by Kat | 7 hours ago | General, In This Moment
Is for reveling in winter!
Yes, we have snow! Yes, it is cold! (although this morning’s 31°F felt downright balmy!!)
I cannot tell you the last time we here had snow that stayed on the ground for more than a day or two! It is simply delightful.
Winter might be even more delightful because I finished one Marled Sequence Scarf over the weekend! And, to be entirely honest with you, I was more than a bit sad to bind off that last stitch! This was truly knitting perfection… the colors pair with simple knits and purls. Glamor shots coming!
But… I had also signed up for Patty Lyons Beginnings and Endings Class last Friday. I got through one part, with two more to go but can I just say… Patty Lyons is a treasure! I could sit and just listen to her talk for hours! She has encyclopedic knitting knowledge! Anyways, I also swatched over the weekend and cast on a couple of times… with “meh” results. But once I deployed Patty’s first cast on… with rousing success… I knew I found my new knit project to see me through this month!
So, my dearest Mother Nature, when you bring the drop in temperatures later today with those “need all the layers” teens, I will have lots to keep me occupied inside where it is cosy and warm! And, I will have a freshly washed scarf to keep me warm!
Happy Monday Everyone!
by Kat | 3 days ago | General, Looking Back
It’s been A Week, hasn’t it?
In an attempt to keep my Clean Out List in my focus… I started with my closet yesterday while I watched the funeral service for President Carter.
I was percolating along at a pretty good clip until I discovered a box of loose photographs on the back of the shelf. I found it at the time that Steve Ford delivered his father’s moving eulogy. I spent the rest of the time remembering…
The box contained some envelopes of photos from my childhood but mostly they were photos of my kids that my ex decided were not “album” worthy. It is funny how a photo can instantly take you back… or maybe that only happens when you are decades past those children being small beings. One photo made me laugh and cry… There was a photo of 3 year old Heidi getting ice cubes from our brand new refrigerator that had an “in-door” ice dispenser! (a first for our household!) She would get ice cubes out for my beloved Clumber Spaniel, Picabo (yes, she was named after the skier!) Anyways, the image captured Picabo sitting patiently waiting for the next ice cube to come from Heidi. A treasured memory… I could hear her voice in my head.
I listened to people sharing such incredibly beautiful memories of President Carter as well… and while there were no stories about him feeding a beloved pet ice cubes… there were so many stories of he and Rosalynn working to make the lives better of people all over the world. It made me wonder how much more he did that we will never hear about… but I am sure that those tales are being shared where he and his beloved Rosalynn are.
Rest well, dear President Carter, rest well… you have earned it!
As for me, there will be no rest for me today… I have that closet to finish! Sigh.
Have a great weekend everyone! See you all back here on Monday!
Header photo by Miray Bostancı
by Kat | 5 days ago | General, Unraveled Wednesday
Greetings dear Unravelers and Happy Wednesday!
One week into January has brought winter racing in! Yes, we have snow and cold! And that makes me happy because it is exactly what January is supposed to be!
My son and daughter-in-law gave me a “Rolife Book Nook & Wonderland Garden House” for Christmas and I have been plugging away at it a little each morning. It has 24 pages of instructions and LOADS of teensy tiny parts but I am now on page 16… so I am getting close to finished!
All the fiddly bits, but soon this will live in the blue cupboard with the Gnomes!
I also have been feverishly knitting my marled scarf… I am on the second to last color and I am really eager to finish! I am having a bit of worry about having enough yarn for the last color change (I have not run out of any colors yet… but I got close on a couple of cones!) However, Cecelia said that following the color flow and not doing more than 118 rows with a color, I will have enough… so I am keeping the faith, despite having a niggling worry!
Also… in a huge note to myself regarding “eyeballing” my fabric piece for stitching last year… in the future, measure… measure… measure! As you can see, they are all different. I hope to get them pressed a bit, and evened up in size today. I am sure that at least one will need a bit of a fabric border.. how June is so dramatically smaller than all the others is beyond me.
2024 Daily Stitching
I finished a few books this week… The one I want to share with you today is Richard McGuire’s Here. It is a graphic novel, which is not my typical choice, and I have NO idea how this crossed my radar. But it was simply fascinating. I read through it twice… because I was certain I had missed things, and I did! Anyway… it is about “a corner of a room over a span of hundreds of thousands of years.” The book is based on his comic strip of the same name, which I was never aware of… but boy I am really sad I missed it! He has truly expanded my concept of “living room space”… who knew that a graphic novel would have me quietly thinking about all that a space can hold. I have not stopped thinking about it since. If you are looking for something to shake up your reading… try Here… it is a wonder of a book!
And there you have my first week of making and reading! Not a bad start… at all! What about you? What are you working on this week?
As always, if you wrote a post to share, leave your link below and thank you!
by Kat | Jan 6, 2025 | General, Welcome
JANUARY,
The first month of the year,
A perfect time to start all over again,
Changing energies and deserting old moods,
New beginnings, new attitudes
― Charmaine J Forde
And perhaps even knowing what actual day it is! Yes, hello, January!
Yes, I have spent the last two weeks in a “haze of days” where every day felt like a weekend. There were odd amounts of Monday’s as well, with each week having more than one… or so it felt!
But yesterday when I sat down to turn the page in my calendar to “peek into” this week… it felt very Sundayish and I am now ready to welcome a new month!
One that is not creeping in slowly, despite my “what day is it” confusion!
Already, I have accomplished BIG things… My new stitching is set up and I have even stitched every day!
Last year’s stitch pages have been washed and are now dry… ready for me to put them together.
And I have found a new rhythm with my Marled Scarf… I have just 3 color changes to go to completion!
So with all that already under my belt… what possibly else can this month hold?
Here are the other things I’d like to find space for this month:
- The Great Closet Clean Out! Yes, cold weather has finally set in so I need to put away the lingering “warmer weather” clothes and do a good sorting.
- The Great Pantry Clean Out! My pantry is the very bane of my existence, but I am determined to “start fresh” this month and bring some semblance of order to its shelves!
- The Great Desk Clean OFF! Ugh, really… just a huge ugh to this one. I want to find some “organizing accessories” to help me keep my space uncluttered, inviting, a space where I can write, read some poetry, and begin my day in a more orderly fashion… versus the absolute chaos it is right now!
And it is not just the “doing” of these things… it is the combination of doing them and keeping Frankie amused! Wish me luck!
Six days in… with a list that looks short but is really overly full! What about you? What do you hope to accomplish this month?
I will see you all back here on Wednesday with some unraveling!
Header photo by AS Photography
by Kat | Jan 3, 2025 | General, Words
As I said here, it is so sad that English words can be so lacking…
However, I aim to remedy that this year with my word choice! (or did this word choose me??)
I discovered Yutori last July when I was spending some time thinking about companion words for time. Of all the words I considered… most were not as symbiotic as Time & Space, which I found were almost always coupled together.
Time is a definite thing but space… what does that mean really? Outer space? Inner space? Personal space? Make space for…? Giving someone space? You see where I am going here… space is this unknown element. And I wondered how you could couple something so very definite with something seemingly boundless…
But in a rare moment of serendipity… the next “doom scroll” session I had on Instagram halted me in my tracks. A post giving homage to Yutori… with the most beautiful description of this Japanese word. And imagine my surprise when this post echoed the first a day later. (I know I should not be surprised… the algorithms are always at work and, for once, it was a good thing to have “them” paying attention!)
That led me to a quick Google search of Yutori… and I found this beautiful video with the most amazing explanation of what Yutori is in Japanese… a concept of space being both physical and emotional. A way to use space to stretch time. Making space (and holding) space as sacred. Yes, please!
A bit more Googling and I was reminded of this episode of On Being with Naomi Shihab Nye. She talked about Yutori as well! (Really, this conversation is just so moving… it is absolutely worth a listen or a relisten!)
I am very excited to spend a year with Yutori as opposed to saying I am going to just contemplate space, which seems a bit lacking. My hope is that in contemplating Yutori… I will have a new (and better) understanding for all the spaces in my life.
And… in the manner of Yü Chou… I am picking up my seed of time and taking a deep breath and continuing!
But, my hope is that YOU will decide to join us this year… contemplating a word over twelve months can be so much fun. It can be enlightening. It can be inspiring! I think that the hardest part is picking a word… but really, any word will do! Want more fun in your days? Do a quick search of the synonyms of fun… pick one and jump in! Want to learn about something? Pick a related word and begin your journey!
Perhaps you fear that 2025 will be The Year Without Joy… well you can make your own joy by making Joy your little word!
Perhaps you want something specific … take this test from the WaPo to find a word! (I have gifted you the article, read on with confidence!) (and if you are interested in the “other nudge word” article mentioned, here you go!)
It does not have to be hard! Really… you cannot pick a bad word! (Trust me, I have tried… I always have gotten something out of my word!)
If you want something more structured… let me know, I have some suggestions for you to get yourself started!
If you want word suggestions, let me know and I will gladly help you!
Carolyn still has her “how to get started” information on her website. She really helped me hone in on how to make my word work for me!
But, I think what is best about contemplating a word for twelve months… is the companionship of other people doing the same. I have learned so much from what they share each month.
Finally, there will be no change to the day we all share our progress… I will follow Carolyn’s schedule and will have the link up on the last Monday of the month.
I really hope you decide to join us!
If you have questions, please don’t hesitate to email me! I would love to help get you stared!
See you all back here on Monday! (is it just me or is everyone confused on what day it is? I have been off all week but I hope to get back on track and be here in a timely manner on Monday! Ha!)
by Kat | Jan 1, 2025 | General, Unraveled Wednesday
Happy New Year Gentle Unravelers!
As promised, this week is all about my reading last year. It was a good year… sort of. As I explained earlier as I was doing my year-end review of 2024… I discovered that I did not remember much about a lot of the books I read so I am not going to focus on the number of books I read last year… the number does not really matter because I honestly don’t remember much about most of them!
I think this is partially driven by my “Goodread” challenge, so you will note that I have not done that this year. I don’t need encouragement to read… and I most certainly don’t need to worry “will I hit my goal” either! This year my plan is to give myself some space between books… digestion space, as it were. I want more thinking time post-read so I am giving myself some space. So, no book goal… no race to the next book… and a more leisurely reading pace, I hope!
Photo::
I also have a nifty planner, thanks MDK and Felix Ford for the inspiration. This planner is going to provide a work space for several things this year… one of which will be for Book Notes! This also might help me write better book reviews which, imo, I am not the best at.
But what about last year? How did I end the year… what percolated to the top each month (and surprise, surprise… each month did have at least one book that lingered (and is lingering still!) So let’s get started:
January: the book that lingers still is Yangsze Choo’s The Fox Wife and I really loved it! I still think about it… I love it when a book lingers like that!
February: I have Read With Us to thank for this month’s best and very memorable book! Yes, it is Barbara Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible.
March: had two outstanding books, Andri Snær Magnason’s On Time & Water and Kaveh Akbar’s Martyr! On Time & Water really struck a chord with me. I began to think about time in a completely different way. It is a book that I want to read again… and yes it has lingered! Martyr! was just magnificent… the writing that Akbar used is something I still think about. And dear Cyrus… dear, dear Cyrus. I love it when a character takes up residence in your heart!
April: sometimes a retelling of a story changes everything and Percival Everett’s James changed everthing for me. It is surprising how much I needed an alternative to The Adventures of Huckleberry Fin.
May: found Erik Larson’s The Demon of Unrest as the best book of the month. This book absolutely has lingered and yes, it feels very relevant today!
June: the reading hit a sweet spot this month with Leo Vardiashvili’s Hard by a Great Forest, which is one of the books that ties for the Best of the Best of my reading. I love every bit of this beautiful story. Saba is another character who has found space in my heart.
July: sometimes a book is so fantastic it needs an immediate rereading! Carys Davies Clear was that book for me. Only 196 pages long, but those pages are just full of brilliance. The writing was sparse but the story is so deep. The other thing that was a win for me this month was my reread of Amor Towles A Gentleman in Moscow. Rereading a book does not always create the same feelings I had when I first read the book but, if anything, this reread was better than the first time I read it!
August: the best of reading apex entered this month with a whopping five books! Liz Moore’s The God of the Woods, Simon Van Booy’s Sipsworth, Brian Doyle’s One Long River of Song, Rainer Maria Rilke’s Sonnets to Orpheus, translated by Mark S. Burrows, and my reread of E.B. White’s Charlotte’s Web (this time read by Meryl Streep!) This is absolutely my best reading month!! Summer reading for the freaking win!
September: the reading was still so very good with Susanna Kwan’s Awake in a Floating City (which is my runner up to best of the best!) and Marjan Kamali’s The Lion Women of Tehran, the book that shares Best of the Best with Hard By a Great Forest.
October: I returned to familiar author’s this month with Ali Smith’s Gliff and John Boyne’s All the Broken Places. Two of my favorite authors with two magnificent, compelling stories.
November: Reading was a challenge this month… or perhaps it is better to say that my focus was challenged. Puppy training and interrupted sleep made focusing a challenge but I found two books that held my focus (and made me think!) Ta-Nehisi Coates The Message, which I have not stopped thinking about and I will be doing a reread of it early this year. And Jane Cooper’s The Lost Flock…if you love sheep, wool, and Scotland this book hits all those points and more! (And I have added some yarns to my “knit before I can’t knit” list.)
December: found lots of best of books. I reread Margaret Renkl’s The Comfort of Crows this year… slowly… a week at a time and I loved it even more than the first time I read it. I also read a poem or two a day from Poetry of Presence II – I did not make it to the finish line though, so I will continue on where I left off! I really loved the expanded version of Robin Wall Kimmerer’s The Serviceberry (she read the first iteration of The Serviceberry here.) The expanded version is so good (and if you listen to it, Robin reads it to you!) I also had an opportunity to read an advance copy of Billy Collins Water, Water: Poems. I finished it and immediately read it again… and then again… and I am now on my fourth reading!
There you have my Best of Reading for 2024. I highly recommend every book mentioned here!
Now, for a spot of New Year’s Day housekeeping! You will note that I also am not making any resolutions… nor am I setting any intentions this year. I will share my new word with you all on Friday (not making resolutions, setting intentions, or setting a book goal will make more sense then, I promise!) PLUS I will be including some information that I am hopeful that will inspire you to join me with your own word journey!
Now, what I am hoping you will do is share a book or two that you loved last year!
As always, if you wrote a post to share please leave your link below and thank you!
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