Yarn Along - Preparing for Spring

I'm joining with Ginny at Small Things again for the Yarn Along. This week my reading has largely been continuing to read Sanctuaries of Childhood, and as I look forward towards spring I've been consulting with Wynstoes Press's Spring book. We've started doing a story and a few circle verses each morning after breakfast again and I'd like to keep it up as we move into spring so I'm going through my resources.

I'm continuing working on the picky pants that I wrote about last week. I've finished the short rows in them so just a little bit more till I start the gussets and legs. My new project this week has been getting more of my attention. I started working on another Autumn Leaves sweater for Rosebud. This time I'm knitting it in white to go over her Easter Dress and Baptism gown. With Easter being so early this year I'm going to make this one with long sleeves since it's likely to be a bit chilly. I LOVE this pattern. It's absolutely one of my favorites and was even more enjoyable to knit the second time.

Yarn Along

I'm joining with Ginny today at Small Things for the Yarn Along.  This week I'm knitting on a new pair of wool longies for Rosebud using the Picky Pants pattern.  This is the second pair of these I'm making for her and we really love them but she needs a second pair for when the first ones need to dry out between diaper changes.  We've really been loving  our wool longies and soakers as diaper covers lately and there's something so sweet and cuddly about a baby wearing wool!

My reading this week is Sanctuaries of Childhood by Shea Darian.  I love this book so far and it ties in nicely with what I've been thinking lately about the sacredness of childhood and motherhood.  I do believe that as their mother, I need to be sharing my faith with Toadstool and Rosebud.  I also agree with Ms. Darian that this goes beyond simply sharing my religion with them through attending church (though that does play an important role in our family) and rather also includes helping them see God's grace and beauty in the world around us everyday. 

Having just read the preface and first chapter, this book is inspiring me and there are several things I want to bring to our family including adapting the blessings she includes for coming home and leaving the house among things.  I think I will print my own variations of these on some watercolor paintings and hang them by our front door.  How lovely it would be to pause as a family and say a blessing verse as we come or go rather than to just rush in or out the door!  

This Moment - Her Mama Knits A Little....

From SouleMama: {this moment} – A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Share your own moment in the comments or atSouleMama.com.

Yarn Along-Preparing for Valentine's Day

I'm joining with Ginny today at Small Things for the Yarn Along. I have to admit I've not been reading anything over the past week or so. I've been a bit busy with caring Toadstool, Rosebud and myself while we've been sick and with a few handwork projects as we prepare for Valentine's Day next week.

My knitting project today is this baby heart that will be part of a larger project Toadstool and I are making for Rosebud for Valentine's Day.  I can't wait to show you all the bigger project as it comes together and I get some photos of it taken.

I've been working on some bigger knitting projects too.  Rosebud is growing like crazy and many of her newborn items are no longer fitting so I've been trying to keep up and get a few new things made for her recently.  I've just finished a pair of longies, some booties and a sweater. I'll try to get pictures and Ravelry notes up as I am able to get to it! She's badly in need of a new hat, at least one more pair of longies and some bibs so I have just a few more things to cast on!    I'm also hoping to make one or two more pairs of booties for her since the ones I made don't really go with everything and she needs them to keep her little feet warm.  Also Toadstool has finally outgrown his pair of mama-made socks so I need to get busy on a new pair for him.  He likes having a little mama-love on his feet when he goes to school.

Of Oak Leaves and Acorns...... A Yarn Along Post

Do you feel that slight nip on the breeze?  It's subtle....but it's there....that first hint in the air that fall is on it's way!  After this miserable, hot summer it makes my heart sing!  I always love that first glimpse that my favorite time of year is on it's way.  I start wanting to cook our family's favorite fall dishes, lots of pumpkin flavored things, cranberry, apple stuffed pork chops, soups, etc.  School starts soon and there's the anticipation of W going off to school a few mornings a week by himself for the first time and all the back to school preparations that need to be made.  His sweater and vest that he wanted for school this year are completed (and still both need to be photographed...but as I  write this he is napping and I'm afraid I will wake him if I try to get them out of his dresser drawer).  I'm working on a pair of socks for him for this year.....struggling to keep working on them.  I love the pattern, but I think the plain blue yarn is boring me to tears.  Hard to work on them when there are more exciting things to knit these days.

Our family's favorite sign that fall is around the corner though is that acorn season seems to be upon us!  W discovered acorns by a parking lot the other day and was beside himself with excitement (I might have been too actually) and we picked up quite a few to start off our yearly collection.  The following day we found more at a local park.  The child is in acorn heaven and this sign of fall is about to start taking over our nature table, and his room, and our cars.  It's just that time of year!

As luck would have it, I've been knitting more little hats for the baby, since our midwife wants us to have quite a few for it as soon as it is born.  I've made several of my favorite pilot caps, but decided a few other little caps might come in handy too.  They are quick and enjoyable to knit.  For the second one I made, I decided to use the cables from the Forever Autumn sock pattern, and repeat it five times around a little cap.  It's darling, but I think the colorway of the yarn might be a little too busy for the cables.  Still, I love that my autumn baby will have some oak leaves on one of it's first little caps, and it matches one of the little sweaters I made for the baby over the summer.

Then I decided that I really need an oak leaf cabled hat too, so I used some Andes Del Campo in Smolder Heather from knit picks that I had on hand and size 8 needles to make myself a cap from the same pattern.  Oh, it is love!  I adore oak trees, leaves and acorns, and I am especially fond of that orangey- golden brown that many oak leaves turn in the fall.  I didn't realize it at first, but this yarn is that color....just beautiful....and it goes with my brown winter coat too!  I couldn't stop with the hat though and also had to make myself a lovely  matching cowl to wear with it (sorry I haven't blocked the cowl yet in the picture.  It just came off my needles this morning.)  I am so excited!  It feels strange and luxurious to knit something for myself again, when I've been focusing so hard on knitting for W and for the baby.  Actually, I don't think I've knit anything for myself in over a year so this is a real special treat!  If I ever get W's socks off of my size 2 dpn's I'm going to finally cast on a pair of the Forever Autumn socks for me too.  I think they'd be a lovely thing to give myself for my birthday this fall!

Okay, so, on to the Yarn Along portion of the post.  I'm joining with Ginny of Small Things for her Yarn Along again.

I'm knitting yet another oak leaf newborn cap out of this lovely green wool tweed yarn (sorry I just cast it on this afternoon).  I'm guessing the leaf pattern should stand out better in the tweed than it did with the busy colorway of the last one I made.  I'm pretty excited about knitting yet another one of these.  I need to come up with something for W with this pattern on it too.  He says he doesn't want a hat or cowl...maybe I'll put it on a Milo vest for him (I may have already done one like this for the baby).  I've almost got the pattern memorized at this point.    Maybe that should be a birthday present for him.  I think he'd like that.

For reading, I've been working my way through The Breastfeeding Mother's Guide to Making More Milk. There are several possible reasons I had difficulties with my supply when W was a baby, and I'm trying to be prepared to get my nursing relationship with this little one off to as good of a start as I possibly can.  How I wish I had this book the last time around. You would never know it now, but it was such a struggle to feed W and to get him to actually gain weight as a baby and really I had very little support or knowledge, just a determination that I was going to feed my baby every drop of my breast milk that I could even if I still did have to supplement.  It was so emotionally and physically exhausting.  This time around I have so much more support, and knowledge and experience and I am going into nursing, knowing I've had issues in the past and with a much better idea of how to prevent/ minimize/work through them this time around.  This book is invaluable for any mom who is going through this.  Such a great resource!

Yarn Along

Yet again, it's been far too long since I posted here, but blogging ideas are starting to fill my head again so I'm going to try to start out slow with a Yarn Along post, joining with Ginny of Small Things.

I think in my last post I mentioned that we have a baby coming in October.  That was months ago. In many ways this pregnancy has been really hard on me both physically and emotionally, but things are really looking up again. My health is pretty good now and somehow now that I'm in my third trimester, most days my energy is way up (this may have something to do with some major dietary changes on my part). I finally have a wonderful birth team in place with a wonderful midwife and doula and if all things go according to play we'll get the homebirth that DH and I have so desperately wanted this time around.  It's amazing how finding the right care provider changed  so much of my view of this pregnancy.  My original midwives were a very poor fit for me personally and many tears were shed on my part over how things went there.  The past two weeks, since I found my new midwife I finally feel like I can move forward and really plan for this birth.

One of the benefits of having had such a hard first half of this pregnancy is that I had lots and lots of time where the only thing I felt up to doing was knitting.  I can't wait to see this baby all snuggly in mama-knit wooly goodness.  Here is a sampling of a few of the things I've made for this baby.  I still have lots of items to block and photograph.

I've also made several items for big brother W as he gets ready for school this year.  He especially requested that I make him an owl Milo vest (and one for "his" baby to match) along with a sweater (he also wants "his baby" to have a matching one again but I need more yarn for that).  I still need to work on some rain boot liners and socks for him as well as those were his other requests.  I'm delighted that he loves wearing mama-made items so much!  It's very sweet and makes it a pleasure to knit for him.  Sometime soon I'll have to get his sweaters blocked and photographed as well.  Just maybe he'll agree to model them for me.

So, onto this Yarn Along....

I'm currently making a Buttercup Baby Cardigan.  It's such a simple and quick little sweater made from worsted weight yarn which is a nice change from all the fingerling and sport weight yarns I've been working with lately.  It's almost done.  I just have to knit the cuff on the second sleeve and make the i-cord ties.  Seems like maybe a  project I can finish this evening.

Right now I am taking a break from the books on childbirth I've recently been reading so that I can read Phillipa Gregory's The Kingmaker's Daughter.  Phillipa Gregory books are totally my not-so guilty pleasure.  I love them and eagerly await each one, so no surprise I'm over half way through this one after starting it last night.  I'll probably finish it this evening too while I work on the sweater for the baby.

Yarn Along

I'm joining with Ginnny of Small Things again for the Yarn along.  My current projects on the needles/hook are a rag rug I am crocheting from old clothes and a set of  liners for W's rainboots.  Here is the pattern I am adapting to fit rainboots with a tab in the back instead of the handles on the sides.  I feel like I've been working on these liners for a really really long time given that they are just simple in the round knitting of stockinette with a few decreases periodically.  Not difficult knitting, and perhaps not the most attention grabbing either.  Maybe that's why I keep setting them when other projects come up.   I'll be happy if I finish them for W's rainboots this spring.  I do think they will be very practical for him to have for playgroup and school and they make the boots look so cute!  In terms of reading, I've been a bit all over the place.  I have been re-reading Little Women again on my Kindle.  It's easy night reading that doesn't keep me up since I've read it so many times in the past, but is cozy and comforting like a visit with old friends.  It's definitely one of my all time favorites.

I've finished two other projects since my last Yarn Along.  The first is this scrappy hat for W.  He had a lovely hat with a long floppy point that I had made for him last year.  It was causing some issues on the playground at school however since all of his friends wanted to pull on it, so we decided he needed a new hat.  I had also been thinking about knitting a cowl for him but decided to make him  this instead.  He loves it and was so happy wearing it at school today.

The other project  I finished was this "ranger cowl" for my park ranger husband.  He wanted a brown scarf to wear with his uniform.  I didn't have enough of this yarn for a scarf so I made him this cowl instead.  It's kind of nice knowing that on a cold day at work he can wear something made with love to help him stay nice and warm. 

I want to make W a pair of felted mittens to match his scrappy hat.  Also I'm thinking that it's time the mama in this family makes herself a hat and cowl to help her stay warm this winter too.

For more "wooly" goodness, please stop by my photography project Wool365.  Often these days things I am making are posted there before I manage to post the here at Under The Old Oak Tree.

Yarn Along and announcing Wool 365

It's been quite a while since I've been on this space and I've missed it.  I think I'm back, but I need to figure out how this is now going to work into our family's rhythm.  It seems like joining in the Yarn Along each week might be a good place to start.  Speaking of rhythm, we need to figure that out again now that the holidays are winding down.

I'm also announcing the start of a new project of mine, Wool 365.  DH and I got a new DSLR camera for Christmas and I figured taking pictures each day would be a good way to learn to use the camera.  I decided to use Wool as my subject.  While working on decluttering this week I realized that I have surrounded our family with wool.  My creativity is largely wool based, with the needle felting, knitting and crocheting that I do.  For me, it seems like a natural subject matter.

This fall was super busy for us. It has also been a really lovely blessed time for our family. We had lots of company over the last few months, which was wonderful.  We've celebrated festivals and holidays and birthdays and maybe if I get around to it I'll share more about that later.  W and I have been attending a weekly Waldorf Play group and we also have our parent-child class at the school once a week.  DH and I are attending bi-weekly parent discussions that are being offered by one of the teachers at the school as well.  The school and the school community have been so wonderful for our family this fall and I am eagerly awaiting the spring term, hoping to get involved in the handwork group etc.

Okay, now to the yarn along.  I'm joining with Ginny of Small Things for this week's yarn along. I've got lots of WIP, but the two I've been working on primarily are the Alice shawl in  Green/Plum Malabrigo sock yarn, and what I am calling the Ranger Cowl for DH to be able to wear to work now that the weather seems to be getting colder finally.  I'm using this Easy Unisex Cowl pattern for it and since DH claims a wool allergy (can you believe I'm married to a man with a wool allergy?) I'm using Lion Brand Wool-Ease that is mostly acrylic.  I don't think that will make him too itchy.  This allergy is probably the reason I don't knit many things for him though.

In terms of reading, I received a Kindle for Christmas and I am loving it.  I just finished reading Philippa Gregory's Lady Rivers on it. Philippa Gregory novels (and others about dead British royals too) are one of my big guilty pleasures! I also have put all the pdf's of patterns I'm knitting onto it which is just wonderful!  DH and I are also working through Simplicity Parenting together for the parent discussions that we have been attending at W's school.

Yarn Along and updates

It's been a couple weeks again since I've managed to participate in the Yarn Along with Ginny of Small Things. Come to think of it, it's been a few weeks since I've managed to even update the blog.  What can I say, things have suddenly gotten very busy around here.

I have finally made some like-minded mama friends around here which is just wonderful!  Together with them I have been very busy starting a local Waldorf Homeschool Coop we are calling Rosebud Circle.  We aren't planning on homeschooling unless we were to move somewhere without a school, but we also don't live particularly close to the nearest Waldorf school here so it's nice to have a local community closer to home.

W and I are also hoping that we will be starting the parent-child class at the nearest Waldorf School next month.  The teacher welcomed us into the class in May and I just realized last week that we hadn't heard anything since then and school starts very soon.  I'm in the process of playing phone/email tag with the school now and hope we get it all resolved soon so we can start week after next.  Our homeschool community is wonderful, but I also really feel a need to be connected to a Waldorf School as well.

I am going to be starting Waldorf Foundation Year Studies through the Sophia Institute late next month as well which is hopefully the start of an exciting new chapter in my life as well.   For some time now I have been wanting to start Waldorf teacher training but I guess it's something I haven't mentioned here previously. My intention had been to start earlier this year, but then our move came up and I had to postpone my intentions for a while.  I'm glad that we are finally settled enough for me to start down this path. I'm really looking forward to this and I think it is going to offer me great opportunities for my own personal growth and really make me stretch  in new ways.  I'm still undecided as to whether I want to pursue early childhood education or elementary education.  I had always thought I would go into elementary education, but there continues to be this little voice in my mind telling me that early childhood might be where I need to be.  I really enjoy both age groups and the curriculum is so beautiful from early childhood up through the grades.  Sometimes I think both are calling to me with equal intensity at this point.  My hope is that as I go through the foundation studies I will be better able to decide in which direction I am being called.  I am sure that by the time I need to make the decision, I will have a clearer picture of what that calling is going to be.

Okay, now to the yarn along!  I finished the first sweater I've ever completed.  It's a blue wool hoodie for W (Rav notes here).  He loves it but I have to apologize for the bad picture.  He didn't feel like being a very cooperative model.  I enjoyed knitting this one so much that when I went back to the store to get a skein of yarn to finish it, I decided I also wanted to make him a striped one which is my knitting project for this week.  I decided to knit this one in the round and work the arms from the top down (Rav notes here).  As I write this, though I'm realizing I'm going to have to go back and take a quite a few rows and start the decreases on the first sleeve.  Still, I don't think it will take me too much longer to complete it.  I'm amazed my how much more quickly it has gone knitting this sweater in the round than it did knitting it flat.

For books this week, I just completed Farmer Boy (not pictured) and The Long Winter from the Little House series.  Oh how I love these books!  I read little bits of Farmer Boy outloud to W and he loved hearing new stories about " 'Manzo" besides the ones in his My First Little House books.  It's certainly not a book I would read to him in its entirety, but I was surprised by how much he enjoyed me reading a chapter book to him.  My other book that I am currently reading in School as a journey by Torin M Finser.  I ordered a used copy of this one from Amazon and imagine my surprise when I opened it up and found that it was a signed copy!  Kind of cool!  In any case, I've read the chapters on first and second grades and I'm working my way through the 3rd grade chapter now.  It's a fantastic book and is really inspiring me right now.  

Okay, hopefully I can be back here a little more regularly in the coming weeks.  I'm also hoping to get a few minutes in the next day or so to see what all of you are working on!

Yarn Along

I'm joining with Ginny of Small Things again today for the Yarn Along.

I haven't had a huge amount of time for knitting lately, but when I have, I've been working on this large worsted weight shawl.  I really want to get it done and blocked soon so that a) I have it to wear once the weather gets colder and b) so that I can focus on really getting started on gifts for autumn birthdays and Christmas.

I have been reading a good bit recently though (and perhaps thus neglecting my knitting).  I started reading Nourishing Traditions recently and of course I have thus been spending most of my time in the kitchen cooking, and soaking and fermenting up a storm.  I was a bit skeptical going in to it, but I have really enjoyed the book and implementing as much of it as possible so far, I feel fantastic.  I think this will have to be covered in a later blog post at a later time.  If you are interested however, my friend Tiffany  at The Real Food Mom has been blogging about it from her own unique perspective.  It's been fun sharing thoughts about more traditional foods with her.  I've also been reading Nina Planck's Real Food and have found it to be a good companion to NT.

Otherwise in reading, I have set aside Wuthering Heights for now.  I'm thinking I'll go back to it this fall, but for now I am doing some reading to prepare for our upcoming trip out West to visit my parents.  While my husband, the Park Ranger is looking into all of the National Park sites between here and there, I'm excited about getting to visit the Little House on The Prairie Museum.  We've been reading the My First Little House books to W on a daily basis and he absolutely loves them and is also really excited to go see "Laura's House".  So, in preparation for the trip, I just completed Little House in the Big Woods and I will start Little House on the Prairie this evening.  We read all of the Little House books when I was a child and our family vacations often included visiting Little House sites.  I think Pepin Wisconsin is the only one we did not visit when I was a kid.  Once W is a bit older, I think we will have to do all of the Little House sites with him as well.  I so love sharing this with him already.

As I read, I'm looking for ways to make this come alive for W as we travel across the country to the plains.  I think this may have to be it's own post as well at some later point, but if anyone has any suggestions for resources or activities that would work for a three year old boy, please leave me a comment!

Yarn Along

Okay, after a week off I'm back to joining Ginny of Small Things in her yarn-along.  The past two weeks have been just crazy with sending out our Four Season Exchange items (more on that in another post) preparations for Midsummer, and making a rather involved doll as a gift and celebrating our third wedding anniversary yesterday.  Not sure why those special events in our house always seem to pile up on each other like that but it always seems to be the way of things around here.

In any case, I have not gotten much reading done around here for a while except for books I consulted preparing for Midsummer.

I need to get back to Wuthering Heights.  I just renewed it from the library so hopefully I'll get some good reading time in this week.  My other book perusals have been some knitting books from the library as I am starting to make my list of gifts to make for Christmas.  I've found some inspiration in Knitted Gifts: Irresistible Projects to Make & Give and Son of Stitch 'N Bitch:45 Projects to knit and crochet for MEN.  I found an idea or two in each that I am going to work on.  I have a post about planning Christmas gifts in the works too.

In terms of knitting, I've made some progress on all of my knitting. I did  a lot of knitting on our vacation and finished the first of W's socks except to Kitchener stitch the toe together (needed to look up the directions on that one again) but now that I am home and have my directions I can not seem to find that project bag anywhere. I'm going to have to check the husband's car again to make sure it didn't get left in there somehow after our trip.

I have two new projects to share with you today.  I know, I know, I wasn't going to cast on anything else till I got some projects off of the needles, but having one lost sock that is nearly finished counts right?  The first project, actually is not new, but I've not shared it before.  It is a large shawl in a worsted weight yarn that I have been playing with (not really using a specific pattern) to try some different techniques out.  It has gotten pretty big and I'm thinking  it will only get a few more rows before I cast it off the needles.  I'm looking forward to wearing this in the fall and winter this year.  I love this purple yarn (finally something that's not blue or green)!

The other project I started is a hoodie sweater for W that I have been planning for a while.  The pattern is a freebie from the craft store designed for that acrylic lion brand homespun that I remember knitting with a lot when I first picked up needles years ago.  Now, there is no way I would knit with that, but I found some light blue bulky weight wool (just a shade lighter than W's eyes) to make it out of.  I think it should be a pretty quick knit and I'm going to give it to W either for his birthday in November or for Christmas since it seems like it will be a pretty warm sweater.  Considering I just started the back of it and I haven't had a huge amount of knitting time in the past few days I'm happy with the progress.

W wants to share a book suggestion again this week too.  We have been reading Cat Goes Fiddle- I -Fee almost every day at nap time recently.  It has such a great rhythm and repetition of the animal sounds.  W likes to recite it along with me as I read it.

Yarn Along

I am  joining with Ginny of Small Things again this week for the Yarn Along.  I'm really looking forward to seeing what everyone is knitting and reading this week.


For my reading, I'm still working on Wuthering Heights and still enjoying it.  I'm going to reserve further commentary on this book though till I finish it.

On the needles this week, I still have all of my projects from last week as well as another shawl using cotton yarn.  My intention is for this to be a Christmas present.  I've been working on most of these projects a little each day.  I am putting my foot down with myself however and not allowing myself to cast on any more projects till I complete at least one of these.  I realized this morning when I was putting all of the projects out together that they are all in shades of blue or green.  I have some delicious reddish-brown yarn waiting for my next project to break out of that rut.


You might notice one further addition to my table of knitting this week.  A new pair of reading/knitting glasses. I've never worn glasses before and I am amazed at how much more clearly I can see my work and my reading now.

W's book pick for this week is The Rose In My Garden.  We love the beautiful illustrations of flowers and critters.  If you are familiar with the book you might find it somewhat ironic that our cat was pretty insistent on staying on the sofa while I photographed it. 

Yarn Along

I am joining Ginny from Small Things in her Yarn Along again this week.   Thanks for all the comments on Wuthering Heights last week.  It's slow going, but I've stuck with it and I am enjoying it.  It was definitely worth getting through those first pages. I've also been rereading parts of Simplicity Parenting this week looking to get us back into some semblance of rhythm for the summer.  I've especially been focusing on what he has to say about sleep since that is sometimes a bit of an issue for us.

In terms of knitting, I'm still plugging away at that shawl.  It's growing and getting closer to the lace part, but has a little ways to go.  I'm finding this to be my go to project to knit on while I'm reading since it is mostly easy stockinette with a yarn over thrown in here and there.  I also decided to start on a Pembroke Sweater Vest for W.  I'm really enjoying working on the cables and it's coming along more quickly than I would have imagined.

I found a local yarn shop in our town this week and of course W and I had to stop in to check it out.  I'm so glad we did!  It was an amazing experience. The owner brought out coloring books and crayons for W and totally engaged him while I was trying to decide what yarn to buy.  The shop is under new ownership and the owner is working hard to get classes going.  We even had a fantastic discussion about how important she thinks it is for boys to learn to knit.  I could not agree more and think it is wonderful that one of her goals is to have monthly knitting nights for men and boys at the shop! I'm really looking forward to spending more time there. W  helped several customers (including myself) choose yarn for their projects.  He choose green yarn each time!  I love the superwash merino he helped me choose and couldn't wait to knit it up so I started a pair of socks for him.  He is really excited about them and keeps saying "Mama's making socks for me!" each time he sees me knitting them.

W's book pick this week is Puff the Magic Dragon.  We received the book as a gift when he was born and he had not shown much interest in it till recently, but oh how he loves this book (pictured with W's cup of Strawberry tea by his request).  It didn't take him long to learn every single word of the song as we read this book over and over.  He sings about Puff and Jackie Paper constantly now!  He decidedly however, does not enjoy the CD that came with the book, though I enjoy it having grown up listening to Peter Yarrow sing with Peter Paul and Mary.

Looking forward to seeing what everyone is reading and knitting this week!

Yarn Along

This week for the Yarn Along from Small Things I am happy to show you the completed scarf I had started last week.  I can't wait till the weather is cool enough to actually wear this.  It's in my favorite eggplant/plum color and remains one of my favorite easy quick knit projects.  I don't even have to look at a pattern to knit one of these at this point.  I'm also continuing work on my shawl, but  haven't made too much progress.  I'm looking forward to getting to the lace portions since I get a bit bored with all that stockinette, but I keep plugging away at it.  


For books this week, I finished  The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Bronte within an hour of finishing my scarf.  I really enjoyed it and feel inspired to read more works by all three Bronte sisters.  To that end, I started reading Wuthering Heights yesterday.  Honestly, I am remembering why I put it down in the first few pages when I attempted it as a teenager and never picked it back up until now.  I find Emily Bronte's prose to be quite dense and much less accessible than I found Charlotte Bronte to be (at least in Jane Eyer).  This time I am determined to persevere and read it however, and as it goes on, I'm finding that I am adjusting to her style and enjoying it. I would say however, at this point both the boring stockinette in my shawl and reading Wuthering Heights are exercising my will and in the end will contribute to strengthening it (I've obviously been ingesting a bit of Steiner recently too).  I do expect great rewards in terms of learning and  feelings of accomplishment with both endeavors!


I'm also perusing Earthways: Simple Environmental Activities for Young Children which is apparently the only Waldorf book contained in our local library system.  I think it has some ideas in it that we might try and I'm looking forward to delving into it a bit more.

W also has some favorite book selections to share this week.  He has been loving his first two selections from the My First Little House Books series, Summertime In The Big Woods and County Fair.  He is especially enthralled by the County Fair book and the part about the mules.  W's daddy used to work with mules so they've been having lots of conversations about mules not being scary and daddy's even making plans to take W to visit the mules now.  All of this warms my heart.  I grew up heavily influenced by the original Laura Ingalls Wilder books and many of our family vacations when I was a kid revolved around visiting places where the Ingalls family lived.  I have such vivid memories of those trips to this day.  I hope one day to share a similar experience with W.  


W's other selection is Ruth Brown's Ladybug Ladybug.  We received our own copy of it in the mail this week. I've written about it before and it is a favorite in our house. This was a book W was heartbroken to return to the library so he's very excited to have his own copy which he wants to read multiple times a day.

Yarn Along

I am continue to participate in Small Things' Yarn Along this week.  

I've done some more work on my shawl, but the stockinette portion is taking a while, and I needed some knitting variety, so I have cast on this scarf.  You may remember I made about five of these last Christmas as gifts for the women in my family.  They are a great quick knit and I had intended to make one  for me and never got around to it, so here we go.  I've made a few small changes to the pattern for interest.  I'm using some purple Patons Wool yarn that I found left over in my stash.

This week I have finished up Children at Play.  I found that I really enjoyed it and that it is having quite an impact already on how I view W's play and toys and reinforces what we are choosing for him in terms of education.

I also have been looking at the verses, songs and stories in Wynstones Press's

Summer: A Collection of Poems, Songs and Stories for Young Children, as we look forward to summer and our Midsummer/ St. John's Day celebration.

This week I found myself revisiting Raising a Son which I have not looked at since W was an infant.  As part of my quest to be a more mindful parent, I felt that I wanted to delve into this again.

For fun I picked up The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Bronte  from the library. I read Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre a few weeks ago in preparation for listening to the Diane Rehm Show's program on that book.  One of her guests was the other of this novel, Syrie James.  I loved Jane Eyre and decided to read a novel about the author as well. 

W also made a selection for this week's Yarn Along.  A friend recently recommended Farmer Brown Shear His Sheep: A Yarn About Wool so we picked it up from the library.  The illustrations are very cartoonish for my taste, but the story is told through a wonderful, humorous rhyme and W and I love that it covers all the steps in making a sweater from shearing the sheep to knitting.  It is definitely a fun read, especially for two sheep and wool lovers like W and myself.

Yarn Along

This week I have decided to start participating in the Yarn Along from Small Things.  Hopefully it will keep me a little more on track with both my knitting and reading.

Right now I am working my way through Children At Play:Using Waldorf Principles to Foster Childhood Development by Heidi Britz-Crecelius.  So far, I am really enjoying reading her insights on play and the importance of creating opportunities for children to play with the elements.


For my knitting this week I am working on my first shawl.  I can't believe I've never knitted a shawl before.  I'm finding it really enjoyable and I'm looking forward to trying my hand at a bit of lace.  I'm using this Skipping Stones pattern but plan on adding some to the size of it by increasing my stitch count when I start the lace my multiples of twenty-four.    I am absolutely in love with the yarn which is lace weight merino wool that I purchased at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival from Mistralee Farm Studio of Oxford PA.  The colorway is called Mallard and I don't think you can really get a true sense of it from the picture.  It has the most beautiful deep blues and blue greens that are perfectly blended.  This yarn has given me such pleasure working with it.  I can't wait to finish this shawl which is going to be for me.  I've not actually knitted much for myself recently, so I think it's time I make something for me.  I'm also thinking that shawls would make wonderful Christmas gifts for a couple of special grandmothers and I have a beautiful wool/silk blend that I also purchased from Mistralee Farm Studio which would be perfect for those!

Handmade Holiday Monday...or..um...Saturday...

Okay, so I've not posted about our handmade holiday efforts in a while, but I do have some projects done and ready to share.

Again, the disclaimer, if you are a member of my family, please stop reading this blog till Christmas gifts are exchanged!

First a warm wool hat for my husband's cousin who lives in upstate New York.  It was my first Beanie #212 watch cap knitted flat and seamed together.

I then thought that my BIL who works out on a boat for a couple weeks at a time could also use some warm wool on his head and I used the same pattern but knitted in the round and added some cables.  I love how this hat turned out!

Remember my favorite scarf pattern for women?  Well, I made two more of them  A solid rosy color for MIL and a pretty pink and brown colorway for DH's aunt.

When I saw the wool handle cover at Moment to Moment, I knew I had to make my mom one to use with her cast iron skillet.  I ended up following the instructions to knit one from A Hand Made Life and felted some flowers on it.  I want a couple of these too.  Maybe if I get all the other projects finished, I'll find some in my stocking...

Except for a pair of socks that I started for my b-day and am not allowed to work on till all my Christmas gifts are complete, that is everything that I had cast on my needles finished.  I need to go get some more yarn so that I can cast on some slippers for W, and three more beanie # 212's for my hubby, father and FIL.  I also need to get busy on a few cat toys for the pets in our lives but those are super quick kits.

This week I felted down another sweater, unsure of what I was planning to do with it.  Later that evening, I remembered that I had wanted to make little tissue holder pouches for my mom and MIL from felt.  I decided to use this felted sweater instead.  I also needle felted designs on them and stitched up the sides with a blanket stitch.  I loosely based the idea on these.  The needle felting was a great way to add a little "red hat" to the gifts for MIL.

Over the summer, after receiving a batch of pictures of my son, my mom stated that she wanted to "wear a picture of W around her neck".  That became the inspiration for a Christmas gift of course!  I made one for my mom and one for MIL.  I found these little charm frames at Michaels several months ago for 75% off and printed out tiny little pictures of W to put in them.  I need to put the charms on jump rings and then  make them into necklaces, but the hard part of the project (selecting the picture, shrinking it and putting it in the little frame charms) is done.

Speaking of photo gifts, I also found pictures of FIL, DH and W all taken when they were between the ages of 18 months and 2 years old.  I've edited them to make them look fairly similar and will be framing them together as gifts for my hubby and FIL.  I was moved to tears when I put the three pictures together into a collage to see how they sit together.  I think the family resemblances between these three little boys is amazing!  I hope they like this gift as much as I do.

In our house we also allow a few purchased handmade items.  I mostly have used this get a few things for W's stocking so far.

At our Waldorf School Fest of Fall, I purchased these beautiful shooting stars from my table-mate L of Blue Iris Handcrafts.

On Etsy I purchased this cute little tub turtle for W from MamaMadeThem.  I also have purchased him one of her bathtub boats for him as we are trying to transition him away from plastic bath toys.

The other thing I bought for him on Etsy is this set of  creative wood play clips  from Creative Wood Toys.  I am sure that W and A are both going to enjoy these since they have been asking me to make them playsilk tents for the past week.  My plan is to dye a big playsilk to go with these clips as one of W's gifts.

Also at the Waldorf School Fest of Fall, I purchased this beautiful bar of lavender soap from Sweet Cheeks.  Her things are beautiful and I'm thinking there are a couple stocking-stuffers I need to order from her for the hubby!  This soap is going to go to my mom who has always loved all things lavender.

I have a couple more projects in the works here including more photo coasters, and some felted soaps which hopefully will be done for my next handmade holiday post.

We've Been Under The Weather...and The Pressure's On!

I haven't posted since Michaelmas because W and I have both been a bit under the weather.  I've been hit with a not so fun cold and W seems to have a combination of teething (those 2 year molars) and possible allergies.  He never seemed to get a cold like I did, but he has had a runny nose and is drooling like nothing I have ever seen.  When he was an infant I soaked up all that drool with the constant use of bibs but now he's such a big boy he won't wear one and his front is constantly drenched.  I am tempted to  knit up some sort of wool drool soaker to go around his neck but under his clothes.  With the weather changing I'm so afraid he will end up really getting chilled going outside sopping wet from the drool.  Of course, I have next to no time to work on this right now.

Time is short and the pressure is on.  Our rhythm is all over the place and I have suspended all Christmas present making (as well as most house keeping) till after October 16th!  "Why?" you might ask.  Because earlier this week I agreed to share a table with my friend L at our local Waldorf school's Fest of Fall selling my wool creations.  Last year we shared a table for the Holiday Bizarre at the school and had such a wonderful time and I am really looking forward to this year's event!

Here are some pictures L took of our table from last year.  Her beautiful items are on the left and my things are on the right.  W is a big fan of her gnome hats and her little gnomes!  He  wears the hat and plays with his little gnome almost daily.

I am deep into production mode here at the moment and have been keeping my hands busy during the day knitting and working intensely on needle felting items during nap times and late into the night. I need to take some pictures or the items I have finished (if I ever can get  a hold of the camera during daylight hours to take these pictures) and post them here to give you all a taste of what I will be selling.  Okay, back to work!  I'll be back to blogging after we get through the festival.

The Elves Are Still Busy At Our House...

Okay, let me start by saying, if you are a member of my family, please stop reading this blog until after Christmas if you want to be surprised!


I finally finished W's gnome hat!  It is really cute and I'm excited about how it came out!  It seems big enough that he should be able to get several years of wear out of it.  I can't wait to see him wear it!  It seems to be just the type of hat that he loves.

Here is the set I will be giving W for Christmas. Mama-made hat and mittens.  After Christmas, I will probably make an i-cord to attach the mittens to each other and  thread through his coat so that they don't get lost.

I have to say, as much as I enjoyed working on this hat, I felt like it took forever to get it done! I have lots of gifts to make for people, so I was starting to get worried that I might be working on this hat forever and not get to the other gifts that I have to make.  You can imagine my relief when I realized that this scarf is a cute, fun, easy and fairly quick knit!  I am working on one right now for my brother in-law's girlfriend and I plan on making more of them for the other women in the family. 

I have also have numerous other items to make.  Today I was thinking that I'd like to have all of my handcrafted items done before Thanksgiving so that I can focus my attention on baking and decorating the house.

Hope your holiday preparations are coming along well!