by Kat | Oct 25, 2023 | General, Unraveled Wednesday
Greetings Unravelers and Happy Last Wednesday!
It feels good to be back in my routine… laundry is caught up (as you all know it is really never “done” lol) and we (in the ‘Burgh) are back in a week of summery weather. I am loving this “Second Summer” especially after the frosty Monday we had! However, this spate of warm weather is delaying the Bulb-o-rama that is this box…
Bulb-o-rama!
I have bulbs for naturalization (daffodils and crocus), tulips (I love them so so much! I am hoping the deer won’t love them as much as I do though, lol), and some alliums to have another spring plant for the pollinators! I have my plan for planting and the forecast looks like once we get through the next 7-ish days, temps go back to more seasonably cooler temps… perfect for planting all these bulbs!
There was little to no making on my trek to Erie… by the time I sat down at the end of the day I was tired and the lighting was not fabulous so I barely knit any rows and only stitched two squares. But sometimes a break from making gives one a fresh perspective when you pick the making back up! I am one repeat, a toe, and a heel away from a new pair of socks! And I am forcing myself to finish my Pressed Flowers wrap after that is done. But I really, really, really want to knit something that is NOT MOSAIC KNITTING! My hope is that with this self-imposed knitting plan, I will be casting on something NEW soon!
The reading had only one highlight… Death Comes to Marlow (book 2 in the series). It was delightful! The other book I finished will not be a favorite (Old God’s Time) but ymmv. I am currently listening to The Running Grave (Cormoran Strike Book 7) and I am loving it as much as each previous installment! My evening read, The Underground Library, (a Netgalley book) is really not my cup of tea reading. History-lite-romance… is just all sorts of meh… trite… predictable. I have about 15% to go and yet it feels like it will never end! I kept hoping that it would get better but, thus far, it has not!
What about you all? What are you making and reading this week!
As always, if you wrote a post to share please leave your link below!
by Kat | Oct 18, 2023 | General, Unraveled Wednesday
Greetings Unravelers from the midway point of our Erie trek!
I would like to think that I am making and reading up a storm but realistically that is not likely happening… or if it is, it is in very small doses. I have brought my Pressed Flower socks for company… as well as some wound skeins of Koigu KPPPM ready to be cast on… lol.
Steve is NOT a reader and he hates that I read on vacation so my reading time is limited to at night when I get into bed.
I am hoping that you all are making up for the void of making and reading in this post… please tell me what you are excited about this week! I will be back next week and will be delighted to catch up on what you all are up to!
As always, please share your post below and I will be back next week to tell you all about my trip!
by Kat | Oct 11, 2023 | General, Unraveled Wednesday
Greetings Unravelers and Happy Wednesday!
For me, this is the Day Before Vacation and so I have a bit of housekeeping to share with you all. First, next week there will be an Unraveled post… it will be a bit different… i.e. I have it already written, so there won’t be much from me on the making or reading, but I know you all probably have been making and reading lots, so please share!
The only other post I have pre-planned is for Bonny’s Gathering on Poetry, which is the 19th.
Outside of those two posts, it will be radio silence here, but I will try and post some things on IG to share the glory that is autumn on Lake Erie!
My making this week had a bit of a detour! The call of The Gnome was strong and I went with the flow…
Gnatalie Queen Cole
Meet Gnatalie Queen Cole! She is the alto for my little gnome quartet… but she missed the part that the alto is not the diva… because she is all diva! She sort of reminds me of Charlie Brown’s curly haired girl…except more! Her dress has some sparkles and she loves how it gleams in the spotlight!
I followed this pattern for the her…but I knit 10 more rounds on the dress before I began the ruffle. Her hair is the beard from this gnome… again, I knit roughly 18 more “straight” rows before beginning the decreases. To get the best curls, I washed and “set” them before unraveling. I think she is just too fun! Now all they need is the tree to sing around!
The other detour was The Spinning of the Scrappy Sock fiber… oh my. I just could not stop! And once I had two full bobbins, I could barely wait for the second bobbin to rest before plying it up! It has had a bath and I am In. Love! Oh my… This is the most fun I have had in forever! It is thicker than my usual spin… it is roughly between DK and worsted weight! Two ply with all the glorious barber-poling one could imagine! And soft! Oh my… it is so soft! I am thinking this will be the perfect Honey Cowl. I have just over 400 yards, so I will have enough to cast on 180-ish stitches.
A riot of color!
Such delightful detours! But let’s get back on track and talk about my reading! It was a delightful week of reading! I finished Tracy K. Smith’s To Free the Captive which will be published November 7th. It is beautiful writing (as one would expect from a poet) and the story is a bit of Tracy’s history and it is told so beautifully. One phrase has stayed with me and will likely for a very long time… The Free and the Freed. Powerful phrasing!
I also have been racing through the second Marlow Murder Mystery… it is even better than the first! I should finish it up today. (and then my vacation reading will slow dramatically… although I just began reading Old God’s Time last night … so no thoughts yet!)
But what about you? What is occupying your time?
As always, if you wrote a post to share please leave your link below and thank you!
by Kat | Oct 4, 2023 | General, Unraveled Wednesday
Greetings dear Unravelers and Happy First Wednesday in October!
While my body is firmly planted in October, my mind is drifting away to December and some holiday gift knitting ideas are swirling around. However, if I want to actually get any holiday knitting done, I better move quickly from the idea part… to the making part and quickly! LOL
Also swirling around is “vacation knitting” planning…things not to take mostly. I finished my Blue Jay yarn spin and I was planning on it becoming a lovely pair of handspun socks, but the Yardage Gods have other ideas because I am certain that there is not enough for socks! The yarn needs a bit of a spa-treatment… and pre-wash, I have just 225 yards (and I fear post wash it will poof up a bit and be less yardage than that. Sigh. I need to think about something that is small, easy to pick up and put down… stay tuned.
It looks Blue Jay-ish to me!
Meanwhile in my regular knitting, my second sock has passed the “challenging pattern” portion and the remainder of the pattern is committed to memory and it will go surprisingly fast! I expect that this sock will be done this week! Just in time for the return for chillier weather knitting…i.e. a lapful of pressed flowers wrap!
Sock Two underway!
But!! I was jonesing for a new spinning project so I pulled out a bag of Scrappy Sock Bundles from Wound Up Fiber Arts for an entirely random, spin thicker than my usual project! I got 3 “bundles” done in short order yesterday… it is so fun to see these bright vibrant colors as I spin them! And I have lots more fun to go! I have one more bag to spin as well and my plan will be to spin up each bag and ply them together for a totally crazy yarn!
The reading this week… delightful. Though The Garden of Evening Mists took me a bit to settle in with… once I did, my goodness, what beautiful writing. I don’t know how this book never crossed my radar in years past. I also finished Henry Hoke’s Open Throat… a short story. I don’t think Hoke reaches Clair Keegan’s mastery of a short story, but it was a curious tale (or tail?) and made me think.
Thanks to Netgalley, I started reading Tracy K. Smith’s new book, To Free the Captives. This will be published Nov. 7th and I am about a third of the way in… and loving it. It is part history, part reminiscing, and all the beautiful writing you would expect from a poet.
My daytime listen is a new mystery series I stumbled upon via Pinterest of all places. Wicked Autumn by G.M. Malliet… the series is about a retired MI-5 agent, Max Tudor, who has begun a new life as a vicar in a quiet village. Yes, retired MI-5 agent becomes a vicar… and someone is murdered! So far, I am enjoying it… and there are a number of books in the series!
What about you? Are you a Soctoberist this month? Or is something else calling to you?
As always, if you wrote a post to share leave your link below and thank you!
by Kat | Sep 26, 2023 | General, Unraveled Wednesday
Greetings dear Unravelers and Happy Last Wednesday of September!
I got my COVID/flu jab yesterday and this morning I am definitely feeling it this morning. I am happy to say that I have overcome last week’s pattern hurdle with sock one and finished it! Sock two was started yesterday afternoon!
I am also happy that there have been a handful of days that made a lapful of woolly knitting a delight so I have added several repeats to my Pressed Flowers Wrap… the end is getting closer!
I should have gotten some sewing done this month, but thanks to Sherman it did not happen… sigh. But I am happy to say that he is almost 100% again… his hearing has returned, he has had no more “spells” and so it seems likely that it was some sort of middle/inner ear infection. He still has a few days of steroids but he is pretty much back to his normal silly self! I will put sewing on my list again for late October and cross my fingers! Ha!
It has been week of reading highs and lows. I finished what will absolutely be one of the best books I have read all year (My Friends by Hisham Matar) as well as a very good book (The Bee Sting by Paul Murray which was not as good as Matar’s book but ymmv). I also bailed on a book… (Small Mercies… I think this was just the wrong time for this book for me.)
Since finishing those books I have had trouble settling in with another book. I started listening to Mrs. Dalloway and have no thoughts yet about it. At night I started The Garden of Evening Mists… no thoughts on that one either. Good Book Hangover is real, folks. Yesterday, Amazon had a “deal” on a couple of Claire Keegan short stories collections, so I picked them up and hope that a short story or two will cure my hangover! Fingers crossed!
There you have my week… what about you? What are you making and reading this week?
As always, if you wrote a post to share leave your link below and thank you!
Page 2 of 68«12345...102030...»Last »
