Unraveled Wednesday | 2.14.24

Unraveled Wednesday | 2.14.24

Greetings Unravelers and Happy Valentine’s Day Ash Wednesday! (Or the opening of Fried Fish Season… IYKYK)

It is a day for all.the.things… especially the things we make!

I have some good… and some not so good to share with you today. I will start with the good..

Yesterday I began my sixth page for the 100 day project I am working on. Fifteen minutes a day over five days per page is the sweet spot of making… really. Less or more would not be good. Page five was inspired from Ann Wood’s “monthly creative spark” … vessel. I thought and thought about how to approach this… and I think I came up with a great interpretation! I present A Maker’s Vessel!

A knitting “bowl” filled with inspiration!

A bit of appliqué and then I just let my creativity flow with bits of scrap yarn, a wee pocket to fill with wee balls of yarn. It was so fun to watch this idea come to life on my “page.” This time might be my favorite 15 minutes of each day. And it is really making me think about how small blocks of time can really spark your creativity!

Pages 1 and 2 on top, 3 and 4 on the bottom.

As you can see in the header photo… there was a good bit of “safe knitting” done this week as well. Thanks to Super Sunday, I had an almost finished sock on Sunday night when I went to bed. I just had the toe decreases and grafting to a finished sock, which I did on Monday… and I immediately cast on its mate and have made great headway on it as well! I think that another pair of socks this month is very doable! I have also made some progress on a hat… I just love the “sunny-ness” of the yarn!

Now on to the Very Bad and Extremely Disappointing News of the Month. The Great Cabled Sweater is Enormous. E-Nor-Mous. And it weighs a ton…which I think does not help the fit at all. I have not purchased buttons yet… and I am at the point of such great disappointment that I am not sure I will. But, in my deep disappointment I have been thinking of how this colossal disaster might be salvaged… perhaps I could rework all.the.shoulders. and the sleeve caps of each sleeve. That’s an extremely daunting task and I am not sure it is worth all the additional effort that would take. (Or maybe Steve will wear a pink sweater?) Sigh. Also… that yarn… well it seemed nice and sturdy pre-washing… post washing, it is a super-shedder… as in it sheds more than Sherman does… if that is even possible! And, sans sunshine and an outdoor breeze… it takes FOR.EVER to dry! I washed it again on Saturday and it has been laying out to dry in the house since then and it is still.not.dry. (at this writing on Tuesday afternoon!) 

Maybe it can become the most expensive bathrobe ever crafted….

There is really no place this sweater fits…

Although, I do love this collar and the 3-needle bind-off detail…but note, where the collar edge is on my shoulder… that is my shoulder. The shoulder seam is some two inches down my arm, making the sleeves even longer than they already were! 

Fortunately, the reading has been a balm this week! I finished The Color of Water by James McBride. If you have not read this… you should! It is balm reading at its finest!

I also started The Poisonwood Bible on Monday… and it sucked me right in and I can’t wait to talk about this book!

At night, thanks to Netgalley, I am working through James Comey’s second mystery… and it is MUCH better than his first mystery!

Now… I am going to attempt the Italian Tubular Cast On to start Steve’s vest and have one enormous fried fish sandwich for lunch!

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

See you back here tomorrow with some much needed poetry!


Unraveled Wednesday | 2.7.24

Unraveled Wednesday | 2.7.24

Greetings dear Unravelers and Happy First Wednesday in February!

Is it just me or are you all surprised to find yourself on the seventh day of this month?

I hit a HUGE milestone on Sunday afternoon… (I feel like I should insert a drumroll here… lol)

I finished the knitting portion of The Great Cabled Sweater! 

Done… with a skein to spare! All ready for a nice long soak!

Which ushered in a rush for the washing and blocking of all the pieces. Fortunately, the weather is cooperating delightfully here in the ‘Burgh… a week of warm sunny days to speed the drying. My yard looked quite hilarious…

Precise measurements… come on sun, dry these pieces!

Tuesday morning the pieces were mostly dry and so The Great Mattress Seaming began! I am nervous… as all get out! It’s A LOT of seaming, people. Seaming inside and outside… I made a more concise list of seaming order. Please send all the Seaming Juju you can muster my way. I hope to have a finished sweater THIS WEEK! (although, if this warm weather holds I might not get to wear it until next winter… sigh.) And I will begin my search for the Perfect Buttons (so any button retailer recommendations would be gratefully accepted!)

To celebrate, I whipped up two fuchsia “valentine” trees for the gnomes!

The Gnome Home is all set for the Valentine’s holiday!

And wound some yarn for another pair of socks… and cast on! (who am I?? lol)

The reading this week… slow as all get out. Just two finishes… The next Max Tudor Mystery, A Demon Summer. Perfect palette clearing listening! And Laurie Frankl’s latest book, Family Family. The premise is curious but I have strong thoughts about all of it.

And with that, I have some seaming to get back to! What about you all… what is demanding your attention this week?

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


Unraveled Wednesday | 1.31.24

Unraveled Wednesday | 1.31.24

Greetings dear Unravelers!

At long last, we have arrived at the last day of January… it has been A. Month. (that felt like a month and a half… at least!)

We had “winter” for roughly ten days… ten glorious flannel sheet days. There was snow for less time, but for those brief days everything felt clean, bright, and hushed. I think snow makes the dark days of winter… well, less dark. But we are back to dark, dreary, with a yard that is like one giant squishy sponge. My game of “whack-a-mole” with the squirrels returns… because of course they STILL are trying to dig bulbs up! (more on those bulbs later this week… )

Happy Handspun Socks!

And yes, on this last day of January… I have a finely finished pair of socks that make me so happy! I have barely taken them off since finishing them last week. My love for them and the love of having a mindless sock to knit while watching television at night caused me to dig out an already wound ball of yarn (from a failed attempt at socks, I think) I tried again… but the yarn is just too fine and I am not going to knit on smaller needles. So I am going to frog this start and get a hat started. I think it will be miles and miles of mindless nighttime knitting once I get past the increase portion, that is. I was going to knit a Musselburgh, but I like the look of Sarah’s crown increases and decreases better… so I made the purchase yesterday. I will get it started later today.

Frogging in 3…2…

As you can see above, the BIGGEST NEWS of all is that I have just ONE button band to go on the Great Cabled Sweater! I have begun the shawl collar increases… which is really a great deal of knitting… and it is pay attention knitting, so it not exactly “mindless” knitting. But I have a method for this madness. My countdown is the row of markers on the completed collar. As I increase, I move one from the completed to the in process… and that countdown is a bit like a cheerleader! I also wanted to begin the “wash and pin out to the correct dimensions” portion of the making…but I woke Tuesday to no water (thanks to a water main break… sigh.) We still have no water at this writing so the sweater blocking will move to another day’s list… hopefully we have water soon!

The reading remains slow… just two finishes this week. I have struggled to “stay awake” to read at night… only to wake around midnight to toss and turn. No reading then, because I am hopeful of falling back asleep… grrr! But, my listens were delightful… The Fox Wife by Yangsze Choo was lovely! (It will be published February 13th!) And I listened to Geraldine Brooks Year of Wonders… very different from The Fox Wife, but I liked it as well! Brooks does such a wonderful job on research… and I am so very thankful for vaccinations! Haha!

What about you all on this final day of January?

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


Unraveled Wednesday | 1.24.24

Unraveled Wednesday | 1.24.24

Greetings dear Unravelers and Happy Wednesday to you all!

It has been a study in slow making in my house since last week… very slow. I have not knit a single stitch on my cabled sweater… I know, I know! I have been stitching… which is so delightful but it is certainly not taking up all my daily making time. I have been knitting that second sock in fits and starts. Not much TV knitting this week… I have been having a horrendous bout of insomnia so sitting to watch TV is putting me right to sleep! I am down to one cup of coffee in the morning… no second cup in the afternoon when Steve get’s home. I make myself a cup of tea instead… I am hoping the return of sleep happens soon. Insomnia is the absolute worst!

Page one… Done!

Most of my time has been spent going through my yarn stash… trying to sort it out. If I ever contemplate buying another skein of sock yarn, I hope one of you quickly reminds me that if I knit socks every day from now until I live to be 100, I will still have plenty of sock yarn yet to be knit! No more sock yarn!

I also have a large assortment of “lace weight” yarns that I bought… eons ago. In some prior lifetime when I must have thought myself a “lace shawl” knitter. Not so much these days… I am contemplating what to do with all of that.

The remainder of my “yarn stash” is very manageable. Bits and odds and ends of previous projects. I have bagged them, clearly labeled for what projects I think they might work for (i.e. color work, hats, mittens) I am feeling accomplished at this small task. I still have some sewing things to go through, which I know won’t be as rewarding… but once it is done, I will feel better about having a more organized stash!

I have had a slow reading week as well. I have been carefully listening to a most fascinating story, The Fox Wife by Yangtze Choo. It is part mystery, part folktale, and entirely engaging! But it is a slow listen for me, as I try to take in all that is happening! (This book will be published February 13th) At night, I am reading another ARC, Family Family by Laurie Frankl. It took me a bit to settle in with it, but once I did… the story takes off running! My only finish this week is barely worthy of recognition…. Cacophony of Bone. (Pro tip… the title is the best part of the book.)

That is my nearing the end of January update… what about you? What do you want to finish this month?

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


Unraveled Wednesday | 1.17.24

Unraveled Wednesday | 1.17.24

Greetings gentle Unravelers!

When I look at a weather map, almost the entire US looks plunged in cold… and knitters everywhere knit on with a bit of delight! Right? I know I did… Sock One is DONE! and Sock Two is moving right along. I shall have pink socks soon! Really, I don’t know who I am knitting socks this quickly!! It is the perfect “sit and knit” project for night time television viewing!

I have YET to heed my spinning “reminder”… despite pushing it forward to the next day… I have been on a bit of a “deep clean” tear. Yesterday was the kitchen’s “turn” … and the stove and the refrigerator each got a deep clean, and I scrubbed the floors and the baseboards.

I have not knit much on the Great Cabled Sweater but I am hoping that once I have this cleaning jag out of my system, I will be back to my regularly scheduled knitting!

The reading continues to breeze along… I had three finishes this week! (Audiobooks are a great deep cleaning companion!!) I listened to Richard Russo’s Somebody’s Fool and Katherine May’s Enchantment. Both of which I enjoyed so much! I also finished reading The Caretake by Ron Rash… I loved it. It was so good, it had so much food for thought, the writing was so perfect!

This week’s reading with my eyes is not quite as stellar… sigh. I am trying to settle in with The Cacophony of Bone by Kerri ní Dochartaigh. I have heard such great things about this book… and I am wondering what I am missing. I am just over 40% though… and I am not sure I will finish it.

What about you? What are you doing to stay warm on these wintry days!

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


Unraveled Wednesday | 1.10.24

Unraveled Wednesday | 1.10.24

Greetings dear Unravelers and Happy Wednesday!

It has been a week with a good bit of actual unraveling here… sigh. Yes, on the Great Cabled Sweater… because of course. This time it is 100% knitter error… I somehow** skipped an entire section of the “straight” portion and went right on to the decreases. (Somehow** = the pattern author was lazy and instead of writing out instructions for the “right front” {which is a mirror of the left front, in theory, correct?} she has you follow the left front sort of. So you are shuffling back and forth between the fronts. Sigh.) I somehow** missed 16 rows of a repeat. So I ripped back on Monday and have not had much time to get myself caught up. All the shuffling means that this is not a good “TV” project. But maybe this afternoon I can catch myself back up!

However, the sock knitting… well it is going gangbusters! No unraveling, just the joy of pure mindless knitting!!

ALSO!! I have a new year-long stitch project to share with you. I spent a good bit of time in December thinking about stitching in the New Year. I knew I wanted to stitch, but I did not want to have to pull together all the “parts” to do so,  so a temperature project was out. Way back in 2018 I spent a year just stitching. I did a “sampler” each month. This was truly my favorite stitching ever… no pattern, no temperature tracking… just my own inspiration. I wanted to do something “like” that again… and I stumbled across Karen Turner on Pinterest and the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to use her “starting point” for my inspiration. And so I began and I am loving it. I have one small space to fill each day and it is easy to get done with my morning coffee.

The reading is not going bad either, I have finished two (!!) books this year… Starter Villain and The Apology. And I am currently reading two more… I am listening to Somebody’s Fool (which I am loving despite not really caring for the second book in the trilogy) and on my Kindle I am reading The Caretaker.

What about you all? What are you making this month? What are you reading? Inquiring minds want to know!

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


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