Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Knitting and Reading




I bought a new knitting book second-hand a couple of months ago - Natural Knits for Babies and Moms - Beautiful Designs Using Organic Yarns and was delighted to find many simple sweet patterns - just my knitting speed.

I am only knitting off my stash for some time as we are on a saving/budget plan to work toward on next life goal.  

The first project I chose from the book is the Oz Vest and I am using size 8 needles with Peace Fleece worsted weight wool yarn and started with the smallest size given for the pattern which will make the vest probably about a 6 - 12 month old size versus the newborn size using size 6 needles in a DK weight yarn.

There are still some other projects going on at the same time as I am definitely not a one project at a time kind of girl.

I started a new book last night that I found at our little local library.  I got to play librarian yesterday afternoon to help out the regular librarian that couldn't make it.
Speak to the Earth - Pages from a farmwife's journal - by Rachel Peden, was published in 1974.
It is interesting to note how the author bemoans the loss of small family farms even back almost
40 years ago.

Our read aloud is A Nest for Celeste - a sweet story recommended at the knit along some time ago.
 (I love the pencil illustrations.)

Looking forward to all the sharing today at Ginny's Knit Along.

15 comments:

  1. Hi Tonya, just wanted to invite you to join my weekly mem I am reinstating again, Let's Get STitched. It is live on the blog now:-)

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  2. Jealous; ) I love Rachel Peden, I have her "A Farmwife's Almanac" which is delightful and I read over and over again. I really enjoy your candid blog. Thank you.

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  3. I have that knitting book and love the projects. Everything a friend and I have tried has come out beautifully, including the Oz vest. You'll really enjoy it!

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  4. I'm trying to knit and crochet more from stash, too. It definitely helps with saving! The knitting book sounds great.

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  5. you have some lovely yarn in that stash! :)

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  6. A Nest for Celeste looks like a sweet book! Do you think it would be suitable for (just turned) six year olds?

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    1. Hi Annie,
      Yes, I think it would be great for some six year olds. My five and almost nine year old are both enjoying it.

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  7. I have read Speak to the Earth, and it was one of the books that prompted my desire to move to the country :) Lovely color yarn by the way....

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  8. Love that vest, Tonya, and a great spring color. The book sounds really interesting, too!

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  9. The farmwifes journal looks very interesting, we are slowly working our way towards a simpler more sustainable life, learning as we go. Living in a society where money and convenience means all is simply exhausting. Knitting off my stash too, have a loot of yarn needing to be used up so no more buying until l have made something useful out of what l've got. A large bedspread is in progress and gloves for next winter. ( and several other projects too as l am not a one project girl either!) Hope you have a great day, Pam x

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  10. Hi Tonya,
    Loved Nest for Celeste. Your latest post made me decided to learn how to knit, yikes!! I've never tried but have always wanted to. Any helpful tips you can pass along?

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  11. a nest for celeste is a favorite around here!

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  12. Great vest. I enjoyed A Nest for Celeste, too. I thought I had read it and picked it up at the Library and my name was inside and I remembered it. I liked it when you signed your name in the book. I'm old-fashioned

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  13. "Ancient poetry and mythology suggest, at least, that husbandry was once a sacred art; but it is pursued with irreverent haste and heedlessness by us, our object being to have large farms and large crops merely. We have no festival, nor procession, nor ceremony, not excepting our cattle-shows and so-called Thanksgivings, by which the farmer expresses a sense of the sacredness of his calling, or is reminded of its sacred origin. It is the premium and the feast which tempt him...By avarice and selfishness, and a grovelling habit, from which none of us is free, of regarding the soil as property, or the means of acquiring property chiefly, the landscape is deformed, husbandry is degraded with us, and the farmer leads the meanest of lives. He knows Nature but as a robber."

    You would think he was writing of today's factory farms, but no, this is from Henry David Thoreau's Walden, published 1854.

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