Quiet and cold in Portland this month. I went on four hikes (see next post), met a few times with my knitting group at the local coffee spot, and walked in the neighborhood when it was dry.
Alameda stairs
Moon, January 1, 2023
Knitting:
I thought I was done with knitting gnomes for a while, but then a request came in for a long time friend, so I made one more. I knit myself a new travel mug cosy, and finished my holiday socks. And made progress on my slip stitch blanket.
Quilting:
I am actually quilting again! I joined the Modern Quilt Studio – Mystery Quilt, as I have learned so much from Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr over the years. I’ve finished the first four clues. I have no idea what the final quilt will look like, but I had fun picking two contrasting palettes of fabric from my existing stash. There will be two more sets of instructions before the big reveal.
Blocks for the first four clues.
Family archeology:
While relearning crochet, I was looking through a collection of my mother’s knitting and sewing books for useful material. These are very outdated craft books that I keep for sentimental reasons. As I was leafing through one of them, a piece of thin note paper covered in my mother’s beautiful cursive handwriting fell out. It is just a notation of a crochet pattern, but my heart filled, and I felt her here with me, advising me in her future, playing the role of a ‘time being’. (Credit to Ruth Ozeki, author of A Tale for the Time Being, which I read recently, and which gave me a whole new definition of the expression ‘time being’.)
Sad news: In January, more racist violence shocked us all…as a mother, daughter, sister, friend, member of the human race, my heart is pierced each time.
With reference to Tyre Nichols, Memphis, TN (photo from the internet)
Meanwhile, an anonymous someone in my neighborhood is trying to spread good wishes…
Margaret Quilts 