by Kat | Feb 18, 2022 | General, In This Moment, Poetry
these hips have never been enslaved,
they go where they want to go
they do what they want to do.
these hips are mighty hips.
these hips are magic hips — Lucille Clifton (homage to my hips)
This week I want to share some poetry that, I think, is one of the best ways to celebrate Black History Month.
Poetry has become part of my daily life… I cannot imagine a day without poetry. It opens my eyes… it opens my mind… it opens my heart. This month, I have been focused on reading a poem or two a day from Amanda Gorman’s new book of poetry – Call Us What We Carry (and it is so very good!)
I also spent some time Googling Poetry for Black History Month and I found some of the most wonderful rabbit holes that exist on the internet!
Of course The Poetry Foundation has a wonderful resource that includes poems, articles, and podcasts… there is just so much to read here! I have been happily working my way through every bit of it. Some poems were familiar to me and some were not. There was one that I knew as a song but I did not know that it was written by one brother and set to music by another brother! And speaking of that song… was it just me or did anyone else find it more than disconcerting that this song was performed outside the stadium (versus being inside? watf…)
If you’d like to start with a less daunting list… Read Poetry has 10 Poems to Celebrate Black History Month
Finally, if you want to add a book to your Poetry Library (because don’t we all have a Poetry Library?? And if you don’t, you should!!) I am excited to get Tracy K. Smith’s book, Such Color. (And I am loving Call Us What We Carry!)
I am going to close with one of the poems from Amanda’s new book:
& So
by Amanda Gorman
It is easy to harp,
Harder to hope.
This truth, like the white-blown sky,
Can only be felt in its entirety or not at all.
The glorious was not made to be piecemeal.
Despite being drenched with dread,
This dark girl still dreams.
We smile like a sun that is never shunted.
Grief, when it goes, does so softly,
Like the exit of that breath
We just realized we clutched.
Since the world is round,
There is no way to walk away
From each other, for even then
We are coming back together.
Some distances, if allowed to grow,
Are merely the greatest proximities.
Call Us What We Carry by Amanda Gorman, published by Viking Press. Copyright © 1921 by Amanda Gorman
Have a great weekend everyone… see you all back here on Monday!
by Kat | Feb 16, 2022 | General, Unraveled Wednesday
The Test Knit… she is finished! Wooo! I have even weighed my yarn and sent in all the pertinent details. Photos coming soon… I promise!
But today I have an almost finished Gnome… he needs a wee bit of blocking, some stuffing, a beard and some arms!
AND!! I started Vera’s Socks! (Petty Harbor – Ravelry Link) and I am not-quite mindlessly knitting the leg. It is some Rainy Day Yarn from my stash that I got from Wool & Honey… Dyed by Up North Yarns. Colorway: Market Day from Wool & Honey’s August 2020 Sleeping Bear Yarn Club.
I have knit another tooth on my Hitchhiker… but really it does not look much different from the last photo I shared with you all.
I was surprised to get my results on Monday from my mammogram… those results said “no visible malignancies” hmmm… are there invisible ones? It just seemed like strange wording to me… but what do I know. (Said results and those thoughts about invisible malignancies might have made me knit a wee bit faster on that Gnome! A plus, perhaps!)
The reading this week…I listened lots which helped me finish that test knit! I finished listening to Hollow Kingdom and started listening to Clint Smith’s How the Word is Passed. (Two books that you would think would be on opposite ends of the spectrum… yet perhaps they are not so far at all!) Anyways, I had 3 finishes this week:
Hollow Kingdom by Kira Jane Buxton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Whew… two dystopian novels in two weeks! This one was an entirely different take (and perhaps more believable than Home of the Living God, but a bit more rawly written)
The MoFo’s (humans) have brought about the destruction of life as they knew it. What is left are the Animals. Of course the “narrator” would be a crow named Shit Turd (S.T. for short) and I really loved him! Why? Because he was raised by a human and thinks that he is a human. So we travel through the book with S.T. and see things through his eyes…which is especially wonderful when he starts to realize just how flawed the humans are. Yes, there are some very sad moments…but the ending is quite spectacular.
I had originally given this book 3-stars but has since upgraded it to 4 because I can’t stop thinking about dear S.T.
Mecca by Susan Straight
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I was grabbed by the opening to this book: “The wind started up at three a.m., the same way it had for hundreds of years, the same way I used to hear it blowing so hard around our little house in the canyon that loose windowsills sounded like harmonicas. The old weather stripping played like the gods pressed their mouths around the screens in the living room, where I slept when I was growing up.”
I want to say I loved this book… but I just liked it. It is a compelling story – or at least that is how it starts. But then it takes some twist and turns, not all of which make sense and still don’t in the finishing of it. This story is one of Southern California… but not one you might expect. It is about people who have been in Southern California for eons and those who are brought by coyotes from Mexico and how the two, though very different, are considered the same. I loved learning about the history that Straight brings to life in the pages… the past sometimes merging with the present in a very compelling way.
Things I struggled with… there is lots of dialog in Spanish – with no translation. I also think that some of this book (about 2/3’s in) could have been edited out.
The ending was not at all what I expected.
I would like to thank Netgalley and Farrar, Straus, and Giroux for this ARC.
The War of the Poor by Éric Vuillard
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I don’t remember what (or who) directed me to this little book.
It is the bits of the story around the Protestant Reformation… or how everything old is new again. Or perhaps even better… how everything old is still here and simmering under the surface. The parallels between then and now are impossible not to draw…the ultra-wealthy, the working poor never getting ahead, and even crazy religious fanatics fanning the flames.
An interesting read and if history does indeed repeat itself….
That is all I have for today. What about you? Is there something you are knitting faster on this week?
As always, if you wrote a post to share please leave your link below and thank you!
by Kat | Feb 14, 2022 | General, In This Moment
It seems that last week we reached a bit of a seasonal tipping point, at least in Pittsburgh… the incremental increase of daylight is now pleasantly noticeable, there were also days last week that smelled like spring so despite this morning’s dusting of snow and bitter cold… I know that winter is in its waning days. The birds know it too and hearing their increased birdsong in the morning is a welcome treat! Yes, winter with a bit more light and some birdsong is not a bad thing!
But in your corner of the world does winter seem interminable? Even for those of us experiencing a “February Thaw” and some precious extra minutes of day light … we still have miles to go before spring gets here. This week I want to focus on me … it is not something I do often and I am reminded of these wise words from Katherine May’s Wintering: “When I started feeling the drag of winter, I began to treat myself like a favoured child: with kindness and love. I assumed my needs were reasonable and that my feelings were signals of something important. I kept myself well fed and made sure I was getting enough sleep. I took myself for walks in the fresh air and spent time doing things that soothed me. I asked myself: What is this winter all about? I asked myself: What change is coming?”
And that, dear friends, is the perfect quote for all of us on this Day of Love… how are we treating ourselves as we begin (or continue!) to feel the drag of winter?
I have had a “thing” on my To-Do List for far too long… get my mammogram. Sigh. I was supposed to go last spring and well, I allowed this to fall off my radar. So when I got an email on Friday that there was a “Love Your Breasts” Walk-in Mammogram clinic on Saturday…I went. A spur of the moment self-love act that is incredibly important. (Hint, hint… if you have not gone in the past year for your mammogram, pick up the phone and make an appointment!)
There are some other things on my To-Do List that I am going to stay focused on getting done this month… and shower myself with self-love.
What about you? What’s on your list!
Photo by Tim Mossholder from Pexels
by Kat | Feb 11, 2022 | General, Museum of Me
“Without Valentine’s Day, February would be … well, January.” — Jim Gaffigan
Welcome, Gentle Readers to the second exhibit of the Museum of Kat. We are going to be using the Way Back Machine today and I also have the BIG flash light just in case because we are going to the furthest depths of the Museum… watch your step and no lagging, please! Stay with the group so you don’t get lost on the way to our Valentine’s Day Exhibit.
You might think it is curious that we are so fixated on being loving for one day a year and if you do, I think your thoughts are on the right track! One thing I have learned in life… one day does not make love. One day does not make the year special. In fact… I think that how you show love on the other 364 days of the year are far more important than any single Valentine’s Day.
But I digress…today we are going to an exhibit on the Love of Extended Family!
So let’s go back in time… Stay together, please, the Way Back Machine can be fussy and leave some of you in an area that has not been curated… scary places, trust me!
We are going back to in time to a very much younger me…. I think I first realized that Valentine’s Day might be something to take note of was in school. Now I went to school long before anyone worried about a child’s self-esteem… suffice it to say, I never, ever brought Valentine cards to school to share with the other students. I was not the only child in this predicament… but we brought nothing, we were not allowed to participate in the “card exchange.” Sad, I know… but we all survived.
If you look at the sum of this exhibit, you might think it is very sparse on material…and you’d be right. However, it is not sparse on content. The content is incredible and despite the fact that I have been dreading this month’s exhibit because of the lack of content (I honestly worried that I’d have to post the Valentine’s Day cards from my ex… oy! lol)
But I persisted! And on a whim I opened a long forgotten box of things and found some treasures.
My sister, Susan, my Nana – Mae Jacoby-Huxhold, me, my Grandpa – Oliver Emil Huxhold, and Great-Aunt Marion Huxhold-Bollendorf. You can’t see in this photo, but my Grandpa is standing with the aid of a cane… this was the last year he could maneuver himself outdoors.
Rather than talking only about the treasures… I am going to talk about the treasure givers. I was one very blessed child to have not one, but two incredible and amazing Great-Aunts. My gosh, I loved them so much. Now… I looked high and low through so many boxes for a single picture of my Great-Aunt Sylvia (who lived in Kenosha, Wisconsin almost her entire life) but I could not find any pictures with her. What I do have is this fabulous picture from July 1965… My Nana (on the left) My Grandpa (in the back), and my Great-Aunt Marion (on the right). My sister, Susan, is in my Nana’s arms, and I am standing in front. This picture was taken at my grandparent’s house… and I remember this day very well. Aunt Marion and Aunt Sylvia were my grandpa’s sisters. Aunt Sylvia, was the second child of five, my grandpa was the middle and the youngest of two boys, and Aunt Marion was the fourth child… the second of three girls. (Oldest brother Albert, was named after their father, and youngest sister, Kathryn… who I am named after!) Aunt Marion and Aunt Sylvia were maiden aunts for most of their lives, but then came Uncle Fred Bollendorf. His first wife died, and his second marriage was to my Aunt Marion. We all loved Uncle Fred… he was the perfect addition to our family!
Whenever they came to visit my Nana and Grandpa, I always, always spent the night… and I slept downstairs with Aunt Sylvia. It was the best… that picture above… it was the first time I spent the night and Aunt Sylvia was so worried I would wake up and want to go home. But nope! I spent the entire night and in the morning we are all treated to the absolute best pancakes in the world made by my nana. The memories of time spent with these ladies are some of the sweetest ever and I cherish them!
Aunt Marion and Aunt Sylvia were the only people in my childhood who sent Valentine’s Day cards to us (My mom, dad, sister, and me) At least that is how it started.
Now I am a card saver… I think I have every card I ever received… honestly. So I am not sure what happened to any other cards they absolutely sent. All I have are these four, but I am so happy that I have them!
This card, which is 3-Dimensional, was sent to my entire family.
I have no idea what year this card might have been sent. The envelope is long gone… the price of the card though… 50 cents.
Then we have the cards that were just sent to me! Treasures, I promise you!
This sweet little bunny was from my Great-Aunt Marion
Again, I have no idea at all of a date on this card… but I believe this predate’s the “group Valentine” since the price is priceless… a whopping 15 cents!
Finally we have a card with some dates! Aunt Marion sent this in 1974 (I guess by age 13, I knew who was sending me this particular Valentine, but I love the “Guess Who”). It included a Love Stamp that in February 1974 was 8 cents. I know… it seems insane to me!
I think Aunt Marion knew I spent every moment I could in my Nana’s kitchen!
Finally, I have one single solitary card from Aunt Sylvia, which seems unlikely to me because I have dozens and dozens of letters from her. But one card was all I manage to save…
While I like the others very much, this one is my favorite.
Suffice it to say that flowers for Valentine’s Day are lovely and chocolate is too! But nothing beats these little bits of sunshine that I had all but forgotten from my childhood.
I hope you have some little bits that make you smile on Valentine’s Day too!
Thank you so much for visiting this very nostalgic exhibit. Now, if you all stay together once again the Way Back Machine will get us back to the present day! I so appreciate your taking the time to stop and listen today!
A big thanks to Kym for being the Master Curator for these posts!
Happy Early Valentine’s Day and I will see you all back here on Monday!
by Kat | Feb 9, 2022 | General, Unraveled Wednesday
The making this week has been entirely focused on the Super Secret Test Knitting I am doing… In a different world, I would be done already. But instead I am on my third try…yes, you read that right. The third try! First time… I cast on 4 too many stitches. And while I might just do 4 k2tog in real life, in Test Knitting Life that is not what the designer is hoping I will do. So… Ripppppppp! And start again. The second try I entirely effed up the pattern (because… somehow I thought when the designer said to “put markers” between sections… I did not think she meant me! Ha! I think she wrote that direction because of me!) Again… Ripppppppppppppp! (The second time I was a lot farther along… sigh.)
So today I have the exact amount of stitches, markers were placed exactly when the pattern says. And I am past all the previous knitting I did (albeit incorrectly) and, though I hesitate to say it, all is good!
Instead you have a photo of my Base 12 Hitchhiker in the brief but spectacular sunshine we had late yesterday!
I am hoping that I will be back to knitting a Cabled Gnome and that Hitchhiker later on this week! Fingers and toes crossed!
The reading, though sparse, was so very good this week!
The Lost Spells by Robert Macfarlane
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
A book to savor – and I did! I read it slowly in delicious little bites. A book to read over and over – I want to read this book until I have it memorized! A book full of beautiful artwork – oh my gosh, the artwork… it is just perfect.
I loved every minute of this book and I loved it so much I have purchased my own copy. I want to take this book to Presque Isle Park in Erie PA and read it to the birds, the water, the trees, and think about how beautifully written this book is.
I highly recommend!
Future Home of the Living God by Louise Erdrich
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Oof. This was a chilling read… but so brilliantly written!
Enter the world of Cedar Hawk Songmaker (perhaps the best name for a character… ever!) and what a messed up world it is. Some cataclysmic event has happened and the word as we know it is gone. It is both a journey of discovery and a journey of desperation.
For me… listening to Louise read her novel made the journey better for the listener. I might have missed things had I been reading… but listening, I allowed myself to be drawn along in the story as it unfolds.
And the ending… oh my. It was not at all what I expected… and yes, I cried.
I am excited because I have picked up Agatha of Little Neon and if the Knitting Gods keep smiling on me… I might be able to start reading it this week!
That is all that I have for today… what about you? What is on your making or reading radar this week?
As always, if you wrote a post to share please leave your link below and thank you!
by Kat | Feb 7, 2022 | General, In This Moment
We are just one week into February… how then does it feel like that week had way more than 7 days. Is it just me or does it feel like it should be the 17th of February?
I don’t think this bodes well for the remainder of my month! Haha!
What have I been doing in the past seven days? Hmmm, if productivity equals time… then in reality it should only be the second or third! Sigh.
What I have been doing is lots of thinking about Full and it’s Opposites (my list currently has the following: lacking, empty, inadequate, wanting, and incomplete.) And that last word has really been getting a work out.
Some years ago, I did a Year Long Stitching project and I loved every minute of it. I did not have a pattern, no charts, no direction… except my own. And for as much as I loved that project… it is incomplete. I stitched, I washed, I dried, and I readied them to be assembled… and they are *still* waiting exactly where I put them.
But I loved stitching so much, I thought that perhaps doing *more* stitching would help inspire me. So I signed up for a 100 Day Poject and I stitched for 100 days. And that has likewise sat, tucked away in my stitching basket.
Above you can see the “top half” of the 100 Day Project… this is the “bottom half”
Perhaps you can see where this is going. My thinking has turned back to stitching… it is a thing I miss… lots. I have tried to do cross stitch and it just does not bring the same joy… nor does it spark the same creativity. And in the past few days I have been looking at that 100 Day Project… and it seems…. lacking… unfinished… incomplete. (Exactly like the Year Long Stitching Project!)
As soon as I am done with my Super Secret Test Knit, I am pulling out both projects and plan to fill some of the moments from my week with them. I have an idea of what I want for the Year of Stitching… I just need to begin the work to complete them!
And it brings me great joy to think about filling in that incomplete 100 Day Project!
And those are the thoughts filling my brain on this cold, but very sunny Monday morning! What about you? What is filling your head right now!
See you all back here on Wednesday for some Unraveling!
by Kat | Feb 4, 2022 | General, In This Moment
Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world. — Nelson Mandela
It is Black History Month and in these days of an outrageous number of people wanting far too many books removed from libraries, I thought a good place to start this month is with books!
So I did a bit of Googling to see if I could expand my recommendations of books to include in your February reading and I found several great lists (that even included the books I have read!) I am sharing ones that I loved, ones that have been on my radar, as well as some that were not until I discovered them this week! I hope you find something you’d like to include in your February!
- Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019 by Ibram X. Kendi
- The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X by Les Payne and Tamara Payne
- Deacon King Kong by James McBride
- Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
- The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
- Between the World and Me by Ta–Nehisi Coates
- The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story by Nikole Hannah–Jones
- (and if you have children…) The 1619 Project: Born on the Water by Nikole Hannah–Jones
- Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson
- (Double digits… double books?) Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents and The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson
- How The Word is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America by Clint Smith (and if you are looking for a second Clint Smith book pick up Counting Descent... his poetry is wonderful!)
- You Don’t Know us Negroes and Other Essays by Zora Neale Hurston (I read Their Eyes Were Watching God and loved it so I am excited to read her collection of essays that was published posthumously)
Now I am off to do some super-secret test knitting for my favorite knitting designer. Which means my Base 12 Hitchhiker and the February Gnome will be gathering some dust… sigh. But I have a very short time frame to finish the Test Knitting… very short. Oy! My yarn arrived late yesterday so you know what’s next… Let the Swatching Begin! Haha! I am hopeful that the Knitting Gauge Gods will be smiling on the process…. my fingers are crossed!
That is almost all I have for this week aside from this wee tiny post script for all you Wordle fans… it seems that all good things must come to an end…okay so maybe Wordle is not ending but soon it will no longer be free. This closing paragraph to the article might be the most brilliant thing I have read all week:
I’ve learned my lesson. Don’t get attached. I’m staying lower than lo-fi with my games from now on. A brilliant friend of mine — he’s nine — plays a variant called “Wordle in Your Head.” He thinks of a five-letter word, and you guess. He replies with your progress: green, gray, gray, yellow, gray. So far, he hasn’t charged a dime.
Yep… World in Your Head with a nine year old sounds like the best thing ever… unless I can convince a certain six year old I know to try!
Have a great weekend all! I will see you all back here on Monday!
by Kat | Feb 2, 2022 | General, Unraveled Wednesday
This is what a ball of yarn looks like after you have cast on, knit a bit and ripped out every stitch… not once but twice.
Confession time: I put the ball of yarn in a bag with the pattern and needles and have not looked at it since last weekend – save to take the photo for my blog – then it went right back into the bag. One of us is in time out or perhaps we all are! Ha!
Frustration, Thy Name is Feather!
Yes, there is a very, very steep learning curve that was beyond my brain bandwidth last weekend. I need to do some practice… okay, who am I kidding. I need LOTS and LOTS and LOTS of practice with yarn that I may or may not knit into a hat, lol. In other words, some yarn from my stash.
And speaking of the yarn… can I confess that I do not like how the yarn for the hat feels… it feels somehow sinful to say this, but there you have it. I do not like the hand of the yarn at all. I am afraid that I will be knitting worsted weight yarn on US3 needles and that is a daunting prospect.
So… I did a good bit of Happy Knitting on my Base 12 Hitchhiker… Bonny… I got to the color change! I will be in the Land of Minty Green and Purple for a bit and it is a very happy place to be!
I also started my February Gnome! A wee cabled hat is in the works!
And there you have my making since we last talked!
The reading this week has been fun! And sometimes you just need to read for fun… right? I have The Lost Words from the library for 21 days… and I have read it every day since I picked it up. I think The Lost Words as meditation is quite perfect and it certainly goes extraordinarily well with my morning coffee!
The Lost Words by Robert Macfarlane
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Enter Macfarlane’s magical world of words and you will want to stay there!
This book is gorgeous. The artwork is stunning, but the poetry is simply perfect. Each acrostic poem succinctly describes the subject.
I happily dove into The Lost Spells… I think February should always have some time spent in Macfarlane’s magical world.
I loved this book so much that it will be my Valentine’s gift to my grandkids! I highly recommend!
While Justice Sleeps by Stacey Abrams
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Good, not great. Fast paced until it drags a bit towards the middle. Plausible until the ending… when all plausibility departs.
However, it was a fun read – I listened but I might have liked it more if I physically read it because I could “speed up” the slow bits.
If you are looking for a legal escape that includes a side of science on the side… this might be your book!
That is all I have for today… what about you? Did you have any struggles or successes last week? Please share!
As always, if you wrote a post to share please leave your link below!
by Kat | Jan 31, 2022 | General, In This Moment
It seems fitting that for this final Monday in January that I close out the month with some poetry and this poem by Linda Pastan seems perfect for today!
I think many on the east coast will be nodding their heads at Linda’s imagery! I hope this Monday finds you all dug out and back to a semblance of normalcy!
Blizzard
by Linda Pastan
the snow
has forgotten
how to stop
it falls
stuttering
at the glass
a silk windsock
of snow
blowing
under the porch light
tangling trees
which bend
like old women
snarled
in their own
knitting
snow drifts
up to the step
over the doorsill
a pointillist’s blur
the wedding
of form and motion
shaping itself
to the wish of
any object it touches
chairs become
laps of snow
the moon could be
breaking apart
and falling
over the eaves
over the roof
a white bear
Blizzard by Linda Pastan from Poetry Magazine, 1978
Happy Monday all! I will see you all back here on Wednesday!
by Kat | Jan 28, 2022 | General, In This Moment
It’s been a wintry week here in Pittsburgh… bitterly cold temperatures – which meant we had some sunshine! A knitter does not cry over cold… we have sweaters, hats, mittens, cowls, scarves… cold weather is every knitters dream! You know… the days you can wear.all.the.knits! And those slices of sunshine? Who all doesn’t need a bit of a Vitamin D boost as January draws to a close! The snow from our last snowstorm is still on the ground and this morning a fresh blanket of snow covered it. I love it when it is all fresh and white… it is visible reminder that each day we have a fresh start! Right?
Let’s see what’s in the mailbag this wintry Friday, shall we?
Dear Tinnitus,
I know you thought that you were winning the battle in my head. I am usually adept at ignoring the ever-present noise during the day, but night time is a different matter. You have been winning the Battle of Darkness making me a casualty of far too many sleepless nights. But! No longer! I have some new armor that is splendidly effective at silencing you! Bose Sleep Buds have banished you to the Halls of Brown Noise! It is a wonder what uninterrupted sleep does for a body! And even more wonderful what weeks of uninterrupted sleep can do! So take that, Tinnitus. You are down for the count… at least at night!
Sorry not sorry,
A well-rested Kat
My most beloved Imagined Landscapes!
As I draw to a close on my January Gnome… I just had to take a moment to stop and thank you for so many things… perhaps too many to list in one short letter! But I wanted to thank you for your Insane Creativity… my goodness, you are a wonder! After knitting Gnutmeg I can now knit jog-less stripes, I have a better understanding of planned increases, and you have watered the joy that had withered inside me! I have one wee little leg to go… but the Gnome Boot! Oh my goodness!
Anxiously awaiting my February Gnome and I can’t wait to see what you can teach me about cabling!
Your most adoring fan!
Gnon-stop Gnitting Kat
And with that… I say Let the Weekending Begin! (if only, right?)
See you all back here on Monday! Have a great weekend everyone!
