This Is My Secret: The Blog and Website of Writer Kristin Cashore

So, the movers are coming tomorrow, and though I'm surrounded by exquisite disarray, I feel this is the moment to blog pictures (taken by Kevin) of a very special (perhaps even magical) hat. Because now is the time to celebrate beautiful things. :o)

My regular readers know that I knit. Well, my mother knits on the superwoman level.

She made me this hat.


Look at the hearts, the intricate designs that went into the making of this hat…

The adorable tassel.

Furthermore, it's some sort of special Scandinavian double hat, basically knitted as two continuous hats that you shove one inside the other, and actually quadrupled around the ears, not to mention that it is made of Icelandic wool, all of which means that I will never be cold again. But also, the first time I sat with the hat (which my mother had given me without comment), examining and appreciating it, I found myself wondering whether she had knitted any fancy designs into the inside hat.

So I pulled the inside part out…

…

Hi all! If you're looking for something fun to do in eastern Massachusetts this coming Friday evening, please join me and writers Nancy Werlin and Annie Hartnett for a Common Stories event Upstairs @ The General, taking place at 7:30pm at the General Store in the town of Harvard, Mass. Each of us will read and answer questions, and then we'll be available for book sales and signing. There's a $5 cover charge and food and wine will be available for purchase.

Here's a press release in the Harvard Press, and here's the Facebook page. The General Store is at 1 Still River Road, Harvard, Massachusetts 01451, p: (978) 430-0062.

I'm in the middle of a hectic revision (again) and am moving house next week, so I will endeavor to read from one of my actual books, rather than accidentally reading from my master packing list, or bursting into tears (for example). :o) Just kidding. I'll be in great shape, really. Come join us!

One of my sisters lives in Jacksonville, Florida, which is relatively near Orlando. She says the lines to donate blood go all the way around the building and the wait to donate is two hours or more -- at every donation center she tried.

Mr. Rogers says, in moments like these, that we should look for the helpers. That's where the hope is.

My heart goes out to everyone.

A few links for your Monday...

Jon Almeda at Almeda Pottery makes the teeniest, tiniest stuff on his teeny potter's wheel. Here's his Instagram. Ack! So beautiful. (Thanks Alison!) ETA: Here's a gorgeous collection of pictures at Bored Panda.

In a similar vein, Althea Crome at Bugknits knits with needles sometimes practically as thin as a human hair. Her miniature knitting galleries are so much fun to peruse. Teeny, tiny knitting art! (Again, h/t Alison! ^_^)

The theme of the 2016 Met Gala was Manus x Machina and the clothing choices were appropriate. For example, Karolina Kurkova wore a "cognitive dress" with LED lights, the colors of which changed in real-time depending on the moods of users commenting on the gala via Twitter. Here are a whole lot of pictures (collected at the Huffington Post) of people dressed up for the gala.

I really liked reading Andi Zeisler's opinion piece in the Washington Post, "You can wear high heels and be a feminist. But pl…

Getting rid of stuff is, of course, one of the great pleasures of a move. Just dropped off at the Used department of Harvard Book Store:


Copies of my books in lots of languages, including a few in English. They won't put everything on the shelves right away, so if you're curious if anything specific is available, ask at the desk, or email usedbooks@harvard.com.

Thanks to Steve, Emily, and Jenni for your help with my piles of books. Extra thanks to Steve for helping me lug them! Thanks also for the packing boxes :o)

In other news... I regularly play Scrabble on my phone, against the expert computer. Maybe I average one game a day (maybe more). When I first moved from playing the advanced computer to playing the expert computer (which is the highest setting), I probably got destroyed for the first ten or twelve games... but I learned from it. After that, I started to win. Now I win about half the time. But it has always been, and continues to be, a frequently ridiculous endeavor…