by Kat | Jan 8, 2024 | General, Welcome
Begin as you mean to go on… Charles Spurgeon
Here we are one week into the new year. I spent some of last week tucking away Christmas… a bit of a melancholic activity. But I also like the feeling of reclaimed space to start the new year… which helps to balance the sadness of packing the tree away.
I also spent some time contemplating the year… I got my calendar all set for the month. I always feel so organized by doing this and perhaps this year that feeling will linger!
And I spent some time comtemplating Carole’s idea of slowing down a bit in January.
And with those thoughts in mind, here is what I want my January to hold!
- More poetry… I have three books from the library and I am excited to immerse myself in them!
- More slow stitching… I have unearthed the appliqué project from last year. I began a new year-long “free stitch” project as well, I am using this project with my morning coffee and journal time… it is fitting in well!
- More handknit socks… so I cast on my first pair on Friday using Carole’s Picot Edge Sock pattern… and have made incredible progress just knitting at night while we watch TV! (I might even have the first sock done by Wednesday!!)
- More spinning… so I have “reactivated” a reminder for two afternoons a week. I am hoping the reminder to “sit and spin” will help this become a habit!
This is an ambitious list for someone who wants a slow January… but I am mindful that the activities here are all slow… and that they will inherently slow me down so I can savor January days!
What about you? What are you saying hello to this month?
Photo by Jill Wellington
by Kat | Jan 5, 2024 | General, Words
Life can be very curious and last April I stumbled into this conversation with Jenny Odell. It was the beginning of time showing up for me… nudging me… as I moved through my year with Authenticity. I could not get the conversation with Jenny Odell out of my mind and I have listened to it again and again. I also began to write down the time nudges as the year went on. There were so many of them!
What songs are audible when the wind stops? What has been kept alive in the time snatched from work and sheltered from ongoing destruction—what moments of recognition, what ways of relating, what other imagined worlds, what other selves? What other kinds of time?
What other kinds of time indeed!!
So welcome to my Year of Time! I can remember the first time I heard The Rolling Stones singing about “time being on my side” and I can tell you that at age 63, I no longer believe time is on my side… but rather I have gotten to the portion of my life journey where my time reality is finite. So how can I maximize my finite minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years that I might have left? That is what I want to explore this year… stepping away from the finiteness of time… and perhaps finding moments where I can make time seem less measured!
Of course there is a Mary Oliver poem… right? The quote above is from Mary’s poem, Invitation published in Red Bird in 2008. It advantageously crossed my path in December and I have been reading it almost daily. It is all about the idea of stopping and listening to the goldfinches… finding the time… taking the time… slowing the time… to stop and appreciate the goldfinch song.
Which is ironic really, because the conversation with Jenny Odell is all about trying to find more “vertical” time in our lives where time is very linear… structured… filled.
So I hope you will come along with me as I search for more “vertical” time… and perhaps discover a plethora of other kinds of time.
Why? Well.. the closing words of Mary’s poem perhaps hold the answer:
It could mean something.
It could mean everything.
It could be what Rilke meant, when he
wrote:
You must change your life.
Amen, dear Rilke… and so I begin to uncover the delights of time! (and I am so incredibly excited!)
by Kat | Jan 3, 2024 | General, Unraveled Wednesday
…To not be making things is to be dead. — Donna Druchunas, comment from Melanie Falick’s blog.
Greetings dear Unravelers and Happy New Year!
Welcome to a new year of unraveling… one which I plan to continue exactly as we have been… sharing peeks into our making and what we are reading (or have read!) I look forward to our posts… our community of making is the best part of my week! I love to see what you are making (you all inspire me!) and what you are reading (you all help me add to my TBR list as well!)
This week, I will be sharing some stats of my year of making! Some might say it was not the most productive year… but I am happy with my time spent making and I am excited to see what I will make this year! Right now, I don’t have much on my radar… I want to finish the Great Cabled Sweater that I started last November… I am close, I have begun the second “front” and after that I just have the collars to knit. Happily, I took excellent notes on how I accomplished Pocket #1 so Pocket #2 has been a breeze! Once that is completed (and it is!) the knitting is a breeze of ever shortening rows… the right front should be done SOON! Then the Great Seaming can begin… which I am a bit nervous about, to be honest! I don’t seam much… but I do know how and I know how to “set a sleeve” in for sewing… it can’t be that much different in knitting… right?
My first “finish” of 2024… the last circle was completed on the 1st!
I did some swatching in December… a bit of “gift” swatching! LOL Steve picked his favorite and I will soon cast on a vest for him! It is a vest with some new techniques as well. Learning something new is always a good thing!
Swatch #3 was the winner… a marled mix of the two above!
But my year of making was very good! And like my Best of Reading, this list will work up to my favorite make of the year! So let’s get started!
- I finally finished a crochet scarf (and have not used it once.) This speaks volumes about crochet in my life.
- I crocheted one Bucket Hat… I wore it once. I think that it is safe to say that I have moved beyond my crochet fad.
- I did some sewing this year… I made 3 sweatshirts. I love them. They are in the rotation on the regular. I also sewed a “pencil’ skirt… it got some wear in the warmer months but I don’t think the skirt is a “good” style for my “bottom heavy” body type.
- I took classes for painting… and I painted some. But this last class confirmed for me that I need to go in a different direction than classes. I am not sure if the path forward includes painting… maybe it does, I do not know. I do know that I need to jumpstart my own creativity…. find my inner artist and give her permission to fail… or succeed…
- I did some “improv” quilting and sewed some Heart Coasters for us to use in February.
- I knit 5 pairs of socks… not a great number, but perhaps just enough. Although, I am contemplating knitting 6 pairs this year (heaven knows I have MORE than enough sock yarn to easily accomplish this! And I might have even stumbled upon some inspiration to make it fun!)
- I managed to do some spinning last year… and I KNIT with what I spun multiple times! I confess that my favorite handspun knit might just be a Hitchhiker! Or my Hitch On The Move knit with handspun *and* commercial yarn. I want to spin more this year but something might need to shift off my list to accomplish that with any regularity.
- I did have an epic spinning/knitting project last year… I knit a Saglan with handspun yarn. I love this sweater so much. I wear it All.The.Time! It fits well! My yarn is wearing well! And it just makes me so happy to wear it!
- There was LOTS of hand stitching last year as well! One Temperature Project and one set of hand stitched autumnal coasters. Honestly, the Temperature Project became a bit of a drag… There was no impromptu sitting and stitching with this thing. I needed to have written down the highs and lows for the day… iNotes FTW here! I am NOT doing another temperature project this year… but I really love the result I got after stitching diligently all year! My favorite stitching time though was the “do my own thing” stitching.
- As the year began to wind down, I gave in to the lure of sourdough with success this time! (For me, the third time was the charm… as well as the sourdough “house” to regulate temperature!) Since my success, I have been baking weekly loaves and I love it! I love every part of it… the process is slow… and I like that slowness. It has become a mindful practice… I love the intervals of being alone with the dough and the quiet!
- Gnomes… there were so many gnomes this year! I also knit some trees for those gnomes, some birds, and a rabbit! The gnome count for the year ended in the double digits! I love the December Mystery Gnomes, yes plural! They are perfect additions to Gnome-Land! I sent a good number of gnomes out into the world (one for each of my grands!) And, then came Mean Gnome Greene! Knitting gnomes brings such delight… I expect there will be more gnomes this year.
- My best knit of the year however, is a simple skirt (but such a smart pattern!) I wanted to knit another, but the yarn gods did not smile on my second attempt. I plan to rectify that this year… I need another in my wardrobe!
And there you have my year of making and here I am in a New Year… New Opportunities… and I am so excited!
Lord Gnapier, on the right, with his dear friend Mr. Gnettles. The 2023 Mystery Gnomes!
Mean Gnome Greene, with his trusty Terrible Towel, sporting his favorite jersey… #55! He is now living on Steve’s mom’s mantle!
What about you? What are you excited about as we begin a New Year?
As always, if you wrote a post to share please leave your link and thank you!
by Kat | Jan 2, 2024 | General, Looking Back
A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies, said Jojen. The man who never reads lives only one.
― George R.R. Martin, A Dance with Dragons
It has been an excellent year of reading (again!) I truly do not understand how the non-reader gets through the day… happily that is something I will never have to experience because reading is essential to my day!
I am most profoundly grateful for my local library… most of what I have read, I read courtesy of my library. My reading life is all the more richer and fuller thanks to them! I love the people that work there… they are some of my favorite people on the planet! They were some of the first to welcome me to the area when I moved here 10 years ago!
It was a stellar reading year for me… I read a whopping 106 books! I read more this year than last year, but less than other years. But the most amazing statistics from the year show how really magnificent my reading was this year!
I doubled my Netgalley books this year… I was so fortunate to have the opportunity to read 26 ARC’s (advanced reader copies) and so many of these books (Netgalley books are flagged with **) made my “best books of the year” list!
I listen to books… a lot! Of the 106 books read, 54 of them were audiobooks and almost every single one was courtesy of my library!
There were 7 books that I did not finish this year… books that just weren’t for me. Years ago, I would have felt guilty to not finish a book… but “bailing” on a book was something that I embraced in my Year of Release… it was one of the best things ever.
I read LOTS of books that I gave a 5-star rating… of the 106 books… I gave 46 of them a 5-star rating.
So you might now be wondering how one chooses the best from that many “best” choices… well, I have some criteria for my Best Reading of 2023. The books on this list have stayed with me since I read them. They have delightfully lingered and for some of these books… they inspired me to read them more than once!
So here is my Best Reading of 2023 List… I highly recommend every book on this list! (They just might change your life!!) There are 11 books here with each book better than the one before it…. so when you get to the bottom, you have reached the best book of my year.
- Signal Fires by Dani Shapiro (I loved this book so much that I immediately re-read it.)
- The Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude and Inciting Joy by Ross Gay (I think a bit of Ross Gay every day is a very good idea! I will be reading more of him in 2024!)
- No Two Persons by Erica Bauermeister ** (a book about the power of a book is one I have not stopped thinking about!)
- Sarah Winman… yes, just the author! I read 3 of her books this year and each one was tremendous, thought provoking, and each lingered in the most wonderful way!
- The Comfort of Crows by Margaret Renkl. ** This book is life changing… and I loved it so much that I am going to spend the entire year with it… in my backyard. Two weeks in and I am discovering new things already… I can’t wait to see where my backyard and Margaret take me!
- Above Ground by Clint Smith. A moving volume of poetry that took me back in time to when my children were small. I loved Clint, but these poems reminded me of a forgotten time!
- Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward. ** This book was so necessary in a time where the “whitewashing” of history is happening in real time. I have not stopped thinking about Annis and her journey.
- Brotherless Night by V.V. Ganeshananthan. I would not have even known about this book were it not for the Read With Us book club… we read The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida and I needed to know more… so a bit of Googling led me to Brotherless Night. This story is one that has not left me, it reminds me that even the obscure story needs to be heard!
- My Friends by Hisham Matar. ** This was a Netgalley book that “picked me” … an editor emailed (I am sure a volume of readers) and suggested I might enjoy this book. I am so glad I followed her suggestion! This book would have been my top read (if I did not read Rilke and Tommy Orange!) This book opened my eyes, changed how I think about the displaced… refugees… those without a homeland. Thank you, Hisham for writing such a compelling, beautiful, heartbreaking story!
- Rilke… my goodness, I love Rilke so much. I read two Rilke books this year (a re-read of one by a different translator.) The more I read Rilke, the more I want to read more. There will be more Rilke in 2024 as well!
- This last book barely squeaked under the wire… Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange ** (it will be out next March) It has only been a few days but I have not stopped thinking about the Star Journey. This might be Tommy’s best book ever… at least until he writes another one! Ha!
There you have it… 11 books… roughly 10% of my reading year.
I will be back tomorrow with my Year of Unraveling review!
Photo by Anthony 🙂
by Kat | Dec 26, 2023 | General, Words
If all difficulties were known at the outset of a long journey, most of us would never start out at all. — Dan Rather
It has been quite the journey… one that began way back in 2019 with Focus. I never imagined that it would have taken this long path… and when I began this year I did not know if there would be another “building block” in my journey… and as the year draws to a close, no additional “building block” word has surfaced. I am feeling like that is a very good thing. However, it is not a journey finished… it is rather a journey that will not end. I have learned incredible things about myself over the last 5 years!
And this year had some very incredible, informative, eye-opening moments as I worked through authenticity. I learned that being authentic starts with myself… to myself… for myself.
The year also had some struggles… I made an effort to take a photo of myself each month… print it out and saved in my journal. I end the year no more comfortable with “self-photography” than I was in January but that is okay… it will be a part I carry forward next year… more practice, more photos, more journaling… and hopefully more comfort!
The other “new thing” I did this year was that journal! A separate, special “log” each month of the year… not an “artistic” journal, but one that for me was more approachable… and authentic. This will be something I carry forward as well. I like being able to go back and read when I am feeling stuck… it is a delightful way to see how far I have come!
It feels so very good to move beyond this very long journey… and I am so excited for where I will go next year!
A huge thanks to Carolyn for hosting us… It feels so good to be on a journey with the camaraderie of fellow “word” friends. I always learn so much from the things everyone shares!
I will reveal my new word once I have done a bit of “year end” housekeeping next week! Happy New Year everyone!
(and a reminder, there will be no Unraveled Wednesday post this week!)
** Photo by Johannes Plenio
by Kat | Dec 21, 2023 | General, Poetry
I have really been focused on “finding the joy” this month… some things have been bogging me down recently that have seemed determined to squeeze any bit of joy I might have out of me… so when I saw this poem on IG and then Kym posted something so perfect from the same poet last week…well, I don’t believe in coincidences. It was just the universe letting me know that it understood and was putting some joy in my path to pick up and hold on to when I needed it!
The poet is Donna Ashworth and the poem is Joy from Maria Shriver’s Sunday Paper Reflection. I hope it brings to you more than what you need today.
Joy
by Donna Ashworth
Joy does not arrive with a fanfare,
on a red carpet strewn with the flowers of a perfect life.
Joy sneaks in, as you pour a cup of coffee,
watching the sun hit your favorite tree, just right.
And you usher joy away,
because you are not ready for it.
Your house is not as it must be,
for such a distinguished guest.
But joy cares nothing for your messy home,
or your bank-balance,
or your waistline, you see.
Joy is supposed to slither through the cracks of your
imperfect life,
that’s how joy works.
You cannot invite yer, you can only be ready when she
appears.
And hug her with meaning,
because in this very moment,
joy chose you.
My hope is that you find joy today… because she absolutely is choosing you!
A huge thanks to Bonny for making a space for us to share poetry! (if you want to join us, you can!)
