Yarn Along- Leap Year Edition

~ Two of my favorite things are knitting and reading, and the evidence of this often shows up in my photographs. I love seeing what other people are knitting and reading as well. So, what are you knitting or crocheting right now? What are you reading? ~

Here's the stack of books currently on my nightstand. I'm reading The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane to Sammy and I'm reading The Sherwood Ring to Luke. I'm reading Bittersweet and it's about finding grace in every moment. I just finished a simple hat knit in sock yarn, but I'm back to knitting Sammy's Dragon hat. I've gotten the dragon's feet and tail done. It's hard to tell without looking at the chart, but trust me, the dragon, stitch by stitch, is slowly emerging.

Head on over to Ginny for more yarn and books!

Liam

 Look at that little sweet face. I like to photograph
the twins individually sometimes. He's always part of a pair, but he's also his own person. I can see the subtle differences by just looking at each one by himself. I discovered, recently, that the shade of teal really makes his blue eyes pop. I just wanted to capture his cuteness.

Quiet

I know from the looks of my blog these days, it seems that all I do is think about knitting. Well, yes, I guess, in a way, it's true. I'm constantly inspired and the mere thought of color and texture gets my brain churning out fresh ideas.

I assure you though I think and ponder on so many things and I just don't get as much time here at my blog to flesh out those ideas. I'm sitting in a very quiet home right now. It's almost a miracle. Paul took the oldest three sledding and the twins are napping. It's almost too goo to be true. In the chaos of my household, these days, I'm craving more and more quiet time to recharge. I need to order my thoughts and have this quiet to think deeply. I rarely have the house to myself. I know. I sound selfish, but I've discovered that to function well, I need stillness, peace, and quiet. I'm a better mom if I get it.

So, right now, I'm going to relish the thought of a quiet home and I look forward to hearing how Little T enjoyed her first sledding adventure when my family returns. 

Got my geese in a row

I didn't have this finished in time for this week's Yarn Along, but even if I had, I couldn't post it until now. This little hat was a gift for a baby shower happening today. Since my blog posts also link to Facebook, I didn't want the recipient to see it before her shower.  Anyway, I've got a lot to learn about stranded knitting and color work. The hat is much too tight and I'm a little disappointed in the final result although I think the geese are darling. I knit the hat longer before the decrease section and the hat is now too tall. Oh well. I chock it up to adding more skills to my knitting repertoire.

Oh, and all those hats I wanted to knit for Valentine's day? Didn't happen. I finished Tessie's hat and Paul's too, but I'm only half-way through Sammy's dragon hat. Luke didn't really want a new hat right now and the twins? They didn't care about not getting matching Valentine's hats! I had to set the dragon hat down anyway to make sure I finished the Olga the Goose hat in time.

Time for the Tooth Fairy!

His tooth has been wiggly for a while, but I was hoping it wouldn't fall out just yet. There's something about losing that first tooth that just makes me so sad. It means he's growing up. I love looking at those small baby teeth. Now, a big tooth is ready to emerge and it will start a domino-effect on the rest of his tiny teeth. His little baby face will change and re-arrange and I'm not ready for it. This growing up happens way too quickly.

Luke, who is 12 seems to be losing a tooth every other day these days. I don't remember losing a single tooth during junior high, but I guess I did. Even though I've seen him lose numerous teeth since he was 7, I know that this is the last of the baby phase for him. His visits from the Tooth Fairy are numbered, but Sammy will get his first visit tonight! Farewell, first baby tooth!

Yarn Along- Something pink in the month of love

So, yes, I abandoned last week's projects in favor of something pink. I hatched up a plan to knit a hat for my hubby and all the kids for Valentine's Day. Of course, it's already February 1st and well, I've got one hat down, five hats go. Can I do it? Possibly, but why I often burden myself by adding non-necessary items to my to-do list, I can only say that I do love a challenge. I finished this hat a couple of hours ago and it only took me a couple of days. A stitch here and a stitch there in between everything else I do and somehow, I managed to complete it. Hopefully, I will have more Valentine's hats to showcase next week. The rest of the hats are for boys so they will be without pink. I'm thinking about a dragon hat for Sammy. Yup, a dragon hat. It will be perfect for Valentine's Day, right?

As for reading, I'm very near the end of the The Wolves of Mercy Falls Trilogy and I've begun the novel, The Language of Flowers.  I'm only a couple of chapters in, but I'm interested so far. I'm actually feeling the need to read something non-fiction right now, but I think I will stick with this novel. I'm always trying to be more disciplined by reading only book at a time, but it never happens. I'm trying to finish up the last two books on my Currently Reading status on Goodreads before adding any other books to my Currently Reading.

Head on over to Ginny's for more book and yarn adventures!