Still working away steadily on my fall featherweight cardigan.  It is easy and soothing to work on, and I tried it on yesterday for the first time to check length and “oohed” over how wonderful it felt on.  I hope I can knit it quickly enough to be able to wear it soon!

I’m reading The Graces We Remember, after reading the other two books in the series (one for spring and one for winter, this one is for fall).  I really enjoy the simple stories from their family life on the farm and the way she finds humor and holy realities in the midst of it.

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October is finally here, even though it still feels like indian summer outside.  I saw this beautiful  book, The Wild Remedy, a few months ago but have waited to start reading it on the month that it begins in which is October as a way to celebrate the start of my favorite time of year.  It is a journal of sorts of the author’s monthly reflections and observations of nature in her part of the world as she discovered the benefits of doing so in battling her depression.  It is filled with her drawings, photography, descriptions, reflections, and even a bit about the research being done on the effects of spending time in nature on our mental health.  My plan was to read each month’s chapter during that month of the year but I don’t know, maybe I’ll just read it through more quickly.

I finished my nordiska (just need to weave in ends!) and so I cast on for another sweater, this time a featherweight cardigan.  I’ve knit one before in a light purple color and I love wearing it, but I needed a more fall-ish version.  I’ve wanted to try knitting with John Arbor yarn and this seemed like a good fit.  Even though knitting a cardigan means a lot of purling on the wrong-side rows, I still remember this knit going fairly quickly and being soothing/mindless.  So far I am really enjoying it.

Happy fall, everyone!

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I’ve mainly been focusing on my nordiska sweater this week.  I added a bit of length to the body to make it not quite so cropped and then the color work section flew by.  It’s just so fun. I tried it on last night because now I’m trying to decide if I add length to the sleeves also so that the color work on the sleeves hits at the right spot in proportion to the body.  But now I’m wondering if I have enough yarn because I can’t remember if I factored in added length when I purchased the main color yarn.  Oh well, I’m adding just a little extra length to the sleeves and then I’ll start the color work there as well.  Hoping it moves just as quickly and I’ll have a finished sweater soon!

My attention and thoughts are starting to shift toward birthday sweaters for the kids.  I wasn’t planning to knit one for Philippa this year because of all of my children, she seems to like wearing hand knit sweaters the least.  Last year she refused to try on her birthday sweater and never really wanted to wear it unless I asked her to.  I honestly don’t buy them many warm upper layers because their hand knit sweaters are supposed to serve that purpose.  But she is making requests for one and assuring me that she really wants to wear my sweaters now.  So, we’ll see.  She mostly just loves when I knit her socks.  Anyway, I know I need to get started on sweaters soon if I plan to knit one for each child since they’re getting bigger and their sweaters are taking longer.  I’m thinking of doing a color work one for Phoebe for sure but then maybe all of them would love a little color work this time around.

I’m slowly reading along in Beauty For Truth’s Sake.  So rich but also heady for my little tired mom brain at bed time.  It is really blowing my mind to learn and also remember that math is at the core of so many things, music, art, how interconnected it all is.  I am reading Mathematicians are People, Too to the kids during morning time, just a chapter here and there.  It’s part of my covert plan to change the dynamics and atmosphere around math here in our house.  I think it may be working because Phoebe hated the book initially just because it had something to do with math, but she loves stories and as we are reading the interesting life stories of real and famous mathematicians, she now begs me to keep reading it.

Here’s a little excerpt from Beauty for Truth’s Sake:

“The purpose of an education is not merely to communicate information, let alone current scientific opinion, nor to train future workers and managers.  It is to teach the ability to think, discriminate, speak, and write, and, along with this, the ability to perceive the inner, connecting principles, the intrinsic reasons, the logoi, of creation, which the ancient Christian Pythagorean tradition (right through the medieval period) understood in terms of number and cosmic harmony…”

And another:

“Mathematics is the language of science, but it is also the hidden structure behind art (the philosopher Leibnitz famously described music as the pleasure the human mind experiences from counting without being aware that it is counting), and its basis is the invisible Logos of God.  We do not have to follow the ancient symbolic reading of mathematics slavishly, but only be open to the presence of meaning where the modern mind sees none.  Then it may be that we will open up a lost dimension in which the disciplines themselves will discover their relationship to one another.”

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This past weekend I finally bit the bullet and took my nordiska sweater to a favorite local yarn store to get some help with ripping back a few rows.  I had tried to do it on my own but got stuck around the cable raglan detail and then I held off because I had a feeling I would make a mess of it.  I’m so glad I did because it was good to have someone else’s help with it.  Also, it was a really fun day trip with just Phoebe to Black Mountain.  We spent the morning at the yarn store, had lunch, then made a stop at a couple of antique/thrift stores on the way home.  So it was a fun day together that resulted in a fixed project I could pick back up and knit on again.  It is so enjoyable to have it back in my hands.  The yarn is purl soho’s linen quill (a wool/alpaca/linen blend) in the twig brown color (though it looks more grey here) and it is really, really soft and delicate to work with.

I’m also nearing the end of The Brave Learner.  I’m trying to be more monogamous in my book reading and forcing myself to finish it before cracking another book.  Though I’ve mostly enjoyed this book and learned a lot/been inspired to make some helpful changes in our homeschool, there are also parts of it I don’t agree with or subscribe to.  Mostly, I’m thankful for the encouragement to see our children as the individuals they are and to pay attention to what is working/not working well in our homeschool and to be flexible in making changes.  It’s been helpful in examining my goals and intentions in this endeavor.  I always enjoy hearing what you’re reading or making lately (even if it’s not yarn/knitting related!) so do share if you’d like!

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