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{yarn along}

22 Feb

Yesterday afternoon, all the stars aligned.   All the girls took a nap.  Praises resounded.   We have had a rough go of nap time recently.  In that still quiet, I had forty pages left in The Winter Sea, and I intended to savor every single one of them.  I really enjoyed this book. I liked the two stories told.  I liked the characters (past and present) and oh my, was I stunned at one point. There was actually one point where I saw how much of the book was left and was wondering how the author was going to wrap the story up.  Good thing, too, she got me.  Smelling the sea air is the only thing that could have made the book better.

I have been making progress on the cowl I began last week.  The pattern is knitting up nicely, and I am excited for it to find its way to its new home, soon.  I am thinking I will tackle my list of project almost near completion very soon …

++ I say all this knowing full well I am headed out of town soon and Joel’s mom is going to help me start a smocking project for the girls and our trip to the beach this year.  Dresses for the beach are, in fact, on the list, perhaps I’ll just call this a jump start.++

As I walked down stairs this morning the sky was so bright red, I just had to stop and soak it in.  Enjoy the day, friends!

{joining in with ginny again this week for the lovely yarn along}

{yarn along}

15 Feb

Since last week, I cast on and have begun the 5th Ave cowl.  I like the pattern.  When Joel came home and saw it on top of the bookcase, he said he liked my knitting.  You know me so well, hunny!

I was flopping between reads. I really just wanted to settle on one, so I could sink in and enjoy.  I saw Amanda, who I seem to always enjoy the same books as, mention The Winter Sea a while back.  On Sunday night,  I started the book waiting for Downton Abbey to begin and Joel to come home. Now, I am yearning for the salty sea air and a little cottage to skedaddle off and visit.

What are you working on this week?

++ joining in with ginny again this week for the lovely yarn along

Moving on

8 Feb

Oh my. We have had a wonderful couple of days around the Lady Bird home.  My very best friend from high school came to visit for a long weekend which passed far too quickly.  We laughed, and cooked, and shopped, and got pedicures, and fell asleep watching movies, and then all of the sudden I needed to drive her to the airport again.

The only book I have read this week is Little House on the Prairie to the girls.   We read before nap, and we read before bed.  There were many questions, especially about why the Ingalls were afraid of the Indians. I do believe I need to brush up on some of my history.  Besides a very basic understanding about how the government kept moving the Indians father and farther west,  I  don’t think I know many (or any) of the details beyond that.  It is a good thing I picked up this book.   The Ingalls family is moving on again, and I want to know how Pa is going to build a second house in a year.

While running errands today, I found the color yarn I was looking for so I could begin a gift for someone.  Pattern  purchased.  Now, to begin clickity click!

Is anyone else feeling strange due to the winter we have (or, haven’t) had?  The calendar says winter so I want roaring fires and am planning soups for dinner.  Yet, for the past few days after nap we have gone out for a walk or bike ride.  The girls are begging to play outside.  They are hunting up rocks for their new found rock collection.  I bought daffodils at Trader Joe’s.  They are in our family room, with the fire place and me in my wool socks…..

++ joining in with ginny again this week for the lovely yarn along

{yarn along}

1 Feb

This weekend, I finished all the knitting on Sophie’s Wyatt sweater!!.  If I can get my list done today, I will begin to seam up the sides during nap time.  Somehow, I managed almost no laundry last week.  Inevitably this meant I had WAY more to whiz and whirl through the machine this week.  The next disc of Little Dorrit arrived from Netflix, so I had a little system working as I folded while the girls were resting.  It was warm enough to hang a few loads on the clothesline, and they smelled so nice coming inside.

I flew through Money Saving Mom as soon as I brought it home from the library.  There are a couple tips, I would like to reread to glean a couple ideas Crystal Paine mentions. Some ideas were new, some were good reminders. I picked up the book because I want to be the best steward of what we have been given, and it is always a good idea to read about what others are doing well and see ways I could potentially simplify or think differently about our finances.

As soon as I finished Money Saving Mom, I picked up The 100 Thing Challenge by Dave Bruno.  I had a mixed reaction to this book.  This was due partially because I imposed my idea of a 100 Thing challenge criteria before I read his “rules”.  He did a good job describing his thought process to the 100 Thing challenge, and I appreciated that. He also explained some of the dissonance he felt while doing the challenge.  It was not a stop spending and survive on he 100 things for a year challenge, and prior to reading it, I assumed it would be.  Therefore, some of his trading of the 100 things surprised me. It did make me think about some of the “collections” we have floating around our house and, more importantly, why we have them.  That in and of itself was beneficial.

What are you reading and knitting this week?

++ joining ginny for her weekly yarn along.

Measuring Progress

25 Jan

This week’s yarn along is almost exactly the same as last week’s  post – Wildwood and Wyatt.   So in the name of progress and my excitement for seeing tangible progress I was even more encouraged to keep working on the projects I have on the needles.   I bound off the sleeves and then knit half of the back of Sophie’s Wyatt sweater.  I am hoping to sneak some quiet time be able to finish up the knitting this week and get it seamed up very soon after.

I am slowly working my way through Wildwood.  The story is beginning to pick up and I have adjusted to reading a classic fantasy genre book so we will see how I fare from here on out. I’ll be honest and say I am not loving it as much as I had hoped to, but I am enjoying it enough to keep rooting for it to pull me in.  The older two girls and  I continue to read Little House on the Prairie.  All three of us are really enjoying it.

On an unrelated note: have any of you ever made the no-knead, dutch oven loaf bread?  Warm, butter-smeared bread always sounds good to me, but I want it to be worth my time, you know?

+++ joining along with ginny for her weekly yarn along

Wildwood and Wyatt

18 Jan

This sweater has been on the needles for a while. I just searched through my archives and I realize it has been at least since November which is the first time I posted about it.   I put it down around Christmas time because I wasn’t really devoting any extended time to knitting.  As we seem to settle back into more of a routine this new year my fingers are beginning to feel the itch to knit once again.  I have been working a row here and a row there as I go about my day with the girls.  I am almost ready to bind off the arms which should make knitting up the body of the sweater go a little faster.

I can feel myself beginning to wax poetic about how great it would feel to finish all my unfinished projects.  Ones that have been on the needles since November; ones that need to be ripped back and restarted; ones that just need to be seamed while they still will fit, you get the idea.

Last week, all I did was read The House at Riverton by Kate Morton.    Morton created a wonderful post WWI world where I became immersed in learning about the characters and each of their secrets.  The story weaves together the lives of the servants and those they serve.  Like Downton Abbey, but only a book.  Do you watch that show?  You really should.

I began Wildwood.  So far, so good.  I am trying to get back into our normal routine, so I am only reading a little bit here and a little bit there.  Have any of you read it?   Thoughts?

+++ joining along with ginny for her weekly yarn along

green tea with honey cowl

11 Jan

  • Pattern: Honey Cowl
  • Yarn: Plymouth Yarns Royal Bamboo
  • Size: whatever two skeins knit up to
  • My Ravelry Notes: here

I know I said I would be back with my goals, but that was before we all came down with a stomach bug.  A week ago, Evie got sick and then as hard as a tried with the hand washing and the clorox wipes; it spread to us all.  We are on the mend and for that I am very thankful.

In that time, however, I did manage to snag one day where I was dressed, in real clothes – not the yoga pants I have been wearing all week, while there was still light outside and a photographer over the age of four to take a few pictures of my finished cowl.  Here she is, my green tea with honey cowl.

This knit up very quickly.  The bamboo yarn slid over the needles and made the slip pattern fun to knit.  The part that took so long was working up the oomph to un-bind off and pick up all 240 some stitches again to fix the mistake I made while I was binding off the first time.   I am so glad I, a quiet house, and a glass of red wine took the time to do so because I have been wearing it quite a bit since then!

Last week, I reported I was reading Wildwood.  And, I was.  Until I stopped at the library and saw a copy of The House at Riverton waiting on the holds shelf for me.  I really like the story line – it might be my favorite of Morton’s books that I have read. By the end of this weekend, I was feeling better from the stomach bug and the girls were wanting to snuggle all the time while they were on the mend, I had some of my favorite reading time.  I read.  The girls slept and snuggled and looked at their own books.

joining ginny for her yarn along.  Hope you all have a great rest of your week.

Happy New Year Yarn Along Edition

4 Jan

Happy New Year friends in blog land.  I am enjoying the fresh start to this new year and I hope to have some of my goals for the new year to share soon.  My children had a grand ole time celebrating Christmas and visiting with family.  This week, however, they needed to return to normal.  We are looking for new and better ways to organize (especially their art supplies) as well as get back into our previously scheduled routine.

The past two weeks I have been doing much more reading than knitting.  I committed to no Christmas knitting that needed to be delivered before the New Year.  I do have two cowls to knit, but I am waiting to hear on color preferences before I cast on.

The first book I read was The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place and the Mysterious Howling. It was a cute start to a young adult series.  The book, however, did not have any resolution at the end.  I know the story continues in the next book installment, but, I do prefer when a book wraps up the immediate story line within the covers of the book.

I had been meaning to read The Happiness Project for a couple months now.  It was a very apropos book to read the week after Christmas while getting ready for the new year to begin.  I seem to be very drawn to year long writing project memoirs: including: Eat Pray Love; The Dirty Life; Julie & Julia.  I liked and appreciated Rubin’s idea of changing your life without changing your life which seemed to be the driving catalyst for her own happiness project.  Her writing was humorous, and she made her own struggles transparent.  I think I liked the first half of the book better, but am not sure I could tell you why.

As soon as I finished The Happiness Project, I began reading Wildwood.  I am only a couple chapters in, but am enjoying it so far.  The books has beautiful illustrations and a few full page color illustrations, making the book a rare treat.

I am reading Little House in the Big Woods aloud to the girls, right now.  All three of us are enjoying the story.  I first introduced Christmas in the Big Woods to them the week before Christmas.  I knew both of them would have a hard time understanding how remotely Laura and her family lived.  I was hedging my bets that once they had some framework to begin to understand the story they would like hearing about two girls and their family.  (A big thank you to all the reading literacy classes I took in college which helped me understand this very simple yet profound truth: people will love reading a whole lot more if they have some idea of what is going on in the story).  I am excited to keep reading the book to them.

Joining ginny for her weekly yarn along

 

honey cowl

14 Dec

After a quick start, and a very easy pattern, I thought I was full speed ahead on my green tea with honey cowl.  One Sunday, I snuggled in bed with Ella during our afternoon quiet time and was set to begin binding off.  Almost done and a stitch fell off the needle.  I thought I got all the stitches back to their happy little home and secure.  Then with 15 or so stitches left to bind off, I ran out of yarn.  Arrr.  So, I attempted to bind off with a remaining scrap piece of yarn from the ball join.  I tried to make sure all my quick fixes resulted in secure stitches and I thought I did ok.  Well, one wear into enjoying the cowl I noticed my quick fixes were not secure after all.  Last night, I did what I should have done all along: un-knit the bind off row and rip back until I had enough yarn to properly finish.  Since I spent all the time fixing my mistake, I decided I wanted to make the border a tad wider.  A couple more rounds to go and then hopefully a successful bind off and I will be good to go.

Yes. doing things the right way the first time.  A lesson I always seem to need friendly reminders about.

You can see what I have been reading in my reading post from yesterday:  The Violets of March and The Distant Hours.

I am hoping our Christmas cards arrive soon.  The girls and I have cookies to make for a holiday party at Ella’s preschool later this week.  I think that this might be the beginning of our family cookies as well :)

+++joining with ginny and her weekly yarn along.  thank for stopping by!

In, Around, Through, & Off

7 Dec

While spending time in the playroom yesterday morning with the girls, Ella asked me if I could teach her to knit.  Oh my!  My sweet Ella could I ever.  Nestled in back to front saying ” IN, AROUND, THROUGH, OFF”  she got the beginning of garter stitch. Then, she announced very confidently and proudly that she was going to make a pink shirt for Sophia.

I am still working my way through The Distant Hours by Kate Morton and the Blue Wyatt sweater I mentioned here.  I really like the book. I have started a little habit of laying down with Ella for a little while at the start of nap time.  I read for a tiny bit and she has a few minutes to calm down.  There have even been a couple times where both of us have fallen asleep, which is just a  sweet time with her.  I read The Forgotten Garden by Morton earlier this year and liked that one as well.  Knitting, however, is not having as much progress.  I was distracted this week by continuing to decorate for Christmas and trying to get a large portion of the Christmas shopping done.  We are waiting on several packages to arrive in the mail.  Joel was able to come home from work early yesterday, and I went out by myself yesterday (gasp) and was able to hunt down a few presents.

what are you working on or reading this week?

+++ joining ginny in her weekly yarn along.

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