by Kat | Jul 25, 2018 | General, Unraveled Wednesday
Greetings Unravelers!
I have a FO to share with you all today! Yes, my Beekeeper Cardigan is done! I love how it turned out, and especially the hack of knitting the sleeves flat and seaming them! Thank you, Mary for being the encouragement I needed to step out of the box and try something different! With all the adjustments, this sweater took me 8 days to knit, including the unraveling of the first sleeve and reknitting it. Yes, 8 days to a finished sweater! You can see all the details here.
And, I am back to plugging away at my Vodka Lemonade and making headway through mystery knitting clues. All in all, a very good knitting week!
Did you all see that the Man Booker Longlist was out yesterday? I got very excited to see Michael Ondaatje’s Warlight on the list! Of course, my “want to read” list has expanded but in a very good way!
Now, ready for something really exciting??
I have my Cover All for Book Bingo! That’s right… Bingo Card One is DONE!
I had a good week for finishes:
The Weight of Ink: 4-stars. I really enjoyed this novel, very much! It is well written, and I loved how it posed the two time periods and the two remarkable women, Ester and Helen. If you like history, you’ll love this novel.
Anna Karenina: 4 stars. While it was long (and wordy), but it was an interesting look into life in Russia. If you have not read this classic, you should!
Hillbilly Elegy: 5-stars. This is a well written, and at times, painful look into life for a forgotten segment of society. It is narrated by the author and I highly recommend.
Out Chasing Horses: 4-stars. I have had this book on my “to read” list ever since I finished Ashes in My Mouth, Sand in My Shoes. This novel did not disappoint at all.
The Long Winter: 4-stars. I have read this book dozens of times and each time something new speaks to me. Also, I am profoundly grateful that we don’t get winters like they did in Nebraska!
Six of Crows: 2-stars. I had higher hopes for this YA novel. I thought it might be a bit like the Magicians, but for me it fell flat.
Ariel: 4-stars. Honestly, I picked this because it was short and really, I knew nothing about Sylvia Plath’s writing (outside of The Bell Curve) and I did not know she was a poet. Some of the poems in Ariel blew me away and I will be looking for more of her poetry to read!
Now, for the current reads: I just started listening to Ready Player One and started reading So Long, See You Tomorrow – both of which I was able to fit in to my second bingo card!
There you have my week! What about you? What are you making and reading this week?
If you wrote a post to share, please leave your link below!
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by Kat | Jul 24, 2018 | General, In This Moment
The determination to get caught up is strong and I am so close!
Close on a cover all for Book Bingo and close to being caught up with KK’s MKAL clues! AND… as you can see, I am still not close to the end of skein number one!
Happy Tuesday all!
by Kat | Jul 11, 2018 | General, Unraveled Wednesday
No unraveling this week, but just barely!
I am making progress on my Beekeeper Cardigan, but I have had to tink back a few times when I was not paying attention and my bees got out of sync! However, today I have about 5 inches to go in the body, but I won’t get any knitting time on this project until Friday. My “days” of knitting on this have had to be adjusted because of pesky things like making meals as Steve is home so I have not had much uninterrupted time to knit. However, Steve is gone for a work function this weekend and I am selfishly looking forward to having the house to myself. And, with some luck – I will have a completed sweater before the weekend is over!
The reading had mixed reviews this week. I finished Backman’s Us Against You and The Picture of Dorian Gray.
After reading Bonny’s review of Us Against You, I was concerned but I forged ahead and began to read it. I, like Bonny, loved Beartown and it was a beautifully told story! However, Us Against You fell short for me and I gave it just 3-stars. It is a bit of a disjointed story and it felt quite chopped up as I read it and I think it could have been better if it the writing had flowed better. But, it is a dysfunctional story about some very dysfunctional characters. It leaves you feeling very uncomfortable and the story feels very unfinished, but I am hoping that the final book of the Beartown trilogy fixes these issues and my suggestion is to wait to read Us Against You until the third book of the trilogy is released.
The Picture of Dorian Gray fills my “Classic you should have read” bingo square and wow… this story really blew me away. The writing is brilliant, and the premise of the story is fascinating – again, Dorian is an utterly dysfunctional character, but the story that plays out is thought provoking and, yes, disturbing. If you have not read this story, I don’t want to give anything away, but the concepts of vanity, youth, and the perceptions of how one looks make for great discussion and I think this would be an excellent book for a book club to read! I gave it 5-stars and highly recommend it!
I am more than half way through The Weight of Ink and loving it. And, I just started listening to Anna Karenina… and will be listening for a good bit of time yet (I have about 34 hours of listing time to go!) I have just 7 books to go for a coverall so perhaps August will see me get a bingo or two on my second card!
But, what about you? What are you making and reading today?
If you wrote a post to share today, please leave your link below!
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by Kat | Dec 19, 2017 | General, In This Moment
I have been contemplating books for the Read Harder challenge. The categories are most interesting… some are easy for me to fill in a book or two or three, while others will require more research! I have been enjoying doing this research tremendously until I got derailed yesterday…
The mail person brought the most amazing package all the way from Salt Lake City! I wish you all could have seen the look on my face when I opened the package to discover these treasures! And, yes, there might have even been a tear or two shed as such an amazing gift! Dear Margene, you are truly one in a million! I cannot tell you how much these books mean to me and I have been pouring over them this ever since! They are truly wonders that are filled with such incredible inspiration! Why they even have practical application that is MOST APPRECIATED!
Now I can barely wait to begin my new stitching project on Thursday!! It will almost feel like Margene is sitting with me as I begin this new project – for truly, Margene, you are such an inspiration, and I am thrilled to take this journey with you and do so with profound thanks and so much love!
by Kat | Dec 15, 2017 | General
I have been doing some super-secret knitting during the day which I can’t tell you all about or show you just yet, but I am making some good progress. This has been assisted greatly by audiobooks (I am almost done with Bonfire) and Season 2 of The Crown on Netflix, which I finished yesterday.
I am anticipating this super-secret knitting to be completed today, which will allow me to BREATHE a deep sigh of relief!
I am also anticipating the 2018 Read Harder Challenge, which I am going to participate in next year. I have also been contemplating my Goodreads book challenge this year – do I play it safe or really push myself this year? Perhaps with the Net Neutrality debacle, reading might be more important next year as streaming Netflix might be limited. I am leaning towards pushing myself.
AND, as you can see, I am really ready for some Christmas Break Reading. The Library is being SUPER good to me right now and has somehow moved me up on my “hold list” almost to the GAH point! I checked out the above books on Tuesday night, and last night Killers of the Flower Moon was downloaded to my iPad. With these additions, it almost feels like I can make that 85-books-read mark!
But, how about some links:
First up, staying with the reading theme:
I laughed at this Hogwarts House Quiz (I got Slytherins and loved that I have read most of the books on the House Slytherin list)
I also loved the 100 Must-Read Books with One-Word Titles. I added quite a few to my read list!
Are you a mystery series lover? 25 Of The Absolute Best Cozy Mystery Series
Also, FYI: You can now follow hashtags on IG…
And, finally the knitting links:
Playtime
Sankta Lucia Socks
Little Knots Cardigan… LOVE!
Is 2018 you Year of Knitting? Big Sky Weather Scarf This could be an excellent stash buster as well!
Pine Burr I am not sure if it’s the color (which is divine!) or the stitch pattern but, I love this cowl!
Bittersweet Oh, my. I love the texture. Will 2018 be the year I finally tackle texture?
And, Kate Atherley’s Rosetta Tharpe is FREE until midnight December 17th in honor of the induction of Ms. Tharpe to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
That is all I have for this week! Have a great weekend and I will see you back here on Monday!
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