April 16: Spring Cleaning, Spring Planning

Spring is here and I wanted to write a post. I just re-read my January 1 post about my modest plans for the year.  I have to say they were blown to hell nearly immediately, with two exceptions:

1. I have been working on a lot of hats and using up stash.

And

2. I have enjoyed some good books.  

With regard to the hat projects, I shouldn't complain but would like to.  I have unraveled so many projects.  So many.  Sometimes it feels like I unravel most of my hat projects 2 or 3 times before I figure out how to use up my scraps without running out.  Also, you have to account for errors.  I make plenty of those as well.  

This took at least 4 tries.

But I have managed to use up A LOT of partial skeins and create plenty of hats for gifts and giving.  Other skeins and craft supplies have to gone to people who might enjoy them more.

I have (so far) stuck to my goals of knitting hats as birthday presents for family members this year and successfully made hats for each birthday person on my side of the family.

In March, I made the Purl Soho Classic Ribbed Hat for my brother-in-law out of some unidentified sport weight yarn from a friend's de-stash.  It took forever to knit, but I loved working with the yarn and I was really happy with the end result.  I have no idea how he felt about it because I gave it to him a month late when I sent it home with my sister after she came to our area to watch the eclipse.  It may still be in her minivan, but I'm sure it will find its way to him before cold weather season comes back.

I also made the Thermal Cap by Kate Salomon.  I held Purl Soho Sweetgrass (from one friend's de-stash) with some fancy and fluffy merino lace weight yarn (from another friend's de-stash) and knitted it a little longer so it would be a bit slouchier.  It came out exactly how I wanted it to and I love it.  When I most likely knit this again for another birthday present, I think I will knit it flat.  Purling in the round wears me out.  I think slipping stitches will break up the garter monotony and using the merino to bring some heft and softness to the cotton fingering weight yarn is a really fun treat.  I'm not a smooth seamer, but the slouch should cover up that.

I have not yet sent this to my sister-in-law but I'm sure she'll be delighted.

I am not very timely when it comes to going to the post office.  I had planned to give these gifts when the family was supposed to get together at Easter, but one member of the family got the flu so most of us stayed home.  

It's been a tough year to make plans.  Or at least stick to them.

The last hat I made as a present was the Hinterland-Inspired Hat.  I had to re-knit this a few times due to my yarn running out but when I cast on in MadelineTosh Vintage (from the Sweetgrass Friend) I was off and running.  I wish the decreases had been different in some way I can't define or modify on my own, but I loved the cables and the yarn was incredibly lovely.  It photographed kind of "flat" but the colors are deeply rich in real life.  I presented it to my dad this weekend along with a so-so pecan pie and a homemade card.  He was delighted! So then I was too.

And now books.

So far this year, I have started the Mitford series by Jan Karon, dipped back into A. S. Byatt, read fiction that's not straightforward detective stories (but also some of that, too), and some nonfiction.

Annihilation. Jeff Vandermeer

At Home in Mitford. Jan Karon

We Should All Be Feminists. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 

The Broker. John Grisham

Dead Man Walking. Helen Prejean

The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye. A. S. Byatt

Burn Town. Jennifer McMahon 

Reduced Circumstances. Vincent H. O'Neil

The Child Finder. Rene Denfield

The Last Remains: A Ruth Galloway Mystery. Elly Griffiths

At Home in This Life. Jerusalem Jackson Greer

I wouldn't recommend The Child Finder because it's too upsetting even if it is fiction.  I would recommend Dead Man Walking, even though it's extremely upsetting and very much real.  Sister Helen Prejean does not write this as a linear narrative the way a reporter would (or even a current day podcaster would).  These are her recollections, told in a somewhat linear fashion with plenty of commentary from later experiences and observations interspersed throughout.  It's about her as much as it is the first few prisoners she meets.  And victims' families.  And prisoners' families.  Her descriptions of people and their flaws and hurts are astute, but respectful. It's one more weird look into Louisiana's governing style.  I hope it sticks with me for a while.  She's a fascinating person and a skilled, direct writer.

I re-read The Last Remains and At Home in This Life recently.  Ruth Galloway is always great and this last novel is especially comforting.  At Home in This Life hits harder now that I'm older, and I had a lot of questions about the practical effects and efforts of what rippled out (or pushed back) when the author and her husband began making changes to live more slowly and work toward the life they wanted. I understand why she likely didn't write more about that part of things, but very rarely do we exist in a vacuum.  But talking about your life is never just a story about you.  You can't always talk about how your supervisor reacts when you don't take on extra work.  Or how your children process your long absences to sit with dying relatives.  

So much of what happens in our lives is not our story to tell to a wider world.  It's something I think about a lot, so maybe I'm seeing it where it isn't.

At Home in Mitford felt simplistic, outdated before it was published and yet very of its time, and incredibly lovely.  I checked out the second book from the library yesterday and I'm really looking forward to it.  Already it's prompted a discussion between my husband and I about what casseroles we would bring if we were trying to get closer to our new, diabetic, reverend minister.  For the record, he said he would bring poppy seed chicken casserole.  I said I would bring my lentil casserole.

I haven't read A. S. Byatt in far too long.  Her short stories are amazing, though, and the collection in The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye is definitely written as fairy tales for adults.  They're treats, and I love them.  It's not often that I read something and marvel at how the writing is such a treasure, but I did in this.  Revisiting this for the first time in over a decade felt like the reading equivalent of being in a castle surrounded by fine things and mysterious puzzles around the corner.

Some of the books I read just to see what they were about.  And now I know.  

I went to the library yesterday.

Looking forward, I want to finish The Silent Spring by Rachel Carson.  I am trying to read more fiction that's a little more challenging.  I have Byatt's debut novel, which I forgot the name of.  Yesterday I checked out some books from the library because I had seen people like them on the internet.  

I'm still trying to get into mittens.  I think I will start in the summer months.  I am trying to write a page a day in a notebook.  I don't always do it, but I have tried and that's given more me mental focus than a lot of other things I've tried (goodness knows I probably won't have less stress or more sleep any time soon).  Something about writing more makes me want to read more, and that has felt incredible.  Because then I've actually done it.  As annoying as it can be to carry around multiple books in my bag, I have found myself reading more in bits and pieces when I'm waiting for something to happen.  It keeps me off my phone, and the shoulder ache I get from hauling around the extra weight is nearly the same as the shoulder pain and muscle tension I get from sock knitting or doom scrolling with my neck at a funny angle.

I got another part-time job and there are times when I am alone in a room for hours on end.  I can get a lot of reading done then because a lot of  times my work is just waiting for someone to call me back, reply to my email, or send me the document or photo I need to do more work.  So I use the time in as an enjoyable way as I can.  At other times, I'm surrounded by noise and need and spirited discussions and activity and service.  So now I have two part-time jobs where I perform the same role in very different ways for very different groups.  It makes me feel like a character in a Mitford story.  Or maybe a Fannie Flagg novel.  I don't quite know but bought one recently and haven't started it yet.  It's near the top of my pile.  I'm less stressed by the book pile and the hat knitting.  I have started looking at books and projects as meals to enjoy rather than chores to finish and cross off the list.  It's helped, and it feels very true when I look at the things I've brought in.