Unraveled Wednesday: 8/16/23

I'm joining Kat and fellow Unravelers today, with a happier tale than I had last week.

The Sparkly Hitch on the Move is done. I like it, but there are some things I will do differently when I knit my next one. I'm going to increase the size, a lot. This one is only 46" across the top, and I like shawls to be large enough that they don't slip off while I'm wearing them. Martina Behm provides instructions on how to increase the size by explaining what percentage of your yarn you can safely use and still have enough left to finish. I increased the size of this one by two "zigs and zags" and I'm glad I did. It would have been far too small for me if I hadn't done that. I think I successfully corrected my mistake after a bit of frustration because I can no longer tell where I made it. I'm also wondering about slipping the edge stitch to provide a nicer edge. All in all, it's not bad for my practice Hitch on the Move and I think I can improve my next one so I like it a bit more.

This week I read Tom Lake by Ann Patchett. Ann Patchett is a terrific storyteller who is at her best with Tom Lake. It's the story of Lara Nelson recounting her younger days as an actress to her three daughters who have returned home to the family's northern Michigan cherry farm due to the pandemic. To pass the long hours of harvesting sweet cherries, Emily, Maisie, and Nell have demanded that their mother recount her relationship with the celebrity movie star Peter Duke. A chance remark by their father Joe has led to this storytelling. "You know your mother used to date him," Joe told the girls after walking in at the end of a movie-viewing session. Patchett tells this story in dual timelines of past and present while leaving out a few private parts in the story that Lara tells her daughters. Details are revealed (or not) and the girls find out things about their mother that they did not know.

I very much enjoyed how distinctly the three daughters were drawn, each with her own personality and characteristics. My favorite character was father and husband Joe Nelson. He is woven into the storylines of Lara's past and the play Our Town and is also a quietly important figure in the present.

I listened to the audiobook narrated by Meryl Streep, and when I started I wondered if her voice would overwhelm the story. I needn't have feared as I soon forgot about Meryl Streep the actress and listened to her as the voice of Lara.

The pain of the past is just one of many things that has to happen to make way for the beauty that follows and Tom Lake reminds us of that.

“There is no explaining this simple truth about life: you will forget much of it. The painful things you were certain you’d never be able to let go? Now you’re not entirely sure when they happened, while the thrilling parts, the heart-stopping joys, splintered and scattered and became something else. Memories are then replaced by different joys and larger sorrows, and unbelievably, those things get knocked aside as well, until one morning you’re picking cherries with your three grown daughters and your husband goes by on the Gator and you are positive that this is all you’ve ever wanted in the world.”

What are you making and reading this week?