Yarn Along

Yarn Along with Ginny @ small things

I'm working on a blanket for the new baby.  It's organic cotton and I quite like how it's turning out so far.  I really hope I'll be able to finish it before the new baby arrives.  I'm (re-)reading A Mother's Rule of Life and Sidetracked Home Executives in a sort of desperate attempt to bring complete order and peace to our home before we have to adjust to life with an infant again.  I've read A Mother's Rule of Life many times.  My copy is all marked up and highlighted.  I like the author's philosophy and her emphasis on having the proper priorities and motivations in life.  I just don't know if her "system" for getting there works for me.  I've tried it several times and failed.  So, on the recommendation of a friend, I'm trying out the Sidetracked Home Executive way.  This book is very goofy and not spiritual at all.  But it does offer another system for organization and staying on track that might work for me.  I'm hoping I can take the best from both books and  figure this homemaking thing out once and for all.

Eight Weeks

Eight weeks to go.  It sounds like such a short time, yet it feels like forever.  Sigh.

I mentioned that I finished the summer tops for the girls not too long ago.  (Ravelry link here.)  Here are a couple of pictures, as promised:

And I finished the Baby Surprise Jacket (all except the buttons.)

That tiny foot you can just see in the background belongs to J.  She's sewing another doll for herself.  I can't seem to interest her in knitting right now.  But she loves to sew.

Yarn Along

Yarn Along with Ginny @ small things

I finished J's summer top that I spoke of last week!  Well, almost.  I finished the knitting.  Now I just need to sew up the sides and weave in the ends.  I'll get that done today or tomorrow.  Pictures to follow.  I'm still working on the Baby Surprise Jacket along with a bunch of other ladies in this knit along.  It was going along fairly quickly but then I got to a part in the pattern that I just couldn't figure out and had to wait a few days for further instructions.  I kind of lost my momentum, but hopefully now that I think I know what I'm doing I will get back into it.

I tend to get bored with knitting projects pretty quickly.  So I've found that if I have a bunch of different things to work on at the same time I actually do much better.  I can just switch to a different project  when I start getting tired of one.  So I am also working on a Five Hour Baby Sweater with Patons Classic Wool in winter white.  I know this will take me way, way longer than five hours.  But that's okay.  I still have at least two months before baby comes.  And I doubt baby will be needing it for a least two months after that.  I have time.

We are still really enjoying The Little White Horse.  I'm also still reading Simplicity Parenting.  Great book!  And we are reading some character development stories out of Everyday Graces ed. by Karen Santorum and The Children's Book of Virtues ed. by William Bennet.  My kids have been rather restless lately and common courtesy is a bit lacking around here.  I find that reading stories about other kids behaving or misbehaving helps get my own kids back on track much better than me harping on them and nagging at them. And it's much more fun for me.

Yarn Along

Yarn Along with Ginny @ small things

I'm still working on the Baby Surprise Jacket and I think it's coming along pretty well.  I am worried that I've made some fatal error somewhere along the way and I won't discover it until I'm trying to fold up the finished product.  But for now I'm taking Elizabeth's Zimmermann's words to heart:  "Knit, and keep calm."

I'm also trying to finish up a little summer top for J that has been kind of a thorn in my side.  The very first garment that I ever knitted was this exact pattern for T a couple of years ago.  When I started it, I promised all the girls that I would make them one.  Big mistake!  The pattern is not that interesting and I've gotten so bored with it.  The first one wasn't too bad...it was very small and fairly quick.  C's took a lot longer and J's is taking forever!  Not because it's so hard or even that big.  It's mainly that I am so tired of working on it that I rarely do.  If I don't finish up soon, though, J will be too big for it and C will have two.  So, I've promised myself to work on this little summer top every day until it's finished.

I'm reading The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge as a read-aloud to the kids.  Sometime last year I saw a preview for a movie that is supposed to be based on this book.  I thought the kids would want to see it and I wanted them to read the book first.  J received it for Christmas, but the print is a little small and it's just a bit above her reading level.  She wasn't interested.  M could probably read it to himself easily.  He still likes to listen to me read, though.  We are only a few chapters in and already I have to stop myself from reading ahead on my own.

Yarn Along

Yarn Along with Ginny @ small things

A couple of days ago I cast on for the Baby Surprise Jacket that is found in The Opinionated Knitter by Elizabeth Zimmermann.  I've been wanting to try this little sweater for a while now.  It's supposed to be very easy.  The directions, however are very confusing for me.  When Elizabeth Foss started her knit along with help promised, I decided to give it a go.  I've had to consult a few YouTube videos already, but so far so good!  The other book I'm reading now is Simplicity Parenting by Kim John Payne.  I'm only a little way into it and I've already marked up my copy underlining passages.  I knew I would like this book before I started it.  It came highly recommended by friends.  And I already knew that I wanted to make some significant changes in our family life.  Hopefully this book will give me the tools and the motivation to do just that.

Yarn Along

 

 

I'm joining Ginny for the first time in her Yarn Along.  I'm currently knitting yet another hat.  It must be the sudden cold weather here. And the quick projects satisfy my need for instant gratification.  A nice break from the looong project I've been working on for the girls that definitely won't be ready to show until well after Christmas.  On my night stand with the knitting are the other "yarns."  The Trumpet of the Swan is a read-aloud for the kids.  The Wives of Henry the VIII is a book that I borrowed from my sister-in-law months and months ago.  It's not exactly light reading so it's slow going.  But it is fascinating!  Antonia Fraser really makes these women come alive for me.  Highly recommended!

Another hat

Here is a little hat that I made recently.  Sorry about the weird way I had to display it.  But I couldn't very well have one of the kids model it since it is a surprise for one of the girls.  So you get it see it propped on a Mason jar.  :)  This was a really easy hat to make.  Quick, too.  I made it according to the pattern on Ravelry.  I think I may add some tassels on the corners, though.  Kind of spice it up a bit.  I'll probably make a couple more of these, too.  It's do-able by Christmas even for a slow knitter like me.

Two projects completed

J finished her doll!  It's so cute.  She decided to leave it with no face the way the Native Americans did.  I'm so proud of her for working so diligently on this project.

Here she is wearing the hat I just finished.  It was actually intended for a certain guy...  Unfortunately, I have no real concept of gauge and it turned out way too small.  So, J has a new hat.  She really likes it.  Yay!  I'm thinking that it was really meant for her all along.  (This means that I need to cast on again for a second try at a large hat.)

Meanwhile, I have already started working on a pretty pink hat with cat ears (yes, cat ears!) for her for Christmas.  I guess two mommy-made hats won't be too much for my girl.

My first hat

After a couple of late nights tidying up, we are mostly back to a normal level of mess around here.  Thank goodness!

I wanted to share something that I made a few weeks ago.

This little hat is my first attempt at knitting in the round.  I think it turned out pretty well.  I forgot to start it with a couple inches of ribbing so it has a rolled edge instead.  I wasn't sure how big it was going to turn out, either.  While I was knitting it I told the kids that it would be for whichever child it fit the best.  C won.