Unraveled Wednesday | 11.28.18

Unraveled Wednesday | 11.28.18

The making this week has been varied! Some sewing, some knitting – and all of it good!

I have worked through 2 clues on the first mitten. I have been practicing holding both yarns in one hand and it is working well and might be a bit easier to maintain even tension as I knit, but as with all new things – the knitting is slow-going, but I managed to start the cuff of the second mitten yesterday afternoon!

The big project has been the sewing of the Car Seat Poncho! I am adding arm openings in the front and a pocket! I hopefully I can figure out some “bear ears” to attach to the hood at my daughter’s request! For a simple looking project, there is lots of bits of detailed sewing!

Reading:

I finished Dispatches from Pluto and really loved it! It gives a wonderful and realistic look into life in the Mississippi Delta through the eyes of an  outsider. I highly recommend, and I gave it 4-stars.

I also finished re-reading Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s The Cost of Discipleship. It has been almost 25 years since I had first read it and Bonhoeffer’s words were the best balm for a weary spirit – 4-stars!

Squirrel Hill has filled my thoughts since the horrific tragedy at the Tree of Life and this beautiful essay in The New Yorker describes life in Squirrel Hill – yes it is an idyllic place – but it is also the best reflection of how life for anyone should be in America – open, welcoming, and most importantly – without fear.

Oh, and just in case your book list is in need of a boost…NPR’s Book Concierge has published their guide to 2018’s great reads!

That is all I have for today! If you wrote a post to share – please leave your link below!

[inlinkz_linkup id=808080 mode=1]

**We have entered the most dreaded days for photograph taking. It becomes a challenge to get a photo when light is at a premium. I apologize for the miserable excuse of a photo in today’s post!

Unraveled Wednesday | 11.21.18

Unraveled Wednesday | 11.21.18

Greetings Unravelers!

I have been spending some time thinking about how I will go about making my ADVENTurer Wrap. Mary mentioned that she might wind off bits of KSH for each day. I contemplated this as well but discarded it as not practical. This morning each I will make 24 slips of paper on which I will write a color. Then I will fold these papers up and place them in a yarn bowl. Each day of Advent I will then pick a slip and knit. I don’t have 25 skeins, but I have 12 skeins so each will be repeated once and on Christmas Day it will be “knitters choice” or…at least that’s my plan for now!

My elbow is feeling better, but it gets sore quickly with use… so I have done only a few rows on my Blaer, but I am close to the sleeve divide! Snail progress is better than no progress at all!

Now for the reading!

I finished Calypso by David Sedaris and LOVED EVERY 5-STAR WORD OF IT! Oh my gosh, this was exactly the balm I needed! It is funny and candid and full of pure Sedaris wit. I highly recommend listening to him read to you!

I am about halfway through Dispatches from Pluto and To the Bright Edge of the World and I should have them finished this week.

I am also looking at my library holds queue with some trepidation – it looks like I am going to have a bunch of things come off hold all.at.the.same.time. (or nearly all at the same time…) of course, lol. But  I have been waiting for some titles for so long, I don’t dare pause my spot in the queue. And, this could give me the push I need to read 150 books this year. I have been slagging a bit since vacation and need to get back to it… pronto!

That’s all I have for this week… Steve is off for the rest of the week, so I wish you all the happiest of Thanksgivings – enjoy your time, no matter how you are spending it and I will see you back here next week!

As always, I am so thankful for your participation in Unraveled Wednesdays! If you wrote a post to share today, please leave your link below!

[inlinkz_linkup id=807340 mode=1]

Unraveled Wednesday | 11.13.18

Unraveled Wednesday | 11.13.18

Greetings Unravelers!

It has been a week without any unraveling at all! Whew! I am knitting at a very slow, yet steady pace, on my Blaer and am almost finished with my first skein but it is unlikely to be completed in November, even though I am going to try my hardest to get it done. And, can I just say how much I love the fabric that Einband makes… so light and airy and soft!

But I have been dividing my time up between knitting it and working on finishing blanket number two! I almost have all the squares joined into rows – so I am making some progress but, I have been having some serious elbow pain that is limiting my knitting time on all the things. So, in the evenings I have been working on spinning for an actual project! I know… who am I??? (And, really… right now spinning is about the only thing that does not hurt) There is a group of us on the dreaded FB that are spinning for Andrea Mowry’s Nightshift shawl. I am spinning for about an hour each evening while we watch the news and I am amazed at how quickly I am filling a bobbin! I am almost finished with my first hank of fiber… with just 5 more to go! Ha! If the elbow pain lingers on, this may get done much quicker than I planned!

The reading this week has been very good! I finished Robert Galbraith’s Career of Evil (yes, it was a bit gruesome) but the story was riveting and got 4-stars! I am on the super long wait list Lethal White and am struggling with patience as I am eager to see where Cormoran and Robin go next!

I also finished Sarah Water’s The Little Stranger. This book was nothing like I imagined it would be! Things happen in the deteriorating Hundreds Hall… are they real? Or, are they figments of the Ayres’ minds. I gave this book 3-stars simply because I think she could have told the story more quickly… there were parts that really dragged and the ending was entirely unexpected (and not at all in a good way).

Up next in my reading queue:

Dispatches from Pluto: Lost and Found in the Mississippi Delta and Calypso!

What about you? What are you making and reading this week? And, as always, if you wrote a post to share today – please leave your link below!

[inlinkz_linkup id=806501 mode=1]

Unraveled Wednesday | 11.7.18

Unraveled Wednesday | 11.7.18

Greetings Unravelers!

Happy Post-Election Day! Yesterday, I had all these plans to knit and read at the polls, but holy cow… there was NOT a minute to do either all day! And, I had a planned post for today, but a bout of insomnia last night altered that a bit. (Because, of course when you must be up extra early you can count on not being able to sleep that night… oy.) I am not a “napper” but today… that might just be happening! LOL

So, lets talk a little about my NaKniSweMo…I swatched. Carefully. I did not get stitch gauge with a size 4 needle, but I got row gauge. I got stitch gauge with a size 3, but I did not get row gauge. So, I chatted with the gauge whisperer and cast on another swatch for the lace work. The lace work looked good in the size 4, so onward I went.

Spoiler… my lace work is at some astronomically LOOSE gauge. As you can see in the below image the lace work should be shallow… m’kay?

Mine is not. At all. In fact, my lace work exceeds 8-inches in depth…unblocked…

And, so… sometime this morning, I will be ripping the lace out and reknitting it… on the smaller needles!

All I can say is that I am so glad that my state results matched as I voted… so there’s that.

On the reading front:

I finished Robert Galbraith’s Silkworm and loved it! It got 4-stars and I was so happy to see that Career of Evil was available from the library! I began listening this morning!

I also finished a short and quick Agatha Christie novel, And Then There Were None. I enjoyed the format of this audio book, being like a play with multiple characters! 4-stars for this little gem.

Sadly, I began listening to Educated and I just knew this book was going to go places I did not want to go …so I stopped listening and returned it to the library. Life is too short to read painful books!

There you have my unraveled week. I truly hope your reading and knitting are much more pleasing than mine! And, as always, if you wrote a post to share today, please leave your link below!

[inlinkz_linkup id=805630 mode=1]

Unraveled Wednesday | 10.31.18

Unraveled Wednesday | 10.31.18

Into every knitter’s life some unraveling eventually happens. This week is my turn and yes, by the end of day – my Tegna will be all unraveled. Sigh.

I love this yarn… very much. And, I love the idea of Tegna, but the more I knit, the more uncertainty crept in about how this will fit. For the past 2 weeks, Tegna has been in a bit of a time out while I wrapped my brain around fit and eventually about ripping out so many weeks of knitting.

Yes, there is no avoiding the pain, but the pain would be far worse if I finished the sweater and never wear it. So, back to the drawing board with this lovely yarn, and truly – that is okay.

Not to be entirely sidelined on knitting – I am diligently working on seaming squares together on blanket number two. Plus, I am going to have some fun by participating in NaKniSweMo – I have swatched, conferred with Mary, and will be casting Blaer tomorrow morning. And, after participating in the Knit-a-Sweater-in-4-days – 30 days seems like a cakewalk! This is coming at the perfect time as well – I have wished for a grey cardigan about a dozen times in the last two weeks!

The reading this month has picked up ever so slightly! Which is a very good thing, I have been feeling in a bit of a reading slump! I finished The Overstory – and wow, just wow. I re-read the last 50 pages again yesterday morning – this was a book I did not want to end. Really. I cannot stop thinking about how brilliantly this was written and how beautifully Richard Powers weaves all the stories together into one cohesive and powerful novel. I will never, ever look at trees the same way again. If you have not read this, stop everything and go put your name on the waitlist at your local library. Yes, it is that good. I gave it 5-stars and it will absolutely be in my top-5 favorite books of the year.

I also finished American Gospel, which I listened to. This might have been the perfect time to listen to this fascinating history (and much of it unknown to me). Midway through, I was struggling with it a bit, but it ended incredibly and gets 4-stars from me. I highly recommend it!

I should be done with There, There later today – I am enjoying this book, but it is not riveting like The Overstory, or The Master Butcher’s Singing Club.

I will end up only having read nine books in October… but I fully expect to turn that around in November!

But, what about you? What are you making? Ripping out? Reading?

Please, do tell! And, as always, if you wrote a post to share today, please leave your link below!

[inlinkz_linkup id=804373 mode=1]

Unraveled Wednesday | 10.24.18

Unraveled Wednesday | 10.24.18

Greetings, Unravelers! Happy Wednesday to you!

This week the knitting has been focused…and the result is a finished blanket!

Things I learned:

  • Applied i-cord must be knit with a larger needle than you think…I should have done a practice square. The blanket is currently soaking and ready for its final “blocking” but, imo… the i-cord is a tiny bit tight. BUT… I am not taking it out and redoing it. I believe it will be okay in the finished product, but for blanket number two, I am going up in needle size to accommodate for my tension.
  • Joining squares and then rows means LOTS of ends to weave in. I was wise and left some of the edges to weave into the i-cord… three cheers to that me from this me! Well done!
  • Things take WAY longer than you think they will to complete. Blanket Two Assembly is underway…at.long.last.

Reading….

This is where I generally post books I have finished…. Except this week, I have NO FINISHES! I know…so sad. So, instead lets do this weeks current reads…

I am listening to Jon Meacham’s American Gospel: God, The Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation. I am just over half way though and I will hold my commentary until I have finished, but Meacham’s writing is wonderful!

I am reading The Overstory, which is fascinating. It seems to be a collection of stories about different people with the common thread of trees in the story… and as a hater of short stories, I must say I am loving this. Really. A lot! I have less than half to go to finish and I find that I am angry at myself for being tired and needing to put the iPad down. A true sign of a very good book!

That is what I have in progress this week… what about you? What’s on your making and reading list this week? If you wrote a post to share, please leave your link below!

[inlinkz_linkup id=803495 mode=1]

Pin It on Pinterest