yarn along

Yarning along. Second pair of my "summer of socks" - these are just 60-stitch socks in Knitpicks Stroll handpainted, Cartoons colorway.

Super busy day, got a bunch of kids over here playing. No time to blog!

yarn along...better late than never!

Eep! Almost missed yarn along day, but I'm sneaking in under the wire.

I've nearly finished my stripey socks, just 1/2 of the second foot to go. And while it doesn't really qualify as reading, I'm totally geeking out over my new planner, turning each page and getting to know what's in it. I lust after an Erin Condren planner, as many do, but simply cannot justify $50 for what is, at its core, a datebook. This one, purchased on Amazon and using some credit I had, came in at a highly reasonable $7.50 out of pocket.

Now I just have to make some plans to fill it up!

First plan: finish these socks.

yarn along

I finished the purple tank from my previous post, tried it on...and it was a sack. I was so bummed out because it was not an insignificant amount of knitting.

So I think for summer knitting I'm going to go for guaranteed success. This morning I assembled a Sock Basket filled with pretty, bright yarns for summertime fun knitting. The two balls are hand-wound from hanks of Knitpicks Stroll, the red is Serenity sock yarn from Joann Fabrics, in the middle there is Kroy self-striping, and the three brights at the bottom are single skeins of Knitpicks Stroll that I grabbed on sale to use for toes/heels/accents in plainer socks. I might use them now, or save them for more wintery colors like browns and greys to create stripes or contrast heels. Either way, they are so inspiring and cheery for me right now. There are two sets of DPNs stuck in there, ready to rock and roll.

This week I'm also re-reading An Everlasting Meal. This is just a gorgeously written book and I remember loving its calm, peaceful pace and message the first time through.

Join up with Ginny and share what you're knitting and reading. What are you planning for summer?

yarn along

Oh seriously, with the time flying...slow down already, life! I was laughing to myself this morning thinking about how I used to blog every single day, sometimes wanting to write twice a day, because the days felt so long and lonely and boring. Then my kids started growing up and now the days all blend together in a giant whirlwind of passing time.

In other words, it's Wednesday again, and time for Yarn Along.

I started this tank last summer, late in the season, and ended up stashing it away after knitting about 6" of the front. After finishing up the prayer shawl I'd been knitting, I resurrected this tank so I can get some wear out of it this year. I hope it fits and looks, I don't know, appropriate? I'm no spring chicken but I don't have bingo wings and I think with a decent bra this top will be ok. The yarn is Bernat Cotton-ish in the "spinning jenny" colorway.

As for reading, I'm going through plant-based cookbooks right now. One of my faves so far is The China Study Cookbook. The two main dish recipes I've tried have been fairly quick and easy, and my whole family ate them. I also tried a muffin recipe but with no eggs or oil they were dry and blah. 

Join up with Ginny and share what you're knitting and reading!

yarn along

Sometimes it freaks me out how fast the weeks go by.

Here we are for another Wednesday Yarn Along!

Still working on the prayer shawl I started last week but now it's about 4 feet long and nearing completion. I will know it's done when the yarn is gone! My book is "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children" and so far, over just a few pages, it's pretty good and a little creepy.

Linking up with Ginny at Small Things.

yarn along

Jumping back into Ginny's yarn along this week.

The knitting is the same thing I showed yesterday, a prayer shawl for the brand new ministry started by some ladies at my church. My mom and I are doing this together, and actually are making the same shawl in different yarns right now. 

The book is Whole by T. Colin Campbell. If you are familiar with Forks Over Knives you know Dr. Campbell. I have lots to say about the topic of food and nutrition but that's for another day.

yarn along

I'm tardy to the party (again) but I am here this week for yarn along. My hand and wrist really hurt all last week, but I did minimal knitting, slept with a wrist support, and tried to be careful in general. It seems to be better now, though I have to take it slow and take frequent breaks. Boo hoo.

After a stretch of truly crummy weather (cold and rainy), we are back to summer conditions. I took advantage by setting up outside with my knitting, my books, and some iced coffee. I'm reading some very dense and heavy books about speech in an effort to better help my son. The knitting is my Faux Russian Stole. 

I've completed 4 full repeats now, and have 1.5 to go (actually I am 20 rows into the next repeat). It's going to be lovely...and large.

Here it is with my almost-4-year-old. And he is tall!

What are you knitting and reading?

yarn along

Knitting and reading this week with Ginny and the others for Yarn Along...

I've done one full and 2/3 of another repeat of the Faux Russian Stole. I'm really, really enjoying this knit. Once I started the second repeat (the pattern is 96 rows), I found I could go quicker because I almost knew or felt what was coming. It's not a complicated pattern, and I can follow it while watching TV (we're into A Game of Thrones now...I couldn't get into the book but the series is amazing). I can also work it while sitting outside watching the kids play. Perfect. It's very rhythmic and calming, probably because there is only knitting, no purling. Surprisingly, the garter background is working for me - I usually prefer stockinette.

The book is just OK. I didn't realize this but An Everlasting Meal is really more than an homage to How to Cook a Wolf. It's almost an update of the exact same thing. But the former is much better in my opinion. 

At least I am reading - I'm finding it so difficult to get into a book lately. I tried The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and got through about 10 pages. I tried A Game of Thrones and got through about 3, maybe. Perhaps it's because the weather is finally getting beautiful and warm, and reading feels like more of a curl-up-with-blankets thing? I don't know, I guess I'm just not choosing the right material. 

But the knitting...the knitting is good. 

yarn along

*sigh*

Oh Blogger. What is up with this new interface? I sure hope it ends up being awesome because I currently have no patience for learning it.

Anyway, just a quick one today because I want to use naptime for knitting time. I'm yarning along with Ginny at Small Things, working on my Swallowtail shawl.

As for reading, I'm in between books. Just finished the Hunger Games trilogy yesterday so I'm still digesting that. (Anyone else find the last book to be a poorly written total bummer? The first two were so good!)

Now I'm thinking of maybe reading the Game of Thrones series...supposedly it is wonderful, but complex. Can my feeble brain handle it? I'm going to start the first one and we'll find out. (See the edge of the computer in the photo? I'm using a PC reader and reading electronically so I can knit simple things at the same time...not lace shawls, but stockinette socks work out nicely!)

biz-zay

So much to do...gotta update the header for spring (and then summer will be here before we know it and I'll be out of date again). Gotta update the blog and ravelry with a couple finished projects. Gotta finish up some Etsy orders (no orders since early February but when it rains, it pours). I totally missed the yarn-along today because it's spring break and I had to take the kids somewhere that had elevators because that's what they wanted to do and would not shut up about it. So we went to the supermarket that has an upstairs cafe, rode up, ate a snack, rode down, and they were happy.

It's 8:50 p.m. and the kids are finally quiet, the kitchen is finally cleaned up, there's no-knead dutch oven bread mixed to rise overnight, and I just made the most amazing muesli. Want some? It takes two seconds to mix up and when you eat it with yogurt...awesomesauce.

Muesli

2 1/4 cups rolled oats
1/4 cup toasted wheat germ
scant 1/4 cup brown sugar (or to taste)
1/4 cup currants or raisins
A tablespoon or two of:
     flax seed
     raw sesame seeds
     dates (chopped)
     dried cherries (chopped)
     walnuts (chopped)
     slivered almonds

Mix it all up in a big bowl. Store in an air-tight container. The online recipes I looked at for inspiration said this will keep for 2 months but there's no way it's going to last that long. I took a big scoop to try it on my yogurt just now and the remainder fit in a quart mason jar. And of course you can add/subtract what you happen to like or have on hand. I was able to get most of this stuff in the bulk department at the grocery store so I didn't have to buy huge quantities. Delish.

less about knitting, more about food

This is technically my yarn along post, but I don't have any actual knitting to show and I haven't started these books yet. So I'm cheating, sort of.

Here we have The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters, and Forgotten Skills of Cooking by Darina Allen.
Also, I finished A Thousand Years Over a Hot Stove, and I recommend it. At first I was bored...frankly I didn't care about hunting and preparing the wooly mammoth and the early history stuff didn't pique my interest either, but once she got to the 1800s things got more interesting. Even more, the chapters dealing with the 20th century were a great read, because I always wonder what happened to our society with regard to preparing healthy foods. The author doesn't answer that question for me, but she discusses the circumstances of women throughout the World Wars, the crazy baby boom time, and beyond, and also brings up the point that we watch the Food Network like addicted freaks but most women don't / can't / won't cook what they see on TV. We can't get enough of Ina Garten roasting a chicken or braising a brisket, but then we pick up some KFC or, if we feel classier, a prepared meal at Whole Foods (or Wegman's, if you live where I do).

I'm no gourmet chef by any stretch of the imagination, but every night my family knows there will be a homemade meal with a protein, a vegetable, and a starch on the table. The kids will have their glass of milk, there will likely be cut-up fruit for those who won't eat the veg, and we will sit together to eat the meal. The whole family is expected to find something they like on the table, and unless it is something I know the kids hate (like chili or red beans & rice) I do not make something different from the main dish.

Sure, we occasionally (about once a month) order pizza, or have sandwich night or leftovers-from-the-fridge night. And like I said, the meals are super simple and not gourmet. But I know my way around my kitchen and can make many decent meals from memory.

I was talking to an educated woman today, a woman I respect and admire for her professional knowledge and ability, and she claimed she "could never make a chicken." And I was like, really? You couldn't roast a chicken? The directions are right on the plastic wrapper! I think what she meant was that she has no interest in roasting a chicken. That's a different story, I suppose.

Sometimes I have no interest in cooking. Truthfully, most nights I have no interest in cooking because after a long day of housework and mothering, who wants to haul out pots and pans and then have to clean all that up? But something inside me says I should do it, so I do. My family seems to appreciate it. And moreover, I don't know what I would feed my peeps if I didn't cook each night.

Do you cook? Every day? Just for holidays? If not, is it because you hate it? Or you don't know how? I'm super curious about this, especially because I find in the crafty-mom-blog world there are a lot of women canning, baking bread, and hard-core gardening along with their sewing and knitting. So I am perhaps confused in thinking my generation (30-somethings) DO cook. Do we? Or is my perception skewed because of the online company I keep?

Oh, and those are beads up there in that picture. BEADS! It is possible that I have lost my mind, but in an effort to use up some languishing laceweight yarn, I'm going to attempt a beaded cowl. First time ever using beads with knitting...scary!

yarn along

There hasn't been a whole lot of knitting over the last few days. With temperatures in the high 70s and abundant sunshine, we've been taking major advantage and spending most of our time outdoors. Such odd weather for March, but I can't complain. The only problem is my skin - I am extremely fair and there is no shade yet, so it's tough to find a place to sit outside and enjoy the warmth without cooking myself in direct sunlight. Oh well, that's not such a terrible problem to have.

I did do some knitting over the weekend. And I started a new book, so I have a yarn along post.

I'm reading A Thousand Years over a Hot Stove, by Laura Schenone. I had no idea this book existed until it caught my eye on the library shelf while I searched for another title. I grabbed it on a whim and so far it is an interesting history of the role of women in food production and preparation.

The knitting is Daughter's red cotton cardigan. The body is almost finished. I got some adorable buttons for it and I'm looking forward to getting it finished up so she can wear it to school in the mornings when it is still cool.

yarn along

Yarning along with Ginny at Small Things again today. If you're into knitting and reading, do check out the many, many links on the weekly Yarn Along posts. You'll find good stuff.

First of all, I finished Growing a Farmer, by Kurt Timmermeister. It was pretty good. I liked The Dirty Life better, but then again there was a love story behind that one and the author is actually a writer so the story flows a bit better. Growing a Farmer is more technical and less lyrical but still a quality read. And the bibliography he references at the back of the book is phenomenal...I now have a much longer list of books I want to read!

This week:

I'm not even going to apologize for the glare in the photo because THE SUN IS SHINING! Spring is springing early this year and it feels so awesome. Even with the mild winter we've had, I've been longing for some sun and warmth.

The baby sweater is 99% complete. I have to weave in the ends and sew on some buttons but the knitting is complete. It's a free pattern. I've made several Carole Barenys patterns and they are all very easy to follow and quite adaptable. My yarn here is Lion Baby Soft in white, needles used were US 5. The baby is a girl, so I'll go look for some little flower buttons or something like that.

And the book! Oh, this book. I've been seeing it around the blogs, wondering what it's about, reading the rapturous reviews. Finally, my library had a copy of An Everlasting Meal available. Oh my word, friends, if you are at all interested in cooking - real, earthy, fresh ingredient cooking - go get this book. I'll be ordering my own copy and copies for my family members as well. It's brilliant, it really is. I want to meet Tamar Adler and just listen to her talk about food. That's how the book reads...it's like listening to someone who really loves and knows food, just talking about how best to treat it. I sort of think of her as a female Jamie Oliver...but way calmer. Same idea, though, of taking the best ingredients available and just putting them together beautifully and simply.

I'm not even finished reading it yet - about 2/3 through or so. I have to keep putting it down because it's so rich, I get exhausted.

I think I'll drag a patio chair out and read a bit more in the glorious, glorious sunshine. Hope it's sunny where you are too.

yarn along

One of my unofficial "resolutions" this year is to read more books. I used to be a voracious reader, but since having children that has gone out the window. I've noticed a serious problem with my attention span since dropping books in favor of aimless web browsing and that is not good.

I'm not very good at joining things and keeping up, but I'm going to try to participate in Ginny's yarn along.

For the past few years I've been obsessed with memoirs and stories about farming and/or the Depression...for whatever reason I just can't get enough of learning about how women did things before all the modern conveniences of today. For some reason that's what I thought This Life is in Your Hands was about, but it isn't. Rather, it is a memoir of growing up during the "back to the land" movement of the late 60s and early 70s. Melissa Coleman and her family lived right down the road from Helen and Scott Nearing and this book is a fascinating look behind the scenes of that whole experiment. It helps if you've read The Good Life, which I have. Coleman's book both adds to and punches holes in that story, and it is just a great read. Some reviewers panned it because it is written from the perspective of a very young child (birth to age 9 or so), and much of it is either imagined or pieced together from research, but who cares? It's an enjoyable read. I could do a whole book report on it but I won't. I'll just say I really, really liked it. (I am cheating a bit because I already finished it, but I haven't made it to the library to pick up my holds yet this week.)

As for knitting I am plugging away at the baby sweater for our speech therapist's baby, which I mentioned yesterday. I've placed the markers for the sleeves, and am nearly done with the increases so I can get to the main body stitches.

I don't know how much will get done today as it is sunny and the temps are indeed rising...56 already and it is only 10 AM! Yay!