Monday | As Kat Knits

Hello, Monday! | 6.22.20

by Kat | Jun 22, 2020 | General, In This Moment

I discovered this weekend that there is a poem for Lamb’s Ear. As you can see, my garden has a sea of Lamb’s Ear! And it has an army of happy bees that spend their days marching the stalks to harvest every drop of nectar held within those “pink tongues”.

I swore off vegetable gardening after last year, but then the coronavirus changed what life looks like (at least from my perspective) And it made sense to put in a SAH Garden. Apparently, this was the plan of everyone else in the area as well because the nurseries were all cleaned out by Memorial Day Weekend. My choices were not usual, but perhaps that is a good thing. So new varieties of tomatoes are growing quickly and I even have some tomatoes growing on the plants! There are sweet peppers instead of spicy ones. And beans – yellow and green. One important key is that I planted what I can manage by myself, in case Steve bails on me again this year. Rather I should say, he has bailed. His gardening input was to add some fresh dirt to the beds. But, a garden planned for a solo gardener is not a burden at all.

My containers are not full of the usual things either, my thoughts are mixed on how they look right now. But I count myself lucky that there was one lone verbena left for me to get! The color is really lovely!

I am almost done with Clue Three of the TTL Mystery shawl… and my love grows for the design work! I will share photos on Wednesday – but it is the perfect pairing of yarn and pattern!

But!! I started swatching last night and I am very happy with my initial results. It needs a bit more knitting and then a nice bath. But, I think this yarn will work beautifully!

I hope your Monday is full of good things!

Work-ending

by Kat | Jun 15, 2020 | General, In This Moment

I would love to tell you I got all this knitting done over the weekend, but strawberries are ripe in the ‘Burgh.

And so, there was lots of hulling. Lots of macerating. Lots of rolling boiling. And lots of slow-roasting. And, as always, I want to thank Judy for this incredible recipe which made my house smell wonderful all.weekend.long.

We ended up with 10 pints of jam, which sounds like a lot but, they won’t last until next berry season! But oh boy, these jars are jam-packed with the taste of summer! There is nothing like a nice dollop of jam on yogurt cold, dark January. It is the tastiest promise of summer I can think of!

And in-between berry preserving, I pickled some jalapenos as well!

The jam making was a good diversion from my allergy misery. Oy, the itchy eyes, the sneezing… am I the only one, or does this year seem a bit worse than normal?

And here we are on a Monday, that feels very much like a lazy Saturday morning to me. Coffee and knitting anyone?

P.S. I did not want the day to go by with no mention of Rayshard Brooks. I read a post on FB yesterday about the need to think about the police in all this. Really? Here is what I think about the police… they believe they can get away with murder. I have zero respect for them. Zero.

Moving Monday | 6.8.20

by Kat | Jun 8, 2020 | General, Words

Writing is my salvation. If I didn’t write, what would I do? — Maxine Kumin

I heard a poem by Maxine Kumin last week and I have not been able to get it out of my head. It is the epitome of summer, and I just want to immerse myself in it…and never leave. It was the balm I needed to get through the week. I had not heard of Maxine Kumin so I did some Googling and discovered the quote above. I am nodding my head in agreement, writing keeps me sane these days. It is a bit scary, but I have almost filled my Pandemic Journal…and I am debating with myself; do I keep going or stop?

Today I want to dwell on the goodness that this poem holds:

Appetite by Maxine Kumin

I eat these
wild red raspberries
still warm from the sun
and smelling faintly of jewel weed
in memory of my father

tucking the napkin
under his chin and bending
over an ironstone bowl
of the bright drupelets
awash in cream

my father
with the sigh of a man
who has seen all and been redeemed
said time after time
as he lifted his spoon

men kill for this.

May your Monday be awash with good things.

Photo by Jenna Hamra from Pexels

Macro Monday | 5.11.20

by Kat | May 11, 2020 | General

I would love to share a post with all the exciting “Motherly” things I did this weekend, but well… on weekend nine (ten?) of Stay At Home… not much was different. We had snow/rain on Saturday and it was not warm enough to be outdoors on Sunday.

I did have calls with my kids… that was nice, but it would have been so much nicer to physically *be with them* (and honestly, there were tears all around)

Hilariously, PA is “opening Allegheny County” this Friday. However, without mass testing and contact tracing, I am not going to be running out to “re-enter” whatever used to be normal life.

However, I do have a couple of macro photos to share. Despite this miserable freaking weather, my chives have started to bloom! I love these little purple pompoms! They are one of my favorite things of spring!

That is all I have for today, I will be back on Wednesday for some Unraveling to share with you all. (And, for the next couple of weeks, it will only be Wednesday posts. I am taking a bit of a “blog vacation” but!! Wednesday’s will remain “vacation free days!”)

I hope you all had moments this weekend that brought you joy, see you all back here on Wednesday!