Yarn Along: New Year's Edition

 I have neglected my blog almost all of December. It's been a rough month. I never took into consideration that having Walking Pneumonia would really slow me down. The last time I managed to get a blog post up it was December 5th. If you go and look at my previous post, you can see where I was on this dress on the 5th. I had just started this dress for my friend's daughter. I managed to finish the dress on Christmas Eve. It isn't a difficult dress, but I still I amazed myself by actually getting it done in less than two weeks with all the other demands of the season.

Last night, I sat down to work on my Mini Mochi Fair Isle Hat. I'm not using Mini Mochi yarn, but some fingering yarns from Knit Picks. This isn't the greatest picture, but the lighter color morphs (Knit Picks Chroma Fingering) slowly from light green to darker green and the other color is a very dark green called Midnight Heather. I can't help it, but I'm swayed by exciting color names. I'm making this hat for a friend as I am usually knitting for someone else. I enjoy this easy diamond pattern and I think the end result will be delightful especially when the lighter green gets darker. At the moment, I made a mistake in row 6 of the pattern and I have to un-knit almost a whole round. So, I put my knitting down and decided to blog!

As for reading, I'm currently reading:

How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character. 

It's an interesting look at how it takes more than cognitive ability to succeed. There's much more to the intelligence picture than just smarts. Character matters.

Happy New Year, friends. I'm looking forward to an adventure-filled 2013.

Yarn Along

~ Two of my favorite things are knitting and reading, and the evidence of this often shows up in my photographs. 

I'm knitting Christmas presents for a couple of very special girls. I thought I was done with a dress for my best friend's younger daughter, but even though I added a couple of inches in length, I knew it was going to be too short for her. I decided to give the dress to Tess although I'm bummed that it didn't fit it's intended recipient because it would have matched her blue eyes perfectly. Anyway, I started knitting the dress again in the same yarn, but pink and in a bigger size. I expect that it won't take long even though it's miles of stockinette. Ireally hoped that I could have crossed something off my Christmas list, but I'm getting to be a pretty quick knitter. Hopefully, I won't lose steam on the 17 inches of skirt!

I've often mentioned that knitting is like a tonic for the sould when I'm stressed. I had a particularly stressful week. I left my knitting out on the kitchen table. Every time I walked by, I'd pick up my project and knit a few stitches-maybe two or three stitches. Then, I'd set it down and continue on with all the other things vying for my attention. The strange thing is that I could tell that knitting a few stitches released some tension. Those few stitches here and there were little pockets of peace in an otherwise chaotic day.

As for reading, I'm currently reading The Light Between Oceans.

I admit, I was pulled in by the lighthouse on the cover. It's going to be sad, extremely sad,  but I guess I'm more interested in the life of a lighthouse keeper on a remote island off the coast of Australia. I've been reading a lot of novels lately.

For more yarn and books, visit Ginny.

Off My Game

I'm off my game. It's no secret that since the twins arrived, I've been way off my game. I can't just blame the twins. Life got bigger and fuller and busier and well, just more. My husband constantly tells me that "this too shall pass". I get a little sad because I don't want it all to pass too quickly. I don't want to wake up and realize that I missed it all hoping it would pass. It's the 5th of December and I haven't done much in the way of getting ready for Advent or Christmas. I'm going to sound like a total Grinch here, but getting all the decorations out feels like just one more thing I have to do. Of course, I don't want to Christmas to feel like a burden, but, right now, it does. 

The other night, I started reading our Christmas books to Tess and Sammy. This ritual is one of my favorite activities of the season. Sammy flipped out because I asked him to read one of the board books to Tess. He just didn't want to and well, it disrupted our book time. In my mind, reading to my children is one of the things that makes for an idyllic childhood. On the very first night we started reading, my ideal scene turned into a classic meltdown. I was more than disappointed. I felt like Advent was already a loss. Yes, you can say it. I'm very all or nothing. I tried to let go of the awful  frustration do something I struggle with. I hoped that our next reading time would be better. I tried not to dwell on the bad.

I've ranted a lot (on Facebook) about my absolute dislike of the 24/7 Christmas music radio stations beginning in early November. Somehow, the Christmas music seems less magical when it gets nearly two full months of constant air play and don't get me started about how depressing some Christmas music is. Yes, Christmas comes earlier and earlier every year.

Life move pretty fast. If you don't stop and take a look around, you could miss it. Ferris Bueller said that. There's wisdom to be found in Ferris Bueller.I expect that Advent will move quickly, but slow down? Seems impossible.

  I think about that quote a lot. So, maybe finding a way to experience deep joy even in the midst of chaos is the path to choose rather than constantly telling myself that this too shall pass.

We celebrate St. Nicholas day in my house and typically, I get each of the kids a new ornament and some chocolate coins. This year, I wanted to knit ornaments, but I didn't. It's not like I haven't been knitting because I have been knitting in every spare second of my days. I just didn't get to the ornaments. I still might try and knit them, but instead I ordered each child a Christmas/Advent/Winter themed book to add to our holiday collection. I discovered that it's really difficult to find the perfect holiday book for a 13 year-old.  I ordered The Best Christmas Pageant Ever for Luke. I remember reading it when I was about his age and enjoying it. It wasn't my first choice. I think I will dig out our copy of Letters From Father Christmas by JRR Tolkien for him as well. 

Before I started writing this post, I knew that it was going to be kind of a downer. It turns out that I'm not alone.  Christmas can be overwhelming and yet, we're supposed to be joyfully and peacefully awaiting the baby in the manger. My good friend Elizabeth has been posting all kinds of good stuff about Advent and Christmas. She's been my inspiration for years and this year, I honed in on something about gift-giving in her recent post.

Gift-giving is a whole other source of stress. I love choosing just the right gift. I spend a lot of time searching for the best gift. I love buying supplies to make just the right gift. Any excuse to buy yarn or fabric, right? I used to go with the three gift rule for each child. Since the Wise Men brought Jesus three gifts, I thought three gifts per kid seemed reasonable. I think many people use this rule of thumb for selecting gifts for their children. I usually give something that they need, something to read, and something that they want. Five children multiplied by three equals brain overload. I can't do it anymore. Our house is small and the things that go here have to be meaningful. Elizabeth mentioned selecting one gift that really speaks to the child. What a burden lifted! Even with three gifts per child, Christmas started to feel like it's all about the gifts. Gifts are great and gifts are fun and gifts can be magical, but gifts aren't everything. 

So, I'm changing some things this year and I hope that these small changes give me some peace and hopefully, the less-is-more approach will make for a more restful, peaceful, and happy Christmas. Hopefully.

I know that this rant isn't organized and well-crafted. I just let the words come and I didn't try to fix them much. 

By the way, here are the books that ordered for the kids. Board books for the twins. Fancy Nancy for Tess.    

Lighthouse Christmas for Sam. I am enchanted with lighthouses and I hope he will like it as much as I think I will. 

Birthday Girl

                            She's 4 today! My little pink-obsessed princess girl is wearing blue. 
                                                  Happy birthday to my darling little girl.

November Knitting

Amazingly, I've finished three knitting projects this week, but I didn't get a post ready in time for this week's Yarn Along. I'm finding less and less time to blog these days. Life is very full.

 I realized that I have at least three different knitting bags filled with various projects in various stages of near completion. I had at least two projects that had been hibernating since last year. I finally decided to get serious and finish Sammy's sweater and a Christmas stocking. Although I knit the body of the sweater longer anticipating that Sam would grow a lot and knowing that I'd probably take forever to knit the sleeves, (I don't like knitting sleeves) the sweater fits perfectly right now. I mean, this sounds all well and good, but it really means that I waited too long and he grew too much and he won't get to wear his sweater very long. Okay. Lesson learned. Kids keep growing. Don't let projects for your children hibernate so long!

I knit this little hat this week. This is the Pippa Toque and it's a free pattern on Ravelry. This was a fun and very quick knit. I surprised myself by knittting this hat in less than a week. I'm really enjoying color work right now and I have several Fair Isle hats on my favorites list on Ravelry right now. Color work is like painting with yarn.

Has all this knitting this week made the three knitting bags smaller? No There are still three knitting totes. I don't know how this possible. No matter how much I knit, the bags of yarn always seem remain full. I suppose this is a good problem to have.

Sammy in October

I should have added this picture in my October collection. This might be my new favorite picture of Sammy. This kid is so cute, sweet, and lovable. I know I added this picture to Facebook, but I couldn't leave this picture our of my Autumn 2012 collection here on my blog.  Oh, October why do I have to wait another year for you? Actually, I can wait. I don't want this little boy getting any bigger faster. I'm holding on to the here and now.

The October that was

My little corner of cyberspace has been so neglected of late. Honestly, I just haven't felt like blogging recently. Since I returned from my trip to the UK and Iceland, we were without a computer. After the demise of our last laptop, we bought a new one only to have it quit on us after five days! We sent it back and for whatever reason, they could not send a replacement within a month. The shipment kept getting delayed and we decided to cancel the order. So, I started taking lots of pictures on Instagram and posting them to Facebook while we were without a computer. I have to admit that Instagram is just so easy and quick. I suppose that some of my enthusiasm for blogging has transferred over there. Anyhow, I'm back and I apologize if you've seen some of these pictures already either on Facebook or Instagram.

Here I am on the first of November lamenting the end of my favorite month of the year. I love October as it's truly the best time of the year for me. The oranges, browns, yellows, greens, and earthy hues fill my senses and make me long for warm hand knit items and pumpkin spice lattes. It's cozy and well, it's over for this year. The trees are now looking almost barren, but there are some that still have leaves, but they are past their prime. It doesn't matter. I still love that deep complex brownish-orange. I soak up all of Autumn until that last leaf drops.

Here's what made our October. Our little twins, Liam and James turned 2. I actually cannot believe that they are 2 already. Our little chunky monkeys are 2! I'm so happy that they decided to be born in my favorite month. October got even better with their arrival. This year, I wanted to celebrate in a low-key fashion and head out to one of our favorite pumpkin patches in Boulder, but it was a very rainy day. We went to the pumpkin patch anyway and only Sammy and I got out of the car. We raced in and bought three pumpkin pie pumpkins for the twins and Tesss and then, since we trekked all the way to Boulder, I dragged everyone to a yarn shop. Liam ended up getting sick in the car and well, it wasn't the birthday I had envisioned for the twins. I baked them a little pumpkin bundt. There's a picture in my collection of October photos above. I think it goes without saying that I love Autumn baking (all those spices!) as well.

I did my fair share of knitting too. I started a sweater for myself! It's miles of stockinette and I've already started to doubt that this sweater will look like anything other than a hand knit sweatshirt. There's a reason I don't knit for myself. There's a picture of the sweater in the photos above as well. It's the red, pink, and black-striped yarn. What was I thinking with horizontal stripes? Of course, I've set it aside for other projects like a blue dress I'm knitting for a certain little girl I know (not Tess).

Luke and I are tackling a lot of school work  right now. He's doing a fair share of his work independently these days, but I still ask him to cook with me or write with me. We're planning to read Winter World: The Ingenuity of Animal Survival together for some science reading beginning tomorrow. It's not the kind of book that I would normally read aloud. We're each going to read a chapter every couple of days and then discuss it. He's plenty busy reading, making stop-motion films with his Legos, taking care of his five chickens, learning high school Latin, writing a novel, and finishing up Algebra I. He would have been done with Algebra in early summer, but that's when we started to have some computer issues and the computer lost all of his work. I made him do it all over again, but Algebra has become something that he loves. He keeps a nature journal. He grumbles about French, but I'll get him back on track there. We're diagramming sentences and we talk the importance of good grammar every day. As the weather has become more chilly and the twins are napping, we watch The Story of Us and talk about the history of the United States. I love the home educating life and I'm passionate about lifelong learning. It's the biggest lesson that I try to instill in my children. I want them to want to learn all the time. I want them to be curious. I got off on a home educating tangent, but all these things are/were part of our October learning. For some reason, I'm always more optimistic and idealistic about our learning plans in October. Right now, as I blog, Luke is in the room with me. He's working on his novel. I'm sure it will be in the science fiction/fantasy genre. It's quiet right now and we have this time together. I'm cherishing this moment. Right now.

As I move into November and the Advent Season, I hope for more moments to cherish.