Wiki – mud&string

SOUL FOOD

I’ve been sort of hit or miss with blogging these past few weeks, and I’ve missed sitting down and putting my thoughts in order and then onto paper or into my iPad. I’ve been too busy painting or drawing (these are new things for me) or reading or knitting or baking or gardening or art journaling or throwing pots or grandmothering or any of the other things that grab my interest. Here’s the perfect description for what I’m blessed with – an embarrassment of riches. According to (all-knowing) Wiki, an embarrassment of riches is an idiom that means an overabundance of something, or too much of a good thing. All these things do more than keep me occupied – they feed my soul, I guess you could say I have an embarrassment of blessings. With all the above said, I think what I really mean is “Thanks, God, for everything”.

Now, moving along…

ON THE NEEDLES

A pair of Los Manos Locos or Crazy Monkey Socks, a twist on Cookie A’s awesome Monkey Socks, toe up and purl-less.

This colorway is called Java Jive and I’m loving how it’s knitting up. You can find out more about this yarn here.

The least of things with a meaning is worth more in life than the greatest of things without it. Carl Jung

IS IT REALLY?

I read a Facebook post this morning naming today as “Blue Monday“. Since I’d never heard of this before today, a quick Wiki search yielded this, “Blue Monday is a name given to a date in mid-to-late January stated, as part of a publicity campaign by Sky Travel, to be the most depressing day of the year. However, the whole concept is considered pseudoscience, with its formula derided by scientists as nonsense.” Thanks Wiki, I owe you one.

BY THE BOOK

I’ve several “balls in the air” as far as reading goes. I’m listening to two very different books, one of which is Shirley Jackson‘s Haunting of Hill House, an old school horror story and Danger to Self: On the Front Line with an ER Psychiatrist, by Paul Linde. I call the Shirley Jackson book old school because, at least so far, it relies on the setting, the reactions of the characters and creepy foreshadowing to send chills up the spine, instead of blood, guts and over-the-top violence found in a lot of current horror stories. I suppose what I’m really trying to say is that the creepiness of Hill House is psychological, with ideas that hook themselves in your head, that can’t be shaken, becoming more and more poisonous, malignant and frightening as time goes by. I’m telling you, it’s creepy.

I FIXED IT!

So, I had this crocheted, summery sweater that I loved and the last time I wanted to wear it, I noticed that it had a huge ladder across the back, where apparently a stitch had come undone or dropped or some such thing. I temporarily arrested it with a safety pin and put it aside with the promise to myself that I’d give it a good look, figure out where the problem arose and fix it. Today I gave it the look I’d promised, decided it was similar enough to a dropped stitch when knitting to try the crochet hook method, and IT WORKED. It really, really WORKED! It’s not perfect but it’s so much better than it was, I’m really rather proud of myself. Take a look and tell me what you think.

Before