by Kat | Sep 3, 2021 | General, In This Moment
I am scraping the bottom of the barrel on finding anything good to post about today. Each week ends and I think how can it possibly get worse… and then it does. I am worried about where we go from here. NPR summed it up rather succinctly with these handy memes:
I think there is some significance to the number of laws that just took effect in Texas…I wonder if any of them will note the same? Also… if a Judge can give a more than 6 hour dissertation on the effing Sackler family and then agree to give them blanket immunity from future lawsuits… I mean, why even say anything? Much less the 6+ hour diatribe?
But, perhaps my most grating, irritating thing of this entire week of nonsense is the BS that Texas with the support of the SC (although my new girl crush… Sonia Sotomayor and you can read her glorious dissent in full here) pulled this week. So let me get this straight… these are the same people who want NO ONE to control what they do… i.e. no mask mandates, no vaccine mandates… you know, the “we know where we are going when we die crowd” of pro-life lunatics… yes… those same people want to control the very difficult and very personal decision a woman makes for her body. My rage level: off the freaking charts. And if you think this is just a Texas anomaly… well, this very legislation is most likely coming to your state next.
America… the Shit Show that is never-ending.
But on a mildly brighter note….I have not one but TWO finished objects to share with you!
The one bright spot this week was this… MaryJane Mucklestone’s new pattern dropped this week. And here is my duo of Stopover Cardigans! I posted a few more photos on IG yesterday. This pattern is very detailed and well written… and it is very size inclusive! MaryJane’s genius at knitting this sweater at a much looser gauge than the yarn is typically knit creates a light, but warm fabric and, miraculously, the weather has changed dramatically and I have been wearing one of the sweaters non-stop since yesterday! I knit mine with plötulopi and lettlopi yarns, but this would be wonderful knit in a non-super wash, woolen spun yarn if you are a person who can’t abide the itchiness of the Icelandic wools. Oh… and that needle-felted steek? Brilliant times 1,000! Yes it was easy. Yes it was quick! And I love how it sort of just melds the stitches together into a nice “solid” fabric that made cutting super easy and I loved it for kind of meshing together all the floats in the color work section of the steek!
That is all I have for this week. Be kind to yourself, remember to breathe, and I will see you back here next week Wednesday for some unraveling! (Yay for a long weekend!)
I found today’s header photo hilarious… I searched for “shit show” in Pexels and voila! Photo by Karolina Grabowska from Pexels
by Kat | Sep 1, 2021 | General, Unraveled Wednesday
Greetings Unravelers and Welcome September where I am waiting for the weather to flip the switch from heat and humidity to something a few degrees cooler and less moist!
**I apologize for the poor photo quality, but I tried multiple times on Tuesday to get “natural light” photos but all the spillover rain from Ida tossed a monkey wrench in that plan.**
Sometimes the “unraveling” means cutting off a waistband from a muslin I made this week to adjust the fit. It is my first Sew House 7 pattern and while the directions provided incredible detail for adjusting fit, the rise in the front is just too long…even with the adjustments I made. I can wear them with the band rolled over, but that really only works around the house, lol. So I am going to see if removing the waistband and removing just a bit of fabric from the front of the pants will make it a muslin I can wear out of the house! Plus, it will help me with the fit on the next pair of pants I make (and I do have plans for another pair!) I hope to have images to share once I have reworked the waist. Stay tuned!
One other fun thing happened in knitting this week. I got gauge for a sweater... with both commercial yarn (I am using Rauma Finull P2) and handspun! I am in shock… honestly. In. Shock! I started the sweater with the commercial yarn and that will tell me exactly how much yarn I will use to knit… so I can determine how long my sleeves will be on the handspun version! lol. This sweater if fairly flying off the needles… I have divided the sleeves already (and knit a couple of inches of the body post photograph!)
It was a banner week for reading this week! My best read… Isabel Allende’s soon to be published book, Violeta. I was fortunate to get and ARC from Netgalley and this book will absolutely be in the top five for best reads of the year! If your library has a copy on order… get on the list to read it! It is so good!
Atonement by Ian McEwan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Sometimes I just need some Ian McEwan writing in my day… this book filled that void for me – perfectly. I have not seen the movie (but after reading this book, I am not sure I want to… nothing could beat this writing…this story…and how McEwan masterfully unravels it for us)
McEwan always makes me think, and Atonement sure did. Can you ever make up for things you did…knowingly or unknowingly? It is a question that I will ponder for a long time. If you think McEwan is hit or miss… this is a hit. I listened to the audible version and the narration was excellent.
I very much recommend this book!
How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House by Cherie Jones
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This book was a very hard read, but it is just so beautifully written. The stories are not easy to take in (and this book has triggers for rape, incest, domestic abuse/violence, prostitution, and drug use to name a few… )
The writing is what really drew me in… the stories are so compelling. I did feel that there are some superfluous characters that I did not find a connection to the stories… they could have been edited out. But it also made me think of life… we have superfluous people in our lives that do not know what is really going on in our lives… they just see the snapshot that we share.
Violeta by Isabel Allende
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Epic. Spectacular. Compelling. Allende at her best!
From the first pages, Violeta drew me in. The writing is captivating and the story is so engaging. I wanted to know ‘what’s next’ and had trouble putting it down!
This is a story of Violeta’s life… it is one very long and loving letter written to someone she deeply loves. The story includes Chilean history (which I knew very little about) and bookends the life of Violeta tucked between two pandemics. It is brilliant and I found that bit of irony so perfect and gave an incredible glimpse into the unique life Violeta lived. If you think a person cannot change, this book will show you that change is absolutely possible… you just have to want it with everything in your being.
I want to thank NetGalley, Ballantine, and Random House for this ARC and this is my unbiased review of this book.
I highly recommend it! Really… this is a must read book!
As always, if you wrote a post to share, please leave your link below and thank you! I will be back on Friday!
by Kat | Aug 30, 2021 | General, Words
“Incredible change happens in your life when you decide to take control of what you do have power over instead of craving control over what you don’t.” ― Steve Maraboli, Life, the Truth, and Being Free
August…eight months “in” on release and still…the struggle remains real.
I started off the month in a good direction or at least I thought I did and then I just sort of set everything down and ignored it.
Because sometimes, I am my own worst enemy. It is easy to identify things that need to be changed in around me… but turning the lens inward is not as simple… or easy.
My notes to self this month simply said:
recognize things I can change versus things I cannot change
And there is my wisdom and my failure all in one little phrase. Like I said… the struggle is real.
Thank you, Carolyn for providing the space for us to share…and make sure you stop by and see how everyone else did with their word this month!
by Kat | Aug 27, 2021 | General, In This Moment
In a week of disturbing incidents… so many… too many… I thought a bit of a calm might be just the thing. Just a bit to allow us to take a breath… so we can remind ourselves to breathe.
Thinking about not thinking —
Because this week thinking is a bit overwhelming. What I have done instead is gather all the woes of the week in my morning meditations and then released them to move forward with my day. They are not all magically gone or fixed, but doing this frees me to move past those big things to function…and breathe…during the day.
Geeked —
For September!! (Hello, LAST Friday in August!!) These late August days have been a bit much. Days on end of heat and humidity are just…wearing. Ten minutes in the garden and I am dripping wet. I am anxious for less humidity, cooler nights, and open windows! Yes, I am very thankful for central air… but gosh, I am so ready to turn it off!
Inspirational —
Lots of things are filling my head in these late August days… one of the main things is FALL KNITTING! I mean, is there anything better in life? I think not. I have been making some notes about an altered shape Pressed Flowers. Up next is to order some yarn to begin this exciting journey!
The next thing that I have been unable to get out of my head is the #SeaGlassTee tag on IG. I have gotten to the point of getting a container to start pulling together all.the.yarn.scraps. No “start date” or even if there will be a “start date” but I need to see if this is even a possibility. Stay tuned.
The final thing is a new pattern that dropped this week from Sew House 7 patterns… Romney Gathered Dress/Top…yeah, and I have some very drape-y fabric that I think might be perfect for it!
Fact-Checking —
Steve sent me this and I was not quite certain it was correct. Because I can think of lots of presidents who are infinitely quotable and Grant does not usually make that list. And, lo and behold, it is! Tucked inside that speech: “…Grant remarked that “if we are to have another contest in the near future of our national existence I predict that the dividing line will not be Mason & Dixon . . . but between patriotism & intelligence on the one side & superstition, ambition & ignorance on the other.” He went on to say, “Encourage free schools and resolve that not one dollar of money appropriated to their support . . . shall be appropriated to the support of any sectarian school.” How eerily true Grant’s words are!
See you all back here on Monday!
by Kat | Aug 25, 2021 | General, Unraveled Wednesday
Greetings Unravelers!
This week I have the big reveal of my summer mystery knit. Let’s face it, sometimes mystery knits sound exciting but the end results…not so much. I have knit many a mystery shawl that are never, ever worn. It is a sad thing to invest time to making something that does not spark much of anything other than a lovely “basket adornment”…amirite?
Well, this is NOT any of that. This is my Bee Hive Shawl and I love every last thing about it! (FYI… it is also known as the Waggle Dance Shawl which I think is possibly the worst name ever for a shawl… lol) This is the first design I have knit of Anne’s in ages and it was a lovely reminder of the joy that knitting one of her patterns is. She is a detailed knitter and her patterns reflect that detail. She charts things *and* includes written instructions. And I loved her tips for making all the cabled stitches easier (and so much faster!) This is the first time I have knit with Anne’s yarn line (Bare Naked Wools) – I used Targhee Tango Sport and I loved it.
This shawl is sort of a scalene triangle shape with a nice, gradual stretch of decreases before binding off. Decreases only happen on one edge of the shawl and as I was knitting, I worried it would be not an easy shape to wear but it blocked out beautifully to Anne’s dimensions and I can tell you that it is infinitely wearable. (Now if only the 90’s with all.the.humidity would depart so I could wear it!) I knit the tall size and I don’t think the petite size would be as wearable for someone my size.
I love the color, the texture, and the wonderful, squishy feel of the fabric. If you are looking for a single color shawl to knit, I highly recommend this pattern. It is knit with a sport weight, woolen spun yarn… which means it is lighter than air and will be a wonderfully warm layer which hopefully I will be utilizing soon at least in the mornings for Sherman’s walk!
All this heat makes working on a woolen sweater seem not the thing to do, but my plans for today include a bit of crochet and then getting acquainted with these as I needle felt the steek on my test sweater.
My stay-cation really amped up my reading in the best possible way! First, I ran across this article about the book club I joined this summer. I am excited to continue on with them as we read and discuss Caste: The Origins of Our Discontent in the fall.
Black Diamond by Martin Walker
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
A mystery within a mystery, but are they connected?
Again, I learned about Benoît “Bruno” Courrèges and his little corner of the world… which sounds incredible (if you discount the murders, lol) with the local wines, truffles, and simple foods coupled with the lovely inhabitants of St. Denis make it the perfect place to visit through the pages of Walker’s writing.
If you are looking for a semi-cozy read (there are murders after all) in the French countryside… this is a lovely series.
This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
This book really struck out for me. To me, it seemed so trite… too religious… to preachy.
If this had just been a story that one might possibly find believable, it might have worked. Sadly, it was not and I do not recommend this story.
Moscow Rules by Daniel Silva
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I have no idea if “Moscow Rules” are a thing but this book invites you to come along on a mission inside Russia… I am loving how Allon’s team has grown into a family which is perhaps the exact family he needs. I highly recommend this series!
The Heron’s Cry by Ann Cleeves
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Welcome back to North Devon and book two of the Two Rivers series! Come and spend some more time with Detective Matthew Venn and his team. We get to know them all a bit more…with all their faults and foibles. However, I began to see how the team is gelling together… how each team member has strengths that might just over come their weaknesses!
Of course, there has been a murder… an incredibly well crafted Cleeve’s murder. This book had so many twists and turns as Matthew and his team begin to unravel the case. I changed who I thought “did it” numerous times during the listening and I was shocked at the ending. (But I should not have been… Cleeve’s is an incredible mystery writer!)
I loved this story and highly recommend you read it ASAP!
I was unbelievably fortunate to receive an audio ARC of this book. And I would like to thank NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press and Minotaur Books for providing this ARC for purposes of review.
No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Wow!! Just wow. The first half of this book (re)introduces you to the insanity that is our life with social media. It made me laugh. It made me mad. And it made me very uncomfortable and very unsettled.
And I wondered where Lockwood was going with all this… and then came the second half. So the question forming in my mind was this… what is the life you want to live. What is important. What do I want to spend my time with.
Things that I am going to think about every time I open a social media platform.
If those are questions that have rattled around your brain, this might be the book for you.
The Defector by Daniel Silva
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This book is a continuation of Moscow Rules and we find Allon’s team heading back to Russia to finish what they started.
The continued story is not without its toll though and the big question that lingers throughout the book seems to hang over every page… will this be Gabriel’s last mission. Is he hanging up his spy work and leaving The Office behind? I don’t think so because there are lots more books in this series, but you see the cost that this work brings to the team.
Also… Allon stories are not good for sleep, as in once you start you just cannot stop!
I very much recommend this series!
That is all I have to share for today. What about you? What are you excited about making or reading?
As always, if you wrote a post to share please leave your link below and thank you!
by Kat | Aug 23, 2021 | General, In This Moment
Just to show you all how completely out of sync my brain is… I thought that today was the day to update you all on my word.
Good thing that I have one more week for that so that I can try and do something with my word this month because I have basically avoided my word this month despite my inner-self trying to get me back on track:
Self: Hey… you should be moving forward with something on release.
Me: Lalalalalalala… I don’t hear you!
Self: How about ANY.THING?
Me: ….
The theme for this month… one bite at a time… so in this last week of August I am going to try a bite or two on my word. Maybe. Hopefully….?
Anyways, I am back and it feels good to be back despite not really accomplishing momentous last week. I had over-achiever goals of having a blog break filled with epiphanies! And… I confess that there was not a single epiphany. Nope… but what I do have is a whole lotta bupkis, drowning in the Sea of Overwhelmed.
Is it just me or does it seem like All The Shite is hitting the fan at.the.same.time. COVID numbers are once again insane. Voter Suppression is alive and well and expanding in America. The news seems to be all bad and on steroids… even my 15 minute Up First fix in the morning is overwhelming. I don’t know about you but my stress level is moving to the Off The Charts range once again. Sigh.
In the plus column for my week away… I have a well-cleaned refrigerator thanks to 18 hours without power. The freezer fared much better with only a few things lost, whew! I taped two “pattern puzzles” together and got them both traced off! I have a finished “neutral” shawl for the fall (big reveal on Wednesday!!) and I also have finished the knitting of my second test knit sweater… it needs a soak, a little blocking, and some button bands (I am going with crocheted bands this time) and then a bit of needle felting the steek – so while it is not completely done, it sure feels like the biggest part of it is! And for once, I do NOT have a new project ready to cast on! Instead, my plans for this week include getting two pairs of pants and a shirt cut out, marked, and begin sewing!
That is all I have for today! How was your week?
I will see you all back here on Wednesday to Unravel some reading and knitting!
by Kat | Aug 13, 2021 | General, In This Moment
My plan was to post something this morning to let you all know that I will be taking a little blogging break next week. I am not going anywhere, but I am in need of a recharge of my brain…creativity…etc.
But last night some huge storms rolled in and with one very large BOOM… we were suddenly without power. It was a long, warm night and has been an even longer, warmer morning.
However, the power is FINALLY back on. Now comes the fun work of tossing things from our refrigerator (I am pretty sure 18 hours will mean the end of most of the perishables.)
I have one freezer that is not kept very full so I fear most of it might be lost… but it really only has partial bags of things. Opened things. So that won’t be a great loss.
The other issue is that in the great onslaught of rain (we got more than 4 inches of rain!!) we have some water in the basement… so now begins the “mopping up” and then…Let the Laundry Begin! LOL
Anyways. I won’t be here at all next week…no Unraveled Wednesday. I will be back on Monday the 23rd. I hope you have a great weekend and an even better week next week!
by Kat | Aug 11, 2021 | General, Unraveled Wednesday
It has been a slow week for making this week. But!! I am on my second sleeve and happy to have this easy to pick up and put down project right now. But it is just all so much of a grey blob, isn’t it? I thought I’d share the ribbon I found to cover the steeks… I love it! Scissors ribbon, FTW! I think I am going to order this contraption and give a needle-felted steek a go. Stay tuned!
The other bits of making I have been doing is a little bit of stitching every day… and I have a couple of snowmen to show for it! I am really enjoying getting back to this craft and I am LOVING my Ottlite! It is exactly what I needed!
It has also been a slow week for reading with just one finish. But I do have one brilliant short audio story to share as well!
First up, my finish this week… so. darned. good!
The Searcher by Tana French
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I loved this slowly unfolding story so much! I loved Cal (and I hope this is the not the last we will hear of him) I loved Trey and ‘his’ determination to find the truth. This is a “settle in” novel that you might feel has a slow pace, but that pace is vital to allowing us to get to know the *all* the characters, including the setting itself. I did not know what a rook was, thank you Google for the assistance! The character development is just brilliant and the ending was so unexpected. If you are looking for an engaging story, this is it! I highly recommend!
The other very good “finish” this week was this week’s episode of LeVar Burton Reads… it was a riveting listen of a brilliant and moving short story by Louise Erdrich. It was so good! If you don’t normally get LeVar’s weekly podcast… this is an episode you might want to tune into! (4-stars, and the narrator is the best!)
Finally, thank you for all your input into Pressed Flowers (and for remembering that Kym had knit one!) I am pondering colors and will be adding this to my fall knitting list! Yay!
That is all I have for today! What about you? What is capturing your attention this week?
As always, if you wrote a post to share please leave your link below and thank you!
by Kat | Aug 9, 2021 | General, In This Moment
Is for seeking input!
Last week we had a wee break in the heat and humidity, but that all ended over the weekend. This week is supposed to be warm and so humid. But that break…it makes me think about moving out of this season and easing into autumn.
It’s been such a strange summer… this was my “harvest” from this morning. Six little cherry tomatoes…sigh. I talked with someone this weekend who is having no better gardening luck that I am… and they garden on a much larger scale than the tiny garden we have.
But rather than dwell on the disappointments to start the week… I thought I’d ask the Knitting Hive Mind for some knitterly input. I have been thinking about Pressed Flowers …lots! I have even dreamt about it! (sorry, Ravelry link… I looked for other ways to share the shawl, but alas… Rav appears to be the only place Amy sells her patterns.) It would be a lovely thing to knit this fall and I think some of you have made it, but I honestly can’t remember if that is true. If you have made Pressed Flowers, what are your thoughts? Is it wearable…or maybe I should ask, Do you wear it often? I am contemplating using plötulopi to knit it with… my vision is a light, but warm layering piece.
That is all I have for this morning! See you all back here on Wednesday and I look forward to your Pressed Flowers input!
by Kat | Aug 6, 2021 | General, In This Moment
An overly full week is winding down. Stress seems to be intent on becoming the center of our lives… and I pondered in my morning meditations if my fighting against the stress was causing more stress than acknowledging the stress and moving on around it. (I am pretty sure I just answered my question… but still, the struggle is real.)
This week, Mary helped me with the word I have been feeling about COVID numbers…. Fraught. All.the.fraught.feels. I confess I am struggling to muster any empathy for those who are causing the “Pandemic of the Unvaccinated” and I overheard my neighbors pride in not being “Fauci Sheep” – they are maskless and proud of their unvaccinated status. They are not alone on their stupidity… my county is now in the “substantial zone”. I hope I am preaching to the choir here, but if you are not vaccinated – please, please, please! Speak to your family physician and ask them to vaccinate you (or explain what the vaccine is, what it does, and – most importantly – what it won’t do!)
Despite the Stress Battle and Fraught Feels, I did manage to carve out some time for a few good things this week…
My woefully sad patio pots have started to show some improvements. I would say that we must have gotten some bad dirt, but my herbs are going like gang busters and they are in the same dirt… so I am not sure what’s up with the pots this summer. But, at least there has been some growth!
My freezer has a 7 “basil bombs” tucked away for a summery reminder in a wintery meal! I also am hoping that I will be able to harvest one more cup of leaves before summers end to steep in some vodka!
I have been wearing my new sweater and I am LOVING the versatility of it. It is perfect over a pair of wide-legged pants and is also works well over a tunic and leggings. I have made a notation in my April ’22 calendar to cast one on for next summer! (That was my huge AHA moment this week… making notes for my future self on projects I want to make, but not right this instant!) I had been toying with the idea of swatching for another sweater with Tides… however I am not getting gauge, but perhaps that is a good thing. I have some sleeves to finish and it will be so lovely to have not one, but two new Lopapeysa’s in my wardrobe later this year!
I had been struggling with my “Summer of Pastels” and I hit a wall in my creativity… I was stuck. Really stuck… I looked at this every day last week… and added nothing. But this week I took a deep breath, picked up a piece of chalk and began again. Sometimes only for a minute or two, but those minutes helped get over the hurdle. Is it perfect? Nope. But I was reminded of something important… quitting does not ever help. I feel back on track this morning and I am eager to start a new piece! (you can see the image I used for inspiration here)
The final good things that occurred this week were inspired by Dr. Kendi’s podcast. I listened to two episodes this week that have given me some new things to think about. (My inspiration this week… Repairing the Past and Prison and Police Abolition)
And that is all I have for this week! I hope your weekend is full of good things and I will see you back here next week!
