{this moment}

From soulemama:

"{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see."

Yarn Along (#8)

Last week while at the library, I spotted a book on the shelf that looked familiar from someone's Yarn Along post last week. I borrowed the book and realized when I got home that Ginny (who hosts these Yarn Alongs) had been reading it with her children. My oldest child loves this book. She wakes up in the morning and the first thing she wants to do is read it. We're staying up late too, just to read more.

This week I'm knitting a sample for my Lucia Hat pattern. I'm making this one for my daughters and I'm knitting with Becoming Art's "Neverland" colorway. I'm enjoying knitting with this yarn because of the beautiful shifts in color that happen every few stitches or so.

I've made good progress on the sweater I was knitting last week but took a few days off to finish this hat. I've only got 1 1/2 sleeves left to go, and now that I'm done cabling, those are knitting up quickly.

What are you knitting and reading?

inspired Monday

I listened to an interesting podcast while knitting last week and, for the life of me, I can't remember its name. The podcast was about blogging and planning ahead. It got me thinking about something I could write about on a regular basis. One thing I'm interested in looking into is what inspires me, as a designer and knitter. I'd also like to hear what inspires you in your life.

Today it's the weather. Since Saturday we've had spring-like weather. Temperatures in the 40's, grey skies, melting snow, rain. I've brought out my rain boots and think I can retire my winter boots.

But this afternoon things took a turn toward winter again. After being warm and rainy this morning, temperatures dropped and it started to snow. As I waited for my daughter at the bus stop, I watched the water running underneath the edges of the ice on the side of the road. It was so cold that I immediately wanted something warm and soft. I thought about this yarn.

At about an hour before sundown tonight, the sky turned this color. It turned everything in the house a pale but glowing shade of pink.

This Quince yarn has just the slightest touch of something in it that makes it neither cream nor pink. It exists in a place in between.

I wanted to immediately knit myself a warm chunky cowl. So I've sketched a design and now it sits in my notebook until I can work through some of the other projects I've got going on right now.

Yarn Along (#7)

I missed last week's Yarn Along...and I had been doing so well the previous six weeks. My children were home last week for school vacation and it wasn't happening. I missed writing about what I was reading. I also really missed reading everyone else's blogs.

So this week I'm reading Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. I'm embarrassed to say that I'm not enjoying it as much as I thought I would. I'm also embarrassed to say (since I have my Master's in Literature) that I have never before read anything by Jane Austen. I'm in love with the movie Sense and Sensibility, directed by Ang Lee. It's one of the few movies in my life that I've willingly watched more than once. I enjoyed the movie Pride and Prejudice. And generally I never like a movie as much as the novel on which it was based. So I figured that I'd love this novel. But my brain, at night when I read, is struggling to make sense of 19th century prose. I may just put this novel aside for a while and come back to it later when I'm less sleep deprived.

I got my Spring 2011 copy of Interweave Knits yesterday and have loved looking through that.

I'm knitting my daughter a sweater with Madelinetosh Vintage and this is by far one of the most lovely yarns I have ever knit with. My daughter wanted a sweater the color of the sky, and this color is named "Windowpane." The sweater is knitting up quickly and it's a design that I'm working on as I go. I swore that I'd never knit a cabled sweater, but ever since I learned how to cable without a cable needle, I'm sold on cables. I'm still not sure about what to do with the sleeves?, and do I make a hood or not?, and what about pockets?, but I'll come to those questions as I get there.

You can join Ginny's Yarn Along on her blog. Feel free to leave a comment with a link to your contribution because I love reading everyone else's.

When life hands you lemons, make lemonade...

when the sky sends you freezing rain, make ice cream sandwiches. (Knitting seems obvious here, but you can do that after you eat.)

Ok, that's a bit of a stretch. But curl up on the couch with an afghan and some warm socks and one of these ice cream sandwiches, and I promise they'll make you happy.

Before Christmas, I went a little nuts baking cookies. I have my standard favorites that I like to make every year, and this year my husband requested pizzelles. I've only made them once before and in my mind, I was thinking they were difficult and a lot of work. But as I got going, I realized they're very easy and totally worth it.

We're lucky to have my husband's grandmother's pizzelle maker from the 1960's.

I used Giada DeLaurentis' Pizzelle recipe. It's a super easy recipe that I can hand mix in one bowl. She suggests making ice cream sandwiches with them by slicing up a pint of ice cream and placing a slice of ice cream between 2 cookies.

For every year of my childhood that I can remember, my family had a Friendly's Jubilee Roll at dessert for Christmas. We always had homemade stuff too, but that's the dessert I remember. In the past couple of years, I've been buying them myself because it reminds me of those really wonderful times and my family laughs when I bring it out. But everyone has a piece too.

So this year, I cut up the Friendly's Jubilee roll, and placed it between 2 pizelles. It was heaven!

Now I realize we're well past Christmas, but I made these again this weekend and they were as good as I remembered them.

this moment (or something like it)

On Fridays, soulemama blogs {this moment}: in her words "A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember."

I've been seeing these posts on her blogs, and others inspired by hers for a while now, and I'm finally joining in.

And I love Waldorfmama's spin on it: adding the things she's grateful for.

So here's mine:

I know I'm not supposed to add any words, but what I'll remember from this day is not just the peacefulness of walking by the ocean on a warm winter day. It'll also be that my 4 year old fell into a tidal pool and had a complete meltdown because she couldn't figure out whether she wanted to stay on the beach in her soaking wet clothes or go home. And that as I packed us all into the car, I could hear the words to Bon Jovi's "Blaze of Glory" in my head. Because we seem to leave a fair number of places going down in one.

Here's what I'm thankful for:
An unusually warm day in February that gave us a reprieve from winter and hope for spring
Living close enough to the beach that we can go whenever we please
Having observant children who found this heart shaped rock wedged into one of the bigger rocks
A daughter who has so much energy and passion inside of her that sometimes she doesn't know what to do with herself

If you'd like, share a link to your moment.

Yarn Along (#6)

I'm still reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver this week. The book has convinced me to give up all industrially raised meat and dairy. And it's made me aware of where the produce I'm buying comes from. I really appreciate her desire to create a food culture for her family. Cooking was important in both of my parents' families, and my mom's parents grew their own vegetables. They had a huge raised bed that took up most of their backyard and their beans used to grow up the side of the house and onto the roof. I remember very vividly their basement cabinets filled with all of the pickles, beans, beets, and tomatoes they had canned themselves. My Dad still talks about how good my grandmother's pickles were.

This week I'm also reading the knitters handy book of sweater patterns by Ann Budd. I'm starting to put together my idea for my daughter's sweater and the book is providing some useful sizing guidelines and ways of shaping the sweater.

The sweater I'm knitting for myself is just about done. I'm hoping one more week!

I listened to this interesting broadcast on the program On Point yesterday on NPR: "The Resurgence of Knitting." Good to listen to while knitting, of course.

And thanks to Ginny for hosting another Yarn Along on her blog this week.