Early in 2021… when I really wanted to bail on release…I began to ponder a new word and have had a bit of a running list for most of 2021.
Despite adding words to my list, I persevered with release but once the 4th quarter arrived I began thinking in earnest about what my new word might be for this year and I spent lots of time thinking about all those words on my list.
Unbelievably, not one of them made the cut… I know, it even shocked me because they all have so much potential!
In late November a couple of things happened in my life…my sister’s ongoing issues and the anniversary of my mom’s death – one thing I’d like to solve, the other I’d like to forget – but those are a story for another day. Anyways, those things kept me focused on release for the remainder of the year.
December was so heavy and as a solace I spent lots of time reading poetry and listening others read poetry and the things I discovered were amazing.
First, I stumbled across Mary Oliver’s The Summer Day and a phrase from the poem just jumped off the page and into my head. I had never heard those words before… even though I have read/heard the last sentence of the poem dozens of times… this bit was a revelation to me: Tell me, what else should I have done? Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?
Wow. Just wow.
Now my intention is not for this to be the most morbid “Hello, New Word” post in history, but true facts… I am 61 years old. If I am blessed to live as long as my nana… I just have 26 more years on this earth. And if I am not that blessed… well, you see the dilemma. So this year I want to begin to really use the things I learned in my Year of Focus and my Year of Intentional Living (and yes, in my Year of Release) and begin to fill my life with the things that matter and stop with the things that don’t matter all.
But what are those things? I think have some ideas, but this year I am going to really try and not waste any time on things that don’t matter. I want to be able to look back and see there was nothing else I should have done because I lived a FULL life to the last moments. I think I am so blessed to have spent such a hard year with release… because release led me to this path.
It is almost as if release said to me… now you are ready… fill yourself up!
(And in case you think my word should have been fill… I wanted to focus more on the result of being full which I hope will help me make my choices of what I “fill” wiser.)
Because being full does not mean just doing all.the.things.
Just before the year ended I listened to an episode of The Slow Down and Ada Limón shared these words of wisdom:
One question that I often get asked is how to overcome writer’s block. And the funny thing is, I overcome it, by not overcoming it. I think it’s OK to not write. I think it’s OK not to talk, not to make, not to create, not to produce, produce, produce. How can we listen to the world if we are always talking to the world?
Wait, what? It’s okay not to talk, not to make, not to create, not to produce, produce, produce?
These words were a bit of a balm for my spirit, let me tell you and coupled with Krista Tippet’s conversation about listening to the silence with Gordon Hempton, I knew I was on the right path. (sometimes I need to have the message hit me in the face multiple times before I get it… thank you, universe for making that happen so brilliantly!)
So I invite you to come along on this journey to see what I will fill myself up with this year and, hopefully, as I am ending 2022 and on the cusp of 2023, I will be on my way to being full of lots of wonderful things!
P.S. If you would like to hear Mary Oliver read her poem, you will find it here!
First… my final finish for 2021… Leave Gnome Stone Unturned… aka Gnombleberry and baby Gnewt!
Baby Gnewt is to die for!
That pocket tho’ and even though my duplicate stitched tree does not look like a tree far away… it sorta does close up!
Now onto my Year in Review Post! Ha!
It has been a much calmer year for making. I did not feel any compelling urge to knit.all.the.things. And although I do still have some UFO’s that I had hoped to complete… I didn’t. More on those UFO’s shortly but what I did finish does make quite a nice list:
I knit 3 pairs of socks, 2 hats, 2 and a half gnomes (the latest of which are Gnombleberry and baby Gnewt – who counts for the half a gnome), 7 sweaters (of which 2 were test knits), 3 shawls (1 of which was a mystery shawl!), and 1 cowl.
I did some sewing in 2021 as well. I sewed 2 pairs of pants, 1 Esme Tunic, 1 set of coasters, and I did some repair work on existing things in my wardrobe. I also made 7 hats for Winston. AND!! There was One Awesome Advent Calendar for Vivi and Winston!
2021 found me to be a sporadic spinner but!! Some of the things I knit this year were made with yarn I spun during the year… which was a first for me. I have quite a stash of handspun but I rarely knit with it. I would like to increase this sort of making in 2022… and I am looking forward to a January Base12 spin (yes it is a month late, but my finger is almost healed and I am planning some spinning time each week in 2022 and that “Advent spin” will be the perfect thing to kickstart a new habit!)
So The Grand Totals: 18 knit items, 13 sewn things, some sewing repairs, and a handful of spinning.
Now for the important bit… what did I learn?
I learned that if I do not have a “need” for an item… it loses its shine. Next year I am committed to not doing any “Ooo, its shiny and everyone is doing it” making. (These account for each and every one of the UFO’s that I have hanging around… I will finish them…hopefully!) The “Ooo, its shiny and everyone is doing making does not fit well with where I want to go next year. I have a closet full of sweaters that I don’t wear. I have more shawls than I can ever wear… even if I wore a different one every day for the remainder of the winter season I don’t think I would exhaust my stash of shawls. I have written a reminder quarterly on my calendar… no new sweaters or shawls…PERIOD!
Socks, though, are a different story… hopefully 2022 is going to find me upping my mending game. I have several pairs that have worn-out heels and I really like the socks so I’d like to find a way to repair them that keeps them wearable (not with a weird looking and highly uncomfortable mended patch.) But if that does not work, then I am not going to feel guilty about tossing them… it will make room for me to make another pair.
The big take away from 2021 is that it is challenging to be a maker with a full closet… so my goal for next year is to expand on my making. Some months ago, I signed up for a series of composition art classes (thanks, Kym!) but to date, I have not done one single thing in any class in the series. However, I have been working on preparing a place to do those classes as well as gathering supplies and I am eager to get started…so you will absolutely see a change in in what is made here at AsKatKnits in 2022.
I hope that whatever you are making in 2022, you will continue to share here with us all… because I think that no matter what you are making sometimes you just need to unravel it a bit… and this is the space for that!
My reading update is a bit more of a challenge, but I think I have figured out the best way to share it all with you.
I set a reading goal at 125 books and I did not make that goal (and I am unlikely to make the goal in the time I have left in 2021) But… I am not upset in the least at only reading 119 books this year because I set the goal to challenge myself… and it was a challenge! However, I think I read better books this year… I gave myself permission to “quit” a book that was just not working for me. This year I added 5 books to the “not for me” category on Goodreads and I experienced not one moment of guilt over any of them.
This year I found 45 books to be worthy of a 5-star rating… so almost 38% of the books I did read this year were very worth reading. And of those 45… here are my favorites:
Most Memorable: A Swim in the Pond in the Rain, Braiding Sweetgrass, and Finding the Mother Tree
Life Changing/Mind Opening: Wintering, Four Hundred Souls, The Sum of Us, Good Talk, and What Strange Paradise
Incredibly Beautiful Writing: Almost anything by Niall Williams, almost anything by Elizabeth Strout, almost anything by Isabel Allende, and everything by Louise Erdrich.
A Discovery of Poets: Margaret Noodin, Sharon Olds, Elizabeth Alexander, Pádraig Ó Tuama, and Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Calgon Take Me Away Books: The Gabriel Allon Series
Read With Us because without them I’d never have read: Shuggie Bain, Unsettled Ground, or Matrix. (and for me, 2021 was the year of discovering how much better a book can be when discussed with friends!)
You can see all my 2021 books here. Aside from the Read With Us category, I limited my highlighting books that got a 5-star rating but as you can see there were a good number (49) of 4-star books as well!
The good thing about so many of these books was that they were suggestions that I got from all of you! And I really hope that we continue to inspire each other with good books to read in 2022.
As always, if you wrote a post to share please leave your link below and thank you!
I will be back with you all next year! I wish you all a very safe and Happy New Year!
I spent December as I began the year…in a struggle with this word.
But rather than the struggle of unpacking what needed to be released, the struggle this month is in the packing away of release.
Because I think release is not a word I can just pack away and move on from… instead (and despite how much it pains me to say this) release is a word I will carry with me as I go forward into 2022 because I don’t think my work with it is quite finished yet.
However, I am not the same woman who unpacked all the things that needed released, sorted, and tucked safely away. Thanks to this very hard year of work… I stand on the cusp of a New Year stronger and more resilient than I ever imagined myself to be.
Despite my struggle against it… release has helped me move onto a new path and led me to the word I will carry in 2022. I am not sharing that word quite yet… I still have a few days to spend tidying up release.
I really want to thank Carolyn for hosting us this year… and more importantly, for sharing monthly worksheets that truly aided me in my journey. Sometimes, all I could do was sit with those worksheets… and in those moments I was so grateful for her insight as to what we (I) might need.
Thanks to you, Gentle Readers, for coming along on this journey with me this year. Your kind comments of encouragement have helped me along the way… I am profoundly grateful for each of you as well!
Happy Birthday to me! Today begins my 61st year! 61 years brings lots of retrospection and thinking about birthdays of long ago. When I was a child, it almost always seemed to snow on my birthday and I loved it so much! I have also been thinking about Christmas Vacation birthdays. That’s right…one of the benefits of having your birthday 2 days after Christmas is that you never have school… but that is one of the detriments as well. Sometimes it would have been nice to be in school on my birthday… and even better, it would have been so fun having a snow day!
I won’t see any snow today (it’s pouring down rain…sigh) but thankfully Billy Collins can conjure up a Snow Day for me!
I hope you all enjoy a bit of a Snow Day today (even if there is no physical snow!) I will see you back here tomorrow with an update on my word!
Today we woke up to a revolution of snow,
its white flag waving over everything,
the landscape vanished,
not a single mouse to punctuate the blankness,
and beyond these windows
the government buildings smothered,
schools and libraries buried, the post office lost
under the noiseless drift,
the paths of trains softly blocked,
the world fallen under this falling.
In a while, I will put on some boots
and step out like someone walking in water,
and the dog will porpoise through the drifts,
and I will shake a laden branch
sending a cold shower down on us both.
But for now I am a willing prisoner in this house,
a sympathizer with the anarchic cause of snow.
I will make a pot of tea
and listen to the plastic radio on the counter,
as glad as anyone to hear the news
that the Kiddie Corner School is closed,
the Ding-Dong School, closed.
the All Aboard Children’s School, closed,
the Hi-Ho Nursery School, closed,
along with—some will be delighted to hear—
the Toadstool School, the Little School,
Little Sparrows Nursery School,
Little Stars Pre-School, Peas-and-Carrots Day School
the Tom Thumb Child Center, all closed,
and—clap your hands—the Peanuts Play School.
So this is where the children hide all day,
These are the nests where they letter and draw,
where they put on their bright miniature jackets,
all darting and climbing and sliding,
all but the few girls whispering by the fence.
And now I am listening hard
in the grandiose silence of the snow,
trying to hear what those three girls are plotting,
what riot is afoot,
which small queen is about to be brought down.
(Sorry this post is so late but I entirely forgot to get a photo yesterday while it was light out!)
I have a finished hat and am working towards a finished second sock!
However, this week I thought I’d answer the question that Jane had about knitting with a strand of mohair… and does the choice of mohair matter! (Hint… the mohair of today is not your grandmother’s mohair!)
I have knit lots with mohair… from an entire shawl with just mohair – which I will never do again – to many things with a strand of yarn held together with a strand of mohair. It is the loveliest addition you can give to your knitting!
But!!! Not all mohair has been created equally. And the choice you make can either make your project sing or not. I hope to share my thoughts on some of the mohairs out there.
I think the first mohair I ever saw (and bought like it was candy!) was Rowan Kidsilk Haze. Yes, the colors are incredible and it feels wonderful when you hold the skein. But… in a knitting application by itself it is scratchy and really not fabulous to knit with (those mohair horror stories you have heard about… I am pretty sure the culprit was Kidsilk Haze.) Add to that… I don’t think it is worth the price for the yardage you don’t get.
I have tried several “indie” dyer’s mohairs and, like Kidsilk Haze, looks and feel can be deceiving. For example, recently, I knit a hat with some mohair (Wobble Gobble Kidmo) that I got from Wool & Honey in Michigan. Yes the color and hand were great but the finished product has almost no halo (which if you are going to strand mohair along with yarn you want the halo to be noticeable!) But the yardage is excellent and I have more than half the skein of the Wobble Gobble left so I am going to try it with some handspun to see if that makes any difference at all (so stay tuned!!)
I have been recently seeing quite a few brushed alpaca yarns and I picked up a skein of Little Fox Nuages and it is a lovely “strand along” yarn. It is a little bit thicker than mohair and has some intense halo! Perfect for the hat I finished this week!
But… my hands down favorite is Floof from Fibernymph Dyeworks. It is excellent yardage and it is silky soft in the skein *and* in the knitted garment. I carried this along in a sweater that I wear all.the.time. Seriously. Most mornings I get up and pull it on over my jammies. It is next to skin soft and so warm and cozy. And the halo. Well… it is just so great! Yes, there has been a minute amount of pilling but I am not sure if this is because of the mohair or the merino lace yarn I carried it along with it. However, Floof is absolutely a yarn I would buy again! Especially if I was going to knit something where I wanted the halo to be noticeable. And yes… I would absolutely use this to knit another sweater!
And there you have my mohair advice FWIW! As always, I welcome your questions and will happily share my very opinionated thoughts!
The reading this week was so so good! (So good it caused a bit of reading induced insomnia!) Just two finishes but they were so good!
A book about a journey, but not where you think it is going to go. I listened to it and I loved the narration… hearing each character share their thoughts was wonderful.
Towles has crafted some incredibly interesting characters and then weaves them into such an intriguing story. I was drawn along to see if wrongs could be righted and if wounds could be healed. I loved the twists and turns and I was surprised more than once! (But really, I just plain loved Billy!)
The ending though… I am still asking myself what??? Which I think is a good thing for a book to have… an ending that leaves you wondering! If you deeply loved A Gentleman in Moscow, you might not love this book as much… but it is still very good!
Will these things happen? (especially the new chief part… right?)
Each Allon book shows more character development and in this book it was Gabriel’s turn to shine… and shine he did! I find it so hard to put these books down once I start… and I have many a night that I went to bed way to late because I could not stop reading!
I highly recommend this very smart series. Yes, they are character heavy… but they are such incredible characters! I love this series… so much!
Steve has the remainder of the week off… so I will be back on Monday with some poetry! Tuesday I will have my final word update for 2021 AND next Wednesday I will have a bit of a year end knitting/reading recap. The best of the knits and the reads!
Merry Christmas!
As always, if you wrote a post to share please leave your link below!
There are times when hindsight gives a clarity that is astounding… I should have voted with the doctor for stitches rather than voting for no stitches. Her wisdom has been so correct…she gave me two scenarios: One: get stitches, likely lose my nail, but my finger would heal faster…but likely probably with more pain. Two: no stitches, perhaps keep my nail, heal slower, but with less pain… and here I am more than a week in and my finger is still not healed and still not fully functional. My frustration level is moving towards the “off the charts” realm and I am sick of the entire process of healing/cleaning/bandaging/etc. (And while I can sort of type… mainly it is an activity that increases my frustration level!)
If ever there was a need in my life for poetry, it is this morning. And today… I am sharing two poems that I truly love. The first, In the Bleak Midwinter by Christina Rossetti. This poem has always been one of my favorite hymns, but I did not know about Christina or her poetry until I did some research on the poem. Below is a very unique version of the hymn… which is usually sung by a boys choir (and quite beautifully, I might add) but there was something just stunning about this rendition.
And how can one ease into winter without a bit of Robert Frost? This poem sort of sums up my week ahead… I have miles to go before I can be ready for Christmas! lol
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
by ROBERT FROST
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
