YarnAlong

Good morning! I have just returned from Ocracoke Island, North Carolina where I finished this:

It's the Organic Heirloom Blanket  from the book Vintage Knits for Modern Babies by Hadley Fierlinger. You can see the Ravelry notes here.

  A few years back  I purchased yarn at the Ocracoke Island Thrift Store.

I got really lucky that day...the first thing I saw when I walked into the store was a box of yarn from Malabrigo, Brown Sheep, Araucania....I couldn't believe it. It was pretty dreamy. And pretty inexpensive.

So I still have some of that yarn, and just cast on for a nice neutral-color baby hat with Shepherd Merino 4 Me 8-ply, which is now discontinued.

I'm using a basic hat pattern from Ann Budd's Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns. Oh how I love this book.

baby hat!

And now I have a second baby's blanket to knit. I have a bag of Berroco Comfort in a nice neutral color. Below is a little swatch; I think I'm going to go with a simple seed stitch sort of thing.

To be perfectly honest, I'm not very fond of Berroco Comfort; it's acrylic (I prefer natural fibers) and all that; but it's washable and dryable, and my sweet niece who is expecting her 3rd baby doesn't need to be handwashing the kid's blanket, now does she?

And then yesterday I laid eyes on this:

which was released last month. All the blankets are knit from Cascade Superwash, and I am definitely a Cascade 220 and/or Superwash kind of girl. It's my go-to yarn. So now...well....I hate to abandon all those skeins of Berroco Comfort, but I am really attracted to the pictures in this book which use one of my favorite yarns. So. What to do.

I am reading A Year of Biblical Womanhood by Rachel Held Evans (see right sidebar) primarily because Rachel is funny and smart. My husband has read her blog for years at Rachel Held Evans.com.

In this book, she makes several points by going to great lengths to experiment with "biblical womanhood" and all that those loaded words may imply. She does it playfully, while really probing deeply the concept of "biblical womanhood" and what it may mean to different people, and why. 

I'm enjoying it.

I have oh so many other knitting projects flitting around in my brain, but not actually on needles yet. I'm still recovering from our vacation. Yes, vacations are wonderful and worth it, but when I get back I find that "stuff" (cleaning, laundry, phone calls, calendar, school etc.) has piled up!

So...back to my stuff until tomorrow. 

Block Creation #2

As I mentioned in the previous post, this is Block Creation Day. I'll be updating the blog as Lauren creates new structures. :)

And here we have Lauren's second block creation of the day, with workers in progress, too.

I think she has one more block creation in her mind before the day is through...stay  tuned. :)

Tuesday Block Creation Day

I love blocks. When Ana was about 6 months old, I bought a set of blocks from FAO Schwartz.

I got a good deal on them, but they were pricey. Well, they proved to be worth their price. More than worth. My 3 girls have used them to make buildings, temples, barnyards, houses, orphanages, race tracks....the list goes on.

Today, I am devoting this space to Lauren's Block Creations.

Below is her first building of the day, finished just moments ago.

I will update the blog throughout the day

as she creates new Block Creations. 

:)

Here you can see a remote control car speeding up to the creation....

....and demolishing it. A favorite past time of my youngest child.
Stay tuned for the next creation. ;)