yarn along: needles and pages

 "Look, Mommy, this cottonwood fuzz is like snow!  Let's throw it up in the air and pretend!"  *Mom sneezes and resolves to take an allergy pill on arrival home*

  

 

I've been cranky.  What you can't see in the pictures of the walk at the river was my scowling face and the sweat pouring in rivers down my back. Mom-fail.  (My kids overheard that description as I whined it and have hijacked it, describing how sweat is in rivers on their backs, haha!) How can I be cranky in the face of such beauty?  I don' t know, but I know it's possible because I have been.  I've been so tired.  The photos help me see the beauty that I sometimes forget to watch for and be thankful for. 

On the needles:  I'm back to working on my Radiance shawl, and am unknitting what I think is going to be the last row to get back to the mistake.  I made a Fair Isle hat using Elizabeth Zimmerman's directions in Knitting Workshop but for some reason it ended up being too short so Lyddie has a new, slightly slouchy winter hat that actually will match her winter coat nicely.  I wove in the ends and blocked my Adama cowl - it doesn't look terribly adorable laid out flat in the pictures but I love how soft and chunky the Malabrigo worsted is and I will hopefully soon have a day to take pictures of it being worn. Today was not that day since there were sick kids and a broken washing machine, messy clothes, messy hair, no makeup... not this day!

Between the pages:  I am diligently  making my way through All the Light We Cannot See and according to my Kindle, I am 70% of the way through.  The problem is that I can't read it before bed or I am filled with sad, restless thoughts about WWII and my dreams are more and more affected by what is in my head before sleep now so I'm squeezing in bits of reading time here and there in the day.

 I picked up A Brother for the Orphelines, which is illustrated by one of my favorite illustrators, and I wanted to pre-read it to see if it would be a good read-aloud with my Lyddie; it will be.  I am listening to Sense and Sensibility via CraftLit, and am totally entranced by The Enchanted April by Elizabeth Von Arnim on the Classic Tales podcast, an author I've never even heard of.  I also am about to start listening to Lear as ChopBard starts it. Audiobooks can be a companion to me no matter what I am doing because my time to sit and read an actual book feels so limited if I also want to do anything crafty like knit.  I make it a general rule not to have my headphones in and to try to limit my screen time when the kids are up, but I have a chunk of time in the afternoon that I can listen and then I often listen to something in bed before going to sleep. Since each of these podcasts typically releases only one chapter a week, I don't feel overwhelmed trying to keep up and actually I think I retain the books more at a slower pace. 

I hope all my dear readers are having a great week!  We're off to my brother-in-law's wedding in the next day or so (schedule pending sick children) which will provide lots of car time for knitting!  Looking forward to see what everyone else is posting about on this Yarn Along day!