Yarn Along #94--completed WIPs and more WIPs!

It’s time for the FEBRUARY YARN ALONG! Yay!

Linking up with Ginny, who is also talking about my book, so thank you Ginny! :)

It’s a mega yarn along today, which is perfect because it’s cold outside (It’s actually like, winter-y here! We’ve had a really mild winter!) and windy, so let’s get hot drinks and talk about yarn and warm things!

Here we go!

Finished Projects

Oh boy oh boy!

First up is the Isla scarf, where I used Quince and Co Lark in lupine:

Second, the Sully blanket, for a friend who’s having a baby. The photo is of it off the needles but not finished (ends aren’t woven in and it’s not blocked). I didn’t add the border, because reading the instructions sort of freaked me out!

The yarn is Knit Picks Shine Sport in (L-R) Sky, French Blue, Clarity (a really pale blue), and Robot.

In Progress

The November Blanket, from Quince, made with their Puffin yarn in twig (a lovely milk chocolate/hot cocoa color). The yarn was a Christmas gift.

It’s a really lovely project to work on because it’s on big needles so it goes quickly and the blanket grows as you knit it, so your lap gets progressively warmer! A nice winter knit.

**

The Elementary Wrap, from Purl Soho, a shop in New York City, that I just discovered (I’m heading to NYC in April!). I’m in love with their free patterns and their gorgeous yarn! They have several versions of this wrap (all of them free), and I’m doing the one that uses their linen quill yarn.

This project fills a gap in my knitting wardrobe—sometimes I don’t want a shawl or a scarf, I want a wrap, you know? This is basic stockinette stitch with a pretty little border. The only problem, of course, is that the knitting doesn’t lay flat when you put it down, so it’s hard to photograph well. Here’s a look at in with me holding down the edges:

Isn’t that gorgeous yarn? I love the heathered quality of it. It’s their Linen Quill (alpaca, linen, and wool) in fresh nutmeg. Gorgeous! And I like that it’s neutral, but it’s not the usual suspects—black, white, gray, navy. It’ll go with a lot of what I wear.

And finally, a teapot cozy…

This is made with Malabrigo Metcha yarn in anniversario. I got the pattern from the 2018 Love Knitting. It’s a one skein project but it involves cable needles! So I’m going to get a chance to try that technique out here.

I’m re-reading Little Women, not because of the movie (which I haven’t seen), but because I generally read it a lot. It’s one of my favorite books. And it was the Well-Read Mom Book Club choice for January. I belong to the club, even though I’m not a mom, and January got so away from me in terms of everything that I didn’t read it then. So I’ll read it now, and then move to the February selection!

Christmas is Practically Here Seven Quick Takes

Linking up with Kelly!

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So gonna start off with—I saw Star Wars last night. No, not at midnight. At a special 5:00 “fan screening”—I did get a cool opening night pin (sorry, bad photo in dark theater!):

So that was pretty cool. And there were heated seats in the theater—talk about decadence. I’d actually been wanting to try this out, and it was like a nice heating pad feel in your lower back, so I have to say, enjoyable. And you could turn it on and off! Yes, I am easily amused.

Anyway, no spoilers here, but I think it’s the best Star Wars movie since Empire. The critics who are giving it crap? What are they watching? No idea. But it’s good.

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I am going to start Christmas baking this weekend, because I only have to make two things—Ina’s Hermit Bars, and her crumble bars—for the family to nosh on over Christmas Day. I’ve made the hermit bars every Christmas for a few years now, they’re easy and delightfully good. I don’t do the glaze thing. To me, it’s an easy way to cut down on sugar intake by removing it and thus we can have more sugar later. Right? :)

For the crumble bars, I leave out the almonds, and you can use any type of jam you like. I’m using blueberry this time.

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I’ve started a baby blanket for a friend’s baby….

Bad apartment carpet, forgive me. :)

The yarn is Knitpicks Shine Sport, which I really like (L-R: Robot, Clarity, Sky, and French Blue). It’s so smooth in my hands, but it’s not sliding all over the place (One reason I love using wooden needles. When I tried metal ones, disaster.). It’s 60% cotton and 40% beechwood fiber, whatever that is, but I figured this would be good for a baby. And it’s washable!

The pattern is….another story.

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I’m making the Quince Sully blanket pattern. Pretty, right? I looked at the “skills needed” section and thought, OK, I have all those skills. I can pick up stitches and change colors and knit and purl and totally long tail cast on (that’s the only one I do…..)….

Bought the pattern.

then read the pattern.

The pattern calls for binding off the main color sequence (stripes), and then picking up the border and increasing stitches and god knows what else, and the number 600 something popped up, and I just went oh….

via GIPHY


Whhyyyyy pattern writer? WHYYYYYY?????

Anyway, besides that bit of crazy, it’s really easy to do, with a nice seed stitch row with every color change. I really like doing it. I’m just scared of the border. It might not happen.

I do not think the baby will mind if there is no border, right? Because, um, my skills may not be up to it.

Sigh….
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It’s that time….if you haven’t pre-ordered the book, please do so! If you have, MUCHAS GRACIAS!

Next week….well, OK, in January, there are fun graphics coming!!! I’m excited about them!
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Two more gifts to wrap. Well, three. Two of them go in gift bags, and one requires actually wrapping, at which I AM TERRIBLE. Oh well!

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Are y’all done shopping? Sort of done? Haven’t even started? :)

Yarn Along #93--new project, finished project, project in progress.....

I missed this last week, so was happy that Ginny didn’t have the link up and I missed it, because last week was insane (see here for why). But now I’m (knock wood!) feeling like I am ready to get back into rhythm in all ways, and that includes knitting! (I’m not sure if Ginny will have a link-up this week either, but here’s my knitting and reading anyway!

New project

For some reason, I always cast on some new project Thanksgiving weekend. I don’t know why. It must be some sort of switch in my brain. “Ah! Turkey! Must cast on new project!”

So this year it’s one I’ve already done before—the Skye cowl—but in a deliciously autumnal color that I ordered while I was in the Resort. (My journal is full of knitting scribbles—some of which are really just that, scribbles!—about projects and colors and types of yarn….the meds obviously made me go nuts in this department!) The color is Quince’s malbec, in their puffin yarn, which is so nice and squishy and knits up beautifully. I think I twisted stitches somewhere, but honestly, I don’t really want to rip it out. I don’t mind a cowl with a twist in it. If it was a hat, obviously, I would’ve had to start again. But with a basic cowl? Meh. So I didn’t and I just keep knitting.

Finished project

My Felicity scarf, made of Colonial Williamsburg yarn! Yay!

Simple, but I really liked working with this yarn. It’s thick enough that you can cross it over your upper chest but not so thick that a coat won’t close nicely over it. It’s also nice to grab if I’m just running out to get the mail and want something a little warmer over my top, but not a whole coat.

In Progress Project

Yup, I’m still working on the Isla scarf. This takes four skeins of yarn, so it’s a long process, but I’m about halfway through the third skein, so the end is nigh!

Reading….

You can see my pile there. I read When Less Becomes More last month, and it’s probably my favorite of Emily’s books to date. My Aunt Mary got me The Dutch House when I was in the hospital and I (sadly) have not started it yet, but it’s the next book I’ll start! A Single Thread was a Christmas gift (early) and that’s after The Dutch House.

(Speaking of books—pre-orders for Living Memento Mori are open…..)

How about you? Are you knitting any Christmas gifts? What are you reading?

Yarn Along #92--knit, purl, and CW yarn

(Linking up with Ginny!)

Oh gosh I’m so glad September is OVER!!!!! :)

I’m also happy to show you my knitting!

It’s the same two projects I’ve been working on, but there’s been progress on both. Yay!

I’m almost to the halfway point on Isla. This is such a fun project to work on because the yarn is so squishy and the pattern is so cool. I love seeing it grow under my hands and really, once you’ve done the block pattern a few times, this isn’t hard. It’s really just a 2, 2, 2, 4 pattern—so either knit, purl, knit, purl, or purl, knit, purl, knit.

And I’ve passed the halfway point on the “Felicity” scarf—it’s really not a pattern, it’s my own playing with yarn.

This is the yarn I got at Colonial Williamsburg a few years ago. I decided to make a historical pattern with it—meaning, that it’s something a person in the 1770s would’ve made or worn. The yarn is a bit thicker than I think it would’ve been at the time, because I’m using an 8 gauge needle, and according to my (quick) research, they didn’t really use 8 gauge needles at that time. Everything was done on tiny needles. But I don’t see how I could do this on a tinier needle—really, I should do this on a 9 or even a 10!

But it’s creating a very thick, squishy sort of fabric.

The one thing you see here is that the colors are different. They use colonial dyeing methods (obviously), so the colors don’t exactly match. I knew that going into it—I picked these two out from the basket because they were close. Now, thinking back on this, I could’ve done something where I alternated skeins, so it wasn’t this obvious, but…..I didn’t. :) And honestly, I don’t mind, because I still might stitch the ends together to make a cowl.

If you want to read more about their methods, they have a book! It’s great!

Speaking of books, since St. Therese’s day was yesterday, I’m re-reading Story of a Soul. My friend Elizabeth wrote the introduction to this particular edition!

What are you reading or knitting? Or both! :)

Yarn Along #90: Fun with Knit and Purl! :)

So, getting away from the heavy stuff in the last post, let’s talk about yarn!

linking up with Ginny

So, Quince and Co. celebrated their birthday a few months ago, and they were having a sale on their first collection of patterns—sale meaning, if you were an email subscriber, you got a code for one free pattern from this collection! So I chose the Isla scarf, because, one, it’s a scarf, and I like those (obviously), but it’s also a fun pattern that does some nifty things, using knit and purl stitches. I’m knitting it in their Lark yarn, lupine colorway, and let me tell you, this is pretty great yarn. (The color description for Lupine is, “Deep periwinkle waving in Maine summer breezes.” Who can resist that?)

It’s slow going because I do have to pay attention to what I’m doing—not only are there pattern changes, but also needle size changes, which at first I was worried about, but it’s not hard. And one “repeat” of the pattern is 28 rows. So this isn’t really a great watching TV project, because I have to concentrate, but it’s still a lot of fun to work on. This might be a good sports knit, because I can watch the game but it’s not like there’s plot. :)

See those little rows? Those are from using the smaller needles. This is so squishy, you can’t even believe it.

Here’s a better look at the length….

I am, as usual, reading five million books, but the one you see here is for a Facebook Book Club. We’re reading Loss and Gain * to prep for John Henry Newman’s October canonization. I’m on track with the reading but not my contributing, bad me!

I’m also reading Gift from the Sea * (again) and Emily Ley’s books, Grace Not Perfection * and A Simplified Life. * September is the “new school, new year” season for me—does it feel like that to you? I always feel like I want to lay down new rails and set new habits and structures in place. (And keep your eyes peeled—I’ll have a post—or several—about this soon!)

*=Amazon affiliate link

August yarn along--a bit of lace

linking up with Ginny!

So, on Sunday I decided to try working on a basic lace pattern. I have to do lacework for my Find Your Fade shawl, and when I first tried it in January, I was really confounded by it! So I’ve been working on smaller projects to try to get the hang of it.

This is a horseshoe lace pattern bookmark…..

You can see why it’s called horseshoe!

This really isn’t hard. I know it looks hard! But the twisting happens just naturally as the way the pattern is written. The problem for me right now is that this isn’t knitting you can sort of pay attention to—you have to pay attention the whole time. The pattern repeats in sets of 8, but if you miss a row, interesting things happen. (Ask me how I know this….)

The pattern called for size 3 needles, which I don’t have, so I used size 4, and the yarn is from my feile shawl. It was just too pretty to sit in my stash!

These are long bookmarks. They don’t look this long in the pattern photo, but trust me, they are….

As for what I’m reading….

I’ve read The Lambs * before, and it’s just great. If you love stories about animals, the natural world, family relationships and….sheep, you’ll really like it!

I’ve also got this big stack—one library book, three pleasure reading novels, and a whole bunch of books for the Well-Read Mom year….

There are two more books for the year that I haven’t gotten yet, and two more that I already have and are on my shelves—The Picture of Dorian Gray and Little Women. (Of course I have Little Women! My house is named after their house!)

I’ve also created a list that sums up all the knitting projects in the pipeline right now—a baby blanket, a scarf (new pattern! Exciting! I don’t actually have a long scarf for me to use in the winter!), my Find Your Fade shawl—I’ll at least do the set up section again and get that on the needles—and a cowl I’ve been wanting to make forever!

A Chatty Seven Quick Takes

Linking up with Kelly!

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This is for my musical theater nerds!

I was thinking this week what the best Rodgers and Hammerstein musical is. (show, not film. In that category it’s definitely The Sound of Music, because it’s a fabulous film and I think it makes the original material better.) My vote is for Carousel, by a smidge (because I do like South Pacific); my dad supports South Pacific, and there was a vote for The King and I.

I think Carousel is the best for a few reasons: a fabulous leading man part; four good female roles (Julie, Carrie, Nettie, and Mrs. Mullins); a glorious score; and good use of chorus. The chorus actually has opportunities to do things often, as opposed to The King and I.

Is it perfect? No. I don’t think we need “Stonecutters” (and I think that was axed from the last Broadway revival), the whole “yes, someone can hit you and it doesn’t hurt at all” thing (eeeeek!), and the ballet can be too long. But, I think that we wouldn’t have had West Side Story, or Fiddler, or really any sort of true musical drama, without Carousel.

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I started working with my Colonial Williamsburg yarn this week. Some of you may remember my extra special Yarn Along about that, and it’s taken me two years to figure out what to do with the yarn! So I’m going to do something simple, but, hopefully, historically accurate. I’m making a scarf, with slipped stitch edges, on size 8 needles. I didn’t want to do it on big needles because they didn’t have big (like, size 12) needles in Colonial times, I don’t think. But this yarn is thick, so I couldn’t do it on a small needle, like a size 5 or below. So I thought a scarf would be a practical, Colonial thing, and I have a lot of yarn, so it’ll be nice and long and warm.

The source of my yarn! Leicester Longwool sheep!

-III-

Reading: I read Where the Crawdads Sing, * and I LOVED IT. I really want to discuss it with someone! Highly recommend it.

I’m currently reading about five million things, but I’m also really liking Greek to Me, * because it appeals to two sides of my personality: A love of ancient Greek myth and culture, and word nerdiness. And book nerdiness!

-IV-

A note on the Mueller hearings, but a NON POLITICAL ONE!

One of the things that bothered me about the coverage was that people kept saying that Mueller needed questions repeated, like this was somehow a slam on his intelligence or “with it”-ness.

Guys. No.

I am crazy sensitive about this, because, hello, hearing impaired. I hate asking people to repeat themselves because I know they’re thinking I’m a dim bulb, or not paying attention, or flaky, or something. But really, I want to make sure I understood you!

I don’t know if Robert Mueller is hearing impaired. But I do know that we really, really should stop thinking that if someone asked for something to be repeated, that they’re stupid or cognitively challenged or whatever.

-V-

Nothing new on the book front yet. But please sign up for the mailing list! Then you get all the delicious news first and there might be fun things for subscribers! (Well, there are fun things—two printables I designed—but maybe more than that, who knows!) Sign up!

-VI-

July is like sports doldrums. Sigh. Once Wimbledon is over I just languish until sports pick up again in August. I don’t really like the NBA, and I’m a Pirates fan, so that’s sort of like constant baseball futility, but oh well. August and football will be here soon!

-VII-

I also joined a book club! Well, I’ve done it before. It’s called Well Read Mom, but this time, I looked into joining a group in my area, and there is one! Yay! I really miss discussing books with folks. I’m obviously not a mom, but any lady can join these! I love this book club because it’s not just current lit. There’s spiritual reading, plays, essays, novels….all sorts of things! It delights my little heart. (And this year Little Women is one of the books, which is so appropriate for my Orchard House dwelling soul!) Have you ever joined a book club or wanted to?

*==I’m an Amazon affiliate, so if you buy a book through these links, I get a tinnnny bit of money, which helps keep the lights on over here! :)

Seven Quick Takes--writing, pro-life ministry, and Washer Monster

Linking up with Kelli!

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Around these parts this week:

Doing the best you can with what you have

Prime Day deals—Prime Day is over, but if you haven’t checked in with Take Up & Read lately, we have a lot of gorgeous studies! Maybe it’s time to start Christmas shopping?

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This is sort of a…well, a sad take. But.

On Twitter this week I saw a woman writing about how she didn’t know how to get a casket for her miscarried child.

The Trappist monks of New Melleray Abbey provide infant and child caskets free to families.

Free. Gratis. No charge.

Go here, and scroll down to “child”, and select a size.

These are beautiful handmade caskets. In addition to the caskets, the monks will plant a memorial tree for your child, and remember your child in a special Mass. The parents also receive a keepsake cross made of th same wood as the casket.

If you need one IMMEDIATELY, call them at:

888-433-6934

They answer the phone 24 hours a day.

They also have a child casket fund, where people can donate to support this ministry, here.

This is such a beautiful service they provide. I know it’s terribly hard to think about, but I have had friends who have lost children to miscarriage. This makes one part of it easier—you don’t have to make your child’s casket or fumble around at a funeral home. The monks will do it, beautifully, for free.

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The book skips along! It’s done with copy edits so my editor has it now and is working on it. No cover art yet but the minute I have it I’ll share with you (subscribers find out first!)

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This week I finished a long linen scarf I knit to use in the summer. I love it. It’s a gorgeous color. So I went to block it in my washing machine. I had run a test piece of linen before and it came out fine so I thought I’d be fine this time.

NOPE.

Washer Monster wanted to eat it.

via GIPHY

But my lovely maintenance man here saved it! Yay!

Yay! It’s saved!

I’m always amazed at how well linen blocks. It’s just great. Such a difference!

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I’m on an Emily Blunt movie binge lately. I watched The Devil Wears Prada and A Quiet Place this week and I’m going to watch Mary Poppins Returns tonight. (My movie BF Colin F. is in it too. I do love his movies.)

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Sometimes we live in Hoth, here in Ohio, and sometimes it’s in the 90s with a heat index giving us a temp of 114. Yeah, it’s that day. So, movie binging and working on house projects today!

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It feels hard to believe that July is half over and that Target has school supply displays up. When do the schools in your area go back? Ours tend to go back in the middle of August now, but they get out before June.

Yarn Along #91

Hi y’all! Happy almost Independence Day (if you’re American)!

via GIPHY

I’m still working on my Dahlia scarf: it’s four skeins of yarn, so it’s long, but I’m in the third skein now, so I’m past the halfway mark. It’s crazy simple knitting, just garter stitch, so that makes it really easy to do while I watch TV (Wimbledon!) or movies, or if people are visiting and I want something to do with my hands while we talk!

The book is Greek to Me: Adventures of the Comma Queen, which I’ve been intrigued by since I saw it at Tattered Cover in Denver in April. which is about the author’s trip to Greece and how the Greek language influenced English.

Yarn Along #90 (AKA, finishing the WIPs!)

Oh my gosh, so much knitting stuff to tell you! :)

Settle in….

So one of the things I made a priority when I moved to Orchard House was finishing my works in progress! I had four going on, and now I have one so I am insanely happy about that.

One of them, the sans kerchief, is basically a really big linen square, and it has a ton of mistakes in it, so I basically used it as a big swatch, to see how linen works. I did it in Quince and Co’s sparrow (truffle colorway, gorgeous!) and I even put it in the washer and dryer, and it held up! So this is my linen “full of mistakes” swatch. :) But it’s off the needles and done and I’m sure I’ll find some uses for it around the house.

(No, there is no picture of it. :) )

I started another linen project: The Dahlia scarf with the sparrow yarn, in eleutherea this time. It is gorgeous.

Here it is, before I wound it:

Really, I wanted a lightweight, long scarf I could wear in the summer and not melt. :) So I chose this nice blue. I also had made another scarf in this pattern—the main photo at the top.

That was one of the WIPs and I just cast it off. It’s not as long because I ran out of the original color yarn and stupidly didn’t buy two skeins when I should have, so it’s got a bit of contrast yarn at the bottom, but I didn’t want to do the whole rest of the scarf that way, so I just cast off. But it’s lovely anyway!

The third project I’m working on is actually a gift, so I’m not going to show it here, and it’s not completely done yet, but it will be by the time I’m going to give it! :) It’s one of my basketweave scarfs, and y’all know what those look like. :)

So currently, I have three WIPs—the new Dahlia scarf, the gift, and the supermoon kerchief that I started eons ago and really need to finish! :)

I’m reading Susan Branch’s Girlfriends, which I was lucky enough to find a copy of, since it’s hard to find! I’m also re-reading my opera guides because I’m re-watching Wagner’s Ring cycle, because I’m a nerd like that. But it’s actually really good knitting music. :)

Seven Quick Takes--You Are Not a Mistake

Linking up with Kelly!

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OK, It’s about to get really earnest and passionate in here, folks. Don’t say you haven’t been warned.

With all the new pro-abortion laws coming out, the number of tweets I’ve seen, and articles I’ve read, about how mothers “need” to abort children who are disabled makes me want to scream. There’s nothing quite like the experience of being told that you are not worthy of living to make you really angry.

So we’re just gonna lay it all out here:

If you are a person with a “genetic anomaly”, like me:

You deserve to be here.

You are loved. You are here because God loved you so much that he wanted to create you. And here you are. You are not a burden. You are not a mistake. You are a beloved child of God.

Any one else who says anything else? Deserves to be smacked upside the head. (Verbally, at least.)

—II—

DO NOT give in to these people, my fellow genetic mutations. :) You are WORTH EXISTENCE. If I never write anything else, ever again, please remember that. Please remember that you are loved beyond all measure by God who created you.

-III-

Remember Pope Benedict:

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OK, is that enough angst for you? And passion?

Because, seriously, folks. Seriously.

-V-

Onto other things! I have submitted my draft! YAY!!!! The first hurdle is cleared in the journey toward Real Bookdom! Yay!!!!!!

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If you just cannot wait until January to read a book of mine, Catholic 101 is available now and is five bucks!

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I have scrummy linen yarn sitting in my mailbox that I have to go fetch, so we’ll wrap this up. But remember.

You are not a mistake.

via GIPHY

Yarn Along #89

I’ve finally cast off my shawl, and now I’m in the process of weaving in the ends and then blocking it. Yay! I can’t wait to wear it!

This shawl has taken me a long time and part of it was because of the move, and then getting my blocking supplies from my parents’ where I stashed it before the move….but now we’re all caught up.

I was just in Denver for my sister’s bachelorette party, and while I was there I got to visit Tattered Cover, an independent bookstore chain there. It was pretty awesome, and of course I got a lot of books:

I’ll have more on Denver in a travelogue post later this week or next!

What are you knitting or reading? Share with me!

Yarn Along #88

Linking up with Ginny!

I’m in the last stretch of my Feile shawl. I’ve really enjoyed knitting this so I’m sort of sad to see the end coming, but I can’t wait to wear it! It’s so pretty!

I’ve heard about Peace Like A River for YEARS—seriously, a child life specialist told me about when I was probably 20 or so—so I figure it’s time to read it.

Once I finish the Feile I’m not sure what I’ll do! I want to use the yarn I got at Williamsburg but I don’t know what to make with it! I’m thinking I might go simple and make a cowl or a scarf. Or maybe a hat.

Ash Wednesday Yarn Along!

It’s Yarn Along Time!!!! :)

And it’s Ash Wednesday, so happy Lent to you! And yes, I do mean “happy” Lent. I really like Lent, probably because: 1) I’m a spring baby, and 2) I was born on Good Friday. So, I like Lent. And I also need discipline every once in awhile (who doesn’t), and the spiritual rigor of it, the peeling away of the non-essential, is a good thing.

Anyway, to the yarn!

OK, so the details:

This is the Feile shawl, which I am loving. I love how the stripes change—do you see how they had a sort of neat pattern going on, and then switch to solid stripes? Love that. Eventually, the contrast color, the blue, will become the dominant color as I work toward the end of the shawl, with the white being the contrast. This is a really easy shawl, but the fun is in the slight pattern changes. The thing that’s going to be a pain is all the end weaving in! But oh well.

I’m using Frabjous Fibers yarn, the Mad Hatter base (sport weight). The white speckled is Victorian China, and the blue is called “Muchness” (seriously, isn’t that great?). I’m using Knitpicks sunstruck needles, size 4, on one of their interchangeable cables.

The book is a great one for Lent, I think: Catherine Doherty’s The People of the Towel and Water. It’s about doing every day activities as prayer—really being present in the moment, and allowing everything you do to be prayer, working for God, even when you’re sweeping or cleaning or writing (or knitting!). Catherine founded Madonna House, and I’ve been reading some of her writing lately. I recommend it!

Yarn Along #86

Linking up with Ginny!

I finished my shawl!

I’m definitely getting faster at this pattern the more I do it; this time it took me a little over a month. Not bad. (And of course the crazy cold days when I couldn’t do anything but stay inside also helped.)

I’ve started my Find Your Fade shawl. Right now, this is a pattern where I have to pay attention to what I’m doing, because I’ve had to start it over twice—once because I had too many stitches, and once because I forgot what row I was on and knit the wrong thing….sigh…..so this represents my third attempt. Fortunately I love the yarn! (I’m doing this is Knitpicks Hawthorne yarn, on Knitpicks needles). If you click the Hawthorne yarn link you can see all the colors I’m using, because I used that kit. I’m hoping to finally get out of the first section today and start the lace bit. I’m a little nervous about this because even though I understand the technique involved, I’ve never done lace before…..so fingers crossed! My ravelry notes are here.

As for reading—last night I stayed up late to read The Winter of the Witch *, the last book in the Winternight trilogy, which takes place in Medieval Russia and blends fantasy and history. They’re so good, and if you haven’t read them, I do recommend it. I love Russian history anyway, so that helped me get into these when the first one came out a few years ago.

I’m still chugging my way through Villette although I’m getting a little annoyed with Lucy Snowe….not surprising, I get annoyed with lots of Charlotte’s heroines. I think I’m going to start The Terror next, or The Sea Queen, * but I think with The Sea Queen I’ll have to re-read Half-Drowned King first….just to make sure the story is really fresh in my mind again. Can you tell I’m on a myth/fantasy kick? (These books are Norwegian stories, based on myth and legend. Very cool and very well-written.)

*=Amazon affiliate link

Yarn Along #85

Winter is really killing my soul this year—it’s been so cold that the cold is always in the house, you know? You’re sort of always cold, and I don’t want to crank up the heat because then I’ll have an astronomical bill in February (the heat company here is….um….rather iniquitous when it comes to their rates). So at least knitting my shawl helps keep me warm!

I’m re-reading Villette and trying to see if I like it better after about 15 years have passed since I read it first. Charlotte Bronte was pretty anti-Catholic, and this book highlights that, so there are definitely parts where I just have to roll my eyes. It’s also annoying that there’s a lot of French in it which is translated in the back. (My French is decent, but not perfect.) Maybe that’s just this edition. But anyway, it’s a typical Gothic novel/ghost story/crazy romance in the Bronte sister vein, and it’s good reading for winter.

Seven Quick Takes

Linking up with Kelly!

—ONE—

I haven’t done this in awhile, so, hey, time to do one! Especially since we’re supposed to get a big old snow storm with insanely cold temperatures this weekend, so if you never hear from me again, at least you have this. (I’m kidding. I’ll be fine.)

This cartoon made the rounds a few years ago, but once again it looks like I’ll be living in Hoth:

—TWO—

There’s been a lot going on over here. I’m moving, so that’s the first thing—in March! So I have two months to get my place packed up. Which means that yes, I’ve been watching Tidying Up with Marie Kondo on Netflix, and I love it. (And no, she’s never said that you only need 30 books, where did people get this?! I have WAY more than 30> I have more than 30 cookbooks, probably—yes, I might have a problem.)

But I’ve really enjoyed the process. If you haven’t heard of her, the idea is that you get rid of everything that doesn’t “spark joy”, or that you need (like, a screwdriver, for instance. Or copies of recent tax returns.). So you let go of things that you’re just holding on to out of guilt or uncertainty or “just because”, and it’s done in categories: clothes, books, papers, “komono “ (miscellaneous—she divides it down further), and sentimental items. I’m on “komono”, and it’s mostly household stuff and knitting stuff that’s left.

—THREE—

Speaking of knitting, here’s this week’s yarn along! I’m making a drachenfels shawl, again. :) Deets are at Ravelry, here.

—FOUR—

In other news, I’m very close to submitting my book proposal! Oh my gosh. This has been a few months in the making but I think I’m in the home stretch! Yayyy!

And you can help me!

Please subscribe to the blog! This is something that really helps me with publishers. It shows I have people who care about what I write! So do that, and then follow my author page on Facebook? Every follower/subscriber is important! If you already subscribe, thank you! Mwah!

—FIVE—

The proposal is a memoir about my life with CF and transplant and how it ties into the idea that life is always worth living, no matter what’s “wrong” with you. Today is the March for Life, so yes, I feel it’s a timely topic. I’ve had people tell me that I shouldn’t exist. But I DO exist and so there. :-p

—SIX—

I made a holy hour yesterday, since I might not be able to get to Mass this weekend depending on weather. If you don’t make a holy hour (Or holy half hour, or Holy Fifteen Minutes!), can I recommend that you start? It’s restorative, transformative, energizing….it’s time with the Lord who loves you so much! Get thee to an adoration chapel! Or get to Mass early, if you can. God wants to visit with you!

—SEVEN—

And, also, if you missed it, Take Up & Read has a new study! We’re starting on Monday but feel free to hop in whenever! It’s called Call Me Blessed (here’s my blog post about it!)—and you can get it at other bookstores besides Amazon! Yay!!!!! It’s all about our vocation as women, our dignity as women, using women in the Bible and the writings of Pope John Paul II. I do hope you’ll join us!

Yarn Along #84: The Lambs and Wool Shawls

I’m about to be living in Hoth again:

Seriously, it’s going to be so cold—I’m hearing negative numbers for actual temps on Sunday and Monday. Time to batten down the hatches!

At least when knitting a shawl in winter, the shawl keeps you warm! I’m into the striping section which is easy and pretty relaxing so I can watch Tidying Up with Marie Kondo or Home Town while I’m knitting and I can stay sort of warm.

The Lambs * was a wonderful book about a lawyer who decided to close her firm and move to a farm in Virginia where she raised karakul sheep. The story is wonderfully written, and the book itself is lovely, with color photographs and gorgeous design. If you like to knit, like sheep, animals, or farming, or just a well-written, meditative memoir, this is the book for you.

*Amazon Affiliate link

Yarn Along #83--shawl progress and Mary Magdalene

Progress is being made! Yay!

If you’re new, it’s the Drachenfels shawl in Quince and Co’s chickadee yarn—here you see peacoat (a dark navy blue, not black), and camel. The third color that will be incorporated is gingerbread.

I’m reading (well, one of the things I’m reading) Saint Mary Magdalene Prophetess of Eucharistic Love*. It’s really good, in that it talks a bit about the history of Mary Magdalene, her presence in the gospels, and how that relates to Eucharistic Adoration today. I’m underlining an awful lot! I’m pretty passionate about the Eucharist, so this book is definitely inspiring me to get to Mass and adoration as often as I can!

Today I’m getting another package from KnitPicks, which has the needles I need to start either Felie or Find Your Fade….which one shall I start first?!?! The Drachenfels shawl is in a good place to stop; I have to do one more repeat of the main section and then I’m done with the first page of instructions. Which one do you think I should cast on first?

*Amazon affiliate link

Yarn Along #82: The Swatch Post!

Should this be Yarn Along Part A? Not sure. Because there will be a proper yarn along, as well, with shawl progress and book goodness, because who doesn’t need that in January (or anytime, really)? But this is the swatch and blocking post because I learned a lot from doing this and I wanted to share with you!

First, though, we’re going to talk about this picture. Is this not awesome? It’s called “A Visit from the Angels”, but notice that Mary is knitting! I love it! I also love how Jesus is like, “Oh, angels. That’s cool.”

So, on to swatching!

I have never swatched before. But I thought, with the big Find Your Fade shawl coming up, that maybe I should. So I swatched, using the same type of yarn called for in the pattern (Knitpicks Hawthorne). You check for gauge in this case post-blocking, so I blocked it and measured it.

Now, it’s not quite at gauge. I don’t really care about that, because it’s a shawl so it’s not like it has to fit a certain way. I’m actually under the gauge—the swatch should measure 4x4, but it doesn’t. It’s a bit short.

However, I knitted a few more swatches, because, why not? I used the same yarn, but in a different colorway, and what I noticed was what a difference blocking makes.

On the left: a blocked swatch. On the right: Non-blocked. I mean look at that! Amazing!

I also knitted up swatches in different needle sizes: 4 (the size suggested), 6, and 8. It’s sort of hard to tell here, but you might be able to see that on the 8, it’s almost twice the size of the 4, which makes sense, but it’s also sort of sloppy. I had a hard time maintaining tension with this yarn on size 8 needles. After blocking it did look less sloppy, but it’s still pretty unpretty, so I’m using it underneath a vase on my kitchen table. :)

This is all post blocking: The 8 is in the back, 6 in the middle, 4 in front.

I didn’t hit gauge with the 6 needles, either—this time it was too big. I’m still relatively new to knitting, so I’m not entirely sure what this means….maybe I should’ve tried the five size needles? :)

Anyway, lessons to take away here:

• Blocking is magic!

• Swatches did help me learn how yarn feels on the needles, and I got used to working with this particular yarn.

• It was also useful to see how it knits up on different size needles. Now I know, for example, that I’d never use this yarn on anything bigger than a 6. Maybe a seven. But on the 8s, it just did not work. A size six needle is OK, though.

• I’m pondering doing a swatch blanket or something like that—it’s actually really relaxing to sit and swatch in garter stitch! And I think it could be a good way to stash bust as well.

Any thoughts on swatches, gauge, or other knitty things? Let me know in the comments!