Pink Socks and Pretty Things

 The knitting: pink socks, no real pattern

The novel: Pretty Things by Janelle Brown

The knitting: some socks that I thought were for my husband, but are apparently for me.  I cast on these socks back in the spring, because that's when my husband was born.  He likes when I knit him socks and he likes really bright socks, so I thought they would make a good birthday gift.  They would have been great, if not for a few problems.  

First off, I didn't finish them.  I made the first one and then didn't make a second one.  There was a lot going on.  

Next, I started the second one.  I joined a knitalong on Instagram with the goal of knitting a sock in a week and thought this would be great motivation to finish up the pair.  And it was!  I loved getting the likes and comments, and following the tags let me see a lot of great yarns and patterns.  It was fun, and kept me on track.

Until Thursday.  I asked my husband to try on the sock while it was on the needles.  He couldn't.  He was trying to pull it over his foot (which is wide), and the leg of it just...wouldn't go.  I pulled out the first sock.  Even. Smaller.

I normally knit with fingering weight yarn on Size 0 needles.  And I typically cast on 68 stitches for my husband.  This was light fingering weight and still 68 stitches.  Which will get you a slightly baggy sock for me (a fairly small person), and a sock that won't fit my husband (who wears a men's Size 12 Wide).  So I made the second sock for me, and then ripped back the first one until it was short enough for me and worked the toe decreases.  The yarn is Huasco Multy Botany Lace (discontinued) by Araucania, and it's 100% merino.  It's listed as fingering weight, but it's a light fingering weight.  I'll keep that in mind for next time, when I definitely cast on 72 stitches or more to make my husband some socks of his own.  I have a second skein, and no other purpose for it, so I may as well!  

The novel: Pretty Things.  I'm in a book club in a Facebook group that picked this for our first book.  I was able to get a copy from the library.  I've never been in a book club, so I'm not sure how we'll talk about this.  I will say that I was interested, especially halfway through.  There were some plot twists I was waiting for, and some I wasn't--those unreliable narrators will get you!  This is going to be made into a television series and I can see why.

You've got a beautiful setting, rich people, cons within cons, plot twists, secrets, betrayal, blackmail, revenge, and a yacht.  If you've felt angry after someone tells you "Money isn't everything" when they have money and you don't, you'll like this.  If you have a suspicious nature, you'll probably like this.  If you like dramatic rich people haunted by their pasts, you'll like this.  

If you're like me and enjoy reading stories like they're mysteries even when they aren't mysteries, you'll like this.

I could see some of the plot twists coming but not others, so that was fun.  There were a few too many flashbacks and a lot of commentary on the way we live our lives for other people on social media, which was a little reductive and played-out but that's okay.  The character I hoped would be murdered was murdered and that, on top of all the twists and turns, was enough for me. 

I felt a little silly making this post about my Instagram knitalong project and reading the book with the Instagram influencer character and all the themes about how we can lie in different ways but whatever.  I knitted up some yarn that I've had for 3 years.  I finished the book in time to talk about it in the online book club.  I have a pair of socks.