by Kat | Jan 5, 2026 | General, Welcome
And now we welcome the new year. Full of things that have never been. — Rainer Maria Rilke
I really am feeling like I need to set a few intentions for this month and year because I fear if I don’t the Great Wallowing in Aimless Days will consume me. I am really struggling to find a focus each day, I am not sleeping well… which might be contributing. But neither waking hours nor sleep seem to be good companions of late… so what’s a person to do in all this but to set some intentions with the hopes of redirecting myself a bit.
In 2025 I did not spend any time at all spinning and as I began to review the year in the last weeks of December, I thought about “what was missing” in my 2025 days… and spinning jumped right out at me. I have been thinking about spinning quite a bit since Full On Sweater Weather arrived… I have had a “sweater spin” that has been knocking about in my head, and it became a bit louder since I have been wearing this sweater. The spinning of the yarn for that sweater did not happen overnight and it certainly won’t happen at all for a new sweater if I don’t make a plan to do some spinning. So yes, spinning will be A Thing in 2026. I think the added bonus will be the very meditative quality that spinning provides will be a boon to my mental health.
I finished my 2025 Year of Stitching on NYE, but I have yet to sit down and begin my 2026 stitching project. I had intentions of getting it all prepped in December but that did not happen. I have added it to my list this week… perhaps the thrill of “checking it off” will be just the inspiration I need. As for last year’s stitching… it needs a bit of a wash and some gentle pressing before I can completely finish it. But I am excited to get it finished although my idea for how to use it has changed dramatically, I want to get it finished and tucked safely away.
Over the course of December roughly a half a dozen pairs of socks sprung holes with several more wearing very thin… so I am declaring 2026 Operation Sock Drawer Replenishment. I began a pair in late December and am moving down the leg of sock two. My plan for the year is to just keep going on socks… at least until the Sock Drawer reaches the correct volume of socks.
I had spent a good bit of last year thinking that 2026 would be the last year I focus on a “Word of the Year” and I thought it would be a good finish to circle back to the word I began this journey with – joy. I really did not understand or know what spending a year contemplating a word could mean and, as the year began and unfolded, I felt like joy and I could spend a good bit of time together… but then in August a new Emergence volume appeared and, while I ordered the new volume and companion book, I did not veer from my plans for A Year of Joy. But then as November brought life to a crashing halt… I realized that I could not stomach spending a year finding joy at all. So this year, it feels exactly right to contemplate Seasons as my word. I feel like this will be the exact journey I need to begin in this moment.
Finally, this whole blogging thing has really been a struggle for me recently because most days I do not feel very cheerful or upbeat right now. I have started a few blog posts that never went beyond the starting points. Forced cheerfulness is not an easy place to write from. The only posts I feel up to writing currently are the Unraveled Wednesday posts. Those will continue in the exact format they are currently… there will be a post every Wednesday with a link up for all those who want to participate. The community of making and reading bloggers is one I am so grateful for… I cannot promise that every Wednesday I will be cheerful and upbeat… but there will be socks, and stitching, and some spinning, and of course… reading. That being said, I don’t know if I will be posting anything at all beyond the Wednesday posts, although my thoughts are that I will share an update of how Seasons and I are getting along sometime near the end of January.
Whew, for not thinking I had anything to say… this sure got wordy and fast! If you are still here… thank you. I wish you all the Happiest of New Year’s and a healthy January.
I will see you all back here on Wednesday!
Header photo by Pixabay
by Kat | Dec 29, 2025 | General, Words
Greetings dear friends, and welcome to the last update of our words for 2025. You will find the link up at the bottom of this post. Thank you so much for joining me this year as, together, we examined how a specific focus could impact our days. I am eager to read your updates!
Yutori:
The conscious act of slowing down to allow us to savor the world around us. The refusal to rush. No talking. Just absorbing the world around us with no goal except to see. Spaciousness.
I am circling back to the beginning to close things out this year. I spent all of November journaling every single day and the result of those days birthed the idea of a bit of a Yutori Advent Calendar of sorts. This month, I have spent each morning quietly sitting with myself and writing a few reflections on my thoughts and my feelings. It has been the best thing ever. There is something truly magical in consciously slowing down, savoring the world around me, not rushing, quietly absorbing with absolutely no goal at all other than to just be.
This might be my last month with a focus on Yutori, but this last year has helped me build some brilliant strategies that I will be carrying with me as I go forward.
As 2025 draws to a close, I am happy to share that despite having a year with much uncertainty, pain and loss… Yutori was exactly what I needed to get through this year.
And although I am not stepping into 2026 “healed” and raring to go… I am very comfortable stepping in exactly as I am with all that I carry with me. And that, my friends, is a very, very good thing!
If you wrote a post to share, please leave your link below. This link up will only be open until midnight on the 31st.
I wish you a very Happy New Year, I will be back on January 5th.
by Kat | Dec 24, 2025 | General, Unraveled Wednesday
Greetings gentle Unraveler’s and Happy Christmas Eve to you all!
A brief gathering today… I have a feeling not many will be sharing an update today. If you are, welcome… get a cup of something warm and settle in!
This week my making was entirely focused on Gnome finishing and my efforts paid off because I have two *basically* completed gnomes.
Gnockette, sans books but her “hands” are waiting for them to be affixed!
First up, sweet Gnockette… the smaller version of her big brother, Gnock. First on the structure of this gnome… I think it worked much better in the larger version. The cap sits better on Gnock than it does on Gnockette, in fact, I had to stitch it down to ensure it stays on! Gnockette still needs a book or two (I have not yet printed out the covers for her, but I will before the New Year!)
Gnandad, with “limp” arms… don’t jostle anything or those poles will fall down! (But Gnana and Gnandad make such a handsome couple!)
Next, Gnandad is finished (although, I still believe he needs a backpack but I have yet to figure one out for him… I think it will be fabric since we learned in his story that he is a master quilter!) I affixed his skis and his poles on Monday but realized his arms needed a bit of assistance from some floral wire. As you can see, sans wire his arms are less than convincing at his cross country skiing skills… however, a bit of wire and you can see that he is a champion skier! However, he is happy to be home with his beloved Gnana and has been regaling her with stories from his travels. I love his suspenders… and his mustache! How perfect! (and there will be more mustachioed gnomes in the future!) The December mystery gnome knit along is my absolute favorite thing. I love the pacing of the clues and most especially the story. It feeds my inner child and sparks my imagination. Thank you, Sarah for yet another brilliant Gnome!
A mustache!!
Some very dapper braces!
Gnandad with a bit of florists wire and suddenly the ski poles are The Thing!
I have plans to knit another gnome asap (Savor the Gnoment) which I think is the perfect title for what I plan to do in these waning days of 2025.
The reading has been brilliant this week… I had 2 five star finishes! First, Lev Grossman’s The Bright Sword. Oh my, if you enjoy a King Arthur story… you will love Lev’s retelling. It is brilliant. It is captivating. It whisked me away to another time and I loved every second of it! I highly recommend!
The other 5-star book was Nina MacLaughlin’s Winter Solstice. It was tender, and quiet, and thoughtful. This is a book that encouraged me to slow down and sit with her words with no reason to rush. I am glad I have this book in my library as I imagine it will become a good friend in future December’s… it is the perfect little read!
And that is it for me for today. I want to wish you all the happiest of holidays… may your days be full of good things.
Blooper…. Frankie has a fascination with dear Gnandad! (as in if he could get Gnandad, Frankie would be in big trouble!)
A bit of housekeeping, there won’t be an Unraveled post next week on New Year’s Eve.
If you wrote a post to share today, thank you! You can leave your link below in the link up!
by Kat | Dec 22, 2025 | General, In This Moment
Greetings fellow Word Focus-er’s,
Next Monday, December 29th, will be our final word update for 2025. The link up will be up early and will remain open for the week. I am eager to read your final update for the year and I am excited to share with you how my word closed out for me this month!
Now for the changes for next year. First… if someone is interested in holding space for those of us who share our word focus, I am happy to pass the baton but I won’t be hosting a link up here and if someone wants to take over the link up, I will gladly join them but there won’t be a link up in 2026 at As Kat Knits.
I can’t believe we are just days away from 2026… this month has raced past, hasn’t it? I had wanted to get more things done than I had the wherewithal to accomplish… but it felt so good to let those things go. My “do” for today includes a bit of knitting and queueing up Holiday Inn to watch (and sing along with!)
Happy Monday everyone, I will be back on Wednesday with some making updates!
Header photo by SHVETS production
by Kat | Dec 18, 2025 | General, Poetry
I had originally planned to post this poem in the November poetry gathering… but then life very much changed and I thought I could banish this poem to the dustbin. But Liz Berry’s words continue to linger (I think you will see exactly why as you read it) and so I am sharing it today.
I leave this poem for you to read and digest as it speaks to you. Its meaning has certainly taken new shape in my days… so Ms. Berry… I hope you realize that your poem has helped me both celebrate and grieve The Republic of Motherhood.
The Republic of Motherhood
by Liz Berry
I crossed the border into the Republic of Motherhood
and found it a queendom, a wild queendom.
I handed over my clothes and took its uniform,
its dressing gown and undergarments, a cardigan
soft as a creature, smelling of birth and milk,
and I lay down in Motherhood’s bed, the bed I had made
but could not sleep in, for I was called at once to work
in the factory of Motherhood. The owl shift,
the graveyard shift. Feeding cleaning loving feeding.
I walked home, heartsore, through pale streets,
the coins of Motherhood singing in my pockets.
Then I soaked my spindled bones
in the chill municipal baths of Motherhood,
watching strands of my hair float from my fingers.
Each day I pushed my pram through freeze and blossom
down the wide boulevards of Motherhood
where poplars bent their branches to stroke my brow.
I stood with my sisters in the queues of Motherhood –
the weighing clinic, the supermarket – waiting
for its bureaucracies to open their doors.
As required, I stood beneath the flag of Motherhood
and opened my mouth although I did not know the anthem.
When darkness fell I pushed my pram home again,
by lamp-light wrote urgent letters of complaint
to the Department of Motherhood but received no response.
I grew sick and was healed in the hospitals of Motherhood
with their long-closed isolation wards
and narrow beds watched over by a fat moon.
The doctors were slender and efficient
and when I was well they gave me my pram again
so I could stare at the daffodils in the parks of Motherhood
while winds pierced my breasts like silver arrows.
In snowfall, I haunted Motherhood’s cemeteries,
the sweet fallen beneath my feet –
Our Lady of the Birth Trauma, Our Lady of Psychosis.
I wanted to speak to them, tell them I understood,
but the words came out scrambled, so I knelt instead
and prayed in the chapel of Motherhood, prayed
for that whole wild fucking queendom,
its sorrow, its unbearable skinless beauty,
and all the souls that were in it. I prayed and prayed
until my voice was a night cry,
sunlight pixellating my face like a kaleidoscope.
“The Republic of Motherhood” from The Republic of Motherhood. Copyright © 2018 by Liz Berry.
If you want to know more about Ms. Berry, you can find some information
here. And, if you want to listen to Liz read this poem to you (and I highly recommend that you do… you will find it
here.)
I want to thank
Bonny for gathering us all together to share a poem today.
See you all back here on Monday.
by Kat | Dec 17, 2025 | General, Unraveled Wednesday
Greetings dear Unraveler’s!
Hopefully you have arrived at the “I can knit whatever the heck I want” portion of December knitting… especially if you are doing any holiday knitting! Personally, I have been in that mode all month… and it feels very good.
I have begun Hermoine’s Everyday Sock, which I really love to knit. It fits well and I like the purl blips which keep my mind more focused (versus wandering down the long halls of grief.) I had one rather large hiccup this past weekend… Sunday was my dear daughter-in-laws due date and I did not expect for that to be such a crushing day. (Honestly, I did not even think about it until I turned the page to the calendar.) But it reminded me that grief is always the boss. (The yarn is from Six and Seven Fiber, I think it was their October sock color)
Someone shared a quote last week which has been the exact balm I needed (that someone was Felix Ford… who it turns out, I needed very much to spend a couple of hours in her MDK class)
Grief, I’ve learned, is really just love. It’s all the love you want to give, but cannot. All that unspent love gathers up in the corners of your eyes, the lump in your throat, and in that hollow part of your chest. Grief is just love with no place to go. ― Jamie Anderson
I don’t know who Jamie Anderson is, but I thank her for her grief wisdom and I thank dear Felix for sharing this quote.
Gnome knitting continues as well… I need to get Gnockette’s braids done and then attach her final bits. She let me know over the weekend she is a Romance Reader (I almost told her she needed to move out at this news… because… EWWW! lol) I have to get her arms done yet, she is so close to being finished! (so stay tuned for her Big Reveal!) And, as you can see above, the body of Gnandad is done but I have yet to begin the “mystery part” knitting which was Monday’s update. I like how he is looking thus far… a very handsome Gnome-to-be!
The reading of “big books” has been “so – so” this week. I finished Mr. Comey’s latest novel (FDR Drive) and, reading friends, this series is not getting better… at all. I gave it 3-stars (and that was really a stretch.)
BUT!! Short story reading is absolutely perfection! I am about halfway through Nina MacLaughlin’s Winter Solstice and I am savoring every word! I am reading a story over the course of several days… digesting slowly the quiet words. Short stories are a good friend to my grief.
And that is all I have for today. As always, if you wrote a post to share please leave your link below!
