Love and Yarn

 

I am joining up for my favorite thing online of the week! - Yarn Along! Book chat and yarn? It really hits on two of the things that make me smile.

Yesterday I finished and blocked my Cabernet hat and I love it. What a great pattern! Just slouchy enough to look cute but not too droopy, I think. I felt so awesome knitting the cables with two cable needles... as if that made me a pro... right?! My girls think it is really pretty, but since I have never really had any cute hats, I haven't worn hats for a long time and they were a little baffled as to why I was wearing a hat all day, especially my fashionista, Millie. However, she kept saying how pretty it was after I told her I was just wearing it to be pretty, so I got her stamp of approval.   It made me happy every time I passed a mirror because it is fresh and different and I do like how it turned out!  Next I am making modifications to the Baby Amanda hat to fit a toddler in fuschia Simpliworsted.  I made a baby version for Rosie in bright yellow Cascade 220 Paints and it is probably the cutest baby hat I have ever knit, except maybe Susan B. Anderson's Ribbons which I made for a friend's baby (after my mom made the one for Lyddie).

CraftLit is back! The new book we are listening to is Gaskell's North and South. I started to watch the BBC mini-series last year but stopped because I thought Jesse might enjoy it too, but we never got back to it, so I was excited when Heather decided to do this book next. We are just one chapter in until next week's podcast.

I am devouring The Book of the Dun Cow by Walter Wangerin Jr. It is not a lighthearted read but it is to be packed with beauty, with good versus evil, with searing pain and triumphant joy. And get this – all this good and evil, joy and stuff? The main characters are chickens!! But although the main characters are animals, they are written like humans and I am just in awe of the skill of this writer in portraying the “humanity” of the characters believably. It really takes a special book for me to want to read and read and read it, and this is special. I even pick it up when I'm nursing and tough it out with a squirmy baby wanting to crane her neck to see what I'm looking at. I mean, really, it's that good. I'm also reading Christ in the Chaos by Kimm Crandall and based on the fact that all the glowing reviews come from some of the writers and pastors I have most respect for, and the fact that I heard her interviewed last year and the interview made me cry... well, I expect it will be an encouragement. I love it when books are divided into short enough sections that you can read one in the 1 ½ semi-uninterrupted minutes you have in the bathroom or before you roll out of bed in the morning, and this book is like that.

Our snow has finally stopped, although I don't think it got above freezing for long enough today to make much of a dent in the piles on our property. Soon it will be a sloggy mess.  But soon after that I will be starting seedlings somewhere indoors.

Valentine's Day is a couple days away, which is also the day Jesse proposed nine years ago, so it makes me really remember and celebrate our relationship in many ways when it rolls around. I am so thankful to be married to my best friend. I know a lot of people say that, and I'm sure it's true for others too, I am doubtful I have the corner on the market for a happy marriage.  But really.  The first thing I want to see when I wake up is his smiling face (granted, I like it even better if the foreground is a steaming cup of coffee for me in his hand) and the last thing I want to do is entwine my arm through his before falling asleep. He is my best friend and it is crazy how much more deeply I love him now than I did in those exciting first days. I am so blessed because it's still such a romantic love for each other... not like flowers and candy and jewelry but more like forests and oceans and mountains and stars.