by Kat | Apr 3, 2024 | General, Unraveled Wednesday
Greetings Gentle Unravelers and Happy Wednesday to you all!
April showers are indeed showering here… it has been a rainy week. The grass is green and lush and if it would stop raining Steve would get the mower out… But it rains on so there is complaining… lots and lots of complaining! However, I have gotten very good at tuning him out! Hearing loss does indeed have benefits! Ha!
It has been a creative week here. I have a finished sock! I used a neutral for the heel and toes and I have to say that my “work around” for an afterthought heel makes the fit fantastic! I do some short rows before beginning the heel decreases. I used the decrease formula that the designer uses for the toes… and that makes for a nice fitting heel! Sock Two is underway… and I am having a thought that if I stay on this pace… I will knit 24 socks (12 pairs) this year! Okay… I am in! Haha!
I completed my 15th page in the 100 Day Project! This one was so fun… more time was used in the cutting out of the “chickens” so I compensated for that with simpler stitching.
March Stitching… what fun. This month I stepped out of my “stitch comfort zone” and learned new techniques, new stitches… and it was so fun!
March, done and dusted!
But!! The best I also have a Valkyrie! Yes, the “main” bit is finished. I still have arms and a nose to knit and two fat braids. But I am trying to figure out the best way to make a bit of “body armor”, a shield, and a sword! I have some ideas… now to just bring them to fruition!
A Valkyrie in the making!
The reading this week saw just one finish… but the in process reading is full of good things! I am listening to The Berry Picker and for the reading with my eyes selection… I am making my way through an advanced copy of a new Vera mystery. (My gosh… I do so love dear Vera!) And I have been reading LOTS and LOTS of poetry! Hurrah for National Poetry Month!
What about you? What are you contemplating as April begins to unfold?
As always, if you wrote a post to share please leave your link below and thank you!
by Kat | Mar 27, 2024 | General, Unraveled Wednesday
Greetings dearest Unravelers!
We have reached the final Wednesday of March… and I am trying to figure out the March Lion/Lamb conundrum. March has had some very curious weather in the ‘Burgh and it seems that the Lamb/Lamb version is how my March will end… but perhaps that is not so bad.
The making this week has had some unraveling…sigh. That sock… I was worried about pooling but in the straightway down the leg I fell in love with the Wabi–Sabi striping that the yarn was brilliantly doing! And then came the heel flap and gusset where all those lovely “stripes” fell into two distinct pools of color… purple on one side, green on the other, which I thought was pretty darned ugly. But I knit on hoping I could get past the ugliness of it. In the end I could not so I ripped it back, put in a row of stitches for an afterthought heel, and continued those delight stripes down the foot. My love is back for this yarn! I had completely forgotten how perfect Helen’s Shepherd sock yarn is! It has an almost cottony feel to it and it creates a lovely fabric at my “sock gauge”!
I have one finished Valkyrie Hat… which I soaked and it is blocking on a wee ball of yarn. Up next… some Valkyrie horns for that hat!
My main love this week continues to be stitching. It is the thing I think most about every day (even though I don’t spend much time stitching, I do spend a LOT of time planning pages…) I finished another page in for my book… and I LOVE it! Those circles were just so fun to do!
I am thinking that this “design” will soon be translated to a larger version to make a pillow! It was just all so fun to do!
The current page (in the header photo) has an “oops” bit of fabric… I used this fabric to make a hat for Winston when he was a baby and this cut did not “match up” the plaids perfectly, so into the scrap bag it went. A piece showing the delight of circles… I have a few more Colonial Knots to add yet today and a new page begins tomorrow!
The reading this week though… oh my goodness. It was just perfection! I think I read the best book I will read all year over the past couple of months. I have slowly savored On Time and Water. I borrowed it from the library and have been so lucky that I could renew it not once but twice! But this is a book that needs to live in my library, so I have ordered a copy for myself. If you are at all interested in the question: “Is 100 years a long time?” and as you are contemplating the answer, dear Andri has some thinking for you! (My answer: I don’t think 100 years is very long at all but when I asked Genevieve… well, she thought it was a very, very long time.) I highly recommend Mr. Magnason’s brilliant book!
I was so lucky to get an advanced digital copy of a new mystery series, Agony Hill by Sarah Stewart Taylor. I really enjoyed it! The ending was unexpected and there are some very mysterious characters! I can’t wait to see where the next book goes (and yes, I am eagerly anticipating it!!) Agony Hill will be published August 6… so you won’t have too long to wait!
And there you have my making and reading catch up with you all… what about you? What is exciting you this week?
As always, if you wrote a post to share please leave your link below and thank you!
by Kat | Mar 20, 2024 | General, Unraveled Wednesday
Greetings Gentle Unravelers and Happy Wednesday!
I have finished my *third* pair of socks this year! What??? I don’t know who these socks will be for, but they are going in the Gift Bag for someone! I am going to cast on another pair pronto… I have some Vintage Lorna’s Laces in the most delightful colors. I am a bit concerned about pooling, but I am going to give the yarn a go! Same pattern, I think… Hermoine’s Everyday Sock is such a fun knit!
I also have the start of my Valkyrie!! Barely… but yes, started!
But really, stitching is on my mind… lots and lots of stitching! I have another page completed! (all the work time on this one was in the appliqué of the flowers!) I recently had the opportunity to take a Dream Bird class from Jo Avery and I learned some incredible tips for the appliqué process. I wanted to cement them in my mind, so I took the opportunity with a page.
I really want to learn EPP (English Paper Piecing)… and have been watching videos and IG for some inspiration. Once the 100-day project is finished, I am going to give it a try with a small project (no quilts… yet, lol!) One small project to dip my toes in is a good place to start!
The reading dam broke this week, and I have three finishes! And this week, I find myself back in St. Denis with the intrepid Police Chief Bruno Courrèges… it feels good and of course, there is a murder! Haha! I am also reading another Netgalley book, Agony Hill by Sarah Stewart Taylor (another murder mystery… with some mysterious characters as well!) The cure for any reading slump for me is to settle in with a good mystery… and double mysteries are even better!
There you have my week! What about you? What are you thinking about this week!
As always, If you wrote a post to share please leave you link below and thank you!
by Kat | Mar 13, 2024 | General, Unraveled Wednesday
Greetings dear Unravelers and Happy almost mid-March!
I am absolutely not loving how quickly these days are moving along!
I do have that first sock done and I immediately started the second sock so I have something to “mindlessly” knit at night. It was a good choice to pair the yarn with Hermoine’s Everyday Sock pattern. It is easy to keep track of how many more “repeats” to do before the heel and how many on the foot before the toe… so the second sock is even more mindless!
But outside that sock knitting, not much making has been happening here… at least on the knitting front.
I am keeping up with my two stitching projects though. Carolyn asked a very good question on Monday… she wondered if I kept my time to 15 minutes… or if I went over. If I include my “thought process” for each page, I go way over the 1.25 hours of stitching time! I have sort of fallen into a rhythm of thinking about where the next page will go as I am stitching the current page, I then try and put those thoughts together (sometimes on paper), pull some fabrics and set them aside. But for the actual stitching of each page… I try very hard to block out the cutting/pinning/stitching portions to 15 minutes per day. Sometimes, I might flow over a bit… but other days the stitching might be done in 5 minutes. So I think that 15 minutes is a good average for each day!
Page 11… Farm Traffic!
My reading has settled into a very, very slow pace and I am not at all upset by this! I have been trying to find some time in the afternoon to settle in to read but I have not found success yet. So no finishes this week.
What about you? What are you thinking about this week?
As always, if you wrote a post to share please leave your link below and thank you!
by Kat | Mar 6, 2024 | General, Unraveled Wednesday
Greetings dear Unravelers and Happy Wednesday!
The making had a slight interruption this week with a blast of balmy weather it made sense to get out into the garden while the sun was shining! And despite it feeling unbelievably wrong to be out in shirtsleeves in March… I did get almost all the “pruning” done and I got a great start on the weeding! (Although, I left all the dandelions for the bees!)
But!! Despite spending quite a bit of time outdoors – I do have a finished Gnome!
Cher-gnome-ble… ready to wander!
Seeds, at the ready!
Dear Cher-gnome-ble… the bringer of spring! I really like him… his cape is so fun! I also gave him a bag filled with seed packets at the ready to sprinkle where he roams! The pattern called for only one arm, but as you can see, Cher-gnome-ble has two… it makes sprinkling those seeds easier! This pattern is from the latest set that Sarah Schira released. As you can see there are a number of Gnome Options and I have printed out the “viking” pattern and have been contemplating ideas for him her. What I immediately thought of when I saw the pattern was Brunnhilde from Wagner’s Ring Opera. So I think there will be another gnome… with a musical theme!
I really love these colors and the pattern helps to break up any pooling that might happen!
I cast on a new sock on March 1st! I am knitting socks and reading with @earthtonesgirl #ilovebooksandsockknittingkal24
Socks and reading… seemed like a natural thing to participate in! I am starting with a skein of Miss Babs Yummy 2-ply in the Deep Sea Jelly Fish color way, and my sock pattern… I thought Hermoine’s Everyday Sock was a very bookishly perfect sock! And I am listening to The Bookbinder as well… I like this pattern (I am almost at the heel where I need to pay a bit of attention) and I am really enjoying this WWI story as well! Once this pair is done, I plan in casting on another pair as I have an over abundance of sock yarn and socks are perfect companions for an audiobook!
I have two finishes this week… Ariel Lawhon’s The Frozen River and Rachel Khong’s Real Americans (which will be published April 30, 2024) I liked both books… Real Americans maybe a bit more… the writing was just so beautiful and the story is different… very different. Real Americans has lingered with me… this would be an excellent book club discussion book! And The Frozen River piqued my interest in finding out more about Martha Ballard!
And there you have my week! What about you? What are you working on this week?
