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Spring must be here.  There are buds and blooms forming on the trees!

I’ve cast on a flax sweater for our baby girl (my due date is today!!) in the newborn size, though it doesn’t look very newborn-ish to me, and I can’t say for sure if she will need a wooly sweater with all this warm weather here lately.  I’m about to bind of the bottom ribbing and start on sleeves.  We’re all hoping she comes soon!  For now, I’m trying to carry on with life as usual.  Thankfully, three children keep my mind very preoccupied.

Phoebe and I started reading The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street last night for our next read-aloud.  Too soon to say if we like it or not, but she seems intrigued.

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This cozy little scene by my bed currently bringing me joy.  So I’ve been knitting on a few different projects this week.  It’s funny how a project can sit neglected for awhile and then suddenly you have the desire to pick it back up and finish it.  That’s how it has been with my featherweight cardigan.  I mentioned a few weeks ago that I thought I would run out of yarn for this project and I went ahead and ordered another skein but, of course, the dye lots are drastically different.  As you can see above, the skeins I did have were already pretty different.  I started alternating skeins just toward the bottom of the cardigan where it looks pretty stripey in the photo.  I don’t really mind how it’s looking, but I don’t think I’ll keep alternating skeins on the sleeves so hopefully it turns out ok and not too odd looking.  I’m almost done with the ribbing on the bottom, and then will move on to sleeves.  I’m sort of hoping now to not need to use the extra skein I ordered and just make 3/4 sleeves with the two balls of yarn I have currently going, because the new skein is a much brighter purple.  Maybe I’ll knit a little baby cardigan with the new skein of yarn?  I’m sure I’ll find a use for it.  😉

I finished Francine River’s new book and have been back to reading A Circle of Quiet in the evenings before bed.  I’m really enjoying it.  I so appreciate her thoughts on writing and creative work.

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yarn along

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Its a cozy rainy day here in NC.  Rose is sitting on the windowsill watching the rain drip from the eaves, Phoebe and I are having tea while she practices her cursive.  Noah and Philippa are off playing cars in his room and we’ll probably be spending all day cozied up in here with books, warm mugs, maybe even a movie later on.  I think nesting is in full swing for me, so I’m busy cleaning nooks and crannies that have been neglected for some time, and making unreasonable goals for what I want done before baby arrives.

I cast on a pair of newborn baby socks this past week, hoping that some hand knit socks will stay on better than the store bought newborn ones that always seem to slide right off.  I’m knitting them with the same yarn I used recently to knit my own pair of socks.  They are tiny and cute and the kiddos can’t believe we will have a baby with feet so small.  I still have a few other projects on the go, and I’m starting to feel really ancy about finishing that baby blanket but have so little time to work on it!  If it’s late, I know the baby won’t mind but I imagine snuggling her right up in wooly goodness when she’s at the hospital.

I’ve been reading Francine River’s latest book, The Masterpiece, (which just released yesterday!) and have been staying up way too late in the evenings reading it.  It is everything I love and enjoy about River’s writing, and so fun to have a new book of hers in my hands again.  I’m already almost finished with it.  As with most of her books, this one tells the story of brokenness and redemption, romance and the turning of hard hearts to God.  It’s definitely worth reading!

Joining up with Ginny’s yarn along and Nicole’s weekly Crafting On.

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Thanks to Tyndale Publishers for a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for my review.

yarn along

MarthaKimball1 Comment

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Yes, another yarn along post.  I’m sorry to you readers who are non-knitters!  I do hope to have a more “regular life” post up sometime this week.  Lately I’ve been busy working on a baby knit for a loved one, so I can’t show much of it here.  It’s been sweet to knit and mostly mindless, at least on the body section.

I’ve been flipping through and enjoying these two homestead-y type books from the library.  Welcome to the Farm and Homestead Kitchen have been informative and fun and somehow relaxing for me to flip through, being that I’m basically a wishful-homesteader, and don’t you just love the library for having fun, current resources like these?  I’m thinking just the teensiest, weensiest bit about spring (I’m really a winter/fall girl through and through) and about our little garden space, what we will grow, and if I’ll have much energy for it with a newborn.  I hope so–I was so sick all last summer with this pregnancy that the smell of the garden itself was a total turn off, as well as all vegetables.  I’m hoping for a better experience this year.

What are you reading and making/knitting lately?

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I’ve been knitting this baby blanket for our little girl, coming the last week of February.  I’m not a great lace knitter, I don’t think, in that I don’t really have much practice knitting from charts and in order to follow of line of instructions I really need total focus.  I’m not to the point where I can memorize lace.  Thus, I must have quiet to work on this blanket!  Sometimes I can do more mindless knitting while I do school with Phoebe.  This project is something I can only work on when the kids are in bed at night and I’m not watching something I’m terribly interested in.  That being said, I absolutely love working on it and wish I had bigger chunks of time to do so!  I am adding one extra lace repeat on the side and bottom to make the blanket a bit bigger.  I already love how it’s looking and can’t wait to see it block out when it’s done.  Knitting with Quince & Co. is always a treat!  (Brandon graciously let me indulge on yarn for this project.)

I’m reading A Circle of Quiet for the first time.  Just a few pages in, really, but enjoying and commiserating with her reflections on motherhood and creativity.  Often find myself craving my own little circle of quiet.  These days, even though I attempt to rise earlier than the kids, Philippa’s little ears seem to hear my coffee brewing on the stove and she always creeps out with tousled hair to snuggle with me in the dark while I read.  So few moments truly quiet + alone.  I ache to spend more time writing, as I used to, but feel like there is so little time in these busy days, and my brain is going in so many directions that the work of focus has become quite a labor.  I know that there are seasons of producing in our lives and also seasons where seeds are lying dormant in the soil doing the necessary work of waiting in the dark.  Good things will grow eventually, and we must be patient with the process and not always ancy for the fruit.  Each day and season has its own gifts to be enjoyed and thorns to handle.

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I cast on this featherweight cardigan probably close to a year ago, and haven’t touched it since the summer, when pregnancy sickness set in, I suppose.  Suddenly the other day, it just popped into my brain that I probably hadn’t ordered enough yarn.  I couldn’t even remember what size of the sweater I was knitting, but suddenly I had that feeling of dread that I won’t have enough yarn to add length to the pattern like I had planned.  Since this is indie hand-dyed yarn by madelinetosh and she often discontinues colors as she comes up with new ones, I had a mild panic checking to see if this color way was still in stock (it is).  When I checked the pattern I realized I hadn’t even ordered enough yarn for the size I was knitting, let alone to add length to it.  What was wrong with my brain and why did this suddenly come to me now, almost a year later?  I have no idea.  It’s so strange how the brain works.  I suddenly needed to pick it up again, and have been knitting on it the past few days, now rotating skeins as I should have up until this point.  Hopefully the new skein that I ordered will look fairly similar and I won’t have to rip out and totally start over?

Phoebe and I have been reading A Wrinkle In Time, without any impetus from the forthcoming movie, which someone told me about after the fact.  I have never read the book before and Phoebe has the series on her shelf from one of her aunties, I think, and for some reason I’ve been interested in reading Madeleine d’Engle lately.  I don’t know if I’ve read any of her books!  I’m interested in reading  A Circle of Quiet next for myself, I think.  Any favorites of hers?

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Who else is still gift knitting?!  I finished Noah’s sweater a couple nights ago, blocked it early yesterday morning and hoping it finishes drying today so I can wrap it up tonight.  (His birthday is tomorrow).  I bought this yarn for Brandon for a beanie (his most preferred knitted item) awhile ago and have been keeping it a secret knit, so I can only work on it during the day when he’s not here.  I typically knit at night after the kids are in bed, so it’s harder to fit in daytime knitting but I’m squeezing in little bits here and there and hope to have this done by Christmas eve!  (I plan to put it in his stocking).  I made two beanies from this pattern before for my sister and brother-in-law, and Brandon really liked the fit of it, and he loves sort of a burnt orange/brown color, so I think this will be a hit.  There are a couple other small knitted items for Phoebe that I want to make, but if it doesn’t happen before Christmas it’s really not a big deal.  I thought she’d enjoy opening a hand knit sweater for her American girl doll, and also we are giving her her first (real) bible for her birthday and I wanted to knit a special bookmark for it.  Also, she’s been asking for a bonnet for a long time and I found a free pattern that I think would work with the yarn I have leftover from her vertebrae cardigan, but again, that doesn’t necessarily have to happen before Christmas.  Phoebe is the most fun to knit for, as she truly appreciates my hand knits about as much as I do!

I’m still reading and enjoying Housewife Theologian (affiliate link).  I don’t anticipate much reading happening this week, as we are entering a busy week of two birthdays and then Christmas.

For whoever else is still trying to wrap up those last hand made gifts, cheers to you and I hope you enjoy every minute of making!  Tis the season.

Linking up with Nicole’s weekly Crafting On.

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I did in fact visit my favorite local-ish yarn store last week and picked out yarn for noah’s sweater, and cast on.  I am skeptical that I’ll have this finished in the next week, but I am doing my best!  He asked me yesterday if I’m making him a sweater this year and when I’m going to start on it, so that’s a good sign that it’ll be a worthwhile endeavor.  🙂  I’m knitting the “tot lot #10” sweater, using Shepherd’s wool in I think the Shepherd red color way.  Really liking it so far, just a simple knit.  It’s knit from the bottom up, so I’ve finished the body (up to the yoke) and also the first sleeve and now am onto sleeve number two.

I’ve been reading Housewife Theologian, which is a book I’ve had for a few years now and finally getting around to reading.  I’m enjoying it so far.

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DSC_0133I finished the Advent mittens for the kids, but decided to give them to them tomorrow for St. Nicholas’ day.  I’ve printed off some coloring sheets and we’ll make some Christmas cookies as we learn about who St. Nicholas was.  I thought it would be fun for them to have a little something to open on that day.

I need to get started on Noah’s birthday sweater, as his bday is quickly approaching, but while I wait to get the yarn I cast on some mellow shorts for baby girl.  I’ve been dying to cast this on and all I want to knit is baby knits!  🙂  But Noah has asked for a red sweater, and he truly enjoys my hand knits so I can’t resist making him something for his birthday.  I just visited my favorite yarn store today to get yarn for him and will hopefully cast on sometime later today/tonight.

Also, the needle case pictured was a birthday gift from Brandon (though I picked it out) from the etsy shop Pea Pod Thread and I love it.  My only complaint is that I can’t really fit my fixed circulars in there, and definitely no DPNS so I still feel like I need another case for organizing those.  My knit picks interchangeable needles are very happy, though, to have a new home, after the plastic case they came in was completely torn.

I’ve been really enjoying the first week of Advent readings from this book, Hallelujah, by Cindy Rollins.  Her book, Mere Motherhood, has been one of my very favorites.  This one journeys through the scripture and music of Handel’s Messiah, which we have been doing together in the mornings.  We still spend evenings in Ann Voskamp’s Unwrapping the Greatest Gift while the kids color corresponding ornaments to decorate our little wooden Jesse tree.  I grew up listening to Handel’s Messiah every Christmas and it holds a special place in my heart, so it is exciting to share it with the children, even if it may be a bit over their heads.

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DSC_0129I finished Phoebe’s sweater last week, haven’t blocked it yet but will soon.   I’m really happy with it though and think it will fit just right.  I woke up the other morning and my first groggy thoughts were of mittens, wanting to knit mittens for the children as a gift for the first day of Advent.  I started on Sunday and have almost finished Noah’s pair.  I will maybe be able to get these done before Friday?  If not, it’s okay, but they all do need mittens anyway.  I’m using leftover yarn from the first pairs of socks I knit for all the kids.  It’s knit picks wool of the andes.  I’ve been surprised with how well those socks have held up to abuse and machine washing, so I’m hoping these mittens will work well for child’s play also.  I have so many knitting ambitions lately for Christmas or for the new baby, and I’m thankful my knitting mojo is back in full force, but hoping I can keep up!

Phoebe and I started reading Madeline L’Engle’s little book The Twenty-Four Days Before Christmas, which my sister-in-law sent us last year.  We’ve been loving it, and I’m planning to do something similar to what the Austin family does in the book for Advent, having one Special Thing to do together each day.  Phoebe and I have been writing down what they did each day of Advent and thinking about our own little list of ideas.  I really wanted to get a tree this past weekend, but we need to clear out some space in our home and organize a few things before we do.  Soon, though, I hope.

What have you been making or reading lately?

Linking up with Nicole’s weekly Crafting On.
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