Weekends are for knitting

We had a lovely, blustery November weekend here. Lots of rain and wind and then snow. It was perfect weather for homemade soup and bread and knitting. I finally finished the first sock of this pair. They are for me, and I started them last fall. Maybe by next fall I will have the completed pair.

Yarn Along

Ginny from http://www.gsheller.com/2010/11/yarn-along.html has inspired this post. I finished this dish rag yesterday. I love hand knit dish rags. I just started reading this book. I bought it because of the cover picture (I know it is covered up, sorry!). Maddie from Persisting Stars took this photograph and I have been enchanted with it for a long time. When I heard it was being used on the cover of this book I had to buy it.

Knit-less

The last couple of weeks have been rough. I have been so busy and I have not taken the time to relax. I miss my knitting time. Knitting is good for my soul, it makes me a better person. I am a better mother, wife, and friend to myself when I knit. During the week I usually have too much going on to knit, but weekends are for knitting. During the week I homeschool my children, raise and nurture them, cook mostly from scratch (I do on weekends too), run errands, take the children to various lessons, and go to school full-time myself (thankfully all of my classes are online at this point). Weekends are for knitting, and baking, and Making, and just slowing down.

The last couple of weekends there has been no knitting or slowing down, and I am really feeling it. I have been knit-less and I am not happy about it. I do not think it would be wise for me to wait until this weekend to knit again. I am going to go bake some chocolate chip cookies, make myself a cup of tea, and knit... my homework will still be here tomorrow.

Yarn Along

Ginny from http://www.gsheller.com/2010/11/yarn-along.html has inspired this post. I am reading this lovely book to my children right now. The knitting is a sock for my husband.

Weekends are for knitting

Weekends are for knitting, but there was no knitting this weekend. This weekend there was pumpkin carving and baking and partying galore. We baked brownies and bread and cookies and made soup. We roasted pumpkin seeds and painted and laughed. We played games and listened to spooky music and ate so many tasty treats. Happy Halloween!

{this moment}

{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.
Inspired by Soule Mama

It is in the making of things...

{"If a poet is anybody, he is somebody to whom things made matter very little - somebody who is obsessed by Making".
e. e. cummings
I find such joy in the Making. These pictures are from some of the Making moments this week.}

Weekends are for knitting

We are having a delicious rainy weekend around here. This weekend has been exactly what weekends should be. There has been lots of knitting and watching movies and Making. The children and I made soup and flat bread and cake and apple pies. We spent Saturday evening at my sister's house playing cards and laughing ourselves sick. We took the children to a farm to pick pumpkins. We came home with boxes of apples and pears and raspberries as well. Our home is overflowing with simple abundance! I bought some cute little quilted crystal, four ounce glass jam jars that I put tea lights in and placed on our kitchen table. They are sparkly and warm and cozy when lit. They make dinner time just a bit more magical. The children are all painting at the kitchen table right now, creating joy and love. I think I will start another load of laundry, bust out my watercolors, and paint with my babies. I adore weekends!

{this moment}

{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.
Inspired by Soule Mama

It is in the making of things...

{"If a poet is anybody, he is somebody to whom things made matter very little - somebody who is obsessed by Making".
e. e. cummings
I find such joy in the Making. These pictures are from some of the Making moments this week.}

Weekends are for knitting

This has been a glorious Autumn-y weekend full of knitting and baking and Making. I finished a pair of socks for myself. I love them so much! I made homemade broccoli soup. I bought a grain mill and ground my own flour. I have bread dough rising in the kitchen. I can smell the yeasty goodness and my children are so excited for the flatbread I will make for dinner this evening. Life is grand and beautiful!



pattern: Yarn Harlot's Basic Sock Pattern
yarn: Lorna's Laces
colorway: Trick or Treat
needles: US 2

{this moment}

{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.
Inspired by Soule Mama

Weekends are for knitting

{this moment}

{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.
Inspired by Soule Mama

Weekends are for knitting

Aah, Autumn! My very favorite time of year. The beginning of so many things. For my husband it is football and hunting season. For me it is knitting and homemade soup season, both of which I enjoyed this beautiful fall weekend.

Taking time for me

Today Susannah Conway's blog http://www.susannahconway.com/ rained light down upon me, again. I participated in her Unravelling course this spring and it was life changing. Susannah shared a link to an amazing project called 21.5.800. http://binduwiles.com/buddhism/my-new-project-21-5-800/



Bindu Wiles http://binduwiles.com/ has created this project. I have signed on. The premise is that for 21 days we will commit to practicing yoga 5 days a week and writing 800 words a day. I am very excited and anxiously awaiting the journey that is before me.

Garden Song

A lovely little pick me up:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3FkaN0HQgs

Garden Planning

I spent the morning planning my garden and ordering seeds for this year. I am so very excited and I want to play out in the dirt and sunshine. Unfortunately, this is what my garden looks like at the moment.


A couple of days ago it felt like spring and then we had another snow storm.

My poor little gnomes.



They had to huddle together to stay warm.




I am so antsy to plant my spring crop. Just a few more weeks, hopefully...

Rebirth

There is a restlessness inside of me, a stirring. It makes me uncomfortable and hopeful all at once. I feel like my tulip and daffodil shoots, struggling to break through the ground; reaching up to the light, being reborn.

All of the pictures I have been taking have been with my little point and shoot digital camera. It is a Fujifilm FinePix A500. It has been a loyal friend but I am ready for more.

My father was a photographer. He taught me all about lighting and composition and feeling the art of photography. He bought me my first SLR when I was twelve. It was a Minolta XG-M that he picked up at a pawn shop in Portland. I loved that camera and we spent a lot of wonderful time taking pictures. When I was fourteen he brought a Minolta X-700 home for me from the same pawn shop. My first couple years of High School I spent in the dark room. Photography was my passion and I loved the dark room and the magic I worked inside of it. I belonged.

My father died the middle of my junior year and so did my interest in photography. It hurt too damn much. During my senior year I took another photography class and I enjoyed it but the passion was lost, buried like my dad.

Over the years I have taken loads of pictures of my babies. All of them have been with point and shoot cameras. I have basically just been recording events and milestones.

Last fall I participated in a fantastic online writing/photography class from Persisting Stars. I fell in love again with taking pictures. Next week I will be starting the Unravelling course. It is another online photography/writing class. My little digital camera will suffice, but I want more. I want to create, not just document. I pulled out my old Minolta's and they do not work. The XG-M is just dead and my X-700's shutter will not release. It is locked up. I will be sending it out this weekend to be repaired and I am giddy with the thought of actually creating beauty with photography again.

I feel the passion once more.

Winter Wednesday Challenge #1

We are getting back into the swing of things with our Nature Study. Our first activity of the new year was the Winter Wednesday Challenge #1. We went out into our backyard and looked at how the color of things differed in winter. The white of the snow really allowed us to see the contrast.