Yarn Along with mystery project reveal

Here I am yarning along again with the crew over at Ginny's Small Things. 

I made really good progress on this shrug this week. Actually I am almost done!  I can't believe it.  I really thought that it was never going to be done and although these last few inches are going more slowly than I would like the end is in sight.  I might actually get to wear to the wedding this Saturday! 2 more inches of jersey to go and then the binding off and kitchenering the ends together begins.  I can't wait to see what the lace is going to look like all blocked out.  I may not get much sleep tonight but at least the shrug will be done!

A few weeks ago I showed you a hint of a mystery project.  Well that project made its way to it's new home and now I can share it here. This is a shawl from the Faraway, So Close pattern by Carina Spencer.  I completely love this pattern. Actually I pretty much love all her patterns but this one is so easy to knit and yet it look so complicated and beautiful.  I think I could knit this over and over and never get bored with it.  The yarn is Knit Picks Chroma worsted and it was a perfect choice for this project. It is seriously soft and cozy- perfect for a shawl- and the colorway just worked out awesome! Somehow the variegation just came out in perfect stripes and the colors blended so wonderfully.  If I hadn't had a very special friend that this was intended for I totally would have kept it for myself. I did buy some more chroma to make one for myself though!

I finished Beautiful Unbroken this week and honestly I have to say I didn't really like it. The author is a nurse but also a poet so while I enjoyed her stories I found the book itself to be rather ponderous. The writing is beautiful but she uses a lot of words to say simple things and while that isn't a bad thing I just found it to be too much for my tastes.  She has some interesting things to say about travel nursing, being a hippie, and about working in NYC during the early days of the AIDS epidemic and I guess there would be more story to this than there actually was. I also read a quick and fun book by Julie Garwood this week called The Ideal Man, which was a very quick and fun, lighthearted read. I guess I am in the place right now where I have very limited time to read with work and the kids etc that when I do get a chance to read I want it to be quick and easy and not use up too much brain power.  Time to read some more fluff and then I will be ready for the intellectual reading again. With Christmas coming I have a whole book of stories of the advent to read with the boys so I am looking forward to that.

Thrilled or terrified....

I took my boys to the airport tonight- all of my boys- and put them on a plane to the "big farm" also known as Grandma's and Grandpa's. Hence no word of the week this week since I no longer have kids or a camera. Now I can't decide whether I am thrilled or completely terrified to have the house to myself for the next 5 days. In some ways I am looking forward to the quiet and the reality is that most of my time will be spent working, which is why I am not also at the big farm, but still... I haven't had this much time to myself since before I got married. I'm a little afraid of the quiet and yet the idea of being able to sleep when I want, eat when I want, pee by myself, and take a long hot shower or bath without interruptions definitely has it perks. My time so far since they have left has been spent cleaning and knitting.  The cleaning part is great because now there is nobody to mess it up the second I finish and it's pretty nice to be able to knit for as long as I want.  Now the question is how will I feel about all this solitude in a week.  Wish me luck!

Yarn Along

Yarning along with Ginny and the crew at Small Things again this week.

Origami Shrug with a BOGO hat

Work on the Origami Shrug continues, I finally finished the lace repeats (4 rounds and 10 inches of lace) and have moved onto the ribbing.  I had some serious dunce-like moments in trying to figure out how to do the decrease round.  It's amazing how the lack of a single comma in the pattern could confuse me this much!  I'm thinking that goal of finishing by next Saturday is quickly slipping from my fingers but I'll keep plugging. The upcoming jersey section should move much more quickly than the lace, right?  It's only 6 inches of jersey in rounds of 400 stitches..... after 3 inches of ribbing.  I'm in trouble!

Mom, why the heck are you making me wear this girly hat?!?

My troubles are not helped by my knitting ADD, which led me to make this little pink hat instead of working on the shrug.  I decided to make a trio of matchy hats for my next door neighbor's girls for Christmas and this is the first one from Carina Spencer's BOGO hat duo.  I made the hat and Frank crocheted the flower for me.  I coerced him into crocheting 2 more flowers for me so I have those ready for the next 2 hats.  I also need to make a hat for Xander's bus driver who is due to have a little baby girl next week!  Hopefully I can whip out a little newborn hat quickly and still squeeze in some knitting time for the shrug. I'm really in trouble.... I think I need to consider a new outfit to wear to the wedding next Saturday.

I just started reading Beautiful Unbroken: One Nurses's Life by Mary Jane Nealon.  I've only just started so I don't have much to say yet. I always like reading about other people's experiences and it especially interesting to read about others experiences in the same profession so I am excited. I picked up way too many books at the library this week so I may have to renew at least 2 of them.

Happy Knitting and Reading everyone!

Word of the Week- Rhinocerous

A simple photo...

Xander hasn't been the most cooperative for picture taking since he turned the terrible three so today I am blessed by a photograph. For the first time in months Xander actually looked at me and smiled for the camera! My baby is getting so big...

See what others are feeling blessed  by here at Gretchen's Blog.

The Versatile Blogger :)

Hey so you see that big banner at the top here... one of my fellow bloggers awarded me with the Versatile Blogger award! That someone is Molly Bee and you can visit here blog here.  You should go and check out her really impressive artwork.  Thank you so much Molly Bee!

The deal is that by accepting the award I must:
1. Thank the blogger who presented it to me and link back to their page.

2. Share 7 things about myself.

3. Pass this award to 15 newly discovered blogs.

So #1 is already taken care of now I have to find 7 interesting things to tell you all about myself.  Hopefully I don't bore you all to tears....
1. For years and years and years my mother tried to teach me how to knit.  She has always been a fantastic knitter and tried to pass her love of knitting onto me but somehow I could never manage to finish even a simple garter stitch scarf.  Then after my first child was born we were using cloth diapers and he was such a super soaker that nothing was keeping him dry at nighttime.  I wanted to try wool soakers thinking that would help keep him dry but also help his skin breathe because he was getting terrible rashes. The problem being that purchased wool soakers were more expensive than I could afford. I figured I was crafty so I could just make some.  Thanks to Pimp my Longies a new obsession was born!
2.The last 4.5 years is the longest I have lived in one place in my entire life. Seriously.  I have moved a LOT!  Until I was almost 30 I have felt a strong sense of wanderlust- In the US I have lived in Illinois, Maryland, Maine, and New Hampshire. Abroad I have lived in Ireland, Belgium, France, Russia, and Senegal. We have worked on building a life on our little farm here but the good old wanderlust still strikes sometimes.
3.  I met my husband at the West African Invitational Softball Tournament in Dakar, Senegal when we were both Peace Corps Volunteers.
4. I am a really terrible housekeeper.  The nice thing about a blog is that I can pick and chose which photos/videos you see of my house but don't look too closely in the background of any of them because you will probably see an enormous mess! I'd rather be knitting or doing just about anything than cleaning.
5. We live on a farm.  I didn't really think this was a big secret but I am amazed at how many people in the "real" world don't seem to know this. So just to set the record straight we have cows, sheep, ducks, chickens, geese, pigs, and a couple dogs to boot.  And if anyone has any good advice at how to keep the fox away from my chickens I will gladly accept it!
6. I have 2 major addictions in life: knitting and coke zero.
7. Xander likes me because I give him "hot dogs with ketchup and ice cream." I wish I were three!

And for the third and final part, some of my old favorites and newly discovered blogs.

1. He Sows and She Sews (Knitting, Homeschooling, Parenting, Frugal Living)

2. Small Things (Knitting, Reading, Homeschooling, Catholic Faith, Photography)

3. Patch O' Dirt Farm (Knitting, Rural living, Catholic Faith)

4. Soule Mama (Knitting, Homeschooling, Rural Living)

5. Living the Scripture (Knitting, Catholic Living)
6. A Knitter's Notebook (Knitting)
7. Plain and Joyful Living (Fiber arts, Rural Living)
8. Fishsticks and Fries (Sewing, Tutorials, Wonderful Patterns)
9.  Our Field of Little Flowers (Knitting, Homeschooling, Catholic Living)
10. Three Little Knitted Frogs (Knitting, Mom to BOYS)
11. All Twisted Up (Sewing, Parenting, Cloth Diapering, Gardening)
12. Frontier Dreams (Knitting, Natural Living, Photography)
13. UK lass in US (Sewing, Crafting)
14. Pimp My Longies (an oldie by a goodie- this is where I found my first knitting project)
15. Confessions of a Yarn Addict (Knitting, Mom to Boys- previous versatile blogger but I had to include her again b/c I love her tag line "I like Yarn. Sue me." Ditto!)

Apparently I like to read knitting blogs....