Greetings Unravelers! It has been a week of new starts here… yes, I have a raging case of Cast-on-itis.
So I have given in and cast on…. I started a new pair of socks, yes those socks! This is a knit is not conducive to mindless knitting… so I have not gotten far but I have moved to the “second chart” (don’t ask… but I’d have done the charting differently.) These socks are something that needs some focused attention, but that attention is not doing anything to detract from how much I like them!
My other start (that does settle in neatly into the mindless knit category) is a scrappy (and currently very portable) mitered-squares blanket. I don’t have any idea of this being done any time soon, but rather I just wanted something portable that would use up some of the scraps of yarn I have accumulated. All those that are close in gauge (so fingering/sport) will make their way into the fabric. I am loving it… really so very much.
I continue to make progress on my Hitch on the Move… but no pictures this week. I am hopeful it will be finished next week!
I do have a new introduction to make to you all… Meet Gnrico Caruso, the great great gnome-son of that famous tenor. Gnrico inherited those musical skills and you can find him serenading the other gnomes with his beautiful tenor tones! O Solo Mio is his favorite and he sings in regularly. My inspiration for Gnrico came from this pattern from the most incredible Gnome Creator and a button I got at the very first Michigan Fiber Festival I ever went to (from the Briar Rose Fibers Booth.) Lovely button but not really great on any garment… they are much too heavy but it was the perfect button for a gnome hat!
I think there needs to be a Gnome Choir, so stay tuned for more musically inspired Gnomes as the year progresses!
Stunning to think, but I have not one single book finished since last week! I know!! First, I bailed on Demon Copperhead… it was not the book for me in this space in time. Instead, I have been listening to The Postcard by Anne Berest… I will likely finish it today and it will be a book that stays with me. It is a beautifully moving story. I highly recommend. My at night book is equally good but in a very different way. I love how Christoffer Carlsson works into a mystery. His characters are so amazing… I am so loving this second book. (It will be published this fall!)
In an email I got from my local PBS station, I noted a new program is in production. It is another book based series so I have Robert Thorogood’s The Marlow Murder Club waiting in the wings! A new-to-me cozy mystery series sounds delightful!
What about you? Are you casting on anything new? Reading something amazing? Please share!
As always, if you wrote a post leave your link below and thank you!
Make a pact with yourself today to not be defined by your past. Sometimes the greatest thing to come out of all your hard work isn’t what you get for it, but what you become for it. ― Steve Maraboli, Life, the Truth, and Being Free
Last month I coasted with my word, this month a merger happened. The merger of the previous collection of my words into authenticity.
Or… that moment when the lightbulb finally switched ON!
That’s right authenticity burned brightly this month when I really focused, releasing the baggage I don’t need to carry any longer, anl to live my days intentionallyfull and authentic. Not being defined by my past, my (often poor) choices, my at times endless what if’s.. but rather to take the sum of all of that and allow myself to enjoy the me of all of those things!
Ali Edwards gave us the suggestion of writing a post card to ourself (from or word) or writing a card to our word (from ourselves)… that suggestion was the starting point for the month long conversation I have been having with myself about being more accepting of myself… and yes, more work on loving myself for who I am.
As always, poetry played a part in this…early in the month I stumbled across a poem by the brilliant David Whyte, which has been part of my morning meditation time every day since then… especially these lines: “the visible and the invisible working together in common cause, to produce the miraculous.” Yes, yes, yes!
Is there more work to do? Of course there is, but I very much feel like I moved beyond so much this month… and that, my friends, is a very good thing!
A huge thanks to Carolyn for providing us the space to share our progress.
See you all back here on Wednesday with some NEW projects!
I have very much been enjoying my blog break… perhaps a bit too much. I have done some serious contemplating on my continued blogging. Most of it has revolved around the “creativity” issue…
i.e. Do I have any fresh ideas, thoughts, or anything of value to release into the void…
My answer to myself was… maybe a thing or two… maybe. Jane, who is much wiser than I am, once shared this wisdom in a comment here “Blogging once a week has advantages.”
It certainly does… and so these thoughts continue to rumble around my brain. I am not ready to give up blogging completely, but I need a shake up a bit in an effort to find a new creativity well to drink from!
So as a more quiet July draws to a close… a quiet that may extend into August as well.
So why am I here today? Well… some months ago I read a book and that book has stayed with me in a most profound way. I have not stopped thinking about it… but better, I have been applying it to my life… that is, I have been paying much more attention to the world around me with some delightful effects!
I thought that a nice way to close out each month would be to share things I have noticed from the month… things outside and inside…
This week I have been closely watching my tomatoes begin their journey from green to yellow to orange to red. For a tomato lover this is absolutely the best thing of gardening… harvesting the fruits of my labor. A couple of FB friends have prolific gardens… and they both shared some advice recently that I am taking action on. It is all about when to pick those tomatoes… and both of these ladies pick their tomatoes when they begin to break color from green to yellow. (Judy Wright shared this article that explains it clearly.) I have a baker’s dozen tomatoes all at various stages of ripening on my kitchen sill and I am prepping my living room sill today as well!
Last Saturday, I watched in awe as our resident rabbit, a proud and watchful poppa, carefully dig a new nest for his mate. This will be the 4th nest I have noticed this year. However, this is the first one that I caught in the construction process. I have only seen the mother near the nest a couple of times this week, but he watches it all day. These rabbits have brought such joy to my days… I feel honored that they trust us to raise their young in my yard.
In July I began putting a few shelled peanuts (unsalted, of course!) out for our resident squirrel and imagine my delight when I discovered that putting peanuts out meant I would see more Blue Jays! Now, the Blue Jays greet me every morning with the hope of me putting out a peanut or two. Their antics are quite hilarious and I am enjoying them so very much!
The hot weather means that I have been putting out more water for the wildlife. I have also been making sure the gravel dish has water for the insects as well. That same heat and humidity has kept me indoors most mornings this week… quick trips out with Sherman that finds us both wilting a bit as we head back indoors. There is no joy at all for me in this heat and it must be even less joyful for the animals, birds, and insects that can’t escape to a cooler place.
Since solstice, we (Pittsburgh, that is) have lost 39 minutes of daylight… I did not notice less light so much as the month began, but I absolutely am noting it as the month ends. I am missing those minutes of daylight very much… and I am wondering if winter would be more delightful if it was brighter!
In the quieting of the days… I have much been thinking about my making. I am wavering a bit on finishing projects… my desire is to have small portable things… easy to pick up and put down. I don’t want to be “chained” to a room to craft so I did not sign up for a painting class this month. And despite all that I found myself craving artistic inspiration so I really am shaking things up!! I have signed up for a hand appliqué class that begins in August. I know nothing about appliqué and I am looking forward to learning more about the process. I have this lovely idea in my mind’s eye of me sitting in the cooler morning air as I get comfortable with needle turn appliqué. This idea fills me with joy and I think that it will give me something to challenge me… something to inspire me… and something to help me extend summer beyond August and into September sitting on my porch stitching something.
Last but not least… did you see these!? I have plans to begin them this weekend!
What about you? I would love to know how your are quieting your days or what you noted in July!
See you all back here on Monday with my word update!
The heat is absolutely on in my neighborhood… Sherman’s afternoon outings are not something he or I enjoy… they are short and quick so we can return to the comfort of the AC.
I confess I have some unraveling this week… as in that skirt start. Sigh. The yarn arrived but not even creative blending could make the two different dye lots work together in one garment. So, dammit, I need to begin again. I have yet to cast on the skirt from the new Tides… and I think that idea is circling the drain for completion this year.
However, I have made the most excellent progress on my Hitch on the Move though… my handspun rows are getting much longer as my solid rows grow shorter and my delight remains high! It is very good consolation prize knitting from my failed skirt attempt.
And I have eased myself back into Gnome-land… The cosmetic knitting has been completed! Gnifty is quite adorable with his new nose. He is happiest out in nature and is quite the ornithologist! Knitting the birds was so much fun! There is a wee bluebird, a greybird, and a crow, of course! As you can see they have all settled in well in Gnome-land!
I have plans to start another gnome… I have picked out the yarns and will begin knitting later today. I will be using this pattern and will be listening for inspiration and direction as I knit!
I have also pulled out my “next spin”… something I got a couple of years ago from Fibernymph Dye Works. I have divided the fiber into three equal-ish sections and I will be spinning for socks.
And while my knitting may have had a less than stellar week… my reading has absolutely not! I continue on my Reading High with 4 finishes and I have begun listening to Demon Copperhead and at night I am reading another Netgalley book, Christoffer Carlsson’s Under the Storm. I am uncertain about Demon Copperhead… but the Carlsson book pulled me instantly in.
But what about you? How’s your reading and making this week?
As always, if you have a post to share please leave your link below and thank you!
One of the things I love best about poetry is how it can take me out of myself… and this week’s poem does just that!
Recently, Ada Limón shared this on Instagram and I knew nothing about NASA’s Europa Clipper but I did know that getting a signed copy of the poem was an impulse purchase that I would not regret. A few clicks later and the impulse was successful and it arrived last week! It is now framed and on my desk… it is the perfect reminder when I am too stuck in myself to look beyond.
I imagine that someday someone in that outer space will read this poem as well and think the same things… to look beyond themselves… and perhaps be in awe of a society that valued poetry… the best unifier I know!
In Praise of Mystery
A POEM FOR EUROPA
by Ada Limón
Arching under the night sky inky
with black expansiveness, we point
to the planets we know, we
pin quick wishes on stars. From earth,
we read the sky as if it is an unerring book
of the universe, expert and evident.
Still, there are mysteries below our sky:
the whale song, the songbird singing
its call in the bough of a wind-shaken tree.
We are creatures of constant awe,
curious at beauty, at leaf and blossom,
at grief and pleasure, sun and shadow.
and it is not darkness that unites us,
not the cold distance of space, but
the offering of water, each drop of rain,
each rivulet, each pulse, each vein.
O second moon, we, too, are made
of water, of vast and beckoning seas.
We, too, are made of wonders, of great
and ordinary loves, of small invisible worlds,
of a need to call out through the dark.
“In Praise of Mystery: A Poem for Europa,” was released at the Library of Congress by the 24th U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón on June 1, 2023 in celebration of the poem’s engraving on NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft, scheduled to launch in October of 2024.
I would love it if you all had a poem to share! It is easy… just share one! And be sure you stop and see what Bonny has gathered with the link on her blog!
Last week, I shared that I was waiting for the arrival of more Tides to finish Shakerag Skirt #2… The Holst Garn shipping department is magnificent… It should have been here yesterday – 6 days from order to my doorstep, but thanks to the epically lame USPS it won’t be there until today. Once it arrives I will be back to knitting round and round… on my way through the decreases on towards the waistband and completion! A good thing because Shakerag Skirt #1 is getting heavy rotation… it is the perfect summer skirt!
Thankfully in the interim I have been in the Land of Knitting Delight… truly… Delight! Martina is the most ingenius knitting designer! The “teeth” arrive magically and the knitting is utterly wonderful. All knitting… so it is an almost mindless knit. My rows are getting longer so my completed “teeth” are slowing slightly but all this joy-filled knitting means that I am oh so close to the “weight” needed to move onto the next phase of the pattern!! Oh… and the delight is not just for the pattern… these yarns together are perfect… the colors work well together with enough contrast to make those “teeth” shine! It will be a welcome addition to my fall/winter wardrobe!
Now… lest you think that it is just Knitting Nirvana here… well! The reading has been stellar! I have read a book that I think will be one of the best I will read all year (if not THE best!) The Future by Naomi Alderman is that book… oh.my.gosh. I have not stopped thinking about it since I finished it last weekend. And couple that with my other finishes this week and well… my summer reading is off the charts good! I believe that Sarah Winman has become my favorite author of all time… A Year of Marvellous Ways was spectacular… magical… brilliant! And add to that the audio version of Mick Herron’s soon to be released The Secret Hours and you have the perfect week of reading!
And I have not yet left the Peak of Awesomeness in my reading… no, it continues. I began listening to Jenny Odell’s Saving Time (it is off to a rousing start!) and at night I am reading another ARC: Alice McDermott’s Absolution.
And!! With my eyes… the magnificent Project 562! I am so grateful that my library has a copy of this incredible work… I am in awe of the images and the stories contained within.
Mid-July life at its best… amazing project and spectacular reading. I’d like to freeze these days and stay here for a long time! (preferably sans humidity and smoky air!!)
That is all I have to share today… what about you? Please tell me what is bringing you delight!
As always, if you wrote a post to share, please leave your link below and thank you!
Welcome to this month’s exhibit which has been a bit hastily put together… I forgot that a new exhibit was due!
This month suggested exhibit: Put together a soundtrack for a day in your life. What songs do you choose and why?
What songs and why… well, I think the songs sort of explain themselves. But the why… well a perfect day is not every day. So the music I selected is for that perfect day.
I cannot start the day without coffee… really. And my favorite “coffee” song is Java Jive by The Manhattan Transfer!
Once that coffee is made and Sherman has been walked… I savor the quiet. Cue Simon and Garfunkel’s Sounds of Silence (I know, I know… this song is about much more than silence… but it still works!)
In my perfect day, I would have uninterrupted knitting time… and who knew there was a knitting song?! Thanks Bill Eddie for The Knitting Song!
As the day winds down, that magical hour arrives… you know it… the Happiest Hour! LOL UB40’s Red Red Wine works for most days!
The perfect day is one where I don’t have to answer the dreaded question… what’s for dinner. I so appreciate a night of “to go” delivered! We don’t do this often so when it happens it is a real treat! Manhattan Transfer’s Soul Food To Go…
I know I said the perfect day… but really… most nights Bruce Springsteen’s 57 Channels (and nothin’ on) is reality.
Finally… the perfect night means one with no insomnia… Bing Crosby’s Count Your Blessings from White Christmas has some great advice.
I hope you all found this musical interlude into my day as fun as I did! See you all back here next week!
I am in a bit of a “holding pattern” on my second summer skirt (darn and blast it… I am not going to have enough yarn so I ordered more yesterday) Sigh.
So I had no choice but to finish off that bit of spinning… which I did! Hello dear Hitch on the Move! I cast on yesterday… it’s early days but so far, so very good!
And… Thea Coleman dropped an enticing pattern this week. I have added “knit a swatch” to this week’s list!
The reading is much less rocky (although I did bail on a book that was just not for me) but aside from that book the reading has been wonderful.
I am reading A Year of Marvelous Ways in the morning with my coffee and I am about halfway through. It is delightful… but I am not enjoying it thus far as I have previous Winman books!
In my ears is an advance “listener” copy of Mick Herron’s latest – The Secret Hours. I am about halfway in and loving it. The narration (Gerard Doyle) is excellent! (and the story is not bad either!)
And I just began another advance reader copy of Naomi Alderman’s latest – The Future. I enjoyed The Power and, thus far, this is better… more twisted… and after getting started (it is a bit of a slow start) I am having a hard time putting it down to go to sleep!
So… my rough week of making is being moderated by my good reading! Ha!
What about you all, is it smooth making for you this week (I hope!!)
As always, if you wrote a post to share please leave your link below and thank you!
A new quarter… a new currently list. I love these post to look back on and see what I was doing 3 months ago but I hope you find something interesting or something inspiring in them too!
Soaking In —
Rainer Maria Rilke… I am so in love with him. I have been reading (again) through two of his books – Letters to a Young Poet and Rilke’s Book of Hours. The pages are becoming more dog-eared and I have underlined so many passages in each. And yet, if I turn back to pages I had read before… I still find something new, something moving, something inspiring. Recently, two things keep jumping out at me… surrender
“If we surrendered to earth’s intelligence we could rise up rooted, like trees.”
and live
“…the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.”
Surrender to the day and just live it fully! That is my new morning mantra. Good direction for my day and so I will joyfully continue soaking in some Rilke wisdom and see what else he has to show me!
Savoring —
The final episodes of Endeavor. It has been such a great series and I am sad to see it end, but I will be savoring each episode… and then I think I will queue up some vintage Inspector Morse to complete the circle. In the things I did not know category… I had no idea that John Thaw’s daughter had a part in the Endeavor series. She played the delightful Dorothea Frazil. I shall miss them all terribly! And if you have finished them… no clues please. Ha!
Appreciating —
While I am very much wishing that former me had spent more time thinking about what I would do with my Year of Stitching. And while I very much like each month, I have been stymied about the “final product” for them. I have toyed with a multitude of ideas on how to display them but they are each so big… I don’t have the wall-space to hang them! And so the conundrum of what to do with them continued….until I got some incredible inspiration from a much wiser maker about putting them together in a book. And that inspiration has me very excited. I have begun the process of pulling out fabrics to begin my “page” construction. I think there will be a bit more stitching as I pull each month together. I have some foolish idea that this won’t take all that long once I get everything cut… but my wiser inner voice is telling me that this won’t be a July Finish, but if I stay focused it will be the thing that gets me through the Heat of Summer!
And there you have my current situation. Of course, there are many other things going on… but these things are things I want to remember when I look back on my year. I will see you all back here Wednesday!
**Sorry about this, but I have no clue what happened to my published post, but it is MIA… if you are getting a second notification, that is why.**
July brings the beginning of the third quarter… and, more importantly, it means that I have done half a year of Temperature Stitching! To say I love it is an understatement… it brings me the greatest delight and I thing this will be stunning once completed and hanging on my wall! I love how I have moved into The Season of Yellows and Reds… and while I don’t love the 90’s (which are burgundy/purples) hopefully there won’t be any icy blues and chilly greens back until November! Ha!
Something else has been rattling around my head ever since Bonny shared it on her blog! Yes… Hitch on the Move has been consuming my thoughts and so I began to look to see what I might have in my stash to get it started! Imagine when I found a delightful skein that pairs beautifully with some Polwarth from Wee Chickadee that I was lucky to get from one of Cara’s destashes. I have been joyously spinning it up and have about a bobbin and a half full!
And speaking of spinning… I was divinely inspired with some Targhee in the Freshwater Pearls colorway (divinely… see what I did there, those sisters have some inspired fibers!) and I love how it turned out. It is a 3-ply fingering weight with excellent yardage (sorry, I have not weighed it yet to know.) I have no plans for it yet… I am just happy to squeeze it every so often… it is so squishy and soft!
I also am plodding along on my second Shakerag Skirt, sigh. This won’t be a 15 Day Knit but I am through the lace portion and am so close to being done with the optional necessary backside short rows! Then I will shortly begin the decreases and the mindless round and round. My hope is to have a second skirt to sashay around in this month though! So on I knit!
The reading has been good. I am back in Bath with Sully… and although I miss some characters (Miss Beryl for one!) the shenanigan’s are plenty! I am laughing and loving every bit of it. I am trying hard to slow down but it is a challenge! Ha!
I am also listening to The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida which is for the Read With Us gang. I am about half way though and the writing is so good (the narration is also so perfect!)
I had two finishes… I enjoyed them but I did not love either of them (Happiness Falls and Under the Whispering Door) but 3-star books are not bad reads (I had originally given Happiness Falls 4-stars but after thinking about it for a few days, for me it was not more than a 3-star read.) The problem is I have read much better books last month that might be coloring my opinion. Book Hangover is a thing and Sully is just the thing to clear my head! Ha!
Whew… this was a wordy post… sorry about that! What about you all… what is “consuming you” this week?!
As always, if you wrote a post to share please leave your link below and thank you!
