Knitting, Painting and Branching out

Yarning Along with Ginny today at Small Things.
My apologies for the silence here the past few days. Lots going on at our house including planting, painting and some knitting.

I've recently rediscovered my love for water-colour painting and have been illustrating some quotes for my Etsy shop which I'm hoping to open soon. I'll keep you posted on that one.

In between a doctor's appointment and a trip to the kids' school I'm planning on sneaking over to my local yarn store, Shall we Knit for some time with other wools. I've been itching to visit but haven't had the chance in awhile. I've been knitting little grey mittens lately out of Lion Brand's Vanna's choice acrylic. I don't normally love acrylic but this is so soft and nice to work with. Knitting with acrylic usually reminds me of those nasty bright red slippers of the 80's before wool got nice.
The finished product is intended for small people and knowing how often one needs to wash little mittens this seemed like the right choice. I use an easy pattern out of an old Red Heart booklet I picked up when Zellers was still a store.

I'm working with 4mm/US 6 needles for these mittens which is a bit small as far as gauge goes but it knits up a nice, tight fabric which will be extra warm, I figure.

At the top of my stack of reading is Starting an Etsy Business for Dummies right now. Etsy is pretty self-explanatory but I struggle with what to put where and being the perfectionist that I am I don't want to write the "wrong thing" and want it to be perfect the first time. Which is why it is taking me a month to open up what should be a simple Etsy shop. I am my own worst enemy sometimes. I also found a copy of Taproot at our local, independant bookstore. I love, love, love this magazine.
The mittens will find their way to Uxbride, ON in November for Trinity United church's Christmas Craft Sale. You can look for me there if you're in the area (and remember in 6 months' time) The popularity of my friend's crocheted animal hats has inspired me to try mittens.
Not a stretch as I could knit mittens all day.

5 Tips for Mothering Your Spirited and Sensitive Child

My daughter and I were dad-and-older-brother free today and we had great plans. I've been in this parenting game long enough to know not to over-plan the day and to be careful what activities we choose and at what times of the day. On our list today:
~banking-I needed cash. No big deal. The line up is usually non-existent on Saturday
~library-time to load up on new books and audio-books for the week ahead. A trip we both enjoy.
~the mall-a tricky one at the best of the times. Lots of noise and people and bright colours and CHOICES but she desperately needs new shoes. Planned well it might be ok.
So we banged off the first 2 errands without much trouble. We came home for a few minutes to pee and take a break from stimulus and drop off the boatload of new books.
I knew the mall would be a problem and we talked about where we had to go, how long we would be there. I asked how she was feeling and she insisted she could do this so off we went. All went well until she found the perfect shoes ($15 above what I was comfortable spending) and it all went downhill from there. We tried another store, no luck and no agreement. By the time we headed for the 3rd and final store I could see a blow up coming quickly and steered us toward the exit with much anger and gnashing of teeth. When she hurled herself in her room after getting home and I thought over what had just happened I actually began to feel bad. Good old mom guilt rearing it's ugly head. Then I thought "No!"
I had set firm limits with consequences and when she blew through the limits I stuck with the consequences. I didn't lose my cool. I didn't say anything I regretted later. I got her out of the mall before anything really bad happened. I felt pretty proud of how I handled that! Take that Mom-Guilt!
If I may be so bold-here are my 5 tips for mothering your spirited/sensitive child:

1. Know your kid. Know what she can handle, what sets her off and at what time of day. My girl needs a full stomach to handle most things. I know she doesn't do well in a busy mall at the best of times.

2. Plan. Plan. Plan. Save tricky situations for when you'll have the most success. Unless it is absolutely necessary, the mall on a Saturday afternoon is no place for a sensitive kid.

3. Say yes as often as you can. Today she wanted to check out a playground she saw on our way to dropping dad off at work. I could've said no, lets go later. But I knew if I said yes to that request it would burn off some energy and hold me in good stead for the necessary trip to the mall. We did stop and she had a great time.

4. Set limits, have consequences and be willing to follow through on them. Spirited kids need the security of limits and need to know you mean what you say. Don't be a jellyfish-follow through!

5. Love them. Make great efforts to look them in the eye when they speak, do things they like to do, spend time with them and really listen. Spirited kids are such amazing, interesting kids that you don't want to miss what they come up with. They need to know more than the calmer, quieter kids you never have to reprimand that they are loved to the bottom of their toes.

My Knitting Beginning

I recently wrote about my memories of my Grandmother knitting me beautiful sweaters and the connection I now feel as a knitting mom. My Grandmother shares a part of my knitting story with my neighbour who taught me how to knit.
After school my brother and I went to the neighbour's house until my mom got home from work.
She had 2 boys and knit like a boss. I remember she had grown up in a close knit Catholic family and  was one of 5 children. She told us stories about her siblings and I felt like they were my own aunts and uncles.
Being a mom to 2 boys I think she liked having me around so she could have the daughter she maybe always wanted. I don't remember being crazy about her. To be honest I thought she was weird and liked my brother better because he was little and cute. I was 10 and 11 at the time and wasn't super excited about being babysat and certainly not without other kids to play with. Her boys were older and not particularly interesting to me.
But I do remember her giving me huge wooden needles and a lovely soft ball of wool and showing me how the stitches were formed. I was thrilled to have something to do and I liked the feel of those needles and that soft ball of wool. I knit the most holey doll blanket you can imagine. Where those stitches kept going I had no idea! I'd start with 10 and end with 6! So frustrating but I wanted to learn.
Soon I was able to start with 10 stitches and end with 10 stitches and graduated to smaller aluminum needles and baby pink wool. That was better I thought at the time (give me wooden needles any day now I say)
It's funny the mark people will leave on your life. I would never consider my neighbour to be a pivotal part of my life except that she was the person who taught me how to knit. Because of her I picked up needles and wool again when my children were babies and knit them things that now live in a special box in my crawl space full of other cherished baby things. Because of her I can keep myself and my family warm with mittens, hats and scarves that aren't just mittens, hats and scarves. There's love in them thar' stitches. Because of her I knit a Holden Shawlette. Because of her I am able to patiently wait in lines, furiously knitting on socks and mittens, but patiently waiting.
So, thanks Lynn for your patience with my 10 year old self. It paid off :)

The Best Laid Plans and all that...

I had a great sort of plan for this evening involving knitting a 2nd mouse mitten and joining Ginny at Small Things for her Yarnalong. I was going to putter in the garden for a few minutes and clean up the kitchen while my kids were at Cubs and Scouts tonight. But as all plans sometimes go this one went totally out the window when The Em-ster found out the Cubs were picking up garbage in the school yard in honour of Earth Day and she WAS NOT going. Despite much encouragement and-I'll admit it-a little well-placed guilt she WAS NOT going.
I send her to Cubs partly because of the sense of community service it instills. I think cleaning up garbage in parks, collecting for the food bank and volunteering her time are just as important as earning badges and going to camp. I want my kids to know they have to participate in the work as well as the fun stuff.
So, with a sigh and the realization that there goes my quiet kid-free evening I joined her and the other leaders to help out. I was hoping I would only have to be there for a little while and then I could say my good byes, accept my thanks and go home and knit.
That was not to be. They were short on leaders and long on supervision-intensive kids and I was in it for the long haul. It seems garbage collecting was not the only thing on their to do list and I found myself pulling a wagon and keeping an eye on kids while they went door to door asking for donations for the food bank.
In a past life I was a Cub leader for 3 years. I remember (vaguely) how this goes and it started to feel like an old comfortable pair of shoes. Granted one with worn out soles as my patience with children is not what it was when I was 17.
It was a cold, windy evening and in my naive state at 6:30pm I had just thrown on a fleece and a spring coat thinking foolishly that I would only be outside for 30-45 mins. 90 frigid minutes later, fingers numb, back aching and wishing fervently for His Lordship to appear in the car (he did not) we were on our way home a la pied.
I am chilled and tired but curiously satisfied. It was interesting seeing how my daughter interacts with a group of children, mostly boys. I was clearly a big help to the leaders and we collected a lot of food for our food bank.
I can't always be in that place where I can help out at meetings. Often I need the time apart from my children to having some breathing space, take a break from my day and everybody needing something from me. I need to look after my own needs so I can look after everyone else's tomorrow. But when I can be in that place it is worth it and that always comes as a nice surprise to me.

A Manifesto for Summer

Today was a good day. 

Being Easter Monday and a school holiday I was able to stay at home with the kids. I wish I could bottle this day especially after the disorder of yesterday.

My favourite part was when the 3 of us peacefully sat at the kitchen table painting watercolour paintings.

At some point The Boy went off on his bike to check out what was going on in the neighbourhood while The Em-ster helped her aunt with some yard work. To celebrate my time without kids I cleaned bathrooms. While not earth-shattering I do like the satisfaction of a clean bathroom and a spit-free mirror.

I nipped out after His Lordship came home from work and bought snap pea, bean, onion and cucumber seeds. I always buy my seeds from the Home Hardware in town that doubles as the outlet for the Ontario Seed company. I don't know or care, really at this point about the quality or how high the yields are, I just like buying my seeds locally and I love buying them from the Home Hardware on the main street of my city. It reminds me of living in a small town again.

After dinner and dishes I planted 2 rows of snap peas and a row of spring onions. Man is that satisfying! I'm hoping our population of squirrels stays away from the seeds. 

I also sat out on my front stoop watching the evening fall and promised myself this year I would do more of the stuff that matters. So here is my manifesto for summer:

1. I will do more front stoop sittin'

2. I will weed and water and watch my garden grow with good food for us to eat instead of the weeds of years past.

3. I will take my daughter to the park more often instead of saying I am too busy

4. I will slow down and enjoy the warm and sunshine and life outdoors.

5. I will eat more meals outside (at least before the mosquitos and wasps find us)

6. I will can and freeze more of this summer's produce to enjoy when the snow is blowing around the house and I want to remember the day we picked strawberries and I made jam.

Do you have a Manifesto for Summer? Please share it in the comments.

A most Gratitude of Sundays

Joining Taryn today at Wooly Moss Roots for Gratitude Sunday...

It has been a difficult parenting day and I am exhausted but as I was mulling over whether I would join Gratitude Sunday some images from the day popped into my head. The more I thought about what on earth I had to be grateful for on this awful day the more I was able to come up. Bright spots show up brighter against a dark background. I knew that of any day, this was a day I needed to be part of Gratitude Sunday.

Today I am grateful for:

~warm spring sun. It was 23C today

~Easter Sunday church breakfast. I broke my gluten-free fast with the most delicious pancakes and maple syrup. I had bacon and eggs, coffee and juice. So simple but so good.

~turning over my vegetable garden and getting ready to plant tomorrow

~talking to my troubled daughter and feeling like I'm getting to the bottom of her issues

~chicken and stuffing for Easter dinner and marble pound cake for dessert.

~a walk...alone... with my husband after dinner and enjoying the warm evening-I wore Birks-without socks!!

~knitting an entire little grey mitten in one day that will become a little mouse mitten (pictures soon to follow)

~finding the meaning again of what Ma Ingalls meant above.

Many blessings to you today and for the week ahead.

Behold the Holden!

About 2 weeks ago I finally finished my Holden Shawlette. I may have mentioned it before...once or twice...how madly in love with this thing I am. It's my first attempt at lace work and I will admit there were times I thought I'd have to put it away until I had more time to pay attention to the pattern. Possibly around the time my children began moving out. Then a friend asked to see it and renewed my enthusiasm and hope for the project. A year ago she wore an amazing dress all done in lace work and using a lovely fluffy, fine wool. She has 3 children, all of them still living at home and she managed to finish a whole dress. A whole dress! There was hope!

I first saw the Holden at On The Lamb, a great wool store in Uxbridge, ON. It was done in the same wool I ended up using and it was gorgeous. I was with my friend and her mom, it was my birthday weekend and we were drooling over it (maybe it was just me drooling ;)) My friend's mom asked me if I would be able to knit something like that and I said I could probably do it. Anyone can follow a pattern was my reasoning. Before I knew it I was choosing the colour of wool and being handed a shopping bag with wool and pattern. Happy Birthday to me! I bought a set of circular needles and began that night. 

It was actually not that difficult once the pattern gets going. 

The wool I used was Lang's Mille Colori, socks & lace luxe superwash. The colour is 6992. I'm sure it has a beautiful poetic name but that's all my ball band gives me. The wool knit up nicely although I had to be careful during the times I frogged it because it would get sort of fluffy and hard to deal with. The moral of that story is: don't frog it, pay attention and for goodness sake put in a lifeline every few rows, Amanda!

I haven't been able to find someone to take a picture of me wearing it yet but I feel like it will show up in a post soon. Stay tuned!

Confessions from a mom of good intentions

I began my parenting journey with the best of intentions. I was a follower of the attachment parenting method of doing things, learned from reading Dr.Bill Sears' The Baby Book. I wore my babies in slings for a long time, nursed them both past a year, responded to their needs rather than letting them cry. I fed them both baby food I made from organic ingredients. We read, talked and sang to them all the time when they were little.
But somehow I feel like I have fallen off the wagon and am struggling to find my way again. Maybe it was the adjustment from toddler to child. I fumbled with what felt right as a way to parent. The problem hit me like a tonne of bricks yesterday. The Em-ster asked me repeatedly to please take her to the park on the weekend and I kept saying no because I had Things I Needed to Get Done. And she was irritable all day Sunday and I couldn't figure out why. Well I finally clued in on Monday. Why didn't I just stop and take her to the park?? It would've done us both some good getting away from all the Things That Need To Get Done and to actually enjoy that beautiful warm weekend! Some time together to reconnect.
So I apologized and promised we would go this weekend. The lovely thing about children is the chance to try again. They understand about making mistakes and to keep trying.
Thanks be to God!
One of our jobs as parents is to realize our mistakes, own up to them and ask for forgiveness. It teaches our children so much! It's also in our job description to remember we are human and will make mistakes too as moms.
Like we tell our children: mistakes are how we learn :)

Gratitude Sunday

Joining Taryn at Wooly Moss Roots for Gratitude Sunday
Today I am grateful for:
1. The weather! It is 20C, most of the snow is gone and green things are pushing their way out of the ground. This is the view out our front window, overlooking my garden. It looks dreary but it was so nice!

2. A new addition to my front door wreath. I bought a stem of flowers at Michaels on Friday night and arranged them this afternoon. I think a house isn't complete unless you have a wreath on your front door.

3. Time to write, uninterrupted, first thing this morning.
4. Coffee :)
5. My week of reading deprivation is over and I can finally get to all those blog posts I've missed and new books I got yesterday from the library.
6. Kids playing outside all day and falling asleep as soon as their heads hit the pillow at night.
7. Enough money.
8. Hope
9. Good food and family time. Even if it's watching tv, we're watching it together.

The Stories We Tell...about Knitting

My grandmother has been a knitter ever since I can remember. We lived 2 hours away from my grandparents so I didn't see them often but when I did spend time with them it was always like being in an exotic land. They lived in Toronto and I lived up north, first near Barrie then outside of Gravenhurst. Both very rural places. When I came to Toronto I came with wide eyes, seeing all the people and cars and buildings. I remember she had a cupboard full of cereal (we got one choice at my house) and she always had Special K. There isn't much exciting about Special K but at her house it tasted like something special.
My mom would drop my brother and I off in the morning and go to the mall BY HERSELF for a few hours. I didn't understand why on earth she'd want to go to the mall anyway and certainly not BY HERSELF.
Now that I have kids I understand.
My grandmother would drive us to meet her at the mall for lunch at Simpsons (maybe Sears? but either way, it was a restaurant with tablecloths) and I remember jello cut in cubes and served with whipped cream. This is the epitome of gourmet when you are 7. Mom usually bought us a new book to share and that felt pretty decadent. We didn't get new things unless it was Christmas or our birthdays.
So, I remember my grandmother was always a knitter. She rotated every Christmas making all us cousins those nordic sweaters everyone had in the 80's with a yoke collar and different coloured patterns circling the yoke. I loved them because I knew somehow it had taken her hours of work to make this sweater and she had made it JUST FOR ME.
I saved a few of the sweaters and my kids wear them now. The Em-ster lives in hers.

A few years ago my grandma gave up knitting. The arthritis in her fingers was getting too bad and she couldn't make the needles do what she wanted them to. I visited her one winter looking for some advice on how to knit socks. I remember her trying to show me how to join the stitches in a round and how hard it was for her.
She gave me a lot of her supplies-old patterns from the 50's, aluminum needles, her stash of wool and a knitting bag. I use these things now and am grateful to have them. I can't afford to spend much money on knitting supplies but somehow what I need always seems to land in my lap.
I feel grateful that I am able to knit and purl and my fingers can work the wool quickly because I know one day maybe I won't be able to anymore. This is the way of things I think. Everything has a season and right now it is my season to knit and my grandmother's season to receive the knitting after so many years of giving it.

Yarnning along-what I'm knitting and ...not reading?

Joining Ginny today at Small Things-what I'm knitting and reading:

On the weekend I started an afghan. Surprising for me as I'm not great with long-term projects. I usually want to see progress NOW and be able to use whatever I'm knitting sometime in the next month or so. This thing is going to take me months. But I felt like I needed a long term relationship with a knitting project if you will, and so began the afghan. I'm using some Berella "4" acrylic, worsted weight yarn my grandmother gave me when she was no longer able to knit. The colour is...beige. Not very artistic or dreamy is it? But a girl needs a good, sturdy beige afghan to curl up under on whatever couch is in her life I think.
What I'm reading is The Artist's Way still. I'm on week 4 and the first task is reading deprivation. I gasped with horror when I saw that. Not read?! Anything?? For a whole week? No blog posts, novels, newspapers, knitting instructions?? You have got to be kidding me, Julia Cameron.
Maybe she knows what she's talking about. I have discovered a few things after 3 days of this semi-hell. I read a lot at work to take my mind off my work. I read a lot of magazine covers in the grocery store and miss how interesting people are. I read when I should be paying attention to my children. It's made me more of aware of what is going on around me and it's a bit overwhelming all this activity. Once this week is over I have a whole of catching up to do and I can't wait.

Dorothy was right-there's no place like home

This has not been a fantastic evening. It's His Lordship's night off and I have spent it looking for a science folder which morphed into cleaning up The Em-ster's room. I have washed dishes and loaded the dishwasher which is now stuck in the rinse cycle grinding and complaining away until I get up to restart it. I have supervised homework, home-reading and lunch-making. I managed to sit down for 5 mins to knit a row on a moss-stitch afghan I've started. I have listened to both my children's school-related woes which have been the cause of both kids acting up tonight. I can't help but feel happy that this school year will soon be over. I wonder if there is something in this homeschooling business but worry that I wouldn't have the patience or the creativity to get both kids to work on their lessons.

But despite all the craziness of this evening, I can't think of anywhere I'd rather be. After a long, boring day at work being a small cog in the retail machine I come home to two smart, interesting kids. Their curiosity and activity keeps us both on our toes. 

Here I can sit down and knit whenever I need a moment to centre myself and figure out what to do next. I can wander down to my corner of the basement and create some neat word art around a quote that's been floating around my head all day. 

Dorothy was right-there's no place like home ;)

Purging!

I spent this afternoon purging out my little corner of this house to accommodate some new interests. It was incredibly satisfying and I was amazed at what I was able to let go of. I have recently come to the conclusion that I am a hoarder of fabric. I have a big Rubbermaid bin full of scraps that I told myself I was saving for the kids to make things out of or that I would one day use for a quilt. Yesterday and today I filled 2 garbage bags with scraps no bigger than 2" square and most of them useless strips of cloth. What did I think I was going to do with that!!?? I really hate adding to the garbage dump situation in our area but at a certain point a girl has to admit defeat.
I love sewing but I haven't had the time or the money to invest in it in a couple of years. Once I had that big bin empty I filled it with all the fabric that means something to me or is in big enough pieces to actually do something with. That emptied all kinds of drawers and bins that can now house my growing yarn collection and odds and sods of card-making supplies.
The original impetus of this whole purge was to make a vision into reality. I have always wanted a comfy chair and reading light in a quiet corner of our house and I want to see my craft books on a shelf. That was it. Nothing momentous or expensive.

It's no Martha Stewart but it's mine.

(My apologies for the crummy photos. The Rubbermaid bin on the right now houses the good fabric)
So when I got home from church this afternoon I went nuts (as my kids would say).
You should see the pile of detritus! Half of it I'm hoping I can sell locally and continue to keep out of our landfill and the other half...sigh...is going to the curb this week.
I found that all this stuff I was saving was making me feel guilty for not having the time or money or both to do something with it and I don't need reasons to feel guilty. It was also holding me back from working on new projects that have been piquing my interest lately.

My improved work area. Still room and accessibility for sewing.
The good part about this change was it didn't cost any money.
Here's some homework for you-take a look at one corner of your house and see how much you can purge. Only one corner, not the whole house. Keep it manageable or you'll never do it.
You'll feel so much better for it.

Yarning along...

Joining Ginny today at Small Things, what I'm knitting and reading...

Knitting:
My beautiful Holden Shawlette. All that's left is the picot cast-off. I love love love this thing! I love the colour variations and the thread of gold running throughout. I was surprised at how easy the lace was to knit once I sat down, uninterrupted, to figure it out.
I'm hoping to finish and block it this weekend. And then the great unveiling!

Reading:
The Artist's Way- I'm on week 3 and so much is becoming clear to me. An amazing book. Have you read it? I highly recommend it if not. I would never consider myself an artist or writer but I've been stuck for awhile trying to figure out what I should be doing with my life and I sort of thought that maybe I'd like to begin writing. I haven't written much apart from what gets done here but I've begun playing with word art and it is so satisfying. Who knew it was there waiting to burst forth at the right moment.
I'm also reading Judy Collins' Morning, Noon and Night as sort of a companion reader. It's about her method of being creative and it's a joy to read. Not deep but calming and written in a sort of stream-of-conscience way that is delightful. Many of the same ideas carry through it as from The Artist's Way.
How about you? What are you knitting and reading?