Clearing out the WIPs

     One of the first things I want to do this year is finishing up those pesky WIPs that are hanging around. The first order of business would be my lovely, excuisite Veyla Mitts by Ysolda. I checked the start date and was almost two years ago. That is ridiculous. The problem is, I have huge hands. Once I finished the first one, I realized that I would have to rip back to below the thumb gusset and add 12 rows. So what I decided to do was start the other glove, adding the 12 rows and see how that worked out, which was fine for the hand, but not long enough, so I ripped the finishing back and went to add some rows, but since the beginning of the round changed, I didn't know where it was, plus I forgot how many rows I added in the first place because I'm terrible at taking notes. I seem to think I'm just going to remember these details. Anyhow, summer probably came and I put them aside. I would take them out occasionally to pet them. They are made out of the glorious Malabrigo Finito, which is kitten soft. The color is also ingenious - variegated, but blended into a cohesive whole. There have been many chilly times that I've longed to be wearing them.

I even found the cutest buttons at Joann's. The gloves have a delicate, vintage feel about them. So they are going to be what I finish first when I get back. Too mentally taxing to figure out in the tropics. Plus the thumb turned out wonky so I have to redo that too.


     Speaking of unfinished things, I started the big, wonderful new translation of War and Peace 3 years ago.

Now, I lived in Russia for a few months so I’m familiar with the idea of patronymic names, but every character in this book is referred to by their full name, nickname, and their patronymic at various times. And there are a lot of characters, many of them related, and there’s only about 10 Russian names to begin with, so I was constantly having to flip back and forth from the page to the character breakdown to the notes in back. Even so, it was a really gripping read right from the beginning. I got 120 pages in before I realized the the best course of action would either be to print out a character sheet or to go ahead and get the Kindle version. I know what you’re thinking, that reading the greatest piece of Russian literature on an electronic device is just… wrong. I hear you. I love the idea of curling up with a tome. The Kindle has several things going for it, though - the ability to instantly see who the heck a character is and every place they’re showed up in the book, and an alternative to carrying around said tome. I seem to remember the reason I put is aside was because we were going to Las Vegas and there was no way I was going to be in the right frame of mind, so I opted for Elmore Leonard's Djibouti instead. Much more appropriate. Then I spent the summer in NY, so wasn't about the lug it all the way over there, so back on the shelf it went.

     I think the time might be right to finish it up now. I was participating in Facebook read-along back then so I won't have that, though there's bound to be one somewhere on the interwebs. Mostly, I'm no longer intimidated by the size, having conquered the epic 1Q84 last year, which is about the same length at around 1200 pages. The winter just started, and it's the only time in Southern California that we have any really weather, which is a necessary component for reading Tolstoy in my opinion. Plus, with everything that's going on in the world, and especially with Putin, it may be instructive to revisit not-so-distant history to put things into perspective. The thing that struck me while reading this was that this was my history, and it might be yours too. As a European-American whose earliest relatives came to the US in 1884, it dawned on me that the Germans and Italians traipsing through the pages of this book belonged to me. (I'm also Irish, but I don't think they show up). The point is, most of us Americans especially look at this as foreign history but for many of us it's the story of who we were, and maybe how we got here. I hope that makes sense, and I hope to have much more to say about it when I finish.