by Kat | Jun 5, 2024 | General, Unraveled Wednesday
Greetings dear Unraveler’s and Happy Wednesday!
The header image is my morning starting place. While I might want to stay here for the entire day, sadly that is not feasible! I mean… we have to eat, lol! But mornings working out great because my presence is a bit of a deterrent to the starlings and grackles that want to “hog” the feeder. I have made myself a “portable desk” that holds a book of poetry, The Comfort of Crows, my drawing/painting book, and my Traveler’s Notebooks… (so calendar and journal.) I also added a small jam jar to hold pens, a pencil, and a roll of washi tape. It is perfect!
I am motoring along on my 6th pair of socks… this time I am “making it up” as I go… sort of. I love the 3×1 ribbing for both look and fit. Steve prefers a shorter sock, and I really love Hermoine’s heel… I am moving down the foot with miles to go before I get to those toe decreases. But it the perfect companion for sipping coffee on the porch… and also works well for night time television watching!
A sock and a bit of stitching!
My other fun thing this week is a vessel… a stitched vessel. I have the “outside” done… I am working on the inside… and will keep stitching in little bits of time. Fun… so much fun! (I will share construction, but I was long past the “starting point” so be patient!)
I am back on the Sweater Train!
I have had “start the sweater” on my list for a couple of weeks now… with not a single stitch cast on. Well, this week that all changed. A morning of porch sitting had some “extra time” to get those stitches cast on! Now I have some ribbing to knit!
The reading this week… really just so delightful! I am racing to finish the RWU book for next week! Talk about under the wire!! And I am tucked away in Paris with Ruth Reichl’s soon-to-be-released book, The Paris Novel. After a bit of a bumpy start, I have settled in… Ruth’s writing is just so great. I am enjoying the story and am racing up to the end!
There you have my week. What are you all thinking about as June begins?
As always, if you wrote a post to share please leave your link below and thank you!
by Kat | May 29, 2024 | General, Unraveled Wednesday
Greetings Unravelers and Happy Last Wednesday in May! It is bittersweet to think of bidding May adieu but June is there… so close I can almost touch her!
I have been busy since we last talked. Stitching and knitting… knitting and stitching.
First up, my finished 100 Day Project! I spent a good chunk of time pondering the layout, figuring out the “tab and slot” fabric book method, realizing I needed inside pages for the front and back pages, not understanding how those extra 4 pages would fit in, thinking they would somehow “fit” over the finished book, realizing they would not, ripping out lots and lots and lots of seams, pinning pages together to figure out the puzzle for those 4 extra pages, marking up my sewing map, sewing, pressing, hand stitching the “tabs” and “slots” closed, and assembling!
Page adjustments and sewing map!
Whew! (For those wondering, I used Ann’s guidelines for the book… part one and part two.) I also did a good bit of googling to see if there was a theory of how to add pages (I did not find one.) In the end, it came down to me and a big jar of safety pins… Yes, I needed to unpin and re-pin several times to get the order to work. I expect the next tab and slot fabric book will be easier since I worked out all the hurdles (probably, lol)
But I am in LOVE!
I can’t wait to see Heidi’s face as she looks at it (I will include a long(ish) letter for her in which I talk about my thoughts as I stitched and the fabrics I used – though I think she will recognize them!)
I also have May’s socks in just under the wire! Yes, this is the fifth pair of socks I have knit this year! I began winding the yarn (some very vintage sweetgeorgia tough love sock in the sitka colorway, for those wondering) for pair six on Monday and would have cast on Tuesday afternoon… but it took me almost more time than the making of the book to figure out the video!
The reading though… oh my! It was a sweet week of reading! I stumbled upon Dan Flores Wild New Word thanks to Libby… it was the “Big Library Read” earlier this month. I am about 75% through and enjoying it thoroughly (although, I really am disgusted by our actions beginning in about 1800’s… sigh) But I am learning so much… so much! At night I am closing in on the ending of The Hazelbourne Ladies… it is delightful. (and I am also learning so much!)
What about you all? What is on your reading and making lists for this summer?
As always, if you wrote a post to share leave your link below and thank you!
A bit of housekeeping for the remainder of this week. I have a flurry of activities tomorrow and Friday (which includes my first visit back to see the audiologist since getting hearing aids) so this might be it for me this week! If I am not here on Friday, I will see you all back here on Monday!
by Kat | May 22, 2024 | General, Unraveled Wednesday
Greetings Dear Unravelers and Happy Wednesday!
There has been some significant “unraveling” this week as I picked out the seams on several pages from my book. Sigh. Building a Slot and Tab book is taking all my brain bandwidth. Foolishly, I thought I’d be able to just figure out a trick to add in my front and back covers… ha! So once I unpicked the seams… I got out my container of safety pins… and started pinning pages tabs and slots and began the building process. After some unpinning and repinning to get the pages in the correct order. I redrew my “stitch map” and am ready to begin again.
Picking out seams is a lot slower than unraveling knitting… just saying.
But!! I do have that first sock done and a second sock started! I am motoring down the leg and hope to get this one done yet this month!
Getting back to my daily stitching project has been a challenge… I need to rethink my time for stitching. Morning stitching with my coffee is just not “doable” in these spring leaning into summer days. I am watering plants early, filling feeders, grabbing a weed or twenty, cleaning birdbaths… I think you see where my focus is. Not sedentary, but rather active… which is not so conducive to contemplating what to stitch. I am contemplating another time during the day to sit and stitch…I have some ideas but right now those minutes are taken up with Book Making. So if I can get the book done this week…
A little update about my hearing aids… things are really going amazingly well! The cacophony of birds on my morning walk with Sherman is not quite so overwhelming! The floor creaks still are loud, perhaps because the creaks are only in a couple of spaces… so it is not an ‘often’ sound. And I have also acclimated to keyboard typing! Haha! It is just so amazing to hear all the things!
How about some reading news… I started Erik Larson’s The Demon of Unrest this week. Oh my… it is fascinating and so engaging. At night I am reading Helen Simonson’s soon to be published The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club and really enjoying it!
There you have what I am working on… what about you? What’s on your radar this week?
As always, if you wrote a post to share please leave your link below!
by Kat | May 15, 2024 | General, Unraveled Wednesday
Greetings dearest Unravelers and Happy Wednesday!
I have eased back into making… a stitch here and there began to add up to suddenly finding myself at the heel flap on Sock One!
Before vacation, I began the new Mystery Gnome… it started slowly with a few bits (feet and a “mysterious” cast on!) And then the stripey part really took off… and I began to think about how this gnome was not going to fit in at all with the Gnomes in the Cupboard. He was bright… too bright. He felt awkward to me as I blocked the “body”. So I set him aside and let him just simmer a bit. And then he began to speak to me… as did the Gnomes in the Cupboard! The Cupboard Gnomes let me know that they are an open and welcoming community for gnomes of all shapes, sizes, and yes, even and especially brightly colored gnomes!
Gnedward R. Murrow getting the garden scoop!
The mystery of this gnome is that he is a journalist… a newspaper reporter, so with those thoughts circling my brain, Gnedward R. Murrow was born. He will be the perfect addition to a very somberly dressed Gnome Village… he knows that gnomes are gnosy. They love to know the what’s what that everyone else is doing! Being gnebby is the thing gnomes do best! He has his gnotepad handy so he never misses a story! And how does he share his gnews? Well, he blogs them, of course! (Has Acorn Air, Will Travel!)
These feet are made for walking!
The latest Acorn Air model!
A bag for a busy gnome!
I knit him per the instructions (which were excellent, as always!) and my only changes were on how I put him together (I put the feet on the bottom as if he is standing vs on front of the body as if he were sitting.) I made him a wee messenger bag out of the scraps. His Acorn Air… a bit of cardboard covered in aluminum foil and voilá… a tiny laptop!
The Gnomes of the Cupboard are happy with their new addition… and they love that the gnews on the blog is more accurate than the gnews from the grapevine!
I am settling back into my “usual reading routine” as well and I have a couple of finishes (The Haunted Season and Forgotten on Sunday) but what really rocked me was the death of Paul Auster. I loved his books that I had read and 4321 is one of my all time favorite books! When I got home I got on the waitlist for a few of the books I have not yet read… library waitlist’s… sigh. Speaking of Library Waitlists… I am still … still!! … waiting for next month’s Read With Us bookclub selection, How To Say Babylon (current wait time 6 weeks… sigh.)
And there you have my re-starting of the knitting and reading! What about you? What are you engaged with this week?
As always, if you wrote a post to share please leave your link below and thank you!
P.S. I wrote this post early in the day on Tuesday before my hearing aid fitting appointment… stay tuned for an update later this week!
by Kat | May 8, 2024 | General, Unraveled Wednesday
Greetings Unravelers and Happy Wednesday!
I am having a bit of a struggle settling back in to my normal routine… I feel like I am behind on everything (because I am!) and that is not a fun feeling at all.
One thing I did not bring on vacation was my Daily Stitching project… so I am working on trying to finish April and get May caught up. Thinking about trying is really the truth… I have not picked it up since I got home. There are more pressing things bumping that off the list!
Also… my knitting mojo has up and left. Gone. I barely knit on our trip. Barely. Like less than 3 rounds on a sock. Non-existent.
I ripped the *second* sweater start before leaving… the bump up size was not bumped up enough. The yarn is in time out.
I brought Steve’s vest thinking that would be good “round and round” knitting… but I made him try it on… and it was too big. I measured my gauge in the sweater and it was not at all the gauge of the pattern and when I got home I doubled checked my swatch and the swatch is on gauge, so my knitting changed… argh! That is in time out as well.
I tried to pick up the sock last night, but I was not really feeling it at all.
But the garden beds have been weeded! My sourdough starter has been revved up and is now ready for baking again. And all the laundry is caught up! (I still have a stack of winter sweaters to wash and put away if it would ever stop raining….)
The reading has equally been sparse. My finishes were two books of short stories… but they were each so good. My current listen finds me back in St. Denis with Bruno as he solves a mystery! He is a good companion for garden weeding!
What about you all? What are you making… please inspire me to get back to knitting!
As always, if you wrote a post to share please leave your link below and thank you!
by Kat | Apr 24, 2024 | General, Unraveled Wednesday
Greetings Unravelers and Happy Wednesday to you all!
First, a bit of housekeeping for next week. There will not be any Unraveled Wednesday post next week, May 1st. I will be back from Erie the following week and there will be an Unraveled post on May 8th!
Now that that bit of housekeeping is out of the way, why don’t we ease into some making and reading!
On the making front, with time to spare… I have a new Honey Cowl and I love it. I might have been able to do another round before the final rounds, but I did not feel like playing yarn chicken and losing! It is bright, fun, and will be the perfect addition for the cooler and windier weather on Lake Erie!
I have finished the bottom ribbing on my “pre-knit” sweater and I am much happier with the rip back and size adjustment I made.
That yarn that tried (and failed) to be some Feather and Fan socks has been cast on for another pair of Hermoine’s Everyday Socks. They are easy travel knitting (I don’t need the pattern and I can stop and start as needed) and will likewise be perfect for “nighttime TV watching.” I am also taking the sweater, but I am not really sure how much knitting will get done…
Wee Snowmen who will find a new life!
I started the Last Page yesterday and will be taking it with me to finish the final page. I am excited to put all these pages together! This last page will incorporate some cross-stitch snowmen that I started when Heidi was a very small little girl. I have cut up the fabric and will stitch them onto some “snowy hills.” This has truly been a project that has jumpstarted my creativity… and once the pages are all together, I plan on continuing a similar stitching project!
The reading this week… I had heard about The Salt Path recently and was fortunate that my library had an audio copy. It is my only finish this week. The story is true. It is a compelling, moving story… Moth and Raynor Winn lose their home in Wales, Moth is diagnosed with a terminal illness… and they decide (in their 50’s) to walk The Salt Path and camp along the way. They begin as two beaten down people, and as they continue along something of a wonder begins to happen… they get stronger, their minds get clearer, Moth improves significantly. And so Raynor brings us along on their journey as they walk the longest path in Britain. It is an inspiring story.
At night, I am meandering my way through the book of short stories, Table for Two, by Amor Towles… and they are delicious. I really don’t want the book to end… the stories are just so good! I am about halfway through and savoring every word!
And there you have my week! What about you? What are you thinking about this week?
As always, if you wrote a post to share please leave your link below and thank you!
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