Unraveled Wednesday: 10/30/24

I'm joining Kat and the Unravelers today with another look at the green hat. (Really, I'm here hoping to see more pictures of Franklin Delano Pug!) I've knit another repeat of the cable pattern to hopefully make the hat a little deeper. I should finish this and know if it's worked to my satisfaction by next week. If it works like I hope it will, I'll unravel the previously knit blue hat and re-knit it with the extra repeat of the cable pattern. Fingers crossed ...

I did get out of my election-induced fetal position to read a few books and I even managed to write accompanying reviews. First up is Intermezzo by Sally Rooney. This is a difficult book for me to rate, and I really think it needs to be discussed. I think I enjoyed (maybe appreciated is a better word) it more than Rooney's other books and I especially like how she dealt with grief. Peter and Ivan are two emotionally stunted brothers dealing with the death of their father. This is a watershed moment in the lives of most people but they both seem to think that they're just going to attend the funeral and go on with their lives as usual. I wonder if the book would have been different if Rooney had written about two sisters. Rooney's writing style of staccato sentence fragments for Peter's chapters initially drove me nuts and he was also fairly unlikable. I felt like people, including his family, underestimated Ivan and seemed to think he was the same person he had been as an adolescent, but that is the nature of families. I didn't understand the big drama around the age gap between Ivan and Margaret.

I have to give this book 3.5 stars but can't round up. It's the book for Read With Us and our discussions always give me fresh perspectives. I very much look forward to our discussion and may feel differently after I hear from others in the group in January, but for now, it's just a 3.5 for me.

Next, I finished an ARC entitled Awake in the Floating City by Susanna Kwan. I'm not usually a fan of dystopian novels (they often feel too close to a near-future reality) but a friend raved about Awake in the Floating City and made it sound like something I had to read. Thanks, Kat; you were right! It is set in a future San Francisco where climate change means that it rains all the time and the few remaining people live in high-rise apartments as there is no land. Commerce and gardens exist on the rooftops and many people have fled.

That is the dystopian part but the book is really an exploration of the relationship between Mia and her caretaker Bo. Bo has presumably lost her mother in the flooding and even though she had the chance to leave with her cousin and uncle, she can't bring herself to leave. She becomes a caretaker to Mia and also immerses herself in Mia's history and the history of San Francisco. This becomes a way for Bo to begin making art once again after a long hiatus. Kwan's prose is lovely as she explores the beautiful relationships that can happen even as the world is drowning, and how art can play an important part.

Thank you to Pantheon and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book. It will be published on May 13, 2025.

Lastly, I read This is Going to Hurt by Adam Kay. I found This is Going to Hurt on Hoopla while searching for a diversionary audiobook. It fit the bill and I quickly became interested in Adam Kay's diary of his time working for the National Health Service. I appreciated his account of progressing from House Officer to Senior Registrar and learning how the NHS compares to the health system in the United States. It seems that they are both awful in different ways. There is plenty of humor in the book, and snark seems to be a part of Kay's personality in addition to being a way to cope. There are also plenty of poignant moments and Kay writes all of them well. This one was four stars for me. 

What are you making and reading this week?

Ten Things ...

... I've been doing to avoid anxiety over the election. 

I consider myself reasonably well-informed, and I usually read the news in online form once a day. For the past several weeks I've stopped doing that because it makes me:

A). Angry
B). Fearful
C). Both of the above

I also used to listen to NPR when I was working in the kitchen, but I had to stop doing even that the other day. When we're not involved in a contentious and consequential election, NPR often provides a good mix of news, human interest stories, music, and interviews, but now it's all just dire headlines. When this happened last week, I stopped my dinner prep, went to the CD drawer, and put on the first CD I grabbed. It has made a huge difference in my mood, so I started thinking about other things that are helping me avoid anxiety. Here are 10 of them.

1. Listen to music - The CD I grabbed was The Goat Rodeo Sessions with Yo-Yo Ma. It was exactly what I needed and I've listened to it enough that John is almost sick of it. But then I just used Bluetooth with my hearing aids to stream it directly into my ears. I think it's brilliant, and when I tire of it, I'll look for more Yo-Yo Ma or something else. 

2. Dance It Out - I'm not much of a dancer, but I've watched enough Grey's Anatomy to know that this seemed to work for Meredith and Cristina. I can hardly listen to Attaboy and Fiddle Medley from the CD above without dancing. There are plenty of Dance It Out playlists on YouTube and Spotify, so choose one and let yourself go.

3. Take A Walk - This is a good one as it can be long or short, a relaxed saunter, or a walk fueled by rage. I can almost guarantee that you'll feel better by the time you're done. 

4. Read - This usually works for me, but I've had to make some adjustments. I've tried reading outside of my usual genres because I was finding that I just couldn't concentrate on literary fiction. I tried some short stories and cozy mysteries but they weren't much better. I'm now listening to Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas (a gothic mystery/thriller). After a strange beginning, it has at least been interesting enough to keep me listening, but we'll see. I'm also reading The Tree Collectors by Amy Stewart. Subtitled Tales of Arboreal Obsession, this work of nonfiction has 50 illustrated vignettes of people whose lives have been transformed by their obsessive passion for trees. I didn't know there were even five people obsessed with trees, but it's great so far!

5. Knit - I didn't choose the hat pattern I'm currently knitting (Rows and Arrows) for its ability to distract me, but it is serving that purpose well. It's just a hat, so it's not overly complicated but there are cable crossings every other row, and I'm at the part where I'm trying a modification to make the hat longer. More complicated than plain garter or stockinette but not too difficult is working for me. 

6. Clean - I dislike cleaning a lot, but I've found that scrubbing my toilets, cleaning the whole bathroom, or mopping the kitchen floor have been productive ways to curb anxiety and think about how two people can spill so much stuff on the floor.

7. Play A Game - John hates games, so I've been playing Scrabble on my Kindle. I've adjusted the settings so I'm playing a difficult game against the computer, and having to try my hardest to think of words to beat the computer keeps me from focusing on other things. I've also dusted off my Switch and spending half an hour on Utopia (my Animal Crossing island) is enough to calm me down. 

8. Watch Something - I've been immersed in The Lincoln Lawyer and The Great British Baking Show. I love listening to Manuel Garcia-Rulfo as Mickey Haller and I've learned what frangipane is. For some reason, I thought it was a fruit, but it's really a creamy mixture of ground almonds, butter, sugar, and eggs that can be used to fill tarts. Bruce Springsteen's Road Diary documentary on Hulu is also definitely worth watching. 

9. Connect With Others - This might mean leaving a comment on someone's blog or an email exchange with a commenter (I love these and have enjoyed many email conversations with many of you!) It might mean a conversation with your neighbor or maybe calling your sister. I hesitated to call my sister because I love her dearly but her political leanings differ greatly from mine. We avoid talking about politics and just talk. 

10. Nap - I realize that not everyone can take naps, but I'm retired and have been learning to appreciate the restorative power of a good nap. Being well-rested is good self-care. 

So I'm wondering if you are feeling apprehensive about the election (or really the results of the election)? If so, what have you been doing to ease your nervousness and dread? We are all in this together, and I'd love to hear the ways you are coping. 

Three on Thursday: It's Pumpkin Spice Season!

Kym and Carole had an idea to get together for a Three on Thursday Pumpkin Spice post and I'm joining in. I honestly hadn't been paying any attention to various pumpkin spice things, but I found plenty when I went to Walmart with my eyes open and ready to take pictures. So here are Three Pumpkin Spice Things plus several bonus products.

These Little Debbie Pumpkin Delights probably taste fine; I just think they look a little creepy. 

Pumpkin Spice cookie mix sounds fairly normal but I was not tempted by Pumpkin Spice Chips. I'm not sure what they taste like; the ingredients are sugar, a bunch of oils, and "natural flavor". What that natural flavor might be, I do not know. 

I almost fell for this, Febreze! I love a nice slice or two of pumpkin roll and thought it might be pleasant to have my house smell like it. Except I know I would break down and bake an actual pumpkin roll and probably eat the whole thing myself.

I had to smell this for myself. While Pumpkin Spice Latte wasn't a bad scent, I do not want to apply that to my underarms. But these were the last two left at my Walmart so there may be plenty of others that do. 

Manufacturers seem to have figured out most of the places where the taste and scent of pumpkin spice might be appreciated by consumers, but I wonder if they might be overlooking some segments of the market. I have a friend who puts a dollop of pumpkin in her cats' food (maybe for a shiny, healthy coat?) so I wonder why there aren't pumpkin spice products marketed for pets. 

But wait, Tidy Cats makes Fall Frolic cat litter! I don't know exactly what it smells like, but what cat wouldn't enjoy Pumpkin Spice cat litter? (Nugget. Nugget would definitely turn her nose up at this stuff.)

I wash most of my dishes by hand and I honestly wouldn't mind the scent of pumpkin spice to make the job a little bit more pleasurable. No worries, Dawn has already thought of that.

If you look to the right of the Pumpkin Spice Powerwash, you'll also see Fresh Pine and Frosted Cranberry. Procter and Gamble has covered all of the holiday scents through the end of the year.

And then there is this photo that Justin sent me:

(Yes, it's photoshopped.)

What is the oddest pumpkin spice product you've seen? Or maybe a better question is what is the best pumpkin spice product you've used? Inquiring minds would like to know!

Unraveled Wednesday: 10/23/24

Hooray! Kat's back so I'm joining her and the Unravelers today with a modified green version of the Rows and Arrows hat in progress.

I've made a few minor changes so far, like knitting the ribbing on size 5 needles instead of 6 so it won't feel so floppy. I also put a fold line in the middle of the ribbing by switching the knits and purls. I've only done this on one other hat, but I liked it and thought this might be a welcome change. 

I'm not sure what's going on with reading. I finished listening to Intermezzo but have yet to write a review. I kind of want to sit with it for a while (or maybe I'm just lazy). I'm still reading a couple of ARCs from NetGalley but am feeling uninspired. It's not the books, it's me, but I'm sure my reading mojo will return someday. 

What are you making and reading this week?

100 Days!

I managed to stick with my Duolingo German lessons for 100 days. 

I do better on some days than others but it did start to feel more like fun than just something I had to cross off my list, probably around Day 75. 

I'll probably stick with it for a while, but I'm not sure I'll be so conscientious about doing it daily. That owl is persistent in his reminders so I may not be able to resist his persuasive powers. 

And I would miss important German sentences like these where the bear tells me about his clothing preferences.

These will surely be important if I ever go to Germany and speak with clothes-wearing bears. 

Ryan told me that he hopes the next unit is more useful for real life. Depending on the election outcome, I could learn how to say, "Help, my country is a dumpster fire," and "Excuse me, I would like to apply for political asylum."  In German, these are "Hilfe, mein Land ist ein Müllcontainerfeuer" and "Entschuldigung, ich würde gerne politisches Asyl beantragen." I'm going to be practicing!

A Gathering of Poetry: October 2024

It's the third Thursday of the month so I'd like to welcome you to A Gathering of Poetry.

We started cleaning up the garden so I've been thinking about the marvel of the compost pile. I was pleasantly surprised to find a poem about it, and I enjoyed how eloquently Andrew Hudgins wrote about "the opulence of everything that rots". I hope you can appreciate the beauty of your own compost heap.

Compost: An Ode
by Andrew Hudgins

Who can bring a clean thing

out of an unclean?

— JOB 14-4

The beauty of the compost heap is not

the eye’s delight.

Eyes see too much.
They see

blood-colored worms

and bugs so white they seem
to feed off ghosts. Eyes
do not see the heat
that simmers in
the moist heart of decay–
in its unmaking,

making fire,

just hot

enough to burn
itself. In summer, the heap
burns like a stove. It can — almost — hurt you.

I’ve held my hand inside the fire and counted

one, two, three,
four,
I cannot hold it there.

Give it to me, the heat insists. It’s mine.

I yank it back and wipe it on my jeans

as if
I’d really heard the words.

And eyes
cannot appreciate
sweet vegetable rot,
how good it smells
as everything dissolves,
dispersing
back from thing

into idea.
From our own table we are feeding it

what we don’t eat. Orange rind and apple core,

corn husks,
and odds and ends the children smear
across their plates — we feed them all into the slow,

damp furnace of decay. Leaves curl at edges,

buckle,
collapsing down into their centers,
as everything turns loose its living shape

and blackens, gives up

what it once was
to become dirt. The table scraps

and leafage join,
indistinguishable,
the way that death insists it’s all the same,

while life
must do a million things at once.
The compost heap is both — life, death — a slow

simmer,
a leisurely collapsing of
the thing
into its possibilities —
both bean and hollyhock, potato, zinnia, squash:

the opulence
of everything that rots.

====

Hudgins, Andrew. "Compost: An Ode". Poetry Magazine, October 1985. 

You can read more about the poet here. 

====

Thank you for reading and joining us for our monthly Gathering of Poetry. You are more than welcome to add your link below if you would like to share one of your favorite poems. The more the merrier!

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Unraveled Wednesday: 10/16/24

I'm joining Kat and the Unravelers today with a completed hat. There's no official linkup today because Kat is enjoying Presque Isle but it's still Unraveled Wednesday in my mind. The hat (Ravelry link) took me a while considering it's just a hat, but I really like the pattern. It looks more like downward-facing arrows when it's being worn on a head and the cables are stretched out a bit, but I had a few problems. 

I'm a bit concerned that the hat isn't deep enough to fit Justin very well. It only measures 7.25" in depth to the bottom of the folded ribbing, and Justin works outside and wears hats to keep his ears warm. I don't use Ravelry nearly as much as I used to, but it was helpful in telling me that the hats I've previously knit for him were 9-10" deep. I plan on knitting this hat again, repeating part of the pattern a second time to hopefully make it another couple of inches longer. Also, the pattern calls for ending the hat with 27 stitches, threading the yarn tail through those 27 stitches, and pulling tight to close the hole. Twenty-seven stitches seemed like an awful lot to close up, so I did a second round out K3tog to make the hole smaller. Nine stitches looked a lot better than 27. 

Ravelry was also useful in telling me that I still had several skeins of Madeline Tosh Vintage in my stash, so I dug through and was happy to find three skeins in Moorland. It's a nice green that I've used for hats for Justin before, so I'm winding yarn this afternoon and knitting him a second (hopefully improved and better-fitting) Christmas hat. 

I didn't finish any books this week but I'm listening to Intermezzo and reading an ARC of Awake in the Floating City on my Kindle. I'm enjoying both of them, much more than I was when I first started them. 

What are you making and reading this week?

I'm Brave!

I'm not sure that's true, but I was brave enough to get my flu and covid shots at the same time last week. I was admiring all the cute stickers that CVS had for kids, and the pharmacist gave me a bunch of them. 

So if a turtle, unicorn, owl, and narwhal have all documented my bravery, then maybe I really am. 

If I was really brave I would get my pneumonia, RSV, and shingles shots, but I think I'll be brave for those shots another day. 

Are You Resilient?

 I'm not, or I think I could be more resilient, so I took some action after reading this on NPR. 

NPR is doing a series of newsletters over five weeks that they say will provide "powerful tools and strategies that have been shown to help people reduce anxiety and improve feelings of well-being". I've only received the first newsletter, and it has the usual advice that we've all probably read (and maybe practiced) before, like breathing exercises.

More interesting (to me, anyway) is this: NPR is collaborating with Northwestern University to bring an online stress-reduction course and research study to their audience. This free course is based on the work of Judith Moskowitz, a research psychologist at Northwestern's Feinberg School of Medicine. It teaches eight skills to boost positive feelings.

The course is based on her 20-plus years of research studying people who have experienced difficult situations, such as being diagnosed with Stage 4 breast cancer and people who are caregivers for loved ones with Alzheimer's. Her peer-reviewed studies point to benefits. They are recruiting 20,000 participants for an online, self-guided, positive emotions study. The course will teach eight science-backed stress reduction skills over 5 weeks, with the 6th week being a practice and review period (the entire length of the study will be 12 weeks).

I signed up for the course/study and I can see how this may be beneficial. I'm only in the first week, but there are readings about the skills (Positive Events, Savoring, and Gratitude this week) and home practice (basically just writing about positive events and gratitude on a discussion board like many of you already do in a gratitude journal). I've failed at journaling and documenting things plenty of times before but this format works better for me with everything all in one place and a personal "Dashboard" so I can see what I've done and what I still have to do. It's not overwhelming and I think consistency and practice are important for me. Other skills that will be covered include:

• Daily Mindfulness
• Positive Reappraisal 
• Self-Compassion
• Personal Strength 
• Attainable Goals

If any of this sounds like it might be useful to you or just something you'd like to try, here are the sign-up links:

NPR Stress Less newsletter sign up here.

The Resilience Challenge Course/Study registration information sign up here. 

Here's to being more resilient!

Unraveled Wednesday: 10/9/24

I'm joining Kat and the Unravelers today with the same hat, still in progress, and just one book. 

I may be too used to knitting Hitchhikers somewhat mindlessly as I find myself making careless mistakes on the hat and having to tink back. But it's a good lesson in paying attention to what I'm doing, like crossing cables correctly and actually counting the numbers of knits and purls correctly. Things go better when I do that and don't try to do something else that takes some of my attention (such as answering John's questions about how many bags of mulch he should get or what Medicare Part D program I have). Those questions can wait but he seems to only ask me things when I'm counting.

I requested The Ideological Brain from NetGalley because it sounded like it might help me better understand how people become radicalized and believe in rigid ideologies, especially during this polarized political season in the US. In a combination of psychology, politics, and philosophy, the author argues that some people are biologically predisposed to rigid ways of thinking. Belief in strict ideologies has long been attributed to social forces but Zmigrod's research looks at this in terms of neural and cognitive principles. The book is written in a scholarly manner and can honestly be a little dry to this non-academic reader, but it has at least shown me that there may be reasons for political beliefs that I see as bordering on crazy. She also describes what an open and flexible thinker looks like. Three and a half stars rounded up.

Thank you to Henry Holt and Co. for providing me with a copy of this book. It will be published on April 25, 2025.

I do have two new ARCs that I'm reading now. Three Days in June is a new novel from Anne Tyler and Awake in the Floating City by Susanna Kwan. I loved Kat's review of the latter so much last week that I wanted to read it (and I'm not even a big fan of dystopian novels)!

What are you making and reading this week?

Read With Us: It's A New Book

Our leaves here are mainly dry and brown and if John saw me sitting in them reading he would probably yell that it was time to get back to raking, but never mind that. It's time to announce our Fall Read With Us book. 

Simply put, it is a novel about two Irish-Slovak brothers, Peter and Ivan Koubek, who are grieving the death of their father. It explores grief and the ways it is manifested at different times in different people, sibling relationships, and love, familial and otherwise. When I was searching for themes in this book, I especially loved this one: "The novel explores themes such as the fear of being seen as ridiculous." Haven't we all experienced that? (I know I have!)

Our new book is Intermezzo by Sally Rooney. 

The word intermezzo means a short connecting instrumental movement in an opera or other musical work, or a light dramatic, musical, or other performance inserted between the acts of a play. It has a special meaning in chess, where it is also known as a zwischenzug or "in-between move". It's a chess tactic where a player makes an unexpected move in the middle of a combination to disrupt their opponent's plans. I've only read a few chapters so far but something tells me that this may be the more appropriate meaning. 

Intermezzo is available in hardcover, on Kindle, and in audiobook format from Amazon or better yet, your local bookstore. You can place a hold at your library, and I know the hold queues are long, but hopefully, your library will acquire enough copies to keep the line moving. 

Kym, Carole, and I will be talking about the book, giving additional information, and doing promotional posts throughout November. Discussion day for Intermezzo is scheduled for Tuesday, January 7, 2025, at 7:00 pm Eastern time, so mark your calendars. We'll ask questions on our blogs that day and then host the always fun, educational, and entertaining Zoom discussion.

I do hope you'll Read With Us. Intermezzo may have messy and imperfect relationships, an unlikeable character or two, and sometimes questionable prose, but there is also love of all sorts. 

Quilts and Dreams

One of the things we did when we were visiting my SiL was go to the Quilt Show put together by the Mountain Laurel Quilt Guild. I've been once before and this one was just as impressive. There were small decorative quilts, like the one below,

and Challenge quilts, like these.

The challenge involved turning to page 25 in any magazine and interpreting what was on page 25 into a small quilt. 

There were large quilts,

and medium quilts. 

This one was made of tiny triangles

and this one was inspired by a photograph of the maker's father.

This one was made from selvedges,

this one was made from the maker's father's ties,

and this one was inspired by the Pokey Little Puppy. 

I was entranced by these small quilts for some reason, maybe the tininess of the pieces? Whatever the reason, I stood in front of them for quite a while and even dreamed about cutting out tiny blue pieces that night. 

The only quilting I've done is making some place mats so it would be nice if I could get further inspired by these quilts with tiny pieces and maybe even make one of my own. 

Unraveled Wednesday: 10/2/24

I'm joining Kat and the Unravelers today with a new hat on the needles (for the second time) and a book or two.

After taking a closer look at the hat I showed you last week, I thought that the circumference around the bottom looked a bit large and the ribbing seemed floppy. When I measured it, it was 28 inches. My kids have big heads but not that big! Then I took a closer look at the needle I was using and after squinting at it in bright light, found that I was using a size 8 instead of a 6. It was a rookie mistake, and there was nothing to do but unravel and start over again. I worked on the ribbing while spending time in the car and even managed to do a few cables in the car. So the hat is moving forward, albeit slowly. But the yarn is so nice I'm knitting it twice. 

Last week Sarah reviewed Happening, and I decided to give it a try. It is a non-fiction recounting of the author's abortion in France when she was 23 years old. There is evidence of Ernaux's relative immaturity at age 23 (alternately worrying about getting rid of her pregnancy and almost ignoring it) but since abortion was illegal in France at the time it is also horrifying. The author states that she is recreating this event decades later based on her diaries and she has trouble recalling feelings and moods. Reconstructing material procedures was awful enough but I wish the author could have included more of what she thought and felt at the time. Three and a half stars rounded up.

I also read Small Rain by Garth Greenwell. Brilliant, evocative, and vivid are words that come to me when trying to describe Small Rain. This is a novel about a poet who experiences sudden debilitating pain and eventually ends up in the ICU. It is about medicine and the dysfunctional American healthcare system but also much more - meditations on art, beauty, memory, poetry, and introducing his literature students to a poem by George Oppen. His poem "Westyrn Wynds" gives the novel its title. Greenwell's narrator has quite a bit of time to muse while in his hospital bed, and his thoughts veer off into interesting tangents like his childhood, his life with L., and their disastrous home renovations. I appreciated the contrast between the narrator's literary mind and the clinical logic of medicine. The author narrated the audiobook and his voice added to this marvelous book. Four and a half stars rounded up.

“My ignorance was an indictment of something, me, my education, the public schools where I was raised, that I could be so helpless when it came to anything useful, that the only technologies I knew anything about were antiquated, unnecessary technologies: iambic pentameter, functional harmony, the ablative absolute. They were the embellishments of life, accoutrements of civilization, never the necessary core—though they were necessary to me.”

What are you making and reading this week?