Yarn Along

Come and join us over at Ginny's place for our weekly yarn along.

I finished Imagine: How Creativity Works yesterday. It was a very interesting read but certainly not light.  I felt like it took me a long time to get through this because it wasn't quick reading.  I found myself reading certain parts over and over. The author uses lots of interesting anecdotes but it also makes you think- certainly about how we educate our children. I think that we all realize that school doesn't begin in kindergarten and I wonder if our current system of basing performance on tests and rote memorization is potentially detrimental to our kids rather than helping them. So if nothing else this book certainly encouraged me to just play more with my kids (and more seriously explore homeschooling or Montessori/Waldorf education for our kids).  

I'm still working on Magical Beginnings, Enchanted Lives: A Holistic Guide to Pregnancy.  Unfortunately it's due back at the library tomorrow and I have already renewed it once and it was from inter-library loan so it has to go back. I may have to actually purchase this book, gasp...  I have really been enjoying it though and the chapter on holistic pregnancy remedies may come in handy later on.

I am working on an owlie sleep sack for the new babe. It's about 80% done but then I got derailed doing some sewing for a Diva swap and I made each of the boys a new "fireman" t-shirt.  I also made a little lap tee for the baby to go with a pair of nb longies that I made- so cute!  I probably won't finish the sleep sack right away because I also cast on a pair of wondershorts to go with the t-shirt swap.  I'm on a deadline for those so I need to get cracking! I found some perfect buttons for my small things bonnet and I also need to finish up the leggings for my convertible bloomers (that I stared last June).  After I get that stuff cleaned up I'm planning on trying out the Eviepants AIO booties to make a pair to match the toasty sleeper I finished last week. I also just got the book Cutest Ever Baby Knits so there is plenty of inspiration there!  Too bad Xander's birthday party is next week and I am going to have to spend more major time cleaning before then... boo for decreased knitting time.

Yarn Along

Come join us for our weekly yarn along with Ginny at Small Things.

I'm still working on Magical Beginnings by Deepak Chopra.  I'm realizing that as much as I enjoy reading the reality is that there is only so much time in the day for me to get everything done. Reading unfortunately seems to be the one thing that is falling by the wayside more and more. I'd rather take those few minutes a day to knit. I also stared on Imagine: How Creativity Works by Jonah Lehrer.  Both of these are due back to the library next week and I've already renewed them once so I need to actually finish them!

I finished a Toasty Sleeper this week. I made it using manos del uruguay maxima in aquas.  I love this yarn.  It's very comparable to a malabrigo merino worsted but it is so soft and the colors are lovely.  You can see my rav notes on the sleeper here. The sleeper is super cute but oh so tiny.  Hopefully the baby isn't too big! I had bought 2 skeins of the variegated yarn which was more than enough so I took the extras and made a Small Things Bonnet. It was kind of a pain to do this pattern in 2 colors but it came out nicely.  I made the newborn size and it too is tiny so now I have a nice tiny outfit!  Now it's time to search for the perfect button! I think I am going to try a pair of these booties but I haven't bought the pattern yet. Hopefully if I do make them they are tiny enough to match the outfit. Otherwise next up is an Owlie Sleep Sack to match the milo I made last year.

Happy knitting and reading!

In memory of Pop

My grandfather passed away this morning.  It was not totally unexpected, he was 96 years old after all.  The last few weeks he has been in and out of the hospital several times with UTIs and Friday night they took him in with a fever and determined that he had pneumonia. Saturday he responded well to antibiotics and seemed to be rallying yet again. Sunday morning he was agitated and asking for my mother, the nurse was able to calm him down, and he settled in for a nap and passed in his sleep. All things considered we couldn't have asked for a better way for him to go.

I'm just feeling very sad right now. I'm thankful for all the time we had together.  He lived a very long life but I'll miss him. It's sad for me to realize that my kids probably won't remember him and he was their last living great-grandparent.

Services will be Sunday May 13, 2012 at the Dublin Town Cemetery at 3:00 p.m.

Yarn Along

So thank you all for putting up with my random musing and mumbling during the knitting blog-a-thon last week.  It was fun to think about my crafting in a new way and perspective.  Next year I will have to be more organized and come up with prettier, fancy posts but for now we are back to our regularly scheduled yarn along with Ginny and the crew at Small Things.

I'm still working on Deepak Chopra's book Magical Beginnings: A holistic guide to pregnancy. It's actually a really wonderful book, I am just finding my reading time so limited these days.  I never really thought about the mother-baby connection before.  Obviously the child is growing inside your body and you are aware of your baby in a way that no other person, even the father, really can be.  I mean you are feeling movement and kicks long before they can be felt from the outside.  I noticed with our first child that the baby seemed so much more real to me than to Frank from a very early stage and I didn't really get why at the time, but pregnancy is a really special time for you and your baby to just be together. I never thought consciously about sitting down and talking to the baby or just mentally sending some good, happy vibes his/her way. I find myself doing it but reading this book has brought me a new perspective on consciously building a dialogue/bond with this baby even from early in pregnancy.  It's a pretty amazing way to think about pregnancy and since I am really hoping for a natural, medication free childbirth this time (no induction/augmentation/preeclampsia/PPROM please) I figure it's never to early to begin discussing with this baby the manner in which he/she will arrive. The power of positive thought! 

Next up on my pregnancy reading list is The Greatest Pregnancy Ever: Keys to the Mother-Baby Bond by Laurel Wilson.  I'm also looking into Birthing from Within (the book but also taking a class) and I want to try hypnobirthing but I need to figure out how I want to do it (class vs home study and which program) and start practicing already. I also just got from the library Imagine: how creativity works by Jonah Lehrer and I'm going to have to read that one quickly because it is only a 7 day loan- yikes! I need to find some reading time...

Part of the reason that I haven't had much reading time is because I have been knitting like crazy this past week.  I was doing a Diva swap and totally procrastinated and then had to cram to get it sent out on time- which I did so good for me! I finished up these longies last week and then started on my swap package.  I made a Fae Folk hat from Carina Spencer's pattern (which I love by the way...) with Malabrigo merino in Dusty with natural trim and a natural crochet flower from this pattern. I love how the flower came out.  Frank had to help me but it's super cute and I did 95% of it myself so I'm really proud of that. Then I made some fingerless mitts from this pattern also using the Malabrigo merino in Dusty. The pattern called for a fingering weight yarn but I wanted them to match the hat so I got the smallest needles I had to knit them with and while they are a bit long they actually fit James pretty well. Because I knit them on pretty small needles they are nice and dense which I think will be good for gloves. Hopefully they will fit their intended recipient... After I finished the gloves I cast on a Toasty Sleeper for the babe and I've knit 12 mind-numbing inches of stockinette so far.  I imagine the bodice will go a bit faster once I get there. I'm using Manos del Uruguay Maxima yarn in agua and the variegation is coming out completely differently than I expected.  Next week you'll get to see pics...

Happy knitting and crocheting...