Jun
Hiya, yarn family! I’m trying out something new this week. I’m moving the Book Club to the bottom of the post to keep people safe from spoilers. This week, I’ll be talking about White Night by Jim Butcher, which is book number nine in the Dresden Files series. Now, on to the final clue of the Summer Court Socks!
YARN STUFF
Summer Court Socks, Clue 5
You can find Clue 1, along with additional information such as recommended yarn, needles, and gauge, at the bottom of THIS POST. Check out the bottoms of these posts to find Clue 2, Clue 3, and Clue 4.
INSTRUCTIONS
TOE
Proceed with MC and larger needles until otherwise noted.
Set Up: K to 4 before end, removing MB when you come to it. Place BoR by either replacing it with a new M, or slipping those 4 sts, removing BoR, slipping them back and placing it. The last 4 sts of the round are now the 1st 4 sts of the next round.
1: K all sts around until sock is 1.5” less than desired length.
When working an afterthought heel, this measurement should not account for the heel. Measure your foot from the front of your heel where it meets the arch to the tip of your big toe. Subtract 1.5” from that to get your desired sock length.
Break MC, Join CC, and change to smaller needles.
2 – Worked with CC and smaller needles:
a. K 20(26, 32, 38) sts. Place MB. K to end.
b. K all sts for 2 rounds.
c. K1, K2tog, K to 3 sts before MB, SSK, K1, slip MB, K1, K2tog. K to 3 sts before end, SSK, K1.
Repeat b-c 6 times more. 12(24, 36, 48) sts. Close toe by grafting the top ½ to the bottom ½ using Kitchener stitch.
HEEL: Carefully undo the waste yarn sts, and while you do, pick up the 24(30, 36, 42) live sts with your smaller needles along the top and bottom of the waste yarn rows (that’s the sts from the bottom of the heel flap and the start of the bottom of the sock). Join CC and knit 24(30, 36, 42) sts, PM. K remaining 24(30, 36, 42) sts. Join to work in the round, and PM for BoR.
- K1, SSK. K to 3 before M, K2tog, K1, slip M, K1, SSK, K to last 3, K2tog.
- K 2 rounds.
Repeat a-b 2(3, 4, 5) times more.
Bind off: Graft the top sts to the bottom sts using a Kitchener st as you did for the toe.
Block lightly and enjoy!
BOOK CLUB
contains spoilers form ‘White Night’ by Jim Butcher
There’s a lot to unpack in White Night. I would argue there is too much to unpack. One thing I think Butcher does really well throughout the series is to leave you with just enough burning questions at the end of a book to keep you thirsty for the next one. This one leaves a few too many minor ends unraveled for my taste. Who put a car bomb on Murphy’s car? What’s Cowl’s deal? Is Justine safe(ish)? Is Thomas actually OK, or is he just putting on a good show? Is Elaine really one of the good guys? Is Helen Beckett? Is Murphy OK, because the last time life dealt her a major blow she started chasing Vicodin with whiskey and this is the first time we’re seeing her post-demotion? We don’t really know any of these, and it’s one thing to leave me thirsty for more about the black council, but this book had a bad need of some serious character heart-to-hearts. Thomas and Harry sort of had one, but honestly, this book suffered from needing to be 50-100 pages longer.
When it was good, it was great. Mostly, it just felt rushed. To get this part out of the way up front, White Night picks up where Proven Guilty left off on the oversexualizaton of Molly Carpenter. I’m not going to give Butcher a pass for having Harry point out that he’s old enough to be her father and has known her since she was a child. I would love — just one time — for a male character to meet a female character in one of these books without commenting on her body like she’s not a real person. I mean, yes, I get it, they aren’t real people because this is fiction. But as a reader, we suspend our disbelief on that, and just one time I would like for someone to meet Molly without turning into some sort of cartoon drooling coyote. We get it, Mr. Butcher, she’s hot.
Moving on.
Hands down, the best part of this book is the way the relationship between Harry and Lash plays out. Harry has grown to view Lash (the shadow of the fallen angel, Lasciel that currently resides in his noggin) as a being that is whole and separate from the Lasciel that is trapped inside the coin buried underneath his basement. More importantly, through her interactions with Harry, Lash has begun to see herself as a real person with agency separate from the desires of Lasciel. Lash gains a sense of self, and those scenes were exceptional. What I loved most was the way that relationship ended. In an epic, literal do-or-die moment, Lash makes one last plea to Harry to take up the coin. In that moment, Harry knows that Lash could help him, but she feels bound to refuse to do so as his only other options are death or the coin. Harry chooses death. Lash sacrifices herself to save him. It was emotional and authentic.
The boss fight at the end of this one is especially epic, and even though I think the kiss between Harry and Lara was a fairly over-the-top shoehorned in way to inject a little sex into the book, I can see Harry doing that in the moment. More than the final fight though, what really got me about the end of this one was the quiet scene at the end when Harry and Bob the Skull are discussing the concept of a soul. Bob notices that Harry took serious psychic damage in the fight, though Lash bore the brunt of it for him. He also notices that part of Harry’s soul is gone. Harry is understandably upset and Bob explains that people get the idea of a soul wrong. That every time you experience intimacy with someone–emotional, physical, any kind–you give away a little piece of yourself. That Harry has given some to Murphy and some to Thomas. That it “grows back” but is an intrinsic part of human nature. I just absolutely love the concept, the idea that while you might have a finite amount of yourself to give at any moment in time, you have an infinite amount overall as you give some away, grow it back, and collect pieces from others.
I’ll see you back here next week with a new project and to discuss Small Favor by Jim Butcher!
~Megan-Anne
“What is the point of having free will if one cannot occasionally spit in the eye of destiny?” – Marcone, Dead Beat by Jim Butcher
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