by Kat | Sep 26, 2022 | General, Words
Life is full of beauty. Notice it. Notice the bumble bee, the small child, the smiling faces. Smell the rain, and feel the wind. Live your life to the fullest potential, and fight for your dreams. — Ashley Smith
This month, Allie Edwards team had a brilliant suggestion for my word this month… take photos! And so each day I captured some photos of what filled my days. It was fun… and very different from what I did way back when I captured one photo of my day. I made sure that photo was the perfect setting… edited for more “perfection” and when I look back on all those months of photos I feel very removed from them, as if I am an outsider looking in. They absolutely did not bring to mind the day or what happened that day or what I did that day.
This exercise, however, felt entirely different. They are not “perfect” photos… but I feel very present in these images and I hope that a year from now when I look back on them I will remember more of the day, what happened, and what I did… that this exercise will actually help cement the month in my memory!
I noted the changing light.
I sewed.
I knit.
I did lots of spinning.
I picked so many tomatoes.
I made pitas more than once.
I knit my “gninth” gnome!
There was painting and more painting.
Poetry…every single morning.
There were happy hours! Ha!
And, of course, Sherman.
All this is not to say that it was a perfect month… it wasn’t because there were struggles as well. I tried to remember that being a listener is better than being an advice giver… so I let my ears fill up and worked on keeping my mouth shut! (Sometimes I succeeded even!)
But!! There is still five more days in September and I am eager to fill the coming days with good things!
As always, I would like to thank Carolyn for providing a landing space for us all to share what we learned, how we grew, and how our word showed up for us each month!
See you all back here on Wednesday!
by Kat | Sep 23, 2022 | General, In This Moment
The Autumnal Equinox occurred last night at 9PM and it is as if Mother Nature flipped a switch… the arrival of autumn did in deed bring autumn-like temperatures! This morning it was a very chilly and hushed silence talking Sherman for his morning walk. No birdsong, no crickets chirping… just one sniffing pug to break the stillness of the morning.
It seems like a good day to do a bit of RIFFing… so let’s get started:
Remembering —
I saw this tweet this morning and my heart broke a bit. I know what my fall/winter is going to be full of… finishing reading her Wolf Hall/Thomas Cromwell series.
I have not explored any of her writing beyond Wolf Hall, but she has a sizable body of work to explore.
(when I have brief moments of) Insight —
My new painting class began yesterday and I have spent much of the month focused on the “sequence” of watercolor. From saturation of the page, keeping a wet edge, layers, damp and dry work. And to make things remarkably clear for myself – I have done a variety of “neutral” paintings. And on Wednesday… it all began to click! And I did what I feel is my best representation of all these skills combined. Good thing because the first thing Mr. Surowicz mentions in the first lesson of the new class is how important a “shades of grey” study is before you begin a new painting. I did some work to get my watercolor paper ready to paint, but today I am going to do a rough sketch (or two) in my sketchbook and do some value studies before I begin the “big painting” and I am so very excited!
Finding (answers) —
This week, Jane asked me a very good question: “I’m trying to think how many oz. of fiber it takes to spin enough yarn for a sweater” …
Such an excellent question and I thought I’d share how I make a determination about that very thing. Way back in my very early spinning life I asked that very question. The short answer given me was to “weigh a sweater I wear” and that will give me a rough idea of what I will need. Seems simple? If you think that is a clear as mud… you are not alone. For me, figuring out “how much yarn will I need for x project” was the greatest mystery of spinning! Until I discovered Felicia Lo, that is. Felicia is the magic behind Sweet Georgia Yarns and she is an avid spinner! She also blogs… and her blog is one of the best resources I have found to answer all the “mystery” questions of spinning I might ever have! Anyways, she gives a very clear and easy to understand method of determining how much yarn a sweater might take… that would be any sweater, any gauge, size inclusive, and how much “extra” to calculate. (Actually, this method would work for ANY item you want to knit… not just sweaters!)
I hope this helps you, Jane… as well as any other spinning knitters out there!
Friday (Jabs) —
Yes, that’s correct… later this morning, I am heading down to Rite Aid to get a couple of “jabs”… the new and updated COVID booster (thank you, Pfizer!) and a flu shot as well. I have sort of cleared the deck for the weekend, just in case I am feeling a bit puny from said jabs… but I am so thankful that scientists have made our lives so much better thanks to the wonder of vaccines! (And I am still in awe of how it is possible that I have yet to catch COVID!)
Have a great weekend everyone! See you all back here on Monday!
by Kat | Sep 21, 2022 | General, Unraveled Wednesday
Greetings Unravelers!
Happy Wednesday… or Happy Autumnal Equinox Eve Day! Haha!
Yes, it’s the time of year when a knitters heart begins to think Winter Is Coming… and the urge to cast on all the woolly things takes over!
Or, in my case… the urge to get a woolly thing off my needles so I can cast on something new! Haha! But I have departed for sleeve island and it is smooth sailing! Decreases for a bit then on to the Sleeve Straits before I reach the 2×2 Ribbed Shores and then begin again to complete the second sleeve! We are heading to Erie the end of October and this sweater will be a welcome addition on all the walks around Presque Isle! So it needs to be done!
The next sweater I am tumbling about in my mind… well, it will be one that I knit from my handspun! Yes, I am making headway on the spinning portion and in a couple more weeks (maybe??) it will be a Plying Fest! Then I can swatch and see what my gauge is (which will absolutely have an impact on what sweater I pick!) I’d like to knit DRK’s Everyday Sweater…so keep your fingers crossed I get gauge! If not, then perhaps a Weekender might be the one – since she has 2 versions in 2 different yarn weights… that gives me some wiggle room! Ha!
The reading this week was stellar. A new Keven Wilson book (coming out in November) and another Strout… Olive finally settled in for me! And!! I am listening to the most incredible book…I am almost done and but it was released yesterday! The Book of Goose by Yiyum Li is something you should put on your radar. I am listening to the audio version and the narrator (Caroline Hewitt) is excellent.
Now Is Not the Time to Panic by Kevin Wilson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I first encountered Kevin Wilson’s writing in Nothing to See Here, which was a curious tale of children that catch fire. The writing was fun and engaging and the story made me think… lots.
So when I saw that he had a new book coming out, I requested it from Netgalley and was happy that I was given the opportunity to read more of Wilson’s work.
This story is just as engaging and I have thought lots about it since I finished the book this week. It is a bit of a coming of age story… and while that is generally not my first choice in reading, this coming of age story pulled me in. It is also about not fitting in… feeling different than everyone around you. It touches on divorce, single parenting, and more.
I loved Frankie… so very much. She is a tester of the waters, a try-er of new things, and yes… a budding writer! So Frankie and Zach (the other odd boy out in the town their mothers returned to after leaving their husbands) spend a summer by creating what turns out to be a very controversial bit of art… art they reproduce and post anonymously all over town. And they keep the fact that they were the artists for 20 years.
“The edge is a shantytown filled with gold seekers. We are fugitives, and the law is skinny with hunger for us.”
I wish I could have seen the artwork, although I have a picture of it in my mind, I am left wondering if the book will have an image of it.
This story also touches on what happens when people don’t understand something… and the way that people can cause each other to panic. (The title is just so brilliant!) I truly appreciated Wilson’s forward to the book, which explained why he wrote it. He had my attention from the first page!
I highly recommend this story!
I would like to thank Ecco and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book.
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I had originally tried to read this with my eyes… and gave up quickly. I then went on to discover my joy of Strout’s writing by listening and so I thought I’d give Olive another chance in my ears and am I glad I did!
Confession… I really found lots to like and and even more to hate in Olive. She has the biggest chip on her shoulder (perhaps I could recognize that because I do as well?) and *everything* wrong is never her fault. But the story draws you along, and I ached for Olive… her frustration with herself that she takes out on everyone else. But when Henry has a stroke, I began to cheer for her… her humanity begins to shine through. I had thought this was a solid 4-star book… and then the ending just blew me away. There was no way that ending could not bump this up to 5-stars.
If you have tried reading Olive and gave up… I’d suggest you give her a listen.
I highly recommend!
There you have what is on my radar this week! What about you?
As always, if you wrote a post to share please leave your link below and thank you!
by Kat | Sep 19, 2022 | General, In This Moment
Is full of random things…
This week I welcome autumn and over the last week or so I have been closely watching the subtle (or not so subtle) changes outside… Sherman and I head out before the sun rises now and this morning was especially dark with only a chorus of crickets to greet us. Rain is in the forecast for us today and it feels decidedly autumnal outside. And honestly, this fills me with such delight… I love autumn and plan on savoring every second of it!
Work has been so stressful for Steve the past couple of weeks and adding to that stress is the “revolving door” of people out with COVID… we sort of joked over dinner last night who would be out this morning. Really, it is not a joke at all… but rather the joke is what extra jobs Steve will have because of the COVID Casualties. And I am really trying to hold off on getting the updated COVID booster until October and pair it with my flu shot…sigh.
I semi-watched bits of the Queen’s funeral this morning and I heard a commentator talking about The Guns of August, which I had read a couple of years ago and the conversation around that book this morning spurred me to put it on hold to read again (apparently, lots of others were likewise inspired to read/reread it!)
My next watercolor class begins Thursday and I have just two lessons from the previous class to review. To begin with, I thought that I could use a “watercolor sketchbook” to review – thus not using actual watercolor paper – but that was not smart because there is nothing like actual watercolor paper. The techniques don’t work the same in the sketchbook as they do on watercolor paper… but lesson learned!
A dozen or so years ago, I bought several “linen big shirts” from Chico’s. I love them… but I am “down” to just two left so I am debating on taking one apart to draft a pattern from it… or look for something similar. I am not sure how I might draft the pattern without taking a shirt apart, but maybe there is a way? If any of you have any experience in this… please do share!
And with that, I am off to work on my list! Happy Monday!
by Kat | Sep 16, 2022 | General, In This Moment
This week was a good week for learning… at least for me…and I thought I’d share what I learned with you all!
Thing One:
Pita success happened. Or at least I found a very tasty and easy recipe. And while some of my pita’s puffed up, not all of them did – or at least not the entire pita puffed up. The answer to this dilemma is right here! (Hint… apparently I have a cold spot in my oven and Steve thinks that the baking steel heating the entire preheat might be triggering the oven to turn itself down.) So when I bake them again I will turn my oven up and put the baking steel in just 30 minutes before I am gonna drop those pita’s on it. Anyways. They were soft and delicious. The bit of whole wheat flour was the perfect addition… the taste was brilliant. To celebrate we had a “mini-happy hour” last night with my favorite baked feta with these tomatoes and these chickpeas.
Thing Two:
Also in the baking category…and perhaps this will give you a huge hint as to how incredible the weather was this week. I had the urge to bake.all.the.things! Ha! Anyways, I had such a craving for chocolate chip cookies… but I really did not want several dozen cookies laying around the house. Occasionally, nothing hits the spot like a warm cookie and I like the idea of the “ready to bake” cookies that the grocers have… the taste, however, leaves a lot to be desired. I wondered if I could make a batch of dough, bake a few cookies, and freeze the remainder of the batch…
And you know what! YOU CAN! Oh.my.gosh! This is a game changer people! I used the “recipe from the back of the chocolate chip bag” so the most basic of recipes. I then lined two baking sheets with parchment and scooped cookie dough exactly like I would if I was going to bake them and then I popped those baking sheets loaded with cookie dough in the freezer. The next morning, I pulled the baking sheets out and filled a ziplock bag with frozen cookie balls. Now here is the BEST PART! Want a cookie with your afternoon coffee… simple. Turn on the oven, pull out a ball (or two) of cookie dough and bake it exactly as the recipe says. Voilà! Fresh baked cookies! (Note… if you are baking a pan of frozen cookies, you probably will need to add some baking time)
Thing Three:
This had a visceral effect on me this week… another tick in the “man’s inhumanity to man” category. And then I learned that this was not a first. This listen by Codeswitch was eye opening, I had never, ever heard about Reverse Freedom Rides… and listening to the Codeswitch podcast from 2020 eerily similar to what happened this week. My hope… is that there are more people in Florida, Texas, and Arizona who are embarrassed (angry…disgusted…enraged…) at these tactics by their governors and that this will be a tipping point for change.
And that is all I have for this week! (Sorry for the somewhat lame image above… that is the Feisty Carolina wren who sings to Sherman and me everyone morning!)
Have a great weekend and I will see you all back here on Monday!
