Teeswater Hot, Teeswater Cold

I made a second Teeswater hat. I have enough yarn to make another half a hat. I have half a mind to have half a hat.

No not really, two is enough. Too bad only the second one really shows off that streak of blue.

Book Corner 2022.53

by Cal Newport

Go a month without apps and phones, then bring things back gradually to see what you really need. Use apps only for certain purposes and at certain times. He says he’s not into hacks because they don’t work; you need to really go without, and then go minimalist; but I don’t see how his advice differs from hacks. I don’t think I came away with any new insight. I already use apps only for targeted purposes and particular times. Oh! I did like the metaphor of Facebook and its ilk being like a slot machine – pull the lever, what will I get? How many likes, loves, comments? Cherry, cherry… mule. But that wasn’t even his metaphor; someone said it on 60 Minutes.

Self-Decorated

Joy Dammit

Paprika

Didn’t quite make the cut to get to 6 Loose Ladies in time this weekend, but no matter, build up my inventory! A rare solid. Inexplicably, I had so much of this color left over after the Fair, in such a nice preparation, that I felt compelled to card a ton of it and make a solid skein of 100% Paprika.

I had my annual this morning. Sparing the gory details, I’m well, all my screenings are up to date, I can keep on my current prescription (YES! – stability is the name of the game), and I am not any fatter than I was when I first stopped dieting. I eat what I want these days and I am perfectly stable. This is the real me.

Skirlie

Yesterday Xopher and I went to a Scottish pub. On the left is ‘skirlie’. It’s… brace yourself… oatmeal for dinner. Our Scottish friends have found a way to have oatmeal for dinner. I’m in love.

A Thing of Beauty Is a Joy Until You Ruin It

This is the last sweater I made, a couple years ago, and it’s a thing of beauty, and it’s something like 3 sizes too big for me. I just got the idea that I should felt it. Before I do so, and possibly ruin it, I wanted it documented here how lovely is the pattern.

Book Corner 2022.52

by Jennifer Worth

This is categorized as non-fiction/memoir. But I would have enjoyed it more if it had been told in a more true-to-memory fashion, without all the manufactured dialog that makes it feel so “ready for TV serialization”.

I also would have liked just a little more backstory on the writer, the doomed relationship she occasionally alludes to, and how she got into nursing and midwifery. Not a ton of backstory, just a little. For the most part I appreciate her letting her own character recede into the background so often.

There is honesty in her multi-chapter remembrances of befriending an innocent Irish girl led into prostitution – she admits her interest bordered on voyeuristic. And the stealing of said girl’s child to be put up for adoption in a good Catholic home was dealt with in a refreshingly open-eyed manner. The writer is righteously and rightfully indignant, but accepts that the real evil is that there is no other course available.

Somehow the story of the non-English-speaking Spanish lady who prematurely gave birth to her 25th child (yeah, right…) made me feel ticked off. A one-pound baby and she raises it to at least six pounds (we only assume he lived a full life – her story ends when he is six pounds) simply by swaddling him close to her and feeding him colostrum and milk drop by drop. Hell, why do we have NICU’s, after all? What a waste, when it’s so easy! I don’t know why this story out of all the stories in the book annoyed me the most, but I just wanted to smack that woman when she refused to let go of her one-pound baby. I knew he would survive, given the type of book this is and how the story was set up, but I wished the poor infant ill, through no fault of his own.

Teeswater Hat

I decided to make a hat out of the Teeswater. Maybe two. I seem to have plenty.

I think the swirl of dark that you see here is an effect of shadows. I’ll get a better pic when it’s done.

Amen

These crackers are so thin, so pale, so devoid of flavor, I don’t feel like you should top them or toast them, I feel like you should consecrate them.