by Kat | Jan 31, 2018 | General, Unraveled Wednesday
Welcome, Unravelers!
And, just like that January is over!
It was a good month for knitting! I managed to finish three projects! And, I have cast on another sweater for Berroco’s Lopi-Along! I started Strokkur yesterday but, I am not too far along. I love how Ysolda has me counting rows rather than measuring. I did get row gauge (which is very good) but I did not get stitch gauge, so I am knitting accordingly. It was a cold and blustery day yesterday, which makes for wonderful knitting time!
But, better than knitting was my January reading! The month started out with a bit of disappointment in the book selections, but it closed out with some really wonderful reads and I somehow managed to finish 12 books this month!
I finished reading The Girl in the Ice and loved it! A well written crime mystery. I gave it 4-stars and will try another book from this series!
I also finished listening to A Trick of the Light! Ahhhh! There is just something wonderful about Armand Gamache, and this is my favorite one yet! (I know, I say that every time, but really – the character development is just amazing and so touching in this book!) 5-stars and I highly recommend this series!
I started listening to The Woman Who Smashed Codes on Monday and really did not want to stop listening! It is wonderful!
I started reading The Snow Child.
Here is to this long month being over. The days are feeling less dark and February, while still cold, is, thankfully, not long! And, there is so much fun in February! Want to Lopi-Along? You can still join in, there is plenty of time! Are you up for some Olympic Knitting? I am pretty sure Team Rules Schmules still has openings! Perhaps, you dream of Banging out a Carbeth…and, if none of those strike your fancy, tomorrow clue #1 of Kirsten Kapur’s sock MKAL starts! So much knitting, so few days!
If you are joining in today with all the Unraveler’s, please leave your link in your comment! Have an amazing Wednesday and thank you for stopping by!
by Kat | Jan 24, 2018 | General, Unraveled Wednesday
Winter time, and the knitting is easy…
The last time I talked about my knitting, I was in the midst of determining if I had enough yarn to finish my Stopover. So, some crazy knitty math was done and it will be close, but by my calculations, I think I will have the tiniest bit of yarn left so I will have enough to kitchner the underarms! I have started my second sleeve and am inching along on it. I have not been doing much knitting (outside of that birthday knitting that is finished and will be blocking today!)
However, Death Cleaning is winning big. I don’t know what got into me, but maybe this stretch of warm weather we have had has given me a bit of Spring Fever and I have been cleaning accordingly!
However, reading has not slowed at all and it has improved dramatically from last week!
I finished The Orphan’s Tale and Lie With Me. One was awesome, the other not so much. I gave The Ophan’s Tale 5-stars. It was moving and at times heartbreaking. I fell in love with Noa and Astrid and I highly recommend it! Lie With Me got 2-stars from me. I had high hopes for this book based upon the description from the publisher but, honestly, for most of the book I felt like this… what the heck is going on??? The story unfolded so slowly, it almost didn’t. The main character is horrid. I disliked him immensely and could not muster any sympathy for him. The ending did tie up so loose ends, but I felt it the story could have been told better. The ending felt rushed after the slog of the first 2/3’s of the book and sadly, I do not recommend this one at all.
I also began and finished Behold the Dreamers. It was so wonderful, and I really loved it. It is a 5-star book and I highly recommend it. I listened, and the narration is marvelous and even better is the singing that would be lost in the written word. The melodious language is captivating. I laughed, I got angry, and I cried. It is a powerful and moving story!
I also started The Girl in The Ice, I am not far into it, but so far, so good!
I also have some very, very, very good things in my queue:
The Woman Who Smashed Codes, Never Let Me Go, You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me, and up next is Armand Gamache in A Trick of the Light.
I just want to do nothing but read all the things!
What about you? What is consuming you this week?
If you are joining us today, please leave your link below in the comments and thank you!
by Kat | Jan 17, 2018 | General, Unraveled Wednesday
Greetings Unravelers!
It has been quite the week here with the continuation of cold and snowy weather. I might almost think I am back in Michigan!
Fortunately, all this cold makes it easy to knit sweaters! And, knit I have! I am moving along nicely with my Stopover. Sleeve one is well underway (and much farther than the above image shows) and sleeve two will be soon to follow!
Add to all this much improved reading this past week and you have the makings of a practically perfect week!
I finished The Last Tudor, and gave it 4-stars.
I started listening to The Orphan’s Tale and I am about half way through. So far, it is wonderful!
I am reading Lie With Me, which I got an ARC from Netgalley. So far, I am finding it very hard to connect the dots in the story, but I am hoping that clears up soon!
I have some very good things coming up:
Louise Penny’s A Trick of the Light and Imbolo Mbue’s Behold the Dreamers!
What are you making and reading this week? Please leave your link if you are participating today!
Thank you!
by Kat | Jan 10, 2018 | General, Unraveled Wednesday
Is it just me, or does this month seem be moving by and a most rapid pace? Not that I mind at all and the days are getting every so slightly longer, which is a very good thing!
Speaking of good things: Treysta is DONE and is currently getting a bit of a Soak™ and then some blocking. Glamor shots later this week!
And, I even managed to start my Stopover last night, and got a few rows done. I had forgotten what a fast knit this is!
Reading…for all the reading I have done, very little of it was good and in fact most of it was disappointing:
In the disappointing category:
Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan. This started out really wonderfully but for me just sort of fell apart from about a third of the way in to the end. 2-stars.
Forest Dark by Nicole Krauss. After reading and deeply loving The History of Love this just fell incredibly flat for me. I kept paging back because I felt like I missed something in the story. 2-stars
Sadly, I do not recommend either of these books at all.
I finished my first book in for the “read harder challenge” Killers of the Flower Moon. I thought this was done really brilliantly. It is a fascinating story told from three perspectives – each was better than the last. This was a very quick listen and the narration was excellent. 4-stars.
Woolly: The True Story of the Quest to Revive One of History’s Most Iconic Extinct Creatures. This was a recommendation from someone in my knitting group and while I found it very interesting, I don’t think I enjoyed it as much as she did. If you are a science buff, there is so much fascinating information in this book. Also, while parts are true – much of the book is fiction. I gave it 3-stars.
The Child Finder by Rene Denfeld. A well-written and riveting tale – and a quick read! 4-stars. I highly recommend this book.
Currently reading:
The Last Tudor which is not that fantastic at all. I am listening and pushing through as I am almost done with it.
Up next: The Orphan’s Tale
What are you making and reading today?
If you are joining me today, please leave a link in the comments! And, thank you for participating!
by Kat | Jan 3, 2018 | General, Unraveled Wednesday
There was a bit of unraveling here this week. I had started this sweater earlier least year and I was uncertain on what size to make because well, a sweater knit with 14″ of positive ease? So, I cast on with a more moderate amount of ease and began knitting.
Now, let’s talk for a brief moment about knitting with dark brown yarn, shall we? And, this pattern… it seems like the perfect storm for making a mistake and never even realizing it until, oh let’s say, several repeats later… Um, yeah. So, I tried to ladder back, with cabling…and dark brown yarn…
Right, so now you see the unraveling bit. But, before I unraveled, I tried on the sweater thus far, I did have a good bit of the yoke completed. Enough to make the determination that a little more ease than I planned would be better.
So, adjustments made, and I re-cast on Monday night. This will be a bright light knit, but I feel more confident about where this pattern is going now.
I also finished a book to start off the New Year! I read The Little Book of Hygge by Meik Wiking. It was a quick and easy read. There were some “ah-ha” moments and some things that made me laugh, and I realized that in all those trips to my mother-in-law’s house with candles, Kringle, Æbleskivers, and great company were the best hygge training a girl could ask for. Sadly, I see clearly that I live with a hyggehater, so everything that I want to do puts me in direct opposition to what Steve wants to do. Case in point, twinkle lights no longer turn on. Candles? He complains that I am about to set the house on fire. And, don’t even get me started on lamp light in rooms! Anyways, if you want a quick and simple plan for inserting some hygge into your life, this book gives you some great ideas. I am on the waitlist for Wiking’s The Little Book of Lykke: The Danish Search for the World’s Happiest People. I am looking forward to reading it as well!
I am currently slowly reading Manhattan Beach, but I need to get moving on this as it is due back to the library soon! I just started listening to my first Read Harder Challenge book, Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann.
What are you reading and making to start the new year? If you wrote a post for Unraveled Wednesday, please leave your link! Thank you!
