by Kat | Jan 26, 2022 | General, Unraveled Wednesday
Whoosh……
That, my. friends, is the sound of January racing out the door! Who besides me is shocked at how rapidly the “longest month of winter” raced by?
And we are on the cusp of the shortest month of winter, so my expectation is that in… oh, 5 minutes or so we will be welcoming March.
Meanwhile, in my corner… trying to savor this wintering season… I am sooo close to a finish of my first Year of the Gnome-Gnome! That’s right… Almost Never Not Gnoming is the motto in my house and it is just so much fun! I like it because it is “bite sized” knitting. My goal is to knit one gnome a month and in December I will have a little Gnome Family! That is, if Steve’s mom does not come and take them! Haha! She just loves gnomes and all the gnomes I have made… to date… have gone to her!
That beard though…
I had planned on casting on THIS yesterday, but the Voices of Reason (Carole, Bonny, and Kym) spoke and I actually listened. Now my desire to begin Feather Hat Knitting has put some urgency into finishing my Gnome before I cast on!
Yes… there is a third color. Yes… it is on order! LOL
Sometimes Adulting just sucks! LOL
My end of the day knitting is reserved for my Base 12 Hitchhiker… I have *almost* made it through the first color change…as you can see above! This project is exactly what I need at the end of the day… semi-mindless knitting!
Side A…
I also began the process of tackling the Mountain of Mending (trust me… after sock one… it now very much feels like a mountain!) This was about 2 hours of mending. Yes… I am not kidding. (Start, take out, start, take out)I briefly entertained investing in a different mode of mending (i.e. this) but I am not sure how I would do a 3-dimensional heel flat and have it turn out. This is actually 4 different bits of darning… joined to make a curved heel. I think I will eventually get more proficient, but this is truly a labor of love.
Side B…
The reading this week has been just grand. I am listening to Stacy Abrams While Justice Sleeps and am not quite halfway through and I finished an ARC of The Fell by Sarah Moss. If you like Sarah Moss books, you will like The Fell… and despite it being about COVID lockdown… it is really quite thought provoking!
The Fell by Sarah Moss
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I have not spent much time reading about the pandemic, a couple of books… but not one struck me like this one did. It takes place over the course of a few hours on a day after UK lockdown had been in effect for two weeks.
There are just four characters (plus The Raven, can’t forget The Raven!) and those four characters each bring something different to these few hours.
It made me stop and think about isolation, fear of coming in contact with other people who might be “contagious” and breaking the rules… and which rules are okay to break?
I wish I could say I connected with Kate… but I don’t break the rules, so I struggled a bit with Kate. However, her conversations with The Raven are quite simply, brilliant!
I really connected with Alice…very much. She broke my heart and my hope is that out of these few hours… a new family might be born!
Moss has broken down the essence of Pandemic Living perfectly. You will find yourself nodding with much of what is “talked about.” Moss also tickles your brain and makes you think… in very good ways.
I highly recommend this book!
I want to thank Netgalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for the ARC of this book!
That is all I have for today… I need to get going on Gnome Arms and Legs! Ha!
As always, if you wrote a post to share please leave your link below and thank you!
by Kat | Jan 24, 2022 | General, Words
Fill your bowl to the brim and it will spill. Keep sharpening your knife and it will blunt. — Lao Tzu
My process of unpacking full…. has been full of defining – thinking – and writing. I really love full as an adjective: not lacking or omitting anything; complete. And in order to achieve that, I need focus on using full as a verb: make (something) full; fill up.
Okay… so at this point, you might get the idea that I am thinking this year is going to be incredibly easy! (and after all that work from last year, there is a part of me that thinks that I have earned an “easy” word!) All I need to do is fill my days… right? Seems too easy on the surface… and if you scratch a bit deeper… being full does not necessarily mean one is happy. Or to borrow from my previous words… it does not mean focused, intentional living. Because I spent a year working on releasing some very not good things that were filling my life.
And then I began gathering full quotes… and Lao Tzu’s wisdom just jumped off the page and grabbed me! And it is there that I started really thinking about what Mary Oliver might have meant in these lines from The Summer Day: “Tell me, what else should I have done?”
And I am beginning to see that being full does not necessarily mean being full up to the top.
These are the questions I have been mulling over this month as I start this new journey to being full. And as January winds down (how is there only a week left in this month??) and I contemplate what else do I want to fill this month with. Or perhaps the better question is what does not need anymore filling?
I want to thank Carolyn again for hosting us this year and for providing the tools to begin this process.
See you all back here on Wednesday for some very fun Unraveling!
by Kat | Jan 21, 2022 | General, In This Moment
Today I have a bunch of random things to share and I am making them fit TGIF. I think it works.
And so let’s get started!
Teaching (myself?):
Last year, I mentioned that I had some socks in need of some mending… well, the number has grown since then. How is it possible that all.the.socks. are wearing out all at once? It is boggling my mind to be sure! And, ironically, this arrived in my email the same week the latest sock become “holy” … a darning “class”? Okay. I am in! And the same day a darning mushroom was on sale on Amazon and it seemed inevitable. It is being delivered to my house today (along with some darning needles). I have 4 pairs of socks in need of heel repair and I am determined that I will learn how to do this and have the end result be four *comfortably* wearable pairs of socks! (and then I can fix the uncomfortably repaired pair!)
A Healing of the Heels is in order!
Getting (uncomfortable):
Speaking of uncomfortable…it needs to get real, Gentle Readers. Very real. Uncomfortably real… this is our year to be uncomfortable. I lowered my reading goal this year… for a reason. I wanted to spend more time reading things that made me uncomfortable. Things that will help me see beyond my white privilege. Things that will help me better understand what the BiPOC community experiences on a daily basis. Things that will make me uncomfortable…
This thread by Nikole Hannah-Jones. It opened my eyes. It shocked me. And yes, it now has me wanting to find all of MLK’s writings that I have never, ever read and get uncomfortable! (and to have some wearable reinforcement…I have asked Steve to get me this for V-day instead of flowers)
In (my worry corner):
The past 3 weeks have been rough. My son’s girlfriend started the COVID Train… she was exposed and then, sadly, came down with it. Which meant, of course, that my son got it. (She was quite sick, he had a slightly milder case) and yesterday another family member let me know they now have COVID. (It’s my sister who is not boosted… who is living in group housing… and is now in isolation… which I don’t think is good for her at anytime, but right now, I think it’s especially bad.) I realize it is but a matter of time… so to speak… until we all have it with numbers skyrocketing. But my worry level is off the charts… (add to all this there was a tragic accident on Monday at my son-in-law’s place of employment … a boat … and I am really needing for my people to be close enough that I can see them, hold them, and feed them…)
Finding (diversions):
This week it was all about occupying my mind… so I wound the Base 12 yarn and cast on that Hitchhiker. I also wound so many skeins of yarn… enough to fill a HUGE knitting bag… and started Gnome One in the Year of Gnomes. It is a pattern I purchased but never knit! Welcome to the start of ADVENTure Gnome! I have started on the hat and I am loving how this looks… now to figure out the ball at the top of the hat! LOL
A Worry Hitchhiker seems so appropriate but coupled with the silliness of Gnome Knitting… there is a bit of balance.
Both knitting projects are excellent diversions because they require me to keep track of something physical… in other words, they are not mindless knits!
I also was shocked to find that Stacy Abrams book, While Justice Sleeps, was available on Overdrive so I downloaded it. And yes… it is lovely to have breathing space between reads to be able to read something totally unexpected!
And that is all I have for this week! Have a great weekend and stay warm if you are in the path of this bitter cold!
See you all back here on Monday!
by Kat | Jan 19, 2022 | General, Unraveled Wednesday
Greetings from the Great White (not so) North!
Yes, we got a good bit of snow over the long weekend and there is more in the forecast. I am my most happiest wintery self! I just love the snow (must be that December birthday!) and I am thrilled that more is on the way.
As you can see I finished the Heartnut Cowl and I love it. I knit 12 full repeats of the super easy to memorize pattern which was a few rounds more than the “short cowl” (9 repeats) and a good bit less than the “long cowl” (20 repeats) however, I’d say that 12 repeats are just the perfect height! And it is so cozy… there is just enough drape for it not to feel like a “turtleneck” and just enough body to not be a “necklace” so I think my yarn choices were spot on!
(That adorable Sheepy notions bag is from the über-talented Stitched by JessaLu)
I also finished my “Base 12 Advent” spin and loved every single second of it! I tried to show you a good representation of all the colors and how wonderfully they go together, but I think my photo leaves much to be desired! Sorry. Anyways, I got so much yardage! (almost 700 yds… what???) I think that this will make the perfect Hitchhiker. I hope to wind the yarn up and cast on this week! If you are curious about the fibers, and the order which I spun them in I think you can see the image I snagged of the card:
- Bobbin One: 5, B, A, 8, 5, and 2
- Bobbin Two: 1, 7, 9, 4, 6, and 3
My plan… start with the ending colors and knit to the beginning color (on bobbin one) because, of course, the bobbins did not exactly match up, lol. So there is a good bit of 5 that is only plied with itself… perfect for the ending of a Hitchhiker!
The reading is absolutely going much slower this month! I am not racing through books, but rather savoring them. It feels good, so I plan on keeping this pace!
One excellent finish this week, but I realize it will not be a book for everyone. Your mileage may vary!
Allow Me to Retort: A Black Guy’s Guide to the Constitution by Elie Mystal
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I want to preface my review by stating that this will not be a book for everyone.
However, that being said… I think this is absolutely a book that all of America should read. I think this should be required reading for all high school civics classes. (Oh how I wish that civics classes were still taught!)
I read this book twice and in the second read through, I noted things I did not the first time through. And yes, I am contemplating reading it a third time!
The writing is compelling, frank, and yes, Elie speaks plainly – even bluntly – from his unbelievable well of knowledge.
Elie shares things that I did not know. Things I was never, ever taught in school (and I am old enough that I had a Civics class!) He made me see our constitution in a new light… and I am in agreement with him, that if we just applied the constitution equally for ALL people, life would be better for those who today, find that it means everyone but them.
I highly recommend this book!
I would like to thank Netgalley and The New Press for this ARC.
And that is all I have for today! What about you? What are you excited about this week?
As always, if you wrote a post to share please leave your link below and thank you!
by Kat | Jan 17, 2022 | General, In This Moment
We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope. — Martin Luther King Jr.
This is the quote I wrote in my calendar to greet me this morning. An excellent reminder when the finite disappointment seems more like endless disappointment and I have lost sight of infinite hope. This week, I am going to be refocusing on hope.
An update from last week: I shared my Bialetti pots and Karen mentioned that what coffee you use is important. This is most certainly true! I have found that a darker roast beans brew a better pot of coffee and my favorite is one we can find at our local Costco… Mayorga Café Cubano. How you grind the coffee is also important… you can’t grind it so finely that the water cannot “perk” through the grounds. I have found that an “auto-drip” grind works very well.
Just when I had begun to wonder if winter would ever arrive… it did and then some yesterday! We have about 8 inches of snow (which shuts all of Pittsburgh down!) and it is still coming down this morning. My thyme that will not die is blanketed in snow this morning… still green and I will be picking some to make some breadsticks to go with dinner. (I think it is telling me that it has infinite hope!)
But yes, it was a morning that required all.the.handknits for Sherman’s morning constitutional! Ha! (Although, all the hand knits was probably overkill considering that Sherman was out for less than 3 minutes!)
If you too are in the path of this momentous storm, stay safe and warm! It is a morning for an extra cuppa and a good book!
See you all back here on Wednesday!
