by Kat | Dec 18, 2024 | General, Looking Back, Unraveled Wednesday
Greetings dear Unravelers! We have arrived at the very last Unraveled post of 2024!
Winter is a season of recovery and preparation. — Paul Theroux
Welcome to my 2024 Knitting Making Review… and yes, that quote is perfect for remembering what I made this year and for doing some preparation for how I want to go next year.
I had some significant failures in my knitting this year… particularly Sweater Failure… not once, but twice. This has made me “knit-shy” when I contemplate trying to knit another sweater. At least I learned to stop with the second sweater failure rather than completely forging ahead and getting further along in the process… but knitting failure is not enjoyable at any stage of knitting. And yet… there must be a spark of Sweater Hope inside me because I have not been able to stop thinking about this sweater. I even bought the yarn to make it… but I can’t even bring myself to begin the swatching process. I think a bit more recovery time is needed… and I have a bit of penance to complete with the two sweaters awaiting “frogging” … sigh. But I feel this is a necessity because those yarns deserve to become something wearable!
But I did have some successes… 2024 was the year of socks for me and although I lost my “sock steam” with the arrival of a new puppy, I did manage to add 8 pairs of socks to our house! This is the most socks I have ever knit in a year and I really enjoyed having a “sock in process” it made it easy at the end of the day to have a project that did not require much thinking, just familiar knitting… round and round and round. In other words, a habit I need to get back to!
Of course, I knit more Gnomes this year! I even knit a couple of Gnome Trees to perk up the Gnome House for The Gnome Season of Love (FYI this is much longer than a day in February… Gnomes think love is the most important thing ever and celebrate the Season of Love year around!) I close out the year with five new gnomes for The Great Blue Cupboard and two that will hold space on the mantle, and one that is in process… slowly becoming. The Mantel Duo… have become my favorites despite not caring for Gnock (the mystery gnome) much at all when he was in process. However, since his finish he has very much grown on me! He is the OIG (the Original Introvert Gnome) and he much prefers his own company to any others, but he has found joy in quiet evenings reading a cozy mystery out loud as he smokes his pipe. Gnock has a ready audience with Gnelson (the marled gnome) who having spent the day fishing is happy to just sit quietly, listening to Gnock read. Gnelson savors the sweet smell of cherry tobacco as it burns slowly from Gnock’s pipe! Although he occasionally does drift off as he thinks about the fish that got away, he mostly is attentive! I have hopes to make him a worthy fishing creel and soon. But I love his chop stick turned fishing pole! I think he also needs a couple of “flies” tucked in the knots at the top of his cap! And there are months of inspiration in Sarah Schirra’s book, The Gnomes of Grimblewood… and while I have not “jumped” on the bandwagon for another Year of Gnomes, I will absolutely be knitting more because Steve’s mom has asked if she could grow her collection…
I knit with handspun yarn… not once but four times! A pair of socks (which have not held up well and have had heel repairs x2… sigh), two Honey Cowl’s – which I wear on the regular, and a sweater for Frankie! I would like to think that I will do more spinning in 2025, but I am not sure I will follow through on that… at least for the time being spinning is on the shelf.
I knit a Christmas gift with a brand new yarn. (No images of this gift until after Christmas… but the yarn is one of the nicest yarns! I even have some inspiration for another project using this yarn and what fantastic inspiration it is!)

What do you mean, it’s time to get in bed… I am in bed!
Speaking of Frankie… I knit him a starter sweater, which he rapidly outgrew…but looking at how little he was when he came here is just too funny. He has rapidly outgrown his puppy shyness and his personality is just so fun to watch develop. My favorite time of the day is when he “asks to snuggle” in the morning and “whispers” softly in my cheek. He owns my heart and I am just so happy he came to live with us.

Carole asked how big Frankie is getting… 24″ IKEA pillow for scale… Frankie is about 18″ long from his nose to his backside, tail not included! Haha!
Stitching was a big part of my year again… and it will remain so in 2025. I absolutely love my daily stitching and I have found a way to work it in around Frankie’s puppy busy-ness! I am doing something different this year, I am following Karen Turner’s suggestion this year of a whole-cloth versus 12 individual pieces… and I am excited to get the year “set up”… the tracing will begin soon and likely will happen in spurts between now and the new year!
I also am keeping my membership with Ann Wood’s stitchy group. She is leading another 100 Day Stitching project, which was truly the best thing I made all year! I am excited to begin another 100 day book… especially with the things I learned while doing the last one! (and yes, I still have my Fall book to finish… which will happen, I promise!)
I took advantage of an online class in 2024… and I plan to keep utilizing online classes as an inspiration in 2025. The class I took with Cecelia Campochiaro was the best knitting class I have ever taken… hands down. I think her genius of color theory paired with a simply repeating pattern sequence to be the thing that made me realize that sometimes, simple is best (Fail Sweaters, I am looking directly at you!) I did not get my scarf completed, but I am well past the half way point and I think with some focused time this winter, I could have it done in time for spring!
One thing I miss… desperately… is painting and I need to get back to it… I just need to figure out how it can work in my day. I am hopeful that once wee Frankie has the “snip” he will calm down a bit… right now he has energy – on steroids! HA! There is no middle for him right now, he is either sleeping or going full speed! It makes painting impossible right now. But, my hope is that in the first quarter of next year, I find a way to ease painting back in!
Now for a bit of housekeeping, there will not be an Unraveled Wednesday next week… but I wish you all the happiest holiday… whatever you celebrate! There will be a New Year’s Day Unraveled and, if you want to join me, I will be sharing my 2024 Reading… and it was a very good year!
As always, if you have a post to share please leave your link below and thank you!
by Kat | Nov 27, 2024 | General, Unraveled Wednesday
Greetings dear Unravelers!
In a week when most of the making is likely happening in the kitchen… I do have a spot of actual knitting content to share!
With a blast of wintry weather heading our way, I knew that wee Franklin would need a bigger sweater to stay warm! He is still growing in his winter coat and has a long way to go. I pulled out some handspun yarn and cast on. I used this pattern but I modified it significantly. I wanted this sweater to have some “room to grow” and I think I achieved that! The problem with knitting a sweater “bigger than the pup” is that they don’t stay on as well but I think my “neck work around” works well, it is nice and snuggly and does not slide down his shoulders! I knit 6 rounds of ribbing, knit a “fold” purl row, and then 6 more ribbing rounds. I then joined the live stitches to the cast on edge (yay 3-needle join!) and then started the chest increases. AND!! While doing that, I worked in an opening for his harness so the sweater can go over the harness! (another brilliant way to help a sweater that is a bit big to fit!) I matched the “legs” to the neckline… giving them a nice double layer of fabric to cozy up his bare little armpits! It was absolutely not as quick as that first sweater, but I think this one will get him through some months and as you can see… he has room to grow!

One woolly sweater for a not yet furry boy!
This week I also felt that I had enough “brain bandwidth” to follow a Gnome Pattern… yes, I started the marled gnome! As you can see, I have the hat done and the body is underway.
I reached the halfway point in my Color Changing Marled Scarf, but it does not look much different from last week, so I have no photo.
I have been mostly listening to books again this week but I happily stumbled upon some things to watch and wanted to share them with you all.
First, FX (although, I watched it on Hulu) has a series on Patrick Redden Keefe’s Say Nothing. I thought the book was very good and this series equals that. It is brilliantly done and I very much recommend it.
The other book-to-television series was found on Amazon Prime… yes, there is a BBC series on Kate Atkinson’s Life After Life. Now this is one of the best books I have ever read. It is a book I *still* think about and I was skeptical about how one could translate the brilliance of the story to a series to be streamed. Well, the BBC did it brilliantly and if you are looking for something to watch over the holiday weekend, I highly recommend it!
Now, I have a pumpkin pie to bake! I wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving and I will see you all back here on Friday.
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by Kat | Oct 9, 2024 | General, Unraveled Wednesday
Greetings dear Unravelers and happy Wednesday!
This week, I reminded myself that perseverance… one stitch after another, one row after another… means completed objects. And this week, that was the balm I needed… the perseverance balm.
I finished my September Socks… yes, well into October, but done is done! They need a bit of a soak which will be happening this morning so they can dry in the sun today. I am happy to have knit Monkey Socks but I don’t think I will knit them again. They are just not the delight that Carole’s Picot Socks are… or Hermione’s Everyday Socks. Those are sock perfection patterns!
I also, in one evening, knit a wee tiny sweater for a Puglet! I had placed a bit of an order with Miss Babs before Helene hit, and did not expect them to be so expeditious in getting those orders out the door post-Helene but my yarn arrived last week and I cast on and finished this Pug sweater on Friday night. The yarn is Cupcake in the Pitch color way and it was a delight to knit with! I have a good bit left, so maybe I will have enough to knit another sweater as our baby grows! But he will be cozy as he figures out house training!

No matter what I did, I could not get the actual color to be reflected in the photo. It is much darker, with lots of tweedy bits! It is really lovely yarn!
My real joy this week though has been the Autumn Book. I had a bit of a handwoven sampler that I did *eons* ago to work on “beating tension” and selvages… I never imagined that it would ever be useful in a project! The cover page is done and I have begun work on the next page… a bit of a play on weaving with weaving. And I have cut out some oak leaves to stitch down on the “vacation” page.

I am having so much fun with this page!
My reading this week was a bit of a let down after last week’s stellar reads! I finished Matt Haig’s new book, The Life Impossible and did not like it much. But I am just over halfway through Ali Smith’s soon-to-be-published Gliff, and it is really quite brilliant!
And there you have my week… by the time you read this, I will have completed my “must complete before we go list” by washing the kitchen floor after I finished my coffee! There won’t be any posts next week, Unraveled Wednesday included but I am planning on posting something on Monday, October 21st when we are back. (and I will have a better idea of when we will head off to pick up that little pug by then as well!)
As always, if you have a post to share please leave your link below and thank you!
by Kat | Sep 18, 2024 | General, Uncategorized, Unraveled Wednesday
Greetings Gentle Unravelers!
September is just flying by and I need to get my fingers in gear if I expect to get the pair of September Socks finished!
While I don’t have a picture to share, I do have a few thoughts about the Jaywalker pattern… I am remembering now why I have never knit it. I cast on the “size I normally knit” and got several pattern repeats done and was quite confounded by how small the leg of the sock looked. I tried to pull it on and it might work if my goal was to knit compression socks I’d be right on track because they were so tight I could barely get them over my heel… without an actual heel in the sock! So I ripped back and cast on the next size up… I am almost back to the point I was when I restarted (and this was my Read With Us knit last night, so I did make the tiniest bit of progress!)
My main focus since last week has been “scratching the itch” of cast-on-all-the-things! I pulled out a skein of hand spun yarn, paired it with a strand of KSH (IYKYK) and cast on a Honey Cowl. I have expectations of needing a bit of a neck warmer in the coming months as I will be housebreaking a pup! I really wish you could feel how soft this cowl is… it is delicious! It has me wishing for cooler weather!

I am ever so happy with this cowl! (it almost makes me wish for some chilly weather!)
Once that “itch” was scratched, I returned to that Gnome Hat of All Gnome Hats! (This gnome hat is so tall I could not get it all in a photo!!) And though there were LOTS of rows, I did manage to complete it. I am well used to fiddly gnome knitting, but this was Fiddly Knitting On Steroids!! Oof, I am glad this bit is done! This morning I will get it blocked and get to work on the next part of the mystery!
And, as you can see above, I have a start of a book! I broke down two full watercolor sheets and while I do not have an awl, I used something similar and I think it worked fine! I do not have any waxed linen thread, so I am planning to do a bit of a work around with some craft thread. I will wax that with beeswax and begin stitching the pages together this week! I need to figure out a work around for c-clamps… so I likely won’t be glueing the spine this week.
I am about halfway through Rosamunde Pilcher’s September… which seems quite appropriate given the date! I am enjoying this story… there are some fascinating characters and, of course, there is a bit of drama! It has been keeping me good company as I have puttered on projects this week!
I had three finishes since last week… Adam Bede (which I loved almost as much as Mill on the Floss!), The Order of Time (which I have seen a few of you read) I thought this book was okay… it certainly gave me lots to think about! And, a Netgalley ARC Fabled Earth, which I thought was also okay… it will be published October 1, 2024.
But!! What about you? What are you focused on this week?
As always, if you wrote a post to share please leave your link below and thank you!
by Kat | Sep 11, 2024 | General, Unraveled Wednesday
Greetings Gentle Unravelers on this most somber of Wednesday’s
I am sure, like me, you all remember exactly where you were at 8:14AM EDT in 2001. Today, especially, I think of the 2,977 souls that were lost. A good day to sit in quiet meditation and catch up my stitching… I am a couple days behind this month.

In an effort to not stitch olives… I am hoping these will look more flower-like as the month moves along!
There has been the tiniest bit of knitting this week… some rows added to my Color Marled shawl and I have joined a new color to the mix!

Leaving the land of deep magenta for a fun orange!
I also have knit some rounds on what I think might be a hat for a gnome… Yowza… it appears it’s going to be a mighty big hat! This is some slow knitting… there is a row guide leading me on and, as you can see, I have LOTS of boxes to tick off yet!

A long way to go yet…
And that is the sum total of all my knitting this week.
Most of the time I fiddled with Gnatty! On his most recent walk, a grey-winged blue gnatty catcher stopped to say hello! And he discovered an oak tree that produces knitted acorns but he is keeping the location a secret! No pattern for the bird, just a few tiny scraps and some stuffing to fill him out… and those finishing touches of some wings, a tail, and a stitched beak!

A wee gnatty catcher!
This week has found me immersed in the world of Adam Bede. Oof… it has had its hard moments, but Eliot’s writing is just magnificent. Really… does anyone do conversations better than her? I think not. I finished it yesterday but I have not given it any rating yet. Everything is still swirling about my head… but I know this, I loved it…perhaps not quite as much as The Mill on the Floss, but close!
Up next, Rosamunde Pilcher’s September… and I am excited to settle in with it!
Ant that is all I have for today. I hope you are feeling more productive than I have felt recently!
As always, if you wrote a post to share please leave your link below and thank you!