Poetry in April: Poem in My Pocket

We have arrived at the final Thursday in April, so this is my last installment of poetry for this year's observance of National Poetry Month. The theme this week is "Poem in My Pocket" -- in other words, a poem is that is short enough to fit on a small piece of paper in your pocket, just in case you wanted to have it on you to share with someone you meet. When I think of short poems, often the first things that come to mind are haikus and limericks, but I think a free-verse poem that is short is often quite effective, saying something powerful with few words. So that's what I went for with my selection.

A Name

When Eve walked among
the animals and named them --
nightingale, red-shouldered hawk,
fiddler crab, fallow deer --
I wonder if she ever wanted
them to speak back, looked into
their wide wonderful eyes and
whispered, Name me, name me.

"A Name" from The Carrying: Poems, (c) 2018, Milkweed Editions

Thank you for sharing this annual celebration of poetry with us this month! Be sure to visit, Kym, Kat, and Bonny one last time today for their selections!

Unraveled, Week 17/2024

What a week it has been -- and we've only reached the midpoint! I'm happy to report that our Seder went well, even if it was an exhausting night. The little ones all reached their breaking point before we reached the meal portion of the evening, so we were down to a dozen people around the table fairly quickly. Because we had started so early, we had finished dessert and said goodnight by around 8, and by 9 we had finished doing all the dishes and put away the extra tables and chairs. I'm pretty sure we all fell asleep very quickly Monday night. And then last night Mo and my mother went to Seder at my brother and sister-in-law's house (they also hosted their next-door neighbors) while the Mister and I attended an event with Baratunde Thurston hosted by our local PBS station. I'd say we're all looking forward to having a normal evening tonight!

Before I give an update and link up with Kat and the Unravelers, I have to share a photo from last Friday, which I forgot to do on Monday. I mentioned last week that we'd gone dress shopping, in part because Mo had a school dance on Friday, and several of you wanted to see the dress she picked. So here's a photo of the three of us:

Yes, she is wearing heels and I'm in flats, but she's quickly threatening to overtake me in height!

But back to the knitting content! This week, it's a tale of two socks:

On the top is the one using the yarn from String Theory Colorworks that I shared last week. I decided to make things a little more exciting and am doing some faux colorwork by slipping every other stitch on the round when the color changes. I'm also doing a forethought afterthought heel on these (if you look closely, you can see the white waste yarn near my needles) because I didn't want to change the width of the stripes by working a flap and gusset. On the bottom is the sock I started on Saturday for my theater knitting. We got there about an hour before showtime (we've been going early to deal with a ridiculous amount of construction downtown and to ensure we find a parking spot in the closest garage), so we sat on a bench before the house opened and I cast on. I got through a full stripe repeat over the course of the show. The yarn is Knit Picks Felici in the colorway White Russian; it was purchased back in 2022, which I know because I had the foresight to write the date it entered the stash on the ball band. I did rewind the yarn into cakes before casting on because I didn't want to risk the skein getting yanked out of my project bag in the dark in the theater.

My other active project is my design project:

I've been meaning to cast this on for a very long time, and in fact the colorwork pattern is one I've been playing around with for years. I'd originally tried it out in a sock, but stranded work in socks is always a little risky, so I decided to use it in a cowl instead. This is one of those cowls that is knit as a long tube and finished by grafting the two ends together. I've now completed a little more than one repeat of the pattern, and I'm very happy with how this is working up. I'm still deciding just how long to make this, but the beauty of this construction is that you can basically decide to make it as long or as short as you want.

I have only finished one book in the last week, but it was an excellent one!

The memoir How to Say Babylon is the next Read With Us selection, but I actually already had it on hold at the library when it was announced, and finally it was my turn last week. I decided to get the audiobook, read by the author, as I always seem to get more out of memoirs when I hear them in the author's own voice. Safiya Sinclair recounts growing up in poverty in Jamaica in a strict Rastafarian household, with a father who was occasionally abusive and whose beliefs governed what she could wear, what she could eat, and what she could do with her life. Eventually, Sinclair began to question those beliefs and to want a different life for herself, one that would allow her to not only make her own choices but also to pursue a career as a poet. Although this is a memoir and not a poetry collection, you can tell from her prose that she is a poet; even in describing things that are hard to read, her writing is beautiful. It's hard to say that I truly enjoyed all of this book; there were times when I forgot that the events she described had actually happened. But I found her skill as a writer to be astonishing, and I am hoping to find some of her poetry to read soon. I am really looking forward to the RWU discussion! I gave this book 5 stars.

On my to-do list for today is finishing Long Island Compromise (my Kindle app tells me I have about an hour of reading left), and I have about 100 pages remaining in When I Lived in Modern Times.

What are you making and reading this week?

Totally Different

Remember last week, when I told you I'd finished my sweater but that the weather had gotten so warm that I didn't think I'd have a chance to wear it until the fall? I think the universe must have heard me, because we had a frost advisory this weekend, and yesterday it was chilly enough that I could actually wear my sweater without overheating. I took the opportunity to have my Official Photographer take some glamour shots.

Pattern: Bereket (Ravelry link) by Ainur Berkimbayeva, size 1 (to fit 35 in. bust)
Yarn: my handspun Rambouillet, spun back in the summer of 2020! -- I used approximately 958 yards
Needles: US 5 (3.75 mm)

Started/Completed: March 9/April 17

Mods: lengthened the body

This sweater was unlike any I have knit before, and I'm really not sure why I was so drawn to the pattern, but once I saw it on Instagram on Ainur's feed, I couldn't stop thinking about it. And though I'd originally intended to use this yarn in something else, I quickly realized that it was perfect for this sweater. Although I spun the yarn back in 2020, it actually first came into my stash in the form of half a fleece way back in 2012. At some point I'd sent it to a mill to be processed and got it back as roving, so it became a great excuse to get better at my long draw. And it has a fuzzy, nubby texture that I think works really well with the texture of the stitch patterns.

This sweater is knit side to side, from one sleeve cuff to the other. The stockinette portions of the sleeves are knit in the round, and then once you start the textured sections, you're working back and forth. Those textured sections include garter stitch, eyelets, and what Ainur calls bobbles but what I'd call welts -- working back and forth over a small number of stitches, then creating a sort of pleat by picking up a loop on the wrong side of the work at the base of the tab of fabric and knitting it together with the stitch on the needle to join. The triangular sections in the middle use a lot of short rows; I ended up using German short rows because I didn't like the look of the traditional wrap and turn. Once the second cuff is finished, you pick up stitches for both the neckline and the hem and work twisted ribbing. 

As far as level of difficulty goes, I think most of it lies in the unusual construction. But the pattern is great for leading you through. In addition to having line-by-line instructions, Ainur has schematics all through the pattern that show you exactly what part you're working on that look like this:

This shows you that you're working on the textured front section (what's in the darker brown), and the lighter brown shading shows you've what you've completed. This is the first time I've seen something like this in a pattern, and I think it's a brilliant way to make things extremely clear for the knitter, even when the construction is more conventional.

My only modification to this pattern was to add more ribbing to the body. Ainur calls for about an inch of twisted ribbing on the lower hem before the bind off, but that was just too cropped for me. I think this is likely because I was working a size smaller than what was recommended, so my sweater ended up smaller overall. She intended it to be an oversized cropped pullover, and each size in the pattern is specified for a range of bust sizes. For my full bust, I should have knit the second size, but I didn't want this to be that big on me, so I knit the smallest size. This was partially because I thought I was going to be cutting it close on my yarn, but I ended up using much, much less than specified, so I had plenty to add some length. I've got about 4.5 inches of twisted ribbing on the bottom, and it hits me right at my hip (the t-shirt I'm wearing underneath in the photos is a bit big on me). This sizing choice is also why the sleeves end a lot higher on me than on others you'll see if you look at projects on Ravelry. But I'm totally happy with how this fits, and it's actually just right for a cool (but not cold) early spring day. All the same, I'll be happy to not wear this again until fall!

* * * * *

This week is going to be a busy one, especially the first couple of days. Passover starts tonight, and we are hosting Seder for 19 (including the baby nephews). I'm going to do my best to keep up with my usual blog schedule, including Thursday's poetry post, but please bear with me if my posts are shorter than usual and/or if it takes me a bit longer than usual to reply to comments!

Looking for Normal

Happy Friday, friends. It's been a very long week. All week I've been feeling off -- slightly spacey, more tired than usual -- and then feeling more anxious because of it. First I thought it was just because I haven't been sleeping well (because of snoring, then noise from having the windows open, then an unexpected iPad alarm in the middle of the night), and that's certainly adding to it, but I think part of it is also allergies. I mentioned earlier in the week that I've been getting off of allergy medication; I had been taking cetirizine (Zyrtec) for a long time and had tried to get off it twice before, but each time I failed because I suffered from intense, full-body itching. It was so bad that I ended up with bruises all over my body just from scratching. So for months now I've been tapering off my dose, and after taking a quarter of a pill (just 2.5 mg!), I went off entirely last week. I had the itching again this time around, and the bruising, but I've made it through this time. It's now been more than a week since I had any of this drug in my system, and while I'm still a little itchy from time to time, it's much more manageable. But -- not taking an allergy pill daily, after taking it for several years, means that the allergies have come back in full force, on top of which it seems to be a particularly bad year of pollen. So I suppose it's not surprising that I'm feeling weird! I think getting a bit caught up on sleep will help, and I hope that will happen this weekend.

Sorry if all that is TMI! I am happy to report that my sweater is done and has been blocked, but you'll have to wait until Monday to see it modeled. In the meantime, I've started two new projects -- a pair of socks and a colorwork cowl that's a new design -- and have made a bit of progress on both.

I didn't intentionally choose yarns that had some colors in common, but it's always a happy coincidence when that happens. I may need to cast on something else because Mo and I have tickets to see Company tomorrow and neither of these projects can be worked on without looking (I'm slipping every other stitch on the first round of the color change on the socks for a little fun, but that requires being able to see the color change).

Before I can get to any of that, though, I've got to get through a day of work and a pile of laundry. Here's hoping everyone has a restful weekend!

Poetry in April: About Color

Today is the third Thursday of the National Poetry Month, and this week we're sharing poems about color. When I think about color right now, I think about all the spring flowers that are blooming and the trees and shrubs pushing out new growth. The colors of spring are always the treat that makes getting through the gray months of winter worth it. So I found this poem, which made me think of what I have seen growing in my neighborhood and also about how Mother Nature is the most talented artist of all.

Iris
by Sujata Bhatt

Her hand sweeps over the rough grained paper,

then, with a wet sponge, again.

A drop of black is washed grey,

cloudy as warm breath fogging cool glass.

She feels she must make the best of it,

She must get the colour of the stone wall,

of the mist settling around twisted birch trees.

Her eye doesn't miss the rabbit crouched,

a tuft of fog in the tall grass.

Nothing to stop the grey sky from merging into stones,

or the stone walls from tailing off into sky.

But closer, a single iris stands fully opened:

dark wrinkled petals, rain-moist,

the tall slender stalk sways, her hand follows.

Today, even the green is tinged with grey,

the stone's shadow lies heavy over the curling petals

but there's time enough, she'll wait,

study the lopsided shape.

The outer green sepals once enclosing the bud

lie shrivelled: empty shells spiralling

right beneath the petals.

As she stares the sun comes out.

And the largest petal flushes

deep deep violet.

A violet so intense it's almost black.

The other tremble indigo, reveal

paler blue undersides.

Thin red veins running into yellow orange rills,

yellow flows down the green stem.

Her hand moves swiftly from palette to paper,

paper to palette, the delicate brush

swoops down, sweeps up,

move the way a bird builds its nest.

An instant and the sun is gone.

You can learn more about this poet here. Be sure to visit Kym, Bonny, and Kat today to read their selections!

Unraveled, Week 16/2024

Phew, what a week it has been already! We have had two gorgeous days of above-normal temperatures and sunshine, but today the rain has returned. We're having the wettest April on record here, and I am thankful that we don't have any flooding issues where we live (that is one perk of having a ravine at the end of your street!). Yesterday I went for my normal walk and then had to walk in to campus to pick up my new ID (my old one expired two years ago, oops) and to meet a coworker for coffee, so I certainly got my dose of vitamin D. But I'm currently "detoxing" from long-term use of my allergy medication, so with the nicer weather there has also been a lot of sneezing and itchy eyes, so at least the rain will wash away some of the pollen.

It's Wednesday, which means it's time to join up with Kat and the Unravelers. I'd hoped to have an FO to share today, but all that walking yesterday meant less knitting time. I'm getting very close, though!

Please excuse the mess behind me, including the chicken.

If I were following the pattern exactly, my Bereket would already be done; it calls for seven rounds of twisted ribbing at the bottom hem before binding off. But that would also result in a very cropped sweater and an awkward length, and as I had (and still have) plenty of yarn remaining, I decided to just keep going with it. I've just joined another skein of yarn, my smallest one of the bunch, and plan to keep knitting until I've basically used it all up. I think that should get me to a length that's much more comfortable for me. Looking at the weather forecast for the week ahead, it's unlikely that I'll be really comfortable wearing a wool sweater of any length in the near future. I can't help but think that I've brought on the warm weather by nearly finishing it, though!

This is my only project of any kind at the moment -- I know! -- but I've got a board meeting tonight which requires some mindless knitting to help me stay engaged, so I will likely be starting a new pair of socks. I've pulled out this skein of self-striping from my SSK goodies from last year to wind up. It's a Targhee/nylon blend, which makes delightfully squishy socks.

Reading has been good but not as plentiful lately, and that's mainly because Mo has wanted to watch Downton Abbey every chance we get, so there's more TV than reading in the evenings. But I've finished two good books in the last week.

First, I listened to From Scratch: A Memoir of Love, Sicily, and Finding Home, which is read by the author (something I always enjoy when listening to a memoir). Tembi Locke tells how she met her husband, a Sicilian chef, while studying abroad; their struggles to have a child and, later, with his battle with a rare cancer; their complicated relationship with his family due to their interracial marriage; and, finally, her husband's death and how she, their daughter, and his mother created a new family for themselves. There is a lot of grief and sadness in this book, but there's also an immense amount of love and of personal growth -- not to mention a lot of food! I haven't yet watched it, but there's also now a Netflix series inspired by the book. I gave this one 4 stars.

Martyr! is a relatively new release that's fairly hard to classify. Its main character, Cyrus Shams, came to the United States with his father from Iran as a child after his mother was killed when a U.S. Navy ship mistook a commercial airliner for a fighter plane. After battling addiction and dealing with the loss of his father while in college, he is now sober and struggling to find some meaning in his life. So he turns to the stories of martyrs, those whose deaths have meaning or significance. And then he hears about an artist who has turned her terminal cancer diagnosis into an art exhibit in New York, and meeting her turns his world upside down. I can't help but think that this novel is probably quite a bit autobiographical; it's certainly informed by the author's background and experience (he, like Cyrus, is a poet, and that's readily apparent in how he writes). It's at turns sad, funny, and poignant. It's not a book that will appeal to everyone, but I really enjoyed it and found it to be really fresh and original. I gave it 4 stars.

Right now I've got a trio of books in progress: Long Island Compromise on Kindle, How to Say Babylon on audio, and When I Lived in Modern Times on paper.

What are you making and reading this week?

For the Bird(s)

Somehow Monday mornings are harder when you've had a long weekend -- or maybe it's just because a certain someone woke me up with his snoring at about 4:30 this morning. In any case, I'm dragging a bit, but I'm enjoying my second big cup of coffee (to which I added a splash of hazelnut syrup just because), and I'm sure I'll get moving soon enough.

It was very nice to have the extra day over the weekend. Friday was indeed a washout, so we put off our shopping trip and instead I got my usual Saturday chores done a day early. We also spent some time watching Downton Abbey; Mo recently discovered that she now enjoys watching period dramas after she got hooked on The Gilded Age with me, so she requested that we watch Downton next. She was way too young for it when it was originally on, and I haven't watched it in years, so we are enjoying starting from the beginning. We're already into Season 2 -- I'd forgotten how few episodes were in each season!

We did end up doing our shopping trip on Saturday and were very successful. The main objective was finding a dress for Mo for a school dance that's this coming Friday night, but we also have a family bat mitzvah next month. Mo found three dresses -- two party dresses and one that she's planning to wear for her middle school graduation -- and I found three as well. Two of them were on the clearance rack and on sale for amazing prices! I wasn't necessarily planning to shop for me, but what I found all fit perfectly and was too good of a deal to pass up (plus I probably needed some new dresses!).

When I wasn't cleaning or shopping this weekend, I was working on a chicken. (Yes, you read that correctly.) And it's done!

This is the ubiquitous Emotional Support Chicken that everyone seems to be knitting right now. When I bought the pattern, I originally intended to knit one for myself, and I still do, but this first one is for my nephew for his upcoming first birthday.

I know some of you were interested in some feedback on the pattern, and having now knit it, I can understand why there was some concern. Although I didn't have any trouble following it, I can think of many ways I would improve how the pattern is written. There isn't a ton of consistency; sometimes it says "Step 1, Step 2," and sometimes it says "Row 1, Row 2," so there's that. It's also not always indicated which side is the right and and which is the wrong side. And to add to all of this, there are a lot of short rows, which I know not everyone is comfortable with. But I have enough experience that I could see what needed to be done and how it was shaped, so I didn't have any issues. I do have in mind some adjustments for my next chicken, though, and I'll certainly detail my modifications when I make my own. For this initial chicken, the only change I made was to leave off the wattle. I did make it, but Mo and I both agreed that it looked awkward and was likely to get pulled off by a toddler who doesn't know his own strength.

As far as the specs go, I used all Blue Sky Alpacas Organic Cotton Worsted that was leftover from an earlier project. I used a total of 234 yards, and I believe the colors I used are Bone, Dandelion, and Mediterranean (the tags are long gone). I used a US 7/4.5 mm needle and worked at a slightly tighter-than-specified gauge; I think I will likely use an even smaller needle for my next chicken to ensure that the fabric is tight enough. This yarn is rather robust for a worsted, plus with a cotton I didn't want to make the fabric too tight, so the called-for needle size worked well to make sure the stuffing didn't show through. And speaking of stuffing, I can see that I need to work on my stuffing technique a bit because this chicken is looking a little lumpy! One thing I did do that's not in the pattern is add some poly pellets for some weight; they're sewn up in some fabric so they don't escape and cause a potential choking hazard.

Now that the chicken is out of the way, I've turned back to my Bereket sweater, and I hope to have another FO to share with you later this week. But for now, I've got to get my work day started. Have a good start to your week!