by Kat | 5 days ago | General, In This Moment
Is for wrapping…
Yes, today begins the Big Wrap-a-thon so the Shipping of the Boxes of Fun can happen later this week.
Once I have all the wrapping completed, I will try and finish the bits of in-process Christmas decorating and then I can resume some Gnome-knitting. I have to tell you… Gnome Knitting is the stuff of delight right now (Christmas decorating… not so much.) I am eagerly awaiting each clue… and I think that the story Sarah Schira has crafted for Gnandad’s Great Adventure might be the best one yet… and is hitting a much needed spot this year.
And through this all, I will be thinking about the Reading Rilke program from last night. I am discovering that Rilke is perhaps the best balm for grief… ever. Or perhaps it is better to say, Rilke is a good person to be in grief with.
And on that cheerful note (sorry about that) I will get myself to wrapping. See you all back here on Wednesday with some Gnome Making.
by Kat | Oct 20, 2025 | General, In This Moment
Hello, hello!
Yes, I am back from our trek to Erie and one thing a bit of time way does is make one appreciate home. I am happy to be back home… and although the time away was good, there is no place like home! We had practically perfect weather and Gudrun’s Hairst Hap Hood was perfect as well! I still need to add the i-cord edging around the hood but even without it, it is a most useful piece of woolen wear! I used it almost every day as we had some very brisk mornings! It was a fairly good break and Frankie did okay… he even managed a few walks in the park! (He does not like “new people” at all…but we were fortunate to have a few days with hardly any people on Presque Isle besides us!)
The fall colors were very “desaturated” thanks to the drought conditions PA has been having. It was sad to see most of the wetland areas bone dry and the lake is down a good bit as well. It was a rain-free week for us (which was nice for spending time outdoors but this week rain is in the forecast every day for Erie… and I really hope they get a good bit!)
We saw a plethora of wooly bear caterpillars, and lots of Great Blue Heron’s (this guy was very wary of us walking by but he did not budge) and Frankie finds being a “Murder Pug” exhausting… oy.
I have officially begun Baby Watch 2025! Heidi has roughly 3 weeks to go and a few weeks later (hopefully) Sam’s twins will be here! It is a very good thing that I managed to squeeze in some good knitting time while away! I have just ONE color to go on Heidi’s blanket!! The end is in sight and her “flock” sweater will begin as soon as the blanket is finished!
Now it is time for me to kick it in high gear and get some housework done… so I can get back to knitting! Ha!
And here is your reminder!! Next Monday, October 27th, will be the link up to share how you and your word did this month! Ten months down… hopefully, it was a good month! I look forward to your updates!
See you all back here on Wednesday!
by Kat | Oct 6, 2025 | General, In This Moment
…brings answers to questions!
Last week, I had a very, very chatty “Currently” post and despite how chatty I was, I left some questions unanswered. They were good questions, so thank you Sprite!
She asked two questions:
“Inquiring minds want to know what Snippets Show Notes are? Thoughts on podcasts you’re listening to?”
Question one… Snippet’s Show Notes… yes, I do take notes during The Snippets Show. What is the Snippet’s Show? Well, I am so fortunate to be an inaugural member of the delightful MDK Society and once a month Kay and Ann spend an hour chatting with someone in the making community. It is really so much fun and I always learn something in that hour… sometimes it is a book I had not heard of, sometimes a thing… like Fibershed’s, (note, here is a link to the PA Fibershed, but if you Google Fibershed, you can find dozens of them across the nation!) and sometimes it is a new book, like Kate Atherly’s Math for Knitters… it is nice to have notes to refer back to about things I heard.
Question two… thoughts on podcasts I am listening to… Yes, I do listen to podcasts but I really balk at anything longer than 30 minutes. I always start my day with NPR’s Up First podcast… these days the 10-ish minutes of news is “just enough” to begin my day. To balance out that brief dip into the news, I also listen to a Monday – Friday podcast, The Slowdown (now hosted by Maggie Smith!) I love to listen to poetry, because I think that is the best way to read poetry… out loud! And I appreciate Maggie’s thoughts on the poem she reads each day. I have been a long time Slowdown listener… going back to Tracy K. Smith’s time (she was the inaugural host!) I also listen to Heather Cox Richardson’s Letters from an American… I generally listen to these when I am doing the “dinner dishes” She is good company for cleaning up! (ha!)
And there you have answers for some very good questions!
Today is supposed to be our last “warm” day for a bit… I will be eagerly welcoming Sweater Weather! Happy Monday everyone!
by Kat | Sep 22, 2025 | General, In This Moment
I had a very big epiphany recently… and it was for me a very radical one.
For years… decades? I mean how long have there been online pattern companies who sell a PDF pattern. A long time.
I am that person who would print out the pattern at home and then spend the better part of a day trimming and laying the pages out and then taping them together. It is a task that was easy to put off because I disliked it so much… why, I’d rather dust than sit and tape a pattern together… and I only dust when absolutely necessary!!
But I have some chambray… and I really, really need a few things to perk up my wardrobe… but the thought of printing out 133 pages and taping them all together was enough of a deterrent that I procrastinated all of August and most of September away…
Until last Wednesday that is. I took a gander at the PDF Plotting website and thought… what the hell, I will try it. They have a huge banner on their website that says if you “order by noon, ships same day!” Really?? I uploaded the two shirt pdf’s I had been procrastinating over. Uploading and check out took less than five minutes. I got an email notification that my “order had been shipped” a couple of hours later and the patterns arrived on Friday… wait, what?
When I think back to all the hours I have lost sitting and taping patterns together… sigh.
My Monday list now includes tracing off my size (I trace onto Swedish Tracing paper to preserve the original) and hopefully will have the pattern pinned and cut out today ready to make what will hopefully be a wearable toile!
Epiphany moments… perhaps the best thing to still be happening at my age! Happy Monday everyone!
Now for a reminder for all of you who are playing along this year with a word… next Monday, September 29th will be our day to gather together to share how we did in September! I am excited to share with you all as well as read how you did this month, so I hope you will join us! The link up will be up bright and early the 29th and will remain open until Sunday, October 5th.
by Kat | Sep 15, 2025 | General, In This Moment
… is time for action!
I have basically given up on using the 5Calls app… I don’t know about you, but while my representative is very eager to hear from his constituents, neither of my senators are. And my local representatives are both doing very good work in my area for me and my neighbors.
But!!!
Thanks to a bit of a power outage here on Sunday morning I spent a good bit of time “doomscrolling” IG and stumbled across Kate_forthepeople. So, yes, I am making calls this week to Mr. Schumer and Mr. Jeffries to make sure they hear from me on the looming budget crisis. (My thoughts on a shutdown are that frankly it should be shut down, but I think Kate’s points on trying to claw back some power from SCOTUS is worthwhile to giving some votes to the GOP, if and only if there are some implementations of the exceptions clause in the constitution. (You can read more about the exceptions clause by Googling Article iii, section two… I am not linking explanations, but there are dozens. Suffice it to say, that in “olden times” congress actually used their power to set the cases before SCOTUS.)
You can watch Kate’s compelling (and oh so easy) call to Mr. Schumer’s office regarding the exceptions clause in the constitution below. She also has a Substack post where she includes more information and the switchboard number. She also calls Justice Alito an illiterate idiot… which made me laugh right out loud! Her Substack is absolutely a worthwhile read!
I hope you will join me in calling these two Professional Letter Writers this week and encourage them to get off dead center, stop writing nice letters and DO SOMETHING!
Happy Monday everyone!
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