by Kat | Oct 4, 2023 | General, Unraveled Wednesday
Greetings dear Unravelers and Happy First Wednesday in October!
While my body is firmly planted in October, my mind is drifting away to December and some holiday gift knitting ideas are swirling around. However, if I want to actually get any holiday knitting done, I better move quickly from the idea part… to the making part and quickly! LOL
Also swirling around is “vacation knitting” planning…things not to take mostly. I finished my Blue Jay yarn spin and I was planning on it becoming a lovely pair of handspun socks, but the Yardage Gods have other ideas because I am certain that there is not enough for socks! The yarn needs a bit of a spa-treatment… and pre-wash, I have just 225 yards (and I fear post wash it will poof up a bit and be less yardage than that. Sigh. I need to think about something that is small, easy to pick up and put down… stay tuned.
It looks Blue Jay-ish to me!
Meanwhile in my regular knitting, my second sock has passed the “challenging pattern” portion and the remainder of the pattern is committed to memory and it will go surprisingly fast! I expect that this sock will be done this week! Just in time for the return for chillier weather knitting…i.e. a lapful of pressed flowers wrap!
Sock Two underway!
But!! I was jonesing for a new spinning project so I pulled out a bag of Scrappy Sock Bundles from Wound Up Fiber Arts for an entirely random, spin thicker than my usual project! I got 3 “bundles” done in short order yesterday… it is so fun to see these bright vibrant colors as I spin them! And I have lots more fun to go! I have one more bag to spin as well and my plan will be to spin up each bag and ply them together for a totally crazy yarn!
The reading this week… delightful. Though The Garden of Evening Mists took me a bit to settle in with… once I did, my goodness, what beautiful writing. I don’t know how this book never crossed my radar in years past. I also finished Henry Hoke’s Open Throat… a short story. I don’t think Hoke reaches Clair Keegan’s mastery of a short story, but it was a curious tale (or tail?) and made me think.
Thanks to Netgalley, I started reading Tracy K. Smith’s new book, To Free the Captives. This will be published Nov. 7th and I am about a third of the way in… and loving it. It is part history, part reminiscing, and all the beautiful writing you would expect from a poet.
My daytime listen is a new mystery series I stumbled upon via Pinterest of all places. Wicked Autumn by G.M. Malliet… the series is about a retired MI-5 agent, Max Tudor, who has begun a new life as a vicar in a quiet village. Yes, retired MI-5 agent becomes a vicar… and someone is murdered! So far, I am enjoying it… and there are a number of books in the series!
What about you? Are you a Soctoberist this month? Or is something else calling to you?
As always, if you wrote a post to share leave your link below and thank you!
by Kat | Oct 2, 2023 | General, Welcome
October, baptize me with leaves! Swaddle me in corduroy and nurse me with split pea soup. October, tuck tiny candy bars in my pockets and carve my smile into a thousand pumpkins. O autumn! O teakettle! O grace!
― Rainbow Rowell, Attachments
Hello dear October… long have I loved you! The show you put on for all the world to see with chilly mornings, changing leaves, that first frost you wish for to kill the plethora of mosquitos… writing all these things down seems a bit silly with the return to summery 80’s we have forecast for this week, but a girl can dream… right?
I confess, I do like the return of a bit of pumpkin spice…although I prefer my own to the über sweet versions found at the drive-up coffee spots. All summer long I drink iced coffee… but I love the return to chilly mornings with a steaming mug of coffee with frothed milk and a dollop of pumpkin spice to sweeten it just the slightest. Oh, October… you delight me!
I also love the change of meals that happens this month! Give me chili, spaghetti, and yes… even a good pea soup with a crusty loaf of bread!
But I do have some things that need to be accomplished this month! And despite the shortness of the list…it is a LOT to complete this month!
- An anxiously awaited vacation to Erie! Woot!
- Plant! All! The! Bulbs!! This will be the most daunting task of the entire month… sigh. (The order has shipped… on an actual ship and has reached the “due in port” status this morning! I don’t expect them before we leave for Erie.)
- Sew… yes, this is a hold over from my September list. I have two tunics to sew.
A short, but very full list!
What about you, what are you most excited for October to bring?
See you all back here on Wednesday!
Image from Jessica Lewis.
by Kat | Sep 29, 2023 | General, In My Backyard
It must be September,
July sun has disappeared
― Charmaine J. Forde
This was certainly true this month… one of the most significant things I noted this month… darker morning and evening walks with Sherman. In the morning we are waiting for the sunrise and though it seems lighter at night, it is just because we are out as the sun is setting…and soon that will be dark as well!
I was fortunate to catch a few migrating travelers at my bird feeders this month. Yes, two different warblers stopped for a snack… a Bay-breasted Warbler and a Cape May Warbler. It was delightful to see them briefly on their long journey!
I took a bit of advice from Kym and went out into my garden with my journal and a pencil…and I wrote down lots of notes! I also did a bit of prep-work for the onslaught of spring bulbs that are on their way (The Slow Boat from Amsterdam!) Of course, they are slated to come when we will be in Erie, but Steve’s mom is our Mail Watcher when we are gone (I think she is the original Nebby Neighbor, but in this case it is useful, LOL!)
I am surprised that my tomatoes have continued to produce all month (despite the cold snap we had!) but this weekend I will harvest what is left (fried green tomatoes anyone?) and pull the plants next week. My pots are looking mighty sad these days… that cold snap did them no favors! I will clean the lot of them, which will be sad… but I won’t have to come home from Erie with that to do AND plant that plethora of bulbs heading my way!
There was less porch time this month… but what days I could, I was out on the porch! And that will be my plan next month as well!
I have just today and tomorrow to go in Squat-tember! And while I did not achieve a perfect completion (I missed a few days) over all, it was a success! I found Petra to be a great motivator! I am going to continue squatting (and doing more floor sitting!)
And there you have my month… it was good but went by way too fast!
Have a great weekend everyone and I will see you all back here on Monday!
**photo above is from the 22nd at 7:27PM
by Kat | Sep 26, 2023 | General, Unraveled Wednesday
Greetings dear Unravelers and Happy Last Wednesday of September!
I got my COVID/flu jab yesterday and this morning I am definitely feeling it this morning. I am happy to say that I have overcome last week’s pattern hurdle with sock one and finished it! Sock two was started yesterday afternoon!
I am also happy that there have been a handful of days that made a lapful of woolly knitting a delight so I have added several repeats to my Pressed Flowers Wrap… the end is getting closer!
I should have gotten some sewing done this month, but thanks to Sherman it did not happen… sigh. But I am happy to say that he is almost 100% again… his hearing has returned, he has had no more “spells” and so it seems likely that it was some sort of middle/inner ear infection. He still has a few days of steroids but he is pretty much back to his normal silly self! I will put sewing on my list again for late October and cross my fingers! Ha!
It has been week of reading highs and lows. I finished what will absolutely be one of the best books I have read all year (My Friends by Hisham Matar) as well as a very good book (The Bee Sting by Paul Murray which was not as good as Matar’s book but ymmv). I also bailed on a book… (Small Mercies… I think this was just the wrong time for this book for me.)
Since finishing those books I have had trouble settling in with another book. I started listening to Mrs. Dalloway and have no thoughts yet about it. At night I started The Garden of Evening Mists… no thoughts on that one either. Good Book Hangover is real, folks. Yesterday, Amazon had a “deal” on a couple of Claire Keegan short stories collections, so I picked them up and hope that a short story or two will cure my hangover! Fingers crossed!
There you have my week… what about you? What are you making and reading this week?
As always, if you wrote a post to share leave your link below and thank you!
by Kat | Sep 25, 2023 | General, Words
Nine months in with my word and some days I feel really ready to move on… others… well, the many more other days I feel like the struggle is real.
Thank you, Ann Voskamp for that quote to remind me that practicing is indeed the hardest part of learning… but it is necessary to changing/learning/growing/being.
So this month, I have been practicing… and it has not been easy at all.
I went back and pulled out my Authenticity Manifesto and looked at it to see if I could find my struggles… and almost instantly I did.
Less-Controlling Kat, where are you?
Defining one’s struggles this easily should mean it would be easy to move past them, to let go of them, to release them… but no, I am living proof it is not.
So this month… I stumbled… and I struggled more… and I reacquainted myself with my word and my goals…but it was a challenging month and I will absolutely keep practicing!
As always, I want to thank Carolyn for providing us all a space to share our progress!
See you all back here on Wednesday!
