by Kat | Sep 11, 2023 | General, In This Moment
I pondered posting today because I don’t really have anything significant to contribute. In my pondering I wondered if a pandemic that has killed so many has somehow diluted the impact of what happened 22 years ago. Perhaps today’s significance is more personal – not that I lost someone 22 years ago – but rather because I can remember exactly where I was when I heard the news down to the very minute.
However, life moves on but it does not mean we forget…not that horrible day 22 years ago or the long slow march of COVID. Rather it means we are living and hopefully fully living each and every day.
So sometimes Monday is for remembering… and living. And perhaps cleaning out my painting space with a sigh of relief that one small brown dog seems to be doing a bit better.
See you all back here on Wednesday!
by Kat | Sep 8, 2023 | General, In This Moment
I had other plans for today post but life got in the way yesterday… bigly.
A small-ish issue with Sherman required some extra attention yesterday morning and a rather lengthy vet visit yesterday afternoon. But we have some new meds to try and I am hoping he is feeling better soon!
My plans for reacquainting myself with my painting spot did not happen … and it might not happen this morning either. I will have to see how Sherman is doing today… but it is absolutely on my radar!
I am falling back on the simplicity of a bit of a Friday RIFF… so let’s get started!
Re-adjusting —
Kym shared some links this week that I had been contemplating one of them until I saw this fun little knit from Leila Raven and I realized that this is exactly what I need.. fun, stripe-y, and I have the yarn in my stash! This is the motivation I need to finish my Pressed Flower wrap because I want to knit this next!
Investigating —
This week I saw a *new-to-me* butterfly in my back yard, Google told me it was a Great Spangled Fritillary… a member of the Nymphalidae family of butterflies. It was so fun watching it hang around for all of Wednesday afternoon. A lovely addition to the plethora of Monarch’s that are in love with my butterfly bush this year!
Hello, Lovely!
Fresh (air) Poetry —
You Are Here… Yes, yes Ada Limón, The Library of Congress, and National Parks are getting their Poetry ON! I discovered it on that site formerly known as Twitter this week and yes… I am super excited for the anthology of poems! (Especially since poetry has been in the spotlight this week… and if you are a member of the Armed Services who writes, reads, or recites poetry… well done you!) I will be reading some poetry this weekend… it is the best sanity-saving thing I do!
Finally —
Today I am going to hope that Sherman has a good day and I can spend some time refreshing my painting spot. But… I am not beating myself up if I don’t because outside of that my week has been very productive. My *computer desk* has been decluttered and I have used it! My calendar got some “face time” with me… and that felt so good! We even had a bit of rain yesterday… not enough, but some is better than none.
That is it for me this week! I will see you all back here next week. Have a great weekend everyone!
by Kat | Sep 6, 2023 | General, Unraveled Wednesday
Greetings dear Unravelers!
My knitting mojo is on the thin side this week. Soaring temperatures have put the kibosh on a lapful of wooly knitting… so there has been little progress on my Pressed Flowers wrap.
Instead I cast on a sock… which is barely begun so you can see it has not had much attention.
Another pair of Pressed Flower Socks!
Instead I have been stitching… appliqué pieces to their little squares and circles.
I have nearly 25 squares done now and I really don’t want to stop. The simple joy of needle, thread, and my thoughts are the perfect thing. One thing I loved about August was the intentional quiet and I have found myself eager for those quiet moments! It is amazing where your thoughts can go when there is intentional quiet!
My temperature circles are well past the halfway point… there is a whole lot of yellow and red. And one significant thing… in my neighborhood we have only had a handful of 90+ degree days (until this week that is! LOL) And we have not reached 100° F once! I am almost at the August mid-point… so I have some catch up to do!
The reading this week though… oh my! So good. I finished Michael Cunningham’s soon-to-be-published book, Day was so incredibly good! I did not rush through it… I savored every word. I also finished Brotherless Night… which was fantastic! I wanted to go slow, but I could not put it down! I cried a lot but it was so incredibly good! (and it was the perfect thing to read before discussing the Seven Moons of Maali Almeida. (and while I really liked Seven Moons, I loved Brotherless Night so much more!)
In my ears this week, I am back in Saint-Denis and loving it! And at night I am reading a book that Netgalley recommended to me… My Friends by Hisham Matar and it is so good.
And that is my making this week… what about you? What are you making or reading this week?
As always, if you wrote a post to share please leave your link below and thank you!
by Kat | Sep 5, 2023 | General, Welcome
September is the other January. — Gretchen Rubin
This quote resonated with me as I turned the calendar to a new month. I am very much loving the idea of beginning again… with so many things. I spent the summer pared back, minimal, letting go of so many things… and now I stand on the precipice of a new month and I have the urge to add some things back in. Really badly.
But…
There is a part of me that is loving the more minimalistic me, so while the urge to add back is overwhelming, I am going to be very selective as to what gets added back in! I am going to control the urge to just add it all back by using my September list to keep my focus.
- Get back to my calendar… yes, I have ignored any form of calendar since June. I know. What was I thinking? But all good things must come to an end… and the days of calendar free living are over. I began yesterday by noting some things to complete this week. Not many, but enough to make me pay attention to my calendar and how I am doing this week!
- Re-order my “desk” space … and.start.using.it!! The summer of no calendar, no desk, and some days… no laptop need to end. I will help this by making my early morning space welcoming. I have a new poetry book to entice me to sit in the early morning darkness. I also have a new journal that is waiting to be written in!
- Sewing. Yes, I have some sewing to do for fall. I am hoping that the weather helps entice me to do this by providing some rainy days… or some cooler weather! Which is not this week… we are full on Summer in temperature and humidity this week! Steve thinks that once this week is over that the warm days will be less frequent but I am not so sure of that because…
- …on warmer days, I am still committed to doing a fair bit of afternoon porch stitching. My gosh… that is the one hold-over from summer that I am going to cling to until it is too cold!
- Painting…. I have done almost none all summer. (mainly because I have not wanted to be indoors) But I miss it… so much. I have some things to practice on and I am going to ease myself back in to that habit.
- And finally…blogging… yes, I am feeling the urge to blog a bit more, perhaps on my pre-break schedule of Monday, Wednesday, and Friday… stay tuned!
And that, my friends, is a very full list of things to fill my September days! What about you? What are you hoping to fill your days with?
See you all back here tomorrow with some unraveling!
Photo by Marta Wave
by Kat | Aug 30, 2023 | General, Unraveled Wednesday
Greetings Unravelers!
We have arrived at the last Wednesday in August! No lies here… I am more than a little excited for September and my week of knitting reflects that.
I finished my Pressed Flower Socks and I love them! Kym asked last week about sock thickness… and yes, these are a bit thicker than normal hand knit socks. But they will work perfectly for me… I like to wear clogs in the winter and they work well in my Haflinger clogs!
I have not cast on another pair, but I will be – it was a great pattern to knit! Clear instructions and the best part is that you get the “look of color work” without the tension problems one might have with color work… they are mosaic knitting so you only are ever knitting with one color.
Instead of casting on another sock, I pulled out my Pressed Flowers wrap and have made some good progress (until I started adding in random flowers to transition into the “border pattern” that is…That has caused a bit of unraveling…sigh.) But I think I have it on track now and once I have the rhythm, it goes quickly!
I have also been fascinated by Emily Greene’s latest design – Archetype. I love how it looks and I am intrigued with the construction…it is knit flat, in pieces! I have not knit one of Emily’s patterns since Calmus and I think that this fall might be the time to try again. I might even have some yarn in a cart while I think about it. Stay tuned!
The reading this week was so good! I finished Jesmyn Ward’s Let Us Descend… and wow. It was so incredibly good! (not easy, but so good!) I loved it and believe that when too many people are trying to ban books… this book is a necessary read! Let Us Descend comes out October 3rd if you want to get on the list for it! I leaned into the challenging reads this week with Matthew Desmond’s Poverty, by America. A life changing book… and a very eye-opening read.
I also enjoyed my romp in Saint-Denis with Bruno… and I highly recommend the series!
My current reads include the start of the next Bruno book (thank you so much Hoopla!) and a soon-to-be published novel by Michael Cunningham, Day: A Novel. Both very good!
So tell me… what are you trying to wrap up in these last days of August?
As always, if you wrote a post to share please leave your link below and thank you!
by Kat | Aug 28, 2023 | General, Words
Progress requires unlearning. Becoming the best version of yourself requires you to continuously edit your beliefs, and to upgrade and expand your identity. — Jame Clear
August has always been my least favorite month of the year. The heat. The humidity. The end of summer break (at least when my kids were little!) The wishing for the next season. I wanted to break those habits this year… habits of dislike. Of wallowing in the misery of August (most of which was self-made misery!)
So this month I took a step back and looked back on all I have discovered about authenticity this year and set about unlearning of what August always has been… and to find a new outlook.
I started with a list of all that I have learned… a Road Map to Authenticity of sorts. And I embraced the silence versus trying to fill my day with noise. (Thanks Kym for this brilliant inspiration!) I leaned into the quietude this month… and it was amazing! In the silence I found so much to love about August!
And pairing a list with the silence… well, that has been the winning combination! My gift to myself this month will be taking my list and putting it on a bookmark to use in my calendar/journal… a reminder every day of where I am heading… what I want to be… and that, my friends, might be the best gift I will ever give myself – a gentle nudge to keep myself on the path.
And I am departing August with a new-found love for all things late summer…okay maybe not the humidity! But I have appreciated how my tomatoes have loved all that heat and humidity… and those tomatoes have provided August with the best thing ever about late summer… an abundance I can share!
As always, I would like to thank Carolyn for providing us the space to share our journeys! I will see you all back here on Wednesday!
by Kat | Aug 25, 2023 | General, In My Backyard
Learning to be still, to really be still and let life happen – that stillness becomes a radiance. — Morgan Freeman
In August I savored the stillness… the bird song has slowed. Gone is the territorial songs marking nesting territories so it seems that the birds, as well, welcome some quietude to their day. Late August is not completely silent though… the cicada drone is an ever-present hum.
This month I delighted in a wee hummingbird who has marked the feeders as her own. Watching her chase off other hummingbirds was a bit like watching a quidditch match… and just as fun!
Though the humidity kept me indoors most afternoons, I did manage a few times to do some porch stitching. But indoors or out, I have welcomed this quiet practice into my day. I now can get 2 squares done in an hour and set up my squares for the next day. I have found a rhythm to my stitching… and I have discovered that I prefer using some wee pins to baste the piece down versus doing so with a needle and thread. I am getting much better and using my milliner’s needle to turn the edge under as well… and my corners have improved dramatically! But still… I don’t feel any urge to increase my speed… I am savoring the quiet time with just a needle and thread in my hands. Slow, quiet making is the perfect sweet spot.
I have also been loving every bite of my tomatoes… and I am making notes on what worked and what I can tweak for next year. One thing I could not count on this year were a helpful army of bees to pollinate my tomatoes. Sadly, I have noted a sharp decline in the bee population… it makes my heart sore and I have mourned their absence. In their absence, I have become a master pollinator…but I much prefer the visiting bees so my plans include a “Cosmo Hedge” with hopes of enticing more bees, however many, back to my yard.
The days are now markedly shorter and my garden is looking… spent… tired… more than ready for a break. I still have some yarrow blooming, but soon that will be at an end as well. I have some iris to dig up and divide and that is my plan for September. But my brain has been thinking of spring… I have the Mother Lode of Bulbs coming and so I will have a busy autumn getting them all tucked in for a winter’s nap!
All in all… the stillness of August did have an incredible radiance to it. This might have been the best August yet… and I will continue to savor the final days of it!
Happy Friday, all and I will see you back on Monday with an update on my word!
by Kat | Aug 23, 2023 | General, Unraveled Wednesday
Greetings dear Unravelers and Happy Wednesday!
Here we are closing in on the end of August and I am very much ready for the humidity and mosquitos to depart! Those two things…my most disliked parts of summer.
Those pesky mosquitos have been making morning porch time… challenging. And the humidity has been nixing my afternoon time on the porch as well. Sigh.
But indoor time has meant I have a finished sock and a good start on its mate, some more squares done, and even more temperature circles completed. (big hint… I had all of July *and* August to do… and I have almost got July done!)
A sock and a third…
I promised that I would share the details of my Hitch on the Move. I knit it with fingering weight yarn (not DK as the pattern called for) I started with a 100 gram skein of solid sock yarn and 227-ish grams of handspun yarn. I used a US 4 needle (which gave me a lovely, drape-y fabric) and knit the “a” section until I had 55 grams of the solid yarn left. I then began the “b” portion of the pattern. In the end I had just 5 grams of the solid left and 9 grams of the hand spun yarn. (Yes, I worried for those last few LONG rows! You can see my leftover bits and bobs above) My finished dimensions are: 108″ in length and 24″ deep… a lovely LARGE shawl to wrap up in! I love how Martina’s “knit by weight” works for fingering yarn as well as DK! I love it and am contemplating another!
Sorry for this repeat photo but heat + humidity = no self-modeled shots.
The reading this week was Perfect Late Summer Reading if ever there was such a thing! My favorite book of the summer will absolutely be Ann Patchett’s Tom Lake. I loved every bit of it! I mean what is not to love about summer, theater, Michigan, cherries, and a compelling story! (and Meryl Streep reading it did not hurt either!)
This week I am tucked away in southern France with Bruno Courrèges and a murder mystery. It has been too long since I picked up one of Martin Walker’s books and this week I discovered they are all available on Hoopla! (yay for no wait books!) At night I am reading Jesmyn Ward’s soon-to-be published Let us Descend which is not light at all… so I am slowly digesting the story.
I need to read a bit faster as the library hold avalanche is looming… such a delightful problem to have! Ha!
But what about you? What are you loving this week?
As always, if you wrote a post to share please leave your link below and thank you!
by Kat | Aug 17, 2023 | General, Poetry
I have been thinking about what poem I would share with you all this month for a couple of weeks… going back and forth between several poems that seemed just so perfect for August. This morning I decided that Late Summer by Jennifer Grotz was the winner (but really there were no losers!)
Late Summer
by Jennifer Grotz
Before the moths have even appeared
to orbit around them, the streetlamps come on,
a long row of them glowing uselessly
along the ring of garden that circles the city center,
where your steps count down the dulling of daylight.
At your feet, a bee crawls in small circles like a toy unwinding.
Summer specializes in time, slows it down almost to dream.
And the noisy day goes so quiet you can hear
the bedraggled man who visits each trash receptacle
mutter in disbelief: Everything in the world is being thrown away!
Summer lingers, but it’s about ending. It’s about how things
redden and ripen and burst and come down. It’s when
city workers cut down trees, demolishing
one limb at a time, spilling the crumbs
of twigs and leaves all over the tablecloth of street.
Sunglasses! the man softly exclaims
while beside him blooms a large gray rose of pigeons
huddled around a dropped piece of bread.
Jennifer Grotz, “Late Summer” from The Needle. Copyright © 2011 by Jennifer Grotz.
And a tiny poetry bonus for you all: One of my favorite podcasts is Poetry for All which is taught by Joanne Diaz and Abram Van Engen. I say taught because the hosts are both English professors. Every episode I learn something and my love for poetry grows! This month’s episode was all about the Haiku… specifically Haiku from Kobayashi Issa. I have not stopped thinking about this Haiku they shared… I simply love it. (and you will have to listen to the short, but incredibly informative episode to learn about translating Japanese into English and that our 5-7-5 structure for a Haiku might not be quite right.) They read two additional Issa Haiku that are equally brilliant. If you need a little something for your ears today, I think you will love this episode… give it a try!
Now please go visit Bonny and see what poems she will gather today…poems to share… poems to read… poems to savor!
Have a great week and I will see you all back here next week!
by Kat | Aug 15, 2023 | General, Unraveled Wednesday
Hello dear Unravelers!
It is Wednesday and that means a bit of a check in with my making and reading…and while last week had little progress this week the making and reading are strong!
I have been doing some more stitching… and I have broken the 60 minute mark on a square! Ha! I have 4 done and am thoroughly enjoying the learning process! I am enjoying my afternoon stitching (although the humidity has kept me from sitting on the porch to do it… sigh.)
I have also found the rhythm of my Pressed Flower Sock! I am nearing the toes. I have one repeat to go before Toe #1… I am a bit nervous about length but I am going to go with the suggestions that Amy Christoffer’s gives. I have yarn picked out for a second pair as I think these will make wonderful “clog” socks for the fall/winter.
And yes, I do have a finish this week! Hitch on the Move is done… almost. She still needs a good soak and some better glamor shots (it was pretty grey and cloudy here yesterday.) Some notes on the pattern… when you get to the point where you are no longer increasing on “both sides” make sure you have a stitch count on side “a” that is divisible by 10… I did not and had to do some creative adjusting in the last few “teeth” because there was no way I was unraveling any of those long ass rows! Anyways, it is the perfect size and really love it! It will be a great addition to brisk walks (when brisk weather ever returns here… lol.) I also weighed my “a” yarn and transitioned when I reached Martina’s suggested weight and I worried I would run out of yarn but I did not! (and my leftovers have gone into the mitered square bag!)
Speaking of which… I only added one square this week but that is okay. I did go through the Deep Stash of leftover bits and pulled out a few more to add in.
Now how about a reading update! It has been another incredible week! I had 3 finishes that were so, so good! And my current reads are just as good! I am back with Gabriel Allon in The Collector. I am thrilled that the “old gang” is back together. I missed them all very much in The Portrait of an Unknown Woman so having them back is excellent! And in my ears during the day is Ann Patchett’s Tom Lake. I am loving that as well!
And there you have my making and reading this week… what about you? What are you excited about this week?
As always, if you wrote a post to share please leave your link below and thank you!
I will see you all back here tomorrow with some poetry!
;
