Currently: Mid September Update

September 14, 2022 By Carole

Summer is slipping away and signs of fall are starting to show in the temperatures I’m feeling and the leaves I’m seeing. Let’s do a what’s-happening-around-here update.

Reading: Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney. Spoiler alert: I don’t love it.

Knitting: Dale’s Musselburgh hat. I thought I might have it finished by this week but I’m not quite there yet. Soon, though. And then I’ll be picking up my Iceland Cardigan again.

Watching: Only Murders in the Building, season 2. It’s so good and I’m bummed that we are almost finished.

Cutting: dahlias and zinnias for as long as I’m able.

Eating: tomatoes and cucumbers from our garden while they last.

Arranging: fall décor in the house, pumpkins and faux foliage and candles. It’s all so cozy and I love it.

Planning: One last camping trip. I don’t want it to be cold but I won’t be sad if it’s sweater-weather.

Learning: To modify yoga poses to make them work for my body. It’s something I never considered before (I thought if I got good enough at yoga that I wouldn’t need to modify) and it’s blowing my mind at the difference this makes.

Ordering: The 2022 Wine Advent Calendar from the NPR Wine Club. I wasn’t going to get it this year and then I saw it and . . . I caved.

Enjoying: The Read With Us Book Club so very much. Thank you to everyone who participated this month, or ever. And if you haven’t because you’re uncertain or shy or anything like that, please give it a try. We’re very very easy to be with.

Unsubscribing: from as many emails as possible. I don’t have a clue how I got on some of these lists but I am a serial unsubscriber.

And that’s all I can think of today. Hope all is well in your little corner of the world.

Currently: Midsummer Update

July 26, 2022 By Carole

It’s almost the end of July, something I find hard to believe! Before the summer slips away, let’s do a what’s-happening-around-here update.

Reading: Fly Girl by Ann Hood

Watching: Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey

Listening: To the podcast Maintenance Phase

Knitting: Dale’s Musselburgh Hat. But hardly at all.

Eating: Cucumbers from our garden

Cutting: Zinnias from our garden. But not dahlias. Yet.

Seeing: 3 varieties of butterflies, yellow swallowtails, black swallowtails, and monarchs

Appreciating: People who repeat the phone number when they leave a voicemail. This is really a work thing since phone numbers show up on my iPhone.

Watching: Fred & George stretch out longer and longer the higher the temperature goes.

Finishing: My July OLW prompt and monthly update. I’m almost there and will share it with you soon.

Embracing: Body positivity and wearing a 2 piece bathing suit (mostly at home but once at a local campground/pond!) because it’s just more comfortable

Wishing: For a good soaking rain

Hope all is well for you and your world.

Currently: Spring 2022

March 21, 2022 By Carole

It’s been a while since I’ve done a post about what’s happening currently. And also, I can’t come up with another topic for today’s blog. So here we are.

Reading: Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney

Listening: In Love by Amy Bloom

Celebrating: the Spring Equinox and Ostara. Hooray for this beautiful season of renewal and hope!

Watching: The Gilded Age

Hearing: Spring peepers, a most welcome and beautiful sound

Knitting: The Daytripper Cardigan and toe up socks and a Santa Hat. In other words . . . nothing new.

Planning: Garden beds. I’m thinking maybe all flowers this year and no vegetables.

Enjoying: the antics of Fred and George. They are funny and sweet and also full of the dickens.

Feeling: Good! It’s been a week since I’ve take any Advil and that’s the longest I’ve gone without it since last summer.

Remembering: My mom. She died 24 years ago today. I suppose I can now say that I’m used to her being gone but I still miss her and wish I could talk to her just about every day.

Engaging: In local politics. I can’t change much on the world’s stage but I can help those trying to do good things for my community and at least that’s something.

And that’s all the news from Carole Knits for today. Happy Monday, let’s hope it’s a good one!

Currently

January 24, 2022 By Carole

Happy Monday, dear readers! Here’s a look at what’s going on here, currently.

Reading: Wish You Were Here by Jodi Picoult. I don’t generally read her books and I’m not sure I’m really ready to read a novel about the pandemic but here we are.

Knitting: Trusty Toe Up socks and Sean’s Santa Hat. I’m seriously thinking I will start Mary Jane Mucklestone’s Daytripper Cardigan with the MDK crowd on February 1st. I highly doubt I will finish it by the end of the month but I bought the yarn in Iceland and this will be a good way to get going on it.

Listening: To Meat Loaf and remembering my teen years and how much the Bat Out of Hell album meant to me back then. I would listen to For Crying Out Loud over and over and over, feeling all the feels.

Watching: Football. And Women of the Movement, which was excellent and I highly recommend it. We just finished Emily in Paris so we will probably be starting Season 2 of All Creatures Great and Small this week.

Drinking: Lots of La Croix. Watermelon and Key Lime are my favorite flavors. I’m not doing Dry January but I have cut way back on alcohol consumption since last October and I’m only having a martini or a single glass of wine once/week . . . if even that. I’m sleeping better and I’ve lost weight and I (mostly) don’t miss it.

Learning: To use our air fryer. I bought it on Black Friday but didn’t use it until recently and I’m really enamored with it. Last night I made frozen chicken nuggets and they were crunchy and delicious. French fries are bomb, too.

Driving: To the ocean and thinking how grateful I am that we we live so close.

Going: To work and that’s about it. Omicron seems to be slowing down in MA but until I see real evidence that we’re on the backside of this I’m at home. And I mostly don’t mind.

Taking: Selfies. I made myself a promise that I would take weekly selfies in 2022 and so far, so good.

Juggling: Staffing at the library due to covid. It’s been . . . challenging. I feel like I check those CDC guidelines every day as different/unique situations arise.

Marveling: At how quickly Fred and George are growing. They sure don’t look like kittens anymore!

Let’s have a great week!

Around Here

February 9, 2021 By Carole

How about a random gathering of thoughts and things that are happening around here?

Reading: Memorial by Bryan Washington

Knitting: Pink Socks. And The Shift.

Watching: Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist. And reruns of Everybody Loves Raymond when I need to just veg.

Playing: Tetris. Way too much Tetris.

Missing: My blogversary. Yep, it was January 31 and I forgot to post about it. 16 years of Carole Knits, can you believe it?

Considering: What do to about our current heat situation. We need to replace our furnace but aren’t sure whether to stick with oil or change to natural gas. At the same time we are thinking it might be time to remove our beloved wood stove and convert to a gas log fireplace. Doing that opens up a whole lot of options for our living room . . . demolishing the big brick hearth, determining if we can open up a closed fireplace front and chimney for a gas insert, or even just converting that to a traditional wood burning fireplace and putting baseboard heat in this room. And all of that means new flooring and sheet rock. It’s a lot, and every component comes from a different sort of expert or vendor. Decision fatigue is keeping me from moving forward on this.

Taking: iPhone photos ever day. The 100 Day Project has been a good catalyst for getting me back in the habit of taking photos and I’m getting to know the iPhone 12 in the process. I’ve interspersed a few of my favorites throughout this post.

Growing: Herbs in an Aerogarden. Kym posted about getting one and I contemplated it for about half a second before I ordered one myself. The basil and dill are sprouting already!

Appreciating: The lack of drama that has taken hold when it comes to politics. I realize this may change with the start of the impeachment trial but seriously, I love getting up in the morning and not finding half a dozen upsetting updates from the NY Times on my phone.

Baking: with Jackie on Friday afternoons. So far we have made banana bread (his favorite, I think), brownies, and chocolate chip cookies. I think this week we may try muffins. He loves to help in the kitchen, adding ingredients, and he puts his little hand on my arm to “help” me when I do everything from stirring to measuring. It’s adorbs.