by Kat | 24 hours ago | General, Unraveled Wednesday
Hello gentle Unraveler’s and Happy Wednesday!
I am closing in on a completed Shakerag Top… funny how if you work on something, it gets finished! Anyways, I am ready to divide the front and back and though there is still a good bit of knitting to go, I am closer to the finish than I was last week! This is Shakerag #2 for me… the first, I pretty much followed the pattern as written. This time I did some modifications… a split hem at the bottom and I am not carrying up a strand in the stripe with the single strand of yarn. I am cutting the second strand and will weave in those ends. My first Shakerag was knit out of Holst Garn Coast and that yarn is just a bit thicker so it worked fine to carry up a strand but it was very obvious with ITO Kinu. This Shakerag is light and breezy and having summer weather blasting for the past two days, I feel the urgency to get this done! Maybe by next week… I think it is possible if I just keep on knitting!
The reading has been so very good. I listened to Elizabeth Strout’s latest novel, The Things We Never Say. She introduces a new cast of characters, the main character – Artie Dam – is just so wonderful! It was a fantastic story and so very relevant. If you love Strout’s writing, you will love The Things We Never Say!
And yesterday my wait for Dr Ibram X Kendi’s latest book Chain of Ideas ended! I have just started it, but I am already deeply engrossed!
That is all I have for this week, and it is back to knitting for me! What about you? Are you feeling the urgency to finish anything?
As always, if you wrote a post to share please leave your link below and thank you!
by Kat | 3 days ago | General, In This Moment
Brings the NO’s!
Yes, I realize I live under a rock and am unaware of so many things going on around me… so many things. And I honestly wish it was so many more things… sigh. (News… I am looking at you here!)
Anyways, two things crossed my radar recently and to say I was shocked was an understatement. So yes, I guess I am still capable of being stunned by “advances” that should not ever be “a thing.”
First… did you all know about IG for TV? I have ZERO desire to watch IG on my television… ever. This brings doom scrolling to a new level of pain. Who on earth thought THAT would be a good idea! Just NO! (Yes, we have a Google TV, sigh, and it is inundated with ads to install it!)
Second… Dunkin’ Dirty Soda… say what? Pepsi™ mixed with “creamy coffee milk (that is not brewed coffee but rather coffee extract) and velvety cold foam.” What the hell? Umm, absolutely no… never… ever!!
On a brighter note… I’d like to say a resounding YES to Adrian Bell. I just finished A Countryman’s Spring Notebook and gosh… I want more! So much more! I know he has other notebooks and I am on a mission to find them!!
I will be back on Wednesday! I hope your day has some things you are saying yes to!
by Kat | May 13, 2026 | General, Unraveled Wednesday
Greetings and Happy Wednesday dear Unravelers,
I want to thank you all for your thoughts for my son and daughter-in-law. It was a “tough day” but all your thoughts and prayers were so appreciated.
It has been a slow making week. We had some hiccups in the routine… a toilet that needed to be replaced that turned into two days of plumbing work. Frankie was NOT amused! It amazes me how my happy go lucky pug can turn into Kujo when the doorbell rings! And when said ringers enter his house… oh my. Good thing they were on separate floors! Ha! But I am happy to report that the new toilet is a vast improvement and its lower water usage will be a good thing for the ever increasing water bill!
On Friday, I settled in with a class on assigned pooling, taught by the amazing Dawn Barker. It took a few tries to work out my gauge with the blips in Dawn’s yarn… but what a fascinating concept. As you can see, I worked a bit to get the hang of the blips. I have now made the rows long enough that I am working two blips per row. There is a bit of pre-thinking if a blip is at the edge and I am not sure I am entirely happy with them falling there, but I am embracing a bit of wonkiness in this process. The yarn colors are so lovely… this will be a fun little shawl to wear as I embrace autumn later this year!
I also got through another chart section with Cecelia’s Wriley Wrap, but it barely looks any different from last week. And I pulled out my languishing Shakerag Top that I began last year… I have not picked it up yet, but it is closer to moving into the rotation than it was last week! ha!
After a bit of a reading draught… I have some great finishes to share! First, I finished John of John, the latest novel by Douglas Stewart of Shuggie Bain fame… and I loved it. Without giving too much away, at its heart John of John is a story about the complexities of life in a family. There is yarn, knitting, weaving, sheep, and the island of Harris… I laughed, I cried, and I fell in love with Cal.
And it seems I have a “Cal Thing” going in my reading because I also finished Tana French’s The Keeper, the final book in the Cal Hooper trilogy. It is a mystery with lots of twists and turns…LOTS of twists and turns. The village, Arknakelty, is a character in each of the books, but in The Keeper you really see how this village has banded together the people who live there… for good and bad. I highly recommend this series!
Finally, remember all my excitement about sweet Christine, the Pileated Woodpecker who has been visiting? Well, I have seen her dozens of times and I was thinking she was just a single girl! But no! Her beau made his first appearance at the feeder Sunday… he has not tried the big suet feeder I have, but boy he can finagle the smaller feeder! And he is so talkative! So talkative!
He is a handsome boy!! Those red cheeks… divine!
What about you… have your thoughts begun to turn to summer? What’s on your needles?
As always, if you wrote a post to share please leave your link below and thank you!
by Kat | May 11, 2026 | General, In This Moment
Is for letting go and moving on…
You will find that it is necessary to let things go; simply for the reason that they are heavy. So let them go, let go of them. I tie no weights to my ankles. — C. JoyBell C.
For a good bit of last month, I spent time reminding myself about all I learned in my Year of Release. It was a good thing to revisit… and I thought I’d share a bit of Ankle Weight Free Kat.
Way back in January, I began the 100 Day stitching project and somewhere around day 45 I hit a wall and rather than giving myself grace to move on. I began adding Guilt Reminder’s to my weekly calendar. Those guilt reminders to catch up X number of pages did not spur creativity to catch up… rather they were an ugly reminder of how easy it is to bully oneself. And yet, I continued to write a reminder in my planner until mid-April… in the midst of revisiting all I learned with Release.
Forrest… Trees… my name is Kat.
I need to tweak the cover page and make an “end page” but I plan on finishing this abridged book this week. But I feel very good about moving ahead and wish I would have given myself the grace to do that from the beginning. Lesson learned… hopefully!
I also, very briefly, contemplated stepping back from my daily stitching. I did not take it with me when we headed to Erie last week… and I missed it. But the break was a good thing… it reinvigorated me in many ways – even for stitching! I have caught up the end of April days while doing the current May days and that worked out really nicely!
The other things that I have stepped away from are Goodreads and Audible. Now, I was never a regular Audible subscriber… but I was really good at dipping in and out (especially if there was a “come back” deal!) But Goodreads was like a religion for me… so stepping away from Goodreads was a bit of a challenge. I started in January… half-heartedly. I did not set a “reading goal” again this year and I was surprised how frequently the app reminded me that I did not do that. It was so irritating that it actually helped me leave faster than I intended. And last week, I removed all traces of Goodreads from this space. I am happy to say… this was a very good thing!
But!! That does not mean I am without any sort of way to track the books I have read… I do! I write notes about the books I am reading in a journal and I also keep track in TheStoryGraph. I mentioned TheStoryGraph here before, but I wanted to update you all on things I have discovered in using it regularly! Of course, there is an app for the phone (both iPhone and Android) and there is an app for my Mac mini as well (yay for having a desktop version!) One of the things I really like is how I can look back at the books I read for the month. There is a monthly review that is dynamic and would suit many needs. It can be simple (like just page covers) to more data intensive… and it is so simple to use. It also does book reviews better, imo, than Goodreads did. It has a better rating system and it offers you options with quick review categories that you can check. The only draw back is that it is a bit trickier to link to link to your review, so if you are leaving reviews with Netgalley, for instance, it is a few more clicks to get to the link.
And for audio listening outside of my library, I have moved to a Libro.fm subscription. It is roughly the same price as Audible but I can select a local bookstore to support with a portion of my subscription fee. So each month, City Books gets a portion of that fee. It makes me feel good about spending money on audiobooks! I have been using the app about 3 months now and I don’t notice any significant differences between any other audiobook player. I can make a list of “favorites” I can adjust the playback speed (I like 1.3x) I can save passages all like I could on Audible. It just feels better not to be adding more dollars to a billionaire’s pocket and Libro.fm is an employee owned company.
I will be back on Wednesday!
by Kat | May 6, 2026 | General, Unraveled Wednesday
Greetings Gentle Unraveler’s and Happy Wednesday to you all!
In my hiatus, I did a LOT of thinking, and some of that time was even spent thinking and making!
To begin with, I have a couple of finished objects to share with you all.
First, I finished the Floating Squares Wrap, from the MDK Mosaic Field Guide which I began last August. Amy Christoffers is a brilliant designer… and this project was a delight. I splurged and bought the yarn she used, Lang Mohair Luxe, and what a treat it was to knit with. It is much softer than any mohair I have ever tried. It looks and feels like a cloud but it is deliciously warm! I still have to give it a bit of a soak and then weave in the ends, but the actual knitting is done! It will be so fun to pull out in late fall on a cold day!
It is just so fun!
I also finished my Alabama Chanin triangle scarf and I absolutely love it! I am wearing the hell out of it… birding with my bling on? Absolutely! I may have gone a bit overboard on the beading but there were so many beads in the bag! I tried to use them up! I loved every stitch of this little project… it was so fun to dip into the very deep beading well and learn something new!
One must have the appropriate attire for birding!
I did cast on a new project last week and have made some surprising headway! I cast on one of Cecelia Campocchiro’s genius patterns from her latest book on reversible knitting. Can I just say that the mind of Cecelia is absolutely a thing of wonder! The genius of this design is off the charts for me… a tiny 4-stitch cable paired with knits and purls… simplicity at its finest… but the genius of how she stacks those stitches (4 which never change… the knits are always knit, the purls are always purled… you just move them over and back in a brilliant little cable!) And, because Cecelia is one Analytical Genius as well… the knitting is ALL MAPPED OUT FOR YOU! Just cross off the rows as you go! This delights me because I can tell you that I have completed 5% of the scarf! Think you might get bored? Think again… she has differing repeats as you knit… some short and sweet, others longer and ambling… all of them delightful! And there is no wrong side… it is completely reversible!! I am certain that Cecelia is my absolute favorite knitting thinker on the planet! (The yarns: ITO Kino and Sensai in Mustard)
I also have turned the heel in a sock I started way back in February… still the first sock, but progress nonetheless!
The reading has not been quite as productive as the making. I only finished 3 books in April (no brain bandwidth will do that). I finished the June Read With Us selection, Good People by Patmeena Sabit… and I have very mixed thoughts on this one. The audio version of the book was the “first available” of my holds at the library but listening to this book is absolutely not a wise decision. I had to go back and listen again to many, many segments! I am still on hold for the digital version and I am hopeful that I will have it to read before our discussion. This is certainly a curious way to tell a story without really telling a story and I think this will be an incredible book to discuss!
I also finished Benjamin Wood’s Seascraper and I really enjoyed it. It is a beautiful story that unfurls slowly in this short novel. It is beautifully written and I have not stopped thinking about it since I finished it. At its heart it is a story about possibilities… can one be brave enough to step away from expectations and into one’s hearts desire. I listened to the author read it!
Now for an intriguing little link… Vicki shared it yesterday and I have been playing with it ever since! Oh, NASA… you so clever you!
AsKatKnits in Landsat! Landscapes in order: Lake Mjøsa, Norway; Rio Chapare, Brazil; Golmud, China; Lake Guakhmaz, Azerbaijan; Lena River Delta; Sirmilik National Park, Canada; São Miguel do Araguaia, Brazil; Canadaigua Lake, NY; Liwa UAE; Mackenzie River.
How about you all… what are your hopes for May? I really want to know!
As always if you wrote a post to share please leave your link below and thank you!
Page 1 of 48612345...102030...»Last »
