Seagulls and Young Love

I'm joining Cannonball Read for the first time this week. If you've arrived from that community looking for a book review, please scroll pass the knitting chat!

Knitting

Project progress is light this week, although "that hat" is finished except for the bind off. I plan to finish before the weekend and wear to to my local Women's March in Asbury Park. If you're in the area and planning to attend, let me know!

I also worked on my next original pattern "Flock of Seagulls". I knit this version in Madeline Tosh DK in the colorways Cove (shown) and Antler (the border not shown). The lovely Celtic knot progress keeper was a little treat I picked up at Vogue Knitting Live this weekend.

While at VKL, I met up with Amanda of Prado de Lana farm. She's even more friendly and fun in person! I bought some light DK weight yarn from her to do another version of this cowl pattern in a solid color. I plan to recount my adventures at VKL in the next podcast and interview Amanda in the near future. Here's a pic of my entire haul from the weekend. The yarn on the right came from Prado de Lana:

I also bought ribbon yarn from Tess Designer Yarns (on the left, above) because I wanted to try something different; I have a lot of wool! There was a lovely drop stitch scarf in this yarn that I thought would be beautiful and practical in summer when the a/c is cranking!

Reading

I'm joining Cannonball Read this week with my review of The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon. So many feels! This is a young adult book with some heavy themes. On the surface, it's a romance between Natasha, a Jamaican born illegal immigrant facing deportation, and Daniel, a first born second son of Korean parents. The two, both seniors in high school, meet by accident while Daniel is on his way to his college interview with a Yale alum and Natasha is trying one last time to stay in the US. 

The action takes place over an afternoon and early evening primarily in Manhattan. A variety of characters briefly come in contact with the couple, and these interactions either change the course of main storyline and/or Daniel and Natasha change the course of the secondary characters lives. For example, while dining in a Korean restaurant, Natasha asks for a fork. The waitress responds by telling Daniel that he should teach his girlfriend how to use chopsticks. This character's backstory reveals that her son became involved with a non-Korean woman and as a result, her husband cut off contact with their son. They didn't attend their son's wedding nor do they know their grandchildren. As a mother, that broke my heart. 

The book addresses so many timely themes like diversity, tolerance, the immigrant experience, and of course love and commitment (but not in the way you might think). I love this book so much I plan to recommend it for our summer reading list! Don't disregard this book because it's categorized as "young adult". The vocabulary and main characters may fall into this age range, but I think the book is even more powerful for those of us who are much older than the young adult moniker. 

If you've read this book or decide to do so, please let me know what you think in the comments!

Today I'm joining Nicole at the Keep Calm Craft On link party.  On Wednesdays, I participate in the Yarn Along on Ginny Sheller's blog. Please join us either by contributing a link to your fibery work in progress and current read and / or by checking out the posts to the link parties.  You may find your next book or project waiting for you!