Crazy, Crazy!

An earthquake earlier this week, now a hurricane. Can it please just snow?

Noah & Nathan were supposed to come home from Atlanta tomorrow, but their flight has already been canceled.

Nuriel & I are hunkering down with some basic emergency supplies & I forgot the wine! What a bummer.

I don't like storms. I'm so freaked out!

Yarn Along Wednesday

I'm joining Yarn Along Wednesday today. 

I finished this, and then I went to some functional knitting yesterday and stitched up a Vanilla soaker. For some reason I totally got everything wrong. It turned out way too big. So big that (even after slightly felting it) it will not ever fit a child in diapering age! So, it's being felted in the washer now. It was a nice soft rosy hue and will make some nice heart-ornaments for the Christmas tree. :-) I did figure out why it got so big. I wasn't using the right version for the yarn I had. Duh, me. 

I'm also knitting a green shawl using some Malabrigo Sock from my stash. And I have 5 (gasp) shawls waiting to be blocked. I finished The Silver Lining, I have a Rosie Shawl, and I used the white Malabrigo to knit three Shetland Triangles varying in size: Mother. Daughter. Dollie. 

I'm reading Conception, Birth & Early Childhood by Norbert Glas. I'm enjoying the insights he offers about child development. It's so nice to see all of this unfold for Nuriel. If I get around to it sometime, I'll share more.

If you haven't entered yet, the Mother Earth Meltdown Monday Giveaway is still open to entries!

A Lil' Giveaway...

Remember the Mother Earth I mentioned the other day? Well, if you want a chance to win her, head on over to This Cosy Life for Julie's Meltdown Monday Giveaway! And I truly hope your Monday is meltdown-mania free!

Half A Kiwi {HINE is a girl}

I had the honor of test-knitting this for Kelly over at knit.so.quaint. It's HINE is a girl, the extended version, which is due to be released soon. The pattern is one of those no-seams kind that I love so much. It's a top-down construction. It's a fairly easy knit, yet with the assymmetrical button-band & lace sleeves it has a quite sophisticated look. Since I would love for this to fit Nuriel for two cold seasons, I chose to knit the 18-24 months size.

I used Woolrae (8-ply). I was a bit hesitant at first to use a variegated yarn. I worried about pooling since part of Hine is knit back & forth and part of it in the round, but this yarn was a good choice for this project. I love how the colors blend & mend. I added Paua buttons. You must think I have an arsenal of Paua buttons. I don't. I put Paua buttons on a project for the time Nuriel wears it. When she outgrows the garment, I recycle the buttons for a new project and put some simple buttons on the outgrown garment before I pass it on to someone as a hand-me-down.

Kiwi pattern. Kiwi yarn. Kiwi buttons. On Ravelry the project is here. It looks lovely on my hine. It will make a nice 1st birthday gift.

Mother Earth

How do you imagine Mother Earth? Is she old & wise? Young & adorned with flowers? I have different images of her in my head. They change with the season, with stories I hear & tell. 

To me she is such an archetypal figure on the Nature Table. I've been experimenting with creating the different Mother Earths of my imagination.

This one is about 10" tall. Her body is needle-felted. She wears a hooded cape knitted on teeny-tiny needles using some Koigu yarn. Her apron has a simple grass - sky - sunflower scene needle-felted onto a piece of wet-felted wool-mohair felt. She is wise & old. Her hair is thus gray, with a lil' bun in the back. 

I love how she turned out. How about you? Well, guess what. I'm not keeping her. This is a bit of a teaser. :-) On Monday I'll tell you more about all of that. Do check back in!

In the meantime, if you have a link to the Mother Earth of your imagination, the Mother Earth who lives on your Nature Table maybe, please do share a link in the comment section. I'd love to see her!

Nuriel's First Chocolate Fish

This warmed my heart today...

 Where did the other fishies go? [Answer: Noah & Nathan.]

 Stretchy... Too bad it's blurry...

Yum.

Map

This is a map. It's a gorgeous map ten 7/8th graders (Noah's class) drew & shaded by hand for the school's auction that took place a few months ago. It brought in a nice sum for the school. It's a stunning piece. I just had the opportunity to create some over-sized postcards for the students to have as "memorabilia." I thought I'd share. Amazing, huh? (You can click on it and enjoy a slightly larger view.) Noah is known for his small, neat handwriting. Amongst other things, he wrote the "Key."

A Metaphor For Optimism

Ahhhhh. Looking for The Silver Lining. For a melancholic like me that's always a bit challenging. 

In this post I mentioned having received a gift of two skeins of Knitsch Colorway The Silver Lining. I wanted The Silver Lining to become an Ishbel. I thought it would be a nice way to literally wrap myself with The Silver Lining.

Now, I tend to overestimate how much yarn I need for a project. I always have leftovers, but I wanted to use every lil' bit of The Silver Lining, so I did some research in regards to size. I figured if 1-1/2 skeins were needed to make a small stockinette/small lace section Ishbel, then I could get away with working a small stockinette/large lace section Ishbel... Right?!  

WRONG! About a third into the CAST-OFF ROW (of all rows!), I ran out of The Silver Lining. You have to admit it can't get more dramatic than running out of The Silver Lining. (Sniff.)

Complicating the situation was the fact that I had been so confident about my 'yardage math' that I hadn't even inserted a life-line. (Aren't you glad that I 'just' teach 4th grade math? Algebra might be quite disastrous!) - Ripping back was thus not an option either.  

At 1:45 a.m. I sent a message to "R."

"I ran out of The Silver Lining 1/3 into casting off Ishbel! I'm now trying to find The Silver Lining... in oh, so many ways! :-)"

Seven minutes later, from the other side of the globe this message popped up in my inbox: 

"Oh ohhh. I might be able to send over a little bit of The Silver Lining. How many metres do you reckon? I had some left over from my Mum's Scalene."

Ahhh. What joy! I was able to settle into the feather-bed for some restful sleep after all & The Silver Lining is traveling via Airmail as I'm typing... :-)

And that's the story of The Silver Lining. I'm just so thankful & grateful. Now back to Mommy-reality aka a stinky, poopy diaper...

Please note: Comments are here to stay.

Comments?

Last year there was a blog I read frequently & the blog author had this post about going "no comments." Back then I thought it was crazy. Why on earth would you write a blog and not give people a chance to say somethin'? Don't we all like to hear how beautiful our pictures are? What nifty ideas we have? Receive a message of support  from someone who is also at wits end with parenting a teenager?

Well, life has changed. I often read blogs & feel like I should comment, but the typing of the response, entering all your personal "codes" and word verifications (Yes. It usually takes me two tries. I should be wearing glasses, but I don't. Those squiggly letters really annoy me.) just takes so long. I still enjoy reading blogs, but I've gone from frequent commenting to rarely ever leaving a comment at all.

And so my thoughts have gone back to that blog from last year & I'm starting to think going "no comments" might be a good idea for my blog, too.

What do you think? Please do leave a comment. Ha! It might be your last chance to say something. :-)