Not quite committed ...

Still not much knitting around here. I am about to embark on some (possibly over-ambitious) Easter projects--more on those later. But right now the only active project is this ten-stitch blanket. I had a lot of worsted weight leftover from various hats, so that's what I'm using. (Pardon the odd lighting ... those are lovely shades of teal and purple, if you can't tell. But there's foxy orange and a pretty blue in the middle.)

I keep having doubts though. Is this really the pattern I want to put my leftovers into? Is it just going to be kind of ugly looking, and am I okay with that? I like the fact that it's knit all in one piece, but maybe something with granny squares bordered in a neutral color would tie the different colors together better ... like this. (Or if the colors still clashed, it would be more like a kaleidoscope, which sounds more interesting to me.)

I am looking forward to reading these essays published by Wiseblood Books. Poetry is not my "thing." I can receive a good poem, even fall in love with it. But I don't have the instinct to delve more deeply in without guidance. And I certainly don't sound intelligent when speaking about poetry, which perhaps doesn't matter except as it affects my own ego.

Linking up with Ginny.

Chickadee!

I haven't done any knitting since last week. I think I'm having trouble committing enough to anything to cast on. Nothing seems to be calling my name, not even the slippers, which I haven't really needed thanks to this mild winter. Cold feet would probably motivate me.

I do, however, have some yarn to show you. A group of women are working to set up the Steel City Fiber Collective, and I contributed to their Kickstarter drive a few months ago. And then I forgot about it. So it was a very nice surprise to receive this gorgeous hand-dyed skein in the mail!

The only crafty thing I've accomplished lately is that little chickadee, and though it's definitely beginner's work, I'm pretty proud of it. (If anyone has any advice for a neater blanket stitch, or for cutting out small felt pattern pieces, I'm all ears!) I'm hoping to make another felt birdie for my brother's birthday (tomorrow ... we'll see if it happens). He's an amateur ornithologist, and I've been wanting to try my hand at felt ornaments, so when I stumbled upon an amazing collection of felt bird patterns, it seemed providential!

I have been doing quite a bit of reading. I got this book from a friend, and am enjoying it so far. I need more nonfiction for my Catholicism & Literature course, and this fits the bill!

Linking up with Ginny.

What I'm Doing (Instead of Netflix)

Hi Friends.

I've been trapped in a cycle of not-blogging. It has many sources, but one of them is wanting to come up with a REAL post to jump back in with. Something with nice pictures and/or profound thoughts, organized and coherent and thoroughly spell-checked.

Well, enough of that way of thinking. It's naptime. I have a moment. I have a job that I need to do that I'm currently procrastinating. What better way to do so than by posting here?

I am trying really hard to reclaim my precious naptime from the black hole that is Netflix. I binged on the first season of Fixer Upper (which I loved, but now I can't stop thinking about cased openings), and the shows I watch regularly (Once Upon a Time (don't judge) and The Walking Dead (yes, zombies)) are gone until spring.* So!

I will tell you what I'm working on instead.

Several months ago I got an email out of the blue inviting me to teach a course on Catholicism and Literature ... and I accepted! I am very grateful, and excited, and just a wee bit terrified ... because now I have to manage my time wisely. What part of it I am in control of, which has not been a lot this year ... we seem to have been beset by illness after illness, ear infections and tummy bugs and eye infections and the croup and sinus infections ...



As it happens, I do have a picture for this blog post, a knitting picture so that I can link up with Ginny. Well, a pre-knitting picture, I guess. I am going to make myself a pair of thrummed slippers, and the yarn is wound, and the thrums are all made, and there they have sat for about a week, untouched. But it is very pretty to look at, isn't it?

Update

Hello friends.

It's been a while, so let's do a little combination day-late-yarn-along/life-dump, shall we?

I finally--FINALLY--finished knitting the last of the boys' Christmas stockings. Holy cow. That's four inches of stockinette that just gets tucked INSIDE the stocking to give the cuff a little substance. Pure torture at the end of such a frickin' huge sock. I still have blocking to do, and little i-cord loops for hanging, and maybe, maybe they will get their names embroidered on the cuffs before Christmas. But I realized that all the names in the pattern are 3-4 letters--"Emma" is the longest--whereas our kids all have seven letter names. This is going to be interesting.

The book--I am greatly, greatly enjoying it. It had been on my to-read list for some time and when I saw Karen reading it that pushed me over the edge into buying it, and honestly it is worth every penny.

So, life.

On Saturday I fell down the stairs holding Gregory. It wasn't as dramatic as it sounds--my feet slipped, I slid down a few steps and landed backwards on my bum. It has happened before. (Usually when I'm wearing socks ...) But this time my elbow landed on Gregory's foot, and now he has a cast on his whole leg, and will for about a month.

If you are looking for a way to slow down your Advent, physical injury works. But I would not recommend it.

We've been lighting our Advent wreath and singing "O Come Emmanuel" at dinnertime. And opening doors on our advent calendars. And I have been reading a story a day out of this book with Michael, as well as other books from our seasonal book basket.

And our unoccupied stable is out on the mantle, as well as our Little People nativity, with Baby Jesus who gets put to bed with a binky in Dominic's crib for his nap by helpful little hands.

That's it.

And it is more than enough.

I decided that wrangling three kids--one no longer mobile--plus cookies to our local Catholic mom's cookie exchange was a bit much, but a sweet friend is stopping to pick up cookies from me this evening AND bring me some back from the exchange. Such a kindness!

And this weekend, on Gaudete Sunday, we will get our tree.

So really, we want for nothing in this season of preparation.

And I? I need this advent so much. My heart is crying out for Jesus to come, to be with us, and for the grace to keep the door open for him. He will find no humbler home than this, but He is more than welcome here.

Yarn Along

I type this riding on a writing high.

After receiving an email about it from a dear friend, I have decided to jump in with both feet and participate in NaNoWriMo this year.

Two days ago I wrote. And I hated it. And it made me so depressed. Like, incredibly melodramatically depressed. I won't even go into it. So I turned around, jumped ahead in the story, and inflicted those feelings upon my main character. End Day 1 of writing.

Yesterday I continued from that point in the story rather than the beginning. And while I would tremble to go back and look at that writing, it left me feeling excited, and happy. I guess tormenting your characters can lead to good things? ;)

And all of these things are just emotions, dangerous things to ride without caution. But after two days of writing and meeting the daily word goals (although I'm still one day behind), I feel like I am legitimately "doing" NaNoWriMo for the first time in years, and that makes me very happy. It seems that naptime is usually just enough time to pound out 1500-1600 words. So we'll see.

Right now I am working on a test knit for Little Woolens. It's worked up in chunky yarn and thus flies by very quickly! Malabrigo Mecha is delicious, and I find myself calculating how expensive it would be to knit a sweater for myself out of it ...

If it weren't for a knit-by-Christmas list as long as my arm I'd immediately cast on for all of Annie and Ashley's other designs, because seriously, how cute are those little knits?? Especially the Winter Hoodie and Trane Vest.

I set aside Possession for a bit to read a Catholic book about a teenage vampire for Halloween. (Yes. Maybe a review forthcoming?) So I'm still not that far in, but I'm enjoying it and stayed up far too late to read it last night.

Linking up with Ginny.

Aaaah, that's better.

I am about to start the ears on the third and final fox hat. Hurrah! My children are excited. :) A lovely friend lent me her set of DPNs so I could knit this final hat without frustration. I'd been using two sets of circulars and it was getting very tiresome!  

I am almost wishing the boys were going to be foxes for Halloween. I would make them little tails to match! But their costumes are already underway. Michael has his heart set on being the Cat in the Hat, so the twins, of course, will be Thing 1 and Thing 2. (But who knows? The tails may make an appearance under the Christmas tree!)


I am still in the first pages of this book, which I first heard of on the Fountains of Carrots podcast. Any recommendations from those ladies are generally a good bet. Since then I've seen it written about in a few other places, so when we made a spur-of-the-moment visit to our favorite city library after Mass on Sunday, I took the opportunity to pick it up.

Linking up at Ginny's place.

Autumn Yarn Along

Knitting: a fox hat for winter. The first of three, because there's no way I could knit just one without a war breaking out once it was on someone's head. There would be blood shed over that hat.


Reading: a book that has been on my to-read list since its release. I am very much enjoying the literary fairy-tale feel going on here.


The book and the yarn arrived on the same day. I think they go quite well together! :) Fairy-tales and a foxy orange ("Allspice") both speak to me of fall. And also something more about the book ... the atmosphere of forgetfulness and search for memory seems to me very autumnal.

Linking up with Ginny.

Stocking Progress

I just realized that in addition to not being very well-lit, you can totally see where Michael scribbled all over the couch with a ball point pen in this picture.

But I'm trying to participate in the yarn along regularly again, and it's this or nothing.

So there's your dose of realism for the day. ;)

I've been hearing about The Penderwicks a lot lately and bought myself an inexpensive copy to read. So we'll see! I am about halfway through the leg of the stocking. I know I will have Second Sock Syndrome when it comes to knitting the next one. I don't hate knitting these, but I don't particularly enjoy it either.

I will probably take a break to knit myself some birthday socks.

Linking up with the Yarn Along.

A yarn along!

Wow. It's been ... a long time.

Well. I have been knitting quite a lot these days. Mostly hats. (And painting. But that is for another post.)

Seedling and Lucy

Not pictured: a purple beret (this pattern) I already mailed off to a cousin, and a brown cloche-style hat (this pattern) for her sister who entered a Carmelite monastery last month and need "a brown woolen hat."


And I finished Michael's leaf blanket. I need to take proper pictures, but here is a quick shot of it in its natural habitat.

I went on the Steel Valley Yarn Crawl and managed to make it to all eleven shops (!!!), which is where I picked up yarn for the hats and a future shawl.

And now I have settled down to a Christmas stocking. I forgot what slow knitting this is--a huge sock with not-so-huge yarn. And I've made a mistake. I forgot to continue the pattern on the sole while doing the gusset increases ... I still haven't decided what to do about it. I tried knitting back on just those stitches, but discovered it to be well nigh impossible when dealing with the strands at the back. So it's either pull out five whole rows, or just move forward with a new "design element."

This is the first book I've read by Chaim Potok, at the recommendation of my *other* cousin (brother to the two mentioned above). I am really enjoying it. And in fact, it is making me think about visual art in a way that I love. A way that excites me rather than exhausting me. ;) (I asked my cousin if this was a read that required one to think. He responded with praise for the book. I don't think he understood the question, not being a mom of three whose brain space is limited. ;) )

Linking up with Ginny.

Knitting in the Time of Moths?

Hey look! I'm sewing leaves together!! Yay!

Or at least, I was up until a few days ago. I decided I've found a few too many moths in my pheromone traps and am now in full-throttle de-mothing mode. Which is exhausting. And despite having thoroughly cleaned the upstairs and moving all potentially affected laundry out to be laundered ... I caught ANOTHER moth last night. I feel like this either means that I don't actually have a moth problem--that they are just flittering in from the outside and that is why I'm not actually finding much damage--or else ... it means I have a major problem somewhere. Argh.

So the only times I've been touching this blanket lately have been to pull it out of the basket and give it a good shake. Just in case someone decides to munch on it.

I've also found carpet beetles, so I guess deep-cleaning is a good thing right now. But so stressful.

Anyway, the blanket is a little less than halfway put together. It will hibernate until after I finish cleaning, and then I need to knit a hat for my cousin who is entering Carmel in August ... and then I will finish this beastie. It is turning out beautifully--I'm half-tempted to keep it for myself, except Michael would never let me get away with it--but I am not enjoying the seaming process. Oh well.



Reading: Better Than Before, a book about habits that wasn't quite what I thought it would be, but the writing is engaging enough to keep me going. The Green Ember is a book much loved on this blog and so I thought I'd give it a read and keep it for the boys to grow into.


Linking up with Ginny!

Getting Close ...

I've bought the last of the yarn for Michael's blanket. After knitting up these skeins, I'll add as needed from a few odd and ends to make up the full count.

I almost didn't pick this book up because I felt the need for something narrative, but it turns out that this is basically a memoir, rather than a parenting handbook. I'm enjoying it. I've fallen into some bad habits of using food as motivation for good behavior ... Gregory in particular is addicted to "cackies" (Graham crackers). Time to change that!

Linking up with Ginny.

Life-Changing Magic, and other things

You know the deal. Even when I can't keep up with anything else I can manage a yarn along post.** ;) I was a bit under the weather last week as I recovered from my first ever case of mastitis after almost 3.5 years of nursing. I have so much admiration for mothers who struggle with this on a regular basis early in their nursing relationship ... I think I may have given up if I hadn't so much experience behind me already.

Anyway.

Are you bored of leaves yet? ;) I pulled a skein of Tosh from my freezer , baked it in the oven, shook it vigorously to make sure no moth eggs came tumbling out, and ... it seems to be fine. No damage that I have noticed! Fingers crossed.

(I'm thinking of typing up a post--hopefully with pictures--about how to survive a moth infestation with your sanity intact ... helpful? Or have I talked about moths too much already?)

So many thoughts about this book. As I read it, I always picture a single person living on their own--or at least in a child-free household. I don't think her ideal really encompasses the necessary and healthy level of not being in control that comes from living with several little people who are figuring themselves and the world out. She writes of how tidiness can transform our lives by helping us make decisions about not just what we own, but who we are. I think this is great, but if you're living with people who are still figuring that out in the most basic of ways ... there's going to be some messiness. :) (Also, is it just me, or do her descriptions of herself as a cleanliness-obsessed child make anyone else a little sad??)

But I really love her philosophy about possessions. They are not bad. Your home is not a thing to be conquered, but love, and the things you own can and should bring you joy. But you shouldn't be so attached to things that you can't let them go. The material things around us are good and meant for our benefit and happiness. But they should not determine or own us. I love it.

Also I really need to try out her folding technique and see if it helps my husband's t-shirts fit in his dresser, because none of those are getting discarded anytime soon ... much to his wife's chagrin. (If there is one recurring disagreement in our marriage, it is about the number of t-shirts that's reasonable for one person to own. ;) )


I also just finished What Happened to Sophie Wilder. Oh my goodness. It took a bit of patience on my part because there was just a touch too much of the "jaded literary people living an immature lifestyle" stuff that can plague literary fiction. But I could tell it was going somewhere different. And it didn't disappoint. The ending of this book pulled the rug out from under my feet, in such a good and heart-aching way. I am still a little bit in shock. And still thinking about Sophie. As though she were a real person, who truly did wrestle with the truth as she knew it to be, versus the lived truth of suffering in mind and body. It is not a hard or a thick read, but it truly does seek truth, and it is excellent fiction, and so I recommend it highly.

Linking up with Ginny.


**Although I am loving Instagram lately. If you're on there, we should hook up! :)

Stacking up!

After hearing an interview with the author on the Read-Aloud Revival podcast, I just finished The Reading Promise by Alice Ozma. What an excellent book! A well-written memoir is one of my favorite things to read, and I can highly recommend this one.

(I am loving podcasts these days, by the way. Now that I have a smartphone I can listen to them in the car! I use the Stitcher app, but I don't know much about what else is out there. How do you listen to podcasts?)

Michael has attempted to stack books like this for the purpose of standing. It doesn't usually turn out well.

Thank you all for the feedback about colors for Michael's leaf blanket! A few of you were unsure what the final concept was. The pattern I'm using is the Family Tree Afghan. The leaves all get stitched together to form the blanket, and right now the plan is to spread out the colors as evenly as possible. :)

Last Saturday I bought some more green and blue yarn in shades close to those I've already used. I really, really love this yarn in DK weight, and the colors are just perfect.

Big stack of nonfiction from the library!

On days where we mostly stay at home and nothing crazy happens (ha), I can usually knit a leaf and a half. This is leaf number 65 of 110. (Or possibly 62. There are three leaves I've decided I don't like. But even though there's not that much difference between having 62 and 65 leaves, it's really hard for me to see that number go backwards ... so, right now I'm still including them in the final count!)

There's a layer of shawls under those leaves that I will have to block soon, just to make room for more. 

Sadly, somebody (don't know who for sure but I have my theories) got into my knitting basket and used one of my needles as a drumstick. It took me a while to find all the pieces. This pair belonged to my grandmother, and were among my favorites to use, so ... sadness. :( Luckily my bamboo needles get about the same gauge. 

Linking up with Ginny!

Leaves and Colors

I have been parenting solo since Friday, so, not much time for knitting or reading this week. But I met with the webcomic Namesake a few days ago, and ... well, that consumed my life for a few days. Now I'm caught up and have to wait for each page like a normal person. If you like fairy-tales, fanasy, and stories that are very meta ... you should read it. :) (Also if you like Oz. And super cute, not too sappy romance.)

I also recently read Eleanor & Park, which was ... okay. I really liked the beginning, which I thought was very original; not so much the second half. 

I've knit a few more leaves for Michael's blanket. Number 48 is on the needles out of 110, according to the pattern. I might stop at 100, depending on how big it is. (Although when you've come that far and only have ten left, I guess you might as well keep going!) 

My original idea was to stick only to leaf colors--green, brown, orange, red, yellow, plus some blue for the sky peaking through the leaves. But I'm wondering if maybe I should branch out? Maybe try some teal or some other jewel tone? I'm not sure. What do you think? I don't want it to look too "scrappy" ... perhaps I should buy more yarn in some of the colors I already have to keep it unified? 

A skein of teal?

Linking up with Ginny.

Yarn Along

I took a break from blogging.

I signed up for the CWBN's Mid-Atlantic Conference, which was last Saturday, and gave myself until then. Until then to just let it go, not try to write or even think about writing. (I am always thinking about writing.) Partly because a break just seemed to make sense in light of the last post. And partly because I'd been struggling a bit about writing here.

The conference was wonderful! I feel refreshed and a bit more purposeful about blogging; I've been reminded why I do it, which was something I really needed. I have a half-completed post about it in my drafts folder as I type this. (Which may mean nothing. Sometimes the draft folder might as well be the garbage bin. ;) But I have determination!! And exclamation points!!!)

In the meantime, I am, of course, knitting and reading.

The blanket is for a baby (not mine!), gender unknown. The book is Dorothy Sayer's Gaudy Night, picked up because Haley and and Christy talked about it on Fountains of Carrots, and the other books they've read together have all been ones I love. I am probably committing some sort of book crime, because I haven't read the other books in the series first; I can tell I am missing out on the depth of Harriet Vane and Lord Peter Wimsey's relationship, but it hasn't really given me much trouble. I am enjoying it quite a bit.

Linking up with Ginny as usual.

Comfrey

Still crocheting flowers! I'm working on purple now--a lovely lavender color called Comfrey. It goes a little slower for me than knitting, because crochet seems to be much less friendly to multi-tasking. You have to look at it. No reading, or watching television (at least not without a lot of pauses to look up). However, I suspect it might just prove perfect for listening to podcasts, so perhaps I should do that today.

I finished Story of a Soul and am now focusing on The Hidden Face. I'm also reading A Tree Grows in Brooklyn before bed. I started it a few weeks ago and couldn't get into it, but now am enjoying it quite a bit. Funny that this is the second work of fiction in a row for me that takes place in New York.

This is the first time I've read it, but for some reason I've always thought of this book as one that everyone's supposed to read in high school. Like Catcher in the Rye, or Animal Farm, or what have you. So ... do people read this in high school? Because it seems a bit old to me. Which I guess may not be a bad thing ... but I feel like so many books are read in high school and then never again, which means that so much is missed in them.

The oven timer is beeping at me, and so I must pull my cookies out of the oven. They are Michael's consolation prize for not going to the library today, since I looked at the clock as we started getting socks on everyone and realized it was far to close to naptime. :( Given the choice he would still have preferred the library.

Linking up with Ginny's yarn along.

Little Things

I had an idea that I would crochet an Easter garland, and ordered some lovely colors in this yarn. But it's clear that crochet is largely foreign to me. As I happily perused patterns and pictures of various crochet flowers, the one thing that didn't cross my mind was gauge. When the thread arrived and I realized how small a hook I'd be using, my vision had to be revised. The flowers are smaller than I'd like, but they work up quickly and I intend to make a lot of them.

However, lately I've been drawn to my hexipuffs. Another quick and dirty project, and one I don't even have to look at much while knitting. I do need to buckle down on the flowers if I want a garland by Easter, though.

I've been reading a little of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn at night, but mostly I've been rereading Story of a Soul and The Hidden Face . I think I will read about Therese's family next, especially since her parents are being canonized soon, and her sister Leonie's cause for canonization was just opened. I've been on a Therese "kick" since reading Shirt of Flame, and I think her autobiography was perfect for me to read right now.

Linking up with Ginny's yarn along.

Winter Knitting

Oh my goodness, but this is a long book. I stopped by the library today to renew it. I didn't expect to take so long to get through it. But it seems fitting, since I picked it up during the coldest part of winter--it has been so bitter these past few weeks. This book unfolds in a way that is vast and majestic--a particular sort of movement that is well suited to magical realism, I think, although that genre can also be smart and zippy--so it is hard to zip through, but I am certainly enjoying it. I'm hoping to finish it this week ... and maybe it will mean the end of winter? (Yes, friends, winter is still here and strong because I am reading this book. I am sorry.)

These socks. Today is my brother's birthday, and I'd hoped to hand them to him today. It would totally be possible if the kids slept for another two hours. But they have been in bed two hours already and are ready to get up. Sorry, Anthony!

Linking up with Ginny.

Two Favorites

It's naptime! I am eating homemade English muffin bread, drinking hot chocolate, and getting ready to knit some leaves. My other two projects are still on the needles and looking much the same, but I decided to switch things up for a bit. :) The needles were my grandmother's; I use them quite a bit. Also my reading and my knitting coordinate this week. Fun!

I just finished Shirt of Flame and am actually getting ready to start reading it all over again! This was such a good book. I flew through this book, but it is subtitled "A Year with Saint Therese of Lisieux," and there is a chapter for each month. There is some intense stuff here, and I am hoping to read it throughout the year with some friends, giving it space to really sink in. (Also? I knew I was meant to read this book right now when a simple line from the introduction started me bawling out of the blue!)

I have a special place in my heart for St. Therese (and she played a role in my engagement!), but it's been at least five years since I read Story of a Soul. (Time to rectify that.) This book is part meditation, part memoir; I really love the contrast between the more earthy, gritty (is that the right word?) struggles of the author with the sentimental Therese--especially since I know some people find Therese a bit too emotionally pious to connect with.

And yes, The Hobbit, with cover art by JRR himself. :) That makes me happy. I love old editions like this. My aunt gave me this one from her own collection, years ago. I am happy to say it is every bit as wonderful to me on rereading as it was in my memory.

Linking up with Ginny's yarn along!

Two by Two

Two projects, two books.

I preordered Hunter Hammerson's latest book and it came in on Christmas Eve. A local yarn store is doing a knitalong, so I thought I'd join in with some yarn I got for Christmas. I'm knitting the pattern on the cover. The color is very subtle--a greyish-green silk.

The TARDIS socks are technically a Christmas present. My brother opened a package of bright blue yarn and said, "Um, are you sure you gave this to the right person?" It's been a troublesome knit. First I started the pattern as written and realized it was never going to fit his calves, so I cast on again with more stitches. Then I knit half of the "Police Box" chart upside down. And then I had to rip back because the gusset is much, much too big for anyone, even my wide-footed brother ... argh. I've reknit the gusset on smaller needles and really hope that fixes the problem ... if not, then ...? I may try a short row heel. (Why are heel flaps so popular, anyways? Personally I don't find them very attractive and the fit just isn't as good.)

I've been meaning to read something by Willa Cather for a while. Elizabeth recommended Death Comes for the Archbishop, and my husband saw it on my goodreads list and got it for Christmas. :) I am also excited to start the book about St. Therese. Progress is slow because I've been reading it in the morning before the babies wake up, which isn't that much time. But that's okay. :)

Linking up with Ginny's yarn along.