Sometimes I finish things...

These beautiful Autumn rainbows became trickier to carry around with us this past week. Knitting two at a time is very satisfying, but more to juggle when not comfortably nestled in my favourite corner of the sofa.


But here they are, all done! (And far too large for Jenna, obviously.)


Yeah, ignore the cereal on my living room floor... And let's not mention the dozen unfinished WIPs, eh?

(Almost) Week in Pictures

1. A poster by Morgan (with help from Jenna and I)
2. A birthday party
3. Bubba in a knitted dress
4. Creeper cakes
5. Waiting for the post office to open

Week in Pictures

1. "Fuf-fy!" (Butterfly)
2. Blacklock shawl
3. Magic potions
4. Cheesecake
5. Playdough
6. Gradient
7. Flaming Ruby and Beads for Mamas pretties
8. Things I find in my bag
9. Cherry-coloured hair

Another Seven Bright Days

1. Water pump
2. Ice creams
3. Natural History Museum
4. Mandala
5. Jenna's purple hair
6. Apple tree weighed down with fruit
7. Rainbow Versa

Yarn Along - a little dress

Holiday knitting: a Versa dress, in my hand dyed sparkle sock.

No reading to report!

Just a LOT of knitting

I have done, um, quite a bit of knitting since I last joined in with Yarn Along. There's nothing on my needles right now, but only because I just cast off about four things.






But my favourite recent project has to be the Chalice baby blanket (which admittedly was only really my favourite AFTER I realised that I needed to put in life lines a LOT more frequently than once per repeat - oops):

Show and Tell

1. Post-show Morgan
2. Moon
3. Colour wheel
4. Outdoor sisters
5. Grandma
6. Knitting
7. Tali ("Kitty lie down me kitchen!" Also, she totally has a little chocolatey beard from "helping" to make truffles. The baby, not the cat.)

Yes, not really over seven days, just a sample of our week. :)

A list of things I have barely started:

I have a shiny new book which I have not made time to start. I enjoyed the previous two in the series, and still it sits here waiting for me to pick it up.

And I am blatantly still *not* working on Jenna's Low Tide (though I have finally made more than a passing attempt at starting: look! One Whole Pattern Repeat!)...

I am utterly failing to plan meals or fun activities. If we are still having adventures, it is largely because I don't prevent them rather than because I'm doing well at facilitating. And I am also not really making a start on tidying up (um, ever).

If there is a prize for PMT related crying, not complaining about listening to Christmas carols on repeat in May, wondering when a difficult-feeling month becomes depression (again) and what to do about it, general complaints about being tired (whilst not doing anything about it at all), and answering bizarre questions, often at length (about Minecraft, politics, Literature, Star Trek, how to spell "incredible", where diamonds come from, and why Pluto isn't a planet)... I should probably win something. Is it acceptable to make our own parenting medals, do you think?

Right, that's it, I'm awarding myself the Survived This Month With Humour badge AND the Children Thriving Anyway badge.

Yarn Along - the holiday knitting and reading

Second hand book stores, and holiday time to actually finish books, are a dangerous combination. The pile on the left are what I came home with, and the pile on the right are those which I finished before we even got back.


I had read a few dismissive reviews of The Codex, but I enjoyed the first couple of Magicians books so when I stumbled across this earlier stand-alone story I picked it up anyway and loved it. It is disjointed, yes. Parts of it have no connection to anything else, and are just left dangling there tantalisingly. The writing is mostly deceptively simple, but entirely stunningly poetic in places. Lev Grossman certainly has a gift for writing fairly unlikeable young male protagonists (and I do love a book in which we are not *meant* to fall unquestioningly in love with the main character, and mainly would like to give them a good shake). The story is uniquely strange, desolate, beautiful, raw, and frustrating. I finished it in a couple of happy sitting-by-the-fireside grey and chilly evenings in the cottage. *bliss*

At least fifteen years after I read Maya Angelou's first autobiographical stories, I finally finished. A Song Flung Up to Heaven made me cry, as did every one of its predecessors. Maya Angelou's poetry has captivated me since my early teens, and her life story likewise is lyrical, devastating, wise, and perfect. I have so much admiration for this powerful beautiful woman. Her books really are a must-read.

Last but not least, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell took me a good deal longer than many other books of a comparable size. That is mainly due to its painstakingly furnished world and incredible level of detail; every paragraph is exact, and fascinating. No period flourish is ignored, no element left to chance. It is the kind of book that takes what would be in other hands merely an interesting fantasy story, and transforms it into the utterly believable. (But the footnotes drove me a little insane. This is not a book to easily read whilst constantly distracted by children.)

I also managed to finish the crocus-coloured Coffee Bean for Talia (though I cast off the sleeves after we arrived home):






I think she likes it.

Seven Days of Holidaying

1. Discovery Museum
2. Knight's Quest
3. Farne Islands
4. Tardis Tshirt
5. Lindisfarne quilt
6. "Can I keep him?"
7. Beach play

Bliss. What a week of adventures!