Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Won't You Yarn Along With Me?





Yarn Along day!  (Every time I say Yarn Along in my head, I hear little Daniel Tiger's voice singing the theme song to his show... It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood... won't you yarn along with me - yarn alooo-oong?") I look forward to Wednesdays all week because I try to make sure to schedule a little time into my day to poke around on other blogs to see the beautiful artwork others are producing each week.  

I am working on Lyddie's Sunday Sweater and still love how it's looking.  The Ella Rae yarn is soft and sweet and I stop every row or two and just admire how it's knitting up.  Worsted weight yarn knits up so much faster than the fingering of my last project! I took a quick break midweek and knit up a dishcloth for kicks but forgot to snap a picture of that baby.

Our family made a whirlwind trip to Seattle over the weekend to speak at a church about our ministry and on the way we listened to podcasts from an artists conference called Hutchmoot with a lot of our favorite writers, singers, etc. (http://www.rabbitroom.com/)  and it got me thinking about whether or not my knitting is an "art."  I tend to think of art as something purely creative and original and knitting of course uses a pattern (unless you're a designer, which I am not).  However, I picked up Edith Schaeffer's Hidden Art this week and made the epic decision that I probably can classify my knitting as art since I choose the patterns, I choose the yarn color and feel, I choose the needle size, etc.  My projects are unique and have an artistic, aesthetic beauty to them.  I don't know why this felt significant to me, but it did.  My husband is the poor recipient of these kinds of rambling musings when I'm not writing about it, poor man.  

I finished Eowyn Ivey's The Snow Child yesterday and words can't express how much I loved it.  I kept wishing I knew someone else reading it so I could discuss it and admire it with them together.  The writing is just heartbreakingly beautiful, her character development left me feeling like I would miss my friends at the end, and I kept being kind of surprised at some of the events as they unfolded.  That is the sign of a good book to me.  It's a gently bittersweet read; the joys and sorrows together are so beautifully meshed and contrasted that I loved it.  

I also just finished the other book I was reading (Come Back, Barbara by J. Frank Miller) so I am trying to figure out what to pick up next and think I will read Andrew Peterson's On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness, which I read part of awhile ago aloud with Jesse but we never were in the car enough together to finish it so it got put away.  I'm itching to pick it back up again though, since children's/young adult fiction is "my thing" right now.  I might also pick up the Agatha Christie pictured above... and I was reading The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis on the way home from Seattle - I guess I always skipped over that one when I was young so it's a new read for me and I will maybe finish that up this week too. 

Can't wait to pop around and see what all of my favorite yarn-y bloggers are writing about today!  Leave a link in my comments so I can make sure to check yours out - I don't usually have time to follow all 100+ links over at Ginny's but I especially always click through to people who have commented on my blog - it is fun to see what you are working on too!

8 comments:

  1. I also loved The Snow Child...so glad you did. :) And I agree, knitting is indeed art! ~Lisa

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Lisa, I think it was your reviews that first got me interested in the book - I saw it several places as I perused other yarn along posts!

      Delete
  2. Anonymous8:09 AM

    Snow Child was one of my favorite reads this last years. Excellent book!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Knitting is totally an Art!!! E.S. book is wonderful, isn't it! the sweater is looking great!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous9:04 AM

    Love how your Sunday Sweater is coming along and I'm such a fan of Agatha Christie, she was the first mystery books I read as a teenager and it sparked a life long love of that genre but also of her character Poirot, I just never took to Miss Marple the same lol.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ruth - I know, I love what little Agatha Christie I have read and look forward to reading more. For some reason mystery was a genre I really only discovered a few years ago, it wasn't something I really remember reading that much of when I was young! P.D. James is another new favorite.

      Delete
  5. Gorgeous sweater. That yarn looks really lovely in that pattern.
    Thanks for your kind comment on my blog. I'd encourage you to try a little colourwork sometime, especially in the round it is much easier to accomplish than it appears. Start with something like a cuff on a mitt.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks! Colorwork is on my list of things to try this year as are mitts so that is an excellent suggestion. I have a Louisa Harding pattern picked out already

      Delete