On the Sticks, In the Sticks

Good Knitting and Good Books

I should be out walking the dog, before hubby leaves for work, but I wanted to show you my newest project first. Yesterday I cast on for Elizabeth Zimmerman's Modular Tomten Jacket, from Knitting Without Tears.

This will be for Morgan. I hunted through my stash yesterday morning before we headed to TALC (our homeschooling group - The Alternative Learning Center) and found 500yds of this beautiful blue yarn from Green Mountain Spinnery. I bought this several years ago up in Maine, from a small yarn shop on the edge of Bridgton. It's a beautiful deep, rich blue which I'm not sure you can tell from the picture.

The kids were all otherwise occupied at TALC for most of the day, so I had time to sit and knit up a gauge swatch, which much to my delight, came out to 4 st/1" like I'd hoped. Then I cast on for the sweater and had time to knit several rows. I knit a bit more last night before bed, then again this morning when I first woke up...I sat up in bed and did a short row, which she suggests doing every 7th garter ridge or so in the back to lengthen the back so it won't ride up.

The whole jacket is garter stitch so it's going along very quickly. Can't. Stop. Knitting!

The other thing I got and will start working on as soon as I get the yarn is this Sirdar sweater pattern for Winter...
I've been looking for a sweater to make for her for a while now. It's been hard to find something in the pattern books I've found out there. There are so many patterns for babies and small children, not so many for tweens. So, one night I Googled something like "knitting patterns, teens" and immediately came up with this beautiful pattern from Sirdar. Nevermind that I found it from a shop in the UK. I knew this was the sweater I wanted to make, and the shipping was really reasonable, I thought. It arrived here within a week.

It's knit in DK weight yarn. They used a cotton...we've picked out a wool...Swish DK from Knitpicks in Maple Red.

Before we went away to Maine, a friend offered me this book, saying how much she had enjoyed it...

Now, I had checked this book out a few times, wondering what all the rage was, but had always turned it down, thinking it looked too boring.

But this time, with my friend's good review, I thought I'd give it a try. And I was in just the right spot for a good, gentle, humorous read. And I loved it! It definitely has a Christian element to it, being about a pastor, but you can take what you like and leave the rest. It was, as my friend said, gentle, humorous, and hard to put down.

I enjoyed it so much, I ordered these from Paperbackswap.com. The continuing Mitford saga from Jan Karon.

Have you been to PaperbackSwap.com yet? It's pretty cool. 'you can post books you'd like to give away and check out books other people have posted. You get credits for books you give away, and can use that toward books you want to request. The only cost is shipping a book to someone else, which is about $2.23.

That's all for now. Child #1 wants a turn on the computer! Have a great day!

Inspiration

One of my favorite new books has been this one by Esme Raji Codell - How To Get Your Child To Love Reading - For ravenous and reluctant readers alike.

I have taken this one out of the library at least three times since I discovered it last summer, and renewed it each time (sometimes because it was sitting on my bookshelf inspiring me and sometimes because I was really reading it!) It is a delicious and fun  book full of inspiring books along with descriptions and activity ideas.

I loved her idea about having a Cinema Club. When she was a teacher, she realized that many of the kids didn't realize references to a lot of the "classic" movies - ie Wizard of Oz, Peter Pan,  Hunchback of Notre Dame (beyond the Disney version) - and started a Cinema Club. On Friday afternoons the classroom would be transformed into a theatre, complete with tickets and popcorn. Kids from other classes would get to come and many parents would come too. They watched a lot of the classics, including Miracle Worker, Oliver, West Side Story. She would also point out that , "If you liked the movie, here's the book it was based on" , and a lot of the kids would take an interest in reading the books afterward. She includes a long list of movie classics along with the books they were based on.  I  can't wait to read and watch some of these myself!

Oh, and did I forget to mention that I recently bought the book for myself? Along with Getting Started Knitting Socks by Ann Budd - my other new favorite. I had a gift certificate to Barnes and Noble from Christmas that I had saved.

The other day, in my recent flurry of checking out ots of new sites, I decided to see if Ms Codell had a site or a blog and I was delighted to find that indeed she does. You can find her blog "The Planet Esme Plan: The Best New Children's Books From Esme's Shelf" here. And you can find her website,  Planet Esme,  right here. Lots of fun, and definitely worth the visit(s).

In other fun, i discovered this new group on Ravelry called "Picto Create".  Here's the blurb about it - "Every Monday, a picture is posted. Using the picture as your inspiration - spin a yarn, knit or crochet a project to look like it, emulate or resemble it."  Sounds like fun, eh?

In knitting, I'm finishing up the last few rows of my Elisa square, and have pulled Billy's Balaclava - (aka Antifreeze) out of the recently languishing pile.

PS. Yesterday was my birthday, and everyone made it such a special one...pics later...but suffice it to say it was really nice. Thanks everyone!

Checking In

We've been so busy lately that I find i've bearely been cheking in here and on my Bloglines. It's all good stuff, but away from the computer.

Shane started hockey a few weeks ago. We were there for practice first thing this morning. We were both wishing we could have stayed in bed a little longer when we were getting up at 6:45am. Normally that's around the time I get up, but last night I was up a few times in the night, for one kid or another, so 6:45 felt really early.

I'm glad for the time change tonight!:)

I started the socks for Billy's aunt, then decided I wnted to use smaller needles, so yesterday I pulled them back and plan to cast on again tomorrow on #1's.

I've signed up to teach a knitting Socks class to anyone who's interested at our homeschool group later this winter. Another mom and i are doing it together. I'm looking forward to it. Should be fun! I've not taught a class before, but I feel really okay about teaching people to knit socks.

I've been reading The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold. It's lots of things. It's a book that for a long time, I was drawn to by the title and the cover, and repelled by what it was about. Then a few months back, I found it on the FREE table at the Book Barn (a local used book haven), picked it up and started reading the first page. I knew I was ready to read it...curious, but still reluctant, because it deals with the murder of a 14 year old girl. I'm not into the gruesome or the scary in what I like to read, but a week or two ago I finished something else and picked it up. There are a few difficult parts, but mostly I can't put it down. It's mostly touching, funny, compelling...I haven't read something this good since The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger.

Morgan's birthday is on Wednesday...he'll be four! I brought home cake mix and frosting and a #4 candle from food shopping today. He was so excited!

Well, that's all for now. Off to (maybe) finish my book. :) Enjoy the weekend!

Simple Abundance

I went to my friend, Wendy's house last night for a gathering. She'd called all her friends to come and hang out for a women's get-together of sorts, with the idea of talking about simplifying our lives.

I had such a good time. There were just three of us that could make it last night (see how hard it is to simplify and make room for stuff in your life?), met someone new, had delicious chocolate fondue ( can you believe I've not tried that before? My tastebuds couldn't! Mmmm!), and won this book...

Simple Abundance: A daybook of comfort and joy   by Sarah Ban Breathnach

This was such the perfect giftie for me. Wendy and I were laughing as I told her how I used to have this book, and loved it, but then for a long time didn't read it (it's a daily reader), and so I finally, with just a bit of hesitation, decided to bless someone else with it and donated it for the library book sale where we used to live.  She told me how this is her second year of reading it through. Her daughter had given it to her, having found it on sale in the used section of the local bookstore. Since then, whenever Wendy goes there, she finds yet another used copy and buys it for a friend. We were laughing at the image of the book store people seeing Wendy coming and slipping another copy in from the backside of the bookshelf just as Wendy is reaching in...like that Florida's Natural (orange juice) commercial, where the lady reaches wwaaaay in to get a bottle of orange juice and the guy in the orange grove puts a fresh container right into her hand.

I love this book. It's packed with a whole year's worth of simple pleasures, taking good care of yourself and rediscovering your "authentic" self along the way.

Thanks, Wendy!