Seven Quick Takes--Sinuses & Stats

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Hey everyone! Welcome to fall. (AKA, the return of hockey season!)

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On the blog this past week, I wrote a piece that I think is pretty important, and if you haven’t read it, here it is: Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics.

If you’ve been a reader here for any length of time, you know that I take the idea that “everyone has worth” seriously. This is because I have been frequently told that because my genetic code is messed up, my life is “too hard”.

Life is hard for everyone. Everyone will suffer. Everyone will die. I wrote a book about this, for Pete’s sake.

Yet some people think we can control suffering. We can control unhappiness.

We can’t.

So whenever the ugly head of eugenics rears its face, I try to play whack-a-mole with it and beat it down into the dust where it belongs. This piece is my latest Whack-A-Mole entry, but with the caveat of a really, really grim statistics at the beginning.

95% of children with CF are aborted in utero.

Anyway, read the piece to get all the sad facts and see exactly how I feel about this. :)

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Happy news, yes? :) How about some Patty?

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Also in HUGE news, I’m an auntie to a little girl! I have a niece coming! Her name is Madeleine Grace and she will arrive in the world in January and I am so excitedddd. (She is my sister and her husband’s little girl)

This is the first grandchild for my parents, so obviously we are all really excited.

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I’m having sinus surgery in December! My ENT had a CT of my sinuses taken and apparently there is lots of “mucus and junk” hanging out in my ethmoid sinuses (which are really cool, btw), so he’s going to go in, get the crap out, and then flush in lots of antibiotic stuff to keep things happy!

This is all part of CF. The mucus that’s really think and causes so many issues in my lungs also causes issues in other places, mostly the sinuses, the pancreas, and the reproductive tract (most men with CF are sterile—not sure if it’s all, but most are.) For me, my transplant took care of about 98% of my CF issues—but not my sinuses. Fortunately I have really good sinuses (I had a friend who needed sinus surgery every nine months) but it’s been about 10 years since I had a clean out and that means I’m overdue. So, December! Surgery! Yay!

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Dad and I are reading the Cormorant Strike series and we love them. I just started watching the TV series. Have you read these? I’m not super into mysteries/crime, but I love these. And I mean it helps that they’re ghost written—it’s actually JK Rowling who write them. :) So as a massive Harry fan, that helps. (I didn’t like her first adult novel, btw. So that’s why I was slow to pick these up. But these are good.)

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Knitting? I finished the Beatrice Shawl, and I’ve got four colors for a mystery KAL.

Beatrice shawl on the mats

The KAL is a 6 week thing, and I have five of the clues so far, so I joined late, but I’m really chomping at the bit to get started. I just needed some more size 4 needles, so once those arrive I can dive in!

Seven Quick Takes Labor Day Edition

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Hi! Happy Long Weekend, US readers! :)

If you’re a subscriber, this post just landed in your inbox. If you’re not (and why not may I ask?), then: Ave Maria Press is having a Labor Day Sale! 10% off everything with the code LABORDAY21 at checkout!

So be sure to get your copy of Living Memento Mori (for yourself or friends!).

In the post I also talk about Ave’s new note taking bible. It’s great! And it’s also included in the sale! So you can check out my notes on that.

The sale runs through 9/6 (Monday). Hop to it!

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OK so in the last quick takes I said I was feeling better. Hahah I LIED. By the 26th I felt so crappy that I didn’t have the energy to make coffee. So I called clinic (called=emailed) and got a script for Cipro which is making me feel better.

However, Cipro is a strong (as in, it’s used for plague and anthrax) antibiotic and can mess with tendons. I don’t really like that, but I like that cipro works. I’m on antibiotics all the time as a matter of course so there’s not a whole lot to pick from when I do get sick that’s in pill form. It’s basically Cipro. So I’m used to it, but I don’t really like it. I mean I like feeling better but it’s still a nasty bit of work.

I have less than a week to go on it so that makes me happy, because then I can stop freaking out about my tendons!

And yes, I am getting back to normal energy, which is great.

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Since I want to not mess up my tendons, I’ve been doing a lot of sitting, which means reading and knitting mostly. Fortunately my Aunt Mary (who is also a bookworm of the first degree) sent me a box of books so I can have something to do while I sit! She sent me We Are the Brennans, Klara and the Sun, and A Swim In A Pond In The Rain.

So far I’ve read Brennans and really liked it. I’m reading Klara now, and I’m looking forward to Swim because I like Russian literature. (Mostly. I still need to read War & Peace which is in my library, mocking me for not reading it yet.)

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In Knitting, I have a lot going on but there was a Great Knitting Mystery Adventure this week.

I got a lot of yarn….

And then wound the pretty champagne colored yarn (Quince and Co Crane) for a project.

I was confused on said project. I posted it on Facebook to numerous excellent knitters. WE WERE ALL SO CONFUSED.

Finally, we figured out what to do. It was insane, my friends. Many minds were flabbergasted about this pattern.

But WE DID IT.

BEHOLD.

Anyway now it’s chugging along and is going to be a gorgeous shawl but man, figuring out this pattern was ROUGH!

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The rest of the yarn will be used for two shawls (I LOVE SHAWLS, OK? I really do. They’re so fun.) and a cowl. And yes, I am going to start my sweater soon!

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What are your weekend plans? Mine involve two dinners, lecturing at Mass, and…that’s it. :) But one of the dinners is for Tiffany’s 40th birthday!

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You know Tiff as the mom of Billy, most likely. Well, she’s pregnant again (with a little girl this time) and today is her 40th birthday!

Here she is with Billy…

And this is one of my favorite pictures of us. :)

Seven Quick Takes: Truth, Cold Bug, and Babies!

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Hello! Happy Friday!

Last week I didn’t write because I had a nasty cold/virus bug thing. It wasn’t the plague. :) But I had some dental work two weeks ago to replace an old filing, and some grossness must have come out during the work and flown right up to my left sinus cavity. For teh first few days it was just sort of sore throat, but then it became a nasty cold that had me pretty well sidelined. Sigh. At least I can take cold meds now—I couldn’t pre-transplant!

Anyway, mostly over now, which is good. Yay!

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This next bit is something that’s been gnawing at me for awhile, but it came to full flower yesterday. That’s the movement of people to not tell the truth. Not necessarily intending to lie, per se, but to not be accurate with their words.

During COVID, I’ve noticed this a few different times, and especially now with vaccinations. There seems to be a persistent myth—and it is a myth—that people who are immunocompromised can’t receive the vaccinations.

We can. I have.

So I’ve taken to calling people out on this—nicely!—when I see it. yesterday on twitter, I did this. The response I got was (and I’m paraphrasing): “well, we only have 140 characters, so we don’t have space to make distinctions.” I was told (and this is a quote) that I was “mincing words.”

No. I was being accurate.

The words we use do matter. That’s not just because I’m a writer and words are what I use to earn my living, but I think we all know that words can be dangerous or healing. Truth or lies matter, and facts matter.

It matters that people believe what’s true, which is that immunocompromised people can get the vaccine. Some people cannot get it, just like all people cannot get every vaccine. (I can’t get the shingles vaccine, because it’s a live vaccine.)

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Being told that it’s mincing words to want to be accurate—to be truthful—was very strange to me. (besides the fact that to “mince words” means to not be truthful or to beat around the bush. When people say “let’s not mince words”, they mean, “let’s be totally honest.” )

When I studied journalism and wrote for my college paper, the goal in writing as to get across the facts in as few words as possible, because all journalists (well, and all writers) know about words counts and space. To say that a word or character limit doesn’t allow you to be honest is…..weird.

I think it also bothers me as a Dominican. The motto (well one of the mottoes) of the order is veritas— “truth.” The order was founded to spread God’s truth throughout the world, not the “truth” that the Albigensians believed. Truth is important, in every sense. Jesus called himself the way, the truth, and the life. Truth isn’t “mincing words”.

So that’s been something I’ve been thinking about lately.

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Another thing I’ve been thinking about? BABIESSSS.

Here’s some Patty:

“Mom, I LOVE PAPER TOWELS!”

She’s 13 1/2 months old, is working on more teeth, and is walking like a champ. She can also walk while holding her mom’s phone and have a “conversation” (in baby talk) with you. And she kisses the screen, which I think is adorable. Her big siblings have gone off to school, leaving her and Johnny (seen above) at home with mom—at least until Johnny starts pre-school in a few weeks. (He won’t go every day).

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And in other BABY NEWS—My sister is pregnant! I’m an auntie! Yay!!!!! This is my first niece or nephew and I am insanely excited. Of course baby blanket knitting will begin as soon as my sister lets me know what colors she wants. I’ll be making the same one I made for Patty, just different colors.

Patty snuggled under her blanket. <3

Since Mel and her husband live in Colorado, I won’t have to worry so much about using wool, like I did with Patty, who lives in Texas! I kept worrying that she’d overheat under it, but she seems to do A-OK with it and takes her blanket everywhere, which makes me very happy. I hope that my niece or nephew love her/his baby blanket just as much!

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I’ve been re-reading/re-watching the Harry Potter series. (And the baby’s bedroom is Harry Potter themed!) And while I do that, I’ve done some HP knitting….

For Christmas last year, Mel got me Knitting Magic, a book of Harry Potter projects. These are the horcrux washcloths, so there is a set of seven. I started with Harry, and then made Hufflepuff’s Cup.

Hufflepuff’s cup—it’s not as easy to see as Harry, but it’s there!

Next up will be Ravencaw’s diadem. My Ravelry notes are here.

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The local school district has started back here, and Patty’s siblings all went back on Tuesday:

Has school started back where you are?

Long Time No Yarn Along! :)

I know it’s been FOREVER since I’ve done a yarn along for you, so here we go, I owe you one!

So the first thing is finished objects, or FOs in yarn speak.

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This is a finished Free Your Fade shawl from Andrea Mowry. I just adore her designs! (I have to weave in the ends and block but it’s off the needles, so finished for our purposes!) I used Wonderland Yarns fingering weight yarn in Egypt (light blue), Seography (bright blue), and Jerusalem (all the colors!). Egypt and Jerusalem are limited edition yarns for their 2020 Around the World collection, and as of right now, Jerusalem is still available!

This is an amazingly fun shawl to knit—very relaxing, very portable (I took on the wedding trip!), and a lot of fun when it comes to color combinations. I am definitely knitting another ASAP. (You could also make it bigger!)

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In progress: a sweater!

From Jacqueline’s website

Jacqueline was one of the starts of Knit Stars 6, and she talked about how to adapt patterns to fit your body, which I loved. The pattern we got in her class was this sweater, called Ursina.

I’m going to be adapting that as my new project. I want the length to be more full length, not cropped. (I don’t like cropped). I love the v-neck that isn’t too deep, and the shaping at the bottom which points to the face—all good things! This is a top down sweater which I’ve never done, but I have a knitting friend who is doing it with me so we can help each other!

For my yarn, I chose Quicne and Co Lark (the same I used for my cardigan project), but this time in the Limited Edition Blue Balloon color way (which, as of this writing, you can still get!)

SO MUCH Blue Balloon to wind!

Blue Balloon was also offered last year and I grabbed some to knit a Hawthorne Shawl (which is currently hibernating, bad me!) But I just love this yarn and the color is perfect for me!

I knitted a swatch but I was off a tiny bit on the gauge, which, not to brag, is rare for me, so I’m trying again, going down a needle size (to a 6, instead of the recommended 7). I’ll see if that helps.

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In progress: Confetti Shawl

I belong to a knitting/yarn club where every quarter you get a special skein of yarn, a unique pattern for that yarn, and fun surprises. This was the yarn for summer—it’s a cashmere blend! I didn’t want to make the pattern that was included, so I decided to use another pattern they recommended, a shawl called “Confetti”. I haven’t cast on yet, because I wanted to finish the Free Your Fade at the top of the page first before I started another shawl, but the time has come to cast on with this guy!

I might not do the picot bind off—we’ll see. I was supposed to do it on Free Your Fade but I was so confused when I looked it up that I said, FORGET IT. I don’t like to be too frustrated with my knitting, so I just did a basic bind off.

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In progress: Rosarium shawl

Quince and Co—in case you haven’t realized—is one of my favorite yarn companies. In fact, it’s my go-to for good, quality wool in solid colors. I’ve never used their Finch fingering weight yarn, though.

Well, that’s about to change. I just had to get some of their birthday limited edition in Parakeet!

image from Quince and Co’s Facebook page

(Yes, I like blue, OK?! :) )

Quince describes this as a tonal variegated yarn, so I’m really excited to knit with it. At first I was thinking of a shawl that was two colors, but then I thought, wait, what about Rosarium?

A rose garden—but that’s also where we get the word “rosary.” So….a Marian blue shawl? AMEN! I can do that! I had been waiting for a good yarn for this and voila! I think this will be amazing. And since it’s fingering weight, it will be a lightweight shawl that’s an easy size to throw over a dress or short sleeved top for Mass or anything else, really. Catholic knitting! And also it’s a solid color, which none of my shawls are, so it’ll be a nice addition to my shawl wardrobe.

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Texas yarns!

I have a cowl planned for the Texas Tulip yarn, and the matcha is still sort of up for grabs. Like Rosarium, it’s waiting for the right pattern. I might do it up in the Confetti pattern if I like it—we’ll see!

Teas Tulip on the top, matcha on the bottom.

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As for books….

I re-read Tokyo Ever After (love it), and read Artemis, the only one of Andy Weir’s books I haven’t read. I’m re-reading the Harry Potter series, and I’m currently on Chamber of Secrets. I’m also reading No Man Knows My History, Dominican Spirituality, and Emma.

Seven Quick Takes: Links! Health! Patty!

I know that’s not a sexy title, but….

I’ve been writing about COVID related stuff a bit in the past year. And as we start to talk about masks and lockdowns again, I thought it would make sense to have an index post about COVID-related things.

The reason I feel this way is because I have, not to brag, a lot of hospital experience. I’ve been a patient in a hospital for many years. I know hospitals. I know lung stuff. I know about risk assessment and personal health.

So I feel like I should share my insights with you, for whatever you think they’re worth.

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COVID, antibodies, and transplant life: posted 5/24/21

This one is a bit of an outlier because it deals with transplant a little more specifically, but it also talks about acceptable risk a bit as well.

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Prudence, Acceptable Risk, and Medicine: posted 5/10/21

This was originally going to be a two-parter, but I haven’t written the second part (yet). The first part deals with exactly what the title says—the fact that every medical “intervention” (including taking Tylenol) has risks associated with it, and it’s our job to assess risks for ourselves.

It also talks about how people are in hospitals every single day, in ICUs every single day, and on ventilators every.single.day, because this is totally forgotten in reporting.

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Hospital 101: posted 11/23/20

Basically: “yes you can be in the hospital and not feel terribly crappy.” And, “No, being in the hospital does not mean that you’re going to die.”

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COVID and lung function: posted 7/7/20

Yes, you can recover lung function after being really, really, REALLY sick! If my crappy old CF lungs could do it, yours can too!

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So that’s the listing of the “big” COVID posts. I have some other things scattered in Quick Takes and various places, but these are the long forms, so to speak. I hope you find them helpful.

Here is Patty as reward! :)

She has EIGHT teeth! And can say cheese!"

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I went swimming for the first time in two years! YAY! It felt so great to be back in the water!

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And finally I wrote two posts this week! ICYM them:

An awesome clinic visit

The state of the Writing Wicket

Day 5: An American Girl Doll Is Purchased, and We Get Yarn!

We love Buc-ee’s!

(Previous installments: Day One, Day Two, Day Three, Day Four) (And SIGNED BOOK SALE!)

On Saturday morning, Diane decided to make banana pancakes for breakfast, and lo, they were delicious. :)

So Patty took her morning nap, I had art time with Bridget (I taught her about wet-in-wet watercolor, which she immediately proclaimed perfect for her drawing) and then Patty got clean!

All the girls—Bridget wanted she and Patty to “match”, so they wore the tops their grandmother (my aunt Sue) had made them!

Patty loves being wrapped up in her towel, but hates being unwrapped to get dressed, so…..she was unhappy, briefly. But then looked so pretty, and made dinosaur face for us!

After everyone was ready, we headed for Nimblefingers. Apple Maps got us a it lost but we figured it out. (Darn you, Apple Maps!)

The store is really cute—it’s knitting/crochet on one side and needlepoint on the other. I have been known to do cross stitch in my time, so that side was also appealing to me, but I didn’t want to keep Di and the kids in the car all day (Susie, Bridget, and Frankie came in with me). So we stuck to knitting. Susie got some lovely yarns, including a baby alpaca in a bright green that Frankie wanted made into a scarf, and I got her a ball of cashmere blend yarn, because it was an OBSCENELY good price (FIFTEEN BUCKS, PEOPLE) and who doesn’t want to knit or crochet with cashmere?!

I fell into the Madelinetosh wormhole and came out with three items:

(They got bounced around a bit in my luggage—they were wound very neatly by the store ladies. More on that in a second)

The top two are Tosh DK in Texas Tulip, because….I was in Texas. :) I’m going to use them for a honey cowl. The bottom one is Tosh Mo Light in matcha. Normally this isn't the sort of color way I’d pick but I was drawn to the name (it’s named for Japanese green tea), and also the subtle, neutral colors. I think this will make a nice lightweight shawl. I also got some notions.

I asked the women to wind my yarn. Normally I don’t do this but I wanted it to be nice and solid for the trip home. Frankie was entranced by the winding—the swift and the ball maker working together was just too cool. So he watched and then made sure that the ends were tucked in neatly! He loves any sort of engineering so this counted as engineering and coolness.

After we were done, we headed for the big mall (Memorial City) to visit the AG store. Bridget and I had been planning this trip for months—not kidding. We’d discussed which doll she would get when we went. We had it all planned out. She had saved money so this was HER doll and we were proud of her for that amount of savings. So, money in hand, we were ready to shop.

First, though, we had to have lunch. Chik-Fil-A for all!

Patty likes nuggets, yes she does.

After we had lunch, we headed for the AG store. I’ve been to three AG stores (NYC, Chicago, and Columbus) and this is a nice sized store. Bridget had decided to get Kira, the girl of the year, and Susie had thrown in some of her money so that Bridget could get Kira’s pajamas as well. I also got Bridget a doll hairbrush, to hopefully save her dolls from the hair tragedy that mine so often endured. :)

So we got in line and Bridget counted out all her money, very seriously. The woman behind the counter was so nice here. BUT—we were short! The girls had forgotten about tax. So I threw in a $20 to more than make up for it (when I was a kid, I saved my money for AG catalog items and mom threw in shipping, so I felt like I was participating in the AG Circle of Life here.) Then Bridget and Susie continued to explore the store while Di had the littles at the play area. (Which was right by an ICE RINK. I told you this mall was huge.)

After this, we went to ride the carousel. I don’t have photos of me and Patty doing it, but we did, and it made me so happy. I took my godson, Ryan, on his first carousel ride at Kennywood (the amusement park in Pittsburgh), so this was a rite of passage I enjoyed and wanted to do again. This wasn’t Patty’s first ride—she’d done that with her mom. But she still had a bit of the “what is this, will I like this” look on her face.

We chose a horse that didn’t go up and down, and eventually she remembered that she liked this and patted the horse’s mane, and also loved the red and white “jewels” on the bridle. It’s just so cute watching her little face light up and enjoy the ride. There were feels, let me tell ya. (And gosh, it’s just so fun to hold a baby.)

After that it was raining hard, so Di went to get the van and we waited for her, watching the carousel go around and people smiling at Patty (happened a lot).

We got home, and it rained the rest of the day, so no swimming. We had dinner and Bridget and Susie went upstairs to introduce Kira to the rest of the doll family (they have Mary Ellen, Courtney, and a Truly Me doll named Catherine, whom you met in an earlier post, as well as lots of other dolls that are not AG).

We also played Clue!

Frankie is READY.

Diane had to run to the store for a few things, so I watched the house while the kids were sleeping. However, Patty woke up SCREAMING, so I ran in and tried to comfort her. I was running through all the scenarios: Diaper? Nightmare? Too hot/cold? But nothing doing until Mama came home and fed her. It’s just so sad seeing her cry her heart out and nothing I did was working, because I wasn’t mom. But once Mama was back, she was happy and she joined Di and I for some adult talking time in the family room.

The next day was the Fourth and it was also Sunday, so we made plans to go to the 11:00 Mass at their parish and then go out for brunch afterwards, which sounded great to me!

Seven Quick Takes--Summer! (And a book sale!)

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Well kind of summer? It’s rainy and 67 right now and it’ll be in the fifties tomorrow. So, summer! :) But I remember Memorial Day weekends when I was a kid where it was in the 50s but DAGNABBIT WE WERE GOING IN THE POOL. :-P So this isn’t too unusual!

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From the blog this week:

COVID, antibodies, and transplant life. I wrote this post as a response to an op-ed in the New York Times, written by a kidney transplant recipient. Essentially: context was vastly missing.

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Last Friday it was gloriously sunny and warm, and I had a B&N outing and lunch with one of my best friends from college, Liz.

Oh yes. Books were bought.

Liz and I met my freshman year—she was a junior. Liz basically changed the course of my life.

I had entered college as a Middle Childhood Education major. The problem was, after my classes started, I realized that I didn’t really want to be a teacher, because our classes weren’t about teaching. They were about writing culturally-sensitive word problems. And I was like, wait a second here, this isn’t what I thought I’d be learning about.

So I was sort of stuck. Enter Liz. Liz was one of the chairs of our college’s College Republican chapter, and my freshman year of college was also the year of the 2000 election. So there were lots of campaign activities, like door-to-doors and phone banks, and fun things, like campaign parties. But if we wanted to go to the parties, we had to do the grunt work, according to Liz. So, because of Liz, I did grunt work and went to the first debate watch party, which included the governor and other statewide office holders. I loved it.

That night I decided to change my major. And the rest is history. So thanks, Liz! :)

We hadn’t seen each other in almost a year and a half, so I was ecstatic to see her and talk books and all sorts of other things. We had a great time and I’m so glad that we can do things like that again!

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So let’s talk about the books: Hamnet is amazing. If you like Shakespeare I highly suggest you read it. Knowing at least a little bit about Shakespeare’s life helps when you read this. It’s beautifully written and a book to savor. I haven’t started The Shadow of the Wind yet, but Liz recommended it so highly that I had to get it. :) I adored Project Hail Mary—I had read The Martian and I love Weir’s combination of space, science, and humor. Even if you don’t regularly read sci-fi, I think you’ll love this novel. And finally, Hidden Valley Road is the story of a family that had 12 children, six f whom were diagnosed with schizophrenia, and how this ties into research on the illness and how this family lead to important breakthroughs in treatment. It’s a lot like the book Under the Banner of Heaven.

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Ave Maria Press is having a Memorial Day Sale!

You can pick up Living Memento Mori for 25% off and FREE SHIPPING! Use the code REMEMBER21 at checkout! If you haven’t gotten a copy yet, DO IT. :) And it also makes a great gift!

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Here’s your weekly Patty—she’ll be eleven months old on Sunday!

Gosh I cannot wait to see her and snuggle the bejesus out of her. :)

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Any plans for this weekend? Share in the comments!

Weekend Quick Takes!

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Doing something a little different and giving you weekend quick takes! So enjoy!

We’ll start off with a Patticake photo, per usual….

Taking a nap on her mom’s lap in the yard.

(For new folks, Patty is my cousin’s girl and my goddaughter. She is not my child. :) )

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I wrote an essay earlier this week about risk and medicine and…well, things. Sort of COVID related, but it’s more like things I’ve noticed with COVID and….well, thoughts. So take a gander at it if you will. I guess I could call it a “long-form” piece?

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I’ve started working on this Moonwhistle Shawl from Drea Renee Knits and oh my goodness, I adore it.

Ignore all the ends! I’m also fairly sure the bit on wonkiness on the left side will ease up post-blocking.

Here are the yarns I used: Light blue is Wool of the Andes worsted in Whirlpool; Dark blue is Swish Worsted in Marine Heather; and the color change ball is Chroma Worsted in Drawing Room.

This is a pretty easy knit, in that I think I’d great for learning color work, and it’s simple. It’s all knit stitch (garter stitch) and slipped stitches, and one M1L (Make one left), which is explained in the pattern. One of the great things about Andrea’s patterns is that she explains everything, which is so great, and she lists the skills/techniques you need before you buy the pattern, which I WISH all designers did! If you want to check out the pattern for Moonwhistle, here you go.

One of best parts about the design is what she calls the “tweed” sections—where you work with the color change yarn. Oh my gosh this is so fun. So I am addicted to this and am trying to not knit all day, but it’s hard not to when a pattern is this great.

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Reading: The Hour of the Witch, Drums of Autumn, and the last book in Alison Weir’s Tudor Queens series, Katharine Parr: The Sixth Wife, which then led me to go back and re-read the entire series, so I’ve read Katherine of Aragon: The True Queen, and now I’m on Anne Boleyn: A King’s Obsession. The great thing about Weir is she’s a historian first, so her books are all informed on the latest scholarship, which in the case of Katherine of Aragon, Ames it pretty clear that she was not lying to the king about her relationship with Prince Arthur. (Yes, I’m a British history nerd, sorry.)

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I don’t really need a reason to re-read any of the Outlander books, but I’m doing it because I’mw working on my new project! Presenting….

There is so much good Catholic stuff in the books and even the TV series, and I’ve wanted to do a deep-dive into it for awhile, so I figure now is the time. So I’m re-reading all the books and making notes. I’m also trying to marshal my thoughts on organization—by book, by theme, by….? But anyway, that’s what’s going right now in my research. Very excited for this.

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No movie reviews this week (did you like that? Because I liked doing it), but I’ve been watching some opera. I do love opera. I sort of wish I would’ve loved it more when I was younger, because my voice teacher is an opera singer who now sings with the Lyric Opera of Chicago. But alas. However, I am classically trained! So I love watching opera—I find it much easier to watch than to listen to, if it’s a new work. Once I know it, then I can listen to it. I have quite a few operas on DVD because of that, as opposed to CD recordings. So I pop them in when I’m knitting (or really any time, I don’t need an excuse.) . This week is was La Fancuilla del West.

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And finally, the Ohio bishops have reinstated the Mass obligation, beginning the weekend of June 5/6. Has your diocese re-instated the obligation yet?

Anddd if you’d like to learn more about the basics of Catholicism, check out my ebook, Catholic 101! :)

Seven Quick Takes: Royal Wedding Cake, Patty, and movies!

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OK because I am a Royal Family NUT (I am, if you do not know this about me), I was very happy for Prince William and Katherine as they celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary yesterday!

Look at this adorable video!

But something even better than a video? CAKE.

Namely, the groom’s cake that Prince William had at his wedding reception.

Courtesy of Darren McGrady, one of the queen’s former chefs (he also cooked for Princess Diana and Princes William and Harry at Kensington Palace after her divorce), shows us how to make it, and it’s FOUR INGREDIENTS!

(You will need a 6”x 2” cake ring, though. I’m getting this one.)

Happy anniversary, Your Highnesses, and many more!

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Yesterday was also St. Catherine of Siena’s feast day, and you can read all about her in a post I wrote a few years ago!

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Patty is TEN MONTHS OLD TODAY.

She likes to blow raspberries!

I mean how is this possible she’s so big, she is STANDING UP now!

She likes swings, baths, kolaches, most food, her siblings, and…food. :)

I swear when I see her I will kiss her face off.

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I watched a few movies this week! I used to do movie reviews pretty regularly, so I’ll do a few here for you.

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, based on the August Wilson play of the same name, is on Netflix right now, and was nominated for several Oscars, including best actress (Viola Davis as Ma Rainey) and best actor (Chadwick Boseman, in his last role). The play focuses on one day in Chicago in the 1920s, when Ma Rainey and her band are recording an album at the behest of her white manager. I learned, in researching this, that Denzel Washington has a contract with Netflix to produce all of the plays in Wilson’s Century Cycle (also called the Pittsburgh cycle) as movies for Netflix. The first one in the series was Fences, starting Washington and Davis, and was also Oscar-nominated, with Viola Davis winning Best Supporting Actress for her work as Washington’s wife.

Ma Rainey is an intense film, with the tension rising right from the start. Levee, played by Boseman, is a member of Ma’s band, but he doesn’t want to play her music the way it’s always been done—he wants to rearrange it and make it faster and hotter. He has a sort of jittery energy that parlays into deep pain and pathos as the story moves on. The other members of the band are older men, well-seasoned musicians who know what they have to do to get along in a world that’s run by white people. Their interactions make up most of the film and you can tell that the dialogue is adapted from a play, because it’s melodic, dense, and intricate.

Davis, in the movie for less than a half-hour, hits all the right notes (and I’m not trying to make a pun) as the titular band leader. When she arrives late to the session, the energy revs up, and so does the tension.

I don’t want to give away the plot, but the performances are searing. Boseman, in particular, delivered two monologues that are so wide-ranging in color and tone, and so intense, that you have no choice but to watch him. I really felt like I was in theater during those scenes. He really is the highlight of the entire movie.

The film won two Oscars, for costume design and for makeup.

Chadwick Boseman (Levee), front, with the band members (l-r: Glynn Turman [Toledo], Michael Potts [Slow Drag], and Colman Domingo (Cutter).

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The Heiress came out in 1949 and stars Olivia de Havailland (Melanie in Gone With the Wind) in an Oscar winning performance. Based on Henry James’ novel Washington Square, The Heiress tells the story of plain, awkward—but very wealthy—New Yorker Catherine Sloper, who would rather spend time on her embroidery than on polishing her social graces. This continually frustrates her father, Dr. Sloper (Ralph Richardson), who cannot believe that Catherine is the daughter of his ‘perfect’ wife, who died when Catherine was small. (Of course no one can measure up to the picture of his wife that he has in his head). His casual cruelty toward his daughter is like a razor, cutting any self-esteem or confidence she has to shreds.

Things come to a head when, at a party, Catherine meets Morris Townsend (Montgomery Clift), a young man who takes interest in her in a way no man has before. But her father forbids her to marry Morris, saying that he’s only after her money. Is he? Or has Catherine found true love?

Again, no spoilers here, but De Havilland’s performance is incredible. I wish that it was in color so we could really appreciate Edith Head’s costumes, but they’re also gorgeous in black and white. I love De Havilland in Gone With the Wind, but I’d never seen any of her other movies, so I really wanted to see this one.

Montgomery Clift (Morris) and Olivia de Havilland (Catherine) in The Heiress.

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A Little Chaos (2014). While going through my Netflix queue, I saw that I had this, and thought, eh, what the heck? I am so glad I watched it! Directed by Alan Rickman (who also stars as the French King Louis XIV), the story focuses on the construction of the gardens around the palace of Versailles. He chooses landscape architect Andre Le Notre (Matthias Schoenaerts) to supervise the planning. Surprisingly, Le Notre chooses Madame Sabine de Barra (Kate Winslet) as one of the designers, assigning her the task of creating an outdoor ballroom, with fountains and landscaping.

This sounds….like an odd premise for a film, right? But in Rickman’s hands it is enchanting. There are so many good actors in even small roles, including Jennifer Ehle, who plays one of the king’s mistresses, Stanley Tucci, who plays Duke Philippe, the king’s brother, and Helen McCrory as Madame Le Notre (McCrory sadly just passed away from cancer—you might know her as Mrs. Malfoy in the Harry Potter films) Watching Winslet and Rickman interact in a scene in the garden, where the mourning king is mistaken for a gardener by Winslet, is one of the best scenes in the film. (I mean, Sense and Sensibility reunion!)

Winslet and Rickman in one of the Versailles gardens.

I’d never seen a film that Rickman directed, and based on this he was delightful director. The film has a delicate storyline, focusing on love, loss, and relationships (with a gorgeous score). Schoenaerts, who I’d never seen before, is a wonderful actor. His scenes with Winslet shine.

(And gosh it made me miss Alan Rickman!)

Sabine de Barra (Kate Winslet) and Madame de Montespan (Jennifer Ehle) at Fontainebleau.

It’s a hidden gem of a film, really lovely to watch and think about.

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And on that note—-have a lovely weekend! Watch some movies and read some books! :)

Seven Quick Takes: A Little Rambly

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Hello, All!

It’s been a big week over here—my book is a finalist for the Association of Catholic Publishers’ Excellence in Publishing Award (General Interest Category!)

I am obviously very pleased and very proud about this. :) The winners are revealed in June so I will let you know what happens!

Of course if you have not bought your copy, um, do so! This is the Amazon link, but if you want to buy from a non-Amazon source, go here.

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The other post from this week:

The Massive Birthday Yarn Along!

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This week’s Patty:

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OK so a little ramble on something that’s been bothering me.

I really, really do not like that we assume the worst of people in online discussions. If someone dislikes something, s/he is immediately a bigot or worse. We assume the absolute worst of people, and this has to stop.

One of the best pieces of homily wisdom I’ve ever heard is that we should assume the best of people until (and unless) we know otherwise. If a waitress is giving bad service, for example, she might be having a really crappy day. If someone is short-tempered, they might be feeling sick. Etc.We really should give people the benefit of the doubt and this especially applies to assuming that people are engaging in sinful activity (ie, being a bigot, etc.).

We cannot have discussion and the exchange of ideas if people are afraid to say what they think because they’ll be called bigots or haters or what not. Now, granted, some people actually are these things. But can we wait until we see the in the discussion instead of assuming it of people? Can we assume the best of each other and not the worst?

And yes, to reiterate the point: some folks are jerks and once we know they’re jerks, we can proceed accordingly. :) But until we know that….can we hold off assuming the worst of everyone?

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I’m going to be a lector at my parish! I have my training after the 5:00 PM Mass tomorrow and I am excited. I’ve always wanted to be a lector and now I am! Yay!

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Today is the anniversary of the Battle of Culloden, which ended the Jacobite Uprising of 1745 and, essentially, ended the clans and Highland way of life. If you’re an Outlander fan you know a ton about Culloden already, but if you’re not, always a good idea to know more history!

(Also, Outlander fans, did you see that Book 9 is available to pre-order?!??!)

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What are you doing this weekend? Is the weather lovely where you re? Spring is sprung here and I love seeing all the tulips, daffodils, crocuses, and trees coming into bud and bloom!

The Massive Birthday Yarn Along!

OK folks, settle in for a nice, long YARN ALONG!

There is so much going on here!

First project: Whatever the Weather Knit Along (KAL)

This project has been going all year! I’ve been loving it. Every month there is a different stitch pattern, and the color of the day is determined by the high temperature. Ravelry notes here.

Here you can see February (some of it) and March, as well as a seasonal marker (the lace) in Kerfuffle, one of the shades I haven’t used (yet). The pattern said to use one of the colors you haven’t used or haven’t used much, so I chose the coldest temperature color (-2!). April has seen the addition of a new color, “ablaze”, which is a really pretty pink-coral (which you’ll see next month!)

You could choose to make a scarf, a wrap, or a blanket, and I chose the wrap size. I’ll try to get a photo for you of how it looks as a whole, as opposed to just this little bit.

Second Project: Riverwild Quiviut Scarf

Ravelry notes here

So there’s a story about this one.

Last fall, a twitter friend sent me a big box of yarns she wasn’t going to use. At the time I briefly looked through the box but put it aside to dig into more carefully later. That time didn’t come until last week—bad me—and I was looking through and deciding wht yarns would be good for which projects, I found a tiny cake of QUIVIUT yarn.

This is yarn from a musk ox. It being from a musk ox—aka, a very large, very strong animal—it’s hard to get and is expensive. I had never thought I’d actually knit with it because it’s, well, expensive. It’s softer than cashmere!

So I double-checked with my friend to makes sure that, indeed, she meant to send this little jewel to me, and she did. Wow!

Now I had to find a project worthy of this yarn. I found this one, because the yarn was just crying out for lace, and I like the pattern very much. It’s simple, repeated over 12 rows 27 times. I’ve been working it in sets of 12, so I have two repeats done so far.

It’s a project that I’m taking my time on, which is just fine!

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So let’s talk about BIRTHDAY YARN!

These weren’t actually gifts—they were bought with birthday money people sent me. :)

First up is “London”, from Frabjous Fibers and Wonderland Yarns. They do a wonderful “around the world” series of yarns, which each month having a different country/city/region as the focus. Past destinations have included Egypt, Japan, China, India, Jerusalem, New Zealand, and New England.

At first, I wasn’t thrilled with this yarn, even though I love London, because it seems too dark brown and sort of boring. WRONG. When I got it in person, it is a rich chocolate/coffee brown! It’s their “Lory” yarn base, which is DK weight and 100% Superwash Merino (280 yds per skein).

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I’ll be using it in the pattern that came with the yarn, called the Pub Crawl Cowl. It features some different stitch patterns and will be a great thing to wear in the fall!

Second is some beautiful Nua Sport for a Twining Wrap.

This is the “figment” color way. This yarn is so fun—it’s mohair/yak (!)/linen blend. There’s also a worsted weight, but this is the sport. I don’t like knitting with straight linen but I love it in blends!

This wrap will take awhile—the pattern is fairly complicated, at least it looks complicated to me right now! But since I love this yarn I do not mind. :)

Third and Fourth come from the Loops Yarn store in Tulsa. They are responsible for the fabulous Knit Stars series of online knitting summits, which have done so much for my knitting skills!

The first two (going from the left) are for a lovely cowl called, well, “co.wl” :) When Loops knit it up, they made it smaller than the pattern calls for, and it’s SO pretty!

From the Loops website

I mean look at that! So they were selling a kit of the two colors, which I got: Robin’s Egg and Dandelion. It’s just such a phenomenal combination! And I’ll get to learn fisherman’s rib!

The last yarn is Loops “house” yarn, Luxe Royal Alpaca. It comes in four color ways (Luxe Natural, Loops Blue, Luxe Charcoal, Luxe Perfectly Pink, and Luxe Light Grey) sold in a pack of three. There are a few patterns I can make with this so I’m considering. They’re all fairly simple, which is nice because sometimes you just want a simple project, right? I don’t see them on Ravelry right now so I can’t link to them, but they’re all variations on cowls or scarves. Obviously I had to start with the Loops Blue. I can see myself working all four patterns with this yarn over time in various colors, or even trying some other patterns. We’ll see!

And of course it being my birthday, there were also books.

The two knitting books are Tudor Roses and Elizabeth Zimmerman’s Knitter’s Almanac. Tudor Roses is gorgeous—the designs are based off the royal women of the Tudor court—but complex. I might make one or two of them but I just love looking through it!

I haven’t read any Elizabeth Zimmerman, and I know that she’s An Authority in the knitting world, so I picked up her almanac as well. It has a project for every month of the year, as well as tips and notes about what’s going on in her life at the time, so it’s sort of journal-ish as well.

My friend Andrea sent me the Little Library Cookbook, which I am about to dive into (cooking-wise, I mean). It’s so lovely and the recipes are delicious sounding. My parents got me Dark Tides, which is the second book in Gregory’s Fairmile series. In the Name of the Rose and How To Be A Tudor were also gifts from them after we had birthday lunch!

Finally we have Chesterton’s The Everlasting Man, which wasn’t really a birthday gift—I bought it for myself—but it came the day before my birthday so it belongs on the pile. :) This is the Ignatius Press edition which I got right from their website. (Amazon doesn’t always have the “nicest” editions of books, and I wanted a nice edition of this one!)

So the is the massive pile of books and yarn which will keep me busy for, oh, a month? :) (just kidding)

What are you reading/knitting/making right now?

Seven Quick Takes--BIRTHDAY EDITION!!!!

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IT’S MY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!

via GIPHY

I get really excited about my birthday, mostly because I wasn’t supposed to be 39. I was supposed to be dead by now, and I really LIKE NOT BEING DEAD. (even though, yes, #mementomori. :) )

Next year I will be FORTY! And I am flabbergasted by this. I actually want to turn 40. So let’s hope I get to do it! :) You can always ask me how old I am.

Remember everyone that being alive is a gift, and so is getting older! (Really, it is!)

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Links from this week:

A guest post I wrote on the Catholic perspective on organ donation

EASTERRRRR

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Birthday plans involve going shopping and having lunch with my parents, and then dinner with my brother, and then cake and such at my parents after dinner. It will be a fun and full day, unlike last year where it was just my parents and I and it was the first time I had seen them in a month. There were birthday hugs and I loved them.

Hugs are good.

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I completely forgot to do a Yarn Along this week! Bad me! But there will be one this coming Wednesday so you can see progress on the Whatever the Weather KAL and fun birthday yarn things. :) And also there is SO MUCH BIRTHDAY YARN and so many KNITTING BOOKS that I just have to share them. So a super special yarn along!

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I am really thankful for a lot of things. For turning 39, obviously.

For this little girl

And her whole family….

For going to SEE THEM this summer!!!!!!

For my vaccinations

for my great doctors who keep the entire machine going :)

for my book’s first birthday

For all of you reading this!

via GIPHY

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One of my hockey teams is doing OK. One of them is not. So we’re batting about .500 there. My baseball team, as usual, is not doing well. Ah, sports.

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And….did I mention it’s my birthday? :)

via GIPHY

Have a great Friday!!!!

Seven Quick Takes: BACK TO MASS!

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Hello all!

Yesterday I wrote a little post on the Annunciation so check that out. :)

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I AM GOING BACK TO MASSSSSS!

Yes! Tomorrow! Palm Sunday! Holy Week! Easter!!!!!!!!

I am super super super excited in case you cannot tell.

Oh, and CONFESSSSSSSSSSSSIONNNNNNNN.

Gonna be great, cannot wait.

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Your weekly Patty:

LOOK at those teeth!!!!

I cannot WAIT to get to Texas, people. I just miss them all so much and I want to snuggle Patty until she giggles like mad. (Wouldn’t YOU, I mean LOOK AT HER.)

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Last Stations of the Cross tonight at 7:00 on my Facebook page! Come join!

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OK so I want to talk about something sort of quickly. This might merit a larger blog post but we’ll see. :) (Or this might go on long, either way.)

I was listening to a YouTube video the other day and the speaker—who is a sort of generic Christian (but has a statute of St. Therese in her office, so, I dunno!)—was talking about how if we have faith, we shouldn’t ever be worried about anything because God will take care of us. We shouldn’t have any fear.

OK so…I have thoughts.

First off, and this is really apropos as we get into Holy Week, Jesus was afraid. In the garden of Gethsemane he asked God to let this cup pass from Him. Those aren’t the words of someone who’s like yeah this is totally cool. On the cross, he cried out, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”

Jesus knew fear and he knew pain and he knew sadness. The shortest verse in the New Testament is “Jesus wept.” (John 11:35—some versions have “And Jesus wept.”)

Jesus wasn’t just wholly divine. He was also entirely human. He knew all the things we knew. The book of Hebrews tells us that Jesus knew everything we know, except sin:

14 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess.15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. 16 Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. (Hebrews 4:14-16)

Jesus KNEW all these things. Let’s not act like because He was God he didn’t cry, or feel tired, or need potty-trained by Mary and Joseph. :)

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The other part of this is that, yes, God wants us to trust in Him and not be afraid—Jesus tells us not to be afraid as well: “Do not let your hearts be troubled” (John 14:1), and later in the chapter:

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid. (John 14: 27)

This isn’t something that just magically happens. We have to work at trust. I wrote a lot about this in my book. It’s one of the reasons I love the Divine Mercy chapelet, because I think it helps me grow in Trust. I know that God has me. But that doesn’t mean that I’m not afraid sometimes. And I think that’s perfectly Biblical, because Jesus was afraid! He was sad! He knows what it’s like to be human.

Flannery O’Connor once said:

“What people don't realize is how much religion costs. They think faith is a big electric blanket, when of course it is the cross.”

Faith is scary, and, like Flannery said, it costs. The entire life of a Christian is growing in our faith, hope, and trust. It’s not an immediate thing. We have to work on it and it might take a lifetime. But the thing is, you’re working on it. You’re growing (I hope!) in the spiritual life. You’re learning. It’s like looking at Patty and saying, “well, you’re a human! So let’s do some quadratic equations right now!”

She’s a baby. When she’s older, sure, we can ask her that. I don’t want her to be reading BabyLit Pride and Prejudice for ever. I want her to read the real thing! But I don’t expect her to do that right now.

Every person is in their own place and progresses at their own pace.

(And, um, look at the apostles? What did they do right after Jesus said all this to them? Ran away and denied him!)

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OK so that’s that. :) No quick takes next week because Good Friday!

Seven Quick Takes--Second Shot!

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Hi!

Let’s start with what was on the blog this week:

Living Memento Mori on Catholicmom.com!

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Depending on when you’re reading this, I will either be on my way to get my second COVID vaccine, or I will have it! My parents and I are fully vaccinated!!!! Woo woo!

That means—MASS NEXT WEEKENDDDDDD. Church for Holy Week!!!!

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It also means the I’ve booked a trip to see Patty and crew this summer!

Patty and her oldest sister, Susie, on their grandparents’ Texas ranch.

Looking for cows.

Do I even NEED to tell y’ll how excited I am to get to see Patty? No? OK. :) :) Seriously SO EXCITEDDDDDDDDDD. And to see everyone else, of course. I haven’t been to Houston in a few years. My sister used to live there before she got married, so I’ve been there twice. Once to see Mel, and once to see Diane when her daughter holding (Susie) Patty was A BABY. Seriously. She’s 12 now and playing lacrosse for her school and I’m thinking, you were just Patty’s age!

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I am prepared to spend the weekend feeling not good, but that’s OK. I have meds here and entertainment. Worse comes to worse, I just sleep it off.

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I am actually KnoMari’ing everything. I’ve done it before, but it wasn’t really thorough, I sort of half-did it, which is a no go. So the first thing was clothes. Oh my goodness WHAT a clothes purge. I’ve gotten rid of all sorts of things and it definitely makes me feel good. (I am donating everything, not tossing it unless it’s really just I crappy shape, like shoes with holes [why do I even have them?!] or things that are ripped.) I’m not really going to do books because I ddi them before I moved and I have my own system. So I’m finishing clothes and then I’ll move on to papers, which I actually have a fairly good handle on, but it can’t hurt to go through them again. I don’t think I need my tax return for 2006 anymore, right? :)

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Don’t forget STATIONS OF THE CROSS on my Facebook page tonight at 7:00 EST!

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And finally, if you’ve read Living Memento Mori, please leave a review on Amazon or goodreads? THANK YOU! They’re so helpful in getting the word out! (It can be the same one both places!) Also on goodreads, be sure to add it to your shelves!

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Do you remember Little Billy? He would’ve been a year old on St. Patrick’s Day. Please pray for his parents and family!

Seven Quick Takes--Fourth Friday of Lent

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Hi everyone! Sorry no quick takes last week. I was on the last day of the Evil Antibiotic and my body was just blah. So there was no blogging, or really much of anything. But I feel much better now and my sleep schedule and energy and coming back! Yay!

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Most recent posts:

The Cardigan is DONE!

Podcast Interview and Best Of List for Living Memento Mori!

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This Lent has been sort of meh. I didn’t really make a good plan this year, if I’m being honest. I did my usual things of no book buying and no chocolate but I wanted to stay off social media more than I have. So….Lent’s not over and I can still do something about that! I’m going to try to be better with set limits. How’s your Lent going?

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I am doing Stations of the Cross every Friday on my Facebook page during Lent, however!

(yes, I just wrote about social media and here’s Facebook. It’s the best way to communicate with video, I’ve found. IG live is sort of fiddly for me and I need to figure out videos without social media…it’s on my to-do list.)

I post a prayer request thread every Wednesday on my page as well! So these intentions are prayed for during the stations and in my own prayer a well. We use the prayers from Living Memento Mori for the stations, so you can follow along in your own copy if you want.

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Here’s your weekly dose of Patty:

She also got her blanket!

And you can also clearly see her two teeth! She’s working on an upper tooth now, her mom says, so she’s sort of crank-tactic. This week she tried to eat a spider and was very put out when her mom didn’t let her.

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If you would like a signed copy of the book, they are $20 and they include a bookmark, a prayer card, and free shipping! Drop me an email.

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I’m still waiting for the second dose of my COVID vaccine to be scheduled. It hasn’t quite been a month yet, but it will be next weekend, so…..I’d like to know if I’m going to be getting it then! I am totally chomping at the bit to be fully vaccinated!

Yarn Along: The Cardigan is DONE! (and so many other projects!)

Well, well, well.

My people. After starting it as my Quarantine Project, the Boothbay Cardigan is DONE!

Check those seams, folks!

Wearing it in an Instagram Friday Introductions post.

The back—you can see the collar curling a bit.

I promise that at some point we will have a photo of me wearing it that’s full-length. I promise! :)

So, final notes:

1) The sleeves are long. I knew they would be, because my arms are like T. rex arms. So it’s nice that the cuffs have a garter stitch detail, so that when I roll the sleeves up it still “works” with the overall design and doesn’t look like Emily has rolled the sleeves of her cardigan and made the sleeves too long! (Well, I did, but I was following the pattern. So.)

One of the KnitStars 5 lessons I watched during quarantine was all about how to adjust clothing measurements to your measurements, and I’m going to use that a lot the next time I make a cardigan, and there will be a next time.

2) Picking up stitches is much easier when you’re moving vertically, rather than horizontally. At least, I find it so. So the one thing with this cardigan that I don’t like is the bottom collar. The collar for boothbay is picked up and knitted all around. When I picked up the stitches on the bottom, I must have done it wrong, because it’s a little more “cocoony” than it should be—as in, if you look at the piece as a whole the collar is an oval shape. It doesn’t really hang “open” at the bottom as much as it should. However, I realize this is a very picky thing and if I hadn’t mentioned it you might never have noticed.

3) I didn’t use all the yarn called for in this pattern. I think I had two or three skeins left over. Not a problem, because it’s always good to have extra yarn!

4) One of the things I am happiest about is my decision to size up. I wanted this cardigan to have some extra give in the arms so I could wear it over things. That also probably led to the arms being longer, but I have exactly the right amount of ease in the arms, and I can wear it over things, as seen in the photo above. That makes me really happy.

5) Knitting clothes is like an entirely new world. To knit something for you, that I can throw on and wear hen I go out to get the mail or whatever, is sort of mind-boggling. I can make clothes!

6) Like I said above, I will definitely be knitting more clothes! I have my eyes on the Lesley sweater which was in the same pattern collection as booth bay—and honestly, it should be easier because it’s only FOUR pieces as opposed to six! (I definitely like seaming.) I don’t think I’d go for the negative ease that it’s shown in. With my body I’d want a little more give around the tummy area. But we’ll see when I go to look at the schematic. I’m also looking at the Georgetown Cardigan (also from the same collection).

WHEW! OK that’s it for the cardigan! If you want to see all the posts in this series, here you go.

Onto my other knitting projects!

Patty’s blanket has been sent to her….

I’m working on the Whatever the Weather Mystery Knit Along—you could knit a scarf, a wrap, or a blanket, and I chose a wrap, using the daily highs as my temperature guide:

January and February

And I also knit an insanely fun, chunky cowl with Knit Collage yarn:

I love pairing the cowl and my cardigan together when I go out. Together they’re perfect for the late winter/early spring weather we’ve got here in Central Ohio right now:

Now that the “big” project is done, I’m in the middle of finishing some projects that have been hibernating, and working on smaller projects. For Christmas I got the Harry Potter knitting book, and I’ve decided to knit the seven horcrux washcloths, because they seemed fun and easy. I started with Ravenclaw’s Diadem. I’m not too far into the pattern yet so you can’t see the design that well, but it will come:

As for what I’m reading—I’ve been on a bit of a Chesterton kick. Part of that is reading all of the Fr. Brown stories, which I’ve actually never read, but I’m working to fill that gap!

What are you reading/creating? Let me know in the comments!

Seven Quick Takes--Second Friday of Lent

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Hi, everyone! How was your first week of Lent?

Mine was MEH. I thought I could get away with king just little social media. No, I really can’t. I need to be strict about it. So I’m really going to try to only use it for book/writing things and some random updates on my personal page on FB. Because man I use way too much SM. So. Time for timers!

In other news, we WILL start Stations tonight! 7:00 PM EST on my Facebook author page!

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Patty and her family are safe and warm in Texas. :)

Patty was supervising her mom’s yard work when this was taken. :)

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I got my first COVID vaccine!

Yayyyy! My parents and I all got it at a drive-through clinic here in town. It went really fast and really well. I did have a sore spot the next day, but it was minor. Didn’t stop me rom doing anything or sleeping on it.

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I had clinic on Monday. It was….special? I mean, not bad special. I get to go six months without being seen which is the longest I have ever gone in my life between pulmonology appointments, so yay! And my old transplant coordinator at Children’s is now at the New Resort, double yay!!!!! As I told my doctor, “We’re getting the band back together!”

But in some non-yays, I am learning the ways of the new place. The first thing being, they will not take you early. Doesn’t matter if they have time, doesn’t matter if the doctors are ready. They will not take you early. So I now know I don’t have to get up as early as I did, because if I’m there early I just….sit there. Until it’s my turn to be called.

Actually, you can tell this hospital is not used to people being on the ball, because they say they want you there a half hour before your appointment time. I’m assuming this is because people tend to be late. I, however, am almost never late. If I am late, I am probably dead. :-p So, now I know!

Also in the lab, I had a freak out with the tech because she saw all the orders for me in the computer—we were doing vitamin levels and that always require like 40 orders—and she freeeeeeaked. “Well, what do you normally have drawn?! There are orders from two doctors in here! Who do I call!? What labs do you normally get drawn?”

I do not know. I tell her that. She asks me again, in increasing levels of panic.

We did this about four times.

Then I had to give her the clinic number so she could….call and ask them if they really wanted all these labs.

It was insane.

If it’s in the computer….it gets drawn. Sigh.

But, everything was good. PFTs were good, a random treadmill test was good, everything was good. Everyone is happy. We’re working on getting my colonoscopy scheduled….what joy. :-p (it’s a little tricker for me because we have to use the port, and we have to make sure I have lots of anti-emetics (anti-nausea) drugs on hand because my stomach hates the prep. We’re talking projectile vomiting hates the prep, folks. )

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The nice thing about this clinic, however, is that it’s close to a French cafe and a local yarn store! So I went to the yarn store and picked up a really quick project—the yarnicorn cowl.

Knitting in clinic!

Done the next day!

I’ve never used a really chunky yarn like this before and it was SO FUN. It’s from Knit Collage, if you want to check it out. I definitely am going to use more of this in the future! (I used the Lagoon and Nomad color ways here, in the Cast Away yarn.)

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Quick ad break! If you haven’t picked up Living Memento Mori, please do so? Support your local Catholic author! :) I also have a patreon, with memberships starting at a buck a month!

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Next week’s yarn along is going to be AWESOME because…..the cardigan is finished. But more on that next week!!!!!! :)

Seven Quick Takes--1st Friday of Lent

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Hello everyone! How’s your Lent going so far? (The weather might be providing your penance….)

So far mine is going well. I’m adapting this monastic horarium for my use, which is great for adding in extra prayer and also dedicated times for spiritual reading, Lectio, and work. So I get a lot more done, partially because I use this schedule and partially because I’m on social media less, although I think I might need to cull that even further. We’ll see how it goes.

(Fun fact: I was discerned being a cloistered Dominica nun! At Summit!)

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Little Patty and her family are definitely getting penitential weather. They live in Texas, so they lost power, gas, and water, and then had to go to her grandparents’ house for a bit. Now they have gas, power, and “60% water pressure” (according to her dad) so Patty and her family are warm, but so many families aren’t. Pray or them!

Patty does not seem to mind being bundled up….

And yes, she has two teeth now!

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Patrice Fagnat-McArthur wrote a lovely review of Living Memento Mori! (You can find all the reviews of the book here). If you’d like a copy, there are nine left on Amazon! Yes, more are coming, but you know you want it now, right? :)

In other book related news, don’t forget that I’ll be doing Stations of the Cross, using the prayers in my book, starting next week! (We were going to start tonight but….see next point.)

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This is going up later than usual because I had an ENT visit this morning. No, not Tolkien Ents, Ear, Nose, and Throat. I knew that it was going to be AN APPOINTMENT, meaning we’d have lots of thing to do, and we did. Ears were vacuumed (that’s the BEST seriously), and my sinuses were found to have infection. Yayyyyyy. (Not) So that means cipro, which means not moving for two weeks so I don’t rupture any tendons. Seriously, no working out. It sucks because I just started working out again yesterday and it was great. But, alas. Cipro for two weeks.

So because of that I am headach-y and dehydrated (because of all the heat that’s on), so my cochlear implant is hurting my head. So it’s going to go off making me deaf for the rest of the day, but that’s OK. But it does mean no stations tonight. Next week, though!

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I also have clinic on Monday. I have basically three hours between the testing part of clinic (labs, chest X-ray, and PFTs) and seeing my doctor. So I might go to the yarn store. I’ll definitely hit the local French bistro for lunch because it’s one of the perks of being at New Resort. I’m close to really really good food.

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My cardigan is ALMOST DONE! Yay!!!!!!!!!! Just about an inch more to knit on the collar and then I can cast off!

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I get my first COVID vaccine tomorrow! REJOICE!

Seven Quick Takes--Feb. 11, 2021

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Hello everyone! Happy Valentine’s Weekend!

Here’s your weekly Patty to kick us off….

Somebody really likes butternut squash! :)

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So yes, Lent starts on Wednesday…are you ready? Need Lenten reading? Pick up a copy of my book!

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Like I said last week, sales are super important, especially now that there aren’t in-person conferences (yet), so Ave Maria doesn’t have their awesome tables at these conferences to sell books! So it’s so important for me to get book sales, because they have sales goals for my book. So every purchase means so much to me and my publisher!

I am really awful at selling things. I hated selling Girl Scout cookies! But it’s part of the deal with writing in the 21st century, so, I do it. THANK YOU to everyone who has bought the book!

I will also be doing Stations every Friday in Lent with the prayers in my book, so come join us on Facebook!

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If you are using Living Memento Mori for book club or small groups at your parish, I will come talk to you! Yes! I will answer questions, talk about the book….whatever you need that can be done via Zoom. :) Email me to set things up!

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In the “well, you never know what will happen in Emily’s week” category: I spent Monday morning in the local ER because I was having crazy weird chest pain and I thought I might have pneumonia. So I went to get myself checked out. I’ve also been having productive cough, which I never have, so that also made my eyebrows go up a bit.

I was tested for heart attacks, COVID, pneumonia, and anything else—and I’m clear. So my body is ust being weird, and I think the issue with the coughing is that it’s coming down from my sinuses. I see my ENT next week so we can talk sinuses then but I wouldn’t be surprised if they needed some work. We’ll see, and I’ll let you know.

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I am FINALLY vaccine eligible on Monday! Huzzah!!!!!!! So we’ll see how long it takes for me to get scheduled with the local health department. Hopefully not too long!

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And in #emilyknitsacardigan news: I AM KNITTING THE COLLAR!!!!!!!

This is the LAST STEP before I block the cardigan, and I am so excited. At this point I just knit 5” worth of garter stitch to get the nice shawl collar you see here:

You can see that the collar is a pretty big design element here. So once it’s done I can bind off and block! And then wear it! I am excited!

(Unlike the photo, I will roll the cuffs on the sleeves. I have short arms.)

Seven Quick Takes--Let's Talk Lent

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Hello friends!

From the blog this week: Yarn Along with progress!

Also speaking of yarn, I’ve started this Whatever the Weather knit along from Wonderland Yarns, and I LOVE IT. Essentially you take the low/high/average temp (whichever you choose) of the day, and that correlates to a yarn color. So you can see the temperatures of the year in yarn!

Here’s January—I chose the daily highs.

It’s a “mystery” knit along because we get a new “clue” every month. I think that every month is going to have a different stitch pattern, bordered by garter stitch rows (at the top of the bit here, you can see the rows) . But that’s just my guess. And I love working with these yarns—they’re so buttery and squishy!

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OK let’s talk Lent.

First, get a copy of my book. Please and thank you. :) If you would like to choose your retailer, here is a list of places you can get the book. You can also get it from your local Catholic bookstore!

Really, though, every sale means so much to me. My publisher has goals for sales, and I want to meet them so I can write another book! This really is a team effort. So thank you!

(also please leave an Amazon review if you haven’t.)

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I will be praying the Stations of the Cross, using the Living Memento Mori reflections, every Friday during Lent (except Good Friday), on my Facebook page. Check the events tab for all the dates! (If you like my page then you’ll get updates and you’ll know when I’m going live, so that’s another option to following along!)

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Since I can’t give up anything food related for Lent, and I am also VEHEMENTLY TOLD NOT TO FAST, I’ll be giving up social media usage except for book related and Stations related things. Also no yarn buying. :) Normally I give up buying books during Lent, but given that I’m still sort of stuck in my hobbit hole until I get the vaccine, I’m letting myself buy books.

I want to use SM as a force for good—hence doing stations on FB—but I also have to use it mindfully. I’ve found a lot of good on social media—I’ve made wonderful friends and connections. But, gotta use it mindfully, just like any other tool or “thing”. This is also a very Dominican thing—things aren’t bad in and of themselves, it’s how we use them. And as preachers of truth, we want to use media! That’s how we get the Word (and the word) out!

I’ll also be doing the Consecration to St. Joseph again, as well as 33 Days to Greater Glory. Last Lent I read about St. John of the Cross and then I read his Dark Night of the Soul. Not entirely sure what I will read this Lent. Probably more of the books I have stock piled here? :)

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It is probably not likely that I will receive both doses of the vaccine before Easter. However I am VERY much hoping to get to Mass during the Easter season and then be back to normal Mass going and sacramental life!

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Next week is clear but then I have three doctor appointments to round out February: eye doctor, ENT, and then transplant clinic. I hope everything goes well but I will keep you updated.

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And finally, here’s your weekly Patty. She cut her first tooth this week!