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
by Kat | Jun 24, 2026 | General, Unraveled Wednesday
Greetings dear Unraveler’s!
I am stunned to type this, but it is the last Wednesday in June… it feels like June was just beginning and quite impossible that the month is almost over.
Making this month has been so delightful! I am making my way down the second half of my Alabama Chanin scarf. I have had fun sampling new stitches! This week finds me stitching a new “wheel” in the morning and I yesterday I found my groove. I stitched yesterday’s wheel much quicker than the previous two days attempts. My new bestie in this stitch-a-thon is a Sewline pencil. I think most people use it to transfer Sashiko stitch patterns but it is perfect for transferring the ingenious dots from the Stitch Cards to this black fabric. Curiously, as I stitch circles this ear worm plays in my mind… which is absolutely not a bad thing at all.
I love stitching buttonhole circles with beads!
As you can see in the header photo, I am was racing along on another Ranunculus… sadly, I hit a speed bump and I found myself having to unravel a bit. Pro-tip… no matter how perfectly hand dyed skeins of yarn look in the hank… you need to remember to do a bit of alternating for several rounds to blend them together. I did not give myself enough space and had to unravel a half a dozen or so rounds to allow the skeins some space to settle in. In the plus column: the yarn unravels slowly. In the minus column: the yarn unravels slowly.
The reading this week… oh my! I finished Cecile Pin’s new novel, Celestial Lights. I loved every bit of this book. Every bit. It happens over the course of a couple of time lines concurrently and it is brilliantly done! It is the story of Oliver Ines, who was born at the exact moment the Challenger shuttle disaster. And what happens from that moment in Oliver’s life is nothing short of wondrous. In a story inspired by Odysseus, it is a story about a great journey… and one I will be thinking about for a very, very long time. I highly recommend it!
And to keep me grounded (as it were) I am listening to Patrick Radden Keefe’s latest, London Falling. I was a bit iffy on this one, but I am so glad I ignored inner me trying to quash reading it. He is a masterful storyteller and manages to pull together all the strings of something that happened and lay them out concisely for the reader. If you enjoyed his previous works, you will enjoy London Falling. I have about three hours to go in the audiobook!
And there you have my making and reading this week. What about you? Are you, like me, stunned at the pace which June is racing by?
As always, if you wrote a post to share please leave your link below and thank you!
by Kat | Jun 22, 2026 | General, In This Moment
Between the dusk of a summer night
And the dawn of a summer day,
We caught at a mood as it passed in flight,
And we bade it stoop and stay.
(From Praeludium, XXII by W. E. Henley)
Yesterday brought the arrival of summer… days you’d really hope to pause, inhale deeply, and linger. However, if you know me… then you know summer is my least favorite time… and really, what I hate is AC. I much prefer having the windows open perhaps with a fan running. I am going to try and spend less time in the AC and more time out-of-doors. (And for those moments that I absolutely have to be inside… well, my Ranunculus is just flying! Sleeves have been divided off and I am racing down the body… AND I AM STILL ON THE FIRST SKEIN OF YARN… WHAT?!? Photo coming Wednesday!)
I am also still on the “high” of last week’s amazing opening of The Obama Presidential Center. (Michelle Norris had the most amazing special Friday night: Hope Comes Home.) Anyways, it is a place I want need to see and it has gone on my list of places to visit soon!
And so here we are on the first Monday of summer and my big plans for the day? To “win the war” with the squirrels who have decided that it’s their job to “unplant” the pots on the patio.
See you all back here on Wednesday!
P.S. For those who wanted to join in on the NYTimes Summer Challenge… sorry I missed last week! This week you get a two-fer! Last week’s Better Sleep Tips as well as this week’s 90’s Style Hangout (sans phones!) And for those wondering… yes, I am leaving my phone behind on walks. It has been incredibly delightful!
Header photo by Chris Abney on Unsplash
by Kat | Jun 17, 2026 | General, Unraveled Wednesday
Greetings gentle Unraveler’s and happy Wednesday to you all!
I am quite enamored of the current weather pattern enveloping Pittsburgh… the heat has abated, the humidity has waned, and the skies have been cloud free and stunningly blue! Yes, that means I have the windows flung wide, the AC is off, and the time of perfect summer sleeping has arrived.
Monday after dinner the Great Swatch-a-thon began… because yes, my yarn for a new Ranunculus has arrived and I feel some urgency to get it done… hopefully before the next AC Deep Freeze installment arrives!
Swatch One, while lovely, was not a gauge winner…
I began swatching with Farmers Daughter Fiber’s Oh, Dang! (a Suri Alpaca and Silk blend… oh my!) held with Foxy Lady a SW Merino/Silk single. The Suri Alpaca/Silk has a bit more grist than a mohair/silk blend and while I was knitting the swatch with them held double I wondered what the Oh, Dang! would do held by itself so I made two swatches (and for the inquiring minds… it was the color way name that got me: Anne of Green Gables…) Tuesday morning I gave the swatches a good soak and gently laid them to dry. No pinning, no stretching… I just laid them on a towel to dry. Once the swatches dried I knew I had my answer… Oh, Dang! all by itself! First, I got gauge… and the fabric is amazing. The swatch with the yarns held double did not even get close to gauge. Sigh. But I cast on and am in the bit of short row shaping and enjoying knitting with the Suri Alpaca tremendously and I am wondering just how quickly this might knit up! (The bit I have knit was completed in a single episode of Grantchester!)
Swatch two… the winner!
I finished Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose and thought it was okay. It did drag a bit for me at times, but other parts were absolutely fascinating. Of course, there is a lot of religion, it takes place in a Benedictine Monastery after all! The year is 1327 and, of course, there are rumors of heresy. Brother William is dispatched to determine the heretical culprit(s) and suddenly the monks are dropping dead in the most bizarre ways! Despite it dragging a bit in parts and one very, very weird dream Brother William had… I enjoyed it!
I began my Summer with Toni Morrison with the Bluest Eye, which I began on Monday (and should finish later today!)
How is your June making going?
As always, if you wrote a post to share please leave your link below and thank you!
by Kat | Jun 10, 2026 | General, Unraveled Wednesday
Greetings dear Unravelers and Happy Wednesday!
I have a case of cast-on-itis and it seems that everywhere I look I see something that whispers… come on, knit me… you know you want to! I am doing my best to ignore it and have a bit of “knitting rotation” going to stay focused. So several projects got some attention this week:
Marling is never boring… and this sock just needs to get done!
- I am done with the decreases and am moving down the foot on the long ignored socks – yes, this is still Sock #1… sigh.
- I have made some headway on the Kinu Marled Scarf.
- And I finished another section on Wriley… which puts me at the 16% completion point… hilarious, truly!
I like this rotation very much and it is working because I have not cast anything on! However, the abrupt arrival of summer heat and humidity means the AC has been running full tilt. Sigh. During the week when Steve is at work I turn the AC way up… however, when he is home it is like living in a blast freezer. I need a sweater and this issue points out the gap in my summer wardrobe. Years ago I had knit a couple of linen Ranunculus sweaters but the linen (Quince & Co Kestrel) did not wear well at all. Sadly, both sweaters have gone beyond the “repair” stage and are unwearable. But the fabric of the Ranunculus is really the perfect summer layer. One would think with a stash the size of my stash I would be able to find something that would work but I just don’t have enough of anything. I remedied that and ordered some yarn and am waiting for it to arrive. Thankfully, it is a really quick knit!
The other things that have been knocking around my brain is this vest and this vest… and I do have enough yarn to cast this on the striped vest but I am holding off until I can get those socks done! And for Mercedes, I have some yarn in my stash that might work… I just need to do some swatching to see if it actually will work! I have never knit a CocoKnits pattern but I have looked at the instructions and they are quite detailed instructions plus there are videos for several bits. (PLUS there is a row by row worksheet you fill in for the size you are knitting which seems really genius!)
Twenty days in and the first half is almost done. I just have some embellishment to add to the bottom herringbone stitches!
AC Stitching is continuing to delight… I have been reading and contemplating the stitch patterns laid out in The Geometry of Hand Stitching. So many ideas… good thing I have more stripes to experiment on! I am not making each side a mirror image but rather using both sides as a true AC Sampler… trying out a plethora of stitch combinations!
The reading is penultimate summer reading… I have departed for Mystery Land and it is perfection! I am currently reading Ann Cleeves latest in the DI Matthew Venn series, The Dying Light. And I picked up a copy of Anthony Horowitz’ A Deadly Episode when I was in Erie in May. I have been reading a chapter or two with lunch each afternoon. It is the thing that is most reminding me of past summer reading… lost in a book while eating a meal. And, if that was not enough, I am listening to Umberto Uno’s The Name of the Rose… a mystery that takes place in a monastery! All so good! Anyways it is fun to be working to solve mysteries again!
What about you? Are you itching to cast on something new? Is there a pattern that caught your eye recently? And what about your reading… what summer reading are you doing?
As always, if you wrote a post to share please leave your link below and thank you!
