Joining Ginny's yarn along today- with this little green waffle sock I can't seem to get too finishing- Dori keeps reminding me, and I keep forgetting. I have the first one done, and it is already looking rather worn in as both boys think mama-made socks are the very best sort of sock for wood floor skating but poor Dori is rather impeded by only having the one to skate with. Must finish the little green sock tonight! 

I knit this little acorn cap for Dori's birthday and gave it to him with a copy of the Elsa Beskow book that the pattern is inspired by. Its Little Pip's acorn cap and is such a sweet little knit. He loves both (phew! He can be hard to please in the clothing department, I just never know with him!) and looks so ridiculously cute in it I can hardly keep from nibbling him. I'll try to get a proper shot of the little acorn boy soon.

And generally we are just puttering around, doing all that needs to be done this time of year- putting the garden to bed, keeping going with the preserving, and the usual home- school and household stuff.  We made a big batch of applesauce yesterday and canned some, and have more apples on the way. We've been collecting rosehips and drying them for winter tea, and gathering the last bits of food out of the garden.

We have a huge piles of dried field peas to shuck too- there must be a quicker way to get them out of their dried pods (I'm thinking threshing or rolling them in a pillow case or something?) but for now we have just been sitting on the deck and shucking them in the sun. The weather is turning though, I think our usual autumn weather has arrived- time to break out the woollies!

And again, no pictures of the books I am reading, but I promise to do a re-cap on some of the pile I've been working my way through. Some really good ones.
Happy Wednesday, friends!

I'm knitting along today, with this rainbow fish hat I am trying to finish up for an auction at an anti-pipeline arts event this weekend. It is nearly there, just the tail and fins to finish and some eyes to sew on. I had hopes to make a couple, but this is it for me. I look forward to seeing what other knitters have made, as well as all the arts, poetry and music people are contributing. 


I am reading "The Forest Lover" by Susan Vreeland right now. It is a fictionalized account of Emily Carr's life and I am enjoying it, but moving through it slowly as I am just too tired to pick it up most evenings lately. 

The kids have been in this amazing groove of playing the past while, and they played  for 3 hours straight today- off in their own world- while I worked outside pulling up sod for a new bed and picking nettles. Heaven. 


We found some great nettle patches this year, and I've been freezing and drying them and making soup. I am excited to be getting a bunch prepared for winter this year. I have been wanting to do that for ages, but never found enough or got them picked in time, so every jar put away feels like a little victory. And food preservation has a certain novelty in May that is not there so much by September when we've been drowning in food. Right now everything is new and fresh and exciting.

Goodnight friends.

Thank you all for the supportive and heartfelt comments and e-mails regarding the last post. Your kindness means a lot to me. I am glad to have gotten those thoughts out there, but also glad to be thinking of other things this week and to be releasing some of that pressure that was building- for the time being anyway. So now it is about knitting and good books and gardens and such-for balance and sustainability.


I am joining Ginny and the gang for the knit along this week- I am having so much fun knitting with this lovely green yarn, though it is a gift, so I wont go into details, but oh, it is so pretty and soft and such a great pattern. I'll share all once it has been gifted.


I also loved that list of books you all suggested when I asked for book recommendations and I ordered a couple second hand books just for me. I just started this one: "The School of Essential Ingredients" and am enjoying it so far. I love reading so very much, but I have been so reluctant to get involved with a book if it might turn around and wrench my guts out with some violence or horror of some sort- I just can't take anything heavy these days - I've always been a wimp when it comes to books and movies, but even more so since becoming a parent. I carry all those fictional stories with me, and if I am only willing to invite them along with me if they bring something enriching or inspiring with them these days. 


But now, with this great list you've gave me, I can have my cake and eat it too- your list of books with depth that are not dark or disturbing. I thought I'd compile your suggestions in case anyone else is looking for a good read that without depressing side effects:


The School of Essential Ingredients: Erica Bauermeister
See You in a Hundred Years: Logan Ward
Bride of New France by Suzanne Desrochers
All That Matters: by Wayson Choi
Water for Elephants: Sarah Gruen
Sisters in the Wilderness: Charlotte Gray
Trauma Farm: by Brian Brett
The Dirty Life: Kristan Kimball
The Adventures of a Woman Homesteader: Susanne E George
The Forest Lover: Susan Vreeland
Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie: Alan Bradley
The Time Traveler Wife: by Audry Niffenegger
The Girls:  by Lori Lansen
The People of the Book: by Geraldine Brooks
We Took to the Woods: Louise Dickinson Rich


happy reading friends!

Knitting along again today. Getting a start on the fish hat. It is a funny pattern- this will be the fish's mouth which will fit over the head- there will be fins and a tail and eyeballs and all! I am reading Last Child in the Woods right now in between gardening books and books about pig raising. I think I need something lighter soon. Anyone have any good novel recommendations? I am finding it hard to find books to read that fit my parameters- I want something that has depth but I can't deal with things that are dark or disturbing these days- I need life affirming and inspiring- any ideas?

My wool order arrived and there is lots to get started on. Ari's sweater is most pressing- his birthday is just a few weeks away and I am realizing it is probably not humanly possible to start and finish a sweater by then. I'll get a start on it and see what I can do and be sure to get it done while there is still a spring chill in the air that calls for woolly sweaters. 

And finally some pictures of my love in his finished sweater. I do find the neck a bit funny on this pattern, it is the same one I used for Dorian's sweater - the EZ seamless raglan, and if I ever knit it again I will need to learn how to adjust the pattern to make the neck less wide. But all said- it fits and he seems to be pleased with it and I am glad to have finally got over my fear of full sized sweater knitting. That will make Ari's sweater a breeze and it will just fly off the needles, right?

Happy Wednesday friends!