Random Bits

I keep telling myself Autumn is approaching. It may not feel like it yet outside my back door, but eventually it will get cooler and fingers will need some warmth. I finished this pair of fingerless mitts for my friend's birthday last week.
It had been awhile since I did any cables, so a little Celtic knot was in order. All those criss-crosses can sometimes get confusing, but this one wasn't too bad. For an extra twist of excitement, I mirrored the cables from the left mitt to the right one. This was a "snack" project - fun and fast. I really like these and think I might have to make another pair or two!

The cuff around the fingers is great - just fold it down if your fingers need extra warmth!

And here's the Nina - completely unrelated to knitting, but what family doesn't enjoy a good old fashioned OJ carton-turned-boat project? Our kids are deep into the Spanish explorers, so a bevy of boats has provided a lot of entertainment lately. "Let's sail to the New World! (family room)" "OK, now let's bring our loot back to Spain! (kitchen)" "Aack! Hurricane! (5 yr old + fan)" A bit silly, but memorable for the kiddos.

Summer Survival

Mom called me up the other day just to "check on me" - she noticed a lack of email and blog activity and wanted to make sure I was still here! Yes, mom, I'm here, but very busy as of late. School started again, along with swimming lessons, which pretty much takes care of all but 4 hours of my waking moments. Add into that some overly-abundant pear trees, and you have a flurry of lesson plans, beach towels, canning jars, and meals tossed in the slow cooker.

This is just the first bunch of pears - more are falling every day!

You wonder about school starting in July? That's the beauty of homeschooling - when it's too hot to play outside, we work inside. That allows us to enjoy the spring weather (when all the other kids are longingly looking out the classroom window!). It feels great around Labor Day to know you have 1/4 of your school year already completed!

The sewing/knitting front has stalled due to school. Instead, I've switched my mind over to crafting that the kids can do with me for projects. The good ol' "turn the OJ container into a boat" type of crafts. Today the oldest two kiddos created their own triptychs depicting the Annunciation, complete with Renaissance symbolism. Tomorrow the little guy will make a ssssssnake out of one of dad's old neckties while learning about the letter Ss.

There is a quilt hiding under my dining table that's nearly finished being quilted. And a sweater travels with me to the pool to keep my hands busy during swim lessons. My drop spindle has been calling to me, too.... The different seasons in our family life have their own creative challenges, which keeps this domina on her toes!

Creative blahs

It's the new year, a time when most people are energized by new resolve and determination to alter their lives in some way. I'm just not feeling it this year. Perhaps it was 2 months or more of creative sprinting that has me feeling worn out. It's like the post-Christmas blahs have set in. The ol' brain just isn't getting those creative lightning strikes that keep me up, scratching down ideas on my sketchbook in bed.

So I figured I might as well get some old projects finished. There's nothing as UN-creative as digging up an old project, something that has lost all love and therefore been cast aside and is now a wrinkled mess in the bottom of a work basket, and trying to figure out where you left off and how on earth you're to proceed (not to mention where the rest of your supplies might be!).

Here are my Leyburn Socks - one sock neatly finished, lonely like Adam in Eden. Pretty, yes, and not even that hard to knit. I did cast on the second sock this week, and all went just swimmingly until I messed up the heel flap and had to rip back. Ugh. Old projects AND mistakes. Oh well, it's a lesson in perserverance. At least I have the fond memory of getting a parking ticket while purchasing this yarn in Philadelphia. I hope to finish this pair in the next few days.

Other creative pursuits require my mind to get back in gear: a wedding, some historical org charts, and SCHOOL. Yes, it's time for the kids to hit the books again, which means this mom needs to get prepared. I start my last kid in Kindergarten tomorrow, which means four kids K-4th grade, and about 25 separate lesson plans each day to teach them. Now if that's not a creative challenge, I don't know what is!

Vikings

We're studying barbarians and Vikings recently - what a great topic for boys! Lots of battles, double-crossing conquerors, pleading bishops.... drama and action! Alas, many of those battles have been re-enacted in our home, which can drive a mama batty after a while. Certainly Vikings did something other than fight? Enter in the fiber arts....

Hang with me. I see you snoozing as I prepare to mention wool. No knitting involved here. This is fiber arts as related to battle training, children, and household productivity!

Every Viking home and village needed ropes and cords - lots of it. They used it on their clothing, boats, you name it. And those Vikings also had children hanging about that had lots of energy. So they figured out a way to occupy the kids and put that energy to good use - making whipcord! To ensure they'd stick with the job, it developed into a fun game.


Here you see four "bobbins" with attached wool yarn hanging from a plant hook. Vikings would've used a tree branch, but we made due. The bobbins would normally be carved wood or even plain stones. Something with some heft. Water-filled bottles work great. Enter in two enthusiastic, fair-haired Viking boys.

"Leif" and "Rolf" each hold a bobbin in each hand. Two bobbins are wound with black yarn, two with white. They toss/trade bobbins, right hand to right hand, left hand to left hand. As the bobbins are traded back and forth, the yarn is braided into a very sturdy cord. As they boys got the hang of it, they aimed to set new speed records. This productive game helped train young Vikings for battle, increasing eye-hand coordination. Even our 4 yr old figured this out! Not complicated, but highly entertaining!

Here's the finished rope, which is about 3-4 feet long. Depending on how the black and white bobbins are oriented in the boys' hands, different patterns result. At first we had a spiral pattern going, then some blunders later accidentally reoriented our bobbins which gave us a vertical stripe. You can see that the tension is tighter, and thus the rope is firmer/denser, as the rope got longer. This is mostly because the boys figured out that they didn't have to be so gentle and gave the bobbins more of a pull.

If you want to try to make your own Viking whipcord, you can find instructions and read all about it on this pdf.