by Kat | 7 hours ago | 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!
by Kat | Jun 3, 2026 | General, Unraveled Wednesday
Greetings dear Unravelers and Happy Wednesday!
The recent weather here in the South Hills of Pittsburgh has been truly extraordinary! Clear blue skies with occasional wisps of clouds, light breezes, absolutely zero humidity, and temps in the 70’s… really extraordinary days!
All this incredible weather means I have been out of doors a lot! The few garden areas are mostly weeded (there is one area in the front yard that I should tackle, but it feels a bit too much like work so I am presently ignoring it!)
Instead I have been looking at ITO Kinu colors and contemplating projects… and leave it to Ann for pushing me over the edge. It wasn’t really a big push… another Marled Scarf has been rattling around in my brain. I picked 6 colors and they arrived on Monday and after dinner I began Micro-Swatching.
I think there is nothing better in all of the knitting world than the wonder of marling + micro-swatching.
Micro-swatch mapping is such fun!
I spent some time Tuesday contemplating my path and how many stitches to cast on. I think I have an interesting layout… a bit different from my first. I am planning for it to be a bit narrower and the colors could not be more different. The simplicity of the pattern is the perfect summer knit and marling is such a fun thing to do!
It was a stellar week for reading as well! I finished Dr. Ibram X. Kendi’s Chain of Ideas. It was so good and I learned so much. And I’d like to confess, I was astonishingly surprised at how fascism just can’t seem to be stamped out! That part was very shocking to me… very shocking. If you have liked Dr. Kendi’s previous books, you will very much enjoy Chain of Ideas and I highly recommend it. I combined listening to Dr Kendi read and read with my eyes… a very good pairing.
I am listening to Homeseeking by Karissa Chen and loving it! Honestly, it is hard to stop listening to this story told by Suchi and Haiwen… one part told from the past forward, the other told from current time to the past. A fascinating way to unfurl a story! I don’t remember how this crossed my radar, but I am so very glad it did!
And there you have what is occupying my time… what about you? What do you hope June holds for you?
As always, if you wrote a post to share please leave your link below and thank you!
by Kat | May 27, 2026 | General, Unraveled Wednesday
Greetings gentle Unraveler’s and Happy Last Wednesday in May!
It was a good long weekend… especially if one had a focus of finishing something! Yep, there was lots of rain in my area… which was exactly what I needed to get one step closer to the finish line of my ITO Kinu Shakerag Top! I just have to figure out how I want to finish the neckline and determine what, if anything, needs to happen to the arm openings. My initial thoughts for those arm openings is to do nothing. I really don’t mind the rolling edges, but the fabric feels very fragile…
The length is perfect and the drape is perfect!
Which is a feature, imo, not a bug and that makes this shirt perfect for summer. It is light. It is incredibly float-y! Suddenly, I am all in for warm weather… bring. it. on!
But back to the fragility of the sleeve openings… while I don’t mind the curling, I think the shirt would wear better with a bit of reinforcement around the edges… especially at the point where the front and back divides.
A bit of an edge to the neckline with neaten it up a bit.
I took all the photos before I gave it a good soak yesterday (this yarn really needs a spa treatment!) and laid it out to dry, so today I will figure out what I want to do. The pattern calls for picking up stitches around the neckline and arm openings and then binding them all off. On my first Shakerag top (knit out of Holst Garn Coast) I found that a single crochet edging worked looked better and it has stood the “wearing test” well.
I really like how the split hem turned out!
Pattern modifications: As I noted last week, I did a split hem. I divided the cast on stitches in half did garter stitch on three stitches on each side. When I had what I thought was a good length for the split hem (really it was a bit of guess work paired with the length I wish my first Shakerag had) I then joined the halves in the round and when I got to those “side stitches” I laid the front stitches over the back stitches and knit the stitches together (a 3-needle join) and and then knit on in the round. In my next one… and there will be another…I will make one small change to this process. When I do the join in the round bit, I will do it in the middle of the double strand band instead of at the end of one band and the beginning of the single strand band. Why? Well, this area needs to have a bit of sturdiness to it… which I think the double strand knitting section offers. I realized this after I had some good “landscape” of knitting and was not ripping back to redo it. I simply made a note for my next one! Other than that, I knit one size larger than I did last time, giving the top a bit more ease which works well with the fluidity of this yarn.
The reading this week has been sparse, but I am back listening to Dr. Kendi narrate Chain of Ideas. I am about half way in and I am learning so much.
I also picked up Heart be at Peace by Donal Ryan from the library last weekend and plan on settling in with it later today.
What about you? How is May winding down for you?
As always, if you wrote a post to share please leave your link below and thank you!
by Kat | May 20, 2026 | 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 | 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!
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