Unraveled Wednesday | 12.21.22

Unraveled Wednesday | 12.21.22

After the longest night, tomorrow we sing up the dawn. There is a rejoicing that, even in the darkest time, the sun is not vanquished. As of tomorrow, the days begin to get longer as the light of day grows. While the gentle winter sun slowly opens its eyes, let us all bring more light and compassion into the world.  ― Dacha Avelin

Greetings, Gentle Unravelers! Happy Winter Solstice! Welcome to the return of the light!

My plan with this post is to do a bit of a Making Review for 2022. I am likely to finish just one more project this year… Gnoelle is inching ever closer to finish and by the time Saturday arrives, I think she  will be close to completion! (I think the last clue will arrive that day!) Let’s begin my Twelve Months of Making shall we?

  • In the first month of ’22 I knit a cowl for me and a Gnome who is named Nutmeg.
  • The second month of ’22 was lacking any finishes but, yes there was a Gnome! Whoa Gnellie!
  • In the third month of ’22 I knit a pair of socks, a test knit for the awesome Ms. Mucklestone, a Handspun Hitchhiker, and Gneville the Gnome! I also turned a set of sheets into some very retro pjs for me!
  • In the fourth month of ’22 my Gnome Family grew to FOUR with the addition of sweet Gnocchi!
  • In the fifth month of ’22 I knit a slightly too large Tegna for me and wee Gnorwen for my mantle!
  • In the sixth month of ’22 I knit some Socks for Sam… and Gnombleberry and his wee brother, Gnewt, joined the Gnome Gang!
  • The seventh month of ’22 I knit another Gnome… dear Gnigel who has knitted carrots!
  • In the eighth month of ’22 I reached Knitting Knirvana with my Calamus Pullover. The.Best.Sweater.Ever!! And Gnarly Marly rounded out the making month!
  • In the ninth month of ’22 I dusted my sewing machine off and cranked out two sweatshirts and a pair of denim pants. And Gnorton Smokes a Pipe joined the Gnome Gang!
  • The tenth month of ’22 saw the completion of an eons old project… Ye Olde Pheasant Pullover. (The Pheasant Sweater reminds me that I really want to make this lovely sweater so perhaps I need to add it to my 2023 knitting plans!) And the most adorable Gnutkin came to be! AND… one too big, but wearable muslin jumper/tunic.
  • The eleventh month of ’22 and the making is slowing down, but Gnaomi joined the Gnome Gang!
  • The twelfth month of ’22 still has some days to go, but I have two knitted trees, one stack of packages, and a soon-to-be-finished Gnoelle!

Whew! That’s how you make not a lot of making look like way more than it is! Hahaha!

I also perfected my bread baking skills… I baked lots of bread in ’22. I also perfected poofy pitas!

My most inspiring making is all the watercolor painting I have done this year. I started in earnest in July with a beginning watercolor class and I have not looked back. I took 3 classes this year and have no plans to stop… my next class begins in January and it has rapidly moved into the favored making category.

Rocks and “moving water” was a true challenge and the perfect way to end this class on making the ordinary extraordinary!

Although Gnome Knitting will forever hold a special place in my making… I do so love those little Gnomes! My Year of Gnomes was simply.the.best! Steve thinks I need to make all the gnomes for his mom in ’23.

Maybe.

But I also think my Gnome Gang needs some more trees and a house or two. However, I am certain that I will continue to knit Gnomes as new patterns are released. There is Gno Making Like Gnome Making! Haha!

Next week I will Unravel my reading for you all and share my Most Loved Books of the Year!

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


Sometimes Monday | 12.19.22

Sometimes Monday | 12.19.22

Usher’s in crunch time…

I don’t know about any of you, but the Holiday Blues are definitely a thing… at least for me they are. My expectations have often been the trigger for those blues… as in my expectations are HIGH and reality never quite hits that level.

Today, I am giving myself permission to be imperfect.

Today, I am reminding myself that “not enough” might actually be “more than enough.”

Today, I am reminding myself that pausing for some impromptu deep breathing helps diffuse the feelings, the thoughts, the frustrations.

Today, I am simply going to love my perfectly imperfect self and I am going to say it out loud so I can hear it… inside and out!

Be gentle with yourselves… yes to that extra cup of coffee or tea! And a double yes to just one more row!

This week is for all those extras… and more! See you all back here on Wednesday!

A Gathering of Poetry | December 2022

A Gathering of Poetry | December 2022

It’s the third Thursday of December and that can mean just one thing…it’s the day to share a poem!

December is a month that overflows with poetry for me. Maybe it is the darker mornings, maybe it is the twinkle lights, maybe it is the season… but December finds me steeped in poetry.

I treated myself to two new poetry books this month. I picked up Billy Collins Musical Tables and I had pre-ordered Pádraig Ó Tuama’s Poetry Unbound: 50 Poems to Open Your World, which was released on December 6th.

I am saving the Poetry Unbound volume to read next year… I will read one poem and essay for 50 weeks and I am very much looking forward to this addition to my poetry reading!

However, I have been unable to put down Billy Collins new book of poems! I have read it through  twice and I am on my third time through currently. It is so, so good. If you think that poetry is not for you, try Billy Collins… he makes poetry fun, easy to read, but with just enough for you to think about after you have read one of his poems! And if you want to listen to a delightful interview where NPR’s Scott Simon talks with Collins about his new book of poems, you will find it here (it starts at 7:58).

Today, my selection is from Musical Tables with a very appropriate for the season poem.

Crèche

by Billy Collins

For a moment,
the ox and a sheep
looked over at each other,

then they turned away
and went back
to adoring the Child.

Billy Collins: Musical Tables © 2022. Published by Random House, Penguin Random House LLC

A huge thanks to Bonny for hosting us all today, please stop by and see what poems have been shared! And I would like to encourage you all to pick up a poetry book and read a poem or two… you might even find one that you’d like to share one with us because we’d love to have you join us!

Happy Thursday everyone!

Unraveled Wednesday | 12.14.22

Unraveled Wednesday | 12.14.22

Greetings Unravelers!

This week, I might have entirely jumped the Knitting Shark… I am knitting the actual packages not just the gifts! LOL Yes, our “surprise” this week was a Stack of Presents to knit and stitch! And what do presents need?

A tree of course. So I have one completed and have cast on another – which is likely all I will get done for this year! Haha!

The Gnome Knitting is progressing…with lots of pieces. And I still have no idea how this will all come together!

Lots of bits, no big ‘parts’ yet…

Speaking of Gnomes, you all have asked for a group shot…which is a bit challenging given they are all on my mantel. But I am sharing some photos of them as they sit on the mantle, thanks to a. beautifully sunny day yesterday! And my fun addition to my Gnome Village? I picked up a strand of felted woolen balls garland from Trader Joe’s… it is so colorful and fun!

Left to right: Gnocchi (Mr. April), Gnellie (Miss February), and Gnutmeg (Mr. January)

Gnewt and Gnobleberry, the Gnome Poem writer (June)

Gnaomi, the spinning gnome (Miss November) and Gnorton Smokes a Pipe (September) and Tree #1 tucked in between them!

Gnutkin, the acorn keeper (October) and Gnigel the Gardening Gnome (July)

Gnarly Marly (Mr. August), Gneville (Mr. March), and Gnorwen (Miss May)

The other making that has been occupying my time is painting… So.much.fun! Last week’s lesson was perhaps not the most aesthetically pleasing, but it was chocked full of interesting techniques and I learned lots… and am making friends with my “fine line masking fluid bottle” lol.

An ordinary Tree Trunk as an extraordinary subject… maybe not, but still so fun to paint!

The final lesson of this session dropped yesterday but I am hardly “done” painting. I picked up a couple of single painting lessons and I will begin working on them as soon as I have turned in my final “homework!” And, I have another class starting in the New Year. Painting has become such an integral part of my week… I think about painting, I practice painting, I talk about painting, and I enjoy it all so very much! I am proof that you are never too old to learn something new… and in fact, you just might be better at learning later in life!

On the reading front, I finished (boo!) Winter Solstice… and I had one “gasp” moment when one of the character’s recites a line from my favorite winter poem/hymn: In the Bleak Midwinter. This was a book I did not want to end… I could happily stay tucked away in Scotland with Elfrida, Oscar, Sam, Carrie and Lucy. It was utterly delightful.

I have been trying to listening to Meacham’s His Truth Is Marching On, John Lewis and the Power of Hope. It is good, but I am having a hard time staying “tuned in” to listen to it. So I returned it to the library… I will request it again next year when I am not so scatterbrained! LOL

I tried French Braid, yet again… and bailed yet again. No third time for me on this one. It is not a book for me. Instead, I have been finding myself drawn to listen to John Banville’s Time Pieces. It is utterly delightful and exactly what I need (apparently) right now.

I also have The Burgess Boys waiting in the wings after I finish Time Pieces (which will likely happen today!)

What about you all, how’s your making and reading going this week? I will be back tomorrow for our Monthly Gathering of Poetry!

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


Sometimes Monday | 12.19.22

Sometimes Monday | 12.12.22

Is all about books!

Never trust anyone who has not brought a book with them.
Lemony Snicket, Horseradish

While we were very much a Harry Potter House… there was a good bit of Lemony Snicket to fill the ‘regularly scheduled reading time’… and I very much concur with the above quote! My only addition to the above quote would be knitting!

Anyways, I book marked this page from NPR a couple of weeks ago and have been spending bits of time adding things to my TBR List! The link also includes book lists going back to 2013! Why is that good thing? Well… things that were “hot reads” in 2013 are likely to be available at your local library… just in case you need a new read right this very minute! Ha!

Things that have popped out to me that I have not read from the couple of lists I have gone through:

  • The Burgess Boys by Elizabeth Stroud
  • This House is Haunted by John Boyne
  • When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

I finished a very good book over the weekend… Winter Solstice by Rosamund Pilcher. It is the perfect book to read as the days race on towards Christmas. It has the very best characters and the most delightful outcome. It will warm your heart! If you have not read it, perhaps you should (and if you have Hoopla available from your library, it is always available there!)

There you have my Sometimes Monday thoughts..and with a book in hand my ears, I am off to get those pesky chores started!

Happy Monday all!

Museum of Me | December 2022

Museum of Me | December 2022

The prompt this month is to talk about the best Christmas gift we ever got.

First, how about a bit of Christmas Gifting Music? And nobody recites a Christmas List better than Eartha Kitt!

Now, I could spend some time talking about the puppy my sister and I got one year. Mitzi, the Miniature Schnauzer. I remember getting up in the middle of the night and discovering her under the tree. I also remember her not going back to sleep and getting in loads of trouble for getting up in the middle of the night!

Miss Mitzi… The Christmas Pup all grown up! You’ll notice she is ever alert…listening… ready to let loose with all the barky-ness she could muster! And boy could she muster the barky-ness! 

Perhaps I could talk about the sledding saucer I got as a child… gosh, I loved it and it got lots of use, until I was ‘too old for saucer sledding.’ Although, after sitting lonely for years in the garage a desire to go saucer-ing returned in 1978 thanks to the blizzard of the century (or at least in my limited memory! lol) Anyway, while the saucer did not work well, it indeed did see some trips down the dune…more than enough for me to enjoy the volumes of snow we got that year!

Me, on my way to the ‘sledding dune’ through the deep, deep snow… happy that saucer was still around!

But instead I am going to fast forward a couple of decades to Christmas 1994. It has been a very rough autumn into winter…we had been having a Step-Throat-A-Rama in my house. As in, Rachel, Heidi, and Sam all had constant strep throat… or should I say Constant Stages of Strep… one getting better kid, one super sick kid, and one coming down with strep kid. It was riotous fun…not. And all this strep exposure made me super sick… multiple times super sick and by December that year I had pleurisy. (Which was not the best Christmas Gift ever!)

Now why would I remember all of this, you must be asking yourself. I mean weren’t a new puppy or a sledding saucer much better memories?

Not really, because you see that year…

Santa put a mixer under the tree… for me!!

Yes, it was the year that I got my KitchenAid mixer (this is the closest I could find to what mine looks like!) I remember being entirely awestruck at such a wondrous gift! (and if it had not been the greyest, rainiest, darkest week ever in Pittsburgh, I would have a photo to share of my Much Loved Mixer!)

That mixer has helped bake an endless number of cookies. It has mixed countless batches of bread dough. It has whipped egg whites, whipping cream, and even made more than her fair share of homemade marshmallows!

She is the mixer that keeps on mixing… yes, still going strong 28 years later! I have an inkling that she just might outlast me! And so, I look forward to continuing to use her for years to come! And that, gentle readers, makes that mixer one of the best gifts I have ever received!

A huge thanks to Kym for inspiring all our memories! But inquiring minds want to know… what was your best Christmas Gift?

 

 

 

 

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