Unraveled Wednesday

Joining Kat and friends for Unraveled Wednesday, today with new yarn and a new project. Ryan brought me three skeins when he arrived, as a belated Christmas present, and I was compelled to wind one of them and cast on right away.

These are Spun Right Round Classic Sock in Nervous Breakdown, and of course, I started a Hitchhiker. Ryan told me how much he liked the bright yellow and the pops of other colors and thought that even though it might be outside my comfort zone in terms of color, he thought it was unique, really interesting, and eye-catching. After he told me this for the third time, it finally dawned on me that he would like something knit from this yarn. While he hasn't exactly had a nervous breakdown, Ryan has struggled mightily with depression for several years, so I'm reading all kinds of meaningful things into this knitting. The darker gray and brown areas for depressive episodes, the pops of blue and pink for good days, and the fact that the bright yellow is always there with the promise of sunnier and better days. Crazy and/or weird? Maybe, but I'm a sucker for a good yarn name and knitting for my kids.

This Hitchhiker is at least twice as big now because we have spent a lot of Ryan's visit at the eye doctor and corneal specialist. It's a long story, but he has a corneal issue that has been mistreated as an infection by three doctors in Colorado since October. I took him to our eye doctor who straightened things out medication-wise and referred him to a corneal specialist who started treatment. This delayed his departure by a couple of days, but I'm taking him to the airport in a few hours and he has an appointment with a corneal specialist in Colorado tomorrow to continue treatment. It's always something, but hopefully, this something is getting fixed and his sight will eventually be fully restored to normal. I'm glad I had waiting-room knitting with appropriately-named yarn. 

Ryan also gifted me with this happy skein of Dream in Color Smooshy. Who knows? It might even become something other than a Hitchhiker!

I finally finished Snowball in a Blizzard this week. It was definitely informative, but also dense and soporific, so it took me six months to read. I finished Fever and am looking forward to our discussion beginning in February. I hope to finish The Murmur of Bees shortly because I'm thinking about The Topeka School, American Dirt, and Tightrope. So many enticing books to choose from!

What are you making and reading this week?