Unraveled Wednesday – Week 28 of 2020

Wednesdays are for Unraveling! Kat at As Kat Knits hosts a weekly linkup for knitters and readers, which makes Wednesdays my favorite blogging day of the week! This week I’m sharing more cozy mysteries, a peek at the progress on my Mariechen cardigan, and a spoiler for the last clue of the Through the Loops Mystery Knit Along!

My husband has been on vacation this week. It’s been wonderful to have him home and to have help with the kiddos during the intense times of the day (early mornings and bath/bedtime)! We’ve spent the evenings watching Hamilton and other movies that we haven’t had an opportunity to watch (okay, we’ve mostly been watching Marvel movies), so reading and knitting has been on the back burner. That’s okay, because I still have a few things to share.

Reading

Finished This Week:

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It was wonderful to spend some time with Flavia de Luce again. I listened to this on audio and had a big, goofy grin on my face the whole time. Flavia is so funny and clever. I’m not sure that I’d enjoy her company in real life, but I enjoy reading about her! In The Golden Tresses of the Dead, someone slipped a dismembered finger into Ophelia’s wedding cake and Flavia was off like a flash to her chemistry lab to begin her research. For some reason I thought this was the last book in the series, but someone posted a snippet of an interview with Alan Bradley saying that there will probably be no end to the series. Yes! I am down with that.

I shared my dilemma about the Ruth Galloway series a couple of weeks ago: books 7 and 8 aren’t available on Audible or Overdrive on audio! But I’m really enjoying this series and want to continue, so I checked out the digital version on Overdrive. And yes! I actually finished reading a book with my own eyes! I forgot how nice it was. The Ghost Fields was good fun – there was a WWII element, an old stately manor house, and it was Halloween season – all things that I love in a good mystery! Ruth’s romantic life is getting quite complicated and I’m definitely looking forward to reading more.

Knitting

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My Mariechen keeps trucking along. I only have about an inch to go before the ribbing – it’s so amazing. I think it took about two months to get to the ribbing of my last sweater! The sun came out right as I snapped this picture, so it’s difficult to see all of the detail. I’m hoping to have an overcast day for my next Mariechen photoshoot!

The last clue of the TTL MKAL was released on Monday! I think I’m self-sabotaging the project because I have made a ton of mistakes since I started on the sixth clue. I had some unintentional unraveling Monday night: yes, I dropped stitches while cabling multiple times. Oh my word, I could have cried. I made a messy recovery and cursed myself for starting the row despite recognizing that I was too tired. I won’t tell you how I fixed my mistakes because I think you’d be appalled. I’ve been knitting for almost 20 years and I have no idea how to use a crochet hook to fix dropped stitches, but it’s probably something I should learn. I’m just too bull-headed to stop and spend time on the issue! After dropping those cabled stitches, I put everything away mid-row on chart 6B (and I never stop mid-row on a lace project) because I was too tired to continue and didn’t want to mess up that cabled row any further.

I returned to the project on Tuesday night and used a proper third needle to hold those cabled stitches to ensure no more slippage. I was proud of myself. But then a few short rows later, I made a mistake counting on the very first repeat, so ended the row with about 6 stitches left. I had to tink back all 190-something stitches to correct the mistake. I ended the night still on the second chart of the clue! I’m hoping to return to quiet time knitting today – the baby never napped on Monday and Bug was home from his treatment center yesterday – which has proven to be a good time for me to focus without being too tired. And I fully expect to meet you back here next Wednesday with a shawl that is off the needles, washed, and blocked!

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Okay, I’ve had a busy blogging week with my mid-year check ins and I’m looking forward to taking Thursday morning off from writing and catching up with all of your blogs! But I plan to be back here on Friday with some snapshots from the week. I hope to see you then!