Yarnalong: Wild, Chickens

Joining Ginny today at Small Things blog for Yarnalong.

Ah, it's good to be back joining in Yarnalong. I did miss the rhythm of Wednesdays and how it gave me the motivation to get knitting and exercise my creative muscles.
Knitting: Chicken mittens all the time around here. My Etsy shop (see sidebar) is open again and wow do people love the chicken mittens! For the not-wool version I use Bernat Super Value in the grey ragg colourway and knit them on 4mm straight needles. The comb and beak are Paton's Astra yarn. The wool version is knit with Cascade 220, a 100% peruvian wool.
Reading: Wild by Cheryl Strayed. I've wanted to read this one for awhile and the spirit finally moved me last week at the library. I'm finding it beautifully written but it's haunting me. I'm a sensitive soul and as such avoid books that are sad or deal with difficult topics because I feel the sadness/despair/anger/whatever like it's my own. I'm pretty protectective of my mental health and happiness. But this book seems worth the risk and I am drawn by her story of just going off into the wilderness to save her soul. I'll let you know how I fare. If the ghosts get to me I've always got the chickens to cheer me up.
It's a rainy day here and beginning to look more November than October. The forecast calls for a 100% chance of rain all day. If only the rest of life were so very sure and certain ;)

Yarnalong: Mittens & The Road to Yesterday

Joining Ginny today at Small Things blog for Yarnalong:

Knitting: Chicken mittens. After a long break it's time to start knitting mittens again for my Etsy shop. The chicken mittens are my best seller so I figured I'd better start with those. The wool is Bernat Super Value, a good basic acrylic yarn that holds up well during knitting, washing and wearing. I use a 2-needle pattern from an old Red Heart pattern book. I can knit these things in my sleep now!

Reading: The Road to Yesterday by LM Montgomery. The other day I was feeling restless and bored in general, and in particular with the books I had on the go so I closed my eyes, rifled through my book shelf and ended up with this one. I was in the mood for some comfort reading and Lucy Maud always does the trick. This one is a collection of short stories with Anne Shirley and Gilbert Blythe included but more on the periphery.

What about you? What are you knitting and reading?

Yarnalong: Half-a-Cardi

Joining Ginny today at Small Things blog for Yarnalong:

 Knitting: Half-a-Cardi, a pattern I found on Ravelry in a desperate search for a little sweater I could wear to a wedding in a week. I knit like mad all week, knit in the car on the way to the wedding, hid in a corner of the venue and furiously cast-off. I didn't have time to finish the sleeves so I just tucked in all the ends and wore it anyway. Nobody noticed or nobody cared-not sure :)

My Mom and I and The Sweater.

 I finished the sleeves a few days ago and I was so pleased with how they turned out. You put all the sleeve stitches back on your needle, knit one row, purl the next, knit another and then cast everything off.

 It desperately needs to be blocked but even still it behaves quite well. I tried reducing stitches at the edges to give it a rounded look but it didn't quite work out. I was definitely winging it and will check out another pattern to see how it's done before I try again.
Wool-my favourite-Paton's Classic Wool in currant. It took about a ball and a half.
Needles-#4 circular.

Reading: nothing in particular or at least nothing I'm excited about. It's hard to find time to read these days between working, parenting, my garden and the laundry.

Yarnalong: One Arm Down & Some Theology

Joining Ginny today at Small Things blog for Yarnalong:

Reading: The God We Never Knew by Marcus Borg. Nothin' like some nice light reading eh?? I finished Alan Doyle's autobiography Where I Belong the other day and enjoyed it immensely. So honest and bright. I feel called right now to work my way through this book. The description on the back of the book describes it thus: "...leads us from the distant, authoritative God of our childhood to an equally powerful, dynamic adult understanding of God. Tracing his (the author's)own spiritual journey, he reveals how to embrace a fresh, authentic view of God that is fully compatible with good science, critical thinking, and religious pluralism-a view that promotes a much healthier and more vital life of faith today." 

Knitting: That Weasley Girl sweater. I'm just about done the first arm. I feel like that arm took forever to knit. It was just around and around and around with the odd decrease to break up the desperate monotony. I cringe to think I still have another arm to knit. I blame the dpns. I do not love knitting with dpns at the best of times. If this sweater is going to have 2 arms I had better find a way to knit the 2nd arm on circs!

For the past few days the weather has been hot and sunny but the temperature plummeted yesterday from 29C to 9C today. I just couldn't make myself go out this morning for pictures. Hence the less-than-inspiring indoor pictures. My apologies. I will do better next post.

Yarnalong: Be Simple/Where I Belong

Joining Ginny today at Small Things blog for Yarnalong:

Knitting: I finished my Be Simple shawl on Monday, blocked it and chucked it on random bushes and gates around my yard today. It is squishy and warm and I am so pleased with how it turned out. The wool is 30% animal-of-unknown-species from China (possible Alpaca or Angora) and 70% man-made fibres. I used 5.5mm circular needles but could've gone down a size.

Reading: Where I Belong, written by Alan Doyle of the band Great Big Sea. It is hilarious and honest and down to earth. I am a huge fan of Great Big Sea, quite by accident. In college a friend dragged me to a concert at Lakehead University's pub, The Outpost, in 1996. Some band I had never heard of that I pictured in my mind as being Great Big "C". Why would you call a band Great Big "C"? Anywho, I was hooked. If you don't know Great Big Sea (not C) they can best be described as playing traditional Newfoundland music with a modern twist. It's happy, rollicking, good fun.
What about you? What are you knitting and reading?

A What's Growing in my Backyard Post + Knitting

Went for a walk in my backyard this morning with my camera. I find it gets the creative juices flowing to spend time outside and oddly enough gives me a sense of abundance. Must be all the green things popping out of the ground that weren't there last week.

 Pea Shoots

 Violets

 The awkward teenager stage of my peonies

 Sedum

 More violets-they're all over my lawn

Rhubarb

And last but not least, my Be Simple shawl in the beginning stages of casting off, amongst the vinca.

I call it periwinkle but have heard it called vinca too. What's the right answer? Or are they 2 different plants?

Yarnalong: Be Simple & Raising a Wild Child

Joining Ginny today at Small Things blog for Yarnalong:

 Reading: I found How to Raise a Wild Child by Scott Sampson last week at the library. It sort of follows in the footsteps of Richard Louv's Last Child in the Woods & The Nature Principle. It's meant to be a practical guide to getting your kids and therefore yourself outside. Thus far it's an easy read with many of the same statistics and ideas I found in Louv's books. I haven't gotten very far into it yet to give it a fair review but it's a topic that interests me greatly so I'll keep you posted.

 Knitting: Still working on my Be Simple Shawl. I think I'm getting close to being done. It's finally starting to look like a shawl as opposed to a strange triangle thing. I'm onto the 3rd of 4 balls of wool so it's going to have to be done soon! It's finished with a picot bind-off which will use a ton of wool and I'm saving the last ball for that. What a nice, easy knit though. Perfect for mindless knitting-at work (if you are so lucky), road-trips and hands-off parenting moments when you need to look like you're not micro-managing what's going on but really you are ;)

Yarnalong: Be Simple Shawl & The Promise

Joining Ginny this week at Small Things blog for Yarnalong:

This week I've been working on easy things. My brain needs a break from serious reading and I wanted a simple, mind-less knit that I could pick up and put down quickly. The season for wool-chucking has begun and I'm sure my neighbours were wondering what in the heck I was doing this morning. But the light was so soft and there was green! I was going to go into the backyard but my neighbour has been standing in his sunroom for the past 15 mins in only his boxer briefs and I was pretty sure me out there with a camera and knitting was going to get awkward for one of us.

I found the Be Simple Shawl on Pinterest and began it using this soft, origin-unknown, Chinese wool. I took the little tag into work and asked my friend to translate it. She didn't have a lot to say but could tell me it was 30% animal and 70% something else. I suspect based on it's fuzziness it's something like angora but not wool. It's got that sparkle to it so I'm guessing it's 70% acrylic. It at least gives me some idea as to how to wash it (in cold, lay flat to dry, don't agitate it!)

The pattern is so easy and I am loving the nubby, simplicity of garter stitch. It gets finished off with a picot bind off that adds a bit of a fancy touch.

I finished The Nature Principle last week and quickly grabbed Robyn Carr's The Promise at the library on Saturday. It's about a small town in Oregon and a Physician's Assistant who takes a job there to recover from a broken relationship. It's an easy read with believable characters, a little romance and a happy ending. I love books like that. 

Ah, green and light. Spring has shown up here and I am doing my best to soak it up. Have a great week!

Yarnalong: Knitting and Dreaming

Joining Ginny at Small Things blog for Yarnalong:

Knitting: That Weasley Girl sweater in Paton's Classic Wool, currant colour using 4.5mm circs.
I finished the body last night. I wish I had done just one more increase. The sweater fits fine but I was hoping it would have more width so she could wear it longer but c'est la vie. I'm not ripping it out a second time and it just means I'll have to knit faster so she can have it sooner!

Reading: The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron.
Trying to find the time to complete the tasks for week one is proving to be challenging. I've been making an effort to get up a bit earlier to write morning pages (3 pages of stream of consciousness writing, no judging or editing allowing) and that's been good to dump all the static out of my head before I begin my day.
I finished The Nature Principle last night. What a great book full of ideas and inspiration and useful facts to fuel my opinion that it's a good thing to spend time outside. An idea I had was to create a blog centred around helping people get outside more. I would offer a weekly or monthly challenge for people to do, an e-book with simple ideas, maybe an e-course to help people overcome their resistance to going outside. I have lots of ideas swirling around my head.

We've got freezing rain here today. It's one of those miserable spring days where you wonder if this is really better than winter and if it will ever be warm and sunny. On the upside, it's a good day to be curled up on the couch knitting...or reading.

Yarnalong: And Now for Something Completely Different...

Joining Ginny at Small Things blog for Yarnalong:

 I haven't had much time this week for my beautiful Lorelei scarf and besides I was getting tired of posting the same knitting and the same book week after week. I'm still working on both but they've moved to the back-burner in favour of this knitting and reading.
This is The Em-ster's "That Weasley Girl" sweater. My very first post on this blog was about this sweater. I knitted it to about this point, tried it on her and tragically it was way too small. I started re-knitting it about a month ago at work mostly and now I'm about 4" from finishing the body. It was easier to knit sweaters when my kids were little!!
The Em-ster had no interest in modelling for me this morning so her contribution is the lucky elephant she found at school one day. Not a button I'm thinking of adding, more of a talisman of greeting and good luck.

 The wool is Paton's Classic Wool in the colourway of Currant. The top of the sweater is done is moss stitch with increases for the raglan sleeves worked into the pattern. The rest is supposed to be knit in reverse stockinette stitch but that seemed morally wrong to me and I just couldn't knit a sweater inside out so I'm knitting it in normal stockinette.

The Artist's Way has been calling to me for the last 2 weeks. I've worked through it before and find a certain comfort in it's pages. I should just go and buy this book already and maybe I will this afternoon. I'm still reading The Nature Principle but feel less excited about it at the moment.
Do you ever find certain books just call you? It's strange but it's always just the thing I need at that time.
The Artist's Way, if you're not familiar with it, is a 12 week program to help people connect with their creative side. The author has a list of tasks to complete each week and throughout the 12 weeks you start each day by writing 3 pages of stream of consciousness thinking. It's not hard stuff but it's amazing what comes of it. I love how she includes quotes in the side columns and lots of space to write notes...if you own the book!

Yarnalong:Nature, Knit, YO, Repeat

Joining Ginny today at Small Things blog for Yarnalong:

Yup, still reading The Nature Principle. When you only get to read a page or two a night it takes awhile to get through a book ;) I've been feeling restless the last month or so like so many other people this time of year, I'm finding. I was beginning to think that maybe it was time for us to consider a move. Somewhere in the country with lots of trees and fields and a place where I could finally have chickens. One gets a bit tired of living in the city and searching for green places to go for a walk. Richard Louv wrote a chunk on essentially blooming where you're planting. Look around your own neighbourhood for the green places that are there that you don't see. I did and remembered 2 tracts of land within walking distance that I should definitely be utilizing better. Bloom where you're planted. A good lesson I often fight the learning of.

The Lorelei scarf is coming along nicely. I finished another chart repeat last night. I'm supposed to do one and half more repeats then bind off, do it all again and Kitchner stitch the two halves together. I have my doubts that the scarf will be long enough to wrap around one's neck if I do that. I might perform Knitter's Rebellion and do my own thing. I'll let you know how that goes.
I loved the comments I got last week from other knitters who also knit like crazy on Tuesday nights so they have something new to post for Yarnalong. Thanks to Ginny for the incentive! (Like we needed one!)

The Lady Kina & Finding Fulfillment

This morning I asked myself what I would really like to do today and I answered that I would be knitting the Lady Kina sweater come hell or high water. A funny turn of events considering my resolve of wednesday not to start anything new until my Lorelei scarf was done or my daughter's That Weasley Girl sweater.
The wool has a story. A friend was cleaning out some bins awhile back and brought them to a gathering of crafty women called Sew Be It (or Knit Be It, or Crochet Be It, or Sort-Through-Your-Photos-So-You-Can-Begin-Putting-Them-In-Albums Be It). Among the stuff she was giving away were 2 hanks of soft, fluffy wool from China of unknown content. My friend Karen and I each perked up at the offering of free wool but there was some debate over who would get which skein. One skein was pink (the one I ended up with), the other was a sagey green. Since neither of us could decide which one we wanted we were each thrown a skein and our friend went back to sorting through outgrown children's clothing. Karen and I decided the way to resolve this was we'd each knit the other a sweater out of the wool we ended up with.
Phew! That was a long-winded way to get me to this strange chinese wool of unknown content and how I'm going to justify knitting the Lady Kina when I already have projects on the go. You see, I need to knit Karen this sweater before the momentum gets lost and all the better if I finish mine first. Perhaps I'm a little competitive.
In other, more thought-provoking news I read Ginny's post on Small Things today and it struck a cord with me. She writes about how a friend of hers comments on how "weird" she thinks she must be for needing to pursue passions outside of the domestic life. Things like knitting. And how she doesn't find child-rearing, laundry, cooking and schooling to be all-fulfilling.
I love my kids very much and do the best I can with what I have to raise them well but I've got to admit, I'm not one of those moms who finds being a mom the be all and end all of existence. I need something else to stimulate my mind and get that sense of fulfillment. Raising kids is a bit like knitting a really big blanket. You knit and knit but it takes ages before you see any progress, and it's years before you ever finish the blanket...if you ever really do.
I used to think I wasn't doing it right or putting in enough effort or somehow less of a mother because of my feelings but I've come to the realization that this is who I am and that's perfectly ok. When I pursue my passions I feel alive and happy and I parent better and I feel better as a human being.
My favourite times of day are in the mornings when the kids leave for school and I've got a stretch of time ahead of me to do what I want and at night when my kids are in bed and the house is quiet.
My passions are knitting and being outside. Gardening, sewing, reading and painting fall in somewhere there-after.

Yarnalong: Proving Progress in one's Knitting

Joining Ginny today at Small Things blog for Yarnalong.

 This post looks like a repeat of the past 2 weeks but I am making progress on both knitting and reading fronts. I'm about half way through Richard Louv's The Nature Principle. One of the most interesting things I've read so far is this:
"Our research shows that maintaining bio-diversity levels is important..not only for conservation, but also to enhance the quality of life for city residents," said Richard Fuller of the Department of Animal and Plant Science at Sheffield. In related work, researchers...report that exposure to the natural environment leads people to nurture close relationships with fellow human beings, to value community, and to be more generous with money. By contrast, the more intensely people in the study focused on "artificial elements," the higher they rated wealth and fame. Another reason to go outside-it makes people feel more generous and focus on the good stuff in life!

 The Lorelei scarf is coming along slowly. Believe it or not, it's about 2" longer this week than last. I made a conscious effort to knit more on it over the past few days so when I took the pictures for this post it would look at least a little bit different than last week! Do any of you regular contributors to Yarnalong find yourselves doing that?? It's a good incentive.

I was sorely tempted this week to drop everything and start the Lady Kina sweater. It's been on my Pinterest board for awhile and I found it on Ravelry the other day. Someone has knit it in a bright mustardy yellow that appeals to me very much. I feel like I would look like the dog's breakfast in mustardy yellow but I do like how it looks over a stripey navy tee. Perhaps I can split the difference and find a grass green colour. I desperately crave bright green clothes in March.
However with great amounts of self-control I have not started the Lady Kina, remembering this scarf and the sweater I still have to finish for The Em-ster. Sigh.

Yarnalong: The Nature Principle and Chickens

Joining Ginny today at Small Things blog for Yarnalong:

 Reading: Still working my way through The Nature Principle by Richard Louv. I've begun adding little sticky notes at the parts I found most compelling. It's amazing how therapeutic going outside is. I've always known I feel my best, the most myself but studies actually prove the benefits of spending time in nature.

Knitting: one last chicken mitten before I close the Etsy shop at the end of March. This pair needed to be an extra-large men's pair and required some trial and error and modifications to the pattern. I first searched Ravelry for a pattern but couldn't find one that was compatible with the wool I have and my 2 needle preferred method of knitting mittens. I don't know why I didn't just modify the pattern in the first place. Lack of confidence I guess. It's working out but man are these mittens big!
The wool is Cascade 220, 100% Peruvian Highland Wool. I don't know what the name of the colour is but I do know it's the only wool that looks like your average whitish chicken.

Yarn Swift and Spastic Gerbils (in my head)

Am I the only one on the planet that thinks a swift is a beautiful thing? My loving husband bought this for me for Christmas this year and I am so grateful for it.
Another order for Chicken Mittens:

came in on Friday so I stopped off at my LYS for some more Cascade 220 in chicken-appropriate white and grey marl. It was so much faster to use the swift rather than my usual frustrating method of looping it around a chair and standing there winding and un-knotting it every 5 seconds! Imagine what I could do if I had a mechanical ball winder?! I'm sure it would make me a better knitter ;)
Today there are birds singing and snow melting. It is finally above 0C. I took a walk around my neighbourhood and through the green space and I DID NOT wear my down parka! I wore several layers of fancy outdoor gear plus lots of woolies but NOT my down parka. Liberation!!
It is amazing what a brisk walk outside can do for a person's soul. I feel calmer and my thoughts have (temporarily, anyway) stopped racing around my head like a spastic gerbil. I am ruminating on the crossroads I find myself at in terms of employment and the direction my blogs and ideas should take. It is an interesting, somewhat frustrating time. I'll keep you posted :)