by Kat | Sep 2, 2025 | General, Welcome
September showed up right on schedule, and lasted a whole month.
— Jenny Wingfield
Hello September… right on time again!
I am old enough to remember when September was my least favorite month. Sad endings and beginnings… The end of summer reading and the beginning of school… sigh. It is almost comical how having children changes ones point of view… back to school might not such a bad thing after all! I am thankful to say that my children enjoyed the return to school… for the most part and we were a reading household… no one ever complained in my house if someone was reading!
I have come to love September for its incredible light… the days of long shadows are delightful. And though we have had a spate of crisp, chilly mornings… I know that there will be plenty of warm sunny days to be outdoors appreciating those long shadows!
I don’t have a long list of things I want to accomplish this month… or perhaps it is better described as a not very varied list because there is a good amount of knitting! I figured out the key twist to success for those first and last sheep… and I am so happy with the results (more on that tomorrow!) But here is my list:
- Knit two more sheep-y baby sweaters!
- Begin the last blanket (I am not foolish enough to imagine it will be knit this month!)
- Learn about Ladderback Jacquard knitting!
- Finish Heidi’s counted cross stitch!
And there you have my hopes for September! What about you… what do you hope September holds for you?
I will see you all back here tomorrow!
by Kat | Aug 27, 2025 | General, Unraveled Wednesday
Greetings dearest Unraveler’s and Happy Last Wednesday in August!
I must confess, there has been a good deal of unraveling in my knitting life this week… sigh. I am working on the first “Flock” sweater and have been struggling… mightily!! My struggles are all around the first and last sheep in the sweater yoke. I have been having a debate with my inner critic about the very obvious holes (gaps?) created when I turn the sweater and work back on the wrong side. These same gaps do not occur in the subsequent sheep in the row… grrrr! I think it is because those two separate sheep think they are “intarsia” sheep… I am going to try again doing the “intarsia twist” before and after those sheep to see if that removes the gap. If it does not, I don’t know what I am going to do… also, can I just say that doing color work with super wash yarn is absolutely NO FUN! I am thinking back to all the love I knit into those blankets… this sweater is not as fortunate. This poor little sweater has been in a bit of a time out as I mull over ways to try and make those sheep work… which is not really a bad thing because I picked up my August stitching and worked on that (I do my best thinking when I am stitching!)
On a brighter note, I finished The Homemade God and wow… just wow! It is going on my “best of” books list for 2025. I am in awe at Rachel Joyce’s writing prowess! She has crafted a book that is overflowing with unlikable characters… and despite that… I really wanted to read to find out more about this dysfunctional family. The book addresses family issues so perfectly… especially a family of an alcoholic who set each child up to be an enabler. And yet… she slices through that and helps the reader discover things they like about each character. The Homemade God has the best ending of a book I have ever read and I have not stopped thinking about it since I finished it! If you are looking for the perfect “late summer” read… look no further. I highly recommend!
I also finished the latest in the Magpie Murder series by Anthony Horowitz. I listened and it was delightful to be back with Atticus Pünd and Susan Ryeland as “they” solved a new mystery. This is also just brilliant writing… a mystery within a mystery! I loved the narrators (Leslie Manville and Tim McMullen) they are superb!
That is my weekly update on my makes and reads… what about you? What is working well for you as August draws to a close?
As always, if you wrote a post to share please leave your link below and thank you!
by Kat | Aug 25, 2025 | General, Words
Greetings fellow word journeyer’s and welcome to the August update! Have you reached the “downhill” point with your word yet? Are you merrily coasting along? Or was August a struggle for you… like it was for me? Whatever this month was for you, I am so glad you are here! The link up is at the bottom of this post!
The crickets felt it was their duty to warn everybody that summertime cannot last for ever. Even on the most beautiful days in the whole year – the days when summer is changing into autumn – the crickets spread the rumor of sadness and change. ― E.B. White, Charlotte’s Web
I have heard those crickets all month as I spent time trying to “just absorb the world around me with no goal except to see.” And what did I discover in all this time… that the world has lots of grey areas and very few black and white spaces where things are clear and simple.
As you all know, it has been a year of health issues for me… lots of tests which I would think would be very black and white, but instead I have found myself firmly in the Grey Area and I have spent much of the month frustrated and irritated.
I have lots of check marks in the problem column but few in the solutions column. My desire is to be in the World of Black and White… problem → solution = happiness.
Then I had a bit of a Light Bulb Moment…It suddenly occurred to me that Yutori is a practice that was built for a life where the Grey Areas are greater than the clear cut Black and White World… and no, the serendipity of spending a year with Yutori is not lost on me as August draws to a close!
So this month, after wasting a good bit of time railing against the lack of answers… I turned back to the Yutori description and settle into this:
Just absorbing the world around us with no goal except to see.
Firmly settled into the grey areas of life… absorbing the sometime silence of the day… birdsong has been replaced by the drone of crickets reminding me that almost nothing will last forever except maybe those blasted grey areas.
But perhaps, there is some comfort in those grey areas… a calm, sometimes stillness, that hums under the surface of everyday life. At least that is what I am hoping for!
Header photo by Sam Forson
Thank you all so much for joining me this month. I am eager to read your update so please leave the link to your post below!
by Kat | Aug 21, 2025 | General, Poetry
There are some too many days when the overwhelms of the world are so heavy I can’t even manage to open a book of poetry for a moment of respite. In these moments, the best thing I can do is to step outside for a moment or ten… even in the heat, even in the humidity, even with horrendous air quality… and just sit.
I don’t bring my phone or a book… I leave all distractions inside and just sit on my porch and allow the outside to seep into my inside. It has become a little act of escape that I partake of when everything is just too much.
The poem I have selected for August’s Gathering of Poetry speaks to allowing the outside to seep into our insides.
An Apple Tree Was Concerned
by Daniel Ladinsky
after Hafiz
An apple tree told me it was concerned about
a late frost and losing its gift that would help
feed a poor family close by.
And then there were the jams and lots of
apple butter that could be made in a banner
crop year
when the clouds were generous with what
fell from them and the sun rationed itself
with precision.
They can speak, trees, they can say the sweetest
things, and can even tell a joke,
but it takes special ears to hear them, ears
that have listened to people…with great
care.
An Apple Tree Was Concerned from A Year with Hafiz: Daily Contemplations, Copyright © 2011, 2012 by Daniel James Ladinsky.
You can read more about Mr. Ladinsky here.
A huge thanks to Bonny for providing a landing space for us this month!
Header photo by Tom Swinnen
by Kat | Aug 20, 2025 | General, Unraveled Wednesday
Greetings dearest Unraveler’s!
I have a second baby blanket finished!! I am quite happy with both of them and will be weaving in the ends later today so they can have a bit of a bath and then a tumble dry. I will be casting on this morning for my first Welcome to the Flock sweater! I will be making two pink sweaters and one green. And as you can see, I have a variety of choices for sheep colors! It will be my first time using Knitpicks Swish, which says it is machine washable. I will be making a swatch that I will “test wash” to see how it does. Keep your fingers crossed!
I am going to knit the sleeves for these little cardigans a bit differently… my plan is to do them as Julia did… two at once. I have printed out the pattern and notated it for the size I am knitting. Now all that is preventing me from casting on is to swatch for gauge!
I left Bruno in France and headed to England to spend some time with Susan Ryeland as she solves another mystery. I have just begun, so I have no thoughts yet on this third installment in the series.
At night, I am reading The Homemade God by Rachel Joyce. I am about 2/3’s through and am very much caught up in this family story… it is full of characters you’d like to dislike… but somehow, I am not disliking them at all. I am enjoying peeling back the layers to discover the secrets each character is holding.
What about you? What are you making or reading this week?
As always, if you wrote a post to share please leave your link below!
by Kat | Aug 19, 2025 | General, Making
It’s been very slow stitching week at my house… very, very slow! One would think that a basic shape like the double doors of the spring “house” would be one of the easiest bits of the entire project.
Ha… it might be if the stitcher could count correctly! (and gentle readers… that is a big IF!)
Somehow…I am off a half a thread on the right side of the door… which carried on to the next row in… for a few “rounds.” I did not notice this until I came back to cross the “x”
This bothered me for about an hour as I set the stitching down to contemplate my inability to count over two-threads! I crossed a few “x’s” and then sat the stitching back down. When I returned the next day I could not easily discern that half the “x” was just a thread off… so I tucked into “done is better than perfect” and stitched on.
I also might have imagined Vivi holding this piece… as she gallops away on her horse. Yeah… no one will ever notice! I stitch on!
Vera is always sharing such fun photos of the doe with her two fawns in her yard. Vera is wise to carry her phone with her … as you have read above… I am not so wise. Last Thursday morning… in the torrential downpour… I took Frankie out against his wishes (he does not mind the rain, but a torrential downpour… not so much.) We surprised a fawn who was hiding in the shrubs. No, I did not have my camera… but the poor thing tried to move away through the thicket of bushes so we exited the back yard to wait out the rain so Frankie could conclude his “business.” Later that morning… again without my camera… we “surprised” the doe as she came to collect her fawn. I am not sure who was more surprised… her or Frankie! Ha! The fawn was still covered with spots and quite adorable!
Perhaps I need to get myself some pjs with pockets so I have my phone with me!
Happy Tuesday everyone! (Also… for all the Word Peep’s… next Monday, August 25th is our update day!)
