August is sure Augusting! The warm hot weather and the humidity are back with a vengeance. I am doing my best to avoid it… early morning walks and then mostly hibernating in the AC.
Bonus, I can return to eating real food this week! Woot! Hello all the veggies and salads! I am planning to make the bean salad Vera shared last week… my mouth has been watering for it! I do love a good bean salad!
I will be back tomorrow with a stitching update!
Happy Monday everyone!
Greetings dear Unravelers and Happy First Wednesday of August!
First, thank you all so much for the tips you shared last week about weaving in cotton ends. I begin that process soon but for now my focus is on Blanket No. Two, which is underway… barely, but I have started it.
I ordered some Knitpicks Swish DK for the trio of Welcome to the Flock sweaters. My goal is to get this blanket done and then give myself a bit of a blanket break while I knit a “flock” of baby sweaters! Then it will be back to blanket knitting for Heidi’s baby. I really am enjoying baby knitting… which is a good thing! Ha!
As you can see, I did finally get my clothesline installed. Yes, with a single line… which is quite… inefficient. Was this what I asked for? Not in any way, shape, or form… this is what I described to the gentleman who installed it. So imagine my surprise that when the gentleman installer asked Steve for clarification on what I wanted and between the two of them they determined that I did not need more than one line. A decision made by a person who has never done laundry in all the years I have known him determined himself to be a “clothesline expert.” Has this been a point of contention in my house since its installation?? Yes it has… A very big point of contention that I am not over yet.
I knit this blanket using the Purl Soho prescribed color order… Blanket No Two is going to have a different line up!
In an effort to distract myself… I have been diligently researching the plethora of medicare choices so I am ready to sign up when October rolls around. It is a. lot. And it feels very much like I have been launched into an advanced calculus class and I don’t even have all my multiplication tables memorized! (at least that is the analogy that seemed to fit best for me!) I feel like there should be a worksheet that you can fill out which would direct you to the option that would best fit your answers… perhaps somewhere one exists but I have yet to find it.
As for the reading… I want to talk about a new book I finished this week (well, not really new, but newly translated from Italian to English) The Letter Carrier by Francesca Giannone. It was so, so good. The writing immersed me completely in Salento, Italy… and I fell in love with Anna, The Letter Carrier. It is a story about life… and so much more. It is about making a new home and trying to not be “the outsider” any longer. It is about returning home after being away for a long time. It is about family and friends who become family. It is about what you share and what you hold secret and how those things can alter your life. It is about making a difference in the community you live in. It is about love and loss. It is about being independent… yet still being a part of someone else and trying to find the balance between those two things. It really was the most beautiful story I have read in a very long time and it is one that will stay with me. If you are looking for the perfect book for August… try The Letter Carrier!
Finally… a bit of news that falls firmly into the delightful category. As a long time listener to The Slowdown podcast… I was over the moon to discover that the new host has been revealed…Maggie Smith will settle into the seat and will be sharing a poem every weekday beginning on August 18! If you have not been a Slowdown listener, you might want to become one because Maggie. Smith!!
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Hello and Happy Tuesday!
The moderate temperatures sans humidity continue here in the South Hills of Pittsburgh… I am hoping these days stick around but the forecast tells me that is not likely, sigh.
I did make process on the windows with their delightful little window boxes this week. I have one top window to go and then I think I will finish the stitching above these windows before heading down to the bottom windows, the door, and the blossom filled tree. There are still miles to go on this project, but even if I can only snag a scant 15 minutes to work on it in a day… I make progress!
The spot with a clear line of sight of our bird feeders…
This week, we have had a visitor that has unsettled all the other birds. This Red-tailed Hawk has been a very regular visitor this week. He fears neither me nor Steve. He is quite content to engage in a bit of a “stare down” with us. The other birds complain rather loudly about his presence. I have told him that I am happy for him to take any of the starlings he’d so desire… but please leave our Cardinal pair alone!
I also treated myself to a window feeder last weekend… I am eagerly awaiting the birds finding it!
Happy stitch-y Tuesday everyone! See you back here tomorrow!
If one could “order up” a weekend, it would have been like the weekend we just had! Not a lick of humidity in the air so I opened the windows and let August in!
Breathe the sweetness that hovers in August. — Denise Levertov
August is the month of slow start mornings… right now the sun is not rising here until well after 6:00AM (and really closer to 6:30 AM) so the morning feels like it has a reverent, hushed quality to it – even the birds are quiet – and by the end of the month sunrise time will be edging closer to the seven o’clock hour! I love these slow start mornings so much… before the start of school diminishes the current solitude of the morning. Perhaps these slow start mornings are what Ms. Levertov is talking about with her August quote… there was plenty of sweetness to breathe in these first few August days!
This week ushers in a week of not my usual eating… I have some tests next Monday (an endoscopy is the main reason but they are doing my colonoscopy as well) No raw vegetables, no whole grains, no nuts… sigh. The nurse who went over the diet with me seemed excited for my “week of white bread and carb loading”… I wish I shared her enthusiasm…sigh.
August will find me continuing to knit for babies… I have blanket number two underway. Each stitch is filled with love for these new lives soon to be part of our family. I was delighted to see that Julia Farwell-Clay will be welcoming a grand baby this year as well and she has begun knitting her Welcome to the Flock sweater. I think I am going to join her and knit a trio of them for the coming babies… it will be the perfect sentiment to welcome them to the flock of my grandchildren!
I have reworked a few of the “daily stitching guidelines” to make the layout work for the remainder of the year… just 5 months to go. Which sounds so long… and so very short!
July stitching…
But mostly, dear August, my plan is to breathe in deeply of the sweetness of your days!
Happy Monday and Happy August! I will see you all back here tomorrow when I join Vera with a cross-stitch update!
Greetings dearest Unravelers and Happy Last Wednesday of July!
Was it just me or did this month have two distinct qualities… the fast month ever and… at the same time… the slowest month ever! I am daily trying to stay in the moment each day… not always easy to do when the the fire hose of angst about the state of the world coupled with the unrelenting heat and humidity made for days that felt like they were dragging… and yet, how is August almost upon us!?
I have set aside some pages in my journal to write down some gratitude thoughts each day… not exactly a list, but close. Is it helping? Yes… I think it is… so I am continuing with it.
I am racing to the finish on Baby Blanket Number One, just one color to go! I am a bit worried about weaving in ends so that they will stay woven in. Do any of you have some tips or tricks for weaving in 100% cotton yarn and having it say put? Please share! I will be casting on Blanket Number Two as soon as I have cast off this blanket!
Last week, I took Dana Williams-Johnson’s dog sweater recipe class… and I loved every second of it! I have taken notes, done some measuring, and have charted out some “swirls”!! I am eager to cast on a sweater for Frankie so we can be twinning with our Swirly Attire! And no… I am not using a pattern! Who am I?! (Gauge + Maths = All The Info I Need!)
The reading has been delightful! I finished Threads of Empire: A History of the World in Twelve Carpets and I loved it! It was so full of history… so full! I loved every bit of it… telling history through textiles seems to me to be the most significant way to tell history! I loved thinking about all the history that these carpets absorbed… what they hold… and what we can learn from them. If you like history and like being surprised… you will love Dorothy Armstrong’s book! I highly recommend!
I went from reading Threads of Empire to settling in with The Letter Carrier by Francesca Giannone (recently translated from Italian to English). I am about a quarter of the way in and I am loving the writing, the translation, and the setting. The writing is beautifully descriptive… I can almost smell the basil! (Ha!)
I continue to spend time with Chief Bruno with the next book in the series. Summer reading for the freaking win!
So as July draws to a close, how is your summer going? What are you hoping to still accomplish as summer blazes on?
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