Unraveled Wednesday Library Loot: 1918-1924 Edition

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I’ll be linking up with Kat from As Kat Knits for Unraveled Wednesday!

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Sharlene from Real Life Reading that encourages readers to share what they’ve checked out from their local libraries.

I am working on this “Scarf Vest” from a 1918 Bear Brand booklet. So far the instructions have been easy peasy. I knit the tie, then I increased up to the shoulder. It only called for 15” from the (2.5”) border to the shoulder, and I needed more height, so I knitted more rows. Then I got to the interesting part. To shape the armhole, I cast off stitches, then knit even around the bottom of the armhole, then cast on.

It worked! Except the armhole is kind of huge. I have two choices. I can keep going, and hope that the slip stitch crochet around the edge of the armhole pulls it in / add a border. OR I could check my gauge, do some math and frog back. The project has been on ice since Sunday while I consider.

Meanwhile to go with that, for library loot, I’m enjoying The Home-Maker by Dorothy Canfield Fisher, written in 1924. Except, just at the beginning, it’s plowing a little close to the corn on the home life as the mother tries to control everything to perfection. My library’s edition also has a fantastic essay at the beginning on appreciating everyone’s different choices whether it’s to stay at home or work outside the home. It’s very relevant to today, which feels sad since it’s been 100 years.

That’s all I’ve got out from the library right now, except, Big News, I figured out how to place an interlibrary loan without talking to a person or leaving my house! It’s just within a state consortium, so not a true “anything” ILL, but still feels like an introvert triumph.

Unraveled Wednesday Library Loot

I’ll be linking up with Kat from As Kat Knits for Unraveled Wednesday!

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Readerand Sharlene from Real Life Reading that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library

Twofer this week, both Library Loot and Unraveled Wednesday! I had one lonely hold from the library this week. It’s my favorite color and a new release and has an awesome tititle. No, I do not normally pick books this way. But my last book got thrown against the wall so I’m holding out hopes for this one.

Meanwhile I’m enjoying Embrace Cowl by Andrea Mowry, using some Biscotte Bis-Sock yarn I got in a 2020 advent calendar. It’s going well so far I think… using it in the same order as the intended pattern. The skeins themselves all lined up are unlovely but so far, so good with the fade.

On the Needles, June Edition

I’ll be linking up with Kat from As Kat Knits for Unraveled Wednesday!

Cast on Andrea Mowry’s Embrace Cowl, just released, in a Biscotte Yarns advent set from 2020. I wasn’t quite sure what to do with this set, and I think the cowl will be just perfect.

Gulp. The pattern is a fade, which I’ve never done before, and I’ve started with the two …. least challenging colors.

So far I’m really enjoying the fade – my first. It’s exciting to see what each new section will look like.

Library Loot: June 1

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Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Sharlene from Real Life Reading that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library

Picked up a new stack of library books today and scored alone time to read the first one! On the second page I find out the heroine is a knitter so it’s going to be good. The wine is not hurting either and it’s a lovely mild evening on the porch. And my favorite dog walking lady just walked by. She is about 55-60 years old, has a white stripe dyed into her hair, speed walks with her dog in a stroller, and has the air of a retired principal. She’s a little scary even from the porch. I love it.

Library Loot April 21st, 2022

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Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Sharlene from Real Life Reading that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library

My branch library is being renovated, so right now I get to visit the bookmobile. It’s only there one weekday after work, which has forced me into a sweet little routine and a closer relationship with the librarian who is always there.

The League of Gentlewomen Witches – “Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the teahouse”. Apparently there is a piratey Mr Darcy character.

Comeuppance Served Cold – “Seattle, 1929 – a bitterly divided city overflowing with wealth, violence and magic” Skinny little book, looks like a quick read

Saplings – “A dark inversion of the author’s best known book, the classic Ballet Shoes“

Sea of Tranquility – “Takes the reader from Vancouver Island in 1912 to a dark colony on the moon nearly five hundred years later” … I don’t know about this one…

Project Finish-Olympics: first week update

https://sirdar.com/en/products/happy-chenille-under-the-sea
https://www.etsy.com/listing/683386356/scraptastic-cowl-pdf-knitting-pattern?ref=yr_purchases
https://knitshep.wordpress.com/2011/12/12/dainty-bubbles/

Last week, I set myself a challenge to finish as many WIPs as possible within the timeframe of the Winter Olympics. Three projects down so far!!

These were all easy and almost finished. Moving on, I’ve picked up a large, complex cabled shoulder cowl started in 2019. I am also down to the binding on a lap quilt.

Knitting Olympics

With Olympics just started, I thought I might try to see how many WIPS I can finish in that same time period. I have: mittens (98%), scrappy cowl (80%), summer shawl, leksak, crochet shawl (80% with error), chenille octopus (80%), shift, big silk cable cowl (70%), mermaid tail, unicorn quilt, and hubs pajama pants. Won’t get them all of course!

My first finish is Dainty Bubbles, a free pattern at https://knitshep.wordpress.com/2011/12/12/dainty-bubbles/. The left hand has errors in the cables, gaps in the thumb gusset, and weirdness in the Kitchener. Right hand is perfect. But both fit and they are for me! Yarn is Targhee-Rambouillet dyed with sheep sorrel from Parke Creek Farm on Etsy. https://www.etsy.com/shop/ParkeCreekFarm

Library Loot: April 1st, 2021

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Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Sharlene from Real Life Reading that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries!

Several new release books this week for my library loot!

A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine – the follow up to her Hugo- award winning book A Memory Called Empire, which was one of my top books of 2020. Unfortunately I have the world’s worst book memory and don’t recall much about it.

Wild Sign by Patricia Briggs, #6 in her Alpha and Omega series. It has been a couple years since I’ve read in this series, so, yep, book memory again. I love the concept of an Omega wolf, though – one that is outside the pack structure rather than subordinate and can calm an alpha wolf.

The Absolute Book by Elizabeth Knox. I started this one first, and am about a third of the way through. It combines the creepiness and fae world-building of The Hazel Wood with The Goldfinch‘s sense of watching someone slowly destroying their life. I only enjoy one of those things in a book…. This one may be going back to the library.

Also, recently finished:

My Year of Knitting Dangerously. Ah, the early 2000’s, when a blogger could do something for a year and publish a book out of it. Sweet innocence. Read this one before bed when I couldn’t concentrate on more complicated books.

The Gilded Ones by Namina Forna.YA fantasy, heavy on the chosen one trope, but did a great job with it, exploring the suppression of women in a world that believes some young girls are descended from demons.

Library Loot: I am a readerly wuss

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Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Sharlene from Real Life Reading that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries!

Already finished: Winterhouse, a middle grade novel with an orphaned girl, an old hotel, a grand library, and a magic book. All the things, when it comes to middle grade fiction. I connected with my inner 12 year old, forgot about tropes, and enjoyed it very much.

Things in Jars: I’m a third of the way through this one. It has a literary writing style but gothic plot… I guess… so far I can tell you a lot about the Victorian setting but I can’t tell what it’s actually about. I am strangely really wanting to continue, but also afraid of where it might be going. When did I become such a fearful reader?

Short, fun descriptions of the others:

Little – Madam Tussaud’s early years, dramatized

Heartbeat of Wounded Knee – modern native american history; plan to skim to see if my grumpy conservative FIL would enjoy it as a birthday present

Arctic Fury – Victorian Arctic rescue expedition led by women ends in murder trial; murder trial neverthless occurs first in book, leaving me suspicious that book is slow in middle

Enemy of all Mankind: pirates pirates pirates! Recommended by The Bookshelf, my favorite indie bookstore.

I’m going to be a big girl now and dig back into Things in Jars!