Yarn Along

Hello!  I know you all were probably expecting anniversary pictures right about now but I couldn't bring myself to miss Ginny's Yarn Along this week...because I just began a project that I am SO excited about and pretty much in love with.

The anniversary party was a success- my parents were visibly thrilled at the efforts put forth and the great love of friends and family surrounding them on that day.  It was super cold but it didn't rain, the food was good and the decor was in place before everyone arrived.  Pretty much a great success.  I took very few pictures during the party- but a very sweet gal stole my sisters' camera and snapped away, leaving us with quite a few wonderful moments etched in photographic form.  I'll blog them soon...

In the meantime...

 I am SO EXCITED to show you my recent knitting project!

I have adored Fair Isle style knitting, using multiple colors within intricate patterns of knitting, since I first  laid eyes on it.  Yet, it is waaaaaaayyyyyyyy beyond anything I could ever muster.  I've never even used more than one color in a knitting project yet!

Well, I decided enough was enough.  It was time to pull the bull by the horns.  It was time to step out of my comfort zone and push myself into a learning a new knitting skill.  Essentially, this bonnet happened.

Look at this picture from Ravelry and tell me your heart doesn't stop beating for a minute:

Maybe it was the bonnet.  But then again, maybe it was the baby IN the bonnet.  Either way, I was a goner.

It seems like a great (and simpler) introduction to multi-color yarn work.  And, it being a baby bonnet, it won't be huge investment in time either.  I'll learn very quickly if I can hack it or not.   I don't have a knitting instructor anymore- my knitting group is breaking up for the summer- so I am on my own with this...but I figure, if I fail, I will fail in a rather small way and will fail rather quickly.

So far though, I am pretty confident I am NOT going to fail. (BIG surprise to me!)  It looks pretty wonderful and seems to be going rather smoothly.  In fact, I kinda LOVE working with more than one color!  Not only does it add interest to the end product, but it adds interest to the process as well.  I think I am properly addicted.

Just look at that!  THREE colors!  

As for reading- I am finishing up Ten Ways to Destroy the Imagination of Your Child by Anthony Ensolen.  What a great book.  It is written in a satirical tone, which took some getting used to- but the result is both wise/profound and snarky/humorous.

I borrowed the copy I am readying from the library and when Corynn saw it in the basket she said, rather dazed and confused..."Why would you want to destroy the imaginations of your children, Mama?"

A few favorite quotes from its' pages:

“Fairy tales and folk tales are for children and childlike people, not because they are little and inconsequential, but because they are as enormous as life itself.” 

"For in that deep quiet of the heat we hear things. We hear that the world as we know it is passing away. We are passing away. Yet the world is beautiful, and good is no illusion. Evil is the illusion; it is weak, a shadow, a parody of good, a specter."

"If we loved children, we would have a few.  If we had them, we would want them as children, and would love the wonder with which they behold the world, and would hope that some of it might open our own eyes a little.  We would love their games and would want to play them once in a while, stirring in ourselves those memories of play that no one regrets, and that are almost the only things an old man can look back on with complete satisfaction.  We would want children tagging along after us, or if not, then only because we would understand that they had better things to do."