by Kat | May 8, 2019 | General, Unraveled Wednesday
Greetings, Gentle Readers! It’s a travel day and as you read this we will be packed up and on our way home. However, I do have some vacation knitting to share with you! Yes, it’s true! I have finished the body and the button bands and neckband of my Marsa Alam!! Woo Hoo! Sleeve’s won’t happen until I am back home and draining the DVR of all the things and that is okay. I am not sure how long I want the sleeves and trying things on while driving are not the best combination! Never fear, I do have travel knitting!! I am speeding along on a second sock – which has made the most lovely companion on this trip – I hope to have it finished on the trek home and there is a very good possibility that will happen! And, I might even be able to put some time in on my Tegna on the journey home if I get that sock done early in the journey!
I am looking forward to being back home and back to my routine! Vacation is fun, but sometimes it is more fun for some than others.This said by the person who made the bed every day and did all the dishes and walked the dog 99% of the time. However these tasks are the perfect companion for audio books which means I got some reading in this week!
First, I finished Saints For All Occasions which is the penultimate dysfunctional family tale. There were times that I debated about stopping and moving on to something else, but I persevered. I was not greatly rewarded for this perseverance as I thought the ending was rather lame, but it was a book in the finish column – so there’s that. This book had great potential but never really took off, it was also excessively wordy – just 2-stars.
I also finished reading to the Museum of Modern Love. I really wanted to love this book and while I enjoyed it, I did not love it. However, the writing earned 3-stars.
And finally, I finished another John Boyne novel – The Absolutist. Wow. Boyne again draws you into a story you cannot imagine ever being part of – yet he not only draws you in – he takes your hand and gently brings you along. This story took me for a journey and the ending was incredible. 4-stars (because it could have been LONGER!!)
What are you making and reading this week?
That is all I have for this week, and as always – if you wrote a post to share, please leave your link below!
Thank you for your participation!
by Kat | May 1, 2019 | General, Unraveled Wednesday
May brings another finished object… err, make that a pair of finished objects! I caught the obsession with knitting bunnies earlier last month and obsessively knit I did! Susan Anderson’s patterns are wonderfully written – and her method of knitting a bunny is genius.
My mods: Due to leftover yarn amounts, the boy bunny has a slightly shorter shirt because I wanted him to have long sleeves. This worked well because the girl bunny appears to have a slightly longer “frock” however, I only had enough yarn for her to have “short sleeves” which I think worked just fine. I also made much larger tails for each bunny. An aspect I loved (as did Genevieve!!) – Big pompoms FTW!
The bunnies are perfect for using up odds and ends of yarn. The directions are super clear and not at all fiddly! My advice… make some bunnies! SOON!
Vacation knitting has consisted of a sock. I have not even picked up Marsa Alam – although I brought it along.
Vacation reading has also been a bit in the slow lane. I managed to finish A Ladder to the Sky before we left. I am at the point where I want to read all the John Boyne novels available. Yes, they are that good. Better, even! Like The Heart’s Invisible Furries this was a book that I could not stop listening to. Boyne somehow makes me want to listen despite the fact that my dislike for the main character (Maurice Swift) is off the charts. And, the ending… perfect, brilliant, and so fitting. 5-stars and if you have read no John Boyne I highly recommend him!
That is all I have for this week, and as always – if you wrote a post to share, please leave your link below!
Thank you for your participation!
by Kat | Apr 24, 2019 | General, Unraveled Wednesday
Post Easter unraveling means April is waning and I am eager for May! I did not do too much knitting over the weekend, but I did fix the problem in my donation shawl! I am back on track and even making some progress! I have 6 repeats done with about 12-ish more to go but it is not due until the end of June and it will be long done by then.
And Marsa Alam… I have reached the ribbing!! But, holy cow! Those last 3 or so inches seemed to take forever! I expect the body will be done sometime today. I think I will tackle the button bands and the neck band before I begin the sleeves as I am having a bit of a debate with myself on knitting them flat versus knitting them in the round.
After a very long wait, Circe finally was available for me! I enjoyed it however, I don’t think it lived up to the hype or the wait. I did enjoy it but I was hoping for more. I listened to it, and the narrator, Perdita Weeks, was wonderful! 3-stars.
After the Fire – book two of the Fredrik Werlin series. As with Italian Shoes, the writing is really wonderful. Werlin has a bit of a mystery going on – he wakes in the night to find his house on fire. He makes it out alive, but everything in the house is a loss. The story progresses as he figures out how to rebuild – and not just his house. The ending is so poignant and it makes me think that Mankell might have had one more story about dear Fredrik. I highly recommend this book and it got 5-stars.
As I read this post yesterday, I was struck by how much it reminded me of A Place in the Woods, which had been sitting on my bedside table for over a month! I finally picked it up Sunday afternoon and finished it on Monday – It was the perfect book to finish on Earth Day. But, oh boy – while I deeply loved this story I am not about to head off to the wilds of Northern Minnesota. The honesty with which this book is written makes you realize just how hard life without amenities is. The writing is beautiful. 4-stars and I highly recommend. Also, the blog post linked above is 5-stars and I urge you to go read it now!
That is all I have for this week, and as always – if you wrote a post to share, please leave your link below!
Thank you for your participation!
by Kat | Apr 17, 2019 | General, Unraveled Wednesday
Greetings Unravelers! The weather here has been decidedly fickle and we went from warm, breezy days to freezing rains mixed with a sprinkling of snow and back to warm breezy days. It was a great reminder that it is not quite time to put away the woolens. I was thankful to have a warm woolly sweater on Monday because I really did not want to turn the furnace on again – but I lost that battle in the early afternoon, despite my sweater. Thankfully the windows were back open on Tuesday with no need for woolens!
The weather has afforded me some nice bits of knitting time though and I am making good progress on Marsa Alam! Yes, I have been monogamously knitting away on it and am just over the half way point of the body. I should be working on my donation shawl, but I have a mistake and I need to do a bit of ripping back to get it on track and so I have been avoiding it.
The reading this week was really good!
My Sister, the Serial Killer finally came through from the library and it was a quick listen! It is a curious story and the book pulls you in from the beginning and keeps your attention as it draws you into this dark, yet at times humorous story. I enjoyed it and gave it 4-stars.
I was really in need of something on my Kindle to read at night and Henning Mankell came to the rescue with Italian Shoes. How is it possible that this is my first Mankell read?? The writing is wonderful and the unconventional story unfolds in a most lovely way. I fell in love with Fredrik Werlin despite himself, his self-deprecating humor is brilliant, ” I keep a diary of a life that has lost its way.” The story tells about how Fredrik begins to make amends for his lost life, and eventually find his way again. I loved it so much, that I got the second Werlin story immediately and am half way through it! 5-stars and I highly recommend!
This weeks reading rounds out with The Light Between the Oceans. This was such a melancholy story – but it is so beautifully written. It is a tale of love and loss – and through the loss, the duration of that love. I wished it had ended as I was hoping it would, but the ending was still hauntingly beautiful. This is a book I will be thinking about for a long time.
That is all I have for this week, and as always:
Thank you for your participation!
by Kat | Apr 10, 2019 | General, Unraveled Wednesday
My Marsa Alam is moving right along! I have passed the sleeve divide and now it is just “mindless knitting” which makes it the perfect companion for all the meetings I have this week! This is the first pattern I have every done that utilizes seamless set in sleeves and I am truly wowed by the ingenuity of the design! I was worried about how it would all come together, but I followed the pattern and voilà at the end of the increases you have this genius sweater start! I am not doing the body shaping (and no stripes, obviously!!) so I expect this now “mindless” knit to move right along!
I have exactly zero sweaters in my wardrobe this color and I think it will be a welcome addition and look how nicely it will go with my new Willow Top! I am in love with this pattern and I have completed a Willow Dress as well, which I hope to share photos of later this week! If you are a brand new sewist or have been sewing a long time – this pattern is wonderful! It is easy but has really lovely details and the fit is fabulous!
Now, how about some reading? Which, honestly, has not been all that great this week.
I finished three books:
The Little Friend by Donna Tartt. Oh boy. I wish I had some good things to say about this book, but sadly I think the entire premise did not work for me. This is not anywhere near the caliber of The Goldfinch or The Secret History – both of which I really loved. This story does not work for me in a number of ways. It seemed rather convoluted and, for me, fell into the “not believable” realm. And, it was a LONG listen – it just seemed to be never-ending! And, when I got to the end – it felt rather rushed (which is odd after more than 20 hours of listening!) I originally gave this book 3-stars but have since downgraded my review to 2-stars and I sadly do not recommend.
Look Alive Out There by Sloane Crosley. I do not remember where I saw this book, but wow – I wish I hadn’t! This really fell flat for me and the thing I kept thinking about while listening was she is no David Sedaris. At.All! I don’t know whether I am too old to get her humor, or she is just really not funny at all – in fact for me she just screamed “I am the epitome of white privilege and I know it!” and in all the bad ways. She makes doing mundane housework feel like the drudgery it is – fortunately the torture was short. 1-star and I do not recommend.
I also finished reading Robert Bryndza’s third Detective Erika Foster novel – Dark Water. This was a quick read with quirky Erika Foster. There is more character development in this story, and it is a page turner! Bryndza leads you down some twists and turns before you figure out “who did it” and I changed my mind numerous times throughout the novel before he unrolls the ending in a dramatic way! 4-stars and I can’t wait for the next book to be available – I am on a not too long waitlist for it with the library!
That is all I have for this week, and as always:
Thank you for your participation!
