Yarn Along Wednesday

Participating in Ginny's weekly Yarn Along...


I missed last week's Yarn Along.  It was the first one I missed!  It wasn't for the lack of knitting or even a bit of reading...life was just too busy!  I'm not sure what I've been so busy with as it seems my list is ever growing and still so many things need to be done. 

After finishing two really big projects, a Catkin and Whippoorwill, I'm ready for some steady non-thinking knitting.  I'm participating in a SAL (Shawl Along) with Skein on Ravelry and have decided to use my skein of Skein to make another Stripe Study shawl.  Simple and mindless garter stitch.  I think that is what I need right now.  For a more portable project I started a simple pair of socks too in a rustic tweedy wool.  After freezing for what seemed like an enternity this winter, I think I need lots of woolen socks. 

I'm still working on Pride and Prejudice and now am getting to the meat of it.  It feels a bit odd to read such a classic on a Ipad but I love the feature of touching a word and having a the definition pop up for you.

Christmas in May

I decided to take the advice of a knitwear designer this year reguarding knitting for Christmas.  He feels most creative towards the holiday gift giving when he takes a year "off" from a majorly knitted Christmas.  With that advice in mind and my natural tendencies to over do it (so that I'm knitting in the wee hours of the morning), I'm only going to give a few knitted things. 

I thought I should probably start early.  I've got a long queue of things I plan to knit my boys.  I plan on forcing Logan to wear an obnoxious amount of longies this fall and winter.  Uniform vests for Mason. Lots of socks. 

I wanted to give something to my sister-in-law's mom.  Her family is always so thoughtful and frankly, they let her marry my brother.  I think that is worthy of some sort of medal of honor.  Like her daughter, she is quite beautiful and graceful and I thought a Whippoorwill would be a perfect thing to give.

I wasn't sure what yarn to use for this project other than I knew I wanted something very feminine, silk and wool, and very light and soft.  My mom, aunt, SIL, and Nana all thought about it over Spring Break with me.  Finally, I found the perfect one.  Becoming Arts' Eos Fingering was just perfect.  I stalked the colorway - Sanguine Sky- and as soon as I was emailed that it was finally in stock, I put my iphone to work.  Life is good when you can buy wool on your phone.

Now I just need to figure out the best way to pack this until winter. Christmas is only 207 days away.

the end is here!

It has been a very long and very busy week for us.  I had things to post about but they are old news by now.


Today was the boys' last day of school.  It has been such a fun year for them!  They've grown in so many ways.

It is hard to believe they are getting so big! 

something new

We found a Luna Moth yesterday in our yarn while we were playing.  It was so beautiful and neat to see! I've never seen one before! 

Mason was sure it was a bat.  He is always hoping to find bats in our bat box.  He could use their help.  The mosquitoes find him so tasty.

Google is just the best at finding out what things are.  How else could you type in "leaf looking butterfly Illinois" and have this pop right up in images! 

a little late moment

Inspired by Amanda - {this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Yarn Along Wednesday

Joining Ginny's weekly yarn along....

After finishing last week's knit, I really tried hard not to knit any and finish some embroidery projects I have sitting around.  I lasted about 72 hours before I couldn't stand it anymore.  I cast-on last night for a Whippoorwill for my sweet sister-in-law's mother in an attempt to get an early start on Christmas knitting. 

As for what is being read around here - I'm still on Pride and Prejudice and my boys are really into reading everything about ducks and geese they can get.  We got three little White Chinese Geese in the mail early in the morning today.  We are just fostering them for my parents since we live in the *city but it will be so fun for them!

Looking forward to seeing what everyone else is working on!

**I need to clarify what a city is as I guess I don't technically live in a "city".  I live in more of a "bedroom community" or "quaint little town" or "wanna be suburb of another not so large city".  According to Wikipedia, a city is a relatively large and permanent settlement.^[1][2] Although there is no agreement on how a city is distinguished from a town within general English language meanings, many cities have a particular administrative, legal, or historical status based on local law.

Thank you for pointing that out KS.  I dearly appreciate finding the appropriate words to use in any given sentence.  I hate to be wrong.

Hazel

My latest finished project was so much fun. It was the hardest and most consistently labor intensive knit I've yet to do.  And it was so worth it.

The Catkin shawl was really intimidating at first.  5 charts, 9 pages long, 3 hours just to do the swatch...made me quite nervous.  It wasn't something that I could do watching TV or when my kids were happily playing around me.  It had to be at night when all was quiet.

I'm always amazed at how shawls look when they are on and right off the needles.  Blocking with wires is is a new skill I've acquired with venturing out into the world of shawl knitting.

It takes some time to get the wires right and I have a tendency to forget what the pattern's designer wants you to end up with and over block angles.  I think it took me well over a half an hour to get this one just right.

I'm not sure who this is for.  I really want to keep it for myself even though it was *possibly* for someone else.  I feel like it is really a work of art and am quite proud that I actually did it.   We'll see.  It might be under the tree or (more than likely) wrapped around me.