Yarn Along: Fickle

{Yarning Along with Ginny}

This week I:

Finished the lace work on the little purple hat for my niece. 

Finished the "Upper Edge" for the Kernel scarf and started the "Lower Edge".

Added about 2 inches to the leg of one of my grey and coral vanilla socks.

Cast on for Cerus and completed one very long row.

Put a little more time into one of the sleeves for Ellie's cardigan.

It all adds up to a lot of stitches and a ton of progress, but not a very flattering picture. The lace work all looks like a pile of yarn (as lace tends to look before it's finished and blocked) and there is no discernable progress on the socks, Cerus or Ellie's cardigan to anyone other than me. If I could have focused myself into one thing I'm sure I'd have an awesome photo for you.

Our local schools are back in session this week so it hit me on Monday that it is almost fall and Ellie will need mittens and a hat and I was hoping for mittens myself, and a good warm scarf (hence the Cerus). The boys both need hats, and I'm sure they'll request scarves since theirs are a couple years old.

I know the right answer to this situation is to buckle down on a few things (namely Kernel and Ellie's cardigan) and then jump into fall knitting, but I just can't seem to focus my attention I really want to cast on EVERYTHING in sight and I'm trying so very hard to resist. Next week I'll either have a ton of progress on specific projects to share with you, or I'll have 14 million new projects started and look like a crazy person.


I just started reading Chosen by Ted Dekker last night, and the boys and I started reading the first Boxcar Children book together yesterday. I also have Catherine, Called Birdy from the library since it was one of the chapter books I wanted to consider reading with the boys in connection with our history study this year, but I can't get into it. If I don't enjoy the first chapter or two, I'm pretty sure it's not a book I'll be able to get the boys into.

In the Garden

We're up to 13 cucumbers in the last few days- not quite enough to can pickles, but maybe enough to make some to keep in the fridge. The boys are eager to try making our own pickles. I'm thinking next year we need 4 or 5 plants instead of 2 to give it a really good shot.

Ellie is doing a great job helping us pick things out of the garden, but still picking some things a little too early. If I can get her to stop eating the tomatoes as she picks them I might end up with enough grape tomatoes to roast.

I'm trying to decide what to do with the jalapenos- maybe I'll just slice them and freeze them to use later? Roast and then freeze? Pickle?

Adjust

I went to sew with friends on Saturday mornings and was rudely interrupted by a migraine. I had to leave early and go to bed for much of the rest of the day. The boys were able to help Brian outside all afternoon cleaning up one of the overgrown beds in the backyard. Ellie went happily back and forth, outside for a bit and inside with me. She would get very upset if she caught sight of the tractor outside through the window. Ellie seems to believe that the tractor is her personal carriage.

I made some adjustments for school this weekend and gave each of the boys a reading placement test. Ezra's reading is coming along nicely and he's a little bit ahead. Ender is doing great as well and reading a few grades ahead. I'm having a hard time deciding what to have him read- I want to have him read at the level he can read, but I don't want him to read topics that are too mature for him. I'm pulling back in a few other school areas and doing more in others. I always seem to come into the new school year with a little too much to do, see what the boys enjoy and then adjust, making sure we are still covering what needs to be covered.


We're definitely enjoying our reading list so far. I tried to include as much science as possible for Ender which has made him a lot more enthusiastic about getting started each morning. He knows that as soon as he finishes math and language arts in the morning it's on to snap circuits and reading about scientists and how machines work and projects... and for this kid who doesn't *love* school, it's exciting for me to see. Reading is now easy for him and that has made all the difference in the last few months. It makes all of schooling easier and he can really be self-led in his project work now that he can read and follow the directions himself.

This Week

This week should probably be titled "wow- it's really gone, isn't it?" because that's how I feel now that Friday is here. We officially started this school year on Monday and after we finish today's school session I'm going to spend a chunk of the weekend revising a few plans to better address the boys' needs and rearranging some things to better accommodate Ellie's epic toddler-ness. We have a gate and closed doors to keep her with us, but we need to divide and conquer a little better so that she isn't left with chunks of time playing on her own next to us.

I am out of the music studio for the month which helps us get a good start on school and also a good time to get household projects done. This week was kid rooms and their closets. Ellie's is happily finished and I have a good list of what she needs clothes-wise for this winter. The boys... well, I wasn't so thrilled to find the explosion that was formerly known as their closet. If anyone has fabulous suggestions on helping boys keep their stuff from multiplying into other stuff, please let me know. One of the boys would be a complete neat freak if he had his own room. The other one doesn't notice giant piles of transformers and legos and clothes even when you point them out to him. 

I'm finishing up the fall registration in the studio today and tomorrow too, and once that's done I can truly relax and enjoy the rest of August off. 

On the Needles...

I have made very little knitting progress this week unfortunately. I mentioned in this week's Yarn Along that I bruised my hand earlier in the week and that pretty much shut down my knitting for the moment. It's feeling somewhat better and I was able to spin some yesterday without very much pain, so I'm hoping to get back to knitting a little bit in the next day or two as long as it continues to feel better. My projects in progress are still the little Striped Cardigan for Ellie, the Doctor Who Kernel, and the little hat for my niece that I shared on Wednesday.

I read...

Spinning in the Old Way by Priscilla Gibson-Roberts and hunting for another read after finishing Ready Player One.

Just Keep Spinning…

I have two balls of singles finished on this white wool. When I finish the next ball I think I'll go ahead and wind the three into a plying ball and ply before going on to more singles. I started spinning the first single with the intention of spinning a 3 ply yarn and using it to knit something for Ellie, but the more I've thought about what to do with this fiber as I'm spinning, I really just want to use it to work on more technical skills. So I'm going to spin a 3 ply as soon as I finish the current single, then I want to practice spinning from the fold with a horizontal draw. After watching the Fiber Beat video and reading more about it I really think it will be a useful technique for me. I listened to the old Fiber Beat podcast with Priscilla Gibson-Roberts and she talked about "older" spinners sometimes needing to use the horizontal draw because of the stress a vertical draw can put on the neck and shoulders. I struggle with tension issues across my shoulders as a musician and need to protect my arms as much as possible for my career. Adding tension through spinning won't help a thing, and I think horizontal draw will be healthier for my arms in the long run. 

Learning all the time…

Two wildly weird things happened in our homeschool this week as we got started with the new year. 

Weird item #1: My super artistic Ezra really loves math. I'm a little surprised by that to be honest, but he was really sad that we played some math games instead of having a formal math lesson on Wednesday. 

Weird item #2: Yesterday we had a light school day just like we will have once I start back to the studio schedule in September. We finished for the morning around 11 and went on with our chores and lunch and working on house projects in the afternoon. The boys asked around 3 or so if we were done with school for the day. They were disappointed to find out that we were, and they both asked if they could please have some homework. That was the first time I've ever had homework requested of me.

In the Kitchen... 

I read Ginny's pickle post with great interest. I have Canning for a New Generation also, and I'm finding myself in the same cucumber situation- a decent amount of cucumbers to pickle, but not enough to really pickle the sort of batch called for in canning recipes. I'm hoping to sort out some numbers and try it myself over the weekend.

Inspiration...

I started collecting dyeing links on my Knitting and Spinning Pinterest board. I'm not ready to jump in just yet, but reading and thinking about it.

Watching (Spoiler Free, of course...)

We've been watching Brain Games episodes that we DVR'd not long ago. Ender in particular is really interested in them and has enjoyed trying to figure out how each "trick" works before the reveal. 

Listening...

I downloaded all the Fiber Beat podcast episodes and have been listening to them in order from the beginning while working on the kids' rooms this week. There are so many great interviews to listen to! I'm in the middle of the one with Anna Zilboorg at the moment. 

Garden...

We have several cucumbers now, a jalapeno, and several little tomatoes. Ellie was so sweet to watch- her excitement over spotting a little red tomato had us all laughing, and in fact laughing so much that we didn't notice right away that she was picking anything that was even sort of red. Some of our tomatoes will be hanging out on the counter for a little while to ripen fully.

In Stitches...

I *really* need to get to the machine. I have a stack of things cut for Ellie and the boys and Ellie needs the winter stuff soon. Our weather is crazy cool for August and it's just another reminder that fall is coming and soon we will all need scarves, mittens, hats and long things.

I made myself buy some knit fabric so that I can learn to sew little leggings for Ellie. I have never sewn with knit fabric before, so I need to make an appointment with my mom so she can help me get going.

I didn't get to...

A few things on my organizing list didn't happen this week, but the important things (the kids rooms completely cleaned and starting school) did. So I'm letting go of the other things and purposely forgetting that I mopped the kitchen TWICE on Wednesday and by Thursday morning you couldn't even tell.

You know, I include this category because I think it's important to recognize in our blog posts that life isn't always full of finished projects and gorgeous gardens and life coming together every single day. I don't know about you, but even when I have a really successful week and accomplish a lot of the things on my list I rarely find myself in a place where everything is completely finished. There is always tomorrow and next week for those things.

This weekend...

I'm meeting up with friends on Saturday morning, then the family plan is to spend Saturday afternoon outside taking care of weeds in the garden and one of the beds we haven't gotten to yet this year that is seriously out of control. The boys are hitting a baseball game and I'm hoping to catch up on some knitting if my hand co-operates. Maybe?

Yarn Along: A Little Hat

{Knit Along with Ginny}

Knitting has been slow this week. There's a long story I'd rather not tell, but the short version is that I bruised my left hand in stellar fashion and while I can use it when I need to, it's still really sore. It's a good thing I'm out of the music studio for this month for a scheduled break.


I knit a little purple February Baby Sweater for my newest niece not long ago and it's been sitting finished for a bit, just waiting for a little hat to join it. I finally cast the hat on in the last day or two using the lace pattern from the February Baby Sweater. It doesn't look like much yet, but I'll be able to finish it in the next chunk of time I get and hopefully have a finished set to show next week.

{This has proven to be a difficult color for me to photograph. Any tricks for purples?}

I'm also still working on the Doctor Who Kernel and Ellie's Cardigan, but just not making much progress because of this pesky hand.


I finished the last bit of Ready Player One by Ernest Cline and now I'm hunting for a quick read or two since I've read some bigger things in the last few months. My brain needs something a little lighter. I looked around on my library's website for a long time last night trying to hunt down a new book, but nothing sounded great. Perhaps I'll find something while looking around during the yarn along.