Let the blue sky meet the blue sea and all is blue for a time. — Moncy Barbour
I am in sea of blue knitting and it is so good! I am working away on my second Ranunculus… I have put the body on hold and have started on the sleeves. One thing I did not take into my calculations on the first sweater was “growth” which does happen with this yarn knit at this gauge. So, I wanted the sleeves and body to be a wee bit shorter, and I ordered 1 less skein of yarn. But, that niggling feeling that I might not have enough yarn is circling around my brain. To appease that feeling, I started on the sleeves.
I also went back to trying to finish up the “never-ending” seed stitch section of Purl Strings. I am happy to say, the little bits of time I plugged in worked and I am done with that section! Woo!
One would wonder if I am actually trying to achieve a Bingo Cover All, lol… or perhaps which bingo card will get that cover all first! Ha! I am in a bit of a holding pattern on bingo card one, and have focused on bingo card two mainly because of holds that became available from the library. That was the case with this week’s reading (and will likely continue next week…and I should definitely get bonus points for creative square filling!!)
Finn has “moved” back to Lewis and is grappling with his past, his present, and his future. He is working to make his parents house livable. And what happens? A body found in the peat, a mystery to be unraveled. What unfolds is a bitter tale of life for orphans. The story was gripping, the writing brilliant and this was an excellent continuation of Finn’s story. I highly recommend this book!
I had higher hopes for this book based on the brilliant start, but I soon got lost in the weeds of jumping around from problem to problem…The book touches on some significant topics but never really goes beyond scratching the surface of them.
That is all I have for today. Do you have a “never-ending” project going? Inquiring minds want to know!
As always, if you wrote a post to share today, please leave your link below and thank you!
I am joining Honoré and friends again this month to share an update on my word.
Live with intention. Walk to the edge. Listen Hard. Practice wellness. Play with abandon. Laugh. Choose with no regret. Appreciate your friends. Continue to learn. Do what you love. Live as if this is all there is. — Mary Anne Radmacher
I am discovering that living intentionally in Coronavirus Times can be more steps backwards than forward. July was one of those months. In a very big way.
There were so many steps back (I shared a bit here) and it felt a bit like a month of failure. But as I look back and contemplate, perhaps that is not one hundred percent true. I found that my day was a bit like filling buckets… time spent filling my meditation bucket, time spent reading, time spent knitting, and the largest bucket of all… my garden where I spent oodles of hours watering, picking, and tending…in the 900 gazillion degree weather. My garden truly needed my attention and it was an excellent diversion.
But I also intentionally ignored many things…the internet and my PC topped that list. I learned that living with intention means stepping back from things that are not good for you…finding a new rhythm and breaking the cycle that was fueling my stress. All that was surprisingly easy, which is shocking to me – who knew I was so good at avoidance! Haha! I think August will be another month to avoid those things that are stress-inducing.
No big “ah-ha” moments, but a series of small “oh!” moments worked for me!
The Mystery… she is finished! (and, as you can see above, I did have enough of EACH yarn!!) It needs to have all the ends woven in and some blocking, but this humidity means that won’t happen this week. But I am sharing it sans blocking. I am not so sure I like the bind off. It feels a bit like the designer thought “I need to have something different to finish” and this is it. I just am not sure “it” works. Maybe I will feel different post blocking, but right now I am thinking it is not staying. If that is the case, it will just have a simple…plain… bind off. Overall I am happy with the results, however I am putting mystery knits on the back burner for a bit.
Even unblocked, it is beautiful!
After all the beauty of this shawl, this ending is just “meh”
I know that LOTS of people were disappointed in this book, but I enjoyed it. It had all the bits of the previous books that I loved plus a main character I loved to hate (I had hopes Coriolanus might be salvageable, but nope… I hated him to the end) I also found this book to have an interesting take on Science Gone Absolutely Wrong.
“Ships at a distance have every man’s wish on board. For some they come in with the tide. For others they sail forever on the horizon, never out of sight, never landing until the Watcher turns his eyes away in resignation, his dreams mocked to death by Time.”
“They seemed to be staring at the dark, but their eyes were watching God.”
The writing in this book is absolutely incredible. I listened and the narrator was excellent with the beautifully nuanced text! I loved Janie’s journey… it is compelling, honest, and full of hope and love. I cried at the ending… and I highly recommend this book!
That is all I have for this week. If you wrote a post to share, please leave your link below! See you back here next week when I join Honoré and share my Word Update!
Here men from the planet Earth first set foot upon the moon. July 1969 AD. We came in peace for all mankind. – Neil Armstrong
The past couple of weeks I have been reminiscing in my mind about the summer of 1969. Eight-year-old me was fascinated with the Apollo 11 journey to the moon. I watched the landing on our black and white television in awe that Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Buzz Aldrin were soon going to be landing on the moon! I remember thinking that it took 4-days to get to something I could easily see. It’s funny how looking back at that time, I see the beginnings of a child that was fascinated with science. I loved that the moon could look so close to us, but it was so very far away! It was also the start of my love of Star Trek…and that love continued for years. Apollo 11 went “where no man had gone before” and my life was certainly richer because they did.
I found this Moonwalk Montage video on the NASA website and watching it brought the same thrill today as it did when I was eight! (if you want to watch the restored, full-length version you will find it here!)
Some years later, I was in Washington D.C. and I saw the Space Window at the National Cathedral, it filled me with awe and wonder that I was seeing a piece of the moon those brave men had brought back.
In these days when travel to the simplest of places seems impossible, it is a very good thing to remember and celebrate this incredible journey.
Finally, it would be remiss of me to not mention the passing of John Lewis. He might have been a man of small stature, but he possessed the drive of the mightiest of men! Though he is no longer here to inspire us, he has given us our marching orders: “I want to see young people in America feel the spirit of the 1960s and find a way to get in the way. To find a way to get in trouble. Good trouble, necessary trouble.” We must not let him down and find some good trouble! May you rest in power, dear sir.
One salvation in these endlessly mind numbing days has been The Slowdown. This week has been especially fun as each post has been about food. However, the Ode to Butter might just be the best thing I listened to all week!
This week saw the end of the 100 Day Project. Oh boy, the best laid plans of mice and stitchers…I started off very well and managed to keep up the momentum until about day 50-ish when I realized that there was no way this stitching was going to take 100 days to complete. I have a few bits to fill in, I think. I have been looking at the stitching with a critical eye over the last 20 or so days. Some days I add a bit of stitching, others I do nothing but look and think. Am I happy with what I have? Yes! I will continue to contemplate and fill in when the mood strikes me…and I am okay with that.
This weekthis news made me squeal and dance with joy!
This week … this photo has filled me with all the feels!
All.The.Love!
But this week also had some hard things…I have been reading some blog posts that really have spoken to me…loudly. It felt good to know I am not the only one who is horribly out of sorts, unsettled, scared, and just so damned angry. I should not be surprised because every day is out of sorts, unsettled, scary, and full of things to make one rage…but I have been trying to ignore, avoid, pretend, and keep my rose-colored glassed clean. Except sometimes ignoring, avoiding, pretending, and trying to see good when there just isn’t any takes more work than a body can handle. I found myself unable to focus on the simplest things, unable to follow through (see last Friday’s blog post for a prime example… I spent about 30 minutes ‘polishing’ it on Friday morning but never published it…and I never realized it until Monday morning!) unable to let go of little things. I have had thinner skin, which has resulted in an increase in arguments and/or hurt feelings. So this week…I got off the “isn’t life grand if you ignore, avoid, and pretend train” and took off those damned rose colored glasses and stared reality down… the ugly, out of sorts, scary, oh.my.gosh I am so angry reality. I allowed myself to be angry at what is happening rather than smothering that anger only to have it erupt when I least expect it. I allowed the fear in… and I meditated with that fear. Did the fear depart? Nope…but acknowledging the fears and remembering that I am not alone helped. The thing I learned is that life is not always rosy…and pretending it is, or letting everyone think that it is, simply is not working for me.
But in the midst of all this chaos…there are only 108 days until the election! Are you registered to vote? Have you applied for an absentee/mail in ballot? If not, put that on the top of your to-do list and I will see you back here next week!
The Lewis Man by Peter May
Afterlife by Julia Alvarez
