It’s only March, y’all…
Wednesday Poem
In the spirit of focusing on amaryllis buds instead of WW3, here’s a Philip Larkin poem, first posted back in 2016. Clearly it still speaks to me–I think it’s that first line, figuring out the syntax and then saying, “Oh yeah, that is what the light is doing these days.”
Coming
by Philip Larkin
On longer evenings,
Light, chill and yellow,
Bathes the serene
Foreheads of houses.
A thrush sings,
Laurel-surrounded
In the deep bare garden,
Its fresh-peeled voice
Astonishing the brickwork.
It will be spring soon,
It will be spring soon —
And I, whose childhood
Is a forgotten boredom,
Feel like a child
Who comes on a scene
Of adult reconciling,
And can understand nothing
But the unusual laughter,
And starts to be happy.
Tuesday Project Roundup: Slow Pillows & Giant Pin Boards
Right after I finished the rainbow stripe hot water bottle cover in 2024, I ordered another skein of that magic colorful yarn. I said in the bottle post that “I was leaving it out like another throw pillow” so I thought, “Why not just make a real throw pillow?” I did math for the cast on to get a 19-inch wide piece and then just kept knitting until it was 19 inches tall.
That knitting took, uh, two years…but that slowness worked out because those stripes look great in my new office! 
I blocked the knit square, lined it in scrap cotton, then treated that like one piece and sewed in a zipper. The backing of the pillow is an Anna Maria Horner reprint (I used the original in my first quilt back in 2009).
This whole room is just a color circus and I love it. The giant pinboard on the other wall has a few postcards I put up in my locker in high school (!) on it and MOAR color from prints and posters. 
It’s kind of fun to have a room that’s just for me and not visitors or guests or Doc. You might be thinking, “Karen, you’ve decorated the entire HOUSE for you,” and you wouldn’t be technically wrong when I did the other rooms, I tried to keep visitors or guests or Doc in mind and think of what they’d like. This office is just what I like and that’s rainbows and Legos and the lamp from my childhood bedroom and postcards like this: 
Dissonance
I might have posted that Kafka quote too early last week, because I was really feeling it this weekend:
“Every day I watch the terror grow and every day I have to work, run errands, do chores—how to describe that contradiction, and how to survive it.
Germany has declared war on Russia. Swimming in the afternoon.”
Except the modern version of his postscript would be, “We started a war in the Middle East. Hanging art and sewing on Sunday.”
It’s hard to know what to even say. It’s hard to not worry about, well, everything. It’s hard to take a few pictures because you’re really happy with your new space and then think about missiles hitting cities and destroying someone else’s space.
But I got my amaryllis bulb to send up a bud for the second year in a row? I guess that’s something. 
Friday Links
1. The most nostalgic combination of words possible: 1991 California Raisins commercial for the library (via Austin Kleon).
2. I need to print this out so I can remember what’s actually helpful for people going through something (don’t put the burden on them! I speak from experience but I still forget!): 
3. I’m probably painting the hallway this weekend but what if I took a boat ride in a laundry basket instead? And I were a goose?
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Say It Louder
Journalist Lyz Lenz wrote a column yesterday about why exactly women are so angry about that video of the Olympic men’s hockey team laughing along with Dear Leader about inviting the women’s team too: Because these men undoubtedly think they support women, but no one spoke up. No one walked away. No one said, “The women’s team did great, though.” No one!
As she says, “…it’s not enough not to say harmful things about people; you have to speak up when other people are. You have to walk away. Because if people are saying those things and you stay silent, it’s just as bad or worse. You are letting bad things happen while thinking you are good.”
Lord knows I speak up about it now, and men don’t take it well (I remember a boss in 2022 mocking the intelligence of a woman who wasn’t on the call and how he ended up berating me for 10 minutes after I tried to defend her). But when another man calls it out, suddenly that assumption that this language, this behavior, is OK gets challenged.
Something to think about, men!
How Are We Feeling About The World This Week?
I mean…
The Olympics were a bright spot until they weren’t. The men’s hockey team can rot in hell.
Time to get my crystals:
Better yet, time to find something lovely to think about or make. As this icon says, “My eyes are starving for beauty!”
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Tuesday Project Roundup: FINALLY
Fifteen months after thinking about it and thirteen months after starting it, my Rainbow Brite/Gap 1999 crazy stripe sweater is DONE. Even better? It’s not itchy!!
I love this SO MUCH. I haven’t made a sweater since before my mom died, when I realized I can’t wear wool. The yarn I used for this is mostly cotton with some alpaca and is just lovely.
I didn’t get gauge with the yarn, though, and had to do size math. I ended up knitting the largest size and I think the fit is exactly as intended. It’s a little tighter across the biceps than I wanted but that’s what I get for being so swole.
I love how refined the back neck and shoulder shaping are; I’m a big fan of PetiteKnit patterns because the finishing details are just so nice. 
Anyway, I love this. It might be the favorite thing I’ve knit in decades.
(Why did it take so long? We’re long out of the habit of watching anything at night, so this was all Sunday family visit and work meeting knitting–an hour or two a week vs. an hour or two a day. Except now I’m so excited I made a sweater that fits and isn’t itchy, I want to make MORE, so maybe I’ll get back into movies.)
Finally Some Snow
We got a big storm last week and some of it was still around even in the lower elevations, which made the hike yesterday feel much more right. (This is the worst snow year since Utah started keeping records in 1980.) The sun was warm, though; I bet the snow will be mostly melted by next Sunday.
Friday Links
1 . Work is unnecessarily stressful right now and I think I’m going to do this today: 
2. Some good eye candy: The CalArts poster archive.
3. Exactly what it says on the tin:
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