This Week

{To help me pull my thoughts together on the many areas 

we pursue through the week I'm borrowing from the day book format. 

I'll plan to post on Fridays about the many goings on around this little place.}

This week has been slow and fast all at the same time. Slow through the working hours as I started prepping all my students for the annual recital, and fast with kid things. Ellie's cold is still hanging aorund PLUS her first tooth finally made an appearance, Ezra's asthma has been a bit of a trial, and Ender- well, he's 7. And knows everything the world has to offer.

I thought we had at least 6 years until that happened.

On the Needles... 

I'm actively working on my Shapely Boyfriend Cardigan, Vertebrae for a soon-expected nephew, and what has become my yearly pair of socks. I also have a few things in my basket that have been languishing unreasonably long (including 2 promised monsters, a hat that really just needs the band finished and sewn on, and a ridiculously easy garter stitch scarf requested LAST WINTER that I just can't seem to make myself work on.)

I read... 

I did my bi-annual skim through/re-read of the Core, The Well-Educated Mind, and The 3 Rs. I always find a need to refresh our homeschool around January.

Homeschool... 

We covered Cycle 1, Week 2 in Classical Conversations. I'm not sure why I dragged my feet about starting this material in the fall, but I did and now I regret it. It totally fits Ender's learning style and he thinks all the memory work is marvelous.

In the Kitchen... 

I canned a small batch of spiced lemon honey I found in the Ball Home Canning book earlier in the week on an evening when I finished work early and after the kids were in bed. As I type I have quite a bit of citrus on my counter waiting for some preservation but I can't seem to decide between marmalade and jams...

Inspiration... 

I've been pinning tutorials and patterns for shirts and dresses to sew for Ellie over the last few weeks. I'm truly hoping I'll even get a chance to cut pieces in the next week.

Watching... 

The West Wing is my knitting entertainment right now as I wait impatiently each week for Downton Abbey to air. I didn't watch it when it was actually on t.v., and wouldn't have found it interesting at the time anyway. This is why Netflix is totally awesome.

Listening... 

This week I listened to the Knitmore Girl's episode 212 (ep. 213 waiting for me) and started listening through their back episodes. I made it through episodes 1-11 this week. I run 3-4 times a week now (NEVER thought I'd say I run by the way, but more on that another time) which has made for some prime podcast listening time, as well as any time I'm spending more than 10 minutes cooking or doing chores. As you can tell, that time really adds up through the week, since I plowed my way through 11 episodes in just 1 week.

Garden...

Plans have been made for several months now, but now we have to wait a bit for "warm enough" to come along so that we can get started pulling out some of the beds that are here from the previous owner. There is a lot of grading to be done next to the house to be sure we don't have water issues later and that has to come before the fun gardening... or so I'm told.

In Stitches... 

I finally unearthed my machine. I haven't seen her since before the move (almost a year ago!) and I would like to get started making a few things for Ellie to get ready for summer. The boys will be needing shorts too, and I've had a request for more pajamas.

I didn't get to...

The library or any of the errands that I wanted to run. I haven't even had a chance at the grocery store this week. I'm hoping for that today, but Ellie is still snuffly, Ezra is wheezy and I think Ender has the beginning of this cold too. Perhaps we'll have a burst of energy later in the day and a trip out of the house will actually sound appealing.

This weekend...

I'm planning to can some citrus and knit but I suspect most of my time will be consumed by taking care of the sniffles running our house right now. I should never make plans to cut fabric. It's as if all the germs from miles around come together in that instant to plot against any sewing plans I make.

I'd love to hear how your week went... feel free to post a link in comments!

Yarn Along

{Yarning along with Ginny to share current knits and reads...}

My Shapely Boyfriend Cardi is coming along nicely. I still have about 20ish rows to the end of the body but it's straight stockinette and that will finish nicely either tonight or tomorrow after work and getting kids to bed. 

Then it's on to my least favorite part of cardigans/sweaters to knit- the sleeves. I have some kind of sleeve issue the way some knitters develop Second Sock Syndrome. I know that if I just get them going and put the time in they will be done in a few very short nights of knitting, but that doesn't ever seem to help. I always put off starting sleeves and every single time I actually start them and finish them quickly I always mentally call myself a crazy person for not just getting on with it in the first place. I mean, they're so simple! And yet, I put it off. It's a little hilarious when you consider how much time I've already put into the body of a cardi/sweater- to then get hung up on a little sleeve is a bit embarrassing.

But take my other knit for example. That would be a pretty little Vertebrae for a new nephew due to arrive in a few weeks. It's a pattern I've knit before and LOVE. The body came together in two short evenings, but where am I paused? On the silly sleeves. The sleeves are practically nothing! However, they're knit in the round and I knit the body on US 4 circulars, neglecting to be sure I have size 4 DPNs for the sleeves. The fact is that US 4 is the ONLY size DPN I don't have, but I do have 2 circs in size 4 so I'm knitting with those instead... inducing much frustration because I really really dislike knitting on 2 circs.

... Aaaaaaaand a pair of US 4 DPNs just fell into my online cart so that I can stop arguing with myself.

I've been re-reading our base education books this past week. The Core, The Well-Trained Mind and the 3 R's have been the foundation of educating our boys. We don't follow absolutely everything, but this is where our base lies. I find it demands a re-read about twice a year- usually April-June, while I'm planning for the new school year, and somewhere around Christmas break I end up skimming through the sections where schooling feels a little wonky. It's skimming time and I'm concentrated on science right now since it is the subject most interesting to our boys and our human body unit is coming to a close in a week or two.

What are you reading and knitting this week?

Cardi Progress

Ellie and I stayed home for the whole weekend. She has been a little snuffly plus more snow and ice showed up again. Brian and the boys braved a super quick run to the grocery store for a handful of staples and went to church on Sunday without us, but otherwise stayed home with us.

I love when this happens (not the sick baby of course, but the staying home for two whole days) because it means we just have time to hang out. Chores get done early and that leaves plenty of time for games and fun meals and maybe a movie.

I made some good progress on my Shapely Boyfriend cardigan while Ellie napped. I made it through the waist shaping by last night and tonight I'll work my way through at least some of the hip shaping (it all depends on how much knitting time I get after kid bedtime tonight).

The real color of this yarn has been hard to capture. I've tried to photograph it in several places in the house, and even outside on Friday when the sun actually made an appearance in the afternoon. The two above are the most accurate, but the color is still somewhere between these two pictures. It's a soft gray blue, a little more to the blue side of things but not as bright as the top photo.


So far progress has been steady and problem free, but I'm pretty much triple reading all directions at this point. After my epic cast on error I'm particularly paranoid. Don't get me wrong- the pattern itself is great. I just seem to have a "reading directions" problem. It probably doesn't help that Ender keeps asking me if I've "made any more mistakes" every time he sees me working with this yarn.


Love that kid.