by Kat | Jan 24, 2024 | General, Unraveled Wednesday
Greetings dear Unravelers and Happy Wednesday to you all!
It has been a study in slow making in my house since last week… very slow. I have not knit a single stitch on my cabled sweater… I know, I know! I have been stitching… which is so delightful but it is certainly not taking up all my daily making time. I have been knitting that second sock in fits and starts. Not much TV knitting this week… I have been having a horrendous bout of insomnia so sitting to watch TV is putting me right to sleep! I am down to one cup of coffee in the morning… no second cup in the afternoon when Steve get’s home. I make myself a cup of tea instead… I am hoping the return of sleep happens soon. Insomnia is the absolute worst!
Page one… Done!
Most of my time has been spent going through my yarn stash… trying to sort it out. If I ever contemplate buying another skein of sock yarn, I hope one of you quickly reminds me that if I knit socks every day from now until I live to be 100, I will still have plenty of sock yarn yet to be knit! No more sock yarn!
I also have a large assortment of “lace weight” yarns that I bought… eons ago. In some prior lifetime when I must have thought myself a “lace shawl” knitter. Not so much these days… I am contemplating what to do with all of that.
The remainder of my “yarn stash” is very manageable. Bits and odds and ends of previous projects. I have bagged them, clearly labeled for what projects I think they might work for (i.e. color work, hats, mittens) I am feeling accomplished at this small task. I still have some sewing things to go through, which I know won’t be as rewarding… but once it is done, I will feel better about having a more organized stash!
I have had a slow reading week as well. I have been carefully listening to a most fascinating story, The Fox Wife by Yangtze Choo. It is part mystery, part folktale, and entirely engaging! But it is a slow listen for me, as I try to take in all that is happening! (This book will be published February 13th) At night, I am reading another ARC, Family Family by Laurie Frankl. It took me a bit to settle in with it, but once I did… the story takes off running! My only finish this week is barely worthy of recognition…. Cacophony of Bone. (Pro tip… the title is the best part of the book.)
That is my nearing the end of January update… what about you? What do you want to finish this month?
As always, if you wrote a post to share please leave your link below and thank you!
by Kat | Jan 22, 2024 | General, In This Moment
Is so random!
Here in the ‘Burgh we have had winter for a hot minute but all that changes this week as we are looking at temps soaring into the 50’s… sigh. That means all the snow we got will melt… we had some melting yesterday which turned the steps to get outside an icy danger zone… that was so delightful for my jaunts outside with Sherman… NOT! More ice chipping will be happening shortly to hack back last nights re-icing.
I have baked two higher hydration (85% hydration) sourdough loaves and the results have been delightful. Yes, higher hydration dough is stickier… but it is not unmanageable… especially when you dip your hand in water! Yes… dough won’t stick to a wet hand. It’s an ingenious trick for baking! The crust is thin and so crisp and the interior dough is soft! I think 85% is the “winter sweet spot” for baking… so I’d like it to remain winter for just a bit longer! LOL
Yum!! I wish you could hear it singing!
The other great thing about sourdough is having an ever-replenishing supply of sourdough discard… and last week I stumbled upon the PERFECT discard recipe. (Thank you, King Arthur Bakers!) I made Sourdough Crumpets twice last week and oh my gosh! So so so good! Added bonus… so so so so easy! You do need Crumpet Rings… or something similar. But really… all you sourdough bakers out there… you must try these!
I also want to share some incredible wisdom from a post that Ailbíona McLochlainn shared in her newsletter last week. I wish this was advice I had heard decades ago (long before I stopped worrying about “being in fashion” and just began dressing how I wanted… what I liked… how it made me feel…) but her words are so spot on. And… I think that adorable vest might be my next project once I have the Great Cabled Sweater finished.
Finally… I have a new project that I started last week, one I am doing in connection with my word this year. It is a 100-day project… which intrigued me when I stumbled upon it last year in the midst of the hundred days. I began last Thursday and the idea is that I will spend no more than 15 minutes a day stitching on my pages. Day One I spent a bit longer than 15 minutes (20-ish) because that appliqué “pot” was a bit of a challenge to get stitched down. Rather than just “free stitch” along with Ann, I signed up for her Stitch Club, which just might be the best part of all! As you can imagine, it is an international community of very creative makers who share, encourage, and inspire. I am enjoying the 15 minutes of additional stitching each day… and I am really enjoying the community!
It’s is amazing what one can do in fifteen simple minutes a day…
And with that, I bid you a very good Monday! I have ice to chip and laundry to wash… see you all back here on Wednesday!
by Kat | Jan 18, 2024 | General, Poetry
One of the best things in my week are the moments that I allow a poem to set the tone for my day. This year, I am reading through Phyllis Cole-Dai and Ruby R. Wilson’s Poetry of Presence II as my morning devotion.
And last week, a poem really jumped out to me… bits of it have been percolating up in my thoughts so many times since I first read it. I hope that this poem will be one that moves you as well.
It Could Be
by Julia M. Fehrenbacher
a smile or a poem. Or new day light
that finds you through and open
window. Or, perhaps, remembering
that tomorrow was never promised.
It could be the scent
of baking bread, the first chill
of autumn that has you reaching
for your favorite wool sweater. Or maybe
it’s the noticing of how easily
red maple becomes and lets go.
It could be taking today off
to be still, to un-know,
to notice. To practice loosening
your troubled grip
because grace can never
be gripped or grabbed.
It could be choosing
softness in a world grown hard
because you’re tired of hurting
and being hurt and mercy
is the best kind of medicine.
It could be an invitation to gather
around the listening table
where every color is beautiful, where
there is no blame,
no shame, no them—no other.
It could be any of these things
or no thing at all, that remind
you that, really, only a few
things matter—
Food. Trees. Words. Love. Mostly love.
It Could Be by Julia Fehrenbacher from She Will Not Be Quiet © 2017
Be sure to check in with Bonny and read a bit more poetry!
See you all back here next week!
by Kat | Jan 17, 2024 | General, Unraveled Wednesday
Greetings gentle Unravelers!
When I look at a weather map, almost the entire US looks plunged in cold… and knitters everywhere knit on with a bit of delight! Right? I know I did… Sock One is DONE! and Sock Two is moving right along. I shall have pink socks soon! Really, I don’t know who I am knitting socks this quickly!! It is the perfect “sit and knit” project for night time television viewing!
I have YET to heed my spinning “reminder”… despite pushing it forward to the next day… I have been on a bit of a “deep clean” tear. Yesterday was the kitchen’s “turn” … and the stove and the refrigerator each got a deep clean, and I scrubbed the floors and the baseboards.
I have not knit much on the Great Cabled Sweater but I am hoping that once I have this cleaning jag out of my system, I will be back to my regularly scheduled knitting!
The reading continues to breeze along… I had three finishes this week! (Audiobooks are a great deep cleaning companion!!) I listened to Richard Russo’s Somebody’s Fool and Katherine May’s Enchantment. Both of which I enjoyed so much! I also finished reading The Caretake by Ron Rash… I loved it. It was so good, it had so much food for thought, the writing was so perfect!
This week’s reading with my eyes is not quite as stellar… sigh. I am trying to settle in with The Cacophony of Bone by Kerri ní Dochartaigh. I have heard such great things about this book… and I am wondering what I am missing. I am just over 40% though… and I am not sure I will finish it.
What about you? What are you doing to stay warm on these wintry days!
As always, if you wrote a post to share please leave your link below!
by Kat | Jan 15, 2024 | General, In This Moment
Brings answers!
Last week, a few of you asked me questions and I have answers!
Carolyn asked these burning questions:
“That photo, what a treat!!! With your phone? Or serious camera?”
I took that photo with my phone, which I think is a very serious camera! (Why? Because it is the camera I always have with me!!) I have the latest iPhone, which has a great camera. A “real” serious camera might have gotten a better image, but by the time I got it, the bird would have been gone. And I hope this provides encouragement to all of you who want to capture a photo of your backyard wildlife… your phone camera works!
Cathy had a stitching related question:
“I wondered what your back ground fabric was please?”
Though I did answer this in the comments from that post, I thought I could do a bit better. I use plain old linen from Joann’s Fabrics. I like how it holds stitches and you can find it (frequently) on sale. I do not pre-wash it, the bit of fabric sizing helps as you break the fabric down to the size you want to stitch on. And as you stitch it, it softens considerably. And for those of you wondering what I stitch with, I have an assortment of pearle cotton threads with the added bonus of an assortment of embroidery flosses from my temperature project!
Houston, we have a button band!
And finally… some thoughts on The Great Cabled Sweater! I *finally* finished the right front. Hindsight is never a friend… but I have some thoughts on how I could have done the fronts better. Knitting them both at the same time would have been ideal… sigh. I could have set them up on ONE needle and had less flipping of pages… and I would not have missed so many things. I discovered an error of my own making… from WAY back at the beginning of the fronts… the ribbing. I should have been slipping the selvedge stitch each right side row. I did not then… but I am now. I am absolutely NOT ripping back to “redo” the ribbing. I am calling it a design element. The knitted separately, but joined, button bands/collar is a curious… but I am going with it and I have completed a couple more button holes, which I thank my “before” self for making such good notes on how I did the first one (because my brain had NO memory of this! LOL)
That point where I realized what the edge was supposed to look like… sigh.
Happy MLK Jr Day to all in the US, and Happy Monday to the rest of you! See you back here on Wednesday!
