Category Archives: Books

sox and stocks

Trying to craft for boys as they get older is a tricky business, especially when the boy in question is not your own.  I think I did alright with this one.  His eyes lit up when he opened it and said, “Did you make this?” and when I replied that yes, I had, he looked at me with wonder and asked, “for me? specifically for me??”  It was really very sweet.  I think the moral of the story is that the logo of a favorite team can really go a long way towards selling a plain old neck warmer.  I’m just glad they’re not in the National League.  I don’t think I would have ever heard the end of it if they were regularly in competition with the Phillies.  That would be like some sort of sports knitting treason or something.  As it was there were a few snide comments.

I’ve never had trouble with color work in the past, but somehow my tension on this one was all wonky.  Post blocking it seems ok, but I still wasn’t overly thrilled with the finished product.  But as I said, it was well received, so I guess that’s all that matters.  I used yarn leftover from the Christmas cowls, some scraps of white.

I’ve been reading Financial Peace by Dave Ramsey, since I’ve seen his work recommended in a few places.  In the beginning I found it some of the comments kind of offensive.  Not to me, as most of what he was saying didn’t apply to me, but in general.  There were a couple of blanket statements that just rubbed me the wrong way.  To be perfectly frank, I also found it patronizing and a bit sexist.  But as I’ve gotten into it I’ve found the practices he recommends to be sound and for the most part in line with the way I personally believe money should be handled, ideally, at least for my own peace of mind.  You, however, can feel free to enjoy handling your money however you want, without any judgments from me, though I’m not so sure I can say the same for Mr. Ramsey.  I think my main objections stemmed from, shall we say, a different world view from what I’m accustomed to.  I’m glad I stuck with it, as there is a lot of quality advice once you get into it.

 

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Books, Life, Yarn Crafts
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frigid

I’m trying to lean into the cold.  By day we’re making ice art and blowing bubbles that freeze in mid-air.  By evening my resolve weakens as I go to bed wrapped in a cardigan, after soothing my soul with British gardening shows.

We’ve had so many unexpected expenses in the last year, it’s kind of mind boggling.  As pleasant as it would be to just continue on and pretend that it doesn’t make any difference, I suspect it wouldn’t remain pleasant for long.  I feel like, as my father would say, we are hemorrhaging money.  A lot of what was said in this post is really resonating with me just now.  Truly it’s time to start trying to staunch the bleeding.  When we were informed, at the last minute, that we needed to contribute something to a raffle basket for 4H, rather then going out and buying something, I looked around to see what I could manage without spending any money.  The theme was Valentine’s Day.  Some leftover kitchen cotton and a couple of free washcloth patterns to the rescue.

I’m now working on a 12th birthday gift for a friend, again on short notice (the birthday card above is unrelated.  I just thought the picture was cute!).  These are not the kinds of projects that I want to be working on.  Rather then being resentful, I’m trying to look at it as a gift I can give my family.  Small though the amount may be, it’s that much less draining out of our bank account, leaving that much more to meet our needs.  What a blessing it is to have the skills to gather up some supplies at hand and transform them to meet your needs!  I’ll willingly share that gift with my family, though I will say that, considering, I’m all for people giving us a bit more notice in the future!

I’m reading Nick of Time at Elijah’s request.  It’s quite a short book, that currently feels like it’s dragging on.  Likely due to the siren call of that stack of big girl books, just in from the library and patiently waiting for me.  I’d just as soon move on, but I’m afraid his feelings might be hurt if I don’t follow through.  If only I didn’t keep falling asleep while reading it!

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Books, crafts, Kids, Life, Yarn Crafts
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squares

My sister Rachel is notoriously fond of purple and plaid.  One day when she was visiting last year, Mairi Rose asked her, with an air of disapproval, “why do you always wear those squares shirts?” The following morning Rachel came down, sans plaid.  Mairi looked her up and down appraisingly and said, “your not wearing your squares today.”  When my sister explained that no, she had chosen to wear something else, a certain snot nosed little fashionista gave a curt nod of approval and said, “Good!”.  Ever since then, Rachel and her squares have been a long running family joke.  So much so that my other sister bought Seraphina a “squares” shirt of her own just so that she could take a picture of the two of them, wearing squares together.  I think she was too afraid to get one for Mairi.  

And I, being who I am, started knitting squares.  Oh, it was a tedious and excruciatingly slow project!  Sometimes I would just sit across the room from it, giving it the stink eye and muttering under my breath.  It seems I have a tendency to get a bit cranky when you take away my regularly scheduled baby knitting.  Maybe a bit overly dramatic as well.  And all so that I could hand her a gift and say with a giggle, “I made you squares!”  I’m only slightly mollified by the fact that it looks fabulous on her and she loves it.

Books!  I always forget to take pictures of the books.  I’m currently reading Super Nutrition for Babies: The Right Way to Feed Your Baby for Optimal Health.  Book or no book, I don’t know what to feed this girl or anyone else for that matter.  So many of the foods that I believe to be deeply nourishing are the same foods that cause various people in our family problems.  It’s incredibly frustrating.  One of our children when tested years ago was allergic to everything but sugar.  I kid you not.  And every single allergy was a delayed response, making it nearly impossible to figure out which foods caused what symptoms.

I just finished with Kitchen Table Wisdom, Stories that Heal.  Which was excellent and has absolutely nothing to do with food, in case you are wondering.  It’s a collection of interconnected essays written by a psychologist who works with terminal patients and those with life threatening illnesses, along with their families.  I started it before Christmas, but somewhere in the middle of everything being hectic and festive and full of life, regularly coming face to face with thoughts of my own mortality and that of those I love, was starting to feel like a smidgen too much.  I found myself thinking that I really should have stuck with the children’s fantasy novels!  One day out of desperation I started Terry Pratchett’s Dodger, which I found beside Steve’s side of the bed.  And as just about every word Sir Terry writes is tongue-in-cheek, that did the trick and got me through to a time when I could give Kitchen Table Wisdom the serious attention it deserved.

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Books, Kids, Life, Yarn Crafts
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back to it

Balloon in a Bottle*

Mentos Geyser Experiment*

Screaming Balloon*

Folding Egg*

Mini Smoke Rings*

Mairi built a bird feeder and rolled candles.  Galen started sewing himself a pair of Woodland Indian style moccasins.  Iain got a soldering iron and built a siren, a Christmas tree and a mini traffic light.  He dismantled an old phone for parts.  Steve helped the big boys to take apart an entire computer, piece by piece, explaining all the parts.  We started getting back in the habit of a daily walk and then stopped walking entirely as a cold went through our house.

During the holidays I altered our daily rhythm.  We abandoned our regular school day, save for math practice and a few little daily reports.  Instead we worked on projects together, either holiday related or not.  I checked out a stack of books full of experiments and building projects and another big pile of books just for reading.    The holidays don’t officially end for us until the 6th, the day after our big double birthday, which means that tomorrow it’s time to start trying to find our way back to every day life.

I feel like I need some sort of reverse advent so that putting everything right again doesn’t seem quite so over-whelming.  So instead of hang stockings or get out Christmas dishes, we would wake up to a note telling us to take down the stockings or pack up the dishes.  Something tells me this wouldn’t catch on quite as well.

*Some of the many experiments we tried from the book Naked Eggs and Flying Potatoes by Steve Spangler.

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Books, crafts, Homeschooling, Kids, Life, Waldorf
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holly jolly

My dad read T’was the Night Before Christmas via Skype this year.  Very exciting.  Iain bought Seraphina her own little sled and Elijah carved her a set of wooden spoons.  She’s not sure what all this fuss is about, but she sure enjoyed herself.  The big boys have been putting on a little show the last couple of years, helping the littler ones to get all of the dolls in the house dressed in festive clothing and such.  It’s really very sweet.  This year they turned the attic into Christmas town and the four of them slept up there on Christmas Eve.  They were so pleased with this arrangement that they went up quite early to do holiday Mad Libs, play games and read books.  It worked out beautifully for us.  We had a leisurely time setting everything up and then my love and I got watch a movie while eating Christmas cookies!  On Christmas Eve!  Amazing.

This year’s pajama patterns:

all of the pants were self drafted

Iain’s shirt is Kwik Sew 2530, view A minus the collar

Elijah and Galen’s shirts are Kwik Sew 3366 (now out of print I believe?)

the girl’s nightgowns are the Sally Dress pattern

I modified this pattern for Seraphina’s bonnet

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baby things, Books, celebrations and festivals, Holidays, Kids, sewing
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color block cuddlesome

“The book begins collecting your memories.  And forever after you have only to open that book to be back where you first read it.  It will all come into your mind with the very first words: the sights you saw in that place, what it smelled like, the ice cream you ate while you were reading it….yes, books are like flypaper- memories cling to the printed page better then anything else.” ~ Cornelia Funke, Inkheart 

I’m reading Inkspell, the squeal to Inkheart just now, and why not?  It’s somewhat embarrassing just how often I read children’s books for pleasure.  If the quote above is true then this series will forevermore smell of snickerdoodles and woodsmoke and evergreen boughs.  It will conjure images of candlelight and Christmas light, of long, long sleepless nights under the deep dark sky, sharp, spicy ginger tea, snow on snow on snow, with The Nutcracker and harp music for a soundtrack.

It’s the Seraphina show!  All Seraphina, all the time.  Sorry about that!  This is the very first thing I started knitting for her, before I could even prove that she existed.  Knitting for a baby that you don’t know for sure is coming is probably foolish enough, buying yarn for that purpose seemed even sillier still, besides, I wanted to start right away.  So, odds and ends, leftovers from here and there were put to use.  I started it way back when, but put it aside in favor of things that were more size and season appropriate.  I recently did the last bit of finish work.  I wanted to see how less buttons would go, so I only sewed every other one.  Not a good solution as it turns out.  Her foot keeps poking out between them.

I’ve been doing far more sewing then knitting this week.  My mind has been drifting and I find myself fantasizing about post holiday knitting.

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baby things, Books, Kids, Life, my knitting patterns, Yarn Crafts
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Azurite Lizzy

I’m currently reading the second in the Buzzy and the River Rats collection, also at Iain’s request.  These are some of his favorite books.  I get the appeal, especially for a boy his age, but I have trouble getting into them.  I’m secretly rather pleased that I am almost done and that today is library day.  It is funny to compare the differences in the prevailing parenting philosophies of the early to mid ’50′s, when this takes place, and now.  Kids running wild in the middle of the night, doing all sorts of potentially fatal things and no one thinks twice about it.  Kid with a potentially broken hand?  Tell him he should go see the doctor.  When he takes himself and doesn’t return for many hours, no need to check in.  Thinking about the trend these days of padding, standardizing and safety testing every object a child might come in contact with…it kind of makes me laugh.

Since most of my current knitting can’t really be posted about yet without ruining the surprise, I thought I would finally post some pictures of the party dress I made Seraphina for her blessing since it’s not going to fit her for much longer.

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baby things, Books, Kids, Yarn Crafts
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long weekend

   Last weekend.  Thanksgiving.  I’m completely incapable of posting things in a timely manner at the moment.  We had our first big snow of the season.  I think the final reading on Galen’s snow gauge was 17″.  The day before the storm we brought in all the leeks from the garden and made a snack of the last of the baby carrots.  I’m still not ready to let the garden go for the year.  And actually the snow has melted enough now and some of the plants are tall enough that I’ve managed to chip away enough ice to wrench the garden gate open to gather frozen leaves of kale and collards.

I’ve just finished reading Wigwam in the City to see if and how it would fit into our studies.  The woodcut illustrations by Gil Miret partially inspired some of our recent wood block carving and printing experiments.  We made gratitude prayer flags in preparation for Thanksgiving, featuring apple prints, potato prints and yes, some woodcuts as well.  These were some early attempts.  After a good bit of playing the boys are starting to get more satisfying results.

I’m now reading Inkheart at Iain’s request.  We like to share the books we love with one another whenever possible.  Both Iain and Elijah are big Cornelia Funke fans, so I’ve read several of her books already.

Knitting wise, top secret knitting project #1 is in need of buttons.  Top secret knitting project #2 is completely done.  Top secret knitting project #3 is just absurd.  Casting on to size 3 needles, with lace weight yarn, at the end of November absurd.  Let’s put it this way, it might be wise of my sister to call and remind me how very much I love her.  I’m not even going to specify which sister.  After-all, I figure I should be getting something out of this.

Baby girl had her first solid food at Thanksgiving dinner.  I’ve been putting her off because we have so many issues with food allergies and sensitivities that I wanted to wait until gut permeability was less of an issue.  She turned 8 month old the day before and Galen had his heart set on sharing our feast with her.  To celebrate she had her first taste of our home-grown butternut squash.  The yell pictured above was one of excitement, not distress.  This girl makes me laugh.  She has since tried some of the spice free applesauce that Galen lovingly made especially for her and some of the aforementioned garden greens pureed with yet more squash.

We found what we believe to be wolf tracks crossing our driveway Thanksgiving morning!  There have been rumors of there possibly being some in the area, but up until now we hadn’t seen any convincing evidence that they were so very close to our home.  So very close.  We measured print and gait.  Much too big for coyotes and fresh too, they appeared within a couple hours of our driveway being plowed.

I can’t believe we’re almost a week into Advent already!

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baby things, Books, celebrations and festivals, crafts, Food, Gardens, Holidays, Homeschooling, Kids
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bundled

I’m currently reading The Bodies of Mothers: A Beautiful Body Project.  It is stunning, transformative, powerful and true…sags, bags, stretch marks, leaking milk and all.  There are essays and snippets of poetry, but most of the appeal lies in the stunning photographs.

As that is a big coffee table style book, not suitable for, say, laying and nursing, I am also reading Soul Gardening, which is a journal for Catholic mothers.  I am not Catholic, but I am a mother, a mother who is open to inspiration and encouragement from all sources.  This issue in particular contained so much goodness that I’m actually reading it through for a second time.

I don’t believe I ever officially posted about the blanket I made Seraphina while I was pregnant, though pictures of it showed up all the time when she was tiny.  I still love and use it.  As the weather gets colder she is wrapped in it more and more often, but I designed it to be the perfect sort of blanket for wrapping a newborn and this darling girl of mine is not getting any smaller.  And so I find myself knitting another blanket, in creamy snow white, this one a toddler sized blanket that she can grow into.  I don’t yet know if it’s to be a Christmas present or a birthday present.  It makes more sense to give a blanket at the beginning of winter rather then the beginning of spring!  But I don’t want to rush it just to finish in time.  I’m currently working on the simple garter center panel, making it just right for times when I want to be knitting, without paying the slightest bit of attention to my knitting.

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baby things, Books, Kids, my knitting patterns, WIP, Yarn Crafts
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to frog or not to frog…that is the question….

Haste makes waste ~ proverb

I recently finished My Grandmother’s Knitting.  That sweater on the cover is fabulous, and the main reason I picked up the book.  It has me thinking about the history of knitting within my own family.  I don’t know of anyone before me who was a knitter.  My mother goes through periods where she crochets.  My children now play with the two cherished doll afghans that her grandmother crocheted for her.  And I guess that’s where she learned the art.  I had a great aunt, on the other side of the family, who crocheted me a blanket when I was 6, which I still use to this day.  But there are no knitters.  At least no one that I know of personally or have been told of.  I’m sure that same great-grandmother must have at least known how to knit as well, but there have been no stories or evidence of this in my own life.  I’d imagine you wouldn’t have to go back too far in our family tree, especially with our strong Scottish and Irish heritage.  It wasn’t that long ago that almost every woman was a knitter.  Going forward there is myself, both of my sisters and three out of my five children.

Christmas knitting goes not well at all.  This hat was supposed to be a gift.  For an adult.  Now I’m knitting baby things without even meaning to!  I quickly grabbed some supplies to start this new project as we were walking out the door.  I failed to pack my measuring tape to check gauge.  I also seem to have packed needles a size too small.  I could have sworn my pink metal circulars were a size 5…

When I finished knitting this earlier in the week I was much too close to all the work that went into it and I couldn’t see my way through to pulling it all back out.  But with the passing of time, I think I’m working up the nerve.  I don’t really need this little hat.  I do need the gift that it was supposed to be.  I would prefer not to buy new yarn.

After this colossal failure, I started in on another top-secret gift as a palate cleanser while I debated my options.  It was going wonderfully…beautiful yarn, lovely lacy pattern, row after row of flawless knitting.  In passing I kind of questioned the position of one of the button holes, but the whole things was going so well and I just assumed it was integral to the design for reasons that would be clear later.  I bound off, late one evening, with great satisfaction at nearly finishing one of my projects and with such beautiful results.  I laid it aside with plans for working in ends, sewing buttons and blocking in the morning.  The first email in my inbox that very next morning was a pattern update correcting the button hole placement.  I’m trying not to be bitter.  I would have to rip back well over half the project to correct that one button hole.  I’m pretty sure it’s going to stay as it is, but oh…it’s going to eat at me.

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baby things, Books, Kids, Life, WIP, Yarn Crafts
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