Unraveled Wednesday | 11.13.24

Unraveled Wednesday | 11.13.24

Greetings Gentle Unraveler’s and Happy (??) Wednesday.

This is our time to gather to share our making and reading. This week the thing that is most unraveled is me… and I am in the process of rewinding myself. This week is slightly better than last week when I really felt like a giant pile of “kinked” yarn all over the floor. I have begun the slow process of picking myself up and slowly winding so that I can carry on.

Local life has not helped my unraveled feelings. This nonsense happened on Veteran’s Day… and, sadly, several schools in our area have had students who were the recipients of racist text messages. I am working on resetting my thought process about the differences between being “in community” versus living in a community. One is a good thing, the other can be a freaking nightmare. I am also very stuck on the 53%… that damned 53%.

Franklin, on his way home from the vet… he is 15 weeks and 10 lbs and is a very healthy boy!

The thing that is helping me the most (after Wee Franklin, that is) is some very mindful things… like a brilliant sequence of knits and purls. I have added in the 5th color change and I am delightfully happy that this project has been patiently waiting for me. It is just enough thinking – I have to pay attention to knit and purl patterns – but no pattern to read or think about. It is so meditative… especially with Franklin curled up sleeping next to me.

Simple knitting is exactly what I need right now.

The other thing that has garnered my attention is Imagined Landscape’s “November Gnome” pseudo knit along. So over the course of a week, I have sat down after dinner and wound a skein of yarn. The pattern had a “marled” suggestion… and that just really made sense to me. Holding two yarns together will also make a bit of a bigger gnome… which also fit well. I have been looking at poor Gnock sitting alone on the mantel… I hear whispers of him wishing for a quiet companion.  I am not sure I am quite ready to cast on… but the yarn is all wound and ready to go… now to just get my brain to the point of being ready to read a pattern!

Hand winding yarn is the most calming exercise…

And so… reading this week has been sparse. I am struggling to focus on the words on the page. For bits of time each morning though, I have sat with Jane Cooper as she regales me with her Lost Flock. It almost feels like I am sitting across from her as she shares about life on Orkney with her Boreray sheep. The book is truly a slice of perfection… and as a lover of all things wool… I really want to get some yarn from St. Kilda and knit something with it!

And there you have my very unraveled thoughts this week. My big question is this… how are you all doing?

As always, if you managed to string your thoughts together this week please leave a link to your post below and thank you!

I will try and be back again on Friday.


Unraveled Wednesday | 11.6.24

Unraveled Wednesday | 11.6.24

Greetings Unraveler’s and what the actual eff…

I had a very different beginning that I changed at roughly 1:30AM. I confess to being more than a bit dumbfounded and truly disgusted at what looks like the outcome yesterday. I will post this but honestly everything I wrote below rings hollow to me.

Read on or don’t…but please take care of yourselves and your loved ones in the coming days.

So how about I try and distract you all with my minute making this week…I have managed a few rounds on October Sock One and surprised myself with getting the heel completed!

Yes. My knitting has absolutely taken a back seat right now and I have come to the realization that I will not get two more pairs of socks done this year… and I am very okay with that because the battle of knitting vs. Franklin is not even a contest! I am entirely in love with him and he brings the perfect hilarity to my days. He has learned that he gets a treat after he goes potty outside. It is hilarious… and he now thinks he can fool me into giving him a treat for a random trip outside with no “productivity!” Sorry, Frankie… no potty, no treat!

I do have some hope of future knitting… I ordered a yarn kit for the December Mystery Gnome and I am very excited for that pace. A spot of knitting here, a bit of delight there, and I love how Sarah gradually unfolds the Mystery Gnome’s story… the exact pace I need right now..

I also did a bit of “BandWagon Jumping with The Thing that Ann and Kay unveiled last week. And because I am trying a “new-to-me” journal this year (I am giving the Hobonichi Weeks MEGA a try) I thought it might be a good idea to sign up for Felix Ford’s Bullet Journaling class. The idea that I might learn something new and helpful is exciting to me!

The reading remains slow as well, I finished Sandwich, which I know many of you loved, but I did not like it much… and that is okay because I started Ta-Nehisi Coates The Message and wow. His writing is just so… perfect. I am about halfway through and I am savoring it.

Now, I am hoping to be dazzled by all your making and reading!

As always, if you wrote a post to share please leave your link below and thank you!


Unraveled Wednesday | 10.30.24

Unraveled Wednesday | 10.30.24

Greetings Gentle Unravelers!

It has been a week with not much making at all. I have not knit a stitch at all, despite putting knitting as a goal for this week, why? Because it provides a good mental health break!

I have managed to stitch a solitary leaf at the end of the day! Autumn book pages have gone by the wayside. I have yet to start this weeks page… I have an idea of what I want to do…time and Franklin are the deterrents to that!  at all.

Franklin thinks he can walk himself! The sweater fits… now. His harness does not, but he is a growing boy so I’d better find some knitting time ASAP!

Pre-Franklin I did paint a pumpkin that I like very much.

This is going to be my inspiration for this week’s page…

Also, pre-Franklin, I made a couple of tweaks to Gnock. I started with arms as he sat, solitary, on the mantle. Soon after his cap got a great big tassel!! It occurred to me that he is the OG introvert. He prefers his own company and is an avid reader (cozy mysteries FTW!) I also considered he also likely does some kind of puzzle… and lo and behold, I discovered that Sudoku was originally called Gnumber Place! A gnome-ish activity for a shy gnome! I have yet to make a Gnumber Place book, but trust that one is coming! He needs a pencil stuck in his hat and I think he is a pipe smoker so I need to knit an acorn cap. Knitting right now though is not the top of my list… Franklin is very “yarn and needles obsessed.” But Gnock has a start… and he has a plan… and now I just need to have a bit of time open up in my day.

I have done some reading… thanks to audiobooks (which are great companions for dark o’clock trips outdoors!!) I finished John Boyne’s latest book, All the Broken Places. This book is a sort of continuation of The Boy in Striped Pajama’s (it is actually listed as Book 2) but it is a very beautiful look at two separate timelines for Gretel’s life. As always, Boyne’s writing is really so beautiful (and though he wrote this during the pandemic, it is not a pandemic book!!) It is really a story about forgiveness of self… which is never an easy thing to do. And it is about facing one’s past… a past that has very much impacted Gretel’s life even though she was not an active participant. I loved this book as much as I loved The Boy in Striped Pajama’s. If you like Boyne’s writing, you will enjoy this book!

I also finished Ali Smith’s soon-to-be-published Gliff. I loved it. Ali Smith is a master at making a person think and she has a way of looking at what is going on currently and working it into a story (Brave New World, if you are wondering) masterfully! Gliff is the first book of a two book series and I can’t wait for the next book to be out! (I still have to write the review of this, but I have not gotten around to that yet!)

I can say with all confidence that I won’t be back again this week. I hope to post on Monday and again next Wednesday.

As always, if you wrote a post to share please leave your link below and thank you!


Unraveled Wednesday | 10.23.24

Unraveled Wednesday | 10.23.24

Greetings dearest Unravelers and Happy Wednesday!!

A break from knitting can do a body good! I came home from vacation with a fire inside me to get that lingering gnome finished! I still had miles… and miles… and miles to go on the body. This is one HUGE gnome. This will be the largest gnome in my collection… Confession time, he is not my favorite… not even close. I have thought about a story for him… and I got nothing! I found his “legs/socks” to be the fiddliest damned things ever…and that is saying something for a seasoned gnome knitter! I am hoping to get that last “leg” finished so that I can get him assembled! My hope is that as I assemble him, he will begin speaking to me… stay tuned.

Because of the Gnome Fire… no other knitting was done. But I did manage stitching… and while I have not yet assembled my “next page” I have the fabrics all ready to go and I am very excited about my “sunset – moonrise” pages!

I really love the “woven stitching” page! I am currently debating with myself on blank space, or do some stitching in that empty line….

Similarly, I have done little reading while on vacation. Steve is NOT a reader and he hates, hates, hates me reading when he is “around” (because apparently, my job is to keep him entertained… lmao) I did however, sneak in some “covert listening” time thanks to my hearing aids. I finished two books since we last met, Tana French’s latest, The Hunter and Colm Tóibín’s Long Island. I confess, I did not do much “before bed” reading because by the end of the day I was exhausted and ready to sleep so I am still reading Ali Smith’s soon-to-be-published, Gliff but I am so close to finishing it (and might have finished it by the time you are reading this!)

A bit of housekeeping for the remainder of the week… if I can manage to sit down and get a post done for Friday, I will try… but if I am not here, do not despair! We head off to pick up the puppy Friday morning… we have a good bit of a drive to do to get him to turn around and head back home… it will take us most of the day. But I will, for sure, introduce you all to our new pup on Monday!

That’s it for me today… what about you? What has perked to the top of your making pile? Also… what are you reading right now that I should read?

If you wrote a post to share this week, please leave your link below and thank you!


Unraveled Wednesday | 10.9.24

Unraveled Wednesday | 10.9.24

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!


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