Unraveled Wednesday | 3.9.22

Unraveled Wednesday | 3.9.22

Happy Wednesday, Unravelers!

I do not have a whole lot of making to share with you all this week. I do have an almost finished gnome (the hat needs a wee bit of steam.) But my March Never Not Gnoming installment is finished. Oh, Gnome You Didn’t. Meet Gnellie…and my back story for her is that she is the younger sister of Gnutmeg (the family resemblance is amazing!) and her Gnana gnits and spins – thus her darling handspun scarf! Ha! Confession time… I have not had so much fun knitting as I have making these Gnomes. I am contemplating my April installment. (And for those wondering, yes I have knit Gnellie before – for Steve’s mom… I am so happy to have my own Gnellie on my mantle now!)

I have also been slowly adding “teeth” to my Hitchhiker but I have not picked up my second sock at all this week…and that means there have been no mistakes made! haha!

It has been a quiet week of reading here as well (sort of) I somehow forgot to cancel an audiobook hold when the physical book came through… so imagine my surprise when I got the notification that The Sentence audiobook was available! And loving Louise Erdrich as much as I do the opportunity to listen to her read The Sentence was just too great to pass up (perhaps forgetting to cancel that hold was not a mistake at all!) I loved “reading it with my ears” as much as I loved reading it with my eyes. I also spent quite a bit of time immersed in poetry this week… and that, my friends, is never, ever a bad way to spend a week.

UnravelingUnraveling by Brandon Leake
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I have listened to Unraveling several times now and each time I hear something new…something moving, something sacred, something that causes me to stop and think.

I had no clue who Brandon Leake is (He won America’s Got Talent) but his poetry is moving. Perhaps even more so because Brandon reads his poetry.

My favorite of Unraveling… Breonna. It is such a beautiful tribute.

If you are looking for a fresh new voice in poetry, I think you will enjoy this collection of poems… very much.

I want to thank NetGalley and Andrews McMeel Audio for this ARC of Unraveling.

(P.S. if you want to watch Brandon recite Breonna, you can watch him here starting at 4:15)


What about you? What is keeping you sane this week?

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


Sometimes Monday | 3.7.22

Sometimes Monday | 3.7.22

It was not my intention to skip my post on Friday, but with the news in the world… it just seemed frivolous to post about trivial things. And I am sitting here this morning with much the same feelings… how does one talk about the triviality of “normal life” when for far too many normal life is trying to stay alive.

But there are slivers of humanity rising up to help… (I really can’t use the word hope right now because it seems a sentiment for fools)

I am sure by now you have heard about the amazing new use for Airbnb’s in Ukraine (and you can now donate to help Ukrainian refugees as well), but in case you didn’t… now you have.

Last week, Carol Sulcoski provided a blog post with some Ukrainian designers… and Vicki updated us all that Ravelry is now making it easier to find more Ukrainian designers as well. I am not in need of new things to knit, but I think purchasing a pattern is something everyone can do… so go buy a pattern or two!

I will be back on Wednesday.

Unraveled Wednesday | 3.2.22

Unraveled Wednesday | 3.2.22

Greetings Unraveler’s!

I wish I could tell you that there has been *loads* of making this week…but that is not the case. It seems very wrong to indulge in the luxury of knitting, stitching, sewing, or baking when the world is collapsing around us.

I did a bit of stitching, but I need something that I don’t have… maybe a brighter color (yellow?) or a much darker color (black?) or maybe both? So I need to get to the stitching store to see what I might find.

I tried to work on the second sock, but even the simplest pattern was beyond me and after I ripped it back – twice – I put down the knitting.

My night time knitting (which you can see above) is at the long, longer, longest row point. So I am lucky to get a “tooth” repeat done before my eyes are closing. (Although, I am not sure I am going to get 5 more teeth done… boo hoo! I might have to toss the handspun yarn to see if I can find something that might work to finish this off…)

While there has been a lull in making, the reading was just what I needed to take my mind away this week! I had two spectacular finishes. And I picked up a lovely stack of poetry books from the library… I am not at all missing the making this week.

Still LifeStill Life by Sarah Winman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

There are moments in life, so monumental and still, that the memory can never be retrieved without a catch to the throat or an interruption to the beat of the heart. Can never be retrieved without the rumbling disquiet of how close that moment came to not having happened at all.

Wow. This book. This story. These characters.

Every page was divine… it was a book I never wanted to end. I started reading a hard copy of this book, but I did not finish it before it was due back to the library. So I put myself back on the long waitlist and this time, I expanded my options and also got on queue for the audiobook as well – and that is what came available for me to finish this incredible story. The narrator, by the way, is incredible. It was a joy to listen!

If you are wondering if a book can restore your faith in humanity… this is the book that can. PLUS! Any book that includes Fernet Branca and wool… well, just pour yourself a delicious sip, gather your knitting and let Winman take you far, far away. The writing. My gosh… so so so good.

I highly urge you to get this book and read it! Now! You won’t be sorry!

Young MungoYoung Mungo by Douglas Stuart
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book is not light reading, but that should not stop you from reading Stuart’s follow up to Shuggie Bain.

Young Mungo is simply brilliant, although it took me a little bit to realize that the story is being told in two different timelines… at the same time. What happened and what is happening…but stay with Mungo… he will show you what a true survivor is.

Thanks to Stuart, I have a clear picture of how incredibly challenging it must have been to grow up in Glasgow… at least how challenging it must have been for poor, struggling single mothers. (Please don’t think I believe that Mo-maw has one redeeming quality, because she absolutely does not!) But still, I cannot imagine the struggle… Her frequent absences might have been a gift… thankfully, Mungo has a barely older sister who tries to fill the shoes of parent. He also has an older brother who, though he is not a sterling character, he inadvertently teaches Mungo the skills he will need to survive.

And despite those struggles, Mungo finds the strength to survive as well as beauty, joy and yes, love.

I highly recommend this book!

I would like to thank Netgalley and Grove Atlantic for the ARC of this book!


What about you? What are you doing to take your mind off the catastrophe that the world is right now?

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


Full and Empty | February 2022

Full and Empty | February 2022

At the atomic level, the glass is 99.99% empty space. Hope this helps. ― John Alejandro King

This month I have spent time thinking about the opposite of my word and while there are many antonyms for full, but I have focused on empty this month… and what is lacking, missing, needing a bit more of.

And I also considered what is overly full…overflowing as it were.

Of course the list of empty is significant… but perhaps that is always the case. After all, we gravitate to the things that we like, things we do best, things that are easy… so yes, there is lots that is empty.

But in making my list, I discovered that there are some things that are empty because not because I don’t like those things… but rather it is because I am not making time for them.

And once I got to the time quotient… oh boy. Yeah. I began to look at my empty and full minutes, and you know what… I waste lots and lots of time. Doomscrolling is the main culprit… Open app and before you know it an hour has just vanished…Hello Twitter, IG, and even web browsing (looking for recipes is a category unto itself…sigh) I am looking at you.

Now, I do not believe that cramming every single thing you can into your number of waking minutes equals a satisfied fullness… sadly, I think it is the exact opposite. You know… the full you feel after Thanksgiving Dinner Full… too much, uncomfortable, ready for a nap full that might be good once a year, but on a daily basis… hoo boy, not how I want my minutes to feel like.  Instead of trying to cram more in… I have stepped back and really examined why I am wasting time… i.e. what am I really avoiding.

Yeah, that… avoidance is such an insidious thing!

And so this month I began to look at my day and how I spend it. Actually, I began thinking about this way back in January, but I have really spent time tweaking it more this month.

I am not a fan of lists, although I always had a lengthy list of “must do’s” and… confession time… so many things I put on the list always got moved to the next week because they were not completed. And those things just kept moving from list to list… but!! I had them on a list, and sadly, that is as far as it went.

So back in January I began trying a new way of “list making”… and it is having some good success, especially with the tweaks I have made this month! My new lists… “start” – “progress” – “finish”

When I began this in January I was of the mindset that each list needed to have the same amount of things… balanced, as it were… Oh boy, that was a big wake up! By the end of January… Progress and Finish were not having much success, and they kept growing…and approaching the the same result of what I was trying to get away from… lists that exist, but they are perpetual… same things, different week.

So I started by not putting anything on my Start List… it was gloriously empty. Which allowed me to work on Progress and Finish…with much greater success.

And suddenly, the lists are no longer the enemy… they are becoming partners in making my time count for something better than being wasted.

A month with less empty minutes is a very good thing! (and I hope that this leads to days that are more full!)

I want to thank Carolyn profoundly this month… she has kept her link up open even for very late stragglers (me!) But really, you should go and see what others have learned this month in their word journey!

See you all back here on Wednesday!

 

Friday Finds | 2.25.22

Friday Finds | 2.25.22

The final Friday of February is upon us before I am ready to let it go. I have really loved immersing myself in Black History Month so I plan on staying there for a bit longer. There is just so much to read, to learn, and to lift up.

Have a vision. Be demanding. — Colin Powell

And now… welcome to some people with incredible vision. For me, there is nothing better than hearing poetry read… but watching these brilliant productions might just be best of all!

Happy Friday everyone! I will be back on Monday with my February update to my word! Have a great weekend!

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