by Kat | 6 days ago | General, Unraveled Wednesday
Greetings Unraveler’s and Happy Wednesday!
I am happy to report that the picking up of the neck stitches on the Mercedes vest was insanely easy! Perhaps the easiest ever!! Julie Weisenberger is a genius! Every detail of this garment was unbelievably well thought out and to say I love it is an understatement! I absolutely will be knitting this beauty again! I am wondering if I can make the Aubergine Jane recently reclaimed from my failed Waffle Pullover would work… I won’t know until I swatch and see… stay tuned!
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Front…
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Back…
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Back detail…
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More back detail…
In the interim… I picked up the Cuff Link Socks and banged out sock one the right sock rather quickly in a couple of evenings of knitting! (I had the cuffs and completed the heel flap and turn.) I tried her (Denise DeSantis) “anatomical toe” and LOVE the fit! Sock Number Two (the left sock) has been cast on!
One right foot… the fit is fantastic!
Then, for the next pair of socks I am going to give color work a try and see how that goes.
The reading… it has been good… just one finish. Vincent Yu’s Seek Immediate Shelter. It is his debut novel that crossed my radar because it made President Obama’s Summer Reading List. It is a collection of stories around one community that receives an alert about an incoming ballistic missile… which turns out to have been sent in error. The stories are captivating… and I have thoughts. (This would be such a GREAT RWU BOOK CLUB BOOK… HINT, HINT, HINT!!) Anyways… my brief takeaway is it is not always better to say “that last thing”…ever. I highly recommend this captivating story!
And there you have my very brief update for you all. What is your October looking like?
A heads up… I am taking a bit of a break next week so there won’t be a link up next week. See you all back here later this month!
If you wrote a post to share, please leave your link below and thank you!
by Kat | Oct 5, 2026 | General, In This Moment
Is for weekend reminiscing!
If I could order weather… this past weekend would be the weather I would order! Clear skies, warm autumn sunshine, slow sunrises and sunsets, cooling overnights… and no frost to end the mood! If one could “bottle” the days, these are the days I’d save!
Days that were a balm from reality. I just can’t with everything…so I retreated to my kitchen on Saturday and did some baking. Perfect fall days just scream for French Apple Cake and my favorite is David Lebovitz take on Dorie Greenspan’s recipe. It is so, so good!
Cake Perfection… those browned bits are the best parts!
I also finished the body and the button band for my Mercedes Vest. The weather was perfect for knitwear drying so I took full advantage on Sunday. Today begins the neckband pickup and I have prepped myself with the clear and concise instructions from Julie Weisenberger. I feel better about this than any neckband I have ever attempted.
And I finally sat down to stitch on six snaps to my Alabama Chanin jacket!
As you can see… it was a productive weekend.
I hope your weekend was exactly what you needed as well. See you all back here on Wednesday!
by Kat | Sep 30, 2026 | General, Unraveled Wednesday
Greetings dear Unravelers!
It is very bittersweet to close the door on September… I have enjoyed this month tremendously!
I have reached the point of knitting where you knit and knit… and somehow, it is not getting longer! And then suddenly, yesterday afternoon, I measured and lo and behold… an inch to go! It’s still a good bit of knitting yet and then I will wash and gently block it before I pick up the neckband. I also have the back button band to knit. But my progress thus far is delighting me!
I played with another little weaving pattern over the last week as well. I love it and once I got the “over-under” pattern figured out, it was an enjoyable way to spend a few minutes! I like the simplicity of this method of weaving. There is no “angsty” process of dressing a loom… just the fun of the weaving bits! I want to try this pattern on a bit of a larger canvas. What will I do with these little bits and bobs? Probably nothing… but the pure enjoyment of doing something different is a very good thing!
Keeping in that same frame of mind… each morning I am turning my brain to linen stitch and knitting a few rows on the Wakebrite Bandana. While the linen stitch is not an overly complicated, it does require my attention. Not quite meditative, let your mind wander garter stitch… but rather, keep your focus and tune out all the noise knitting. I am in no hurry to get this bandana finished… I am immersing myself fully in the journey… the process… not the finished object.
It has been a wonderful week of reading! I have finished Roopika Risam’s Data Empire. I was fascinated from the start to the finish! Roopika has put together a comprehensive history of how data collection has propelled this world forward. It was a book that crossed my radar thanks to President Obama’s Summer Reading List. It was a great recommendation and got 5-stars from me!
I also picked up Pádraig Ó Tuama’a latest poetry book, Love Between Men and I loved it. The poems are beautiful and thought-provoking. It is the perfect companion to his Kitchen Hymns and I highly recommend both of them!
As always, if you wrote a post to share please leave your link below!
by Kat | Sep 28, 2026 | General, Words
I don’t recall such a definitive September before… a curious month… the days leading up to autumn were warm with summer temperatures right up until the week that autumn arrived and then, as if a switch had been flipped, it felt like autumn.
I do so love the September light though, and although we got more than our fair share of rain this month, there were still a good number of days that I could savor the light of September. Slow sunrises and sunsets are some of my favorite things… and September brings the best!
It was also a September capped by losses… particularly Wendell Berry, Gloria Steinem, and Annie Dillard. I admired these people… especially the words they wrote down. I am grateful their words live on. I have been dipping into Wendell Berry’s poetry and have queued up Pilgrim at Tinker Creek for October. I was moved by Gloria Steinem’s final posthumous essay in The New Yorker. And I am looking forward to reading her newly released memoir, An Unexpected Life soon.
September was the month that I circled back on some medical issues… my mammogram recheck (all good!) and my visit with the urogynocologist that was better than I even dared to hope for! I had my vision checked and got new glasses! And last Thursday, I went and got my “jabs” for Flu and COVID and though I was feeling “mighty puny” on Friday… I am so glad for a good reaction to reinvigorate my T-cells!
My backyard has settled down quite a bit… or at least I thought it had until I had some migrating visitors that I count myself blessed to have caught in their brief stopover! I was sitting at my desk when I heard an unfamiliar bird and was stunned to find a group of Red-eyed Vireo’s in my little tree all taking turns in the bird bath! These are not usual visitors by any means and I was thrilled to watch them enjoy the water! I also caught sight of a lone female Summer Tanager in that tree about a week later. I only ever saw her… and I truly hope she was not making her long migration solo! But perhaps the best was the morning Frankie and I were out for his morning “sniff” amble… I have been leaving my phone at home and I heard what I thought might be bluebirds! I hurried the amble up to a brisker pace back home and headed out to the yard and I was right, Eastern Bluebirds all around my backyard! The wires were full of them! I was stunned because I never see Bluebirds anywhere in my neighborhood… I have tried enticing them with mealworms but have never been successful!
Perhaps the best physical thing straddling this odd, uneven time is that I still have a hummingbird or two visiting and I put out millet seed for the juncos and even though I have not seen one yet, I heard them on Saturday…
Nostalgia — that’s the autumn, dreaming through September. Just a million lovely things I will remember. — Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
Yes, indeed… there are so many things I will remember from this September! I am so sad it is almost over.
What about you? How was your September?
See you all back here on Wednesday!
by Kat | Sep 23, 2026 | General, Unraveled Wednesday
Greetings dear Unraveler’s and happy Wednesday to you all!
This week, the weather appears to have flipped the switch from balmy warm summer days to fall here in the South Hills of Pittsburgh. Sweater weather??… absolutely!
I knew this was coming at some point in time and so… I did some closet prep late last week. I mean… who am I? Ha! Anyways, in past years this time of year when you sort of straddle two seasons… my closet becomes complete and total chaos. But maybe not this year… advance ordering, moving some cooler weather clothes around and in an organized fashion might keep my closet from looking like a bomb exploded in it! I am feeling very smart and orderly and quite happy with myself!
The other thing that has been a bit of an issue in my neighborhood is the volumes of rain we continue to get! It seems we are almost constantly under a flood watch which at times peaks up to a warning and then dips back down to the watch zone… sigh. I live in the Rock Hill neighborhood housing plan… and truly, it’s a very rocky, very elevated bit of land (not at all a place where you’d imagine flooding being an issue) and it is just soggy on top of soggy on top of soggy… with an occasional stream/river flowing down our street. The Chartiers Creek has a “white water” rafting look these days… yeah. Lots. Of. Rain!
This week’s making has mostly been focused on the genius of Julie Weisenberger... oh my goodness, she has blown my mind over and over again in the knitting of the Mercedes Vest. From the very first stitch, she has thought about each step that comes after that and how best those beginning stitches need to support all that comes. I am more than a bit enamored with Julie’s Brain… but this week, I have been utterly in love with the beauty of this neckline curve. I have just cast on the brilliant underarm scythes and am working down the front apron of this vest.
The genius of Julie aka CocoKnits right here! I thought the back arm scythes were nifty, these are downright magnificent!
And take a moment to look at the brilliant cast-off that looks very I-cord cast-off-ish, but it is not. Julie, I am your newest fan girl! I will be finishing my Mercedes this week (probably) and I have plans to cast on another one immediately!
The bind off that looks like I-cord but is not at all!
The reading has been very varied this week! I finished Peter Heller’s The Dog Stars. Now, first… I want to say that his writing is not at all as poetic and beautiful as Douglas Stuart’s… sigh. The book is divided into 3 parts, the middle portion dragged a bit for me. The premise is the book takes place some time after a pandemic has struck… followed by some kind of “blood” issue… and those remaining are not all shining examples of humanity. I found the ending a bit anticlimactic… and it made me feel that there should have been a sequel or something but there was not. I gave the book 3 stars however, your mileage might vary.
But, the most fascinating book of the week (I have yet to finish it) is Roopika Risam’s Data Empire! (Bonny… I think you’d love this book!) It is a fascinating look at our propensity for data collection… going back to the beginning of time! I am smack in the middle of 300-1400 CE and loving it!
That is all I have for today… how is your September making and reading going?
As always, if you wrote a post to share please leave your link below and thank you!
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