Category: things I make

Almost done with Philippa’s sunsuit, doing the ribbing on the leg holes and then just sewing on buttons for the straps in the back, then blocking.  I can’t wait to actually try it on her.  I’ve attempted a few times while it has been in progress but she’s so wiggly and impatient that it’s hard to see how it will really look until I can fasten it in place.  It’s been such a fun knit!  I could have probably finished faster but I got stuck picking up stitches for the legs and took a break.

I just started For the Children’s Sake.  As I said in my last post, schooling is constantly on my mind these days and the rest of the spring and summer is devoted to reading and researching and prepping.  Francis Schaeffer is one of my favorite theologians and I adore his wife, Edith Schaeffer’s book The Hidden Art of Homemaking.  So I don’t doubt I will enjoy this one written by their daughter.

Joining today with Ginny of Small Things and her weekly yarn along.

I am starting the second color on the lori shawl and loving the way it’s looking so far!  It’s such an easy and meditative pattern, and working with the linen is perfect for spring.

I finished Surviving the Island of Grace a few days ago and picked up this novel, The Prophetess, about the life of Deborah.  I love biblical historical fiction and the way it opens our imaginations to familiar stories and gives flesh and blood to the bones.  I’m more than half way through it and really enjoying it.

Joining with Ginny to share what we’re knitting and reading this week.

It has been a busy week, having spent the last few days in Virginia for my youngest brother’s wedding.  The 4ish hour drive gave me a lot of time to knit in the car and I worked on both the Lori Shawl and also this sunsuit for Philippa.  I finished the bib last night and working on straps next.  I love it so far, but think it may end up being too big??  It’s a really fun and fast knit.

And in the evenings, I’ve been stealing away to Kodiak Island in Alaska.  Almost done with this book now, and have really loved it.

Joining with Ginny Sheller’s weekly yarn along today.

I finished the age of brass + steam shawl (photos soon!) and have been working on the Lori Shawl.  It’s my first time working with linen and I enjoy it but I do miss the softness of the madelinetosh.  My friend and knitting guru Jennifer, a friend from middle and high school days who taught me how to knit back in October, is knitting this along with me.  So fun!  My first tiny little knit-along.  She said the drape of this linen yarn will be beautiful and so far, it is!  I cannot wait to see the finished product and to wear it!  It is lovely and peaceful to knit, just garter stitch for miles and miles.

I’m still reading and savoring Ruthless Trust, and boy is it ever timely and needed.  It feels like the Lord Himself put it in my hands for such a time as this.  We have had some serious discouragement hit this week, and trust in the Lord is never more needed, it seems.  I hate the hard times so much but I cannot tell you how near it is causing me to draw to the Lord and how near He has been, how alive His Word has been, and how much it is causing Brandon and I to cling to one another.  All of these, good things.  I guess these are a measure of the sweet gifts, the soft hints and whispers of glory in the midst of a rolling storm.

“So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.”

2 Cor. 4: 16-18

I am almost done with my first kerchief/shawl!  I am on the last section and have three more rows but I’m debating making it a little bigger and using up the rest of the yarn.  I just don’t know if I have enough yarn to do that?  So.. still deciding.  I have so enjoyed working on it, I don’t want to see it go!

I’m still reading and really loving Surviving the Island of Grace, but yesterday the Lord was speaking to me throughout the day about trust.  This book that I read and was deeply impacted by back when I was 18 kept catching my eye from my shelves.  I had a much-needed night alone with Jesus last night and read a lot of this tattered book and have been so thankful to find myself in its pages again.  I forgot how much I enjoy Manning’s writing.  I’m terribly in need of a work of the Lord in my life in the way of trust!

Here are a couple snippets that met me deeply last night:

“Unglued and undone by personal experience of the Messiah of sinners, who searches the noisy streets of large cities and the unpaved roads of small hamlets, the ragamuffin walks the way of ruthless trust in the irreversible forgiveness of the Master.  The defenses he has erected against his own truth as a saved sinner wither in the maelstrom of mercy flashing like lighting across his life.  ‘If the Lord Jesus has washed me in his own blood and forgiven all my sins,’ the ragamuffin whispers to herself, ‘I cannot and must not refuse to forgive myself.'”

“Uncompromising trust in the love of God inspires us to thank God for the spiritual darkness that envelopes us, for the loss of income, for the nagging arthritis that is so painful, and to pray from the heart, ‘Abba, into your hands I entrust my body, mind, and spirit and this entire day — morning, afternoon, evening and night.  Whatever you want of me, I want of me, falling into you and trusting in you in the midst of my life.  Into your heart I entrust my heart, feeble, distracted, insecure, uncertain.  Abba, unto you I abandon myself in Jesus our Lord. Amen.”

Joining with Ginny + her weekly yarn along to share what we’re knitting and reading today!