by Kat | Feb 12, 2024 | General, In This Moment
needs a bit of humor…
Yes, we have departed the Fool’s Spring and have arrived at the Second Winter portion of February. Sigh. The snow onslaught begins overnight…
Staying in the Land of Humor… I finished the seaming of the sweater. It might be a trifle big… okay, more than a trifle… more like the Entire Box of Chocolates Big. I am debating in my head the options for said sweater. Stay tuned.
See you all back here on Wednesday where there will likely be LOTS of unraveling!
by Kat | Feb 9, 2024 | General, In This Moment
Happy Friday!
Yes, February is moving on… rather rapidly! (too rapidly?) I am thinking that our little run of gloriously sunny days might be the reason why… because the normal sunless winter we usually get… well, those days just seem to drag, don’t they?
But this week was for learning… and learn I did! So let’s get started!
I had no clue that I really needed a Fast Car duet coupled with a rousing rendition of Both Sides Now… every. single. day. The most delicious ear worms. Who knew that songs from what feels like a lifetime ago, suddenly have new life in my head!
I had forgotten how much I enjoyed Foyle’s War… I needed a Seaming Companion this week and Christopher Foyle and dear Sam were just the ticket! Two episodes “done” and I have just two seams to go on my sweater! The seaming will end soon (today maybe) but I think that I will be spending a bit more time with the Foyle Crew!
And speaking of seaming… I had forgotten how magical mattress stitching is! Although sleeve caps remain one heck of a challenge! They are the Main Culprit for my Seaming Angst. But down the “straightaway” … well, it might be the most fun of knitting!
In the ongoing search for “Horse Books” for Genevieve, I discovered Elaine Heney! (and there are LOTS of books by her to grow Vivi’s library!)
And there you have the things I learned this week… Happy Friday, Everyone! See you all back here on Monday!
by Kat | Feb 7, 2024 | General, Unraveled Wednesday
Greetings dear Unravelers and Happy First Wednesday in February!
Is it just me or are you all surprised to find yourself on the seventh day of this month?
I hit a HUGE milestone on Sunday afternoon… (I feel like I should insert a drumroll here… lol)
I finished the knitting portion of The Great Cabled Sweater!
Done… with a skein to spare! All ready for a nice long soak!
Which ushered in a rush for the washing and blocking of all the pieces. Fortunately, the weather is cooperating delightfully here in the ‘Burgh… a week of warm sunny days to speed the drying. My yard looked quite hilarious…
Precise measurements… come on sun, dry these pieces!
Tuesday morning the pieces were mostly dry and so The Great Mattress Seaming began! I am nervous… as all get out! It’s A LOT of seaming, people. Seaming inside and outside… I made a more concise list of seaming order. Please send all the Seaming Juju you can muster my way. I hope to have a finished sweater THIS WEEK! (although, if this warm weather holds I might not get to wear it until next winter… sigh.) And I will begin my search for the Perfect Buttons (so any button retailer recommendations would be gratefully accepted!)
To celebrate, I whipped up two fuchsia “valentine” trees for the gnomes!
The Gnome Home is all set for the Valentine’s holiday!
And wound some yarn for another pair of socks… and cast on! (who am I?? lol)
The reading this week… slow as all get out. Just two finishes… The next Max Tudor Mystery, A Demon Summer. Perfect palette clearing listening! And Laurie Frankl’s latest book, Family Family. The premise is curious but I have strong thoughts about all of it.
And with that, I have some seaming to get back to! What about you all… what is demanding your attention this week?
As always, if you wrote a post to share please leave your link below and thank you!
by Kat | Feb 5, 2024 | General, Welcome
The Polar Intuit of northwest Greenland, the northernmost people, call February ‘seqinniaq’, “the month when the sun appears. ― Fred Bruemmer
Yes, February brings lengthening days and in Pittsburgh, we will gain an additional 66 minutes of daylight this month! Woot! If that does not lighten one’s spirit, I don’t know what will!
So what do I want to accomplish this month? Or what do I want to try? I have a few ideas that have been rattling around my head… some for a very long time. Maybe this is the month to set them loose and see where they go!
Of course, there will be February Stitching. I am really enjoying this addition to my morning routine. It is quiet, inspiring, and after the long days of January… it very much feels like a ritual now. I begin thinking about what I might stitch each day as I brew my coffee.
February circles
There is one other new-ish thing I have added to my year… a reimagined gratitude journal. I have tried and failed so many times at a “gratitude list” journal. But this year, I wanted some of my time to be focused on gratitude and late last year I had a bit of a gratitude epiphany. I wondered if having a bit of a gratitude conversation with myself… not a list, but something more thought-provoking… and yes, self-conversational… that’s a thing, at least for me! Anyways, my hope is that I will be able to go back and read my conversations on bleak days where gratitude seems impossible… and find a bit of gratitude from the past to hold on to! I began quietly in January… I wrote just eleven entries but those eleven conversations… well, they were powerful… thought provoking… and they have lingered with me well past the writing! I hope that February builds on those eleven days and takes off in a good way!.
Finally… this month I want to spend some time de-cluttering/re-organizing my kitchen cupboards. We have limited space in the kitchen and a few… several… most cupboards that have things in them that are never, ever used. Those things need to find new homes and usher in a reclamation/reorganization of space. But… I have been thinking about this for a long time and this month I am going to implement my ideas! And maybe I will no longer have to lug things up and down from the basement!
A small list… a small(ish) month… but these are big intentions!
What about you? What do you hope February holds?
by Kat | Feb 2, 2024 | General, In My Backyard
Today is Groundhog’s Day and Punxsutawney Phil will soon be making is prediction… but regardless of him seeing his shadow or not, we have 6 more weeks of winter before spring arrives on March 19th. (Although with our forecast of a week of much warmer temps, maybe spring will be arriving this week!)
I read another week with Margaret Renkl’s The Comfort of Crows and it might just have been my favorite week thus far!
I was so absorbed by the task of planning for spring that I completely forgot how long the wait for true springtime would be…I was remembering my favorite part of planting: the moment when the seedling, fragile as any lace-winged insect or hallow-boned nestling, somehow shoves the clods of earth aside and makes it way upward and outward. Searching for the light. — Margaret Renkl, The Comfort of Crows, an excerpt from Winter, Week 7
Last fall… I invested in spring. I planted LOTS of bulbs and have since been battling squirrels who believed I planted a buffet just for them! I have even seen said squirrels taunting me from the tree gnawing on the big, juicy bulbs they had unearthed. My fears grew and grew and grew… was my hopeful investment for a blooming spring for naught?
Oh, me of little faith!
Crocus peeking out! And yes, the weeds are growing… sigh.
This week a plethora of “proof of life” has been showing in my gardens! I might have even put on my happy pink socks and done a great big happy dance in my soggy back yard!
Daffodils that the squirrels missed!
So even if those squirrels have feasted on a good number of bulbs… some survived and that makes all that work in the fall very much worth it! (Even if Bah Humbug Steve does not agree with me!) Sadly, the alliums that were sending up their delicate tender fronds were mowed back down to ground level. What ate them? I have no clue. I am hopeful their will to live will overcome this tragedy.
Who chomped these wee alliums?!
And… I have one month of stitching done… A Proof of Life from my creative self as well!
Thirty-one days of stitching!
I wish you all a very happy weekend! See you all back here on Monday!
** Header Photo by Gelgas Airlangga **
