Unraveled Wednesday | 7.5.23

Unraveled Wednesday | 7.5.23

Greetings Unravelers and Happy Wednesday!

**Sorry about this, but I have no clue what happened to my published post, but it is MIA… if you are getting a second notification, that is why.**

July brings the beginning of the third quarter… and, more importantly, it means that I have done half a year of Temperature Stitching! To say I love it is an understatement… it brings me the greatest delight and I thing this will be stunning once completed and hanging on my wall! I love how I have moved into The Season of Yellows and Reds… and while I don’t love the 90’s (which are burgundy/purples) hopefully there won’t be any icy blues and chilly greens back until November! Ha!

Something else has been rattling around my head ever since Bonny shared it on her blog! Yes… Hitch on the Move has been consuming my thoughts and so I began to look to see what I might have in my stash to get it started! Imagine when I found a delightful skein that pairs beautifully with some Polwarth from Wee Chickadee that I was lucky to get from one of Cara’s destashes. I have been joyously spinning it up and have about a bobbin and a half full!

And speaking of spinning… I was divinely inspired with some Targhee in the Freshwater Pearls colorway (divinely… see what I did there, those sisters have some inspired fibers!) and I love how it turned out. It is a 3-ply fingering weight with excellent yardage (sorry, I have not weighed it yet to know.) I have no plans for it yet… I am just happy to squeeze it every so often… it is so squishy and soft!

I also am plodding along on my second Shakerag Skirt, sigh. This won’t be a 15 Day Knit but I am through the lace portion and am so close to being done with the optional necessary backside short rows! Then I will shortly begin the decreases and the mindless round and round. My hope is to have a second skirt to sashay around in this month though! So on I knit!

The reading has been good. I am back in Bath with Sully… and although I miss some characters (Miss Beryl for one!) the shenanigan’s are plenty! I am laughing and loving every bit of it. I am trying hard to slow down but it is a challenge! Ha!

I am also listening to The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida which is for the Read With Us gang. I am about half way though and the writing is so good (the narration is also so perfect!)

I had two finishes… I enjoyed them but I did not love either of them (Happiness Falls and Under the Whispering Door) but 3-star books are not bad reads (I had originally given Happiness Falls 4-stars but after thinking about it for a few days, for me it was not more than a 3-star read.) The problem is I have read much better books last month that might be coloring my opinion. Book Hangover is a thing and Sully is just the thing to clear my head! Ha!

Whew… this was a wordy post… sorry about that! What about you all… what is “consuming you” this week?!

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


Welcome July | 2023

Welcome July | 2023

I drifted into a summer-nap under the hot shade of July, serenaded by a cicada lullaby, to drowsy-warm dreams of distant thunder. ― Terri Guillemets

Oh July… you begin the challenges of my year… you and August are my least favorite months. Your heat and humidity are not my jam. So I am going to take with me some of the joy I found in my week of #NOMO (Necessity of Missing Out) and bring more of that to you, July!

Things that will be part of July… Unraveled Wednesday… because I like the mid-week check in with all of you… but I am not committing to more posts than that… and that feels very good… a bit of a July nap or two!

  • I have some painting I want to dabble in.
  • I have that skirt to knit! I am almost done with the lace, but this second knit is going at a much slower pace that the first one!
  • I have some spinning I want to do. I am not Tour de Fleecing, but rather spinning for the pure enjoyment of it!
  • Finally, a bit of mapping out of some sewing I want to do! I have been toying for eons with ideas for my Year of Stitching samplers… and I have finally figured out what they need. Stay tuned, I hope to get them well under way this month!

It is a good list… and it leaves me lots of room for the joy of #NOMO!

So welcome to a quieter July! See you all back here on Wednesday!

Authentic…coasting | June 2023

Authentic…coasting | June 2023

A month of coasting… that was June with my word.

But I don’t think that is a bad thing. This month, I read a book that I have not stopped thinking about since I finished it. I am thinking about it when I wake, I am thinking about it as I go through my day, and I am thinking about it as the day draws to a close. The book… Jenny Odell’s How to do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy. As I said in my review, it really is not about doing nothing… at all.

Two quotes from Jenny Odell have stayed with me since I read them. They are quotes that pack a huge punch and they are the things I have been thinking about:

Our very idea of productivity is premised on the idea of producing something new, whereas we do not tend to see maintenance and care as productive in the same way.

and

When overstimulation has become a fact of life, I suggest that we reimagine #FOMO as #NOMO, the necessity of missing out, or if that bothers you, #NOSMO, the necessity of sometimes missing out.

For me… a person seeing an authentic path where I can be authentic to myself these quotes stopped me in my tracks. To me they are very much tied together… you cannot have one without the other.

Great reminders to me that maintenance and care are as important as seeking that “next new thing.” And for myself… that reminder moved several things off my list entirely… and that felt like a huge weight lifted from me which leads me to the Ali Edwards prompt for this month. It encouraged us to collect our thoughts around an “In Progress” list of questions. I did some thinking about where I feel like I am with being authentic thus far this year and two words just jumped off the page for me:

eye-opening and freeing

and that very much brings me back to those brilliant quotes from my new bestie, Jenny Odell. It is a very good place to be.

I would like to thank Carolyn for gathering us all together… even on the coasting days with our word!

(and in this vein of doing some maintenance and self care, I am taking a bit of a #NOMO break from blogging but I will be back soon!)

 

A First Friday of Summer RIFF | 6.23.23

A First Friday of Summer RIFF | 6.23.23

First Summer Friday is a rainy one in my neighborhood… but that is okay, we need the rain and it smells so good outside! My tomatoes are growing by leaps and bounds and they are all loaded with tomato blossoms! I hope this means an abundant year of tomatoes… my fingers are crossed!

But how about a bit of a RIFF to ease into Friday…

Reconstructing —

I began the cosmetic knitting on poor Gnifty this week. A new nose and a bit of a beard have been knit and are awaiting attachment. And I have begun bird knitting! I am using those tweed mini skeins I got from Fibernymph Dye Works with this years Pi yarn! Tweed yarn makes for some cute birds! Ha! And, Vera will be excited to hear that there will be a crow!

In (search of) —

June has been full… but it has also been empty. Empty as in Monday is our “check in” with what we did with our word this month… and I have…nothing. Not one singe thing. So… my challenge will be to pull *something* together so that I can give an update… of all that I did not do this month. LOL

Oh… and then there is a certain summer painting class that I have not done one single thing for. This morning I sat down and hashed out a plan to attack those 6 lessons and get myself back on track.

(neighborly) Frustration —

This week our neighbor chopped down all their bushes (which provide a “fence” on the east side of our back yard). And I mean chopped… as in to the ground… sigh. So this morning we are heading off to a plant nursery to see what we can find to plant in our yard to compensate for all that.

(more neighborly) Frustrations —

It is summertime… and that is very evident in the volume of vehicles parked at our neighbors across the street. They have 4 kids of varying young adult ages that all live at home… yes, all.still.at.home. And it seems they all have a plethora of friends who all have cars *and like to spend the night* and that volume of cars is making it challenging for Steve to get out of the driveway for work each morning. I am waiting for the morning that I hear a huge crunch when he hits one of those cars… accidentally or on purpose… oy.

And with that… let’s get this weekend started!

See you all back here on Monday with something about my word!

Unraveled Wednesday | 6.21.23

Unraveled Wednesday | 6.21.23

Greetings Unravelers!

I have a finished Gnome… and I have very mixed feelings about him. Gnifty is not feeling very nifty to me and those feelings grew as I assembled him last week. But… he has since been speaking to me… he let me know he is a bit of an introvert… and he is quite self-conscious about his proboscis! He prefers to spend his days in the woods… and I have promised him I will knit him a wee birdie or three to keep him company. I think he also needs a walking stick that also has a bit of a perch. I am still looking for the perfect stick! Also… I think a little cosmetic knitting will be happening to fix his nose and give him a beard. So while he is “done”… Gnifty is not yet finished… so stay tuned!

I also had a bit of a re-do (i.e. it was way too small) on my second bucket hat. The yarn is a bit lighter weight so I needed to rethink how to make this all work. (not so easy with crochet, let me tell you!) But I think I am on the correct path now!

My other finish was a scarf that I started eons ago… but I cleaned out a drawer and found it… and by doing a few “flowers” a night before I knew it, it was done! After weaving in eleventy-billion ends and I have a new scarf for the fall!

The reading this week has been marvelous! I am racing on to the finish of Birnam Wood… oh my, it is so good! Twists, turns… and intrigue! Finishing it is my reward for getting my chores done this morning.

The in my ears book is T.J. Klune’s latest, Under the Whispering Door. I loved The House in the Cerulean Sea so I have high hopes for this book! No thoughts yet, I have barely begun it!

That is all I have to share… what about you? What are you working on?

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


Pin It on Pinterest