Yarn Along #95: The blanket is almost done!

Linking up with Ginny!

So the biggest project—literally—is the November blanket. I’m on the last 25% of it so yay! It’s actually pretty heavy to work with now, and I have to settle in for long periods of knitting with it because it’s just so hard to move on and off my lap!

The thing that makes me nervous is trying to block this baby—for people who have knit blankets, do you block them? I just have this image of it being heavy and unwieldly….

The book I’m reading is Sonja Corbitt’s Exalted, which takes us through the Magnificat. I am loving this book—it’s one of my many Lenten reads. I’m reading a chapter a day so I don’t completely devour it in one sitting!

What are you reading and working on right now?

Yarn Along #93--new project, finished project, project in progress.....

I missed this last week, so was happy that Ginny didn’t have the link up and I missed it, because last week was insane (see here for why). But now I’m (knock wood!) feeling like I am ready to get back into rhythm in all ways, and that includes knitting! (I’m not sure if Ginny will have a link-up this week either, but here’s my knitting and reading anyway!

New project

For some reason, I always cast on some new project Thanksgiving weekend. I don’t know why. It must be some sort of switch in my brain. “Ah! Turkey! Must cast on new project!”

So this year it’s one I’ve already done before—the Skye cowl—but in a deliciously autumnal color that I ordered while I was in the Resort. (My journal is full of knitting scribbles—some of which are really just that, scribbles!—about projects and colors and types of yarn….the meds obviously made me go nuts in this department!) The color is Quince’s malbec, in their puffin yarn, which is so nice and squishy and knits up beautifully. I think I twisted stitches somewhere, but honestly, I don’t really want to rip it out. I don’t mind a cowl with a twist in it. If it was a hat, obviously, I would’ve had to start again. But with a basic cowl? Meh. So I didn’t and I just keep knitting.

Finished project

My Felicity scarf, made of Colonial Williamsburg yarn! Yay!

Simple, but I really liked working with this yarn. It’s thick enough that you can cross it over your upper chest but not so thick that a coat won’t close nicely over it. It’s also nice to grab if I’m just running out to get the mail and want something a little warmer over my top, but not a whole coat.

In Progress Project

Yup, I’m still working on the Isla scarf. This takes four skeins of yarn, so it’s a long process, but I’m about halfway through the third skein, so the end is nigh!

Reading….

You can see my pile there. I read When Less Becomes More last month, and it’s probably my favorite of Emily’s books to date. My Aunt Mary got me The Dutch House when I was in the hospital and I (sadly) have not started it yet, but it’s the next book I’ll start! A Single Thread was a Christmas gift (early) and that’s after The Dutch House.

(Speaking of books—pre-orders for Living Memento Mori are open…..)

How about you? Are you knitting any Christmas gifts? What are you reading?

Yarn Along #92--knit, purl, and CW yarn

(Linking up with Ginny!)

Oh gosh I’m so glad September is OVER!!!!! :)

I’m also happy to show you my knitting!

It’s the same two projects I’ve been working on, but there’s been progress on both. Yay!

I’m almost to the halfway point on Isla. This is such a fun project to work on because the yarn is so squishy and the pattern is so cool. I love seeing it grow under my hands and really, once you’ve done the block pattern a few times, this isn’t hard. It’s really just a 2, 2, 2, 4 pattern—so either knit, purl, knit, purl, or purl, knit, purl, knit.

And I’ve passed the halfway point on the “Felicity” scarf—it’s really not a pattern, it’s my own playing with yarn.

This is the yarn I got at Colonial Williamsburg a few years ago. I decided to make a historical pattern with it—meaning, that it’s something a person in the 1770s would’ve made or worn. The yarn is a bit thicker than I think it would’ve been at the time, because I’m using an 8 gauge needle, and according to my (quick) research, they didn’t really use 8 gauge needles at that time. Everything was done on tiny needles. But I don’t see how I could do this on a tinier needle—really, I should do this on a 9 or even a 10!

But it’s creating a very thick, squishy sort of fabric.

The one thing you see here is that the colors are different. They use colonial dyeing methods (obviously), so the colors don’t exactly match. I knew that going into it—I picked these two out from the basket because they were close. Now, thinking back on this, I could’ve done something where I alternated skeins, so it wasn’t this obvious, but…..I didn’t. :) And honestly, I don’t mind, because I still might stitch the ends together to make a cowl.

If you want to read more about their methods, they have a book! It’s great!

Speaking of books, since St. Therese’s day was yesterday, I’m re-reading Story of a Soul. My friend Elizabeth wrote the introduction to this particular edition!

What are you reading or knitting? Or both! :)

It's the Feast of St. Therese!

Happy Feast Day!

St. Therese is my (accidental) patron saint, and the older I get, the happier I am that I picked her—or she picked me, either way. :)

The St. Therese reliquary at the local retreat house.

A French girl who died at the age of twenty-four from TB, what can she possibly teach us? SO MUCH. So much that St. John Paul II made her a doctor of the church. That’s right. She’s one of four women to have that title.

Don’t be deceived by her sometimes flowery (period appropriate) prose, or the saccharine images. St. Therese is a wonderful friend to have.

If you’re new to her, let me recommend a few things:

1) Her autobiography, The Story of a Soul *. (My friend Elizabeth wrote the introduction to this edition!)

2) I Believe In Love, *which is one of my all-time favorite, desert island books.

3) The Film Therese. *

4) If you want to go a bit deeper, then 33 Days to Merciful Love is what you want. This is a daily meditation book, leading up to the Consecration to Merciful Love (which I made on New Year’s Day this year). It’s powerful!

There have been so many books written about her that it would take a long time to read them all (believe me, I’ve tried!) but these four resources are excellent starting points.

So, let’s get on the Little Way….

*=Amazon affiliate links

Yarn Along #90: Fun with Knit and Purl! :)

So, getting away from the heavy stuff in the last post, let’s talk about yarn!

linking up with Ginny

So, Quince and Co. celebrated their birthday a few months ago, and they were having a sale on their first collection of patterns—sale meaning, if you were an email subscriber, you got a code for one free pattern from this collection! So I chose the Isla scarf, because, one, it’s a scarf, and I like those (obviously), but it’s also a fun pattern that does some nifty things, using knit and purl stitches. I’m knitting it in their Lark yarn, lupine colorway, and let me tell you, this is pretty great yarn. (The color description for Lupine is, “Deep periwinkle waving in Maine summer breezes.” Who can resist that?)

It’s slow going because I do have to pay attention to what I’m doing—not only are there pattern changes, but also needle size changes, which at first I was worried about, but it’s not hard. And one “repeat” of the pattern is 28 rows. So this isn’t really a great watching TV project, because I have to concentrate, but it’s still a lot of fun to work on. This might be a good sports knit, because I can watch the game but it’s not like there’s plot. :)

See those little rows? Those are from using the smaller needles. This is so squishy, you can’t even believe it.

Here’s a better look at the length….

I am, as usual, reading five million books, but the one you see here is for a Facebook Book Club. We’re reading Loss and Gain * to prep for John Henry Newman’s October canonization. I’m on track with the reading but not my contributing, bad me!

I’m also reading Gift from the Sea * (again) and Emily Ley’s books, Grace Not Perfection * and A Simplified Life. * September is the “new school, new year” season for me—does it feel like that to you? I always feel like I want to lay down new rails and set new habits and structures in place. (And keep your eyes peeled—I’ll have a post—or several—about this soon!)

*=Amazon affiliate link

August yarn along--a bit of lace

linking up with Ginny!

So, on Sunday I decided to try working on a basic lace pattern. I have to do lacework for my Find Your Fade shawl, and when I first tried it in January, I was really confounded by it! So I’ve been working on smaller projects to try to get the hang of it.

This is a horseshoe lace pattern bookmark…..

You can see why it’s called horseshoe!

This really isn’t hard. I know it looks hard! But the twisting happens just naturally as the way the pattern is written. The problem for me right now is that this isn’t knitting you can sort of pay attention to—you have to pay attention the whole time. The pattern repeats in sets of 8, but if you miss a row, interesting things happen. (Ask me how I know this….)

The pattern called for size 3 needles, which I don’t have, so I used size 4, and the yarn is from my feile shawl. It was just too pretty to sit in my stash!

These are long bookmarks. They don’t look this long in the pattern photo, but trust me, they are….

As for what I’m reading….

I’ve read The Lambs * before, and it’s just great. If you love stories about animals, the natural world, family relationships and….sheep, you’ll really like it!

I’ve also got this big stack—one library book, three pleasure reading novels, and a whole bunch of books for the Well-Read Mom year….

There are two more books for the year that I haven’t gotten yet, and two more that I already have and are on my shelves—The Picture of Dorian Gray and Little Women. (Of course I have Little Women! My house is named after their house!)

I’ve also created a list that sums up all the knitting projects in the pipeline right now—a baby blanket, a scarf (new pattern! Exciting! I don’t actually have a long scarf for me to use in the winter!), my Find Your Fade shawl—I’ll at least do the set up section again and get that on the needles—and a cowl I’ve been wanting to make forever!

Seven Quick Takes--Easing Into August

Linking up with Kelly!

-i-

Hiya, August! Whew!

This summer has been sort of intense, at least June, and then July was sort of decompression, and now it’s August! In some places around here, the kids go back to school in two weeks!

So here’s what going on around Orchard House….

-II-

My city has a farmer’s market every week in the summer and then once a month the rest of the year (it’s indoor then, too). And now I live essentially three minutes away from it, so yesterday I decided to check it out. There’s a vendor that sells meat from his farm! That made me really happy, so I bought a brisket (which I’ve never cooked, but hey, why not), and a pound of ground beef. I also bought tomatoes and candy onions, and I should’ve gotten a LOT more tomatoes so I could make sauce, but…..next week!

Fortunately the market runs weekly through September, so I have two months to stock up on stuff. Looking forward to that.

-III-

I also made a few new recipes this week. I don’t really like to cook in the summer, but somehow in August my brain switches over and says, OK, we can cook now. No idea why. So I’ve made a few good things this week, all Barefoot Contessa recipes: chicken thighs in creamy mustard sauce (I subbed light sour cream for the creme fraiche), Israeli Couscous and Tuna Salad, and Raspberry Crumble Bars.

The topping is granola and some of the shortbread base.

-IV-

In book news: I have a copy edited manuscript, and now I have to go over it to see if I want to make any changes (or to catch any glaring errors). So that’s due next week. It’s so weird to re-read what I’ve written…..I hope I don’t think it’s all awful and want to chuck it out. :-p

-V-

We’re in a really busy section of the church year—there are so many feasts and saints’ days in August! And St. Dominic is next week!

-VI-

Here’s a look at the state of the To Read Stack:

WHEW!

-VII-

Also, if you’re looking for some daily spiritual reading, check out A Year With the Mystics. It’s not out until next month, but through an Amazon glitch, I got my pre-ordered copy early!

It’s so beautiful, and it’s making for wonderful spiritual reading!

A Chatty Seven Quick Takes

Linking up with Kelly!

-1-

This is for my musical theater nerds!

I was thinking this week what the best Rodgers and Hammerstein musical is. (show, not film. In that category it’s definitely The Sound of Music, because it’s a fabulous film and I think it makes the original material better.) My vote is for Carousel, by a smidge (because I do like South Pacific); my dad supports South Pacific, and there was a vote for The King and I.

I think Carousel is the best for a few reasons: a fabulous leading man part; four good female roles (Julie, Carrie, Nettie, and Mrs. Mullins); a glorious score; and good use of chorus. The chorus actually has opportunities to do things often, as opposed to The King and I.

Is it perfect? No. I don’t think we need “Stonecutters” (and I think that was axed from the last Broadway revival), the whole “yes, someone can hit you and it doesn’t hurt at all” thing (eeeeek!), and the ballet can be too long. But, I think that we wouldn’t have had West Side Story, or Fiddler, or really any sort of true musical drama, without Carousel.

-II-

I started working with my Colonial Williamsburg yarn this week. Some of you may remember my extra special Yarn Along about that, and it’s taken me two years to figure out what to do with the yarn! So I’m going to do something simple, but, hopefully, historically accurate. I’m making a scarf, with slipped stitch edges, on size 8 needles. I didn’t want to do it on big needles because they didn’t have big (like, size 12) needles in Colonial times, I don’t think. But this yarn is thick, so I couldn’t do it on a small needle, like a size 5 or below. So I thought a scarf would be a practical, Colonial thing, and I have a lot of yarn, so it’ll be nice and long and warm.

The source of my yarn! Leicester Longwool sheep!

-III-

Reading: I read Where the Crawdads Sing, * and I LOVED IT. I really want to discuss it with someone! Highly recommend it.

I’m currently reading about five million things, but I’m also really liking Greek to Me, * because it appeals to two sides of my personality: A love of ancient Greek myth and culture, and word nerdiness. And book nerdiness!

-IV-

A note on the Mueller hearings, but a NON POLITICAL ONE!

One of the things that bothered me about the coverage was that people kept saying that Mueller needed questions repeated, like this was somehow a slam on his intelligence or “with it”-ness.

Guys. No.

I am crazy sensitive about this, because, hello, hearing impaired. I hate asking people to repeat themselves because I know they’re thinking I’m a dim bulb, or not paying attention, or flaky, or something. But really, I want to make sure I understood you!

I don’t know if Robert Mueller is hearing impaired. But I do know that we really, really should stop thinking that if someone asked for something to be repeated, that they’re stupid or cognitively challenged or whatever.

-V-

Nothing new on the book front yet. But please sign up for the mailing list! Then you get all the delicious news first and there might be fun things for subscribers! (Well, there are fun things—two printables I designed—but maybe more than that, who knows!) Sign up!

-VI-

July is like sports doldrums. Sigh. Once Wimbledon is over I just languish until sports pick up again in August. I don’t really like the NBA, and I’m a Pirates fan, so that’s sort of like constant baseball futility, but oh well. August and football will be here soon!

-VII-

I also joined a book club! Well, I’ve done it before. It’s called Well Read Mom, but this time, I looked into joining a group in my area, and there is one! Yay! I really miss discussing books with folks. I’m obviously not a mom, but any lady can join these! I love this book club because it’s not just current lit. There’s spiritual reading, plays, essays, novels….all sorts of things! It delights my little heart. (And this year Little Women is one of the books, which is so appropriate for my Orchard House dwelling soul!) Have you ever joined a book club or wanted to?

*==I’m an Amazon affiliate, so if you buy a book through these links, I get a tinnnny bit of money, which helps keep the lights on over here! :)

Yarn Along #91

Hi y’all! Happy almost Independence Day (if you’re American)!

via GIPHY

I’m still working on my Dahlia scarf: it’s four skeins of yarn, so it’s long, but I’m in the third skein now, so I’m past the halfway mark. It’s crazy simple knitting, just garter stitch, so that makes it really easy to do while I watch TV (Wimbledon!) or movies, or if people are visiting and I want something to do with my hands while we talk!

The book is Greek to Me: Adventures of the Comma Queen, which I’ve been intrigued by since I saw it at Tattered Cover in Denver in April. which is about the author’s trip to Greece and how the Greek language influenced English.

A Little Book and Movie Talk

I know, I hardly ever write on Saturday, but, I wanted to share some things with you, and there wasn’t an “official” Seven Quick Takes yesterday, which is good because I was editing the last bit of the manuscript! So the manuscript is edited! My editor will read it again, and then send it to the copy editor at Ave Maria Press in early July.

via GIPHY

I should also be getting cover design shortly….and pre-orders should open soon!

Can you feel the excitement? I can!!!!

(Sign up for updates to get the news FIRST on all the book stuff!)

Anyway, speaking of books that aren’t mine….

The Feast of St. Thomas More was on the 22nd (which is also my mom’s birthday).

The Fourth of July is this coming week

So, in the spirt of both those things, let me offer you some good reading and film suggestions!

(These are Amazon affiliate links, FYI!)

St. Thomas More

If you aren’t familiar with this awesome saint, become so!

For movies, of course it’s A Man For All Seasons.

For books: The King’s Good Servant, But God’s First, by James Monti

For a look at the relationship with his daughter, Meg (which was a great one), read A Daughter’s Love: Thomas More and His Dearest Meg, by John Guy

American History

The Battle of Gettysburg raged from July 1-July 3. I highly recommend reading Michael Shaara’s The Killer Angels and watching the film Gettysburg (which is based on Shaara’s book).

If you want to go back to the Revolutionary War, I suggest HBO’s series John Adams (Fabulous, based on the equally great book by David McCullough), the musical 1776 (great music, but also a great story), and the book 1776, also by David McCullough. Reading 1776 is an eye-opener. There was really no way the US was supposed to win the war, and that comes through with incredibly clarity in McCullough’s writing.

But we did win.

In terms of kid-friendliness—they can totally watch 1776. It’s very family-friendly. John Adams isn’t not family friendly but it’s sort of long, so I don’t know if it would hold kids’ attention, but older kids and teens? Definitely. Gettysburg is also long, and while it’s not incredibly graphic, it is about war. (Obviously) But I think kids could watch some of it. Teens, definitely.

Yarn Along #90 (AKA, finishing the WIPs!)

Oh my gosh, so much knitting stuff to tell you! :)

Settle in….

So one of the things I made a priority when I moved to Orchard House was finishing my works in progress! I had four going on, and now I have one so I am insanely happy about that.

One of them, the sans kerchief, is basically a really big linen square, and it has a ton of mistakes in it, so I basically used it as a big swatch, to see how linen works. I did it in Quince and Co’s sparrow (truffle colorway, gorgeous!) and I even put it in the washer and dryer, and it held up! So this is my linen “full of mistakes” swatch. :) But it’s off the needles and done and I’m sure I’ll find some uses for it around the house.

(No, there is no picture of it. :) )

I started another linen project: The Dahlia scarf with the sparrow yarn, in eleutherea this time. It is gorgeous.

Here it is, before I wound it:

Really, I wanted a lightweight, long scarf I could wear in the summer and not melt. :) So I chose this nice blue. I also had made another scarf in this pattern—the main photo at the top.

That was one of the WIPs and I just cast it off. It’s not as long because I ran out of the original color yarn and stupidly didn’t buy two skeins when I should have, so it’s got a bit of contrast yarn at the bottom, but I didn’t want to do the whole rest of the scarf that way, so I just cast off. But it’s lovely anyway!

The third project I’m working on is actually a gift, so I’m not going to show it here, and it’s not completely done yet, but it will be by the time I’m going to give it! :) It’s one of my basketweave scarfs, and y’all know what those look like. :)

So currently, I have three WIPs—the new Dahlia scarf, the gift, and the supermoon kerchief that I started eons ago and really need to finish! :)

I’m reading Susan Branch’s Girlfriends, which I was lucky enough to find a copy of, since it’s hard to find! I’m also re-reading my opera guides because I’m re-watching Wagner’s Ring cycle, because I’m a nerd like that. But it’s actually really good knitting music. :)

Seven Quick Takes--the book has a title, the Jane Re-Read, and summer kicks off!

Linking up with Kelly!

-I-

Hi everyone! Happy Memorial Day Weekend (if you’re in the U.S.)! It’s sort of the unofficial kick off to summer, so there will be barbecues and parties all over the place, and I begin the Great Jane Re-Read, where I re-read Jane Austen’s novels every summer. Want to join me? I’m starting with Sense and Sensibility.

-II-

In case you missed it, my book has a title! It’s a great one! I’m really excited! (Can you tell?) As soon as pre-orders open I will share it here. And, again, as a reminder: If you want book news first, before anyone else, sign up for the mailing list.

-III-

In other book-y news….

Better Together is Take Up & Read’s new summer study! I just got my copy yesterday and she’s beautiful!

This book is all about Biblical Hospitality. Sometimes we get scared of hospitality, because we think we need to have the perfect house and the perfect food and the perfect playlist. That’s not what God calls us to do at all. Hospitality is simply sharing and gathering with people. We aren’t meant to do Christianity alone. Let’s get over the idea that hospitality has to be perfect!

This book would make a great summer study—I do hope you’ll join us!

-IV-

The big event of the summer is that my sister is getting married in Estes Park, CO, in June. So we’re all in the midst of preparing for that. I’ve got my packing list written but I haven’t actually started packing yet. And yes, I know I owe you a Denver travelogue, so that is coming, I promise!

-V-

This California bill is a terrible idea, on multiple fronts—if you live in California, email your reps about this?

The confessional has to be a place of absolute confidentiality. It just does. The state can’t mess with this, or it puts priests in a horrible position—they will either go to jail, or be excommunicated. And it put us, the laity, in a terrible position, because how can you be totally open in confession if you know the priest can repeat what you say? (Not that any priest worth his ordination would.)

No bueno, California! Stop it!

(article version of the video above here)

-VI-

Final edits for the book are being done! Well, not final final. Final as in, for the first draft. My editor will be getting me notes and I imagine next week will be a flurry of back and forth sending. :)

-VII-

And while Memorial Day is the kick off of summer in the U.S., let’s remember what it’s really about.

Yarn Along #89

I’ve finally cast off my shawl, and now I’m in the process of weaving in the ends and then blocking it. Yay! I can’t wait to wear it!

This shawl has taken me a long time and part of it was because of the move, and then getting my blocking supplies from my parents’ where I stashed it before the move….but now we’re all caught up.

I was just in Denver for my sister’s bachelorette party, and while I was there I got to visit Tattered Cover, an independent bookstore chain there. It was pretty awesome, and of course I got a lot of books:

I’ll have more on Denver in a travelogue post later this week or next!

What are you knitting or reading? Share with me!

Yarn Along #88

Linking up with Ginny!

I’m in the last stretch of my Feile shawl. I’ve really enjoyed knitting this so I’m sort of sad to see the end coming, but I can’t wait to wear it! It’s so pretty!

I’ve heard about Peace Like A River for YEARS—seriously, a child life specialist told me about when I was probably 20 or so—so I figure it’s time to read it.

Once I finish the Feile I’m not sure what I’ll do! I want to use the yarn I got at Williamsburg but I don’t know what to make with it! I’m thinking I might go simple and make a cowl or a scarf. Or maybe a hat.

Ash Wednesday Yarn Along!

It’s Yarn Along Time!!!! :)

And it’s Ash Wednesday, so happy Lent to you! And yes, I do mean “happy” Lent. I really like Lent, probably because: 1) I’m a spring baby, and 2) I was born on Good Friday. So, I like Lent. And I also need discipline every once in awhile (who doesn’t), and the spiritual rigor of it, the peeling away of the non-essential, is a good thing.

Anyway, to the yarn!

OK, so the details:

This is the Feile shawl, which I am loving. I love how the stripes change—do you see how they had a sort of neat pattern going on, and then switch to solid stripes? Love that. Eventually, the contrast color, the blue, will become the dominant color as I work toward the end of the shawl, with the white being the contrast. This is a really easy shawl, but the fun is in the slight pattern changes. The thing that’s going to be a pain is all the end weaving in! But oh well.

I’m using Frabjous Fibers yarn, the Mad Hatter base (sport weight). The white speckled is Victorian China, and the blue is called “Muchness” (seriously, isn’t that great?). I’m using Knitpicks sunstruck needles, size 4, on one of their interchangeable cables.

The book is a great one for Lent, I think: Catherine Doherty’s The People of the Towel and Water. It’s about doing every day activities as prayer—really being present in the moment, and allowing everything you do to be prayer, working for God, even when you’re sweeping or cleaning or writing (or knitting!). Catherine founded Madonna House, and I’ve been reading some of her writing lately. I recommend it!

Yarn Along #86

Linking up with Ginny!

I finished my shawl!

I’m definitely getting faster at this pattern the more I do it; this time it took me a little over a month. Not bad. (And of course the crazy cold days when I couldn’t do anything but stay inside also helped.)

I’ve started my Find Your Fade shawl. Right now, this is a pattern where I have to pay attention to what I’m doing, because I’ve had to start it over twice—once because I had too many stitches, and once because I forgot what row I was on and knit the wrong thing….sigh…..so this represents my third attempt. Fortunately I love the yarn! (I’m doing this is Knitpicks Hawthorne yarn, on Knitpicks needles). If you click the Hawthorne yarn link you can see all the colors I’m using, because I used that kit. I’m hoping to finally get out of the first section today and start the lace bit. I’m a little nervous about this because even though I understand the technique involved, I’ve never done lace before…..so fingers crossed! My ravelry notes are here.

As for reading—last night I stayed up late to read The Winter of the Witch *, the last book in the Winternight trilogy, which takes place in Medieval Russia and blends fantasy and history. They’re so good, and if you haven’t read them, I do recommend it. I love Russian history anyway, so that helped me get into these when the first one came out a few years ago.

I’m still chugging my way through Villette although I’m getting a little annoyed with Lucy Snowe….not surprising, I get annoyed with lots of Charlotte’s heroines. I think I’m going to start The Terror next, or The Sea Queen, * but I think with The Sea Queen I’ll have to re-read Half-Drowned King first….just to make sure the story is really fresh in my mind again. Can you tell I’m on a myth/fantasy kick? (These books are Norwegian stories, based on myth and legend. Very cool and very well-written.)

*=Amazon affiliate link

Yarn Along #85

Winter is really killing my soul this year—it’s been so cold that the cold is always in the house, you know? You’re sort of always cold, and I don’t want to crank up the heat because then I’ll have an astronomical bill in February (the heat company here is….um….rather iniquitous when it comes to their rates). So at least knitting my shawl helps keep me warm!

I’m re-reading Villette and trying to see if I like it better after about 15 years have passed since I read it first. Charlotte Bronte was pretty anti-Catholic, and this book highlights that, so there are definitely parts where I just have to roll my eyes. It’s also annoying that there’s a lot of French in it which is translated in the back. (My French is decent, but not perfect.) Maybe that’s just this edition. But anyway, it’s a typical Gothic novel/ghost story/crazy romance in the Bronte sister vein, and it’s good reading for winter.

Yarn Along #84: The Lambs and Wool Shawls

I’m about to be living in Hoth again:

Seriously, it’s going to be so cold—I’m hearing negative numbers for actual temps on Sunday and Monday. Time to batten down the hatches!

At least when knitting a shawl in winter, the shawl keeps you warm! I’m into the striping section which is easy and pretty relaxing so I can watch Tidying Up with Marie Kondo or Home Town while I’m knitting and I can stay sort of warm.

The Lambs * was a wonderful book about a lawyer who decided to close her firm and move to a farm in Virginia where she raised karakul sheep. The story is wonderfully written, and the book itself is lovely, with color photographs and gorgeous design. If you like to knit, like sheep, animals, or farming, or just a well-written, meditative memoir, this is the book for you.

*Amazon Affiliate link

Yarn Along #83--shawl progress and Mary Magdalene

Progress is being made! Yay!

If you’re new, it’s the Drachenfels shawl in Quince and Co’s chickadee yarn—here you see peacoat (a dark navy blue, not black), and camel. The third color that will be incorporated is gingerbread.

I’m reading (well, one of the things I’m reading) Saint Mary Magdalene Prophetess of Eucharistic Love*. It’s really good, in that it talks a bit about the history of Mary Magdalene, her presence in the gospels, and how that relates to Eucharistic Adoration today. I’m underlining an awful lot! I’m pretty passionate about the Eucharist, so this book is definitely inspiring me to get to Mass and adoration as often as I can!

Today I’m getting another package from KnitPicks, which has the needles I need to start either Felie or Find Your Fade….which one shall I start first?!?! The Drachenfels shawl is in a good place to stop; I have to do one more repeat of the main section and then I’m done with the first page of instructions. Which one do you think I should cast on first?

*Amazon affiliate link

Yarn Along #81 (Not the swatch post!)

This is NOT the swatch post that I promised here. That’s coming. So you’ll have to come back if you want that!

This is the “Yarn I got for Christmas and projects I’m planning with it” post. Also, “Books I got for Christmas”.

But let’s talk yarn first.

First of all, I got delicious Chickadee Yarn from Quince and Co., which you know I love for yet ANOTHER Drachenfels shawl! But this one is going to be autumnal in flavor. These shawls are really done based on colors I see and want to do—the Sage shawl was in part Sage influenced, but also influenced by early spring in Ohio.

Anyway, the colors for this one:

Gingerbread

Camel

Peacoat

This is autumnal, but also inspired by Eowyn’s wardrobe in the Lord of the Rings movies. One of her outfits is that gingerbread color, she wears a dark blue robe in Return of the King, and her hair is the sort of camel color, but it also echoes some of the embroidery on her Rohan gowns. So again, this is a doubly-inspired shawl!

The next two projects were financed by my dear friend Sarah, who gave me a gift certificate to Knitpicks, which meant I could take advantage of their yarn sale and buy enough yarn to do a Find Your Fade shawl! I know I’m late to this party, everyone else did this years ago, but now I know the skills needed to do it (thank you Aunt Sue for your tutelage yet again!).

So here are all the colors for THAT. The yarn is Knit Pick’s Hawthorne line, in various types—kettle dyed, multi, and their speckled.

Whew! So the fade goes from top to bottom, and the colors are: (KD=kettle dyed, S=speckled, everything else is the multi)

Sellwood

Goose Hollow

Delphinium (KD)

Alameda

Abernathy

Turkish Delight (KD)

Berry Smoothie (S)

I sort of adore these colors! Which is good because this shawl is SO big that I’ll be using them for a long time!

The last project is the felie shawl, where I’m using Frabjous Fibers yarn—their speckle in Victorian China—and the Hawthorne Turkish Delight you see above.

So, WHEW! Is that enough yarn for you?

As for books:

I adored Marilla of Green Gables. I also got The Gown, News of the World, The Terror, and Book Girl either as Christmas gifts or bought with Christmas gift cards/money. So I’ve been reading a lot, and, as I always do at the beginning of January, I’m re-reading One Thousand Gifts. (those are Amazon affiliate links) I will report on the others as I read them, or you can follow me on Goodreads!

What are you reading/knitting?