Into all lives some unraveling must fall…
Yes, there was some significant unraveling in this house in the past week…and there is a bit more unraveling to do before the week is over! Yes, the Beekeeper Cardigan is still in process, but I am moving forward with flat knit sleeves, but I will still have to rip back the left sleeve and then re-knit it flat. Seaming is much easier than purling in the round!
I am almost finished with Clue Three of KK’s MKAL and Clue Four is printed out and ready to go! I am really loving how this is working up and no unraveling at all once I got my sk2p’s and k3tog’s figured out! It brings me great joy that my ball of yarn is smaller, but I am experiencing none of the I am worried I don’t have enough yarn angst that others did.
I also began the Button Hole Refresher… even though this is a “semi-automatic” process per my machine, it is still not intuitive to me. Vicki is way smarter than me in doing snaps, just saying! I am going to make a stop at Joann’s to see if I can find some red buttons and then I will be ready to do some real buttonholes!
Reading is feeling a bit slog-like this week. I am immersed in Anna Karenina and while it is beautifully written – it is long. Tolstoy’s attention to detail is stunning… or perhaps it is his ability to use way more words to explain things other authors do with less words – I don’t know, but I am enjoying the story. However, for a long book with insane details? My vote is with Pat Conroy and, in my opinion, his writing is better. He is equally attentive to detail yet he managed to never make any of the stories feel slog-like.
Thus… I have NOT finished ONE book this week. I know!! But!! I have less than 15 hours to go in Anna Karenina (so maybe 3 more days to go!) I am so focused to get this done, because I just got Hillbilly Elegy from the library and it is also for a square on my bingo card. I am eager to move on.
I am close to being done with The Weight of Ink… I have about 25% left to read.
So… my final books for my bingo card: Sylvia Plath’s Ariel for the “Collection of poetry” square, Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo for the “Number in the title” square, Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson for “Bird or animal on the cover” square, and Laura Ingalls Wilder’s The Long Winter for “Set in a different season”. My cover all is in sight!
What about you? What are you making or reading this week?
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I’m glad the sleeves-knit-flat is working! a little unraveling is gonna be completely worth it to avoid all that purling in the round 🙂 You ARE close on a coverall! I actually got my first bingo this week … I guess I have something to blog about today! (I haven’t read Tolstoy, but I remember thinking as I read Tale of Two Cities that Dickens used lots of words and painted the best pictures with them … not a slog at all!)
I’m so looking forward to seeing your cardigan! And that coverall in sight (and it’s only July!) is amazing!
Happy to hear that the flat sleeves are working. Just curious, do you keep going with a book even if you are not enjoying it? I have stalled out on a few squares because the books I have tried do not hold my attention.
I think I may be the only person in the world that doesn’t mind purling.
We do not have the attention span readers of the 19th Century had! We have moving pictures and faster paced lives. They read FOR the pictures in their heads…anyway I totally get where you’re coming from. I read Out Steeling Horses and loved it. I almost have my third Bingo. This summers Bingo was an easy one for me!
I think Anna Karenina is my all time favorite novel and I’ve read it almost twice. The first time I pulled it off my grandfather’s shelf when I was about 12, I got to the suicide & threw the book across the room. The second time I read it was about 25 years later and I had a better understanding of what Tolstoy was writing about. I was amazed with the beauty of his writing and I can still remember the moment when the book really came together for me, moving me to tears. You have inspired me to think about reading it again to see what I think of it now.
Glad to hear that the sleeve redo is going well.
I have not read “Anna Karenina,” but having read “Crime and Punishment” (so an author from the same country and a similar time), I’d say it’s possibly a Russian writer thing to be excessively wordy. I might give AK a try one of these days, though, because I know it’s supposed to be good, even if it is a bit of a slog.
I finished a great book yesterday, “The Song of Achilles.” Talk about great writing!
I haven’t read AK either, but might give it a try. It is a classic that slipped by me. Can’t wait to see your finished sweater. I don’t like purling too much, harder on the wrists. Have you ever tried turning your sleeve inside out when it’s a right side purl? Then just turn it back when done or ready to knit onto body. Although if I’m knitting the body flat I like to knit the sleeves flat to keep a consistent gauge. Knitting is so great. I’m 68 and have been knitting my entire life and I still learn something with every project I make.
Oh, yes. Anna is QUITE the slog. But, hey! You know a whole lot more now about farming in 19th century Russia than you ever planned to, amiright???? (Pat Conroy is a fine, fine storyteller . . . but Tolstoy is The Master of Realism.) (Maybe . . . too much realism, but still The Master.) (And War & Peace is much, much better than Anna K.)
Anyway. That yarn is just beautiful! I love the color. Your shawl will be gorgeous. 🙂
I listened to Anna last summer and it’s a slog but it’s pretty amazing, too. I love Pat Conroy and agree that he’s a wonderful storyteller but Tolstoy is . . . well . . . Tolstoy and he’s what everyone tries to be, I think. Is War and Peace up next?!?
Reads to me that you have a lot o’ balls in the air and , and – drumroll, please, getting to be quite the expert at keeping all airborne! Congrats and I look forward to seeing the knit pieces…
Carry on!
Cheers~
Oh, that yarn is gorgeous! Sounds like plenty of craft has been keeping you busy – perfectly understandable why the pages are fewer this week! And yay for seeing the bingo cover in range – I didn’t generate any card this summer – just in a “reading up a storm” mode instead.
I remember being so pleased with myself when I read War and Peace in 6th grade as my big summer accomplishment, but it was an accomplishment that may have scarred me for life as I haven’t read Tolstoy since. I hope you have a good knitting and reading week ahead, with neither unraveling or slogs!
sorry there was unknitting but happy to read you are plugging along 🙂