by Kat | 1 day ago | General, Unraveled Wednesday
Greetings gentle Unraveler’s and Happy Wednesday to you all.
I have settled in with January nicely but is anyone beside me wondering how we just have one more Wednesday in the month?
Sock knitting is moving right along since I ripped back and restarted a plain vanilla sock. I have reached the “home stretch” of sock one (i.e. finished the heel flap and begun the gusset.) This yarn (The January installment of the Sock Squad) is just gorgeous in stockinette and this will make a most handsome pair of socks.
I am going to join the Bang Out a Sweater crew over at MDK so I need to get swatching for that. I have had a Waffle Pullover on my radar for some time now… it is just such a good “basic” sweater. It reminds me a bit of a sweatshirt, but looks much better. And the camaraderie of participating in a big knit along is a good motivator!
I have begun my 100 day stitch book… and I am so very happy with my “first page”!! I had some inspiration earlier this month about a way to incorporate a sock with holes into the project… and I am eager to see how my ideas play out… but page one’s squiggly yarn is a delightful start. And yes, I might even have a “couching” problem… meaning I want to couch all the things!! Ha!
My reading finishes have been slow in coming but this week I have two spectacular finishes to share with you.
First, I did finish George Saunders Vigil… oh my gosh! To call it brilliant is an understatement… it was a 5-star read for me and will be published January 27. Really, if you loved Lincoln in the Bardo you will LOVE this book. I am hesitant to share details but, as the title indicates, it is about death and dying… but it is also about a life lived, it is about forgiveness, and it is about so much more. I loved the “main” afterlife usher, Jill “Doll” Blaine and I loved the cast of characters that keep “vigil” around one very curious man – K.J. Boone. As usual, Saunders has me thinking about Vigil after I have finished it. It is absolutely a novel that will linger with me. (Oh… and I have plans to listen to it and soon! I think the audio version of this book will be as spectacular as Bardo was!)
I also finished Patrick Ryan’s Buckeye… and it was also so good (and not entirely different from Vigil… but in a very different way) This was also a 5-star book for me. It is a story about life… done brilliantly. And a group of people who all intersect with each other in ways that are ordinary, but seem extraordinary as Ryan writes them. It is a story of life and war, life and infidelity, life and not being wanted, life and finding family. The ending was just stunning… a brilliantly crafted novel that I highly recommend!
What about you? What is getting you through January?
As always, if you wrote a post to share please leave your link below and thank you!
by Kat | Jan 14, 2026 | General, Unraveled Wednesday
Greetings dear Unraveler’s! Another Wednesday has arrived… and so we gather to share our weekly updates!
I am going to begin with the questions many of you had last week about my newly finished Year of Stitching project.
It seems your inquiring minds all want to know the size of my stitching and I woefully neglected to tell you any of those details. Each month’s template is roughly 8″ x11″… and so the size is quite generous. Its dimensions are roughly 32″ x 33″ before finishing. I will be sewing a backing fabric on it to help protect all the couched ends, which I simply knotted on the backside, as you can see below. I am going to simply back it with a bit of old cotton sheeting, which I think will work nicely to preserve the integrity of the stitches.
This sea of knots is soon to be tucked safely away.
No one asked, but I stitched last year on my last piece of Joann’s Linen from my stash. I tried to get more before Joann’s closed but was not successful. I like stitching on linen as it holds the stitches well. Most days I stitch with Perle cotton (size 8 or 12) and occasionally I will stitch with 2 or 3 strands of embroidery floss but Perle cotton is my favorite. Last year I used some linen to couch around each day’s square… it is linen that is for weaving, but it worked really well.
Perfectly imperfect… and exactly what my new stitch project needed!
One of you asked if I actually stitch every day… and the answer is yes, most days. The perfect day for me begins with a cup of coffee and my “tin” of threads. A bit of meditative stitching to start my day is absolutely the best thing ever. Now, does that happen every day? No, it does not… but if I look back at the year of stitching I can say that most days did. I don’t like “catching up” stitching days… For me doing that looses some of what daily stitching is supposed to be, at least for me, a brief moment to dip into my own creativity and stitch for a few minutes with no pattern just an empty “square” waiting for some stitches. I have been doing this now for a number of years and it is my favorite thing I do.
Now, all that being said, here we are on January 14th and as you can see above there are not 14 days stitched but I am close to catching up. I was not feeling at all excited about this years stitching but then I found a skein of very early handspun yarn I had made… yarn that though the colors are insanely perfect, the spinning was not so much that at all. It has bits that are very overspun and bits that are very underspun and then there is the uneven plying (apparently, I did not utilize the counting trick… at all, lol.) However, today I am praising my former self for this perfectly imperfect yarn! As I began stitching it down my love for this very different canvas began to grow! I am all kinds of excited about this project suddenly and I will continue each day to “stitch down” remaining lines… but January is all ready for me! (As are February, March and April!)
That “couching interlude” put my sock on pause and because couching is such a meditative thing to do, it allowed my mind to think on that sock yarn + the pattern I had begun… and yep, if you guessed that those two things were not harmonious, you’d be right. Sigh. So I have frogged that beginning and have cast on again… this time with just my good old standby “plain sock” recipe. This harmony is making me much happier.
Squiggly yarn being slowly consumed… stitch by stitch.
Reading did not fare as well this week as I had no finishes because that means I actually got some sleep this week! Whew! (and there has not been much “daytime listening” because Steve was home all last week and this week sick. Sigh. I am happy to report that my RSV vaccine is working perfectly though…)
What about you all? What is on your needles this week? And are you reading anything good?
As always, if you wrote a post to share please leave your link below and thank you!
by Kat | Jan 7, 2026 | General, Unraveled Wednesday
Greetings Gentle Unraveler’s and Happy New Year to all of you! Welcome to the first Wednesday of the New Year… let’s begin as we mean to go on, shall we?
I can’t believe that I have a pair of socks completed, but you can see the proof above! This pair, in Hermoine’s Everyday Sock pattern, is by far my favorite to knit. There are purl bumps for knitting interest, it fits well, and those purl bumps… well they also make it very simple to knit the second sock the same as the first (For the inquiring mind: 15 rows of ribbing, 17 pattern repeats, heel flap, 15 pattern repeats, toe…is the “recipe” for this pair.) The yarn is the October color from Six and Seven Fiber… it is their “Clover” sock yarn which is really lovely. It is a bit thicker and toothier yarn. I knit it on US 1.5 needles and it is a lovely, cushy fabric that I hope wears very well!
Soon to be another pair of socks!
I will be casting on another pair of socks pronto… I just have to wind the yarn. I have picked this pattern, which seems so appropriate as Joji will be the Snippets guest later this month. The yarn is from The Farmers Daughter Fibers in the January color, Deep Winter.
366 days of stitching!
I wanted to share the freshly washed and pressed 2025 stitching… I still have a bit of finish work to do, I am adding a fabric backing and will be making something for it to “live in” once it is all done. Originally, I thought this would make a delightful Happy Hour addition, but I don’t think I could bear it if anything spilled on it. And so, it will be tucked away safely.
December, up close!
The reading this week has me tucked away inside Katherine May’s Wintering. I am savoring this book and reading a bit every morning with my coffee. It is the perfect book for where I am right now. I am in no rush to finish it, and that is very okay too.
However, for those times when I can’t just sit and read, I finished listening to another in the Chief Bruno series, A Château Under Siege, which I thoroughly enjoyed.
At night, despite my horrendous insomnia, I am trying not to read after “lights out” but have been making my way through George Saunders new book to be published later this month, Vigil. It is brilliant and I am almost done. If you loved Lincoln on the Bardo or A Swim in the Pond in the Rain, I think you will really enjoy Vigil. It has a cast of characters that only Saunders can dream up!
And there you have it from me this week! What about you? What is tickling your fancy in this first week of the New Year?
As always, if you wrote a post to share please leave your link below and thank you!
by Kat | Dec 24, 2025 | General, Unraveled Wednesday
Greetings gentle Unraveler’s and Happy Christmas Eve to you all!
A brief gathering today… I have a feeling not many will be sharing an update today. If you are, welcome… get a cup of something warm and settle in!
This week my making was entirely focused on Gnome finishing and my efforts paid off because I have two *basically* completed gnomes.
Gnockette, sans books but her “hands” are waiting for them to be affixed!
First up, sweet Gnockette… the smaller version of her big brother, Gnock. First on the structure of this gnome… I think it worked much better in the larger version. The cap sits better on Gnock than it does on Gnockette, in fact, I had to stitch it down to ensure it stays on! Gnockette still needs a book or two (I have not yet printed out the covers for her, but I will before the New Year!)
Gnandad, with “limp” arms… don’t jostle anything or those poles will fall down! (But Gnana and Gnandad make such a handsome couple!)
Next, Gnandad is finished (although, I still believe he needs a backpack but I have yet to figure one out for him… I think it will be fabric since we learned in his story that he is a master quilter!) I affixed his skis and his poles on Monday but realized his arms needed a bit of assistance from some floral wire. As you can see, sans wire his arms are less than convincing at his cross country skiing skills… however, a bit of wire and you can see that he is a champion skier! However, he is happy to be home with his beloved Gnana and has been regaling her with stories from his travels. I love his suspenders… and his mustache! How perfect! (and there will be more mustachioed gnomes in the future!) The December mystery gnome knit along is my absolute favorite thing. I love the pacing of the clues and most especially the story. It feeds my inner child and sparks my imagination. Thank you, Sarah for yet another brilliant Gnome!
A mustache!!
Some very dapper braces!
Gnandad with a bit of florists wire and suddenly the ski poles are The Thing!
I have plans to knit another gnome asap (Savor the Gnoment) which I think is the perfect title for what I plan to do in these waning days of 2025.
The reading has been brilliant this week… I had 2 five star finishes! First, Lev Grossman’s The Bright Sword. Oh my, if you enjoy a King Arthur story… you will love Lev’s retelling. It is brilliant. It is captivating. It whisked me away to another time and I loved every second of it! I highly recommend!
The other 5-star book was Nina MacLaughlin’s Winter Solstice. It was tender, and quiet, and thoughtful. This is a book that encouraged me to slow down and sit with her words with no reason to rush. I am glad I have this book in my library as I imagine it will become a good friend in future December’s… it is the perfect little read!
And that is it for me for today. I want to wish you all the happiest of holidays… may your days be full of good things.
Blooper…. Frankie has a fascination with dear Gnandad! (as in if he could get Gnandad, Frankie would be in big trouble!)
A bit of housekeeping, there won’t be an Unraveled post next week on New Year’s Eve.
If you wrote a post to share today, thank you! You can leave your link below in the link up!
by Kat | Dec 17, 2025 | General, Unraveled Wednesday
Greetings dear Unraveler’s!
Hopefully you have arrived at the “I can knit whatever the heck I want” portion of December knitting… especially if you are doing any holiday knitting! Personally, I have been in that mode all month… and it feels very good.
I have begun Hermoine’s Everyday Sock, which I really love to knit. It fits well and I like the purl blips which keep my mind more focused (versus wandering down the long halls of grief.) I had one rather large hiccup this past weekend… Sunday was my dear daughter-in-laws due date and I did not expect for that to be such a crushing day. (Honestly, I did not even think about it until I turned the page to the calendar.) But it reminded me that grief is always the boss. (The yarn is from Six and Seven Fiber, I think it was their October sock color)
Someone shared a quote last week which has been the exact balm I needed (that someone was Felix Ford… who it turns out, I needed very much to spend a couple of hours in her MDK class)
Grief, I’ve learned, is really just love. It’s all the love you want to give, but cannot. All that unspent love gathers up in the corners of your eyes, the lump in your throat, and in that hollow part of your chest. Grief is just love with no place to go. ― Jamie Anderson
I don’t know who Jamie Anderson is, but I thank her for her grief wisdom and I thank dear Felix for sharing this quote.
Gnome knitting continues as well… I need to get Gnockette’s braids done and then attach her final bits. She let me know over the weekend she is a Romance Reader (I almost told her she needed to move out at this news… because… EWWW! lol) I have to get her arms done yet, she is so close to being finished! (so stay tuned for her Big Reveal!) And, as you can see above, the body of Gnandad is done but I have yet to begin the “mystery part” knitting which was Monday’s update. I like how he is looking thus far… a very handsome Gnome-to-be!
The reading of “big books” has been “so – so” this week. I finished Mr. Comey’s latest novel (FDR Drive) and, reading friends, this series is not getting better… at all. I gave it 3-stars (and that was really a stretch.)
BUT!! Short story reading is absolutely perfection! I am about halfway through Nina MacLaughlin’s Winter Solstice and I am savoring every word! I am reading a story over the course of several days… digesting slowly the quiet words. Short stories are a good friend to my grief.
And that is all I have for today. As always, if you wrote a post to share please leave your link below!
by Kat | Dec 10, 2025 | General, Unraveled Wednesday
Greetings gentle Unraveler’s… welcome to Wednesday and our weekly gathering to share what we are making and reading.
I had some actual unraveling this week… yep, Monday’s clue was not read clearly and I had to rip out my knitting and restart. The second try was much better. I do so enjoy Sarah’s method of picking up stitches it makes the process of making a gnome easier. I don’t know what further “parts” there will be, but I am hoping there will be a bit of a backpack of sorts and I am listening eagerly to Gnandad as he whispers to me inspiration on the direction I will be taking him! And Gnana has been pulled out of the great blue cupboard… she needs some finishing touches, most important since Gnandad will soon be joining her!
Gnock-ette almost has two legs! Up next, despite the pattern not calling for them… she will have arms. I am contemplating her hair and how best to go about that. Stay tuned.
The reading… has slowed considerably. I finished and loved Truman Capote’s book of Christmas/Thanksgiving short stories… I join Carole in highly recommending it! I have begun Winter Solstice and it is just perfection on these dark December mornings. And thanks to Nina, I discovered that Han Kang has a wintery short story book! I have requested The White Book from my library.
What about you? How is your December unfolding?
As always, if you wrote a post to share please leave your link below and thank you!
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