a little crafty nest

knitting inspiration

This little blog world never ceases to amaze me.  I fell into it rather unexpectedly, and after much skepticism, just over two years ago.  If you had told me then that it would become such a source of inspiration, creativity, and friendships, well, I would have raised both my eyebrows in polite disbelief.

But here I am, finding myself in a lovely community of like-minded women...knitters and crafters, mamas and grandmothers.  It is not a stretch to say that I have found some very kindred folk here, and I am ever so grateful for that alone.  Recently, I found another lovely human in cyber world.  I do believe it was a serendipitous meeting as we share so much in common...it gets kind of eery (in a good way)!  Lori is inspiring to me in so many ways...knitting photographs, outlook on life...truly, she is one talented lady!  Somehow, Lori manages to make each one of us feel so very special and important (I think), and that is truly a gift.  It is not too much for me to say that I really look to Lori for a positive, humorous little sunburst of happiness when I visit her blog.

Well, imagine my surprise when I discovered I had won (!) a give-away she held a few weeks ago.  First of all, I never win these things...I am not lucky like that.  But when I saw what she was giving away, I couldn't help myself.  I was struck by the beauty and simplicity of simple beach glass and shells...my kind of gift!!!  So I entered, and days later, realized I won!!!  How exciting is that!!!

And not only did I recieve these nesting shells from her beachside home, but a lovely handknit necklace to hold some of her beachglass.

Can you see how delicate and shimmery this stitchwork is?  Gasp!  I love it!!!

Lori and I have been exchanging some emails before this, and so she knows a little about my family and our journey.  Lori was thoughtful enough to send my children little packages as well, which they adore.  My husband also recieved a copy of Lori's husband's magazine, DEEP.  Her generosity knows no limits as the two of them are about to head off to Africa, and Lori is taking dozens of knitted pouches filled with little goodies for the children of Namibia.  You can check it out here. 

Yes, I am so happy to have my wee little corner of blogdom as I get to meet such lovely, gentle souls like Lori.  What a gift she has brought to my family's life!  Thank you, Lori!!!

Now, for knitting this week, I began a Fisherman's Pullover for my oldest boy, Forrest.  I am embarassed to say that I have begun this sweater more times than I can count on one hand, and what you see below will have to come undone, too.  I just can't seem to find the flow of this one, but determined I am!  I think I should be fine on my restart tonight.  Sighs.  Knitting surely brings lots and lots of practice for patience.

My book is an excellent read, "Bride of New France" by Suzanne Desrochers.  Forget about the history I learned in school about fur traders and the New World, because this is a much more frank, unromantic view of the unwanted women of France who were shipped to future Canada to mate and create a thriving population.  Fascinating, if at times unbelievable.

Thank you once again, dear Ginny, for your lovely yarn along.  I look forward to seeing what others are doing right now!

yarning along

I really enjoy joining Ginny and all the other knitters for the weekly yarn-along.  There is so much inspiration out there, both with reading and with knitting projects ~ thanks to all of you for sharing such great ideas!

I thought I'd give a little update on my three year old's Summer Raspberry sweater.  I'm making up the pattern as I go, which has been interesting...and satisfying.  I haven't undone too much so far, and now I'm making progress on the sleeves.  It shall be very roomy (too much so?) which means it will just fit her a while longer ~ hopefully.  This has been a really good knit for me, boosting up my knitting confidence.  My husband laughs at my excitement over any progress I make, reminding me "it's just knitting, honey".  Exactly.

My knitting notes are on my ravelry page, here.  You might notice that I began with several buttonholes close together, and decided to make the whole placket with buttons, not just the top.  So I need to hide two buttonholes...hmmm...how do you do that?!

I'm happily reading through the Seven-Year-Old Wonder Book by Isabel Wyatt, anticipating a certain oldest child's birthday in the fall.  I enjoy the whole book, and I'm looking for suggestions on how to incorporate it into next year's grade 1 homeschool year.  Has anyone out there used this before?  I've heard tell of making our own Wonder Book, but when do you start it?  In September or at the child's birthday?  I have noticed most of the stories in the book cluster around autumn festivals, particularly Christmas, and end with New Year's.  Hmmm...suggestions, please?

Happy knitting to all of you!!!

fancy that!

There is nothing like giving a gift that somehow finds it's way back to you, even if it is in a different form.  I'm not talking about re-gifting your favourite scarf or sharing that bottle of wine with your best friend over handmade chocolates.  While both those things are wonderful, what I truly appreciate is giving a gift to someone you love who transforms it into something you would love.

Last week, my daughter received a package from my mom, Nana.  In it was a sweet baby doll blanket and a lovely hat that she had made with yarn I had gifted her for Christmas.  She loves to knit as I do, and this gift has become a sort of tradition from me to her.  One year I would love to knit her something fabulous and "fancy", as Sunshine recently reflected that Nana is just about the "fanciest" person she has ever met.  But for now, I give her yarn.

Ahhh, pink...was there ever such a fan of yours as this girl?!

My mom also returned the leftover yarn to add to my stash...but really now, that yarn never stood a chance!  Within a few sittings, Sunshine's favourite little friend, Maya, had a matching hat and scarf.  Sort of fancy, don't you think?

Yes, indeed, Nana, your hat was very appreciated!  Thank you for your beautiful knitting.

Yarning along this week with Ginny, here's a little update on my shawl.  I feel like I'm sort of wrestling a bit with this one, but in a playful sort of way.  I have undone several rows several times (!) because if I'm not paying attention to the textured stitch, it suddenly becomes very apparent in a very uncharming way.  But it is ok because it is beginning to look more and more like a shawl.

As for the book, my inner geek is delighted!  My husband gifted me this little book a few year's ago, and it seems every year at this time, out it comes...just as the seed catalogues are getting dog-eared and ready for mailing off orders.  I admit to being totally intrigued by little known facts about plants and it does come in handy when shopping for seeds or plants at the local greenhouse.  My grade eight latin skills are dusted off and I spend a few days each year pestering my husband with trivial details such as purpurea is a purple coloured flower and pruriens is stinging or itching ~ oh, how I love this!  My mind stretches and yawns a little...until it dutifully rolls over and goes back to sleep until next year's seed catalogues arrive.

Happy knitting, friends...enjoy your week!

Tomorrow, I am excited (and a little nervous) to be a guest blogger at the Homespun Waldorf Winter Carnival!  There will be many Waldorf inspired homeschoolers sharing ideas and inspiration over the course of four weeks...come and check it out! 

knitting woes...resolved

My husband thinks I'm crazy.  (Oh, that's so wonderfully dramatic, isn't it?)  Ok, he thinks I'm crazy when it comes to my knitting.  You see, I like doing it right.  If I begin a project and the yarn is all wrong, or the stitches are so tight the whole garment feels and looks like cardboard...well, I let 'er rip.  That is, I rip it out and begin again.  I don't know why he thinks it's crazy, but I am perfectly ok starting again.  Usually.

But this wonderful shawl that I originally saw here, well, I have had to start it four times.  Four.  Times.  This can really get on the nerves of even the most patient knitter ~ of which I'm not claiming to be, by the way.

Then I saw my dear friend post about her shawl.  We like to do these collaborative projects, like this one and this one.  Now we are doing the textured shawl recipes...for our very own selves!  So, of course, it has to be just right.  Anyhow, back to Melanie's shawl...it is beautifully knit in lovely yarn...and I couldn't help feeling so very amateurish in my attempts.  So I chatted with her and she mentioned the most simple of solutions ~ bigger needles!   Ahh, problem solved.  Dear friends, it amazes me how simple this little golden knitting rule is.  I even tried the four inch gauge swatch and it must have been off because after switching up two sizes to 5mm needles, this shawl is starting to look like what it is supposed to be and not some kind of woollen parcel package.  In other words, it drapes rather than bends.  Ahem.

the shawl on the left is the keeper; the one on the right is ready to Fed Ex

I also changed up the increase stitches from M1L and M1R twice, to YO on the edges and M1L and M1R along the center.  It adds a little more detail to the edge, see...

Or, maybe you can't see enough here...just wait 'til it's finished, I guess.

As for reading, I am still on the same book from two weeks ago, State of Wonder, which is an ok read.  Unlike most of the country, I am not swept away by her books.  It is engaging enough, though, and I read at night before bed as sweet Huckley is nursing away in dreamland. 

On a more exciting note, I began Paddington Bear with my six year old son and my three year old daughter.  Now that I am swept up with!  It is so fun to re-read these childhood books I enjoyed so long ago, only now with my beloved little people.  Forrest is completely drawn into the book, sitting beside me, mouth agape, smiling in a goofy, un-selfconscious way.  This is priceless to me.  For the last year and a half, I have tried to find some good books other than picture books.  He is very sensitive to most conflict and tension, so I am trying to ease him in slowly.  We read some Grimm's Tales for homegrown schooling, but only those ones which I know don't contain too much strife.  So far Winnie the Pooh and Burgess books are real winners.  Anyone have any other suggestions?

Once again, I'm joining Ginny at Small Things for this wonderful yarn along. 

recipe for a shawl (part I)

Oh, Ginny, how I love to join thee when I have something worthwhile on my needles...yarning-along now...

The holidays are pretty much over, our regular rhythm is re-emerging, and now its time for a new knitting project.  The queue is a long one, my friends, with lots of grand ideas and noble intentions as this very new year begins.  However, rather than begin some next year giftmaking now (!) and rather than making those darn fingerless gloves for my husband that I shelved the day after Christmas because they were way too big, I am doing something drastic and crazy.  I have decided to make (cue drumroll) myself something. 

To be fair, I have had my eye on this shawl for some time, and I purchased the wool for it in November.  But I had to force myself, really steel myself, against beginning it as the holiday gift-making timeline shortened all too quickly.  I stashed the skeins away in a rubbermaid bin at the bottom of a tower of rubbermaid bins in my crafting / one year old's room.  Twice, I took out the yarn to fondle it and dream about the shawl, only to stuff it back in its plastic bin as my guilty conscience chided me to keep focused on the holidays.

So on New Year's Eve, it was quite possibly the most thrilling I've experienced in a few years as I curled up on the couch, sipping homemade cherry brandy beside my husband as he read Moby Dick, and I cast on for the Textured Shawl Recipe.  Four attempts later, this is where I'm at now...

Three days in, this recipe calls for:

    * two skeins of Pear Tree Merino in den blue (8 ply)

    * US 7 - 4.5 mm needles

    * free pattern on ravelry found here...though it is really like a recipe ~ very loose and free to be creative

    * a guilt-free conscience to savour the sheer joy of knitting for oneself

As for my good read right now, I was gifted this newest Ann Patchett novel, State of Wonder.  I am no die-hard Ann Patchett fan, but this is pretty intriguing so far.  The Amazon, fertility experiments, mystery, fast-paced...the formula's there for a good, easy read.  I'm all for that as I seem to be drawn to knitting every spare second I have right now...

And off I go while the little ones are tucked in their beds...happy knitting for this new year ahead!

warm necks (aka knit dickies)

Joining Ginny at Small Things today for her lovely yarn-along.

I picked up this wonderful book, The Education of Little Tree by Forrest Carter ~ for the fifth time, or something like the fifth time.  I've read it myself, to my classroom of students once upon a time, and again and again to myself.  I'm short on books right now and am recycling through my bookshelf.  I hope this is an indication that I really enjoy this book.

This week I'm not only sharing what's on my needles, but I'm also sharing a hand-knit stocking stuffer idea...a few birds, so they say.  I was about to cast on for mittens for my three little ones, but I realize making mittens for my biggest boy is silly ~ he's outside romping in the snow so much, they would just become a stretched-out, soggy mess of wool in no time.  (Although, mittens would be a wonderful gift for the younger two children...in fact, maybe they still will...)

One thing I do notice when we are outside ~ and I shamelessly admit to being preoccupied with surveying the attire of all three little ones ~ is that they often have a large area of exposed skin from where their hat ends and their collars of snowsuits begin.  No matter how much rearranging of outerwear and innerwear I attempt, their exposed skin on the nape of the neck looks...so very cold.  Scarves can be bulky and cumbersome, but a cozy little neckwarmer may be just the thing.

Here is Forrest's completed neckwarmer alongside Sunshine's, whose just needs a quick seam up the back.  I wanted to show the flare at the bottom that makes them fit more snugly.  I chose soft wool, including the pink Misti Alpaca (I completely forget where Forrest's wool came from...perhaps Crystal Palace?).

I made up this simple pattern which is as follows...

Cast on about 64 to 88 stitches, depending on the thickness of the wool.  I made these for small children and measure 14 inches in circumference when finished.

K2P2 for 2 1/2 inches, then increase once: *K, make 1, K, P2*, repeat to end

Continue with ribbing so K3, P2 on one side, K2, P3 on the other side.

Make neck warmer about 5 to 7 inches long.

My husband jokingly calls them knit dickies...do any of you know about those silly fake turtleneck things that are sewn to be worn beneath a sweater and look like you are wearing a turtleneck (but you're not)?  I assure you, these knit dickies are far more fabulous than that!  For one, they prevent the cold from creeping down my little one's necks...and that's just about all I need to stop fussing over their outdoor attire and start sledding with them!  Now, I' off to go finish up the third neck warmer...and maybe go sew my husband a really big dickie for his stocking.

cluck cluck, clickety-clack

I have a new project on my needles so I am joining Ginny for her weekly yarn-along today.

My older son's cardigan was finished in the nick of time for his birthday last Friday.  Tomorrow I plan to share how it turned out, as well as some mama-made pants, too.  But I'm rather excited to get back to the Knitted Farmyard project which I hope to have finished for the holidays in something like six or seven weeks!  Yikes!

Like the sheep and the pigs, these little chickens (called cluck clucks around here) were such fun to knit up ~ and being so small they are a snap to whip up in an afternoon or two.  I had to play around with the comb and the dangly thing beneath the beak (what is that called?), but I think they are working out well.  The children certainly approve.  They watch me knit them up, sometimes offering their opinions (ahem!).  But then I stash them away so that when the whole farmyard is revealed, it ought to be a bit of a surprise...even a wee little one!

I'm cheating a little with the book this week.  What with a bedroom reno stalled out upstairs and many boxes of books and treasures stored away, there are not a lot of books lying about.  So I grabbed the first thing I could find, The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield, which I have already read and I think I remember vaguely that it was an engaging, fast read.  What I really hoped to have found was my beloved Kirsten Lavransdatter, but that will have to wait until the reno is complete.

Besides, if this book doesn't read as swiftly as the first time through, there is always a few more cluck clucks to whip up!

tried and true

Once again, I'm joining Ginny with her weekly yarn-along.  This week, I'm keeping it brief as I have many puppets to make before Thursday's puppet show. 

 
I cast on a few days ago for another neck-down cardigan, this one for my oldest son.  It was such a successfully easy knit the first time around, I do believe I ought to stick with a good thing!  I've put a bit of a deadline on myself for this one, and I'm hoping I can finish it in time for Forrest's sixth birthday in early November.  That only gives me six weeks or so, and I'm not exactly the fastest knitter around!  Hmmm, now that I've put it out there, it is even more incentive to get it done.  I really love the variegated blue yarn I found...it is Berroco Ultra Alpaca Tonal.  It is knitting up so beautifully...oh, I hope I can do it in time!

The book is borrowed from my husband, who really enjoys real adventure and wilderness stories.  He is a back country ski guide in the winter and these kind of non-fiction novels really speak to him.  I have to admit, I usually get into them afterwards, too.  This book, "The Tiger ~ A True Story of Vengeance and Survival" is the tale of a Siberian Tiger and Russian poachers and conservationists.  It is an unbelievable account of one tiger who actually targets one individual man, and shows that Siberian tigers actually have a collective unconscious.  There is a lot of historical background to the political, economic, and social make-up of Russia in the last one hundred years, shedding new light on what I thought I knew about this country...truly fascinating!  We've read one of John Vaillant's books before, "The Golden Spruce", which was also fantastic.  Despite being so factual, which I would have thought might be dry, this opening sentence to the book shows just how poetic Vaillant writes..."Hanging in the trees, as if caught there, is a sickle of a moon."  Yup, this is a good read!

little pixie boy

I'm playing along with Ginny today and her yarn along.  Yes!  I love books and knitting, too!

 

I began reading Shannon Hayes' Radical Homemakers, based on a suggestion from my good friend Melanie, who always seems to like the same things I do!  When she mentioned it, I pictured something very different, and I have to say you really can't judge a book by its cover.  I had never heard of it before, though it's only been around since 2010, but I gather it is generating a lot of discussion elsewhere.  Oh, this is a good good read!  Basically, Hayes suggests that a true homemaking spirit will allow men and women to embrace domesticity in order to "rediscover the joy that comes with using our hands and our minds in union to nourish, nurture and delight in our families; we tap the source of true creative satisfaction, the ecstasy that accompanies a home that lives in harmony with the earth's systems, and the certitude of a life guided by principles of social justice and nonexploitation."  Just two pages into her book, and I felt so validated knowing that I was not alone in my happy homemaking bliss...in fact, there is a movement underfoot and these Radical Homemakers are cropping up here, there, and everywhere!  Oh, there is hope for our children's future, for our earth's future.

 
And here is little Huckley in his Thanksgiving hat...the Stella Pixie Hat found for free on ravelry.  I began this hat a good long while ago...and when I finished it, I realized my boy's little noggin is not so, ahem, little.  So I cast on again, adding on several more ribbings to accomodate his larger dimensions, and voila!  it worked quite well. 

 
I love this pattern!  I used Indigo Moon's merino superwash fingering with size 3.25 mm needles so it took quite a while to knit it up, but easy.  I also made i-cord ties rather than the button closure, as suggested by Meg.  I am so thrilled with it, I immediately cast on for Sunshine's Thanksgiving hat (Canadian Thanksgiving is in early October, just when Jack Frost is beginning to nip) in red. 

 
And this little pixie boy seems to like it very much, thank you!  Well, then again, he likes to put anything on his head...hats, socks, vegetables, dogfood...I'll try and limit the rest and stick with the pixie hat. 

looking ahead

I thought I'd join Ginny at Small Things this week for a yarn along.  I so enjoy seeing what other people are up to and I am continually being inspired by both projects and books.

Right now I am immersed in birthday merry-making.  With Huckley's first birthday one week today (!) and then Sunshine turning three a few days later, I am up later than I ought to be knitting, sewing, felting, and painting.  And, dear friends, this is not a complaint...I love this!!!

 
First, I finally finished The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski.  Last time I joined the yarn along, I said it was a little slow and sad.  Well, it must have been my mood, because the story really picked up and I looked forward to those late night nursing stretches where I turned on the light, hoping not to disturb the other family members who share our bed, and read.  More like consume the rest of the story.  It is a good read, and helped me give a few extra rubs for our two four-legged girls, Nyla and Cocoa.

Second, the very pink knitting is a dolly sweater I'm making for Sunshine's doll, Maya.  In fact, I'm making her a whole wardrobe (I hope) for Sunshine's birthday in just ten days.  The sweater is a pattern by Shelly at Waldorfmama and it is done in five pieces.  I had to finangle the sizing with different sized needles, something I'm not very experienced with.  Needless to say, I feel like I've spent far too much time on this dolly sweater than I have on Huckley's cardigan that I shelved some time ago.  I'm anxious to get back to that!

Finally, the book(s) I'm reading might seem somewhat dry to many of you, but I am immersed in preparing for homeschooling this fall.  I've purchased the Christopherus First Grade package and I am so excited by how comprehensive and true it all feels to the Waldorf philosophy.  Perhaps many of you are familiar with Christopherus, but for those who aren't, Donna is a real treasure.  She is very thorough in her curriculum and gives a very readable presentation of the whys, whats, whens of Waldorf home education.  I am really undecided how to approach homeschooling with Forrest this fall as he is a late birthday (November) and I'm still trying to figure out if I ought to keep it simple with Kindergarten again this year, or move forward and do a little letter learning...which he is keen to do.  Does anyone else out there have experience with a child whose birthday falls so late in the year?  I am leaning towards doing capital letters and maybe have Forrest illustrate a weekly Mother Goose rhyme, and then move more into Grade 1 next year.  I'm open to suggestions and hearing anyone's experiences.

Thanks to Ginny for hosting this wonderful yarn along...I look forward to being inspired by other knitters and readers out there!

two little piggies

I thought I'd join Ginny at Small Things this week for a yarn along.  I so enjoy seeing what other people are up to and I am continually being inspired by both projects and books.

 
The book I'm reading is The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski that my mom passed along.  It is the story of a teenage boy who cannot speak and his parents who operate a dog breeding kennel.  Truly, it is a tribute to the relationship between a boy and his dog combined with a thriller.  It is an intriguing read, though I find there is a sense of sadness and loneliness on each page.  Perhaps my next read will be a little more uplifting.

 
And here are my three, er two (so far), little piggies for the Knitted Farmyard I am making for my three children for Christmas.  Slowly I am acquiring some animals for the farm.  They are such fun to make, so simple and so easy...I love that!  And I know that my little ones will just love it, too.

Thanks again to Ginny for hosting a wonderful yarn along!  I look forward to seeing what you are knitting and reading right now.

may yarn-along

I thought I'd join in this week with Ginny's yarn-along.  The sweater I'm making for wee Huckley is slowly coming along...and not so wee, either!  It seems I might be waiting until the cold weather in the fall, or even Christmas, to give him this sweater.

 
It's a straightforward knit and it's the second sweater that Melanie and I are knitting together, for our littlest boys, born a week apart.  I might have to undo the bottom ribbing and shorten it somewhat because it looks a little ridiculously long on Huckley.

I'm so enjoying my book right now, and it's a whopper of an anthology!  It's The Complete Grimm's Fairy Tales illustrated by Josef Scharl and published by Pantheon.  Years ago I searched for a long while before buying this edition.  There are over 200 tales presented, including the well-known ones like Little Red Cap (Red Riding Hood) and Rumpelstiltskin, and lesser known ones that are true gems.  It is so enchanting reading, and re-reading, some of these tales which exemplify the honourable qualities of human nature, while reminding us that good always triumphs over evil. 

Years ago, as a teacher at an alternative school, I was asked not to read any fairy tales to the children.  There was concern over the depiction of the princess always needing to be rescued, always having golden hair, while the villain was often depicted with dark hair, and usually a stepmother.  Since then, I have come to appreciate the wisdom of fairy tales and that each character represents an archetype of our own personalities.  We all have a part of us that is the King who rules kindly and justly, that is the stepmother who is selfish and mean-spirited, that is the princess who needs help and direction.  And these fairy tales allow the message of the good conquering the bad to settle into our sub-conscious through these extraordinary stories where animals talk and magic abounds.

My oldest son will be six this fall and we will be homeschooling Kindergarten more intensively this year, combined with some Class 1 material.  I am having so much fun right now, planning for the fairy tales that will carry us through the year.  Yesterday, Renee posted about Kindergarten materials and included this very edition of the Grimm's Fairy Tales, too.  She also makes notes about the appropriate tales...for there are indeed some rather grim ones included in the anthology!  I also love that there are tales for the young child, like Sweet Porridge, and others that are for a much older child.  I am even getting so much out of them!

Thank you to Ginny once again for inspiring such a worthwhile posting...I'm really enjoying seeing what other people recommend...in knitting and in books!

may yarn-along

I'm liking both my book and my knitting project right now so I thought I'd join Ginny's yarn-along this week. 

 
I began knitting a cardigan for wee little Huckley two weeks ago.  The progress might be a bit slow but the entire family has been derailed by a horrendous flu bug that is finally creeping up on me.  There wasn't much knitting to be done between making meals, helping little ones (and husband!) be more comfortable, cleaning up messes, and doing some laundry.  We are on Day 9 of the Relentless Flu and I'm feeling run-down and bone weary.  Anyhow, knitting always brings me back up, even if it's just thinking about it!

My dear friend Melanie and I are on our second knit-along sweater, this one for our little 10 month old boys.  Even though she lives (too!) far away, we like to knit together.  She picked the pattern for this one as she has used it before.  It's a very simple, straightforward knit, though I am using smaller needles to make the size 2-4 smaller to fit my boy.  He is a chunker, but it looks like it's still going to be quite big on him.  I'd rather that than too small, like Sunshine's Tiny Tea Leaves turned out to be!  I am using Misti Alpaca Tonos Worsted in a lovely forest green.  It is really a beautiful yarn that doesn't appear to pill much.

I really enjoy knitting with another kindred soul, despite the distance.  This cyber world continues to amaze me with the connections I keep making!  What beautiful mamas there are out there...doing such lovely, inspiring, thoughtful things.

And through this blog world, I also have discovered so many new books and resources for homeschooling my children.  I kept hearing great reviews about Thornton Burgess books from various people (all Americans).  The short chapters in each book revolve around various animals in an enchanted place called Green Meadows and Green Forest.  I ordered this set from our local bookstore and have begun reading them to see if they are appropriate for my 5 year old...and indeed they are!  We are in between books for him, wanting chapter books but nothing too complicated.  We recently finished the Winnie the Pooh series, and I think that these Burgess books are next in line...he already discovered them and is eagerly awaiting our special reading time together.  

Do you have any other suggestions of chapter books for 5 year olds?

another april yarn-along

I was only planning to join Ginny's yarn along once in a while, like once a month.  But I so enjoyed connecting with all the knitters out there, and seeing I'm completely addicted to knitting (and reading), here I am again:)

 
The hat I'm needing to finish is a Stella Pixie hat for my littlest boy.  I used Indigo Moon "bluejeans" merino in fingerling weight.  Unfortunately, it was meant for my 9 month old a little while ago and I discovered his head is a little, ahem, larger than I thought.  So I have made my very first Christmas/Solstice gift of 2011 (yes, that's another 8 months away)!  I have no idea who it will be for, in fact, it could be for a baby who is not even conceived yet!  That's a strange thought! 

The book is one of my treasured favourites, "Lifeways ~ Working With Family Questions" by Gudrun Davy and Bons Voors from 1983.  It has wonderful little essays about all sorts of family issues...mothering, meals, festivals, temperaments, creative discipline, illness, and making clothing ~ to name a few.  I find that there is always something pertinent to where I am at as a mama between these covers and that is why I come back to this book, again and again.  Some of my favourite parenting books are like this...I cannot even count how many times I have read "Over the Rainbow Bridge" or "You Are Your Child's First Teacher".  True literary gems on parenting, in my humble opinion.

And a quick update on last week's book, "Guardian Angels" by Rudolf Steiner.  I have read the first few lectures and they are much more readable than other Steiner lectures I have read.  It is quite interesting to read his thoughts on guardian angels, which he believes can be good and bad.  He differentiates between the work of clairvoyants and true guardian angels, providing fascinating real-life anecdotes.  This is definately a slow read for me, his lectures always are.  But it is a good read while I lay down with my napping nursling and envision who his guardian angel might be.  I really believe we all have one, and Steiner's lectures really make a believer out of the most science-minded person!