kat and friends for Unraveled Wednesday.

Knitting.

Big Red Blob: languishing.

Qiviut cowl: ditto.

Blue hats: waiting for more yarn to cast on.

In the meantime, I am knitting a pair of socks to replace a pair I gave to Amanda, ES’s then-girlfriend, now wife. Back in 2016 I knit them to use up a bunch of leftover purple and red bits, then was delighted to discover that they were the perfect match to my kimono sweater cast on in 2007 and finished in 2010. I have never knit a sweater in less than two years.

Sweater is two colors of Louet Gems Topaz merino worsted, socks are two strands of Knit Picks Felici which colorway is now discontinued, sadly never were photographed for my Rav stash page. The yarn has 1″ stripes of pale gray, pinkish lavender, medium lavender, and purple; I made the toe with two tints of red. I had intended to make red heels, toes, and cuffs but forgot about that until I was halfway through the first heel. Anyway, I shall once again have socks to coordinate with the sweater.

Reading.

The Other Einstein by Marie Benedict. This book was for the book group that I haven’t gone to since the beginning of the pandemic, but I planned to go last week. Didn’t happen; Smokey had my car and didn’t get home in time. But I read the book, which is about Albert Einstein’s wife. According to the book — and other sources I don’t remember — he came up with the idea, aka thought experiment, that became his special theory of relativity, and she did the math and equations to prove it. Albert was never a genius at math. As his fame grew, so did his ego. He removed her name from papers they had written jointly, he disparaged her, he had affairs. I was mildly annoyed with him at first, but I was raging mad at him by the end. 4✭

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Beartown by Fredrik Backman. I had read this back in 2017 and liked it a lot. It is about a small town in Sweden that is obsessed with hockey and hopes that is their junior team wins the regional trophy, it may bring interest and industry back to the town. As I read it I kept thinking of Hibbing and International Falls and Warroad and Roseau, towns in Minnesota that are also obsessed with hockey. I read it this time for my other book group. The author has a deep understanding of people, their emotions and motivations and actions. I have read a couple other of his books, A Man Called Ove and Anxious People and liked them at least as much. 4✭

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Postscript Murders by Elly Griffiths. I finished all the Ruth Galloway mysteries by this author, so I decided to try her other books. All her mysteries are in the cozy-adjacent genre, and I outgrew cozies several decades ago, but her characters are so delightful that I excuse any near-coziness. 3✭

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Lazarus by Lars Kepler. This is the seventh and latest book in the Joona Linna series. The premise — that the Bad Guy in Stalker somehow survived three gunshot wounds in the chest while being washed away in a river — is highly unbelievable, but overall the book is a good mystery. 3✭

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Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty. Moriarty is the author of a number of books I have liked: Big Little Lies, The Husband’s Secret, Nine Perfect Strangers, and many others I have not read. This one was good, but it is not one of my favorites. When the recently retired mother of four adult children disappears for three weeks without any (apparent) notice, they eventually file a missing persons report; the police treat it as a possible homicide. The problem is that their father is the number one suspect. 3✭

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Watching.

We are currently in season 4 of Downton Abbey. The familiar lineup of the cast at left is slightly different than in previous seasons with the addition of Rose, last person on the right, and the tragic elimination of Matthew.

Listening.

Nothing new here. I shall be listening to The Warmth of Other Suns until roughly the heat death of the universe.