Yarn Along

I'm yarning along again with Ginny and the crew at Small Things. Come and join us...

I made some good progress on this bunting this week. It is just about complete- one side seam and some decorative finishes left to go on the bottom.  I made quite a few changes to the pattern as I went- something that I am not usually known to do.  I took advice from my fellow Ravelers and made some tweaks of my own. I moved the car seat slit down a bit in order to make it fit longer.  I figure you can always bunch it up between the baby's legs a bit but you can't really stretch it longer if the slit is too high.  I kitchenered all the joins instead of using a 3 needle bind off b/c I like the look better. Since I don't really crochet (what can I say working with one needle just isn't my style!) I picked up stitches and knit the borders in seed stitch.  I just seamed the sides instead of using her fancy crocheted edging (due to said lack of ability to manage one needle...).  I will suck it up and crochet an edge on the bottom though b/c I am not planning on using a zipper but I thought I would put a few buttons in and it needs a more finished edge than what is there now- plus it is easy to single crochet a few buttonholes that way. All in all this is a really pretty easy knit, although I kept trying to figure out a way I could have done it in the round instead of knitting the front and back separately b/c that was more purling that I like. At least with such a large gauge it knitted up really fast.  I worked all weekend otherwise this would have been done already.  It's a super quick knit.

Now I just have to decide on my next knitting project.  I'm thinking some longies for my cloth diapering friends.  I've got quite a few baby gifts left to do and I have some fabulous orange malabrigo chunky that is calling out to be made into some wild, gender neutral longies. I'm going to try the Wonderpants pattern for the first time so we'll see how it goes.

As for reading I'll admit I have been in a drought recently.  I started on this trilogy that is to put it mildly is just terrible, but I hate not finishing things that I start.  However, I'm at the point where I really have no desire to read this any longer and I think for maybe the first time in my life I am just going to chuck it into the donate box without finishing it and call it good. I'm shocked at myself but I can't seem to bring myself to pick something else up while I have this book lingering in my purse just waiting to be read. So I read nothing because I just can't bring myself to pick it up again. So the time has come to move on.

Since I am breaking one of my cardinal rules I decided I would read something in the spirit of Lent and renewal. We recently were given a copy of the book Rediscover Catholicism: A Spiritual Guide to Living with Passion and Purpose by Matthew Kelly.  It seems like appropriate Lenten reading and I've been feeling pretty disconnected from the Church recently.  Our parish is elderly to say the least and there isn't much in the way of programming for families and children, everything is geared towards seniors since that is the bulk of the population.  Most of my close friends are not at all religious and given that I work every other weekend and they only offer 1 midweek Mass my own attendance at Mass has been less than stellar. Our parish is set up in such a way that we have rotating Priests.  There are 5 churches in the diocese and only 3 Priests so they rotate through each week, but it means that getting to know and develop a good relationship with a Priest is rather difficult. Unfortunately the nearest church that has a single priest is 45 minutes away and in a different state, which becomes a problem if we ever want to send the boys to the local Catholic school. But on the bright side there are several young families that have joined the church in the last year or so and a few babies have been born in the past months so at least the boys aren't the only kids in church any longer. I'm hopeful that if we continue to grow as a parish we can develop some programming through the church that is geared towards families and kids. Maybe this book will give me some good ideas or starting points.