by Kat | Dec 20, 2017 | General, Unraveled Wednesday
‘Twas five days before Christmas and all though the house…
Lots of stirring. Lots of last minute things I did not plan for, or expect, or yeah.
And, then my darling daughter wondered if I would just buzz over to Target to get something that my Target had in stock but hers did not.
Umm, I love her dearly, but Target five days before Christmas? I am pretty sure I won’t even be able to get into the parking lot! So, yeah… at least that was not added to the “must complete list” in fact, this one did not even make to the “in my wildest dreams list” (Thanks, Kym for that great list name, because prior to reading your post it was the “no effing way list” lol)
However, my super-secret knitting is DONE! Cross that baby off the list! Woo hoo!! Which brings me back to my regularly scheduled knitting, and I am making progress. I am through the beginning of the shaping decreases and onto just straight knitting for a bit. And, Mother Nature has turned the heat up outside so the urgent need for another sweater is not as pressing. But, I knit on!
Reading has been good and next week I will be sharing my favorite reads of the year!
I finished listening to Sing, Unburied, Sing. Wow. What an amazing, powerful book. Excellent narration as well! I gave it 5-stars.
I finished listening to Bonfire, which I also did not love. It did not live up to the hype and got 3-stars.
I also finished reading The Rules of Magic. I thought this was an okay read, but not my cup of tea and it only got 2-stars.
I am listening to The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden and I started reading The History of Love.
And, after Thursday night (my last choir rehearsal before Christmas eve) I am free to read to my hearts content! And, READ I will. I am 3 books away from hitting 85 books read this year and I am determined to do that! Also, to everyone who says, how can you read so much? Well, I am a rabid audio-book listener! I start shortly after I get up and have about 7 hours a day to listen. You can get a lot of “reading” done in that amount of time! It is truly the BEST!
But, I hope that crazy is not reigning at your house and that you are embracing the season and thanks for joining me today!
by Kat | Dec 13, 2017 | General, Unraveled Wednesday
The rush of the season makes for little knitting time, so no real progress on anything. However, I have managed to get some rounds in on Treysta. I am just so in love with the colors in this sweater. It makes me happy even if I can only knit a haphazard round here or there! The body grows slowly, but it grows!
I am still on the Peace Train and I worked on it last night at Knit Night. It is the perfect peaceful knitting project, and it has grown a bit from this photo taken during the daylight hours on Tuesday!
I am ever so grateful for audiobooks as they are the perfect companion for the rush of Christmas.
I finished:
The Hundred-Year-Old-Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared and LOVED it! I have added another of Jonas Jonasson’s books to my “read list” The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden.
I also finished Beasts of Extraordinary Circumstance. I enjoyed it and it was a quick read. It reminded me of Jungle Book, in that here is a story of Weylyn Grey who was raised by wolves. It is a charming little tale. There is magic and wonder and fantasy and it is a beautifully told story.
Currently reading:
Sing, Unburied, Sing and The Rules of Magic.
Up next is Bonfire. I am really pushing hard to get to 85 books before the end of the year. I am close, but it will require some work!
What is occupying your time this week?
Thank you for joining me this week!
by Kat | Dec 6, 2017 | General, Unraveled Wednesday
This week there was a bit of unraveling and a careful bit of unknitting. Sigh.
The unraveling bit involved my Peace Train knitting. Right pattern but wrong yarn? Or perhaps, it was the wrong pattern for the right yarn. Thus, my Peace Train Knitting has a definite Decemberist vibe now. And, the fabric is much nicer. I will be on the lookout for some wonderful fingering weight yarn to use for the Peace Shawl, but that won’t be my focus this December.
The unknitting was entirely my fault. One would think if the pattern author took all this time to lay out super clear instructions for short row shaping, including making sure you have different markers so you don’t mess up, that well, I wouldn’t mess up! However, apparently, I can’t follow instructions multiple times in a row correctly, so I am tinking back to fix my mistake. I should be back on track shortly, and then sleeve division. (Really, I am blaming this mistake on Outlander – I should have been Decemberist Peace Knitting not keep track of where you are in a pattern knitting!) I am sure you will get sick of updates on this sweater before it is finished, so I promise to share a different view next week! (Hopefully!!)
Now for the reading!
In the finished category:
- Bury Your Dead with Armande Gamache and I LOVED it. I gave it 5 stars and highly recommend this series.
- Never Caught. It was a quick listen and I enjoyed it. It is a fascinating story and I learned things I did not know. It is incredibly well told and amazing frank. My opinion of George and Martha Washington has diminished greatly after this book. If you love history, you will enjoy this book. I gave it 4-stars.
- Simply Clean. I had hoped for some amazing motivation in this book, but really, there was none. The idea of “just pick up after yourself” is great (I mean who does not know this already????) but the concepts do not at all seem logical. Her 10 minutes might work if you live by yourself in a studio apartment, in a real house it seems highly illogical. I gave it 2-stars.
Currently reading:
The Hundred-year-old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared…a suggestion from Mary and I am loving it. I am almost halfway through and hope to be done this week.
Up Next:
- Sing, Unburied, Sing.
- Beasts of Extraordinary Circumstance
- Bonfire
What are you reading right now? And, thank you for joining us today!
by Kat | Nov 29, 2017 | General, Unraveled Wednesday
No unraveling here at all this week, just plenty of sweater love! This is my finished Rusty, which turned out better than I could have imagined. Things I would change…I reduced the number of stitches picked up, but I think I could have reduced a tiny bit more. But, it is much better than previous attempts at this! I had to add in 3 stitches on the round before I began the color work to get the pattern to work out correctly. But, I just love this sweater. It is warm and so comfortable! I would absolutely knit this again with the exact same yarn. And, can I talk about Plutolopi for a moment? I LOVE IT! You might think it would be kind of iffy looking at the wheels, but it makes the most amazing fabric! I will definitely be knitting with this stuff again!
Now, if only sweater weather would stay here for a bit! This week we have headed back to the upper 50’s and low 60’s during the day. Crazy. And, what is crazier is that Steve mowed the lawn yesterday. Yeah. He was thrilled, let me tell you! LOL
And, now how about some reading updates!!
I have about 10 chapters to go in Bury Your Dead by Louise Penny. It is so good, and I am hopeful that I will have this done before November ends!
I finished Pioneer Girl: The annotated Autobiography by Laura Ingalls Wilder and LOVED IT! It got 5 stars from me and I highly recommend this for anyone who has read and re-read the Little House books.
I also finished A Small Porch by Wendell Berry, oh my. I loved it. This was my first Wendell Berry book, but it won’t be my last. It was such a breath of fresh air for my head, and I gave it 5 stars as well.
I have some good things in my listening queue that will be up next: an interesting suggestion I got from the library – Never Caught, The Washington’s relentless pursuit of their runaway slave, Ona Judge, by Erica Armstrong Dunbar. And The 100-year-old who climbed out the window and disappeared by Jonas Jonason which was recommended to me by Mary. I am eager to start listening to them.
So many books, so few days left this year. I won’t make 100 books read this year, but I am hoping to get to 85 (I am at 72 books completed today!)
But, really… what are you making this week?
by Kat | Nov 22, 2017 | General, Unraveled Wednesday
Hello Unravelers!
It’s the pre-Thanksgiving Unraveled, and I don’t know about you, but there has been little knitting OR reading around here this week.
But, I do have another sweater in progress! I am making my way through the colorwork section of the yoke but with only knitting a couple of rows at night, this won’t be done anytime soon. I am shooting for sleeve divide to be completed next week!
On the reading front – I had hoped to have Ali Smith’s Autumn: A Novel done this week but that has not happened either! Exhaustion has crept in and I have been lucky to read a paragraph before falling asleep.
BUT! I did finish Mary Oliver’s Devotions. Oh my. I loved it, and this has moved into the “must buy” category. The poetry is absolutely wonderful, and it has been much appreciated in these hectic days of late.
In my ears is Bury Your Dead with dear Inspector Gamache. I am not too far along, but it is wonderful!
I also have been reading a few pages of Pioneer Girl each night and I am enjoying it immensely.
I hope your Thanksgiving preparations are going smoothly and that you have no last-minute trips to the grocery store this week!
What are you making this week?
