by Kat | 3 days ago | General, Unraveled Wednesday
Greetings dear Unraveler’s!
I am (still) plugging away on the ribbing for the Autumn Blips shawl… each right side row increases by 6 stitches so the rows keep getting longer. It is “almost” mindless knitting and I am enjoying it so much but I have miles and miles to go before I finish it! Not thrilling to blog about but when I sat down in the last week this is what I have been knitting.
The reading has found me immersed in a bit of a “mystery kick”. I picked up a book in the Max Tudor series… and spent a bit of time with Max in Oxford solving a mystery. It felt a bit like an Agatha Christie novel (think all the suspects in a room at the culmination of the novel) and I enjoyed it. It was light and engaging. I also raced through another in the Bruno Chief of Police series and enjoyed it tremendously. And I am still working my way through John of John (I am listening and reading with my eyes… I am just over half way through but I am taking my time with this reading and picking up a few things I missed the first time through!
I realize this is not much of an update and I hope that your making and reading week have been a bit more productive than mine has!
As always, if you wrote a post to share please leave your link below and thank you!
by Kat | Aug 5, 2026 | General, Unraveled Wednesday
Greetings Dear Unravelers and Happy Wednesday to you all!
This week I have been “enabled” …. yes, last week when Kym shared her Assigned Pooling project… I could hear my own assigned pooling project begin to cry from the project bag it was sitting in. Poor, sad, pitiful little thing… I did not even give it the curtesy of finishing the row I was working on before tucking it into a bag. Well, I pulled it out and have been giving it some attention…And a funny thing happened! Skein One is nearing its end and Skein Two is wound and ready to go! Now, I still have miles to go… but this shawl has begun to sing the song of autumn to me. These random blips scattered about remind me of autumn walks after a good rain. Where the leaves are pressed to the pavement and …if I close my eyes… I can even smell autumn as I work away on it.
And… in case you think that was all the enabling Kym did last week… think again! I also purchased the yarn to make a Wakebrite bandana (Thanks also to the expert enabling of Kay and Ann!) It is my prize for finishing the Blip Knitting… although I am not sure that a project that is knit entirely linen stitch classifies as a prize… but there you have it!
I seem to have bandana’s on the brain because I finished another Alabama Chanin bandana this week as well! I thought I was done with it on Sunday but as I looked at it, it needed something. What I really wanted was something yellow, but I had no yellow anything to add to it. Instead I added a bit of green… and I think it works. It is just enough of a difference between the navy, ochre, and black… and not a bead in sight. I really am happy with it! In just under 80 days I stitched and completed three AC projects (including one with LOTS of beads!)
Bandana number two… and I really am pleased with it!
(And yes, that second Summer Ranunculus was finished as well! Although, it needs a bit of a bath and a few ends woven in! Photos coming soon!)
The reading… well, I finished my immediate reread of Whistler yesterday and it was even better than it was the first time. And later this morning I will settle in with John of John to read it again before book club on September 15th. I loved this book the first time through and I am really looking forward to this second reading.
So dear readers… where are your thoughts turning as August begins?
As always, if you wrote a post to share please leave your link below and thank you!
by Kat | Aug 3, 2026 | General, In This Moment
Brings a new month… August. Oh, August.
Yesterday, Sylvia Plath was on my mind with her quote:
August rain: the best of the summer gone, and the new fall not yet born. The odd uneven time.
Saturday it “felt and smelled like rain” any minute for most of the day… but that rain held off until late at night. Sunday was a very grey and rainy day. Thunder rumbling and rain spattering against the windows. Quite a delightful day with all that August rain. Oh, and I do love how Sylvia (like me) has her eye on fall.
I am almost done with my second time through Whistler and I love it even more this time. AND! Up next will be my second reading/listening (I will pair them together this time) of John of John.
Dear Friends… I don’t believe there is a better way to spend the odd uneven time of August than lingering with books I have read and loved deeply. I believe that I will spend the rest of the month revisiting some dear friends. August is a very good month to be a bit nostalgic… don’t you think?
I will see you all back here on Wednesday. Happy Monday everyone!
by Kat | Jul 29, 2026 | General, Unraveled Wednesday
Greetings Gentle Unravelers!
We have arrived at the final Wednesday of July and August is on the horizon. In the South Hills of Pittsburgh we had a lovely day of rain yesterday… it was much needed and I welcomed it as such.
I am continuing to practice my budding crochet skills. I pulled out the leftovers from Odette’s baby sweater… Knitpicks Swish… my leftovers are mostly from the sheep portion of those sweaters but I do have a bit of the green. The yarn is perfect for practice. I had thought to just make one large granny square but I changed course on Tuesday morning, realizing that I needed to cement in my head how to begin! Square number two in process and now I will see how good my gauge actually is by trying to replicate squares!
Ranunculus Number Two… a sleeve away from the finish line!
I can also see the finish line on my second Ranunculus… I have one sleeve done and will begin the second sleeve later today and I will likely finish it today! One very good thing about knitting multiples of a pattern in quick succession… the techniques that are used are much easier recalled! But I will be happy to return to the “regular” knitting projects that have been on hold while I scratched the Ranunculus itch! I will be pulling out both of the Cecelia Projects** that have been ignored for too long!
My morning minutes of stitching has almost found the completion of another AC triangle bandana! This one a neutral color (wax) with no beading… just reverse appliqué with button craft thread (knots on the outside) and some simple quilting with floss (knots on the inside) and I have enjoyed the tessellation pattern very much!
I also have some swatching to do for a vest…
The reading this week was so very good. I finished Ann Patchett’s Whistler and I simply loved it. Last week Monday, Kym mentioned Eddie Triplett as being on her list of literary crushes… I would add Buddy Zabriskie to that list! A dad who at first glance seemed not involved but as the story unfolds, the nuances of Buddy’s tender care for his family were brilliant. I fell in love with this rugged dad, who showed his love and care in what turns out to be very crucial ways! It is a perfect Patchett story… a story within a story (with an added side of story!) I listened to Patchett read it and immediately began listening to it again… it was just that good! It is a story that I was not ready to leave yet. I highly recommend it!
Now, for a completely unrelated topic… Sunday, August 9th The Poet’s Corner will be hosting poet Arthur Sze for a conversation. It is free! On Zoom! With the current Poet Laureate! He will be talking about his book, Transient Worlds. I have attended many of The Poet’s Corner events and they never disappoint.
What about you… what are you making and reading this week?
** Cecelia Projects = The Wriley Shawl and my Marled Color Explosion Scarf
As always, if you wrote a post to share please leave your link below!
by Kat | Jul 27, 2026 | General, Words
Every season is one of becoming, but not always one of blooming. Be gracious with your ever-evolving self. — B. Oakman
If you have followed along on my season journey this year, thank you… I appreciate you being here so very much.
July…oh, July. You were so much July… sigh. If you like hot, sultry weather… this July (at least in the south hills of Pittsburgh) had all that and more! Since I have moved well beyond the “change” I have found that AC is just too much for me but I live with a person who thinks that a blast cooler is really optimal… ugh, ugh, ugh. I combat this by sitting on the porch but this July it was just way too hot to do that. Add in the smoke that arrived and settled in the Mon Valley and lingered… well, you have the imperfect storm that kept me inside…bundled up in sweaters and socks.
This month, my main focus was keeping my attitude on the good side of the scale… and the struggle to do that was real! I am thankful for my daily stitching practice… every opportunity I have to “get out of my head and into my hands” is a very good thing! I have found that doing a bit of stitching each morning really helps me set the tone for my day. It might be the greatest therapy ever! Those few minutes lifts my spirits, makes me feel I accomplished something, and, more importantly, that I have nurtured my creativity.
During the month I caught up on some self-care… I went for my annual mammogram and my first DXA scan. Now, here’s the rub… even if results aren’t what you expected… it is still a very good thing to take care of yourself. If self-care is not part of your seasonal existence, it should be! My DXA scan identified me as falling in the osteopenia category… which is not great. But a few messages with my doctor’s PA and I have increased my calcium/vitamin D3 intake and am working on adding in some weight-bearing exercises to my week. (although, honestly… I am struggling to see the logic of how doing exercise with my arms will alter the head of my femur… where the osteopenia was identified…) The mammogram was not without surprises either and I have to go back for more images… but not until September so if they are not finding it worrisome, I am not finding it worrisome.
The other struggle combatant I made liberal use of was television… thank you Fùtbol, The Sheep Detectives, and Project Hail Mary. You all helped me along this July and I am grateful for your distraction! Now don’t be thinking that I am suddenly a “full blown soccer fan”… I am not. But I loved timely distraction the games provided this month. And I simply loved The Sheep Detectives and Project Hail Mary and I highly recommend both films if you find yourself with a couple of hours of “enforced indoor time”! Ha! (All that TV Time also helped me in the making department!! I added a sweater and a hand sewn top – plus an almost finished second sweater – to my wardrobe thanks to all the watching I did!)
I have taken a lot of classes over the years at MDK, but they have never offered a crochet class… until last Friday. The delightful and unbelievably talented Toni Lipsey taught Granny Squares 101 and I loved every single second of it. I finally feel like “I got it” in crochet. Perhaps it was her being a fellow Michigander and her speaking was music to my ears… There is nothing quite like a Michigan accent… sigh. Or perhaps it was her gift of teaching… anyways, her words, my brain, and my hands all clicked together and I am quite excited about my results! I love her method of beginning a granny square with a magic loop! No hole in the center makes a neat and very tidy granny beginning. I learned about granny clusters, bridging the gap, how to alternate beginning rounds for a much tidier square, weaving in ends, and joining squares together! It was the best class ever… and if you ever have the opportunity to take a Toni class… DO IT! She is brilliant!
In my yard, the bee balm this year was not as spectacular as last year… but my late blooming alliums were stunning! And the bees showed them lots of love while they were blooming! But all good things must come to an end and as such, sometime this week I will cut them all back which makes me very sad. I have this huge gulf in my garden as July draws to a close. I don’t have much that blooms in August and I need to work on remedying that!
There you have my July of Distraction… what about you? How was your July?
Photo by Kadir Celep on Unsplash
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