by Kat | Apr 27, 2023 | General, Poetry
It is my favorite day… in my favorite month. The idea that you can carry poems with you… what a delightful thing! Today we are all sharing some poems for your pockets…
Today, I am sharing one for all of us for whom sleep is, at times, elusive. Apparently, dear Billy Collins is also similarly afflicted and he has some wisdom wit for us. I have memorized this bit of wit and contemplate it all too frequently… but at least I know I am in good company!
3:00 AM
by Billy Collins
Only my hand
is asleep,
but it’s a start.
3:00 AM from Musical Tables © Billy Collins, Random House New York, 2022.
If you want to know more about the delightful Billy Collins, you will find find information here, and here at his website.
Please make sure you stop and see what Kym, Bonny, and Sarah have for your pockets today!
Thank you so much for reading along with us this month!
by Kat | Apr 26, 2023 | General, Unraveled Wednesday
Greetings Unravelers!
Is it just me, or did April just bolt past at record speed? Anyways, we find ourselves at our last Wednesday in April… boo! But, it has been a good month!
Recently, I have had some great questions and some even better discussions that all were not privy to all… so I thought since they are knitting related, I’d talk about my responses here!
First, the questions:
First, José asked some very good questions regarding last Friday’s post…
I thought I’d break down her questions individually:
She worries that a skirt will wear more on the bottom (no, not that bottom, the sitting bottom…i.e. your butt…) and that is a great concern. Having knit a skirt that I wore the heck out of… I can happily say that that yarn (Elsbeth Lavold’s Silky Wool) wore extremely well! No sitting sags, ever. No wear on the backside… ever. Silk and wool… excellent choice. Next she asks would a merino/cotton blend hold… I think there would be more bagging on the backside with cotton/wool. I have knit 3 sweaters with Holst Garn Coast… all with the yarn held double… and eventually I get “elbow bags” in the sleeves. So, yes – I think it will eventually get a “saggy bottom” perhaps quicker than the sleeves get elbow bags. However, the plus for Coast is that with a wash, it is like a “just knit” garment! Sans bags and sags! And it wears well… Coast is a yarn that resists pilling but when it does, they are few and easy to remove!
Then Vera and I got to talking about yarns and the knitting of that skirt and the conversation went in a bit of a different direction… I began to think more about the “no saggy bottom” of the Silky Wool and started to think about Holst Garn’s Tides… their silk/wool blend. I have knit a sweater with this and I love it. (Granted, it has no sleeves so I am guessing at the sag factor) but I think it would work beautifully for a skirt! I would knit a denser fabric than I did on that first skirt eons ago (I had to be careful what color underwear I wore…just sayin’.) But I think Nell has knit her skirt at a denser gauge as well (worsted yarn knit on a US5, I believe)… I’d also recommend knitting a large swatch….like 40 or 50 stitches across large! I was recently reminded by the brilliant Julia Farwell-Clay here… Sometimes you need a BIG swatch so that you can really see and feel the fabric! (It makes a huge difference!)
After all that thought… I will be ordering some Tides to knit mine! (And yes, Vera… held double!) Who’s up for a bit of a KAL on this skirt? Anyone in?
Now about about a brief knitting update:
I completed another pair of socks! What? I know… it is a record for me! I have another pair of socks that I started eons ago but never finished (Hermoine’s Socks) and they are coming with me on vacation…starting May with a new pair of socks to tuck away for a chilly November seems like a delightful thing to do for future me!
I also have been fastidiously knitting away on a Gnome House! Theoretically, I’d like to have it done before we leave on Thursday afternoon… and then I can do some stitching on it! But, that is not likely… and that’s okay. But really, those socks will be more than enough! (I don’t knit much on vacation!)
It has been a (very) slow reading week for me. I am more than halfway through Babel and so far, so good! I know some of you thought the start was better than the middle, but I am staying engaged… it has an excellent narrator and I am enjoying it.
I have also circled back to thinking about Dani Shapiro’s Signal Fires when I got a copy of Edward Hirsch’s The Night Parade. I have been reading it… oh gosh. I am feeling all the “Ben Vibes” … and it is such a perfect place to be! (be thankful the poems in it are all too long for Poem in Your Pocket Day! LOL)
At night, I am still reading The Covenant of Water… yes, still. I am so close the the end that I just need to sit down and finish it (not at night when I instantly fall asleep!) I have some incentive to finish, I just got Sarah Winman’s Tin Man from the library and I want to read it… now! (and I just got approved for another Netgalley book… so I have my vacation reading plan!)
And I think that is enough for this final Wednesday in April! What about you? How did April feel for you all?
As always, if you wrote a post to share, please leave your link below and thank you!
by Kat | Apr 24, 2023 | General, Words
It’s been a very quiet month in the OLW department. Ali Edward’s prompt for the month was to look for our word to show up in our days… and so I practiced patience and tried to pay attention…. sigh. At times the silence was jarring and after a week of waiting with no Word Sightings, I decided I needed a new tactic for the month. I decided I would look at the impediment for my word… i.e. what prevents me from being authentic. Enter Brené Brown… at the end of last month I listened to her lecture/workshop: The Power of Vulnerability: Teachings of Authenticity, Connections, and Courage…twice. It was the best 10 hours I spent last month and I wrote down lots of notes of encouragement for myself and this one I wrote in big, bold letters:
How much we know ourselves is extremely important…
Know myself… okay! I know myself very well so making the “Let Go” list was easy:
- Let go of my inner critic… who is often the loudest voice in my head (this inner critic jumps in often about all.the.things!)
- Let go of expectations that I cannot control… i.e. expectations in others
Sadly, the “Let Go” list does not contain any “new things” … sigh. Thankfully, William Shatner provided me some insight to this problem:
Most people, including myself, keep repeating the same mistakes.
Ouch… right?
Rather than allowing my inner critic to begin the Chorus of Defeat at my inevitability of repeating mistakes, I considered a different path…
Identify, acknowledge, and diminish….
with a big focus on diminish because I don’t think I am every going to completely “Let Go” of that damned inner critic, or expectations that I cannot control… but perhaps I can make them less…a lot less!
I don’t think that will be easy… but I am going to work on it with these words printed out boldly as a daily reminder..
How much we know ourselves is extremely important but how we treat ourselves is the most important. — Brené Brown
As always, I’d like to thank Carolyn for keeping me faithful in sharing my word, I might have taken a hard pass on this month, if not for her! Please make sure you go see how everyone else did with their word this month!
See you all back here on Wednesday!
by Kat | Apr 21, 2023 | General, In This Moment
Whew! It’s been a week… and I have arrived on Friday with a completed list! Yes, yes! All the sewing is done! I am closing in the the toe of the second red sock! And I have started on the Vacation List!
And I managed to stumble across a few things this week that are share worthy! So lets get started!
One —
As you all know, I love a good cocktail. I especially love the complex layers of flavor that an aperitif provides. (Think Aperol, Campari, Fernet Branca, Amaro, etc.) This week, I discovered Cynar (pronounced Chee-nahr) and I have a new love! It is made from artichokes(!!) along with some other ingredients and I think the flavor is not as bitter as Campari and Aperol… but it makes a delightfully complex cocktail. This week I made a Cynar Negroni (equal parts dry gin, sweet vermouth, and cynar) I liked it better than a “regular” Negroni, as did Steve. But my favorite of the week’s “Taste Testing” was the new to me Bensonhurst. (if you scroll down you will find the recipe here) We tried a number of different rye’s and our favorite was the smokier flavored Double Barrel Old George Rye from Grand Traverse Distillery. If you are looking for a new addition to your drink repertoire, I highly recommend Cynar!
Two —
A knitted skirt crossed my path this week and it has been rattling around my brain ever since. (Apparently others have been struck by this same phenomena!) Some years ago I knit a skirt (Ravelry Link) and I wore the absolute hell out of it and it was one of my most comfortable knits! I am contemplating… but I am not loving a skirt of a linen/cotton blend knitted fabric. I have had poor results with linen/linen blend knitted fabrics… they grow. So I am thinking that a wool/cotton blend might be smarter. (Hello, Coast… yes, I am thinking about you!) No swatching will happen before May… but I might be looking at colors!
Three —
I have prepared myself for a nationwide ban on Mifepristone… I mean really, does anyone think that a ruling delay to Friday at midnight could mean anything positive? My rage has reached the Off the Charts level. Some years ago I read The Power and recently I discovered that Amazon has made a series based on the book. I have watched a couple of episodes and admit to recently fantasizing about obtaining the power… I mean, a good jolt is what some of these people need, imo.
And that is all I have for this week! I will be back on Monday with my word update!
by Kat | Apr 20, 2023 | General, Poetry
This week is all about love… a difficult subject for me. I am not a flowery, all sorts of love words kind of person.
But I began the great Love Poem search both online and scouring my poetry books for something… loving.
And after all that searching I still came back to two love poems that have a bit of a different focus. The first, Love After Love by Derek Walcott (a poem that Kym shared years ago) and a new-ish poem by Maggie Smith that I discovered after I purchased her book of poems, Goldenrod. It is this poem that I am sharing today… I have printed this poem out and it has joined Love After Love on board by my desk… daily reminders for me. I hope that Maggie’s poem speaks to you as well…
Bride
by Maggie Smith
How long have I been wed
to myself? Calling myself
darling, dressing for my own
pleasure, each morning
choosing perfume to turn
me on. How long have I been
alone in this house but not
alone? Married less
to the man that to the woman
silvering with the mirror.
I know the kind of wife
I need and I become her:
the one who will leave
this earth at the same instant
I do. I am my own bride,
lifting the veil to see
my face. Darling, I say,
I have waited for you all my life.
Bride from Goldenrod: Poems © Maggie Smith, 2021. One Signal Publishers / Atria Books, Simon and Schuster, Inc.
You can hear Maggie read the poem here and you can learn more about Maggie here.
Make sure you check out what Kym, Bonny, and Sarah have shared today!
by Kat | Apr 19, 2023 | General, Unraveled Wednesday
Greetings Unravelers!
On Sunday, I had 3 sweatshirts and a skirt that were all ready for the sewing… and this morning, I just have one last sweatshirt to go!
I have sewed both versions of Sew House Seven’s Toaster Sweater and I love both of them! The directions are clear, concise, and with their usual tips for a more professional finished product! I really love their patterns!
Version One is the more sweatshirt-ish of the two and the fit is fabulous. There is a collar, but it is not tight or restricting… and it has super generous cuffs! I got a couple of traditional sweatshirt fabrics that have a nice weight but are not stiff feeling at all.
Version Two is the dressier version, which I made with French Terry. I was not sure about the neckline, but it works! It is relaxed but not sloppy looking at all. The only thing I will change on the next one I sew is to make the sleeve a tiny bit wider at the cuff.
I also sewed Sew House Seven’s free Cosmo Skirt and I tried it with a somewhat sturdy rib knit. I was worried about the fit on a slim, straight skirt, so I took *many* different measurements and graded the pattern accordingly. I was skeptical about this fitting well… it is a super simple construction – two side seams and a waistband. It worked better than I expected, but I don’t think it would have with a lighter weight fabric (or at least not on my body!)
I have one final sweatshirt to sew and I will finish it up this morning! I have barely knit a stitch, but I did manage a few rounds on the second Red Sock (and since I took the picture, I managed a few more rounds and am about to begin the heel flap!)
On the reading front, I bailed on Tomorrow X3… I know many of you loved this book, but it was not for me… which is fine, there is not a shortage of books for me to read, so I moved on to a book that President Obama loved, After Lives by Abdulrazak Gurnah and it was the perfect book for me right now! I have about an hour to go (I am listening to it) and both the story and the narration are very good!
At night, I am still (yes, still!) working my way through The Covenant of Water, but I am close to completion… and it is getting better (although it is still LONG! IMO, it could use a good bit of editing) but the story has picked up, and I am again eager to see where this all ends up!
That is all for me today… back to the sewing machine for me! What about you? What is commanding your attention this week?
As always, if you wrote a post to share please leave your link below and thank you!
