by Kat | 3 days ago | General, Unraveled Wednesday
Greetings dear Unraveler’s and Happy Mid-July to you all!
Fifty-two days of stitching and I ended up with this beauty! I am so happy with it… and it is in the rotation of wearing! It works well with a simple shirt and linen pants and (as you can see by the fuzz) it works almost perfectly with the Airy Anne of Green Gables Ranunculus! It has been to TJ’s and the library thus far.
I have begun my next stitching project…. the Ollie Top from Tauko magazine. I have the sleeves attached and the side seams completed. Today I figure out the neck facings…wish me luck.
Another Ranunculus and the beginnings of an Ollie Top
I have begun the cousin of the Airy Ranunculus and it’s flying. I am about to divide the sleeves off. Gauge was achieved with a US 11 needle and I think the rosy pink was the perfect addition to this second iteration. It is not as light as the first one, but it is not in any way a heavy sweater. I was smarter with this version… I began the skein altering rounds earlier and did them over the course of the raglan sleeve shaping sections.
The reading… oh boy. I finished Land… and though I found the writing lovely, the story was the furthest thing from lovely one could imagine. Frequently, in the listening, I found myself wondering how one family could have so many tragedies. The saying, “if it weren’t for bad luck, they’d have no luck at all” was definitely a theme. I confess, I skipped one particularly horrid bit with a puppy and Rose… I just could not. The story conveyed the misery of life for the Irish but I think it could have been conveyed with a bit less tragedy. It is not my favorite O’Farrell story and there were times I contemplated quitting it but I persevered… perhaps a good way to describe my feelings for this story and maybe what O’Farrell wanted for the readers: to minutely understand what it was like for the Irish… to persevere in ungodly conditions. It won’t be a book I recommend to others.
What about you all? What are you focusing on as July reaches the midpoint?
As always, if you wrote a post to share please leave your link below and thank you!
by Kat | 5 days ago | General, In This Moment
I confess to feeling a bit of sadness that Norway is out… I am so enjoying fútbol and all the antics around it but particularly Norway… and the delight that is Erling Haaland. Oh, and all that RO-ing! (FYI, there’s a mitten for all that…) Who knew that in my 65th year I would find such delight in a sport I literally know nothing about!
But Monday has arrived and it brings what feels like the 975th day of heat and humidity, ushering in another week of heat and humidity… and I am so, so over it! My choices… the blast freezer indoors or the steamy hellscape outdoors… yes, it seems like poor choices surround me.
Though, curiously, the mushrooms seem to have adapted to the heat because my yard is overflowing with them… even as the temps soar… I am sure there is a lesson in there for me. Sigh.
I hope that if your Monday includes a lesson that it is a gentle, easy one.
See you all back here on Wednesday!
by Kat | Jul 8, 2026 | General, Unraveled Wednesday
Greetings dearest Unravelers!
I have finished the Airy, Anne of Green Gables, Ranunculus and I am entirely smitten! I was reminded how brilliant the designer, Midori Hirose, wrote this pattern. The directions are clear and there are multiple videos of techniques! Want a narrower neck… no problem, clear directions! Want short sleeves, again… clear directions! Worried about binding off too tight? Yep, you got it… CLEAR DIRECTIONS! With this iteration, I followed her long sleeve with I-cord bind off. However, I knit a lot more than 7″… I knit 70 rounds, did the decrease round, and then the I-cord bind off. It needs a bit of a bath and some ends woven in and then I am putting this baby on and wearing the heck out of it!
The Airy Anne of Green Gables Ranunculus.
And I will be casting on another… Anne of Green Gables with a Rosy Hue Ranunculus as soon as I confirm the larger needle size for gauge.
I want to talk a minute about The Farmer’s Daughter Fiber… they have amazing customer service. I had these skeins of Foxy Lady… merino/silk singles that I really wanted to use… it is gorgeous yarn! But… I did not need another sweater of the same color so I emailed Farmer’s Daughter and their help was really as if I was standing in their shop. They sent me multiple photos of several color combinations that will allow me to utilize the Foxy Lady in another Ranunculus. If you have not discovered the joy that is The Farmer’s Daughter Fiber… you should!
And…if you are following along on my stitching on the AC Varigated Stripe Shawl… I have just one stripe left… which will take me two days! I am kind of sad to bring this all to an end. I have so enjoyed this project. I have loved the deep dive into the variations on stitches from the Geometry of Hand Sewing. Up next… learning all the in’s and out’s of seaming a garment! The journey continues!
My soon-to-be-finished Variegated Stripe Scarf and the Ollie Top waiting in the wings!
The reading… oh my. Summer Reading might be the best thing ever! The NYTimes Summer series made a suggestion in the “sleep edition” about good books to read before bed and one of their suggestions was Kate DiCamillo’s The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. I had never read it, so okay… I gave it a try! It was brilliant. Moving. Heartwarming. And perhaps the most perfect bedtime stories ever. I wish I had read this with my kids but it is now on my list to send to my grandkids!
I finished A Good Animal… and the finish did not disappoint. At all. I highly recommend. Sheep! Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan! And a young man who will stay with me for a very, very, very long time.
I did have one very disappointing finish, Téa Obreht has a new novel coming, Sunrise. And I had such high hopes! I loved her previous novels… so much. So I began Sunrise with very high hopes. Sigh. Those high hopes were crushed flat and quickly in this really awkward book. Nothing in it is even remotely believable. Nothing. And it goes from wait… what? to are you freaking kidding me. And the ending… in a book that needed to have something… anything… to pull all the nonsense together was even more unbelievable. I wondered multiple times in the reading if the author was on mind altering drugs while writing. I do not recommend. This novel will be published August 11, 2026.
My current listen… Land… Maggie O’Farrell’s latest. So far, so good… but I am still in Part One (iykyk) and, I watched Hamnet yesterday on Netflix (thanks for getting me through Sleeve Number Two!!) It was very good… but I still loved the book more.
Are you surviving this blast of hot and humid summer days? How do you take your mind off the heat and humidity?
As always, if you wrote a post to share please leave your link below and thank you!
by Kat | Jul 6, 2026 | General, In This Moment
The weather people are telling us that it is supposed to be the tiniest bit cooler this week… a good thing because last week I was certain we had truly arrived at the “hell on earth” stage of existence. These scorching hot days are my least favorite thing of all… truly. We are supposed to get a bit of a break this week… fingers crossed that prediction is accurate!
I am having to rework my to do list a bit today… there won’t be any laundry on the line today (thanks to a forecast of “all day rain” with a 90+% humidity out…) So instead a day of mostly indoor tasks and if I hurry I might be able to finish Sleeve Number Two on my Airy Ranunculus! A finished sweater would be so lovely to share with you all on Wednesday!
What about you? Are you surviving the heat?
by Kat | Jul 1, 2026 | General, Unraveled Wednesday
Greetings dear Unraveler’s and Welcome July!
It seems most of us (at least in the eastern half of the US) are under an oppressive heat dome. It is hot, muggy, and generally miserable to be outdoors. My walks with Frankie are quick… even in the early morning. We are both miserable rather quickly. I hope that you all can find some bits of relief from the weather… it is perfect stitching time and later this morning I will complete my eleventh beaded wheel…I am in the final days of stitching this scarf and my next AC project will be to sew an Ollie top. I have the pieces cut out… but before I begin I am going to do some practice “hand seaming and felled seams” and once I feel confident in the process this stitching will fill my daily stitching time! I hope the top will go quickly because I’d like to wear it sooner than later!
Almost done with the circles… but they have been so much fun!
As you can see above, the Airy Ranunculus is moving along quickly! I have almost reached Sleeve Island! I completed the bind off last night and will be departing later this morning!
I had the intention to work on my second sock… but did not pick it up once.
The reading though! I had to really interesting finishes! When I saw that Richard Russo had a new novel, Under the Falls, I eagerly began reading. It is a bit of a mystery but really it is more a story about people who are running away from their past, other people being stuck in the past, and finding all of them trying to find a way forward. The characters are all fascinating, Russo really does an amazing job of creating characters that you can relate to! As I was reading the story… it really felt to me that this story would be a fascinating movie… and surprise… Russo shares in the post-script that this was first written not as a novel, but rather for a television series. I am kind of sorry that all fell through… because it would be an interesting series! I gave it 3.75 stars… it will be published August 11, 2026.
I also finished Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s Before the Coffee Gets Cold. Four interconnected short stories, but not connected in the way you would think. The four stories all revolve around people who visit a back alley coffee shop in Tokyo… a coffee shop where you can order a cup of coffee and a visit to the past… but you must return to the present before the coffee get’s cold! The translation is excellent and the stories are so engaging. There is an entire series of short stories from the same author! I gave the first book in the series 4-stars!
Finally, for those who have been following along to the NYTimes Summer Challenge series… we have arrived at Week Four: Make Land Art. I have been contemplating this since I read it and have been gathering bits and bobs that I find on my ambles with Frankie. I am going to use a patch of sparsely growing grass under the big tree in our front yard to assemble my “findings” I think. I am wondering how long it will take for the neighborhood kids to pick it apart… ha! But I think the best thing of all of this challenge has been the “leaving my phone behind” part. I am enjoying being untethered from it and plan on keeping it that way as the summer progresses! I will share a photo when I have it completed!
What are you doing to stay cool this week?
As always, if you wrote a post to share please leave your link below and thank you!
by Kat | Jun 29, 2026 | General, Words
Good day, Gentle readers and Happy Monday to you all.
I apologize profusely for this extremely wordy post. But the month of June was an incredible one… at least as season’s go! (The rest of the world is a Total Shite Show… so thank goodness that Nature pulled out all the stops and distracted me from all that.) I hope that you can get yourself something to drink and settle in and allow me to share my June with you all. I will be back on Wednesday!
The foxglove bells, with lolling tongue,
Will not reveal what peals were rung
In Faery, in Faery,
A thousand ages gone.
I do not believe I can ever remember a more beautiful June than the one I had this year. Now, that is not to say that previous June’s were not as lovely… but rather my lack of attention allowed much of that beauty to go entirely unnoticed. In that regard seasons has been an excellent word for me this year. It has helped hone my focus and slowed me down. However, despite that honed focus, the month fairly flew by and honesty, I am so sad it is almost over.
All the golden clappers hang
As if but now the changes rang;
Only f rom the mottled throat
Never any echoes float.
Late spring, I found a book in a small bookshop in Erie… I did not spend much time studying the book in the shop. I simply noted that there was a poem-a-day beginning on June 1st. And so June 1, I began my reading. The editor’s introduction made me stop and think… “Reading outside is another treat of summer and, while a novel may absorb your attention so completely that you do not notice your surroundings, the comparative brevity of most poems allows you to pause in your reading, look around and take notice of the real world. The world and the poem may not match, but that is immaterial; it is the balance or contrast of the two that matters.” I love reading outside and often sit on the porch and read…but she is right, I can get lost in a novel and not notice much beyond the pages. So, it’s a very good thing that this book of poetry makes me frequently pause. Had I actually looked at a few of the poems I don’t think I would have purchased the book… all the poetry was written a long, long time ago and at first glance is… challenging.
Quite forgotten, in the wood,
Pale, crowded steeples rise;
All the time that they have stood
None has heard their melodies.
But somewhere about the middle of this month I began to see the brilliance of the poetry selected for this anthology. Each poem requires me to slow down, pause… reflect on the written words… and yes, take in my surroundings. I have found poets I knew nothing about, poets I was aware of – but had no clue of their brilliance with words, and lots of poetry that makes me stop and think.
Deep, deep in wizardry
All the foxglove belfries stand.
Should they startle over the land,
None would know what bells they be.
Take the poem I have inserted in this post… written by Mary Webb, who lived from 1881 to 1927. She was a novelist and poet from Shropshire, England. There is a Mary Webb Society, so even though I had never heard of her… the people of Shropshire have not forgotten her! Her poem, Foxgloves, which I have shared here was the perfect start to June (it is the poem for June 1st.) I spent a good bit of the beginning of June looking at my neighbors gorgeous foxgloves… white ones, and pale purpley-pink ones, and even deep magenta ones! It seemed those plants kept urging me on to keep going in this book that I was struggling to settle in with… which has been a very good thing and I have flagged several pages in June’s offerings.
Never any wind can ring them,
Nor the great black bees that swing them –
Every crimson bell, down-slanted,
Is so utterly enchanted.
There was some astounding activity in my “wild” back yard as well… a few highlights I will share with you:
- Watching the bright, almost neon, first greens of spring settle into a deeper green and then watching the “new growth highlights” that began to arrive over the month. That was truly a feast for my eyes and though I am sure I have noticed this in the past, paying attention to it this year made the process fascinating. It is if Nature is the master artist… it was quite stunning to note!
- My Pileated Woodpecker’s love the birdbath! I have had the delight of “catching” them in the bath a couple of times now. The male is the “splashiest” and he empties the bath of water. He then settles atop the telephone pole in the corner of my yard to allow the sun to dry him. It is an absolute delight! The Pilated’s are the only woodpeckers that I have ever seen visiting the bird bath.
- We have a rather large woodchuck ambling through the yard on the regular these days. It makes me laugh, because it appears he uses my yard as a place to “recon” my neighbor’s yard. If he sees no activity he heads over for a bit of a feast. My neighbor has an extensive dahlia thing going on and I think the woodchuck is enjoying it. (I know, many of you all grow dahlia’s and will be horrified at this, but honestly… I cannot feel bad. This is the neighbor of the “stinky” composter. Proof I guess that karma sometimes arrives in the form of one very large groundhog!)
- I have a pair of Baltimore Orioles who have become regular visitors to the Jelly Bar in the last week or so. When they come together, he always lets her eat first and only when she has finished does he begin eating. They are such gorgeous birds! I have looked for an oriole nest on my ambles with Frankie, but we have yet to find it. Perhaps we will this fall, once the leaves have fallen.
- The pair of red bellied woodpeckers only had one baby survive this year. It has also been a regular visitor at the Jelly Bar. It was delightful to watch the male bring the juvenile to the feeders… showing him/her (I don’t know if the baby is male or female) where the “good stuff” is. I put peanuts in the tray feeder and I hang suet year around. But the youngster discovered the Jelly Bar all on its own… it is a regular visitor there and is quite adorable in its grey and black feathers!
And now, as we will soon be turning the page to July… I am eager to see how that month unfolds. I have paged through a few of the July poetry entries and I have some Shakespeare, Dickinson, and Tennyson to look forward to! I have not read much of Shakespeare at all, but I am thinking that reading some of his sonnets will be a nice way to laze about in the heat of July!
Header photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash
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