Greetings dear Unraveler’s!
It is the last Wednesday of August… I know. I blinked and the month was over… even with two uncomfortable days (One month without my sweet Sherman and what would have been his 12th birthday.) I think those days were worse for me because Steve is of the “no more dogs ever mindset.”
Anyways, I told you this month I have been dabbling… but I don’t have a lot to show for any making this week! I have not knit another stitch on my silk shawl… but I did do all kinds of knitty maths to figure out how to work those sleeves on my sweater. I have opted with the completely detached, flat, and knit from the cuff up (so exactly like the sweater body was knit) option. One would think that this would be easy to figure out the math on this, but it was not. My solution is not perfect, but it works and I am working along… the bonus is that there are no sleeve increases outside of the rapid increases done after the cuff ribbing is finished so it is a straight-away to the shoulder. I think a week of nighttime television watching should see this sleeve done and perhaps a good start on its mate! Then the real work happens… putting the sleeves in the body. (Yeah, I am thinking lots about how that all will work…)
I also have a finished Gnome! This is Gnatty… I like him but I think he needs something. I am thinking a sweater. Stay tuned!
As for my dabbling in painting adventures this week… I tried something very different this week and my result was better than I expected! I will paint this again a few times to see if I can improve the end result. I am sharing the inspiration image for your comparison!
The reading this week was a bit of a mixed bag. I finished three books… Dark Matter, A Death in Cornwall, and Convenience Store Woman. All very different and while ymmv, I found Convenience Store Woman to be the most impressive. This week I am reading a Netgalley advanced copy of A Fabled Earth and listening to Colm Tóibín’s Brooklyn. I am further in the latter than I am in the advanced copy… but I am liking both of them thus far!
Note: the following is a bit of a Soapbox Rant, feel free to skip it!
My library is making some rather dramatic changes to Libby and Hoopla come September… I am happy about one and sad about the other. First, Libby where we can currently have up to 20 books on hold… yes, that is a lot! However, September 1st the number of holds we can have drops to 10, which is still a really good amount… I currently hover between 10 and 12 holds so this won’t change much for me. I am hopeful this change will mean a much shorter wait time for an item. The Hoopla change however, is quite dramatic and there is no way I can see that it is a good thing. They are reducing the monthly borrows to 5 from 15. Currently, I listen to way more than 5 titles a month on Libby… way more. Sigh. Maybe this won’t have much of an overall impact if the hold list in Libby moves quicker… but really, this all boils down to money… as in the money that libraries are charged for digital materials. I will absolutely be attending some upcoming local council meetings to ask about increasing library funding!
Rant over!
How about you all… are you excited to turn the page to September?
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as I understand it, your current holds above 10 will not be deleted but going forward you can only hold up to ten. i agree with you that hoopla change is dramatic. It will be interesting to see if the holds take less time….I believe it’s a money saving move and then they spin the benefits (?!?).
Love the gnome!! A sweater will be cute. also I love the painting!!
I will keep my fingers crossed that the sleeve plan works out! Your gnome is cute, but it definitely needs your usual personalized touch.
Is your library card/app access through the library by you or Carnegie? If the former, can you get a CLP card? I haven’t heard of any reduction in the number of borrows, but I also haven’t looked into it (and I will now!).
Hi There Kat! Nice to see your painting again…I like it! And Gnatty is adorable, but I agree with Sarah that he is lacking your special touch (I think a bird-watching gnome would be cute, just sayin’). I don’t use Libby so can’t comment on that and I rarely use Hoopla. I need to use my Audible credits (which keep building), but I still have not gotten that into listening to books.
Your sleeve is looking good so far, and while Gnatty is quite nice, I agree with you, he could use something else. I’ll look forward to seeing how you accessorize him! Your painting is also quite nice (and I love the inspiration photo).
We have a semi-complicated library funding arrangement here, and even though my borough taxes go towards the county library, I have limited borrowing privileges. I have just five holds and five loans, and the Libby wait times are quite long. But I’m also lucky enough to have cards at four different libraries; two of them use Cloud Library which seems a bit better than Libby. I can usually cobble together a reasonable hold queue, but I think I’m also buying more books. It does all come down to money and I hope you can find a workable solution.
I am actually a bit sad that summer is ending, it was so slow coming here and it took so long for me to get the garden furniture situation sorted that I’m not ready at all for Autumn. And I think that isn’t how I felt about August since I was still at school. I miss the light nights too, and having to draw curtains earlier and earlier. Oh well. I am turning my thoughts to bulb planting at the moment in anticipation of Spring 2025.
Meantime the newest gnome is rather lovely. Good luck with the sleeves. And yes librrary changes are very hard to bear.
Oh I know those anniversaries are hard, especially the first year. I’ve been thinking of you.
I’m guessing most people have no close idea how much electronic library services/materials cost. As someone who had that kind of thing as part of their job for so long, I know that the general assumption – even by those who should know better – is that if it’s online, surely it’s free, right? GRRRRRR.
Love the color of your sweater, btw.
I think Gnatty . . . needs some embroidery stitching on his hat???? And definitely a sweater. XO So glad you’ve decided to knit the sleeve flat! It’s going to be grand!
I have thoughts on the Libby and hoopla thing and they may change your thinking on this. For Libby, libraries pay per item and we are charged much higher amounts than consumers pay and we are limited to 26 loans per item. It is spendy, as you can imagine. Hoopla is a different model completely. Everything is available all the time and we pay per usage. So, if you have 5 check outs per month and only use 3 of them then we only pay for 3 items. My guess is that your library has dropped the number of hoopla check outs you can have because it’s too expensive to let people borrow that much and not because libraries pay more per borrow like we do with Libby. I hope that makes sense!
I’m on our local library board and what Carole wrote in her reply is pretty much what our director explained to us at a meeting a few months ago. These services are expensive! I think Gnatty is cute and a sweater might be just the thing!
Gnatty is very sweet but he does need your special touch. Fingers crossed that the sleeve plan works out well. It seems like public libraries are under quite a lot of scrutiny including budget cuts. Yet another reason to vote.