buttoning up

I need to get packing and button up here — but first, it’s time to check in with with Kat + Friends! Let’s see what’s unraveling —

part i (the yarn)

I’m not sure where the week’s gone — but very little of it’s been to making. I do have a pair of socks now, at least!

My goals with this project were {one} learn to knit socks and {two} resupply my sleeping socks, as I’m down to my last pair of handknits I bought years ago.

Success!

They’re kind of silly, really. But they make me pretty happy.

I applied what I learned on Sock No. 1 to knitting Sock No. 2. In addition to what I shared here, I now know:

→ when to ‘snug up’ so I don’t have holes in the heels

→ I prefer the tighter tension I worked for Sock 2 (my usual tension is looser)

→ these are my perfect sleeping socks: warm-but-not-too-warm…they stay on my feet all night, without being tight on the ankle

→ chunky yarn = done in an afternoon!

I plan to use up the yarn on more of the same — but play with the ribbing, maybe down to the foot? Plus, the random color blocks make for a fun mix + match stash of new socks (…and I don’t think I’d use this yarn for much else!).

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We head out for spring break on Friday, so over the weekend I chatted with Elsa about her road trip project. (A granny square blanket with center heart; she’s piecing together a few tutorials to make her own take on a Taylor Swift album.) I hadn’t thought about my project, though! After a brief flurry, I decided to ‘go with what I know’ — the Little Creek Buff. (Same project I took to Honduras; you saw these pictures last month.)

It’s perfect for me in that: it’s portable; easy to read the stitches; I’ve loved wearing the first one I made; and it’s a great way to use up stash yarn. (I just casted on with sweater leftovers.) As it happens, we’ll pass this LYS in Annapolis where I just might find a splurge yarn…in case I finish my second Little Creek and need to start a third.

Keeping it easy, for now. I read the pattern for Elsa’s sweater, and there’s a bit of new-to-me in its construction — so I’ll sit down with that when I have make space and time to pay close attention.

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part ii {the yarns}

This book had me from the start.

photo: The Christian Citizen

photo: The Guardian

Tiya Miles’s intro to All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, a Black Family Keepsake, is the strongest non-fiction start I’ve read in a long time. In fact, if for some reason you can’t/won’t/don’t plan to read the whole book, I highly recommend at least getting your eyes or ears on those first few pages. It’s really something.

I’m almost done. I’ll finish before we leave town, so I wanted to include this today (since I’ll be absent for a week, at least!). And there’s no doubt, even with chapters left to read, why this is on the Women’s Prize longlist. (And just has to make the shortlist this afternoon!)

update: the Women's Prize for Non-Fiction short list is here! Click or tap to see if your favorites made it. (I was happy.)

All That She Carried is about the sack prepared by an enslaved (unfree) mother for her daughter, Ashley, in advance of being separated when Ashley was 9 years old. She packed three things for the journey, not just upon being sent off or sold — but maybe, too, for the metaphorical journey. (I’ll let you ‘open’ the sack to see what she packed for yourself)

It’s also a historical dive with author and historian Tiya Miles: She examines the clothing and hair of Black women and girls in slavery — use, brutally, by white owners as power and punishment; used by Black slaves themselves as symbols of mourning + grief, as well as willfulness and artistic expression. Woven into the chapters, Miles tells stories of Harriet Jacobs, of seamstress and activist Elizabeth Keckley, as well as of many unknown enslaved mothers and children….how they parted, searched for one another, sent signs and messages and tokens…even how one mother, Fanny, prepared to commit infanticide before being separated from her baby. (They were not separated.) It’s also the dark story of Charleston, SC, and its rise to the top in colonial-era economy and trade — the background to a place we visited one year ago on spring break; I’ve pictured its landmarks over and over as I listen.

It’s struck me more than once that I’m glad Ashley’s sack is a non-fiction account –versus historical fiction. While I like much historical fiction I’ve read, there’s something…more significant….here, in Miles’s research, cross-referencing, tangential topics, and her acknowledgment of what cannot be included because of what’s unknown about the vast majority of enslaved people.

By which I mean what’s not told…what can’t be told… is a way of saying a lot.

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And that’s it for a while! I’m buttoning up here as we head out to explore. I look forward to catching up in two weeks. ‘Til then —

♥