First up, I really LOVED all your answers to Monday Questions! My mouth was absolutely watering… I had to look up Watergate Salad (which I had never, ever even heard of before – much less eat!) and I am now very eager for the EATING to begin! lol
I had hoped to share the finished Advent Calendar… but it has not arrived yet. I have my finger’s crossed for next week!
Instead, as you can see above, I have started a second sock! And I am really loving Former Me who made such wonderfully detailed notes! I don’t have to think at all while knitting… it is simply the best!
Also… someone asked what yarns I used for the hat in this post. Sorry about that, I should have told you… I followed this pattern and used one skein of Hudson+West Weld and one skein of Wobble Gobble KidMo held together. I have LOTS of the KidMo leftover and I am thinking it might find its way into a cowl in the coming days! Karen knit one earlier this month that I think would be a fun knit and I have some handspun Cormo that would be a lovely companion to that fuzzy yarn!
These days, a sock and a cowl are about the extent of my Knitting Brain Bandwidth.
Unrelated to my making this week… I stumbled across this darling little stop motion video recently! I love all the needle felting, the knitting (the sweaters on the bunnies are just adorable!), and the hand sewing (That skirt! The Apron! Those trousers! That winter coat!!!) What an incredibly creative way to use wool! I thought you might all enjoy seeing it too!
As for the reading this week. I have two finishes to share but I will do that next week. I am in the midst of reading Matrix though… and I am wondering where this story will go! It is a curious book!
However, no reading or knitting will be happening soon… I have a list of things to prep and bake today for Thanksgiving!
What about you? What is keeping you occupied today?
As always, if you wrote a post to share please leave your link below and thank you!
I wish you all the Happiest Thanksgiving and I will see you all back here on Monday… (with an update on my word, if you can believe it!)
It’s the Monday before Thanksgiving… do you have your lists ready? Or do you just have a singular list? Or do you have no list (and just a super brain) and have no issue remembering all the things to do this week!?
Yes, I noted that I asked three rapid fire questions… this week has a sense of urgency to it, doesn’t it? As I sit here and type this I can hear the washing machine diligently working away in the basement. It sounds like it is almost done and I will need to head down to move things along down there!
But… I have my lists… yes more than one. I have the Thanksgiving Feast List/Timeline and the Things That Need to be Mailed Before Month End List. One is looming larger than the other because of the general clusterfuck that is the Post Office these days. (16 days ago I mailed a birthday card to my son in law… which has yet to arrive and his birthday was the 18th… I truly hope it gets there before he arrives home to celebrate Thanksgiving with his family!) Anyways… the Post Office is adding unnecessary stress to my life!
But… now for the REAL questions! Ha!
Question One:
What is the one thing that must be on your Thanksgiving table to make it feel like Thanksgiving?
(My answer… my nana’s ewy-gewy-rich-and chewy Sweet Potato Casserole… this year I am trying a lighter version sans marshmallows.)
Question Two:
Is there something new that you are adding to your table this year?
(In my mind this is always a dicey idea… but, I could use some controlled risk in my life this week so I am adding Bonny’s Cranberry Pie to our table this year!)
I am eagerly awaiting your answers! See you all back here on Wednesday for some Unraveling!
A couple of weeks ago, Bonny wrote some letters… they were so good! (And so inspiring!) I thought it might be fun to write a letter or two this week! Thank you Bonny for inspiring me! (I see that she wrote some more letters this week as well!)
Dear Neighbor’s With the Holiday Lights:
I really enjoyed seeing your Halloween lights in October during Sherman’s Evening Constitutional! They were just so fun but I was slightly confused to see that you went from Halloween to Christmas overnight and I thought I’d take a moment to introduce you to the joys that are November (you know, that month between October and December…) November is full of really lovely days! We celebrate Veteran’s Day and Thanksgiving Day. For the rest of the month it is all about savoring Autumn… leaves changing color as well as cooler days and nights. It just seems, well, commercial to be putting up and turning on your holiday lights on November 1st. I completely understand wanting to put holiday lights out while the weather is mild, but you know that you don’t have to actually turn them on immediately don’t you? Just a suggestion for next year!
Signed,
Your Neighbor who loves November
My Dearest Big Foot,
News Flash! Sock One is DONE! I hope to begin Sock Two later today. I think it will go a bit faster than the first sock because I seem to have more knitting bandwidth these days… which is a very good thing!
Love,
Your Knitting Half
And finally this week I really need to pen this letter (or ten) in reality… not just here in the blogosphere!
Dear Mental Health Crisis Centers of Michigan:
Yes, I realize that Crisis is a singular term… but really? Do you honestly think that a person having a mental health crisis has just one single problem? I did look after talking with all of you for any Mental Health Crises Centers of Michigan and found them to be a non-existent entity. You gave me a Mental Health Crisis after spending days calling and talking to therapists at your facilities only to be told that my loved one had “too many crises” and that they could not help. It made me understand in a profound way why we have so many homeless people… they too are probably in the crises category and deemed “incapable of help.” I knew that our mental health system was woefully lacking, but I did not truly understand how broken it is until this week. Despite your lack of help in even giving me other alternative places to call… by some miracle we stumbled into a place that would take my sister, no thanks to you at all. In fact, you all told me there was no place in Michigan that would take her. You really missed the mark on that one, unless you think Holland is really The Netherlands.
Signed,
The Woman who called you all this week
That is all I have for this week! Have a good weekend and perhaps write a letter or two! See you all back here on Monday.
Cooking and baking is both physical and mental therapy. — Mary Berry
It seems that those points in time in my life when I have been the most stressed, the making relief that I turn to is cooking. So we have an enormous pot of chili that will be something easy to pull out for many meals. I also pulled out my tried and true bread recipe and it’s yeast-y goodness filled my kitchen with the best smells yesterday. And kneading bread is the absolute best frustration releaser on earth!
I have barely knit a stitch… I cannot settle my mind or my hands to do that… it is better to read something that encompasses my mind. Thus… Big Foot Sock #1 is still not done. (Although the fit thus far is very good!)
I did sit down at my sewing machine on Friday, turned on an audio book, and quilted The Advent Calendar. AND!! I love how it turned out. (full beauty shot coming soon!) The final steps are hand-sewing the binding, then attaching twenty-four buttons… and, yes, I am struck by the irony of binding a quilt (which I can do) and binding up the (self-made/inflicted) hell-scape that is my sister’s life (which I can’t do). All that aside… my goal is to have this in the mail by Friday!
Can you leave your hometown and leave behind all the problems that it holds? That is what Elinor Hanson finds out as she takes a job that brings her back to the North Dakota town where she grew up.
There is intrigue. There are fascinating characters. There is racism. And there is greed… all simmering under the surface.
Yun’s prosaic writing is what drew me in and her story kept me. O Beautiful is not what I expected… it is so much more. And the best part? It did not have a tidy ending… and the wondering about that is perhaps the best lingering thing about this book! I highly recommend it!
I would like to thank Macmillan Audio and Netgalley for this ARC.
This might be a small book but it is not a light read. El Akkad takes us to the world of the refugee from a unique perspective… from the eyes of a child. The writing is almost like El Akkad had a quiver of arrows… and when they were gone – his story must be done. Those arrows absolutely pierced my heart and my mind. This is a book that I will not soon forget… this is an absolute must read!
That is all I have for today… what about you? What are you making and reading this week?
As always, if you wrote a post to share please leave your link below!
In a week that did not at all turn out as I hoped or even in my wildest dreams imagined this poem from last Friday has been my lifeline.
At some point, Elizabeth Bishop renamed the poem… but I found her original name, Early Sorrow, to be so profound for me. But, the new name… Sestina… has stuck in my head and the words of the poem keep echoing there as well. It is a good time to plant tears… not very bright or cheery for a Monday but every day can’t be all sunshine and rainbows…
Sestina by Elizabeth Bishop:
September rain falls on the house.
In the failing light, the old grandmother
sits in the kitchen with the child
beside the Little Marvel Stove,
reading the jokes from the almanac,
laughing and talking to hide her tears.
She thinks that her equinoctial tears
and the rain that beats on the roof of the house
were both foretold by the almanac,
but only known to a grandmother.
The iron kettle sings on the stove.
She cuts some bread and says to the child,
It’s time for tea now; but the child
is watching the teakettle’s small hard tears
dance like mad on the hot black stove,
the way the rain must dance on the house.
Tidying up, the old grandmother
hangs up the clever almanac
on its string. Birdlike, the almanac
hovers half open above the child,
hovers above the old grandmother
and her teacup full of dark brown tears.
She shivers and says she thinks the house
feels chilly, and puts more wood in the stove.
It was to be, says the Marvel Stove. I know what I know, says the almanac.
With crayons the child draws a rigid house
and a winding pathway. Then the child
puts in a man with buttons like tears
and shows it proudly to the grandmother.
But secretly, while the grandmother
busies herself about the stove,
the little moons fall down like tears
from between the pages of the almanac
into the flower bed the child
has carefully placed in the front of the house.
Time to plant tears, says the almanac.
The grandmother sings to the marvelous stove
and the child draws another inscrutable house.
I learned last week that my years-estranged sister has been evicted (yet again) and has spiraled down to the bottom of the bottom of the bottom of the mental health ocean. There are volumes to this story that I am just not ready to share and my Monday is going to be full of making calls, asking lots of questions and I am hopeful that I will find an answer or two. I am sorry, but I have closed comments for this post… I hope you all understand.
This week the making is beginning to feel like it needs to be at a “fevered pitch” but its is not. I wanted to have the “calendar” portion of the Advent Calendar in process… but it is not! I want to thank you all for your tips and encouragement… I am experiencing a great deal of FOMU (fear of messing up) but I think I have a plan mapped out both in my head and on the fabric… invisible mapping, but I think it will work… now I just need to take the bold words that Carole shared to heart and just “drop those feed dogs” and give it a go!
Thankfully, every ornament is done…all 4 layers of them! Whew!
Instead of overcoming my FOMU of quilting, I knit a hat that is all ready for a little soak, which is a good thing because we have a four-letter word weekend forecast! Gah!
The reading this week… there are a couple of excellent books and one that very much fell flat for me. If you are looking for a good book recommendation… I strongly recommend Oh William! My goodness, it was just so brilliant!
Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is the way of life: the many things we do not know until it is too late.
Elizabeth Strout absolutely saved the best for last with Oh William! I loved the 2 previous books, My Name is Lucy Barton and Anything is Possible – they were really a wonderfully told story, but Oh William! takes that story to a new level. At times it very much felt like I was sitting and listening to Strout… rather than reading it. Her prose is really brilliant, and she manages to insert an aside exactly as one would if you were sharing a cuppa and talking.
I wanted to “ration” my reading so this book would not end. And I highly recommend this entire series… and save the best for last!
I want to thank Random House and Netgalley for providing me an ARC of this book!
I received this beautiful little book of poems from a friend (Thanks, Kym!) and I have been reading a poem or two a day, each morning to either begin or end my meditation time. I have probably read through all the poems at least twice… and just because I am marking this book “finished” here does not mean I am done with it.
These poems of hope and gratitude have been the most perfect way to start the day. I find myself wondering if I just keep reading one or two each morning… how long will it take for me to memorize them? Because they are all memorize-worthy!
If you are feeling overwhelmed with the state of the world… pick up this book and let the poet’s speak to you, fill you, move you to a better place, and perhaps even become a sharer of gratitude and hope in the world! I highly recommend this book!
I am not sure what I imagined this book was going to be, but it was not that… and not in a good way. At times, I felt much of what Kate is trying to share came across as trite, and frankly, she has profound luck… which I could not stop thinking about as I listened to her talk.
And while I have heard “everything happens for a reason” with sickening frequency in a faith setting (exactly where it should never happen), I don’t think I ever felt as she did when she heard it. I felt like she really believed that she should have had a “lucky” life because of her faith… except that is not how it works. And she did have incredible luck to be working in a place that moved mountains to get her an experimental cancer treatment. (I found it incredibly ironic that she gave God none of the benefit for that…)
I had originally given this book 3 stars, but since have downgraded it to 2 stars.
And, that is it for me this week… Steve is taking a longer weekend (thanks to Veteran’s Day) so I will see you all back here on Monday!
As always, if you wrote a post to share please leave your link below and thank you!
