Garden Party

We are so happy to finally have real space to garden, but at the same time this may not be the year. Having a new spring baby right around planting time might put a little bit of a damper on Mama being out in the dirt on her knees.

I mentioned to the boys the other day that we should take a tour of the yard and write down some ideas of what we'd like to do out there.

Of course, Ender wanted to take pictures of the barren-ness.

I've always wanted hydrangeas, and I love the idea of having a certain amount of flowers planted with the intention of being able to cut some to bring inside.

Ender has plans for tulips somewhere,

and Ezra only cares that the color red is involved at some point.

And I know there will eventually be vegetables somewhere- maybe this year, maybe not.

Still thinking and planning...

FO: A Little Hat

Project: Baby Blue Hat

Pattern: Lacy Julian Hat

Yarn: my new favorite- Berroco Vintage DK

Needles: Size 6 DPNs

For: My soon-to-be-born nephew #5 Levi

Cast On to Cast Off: about 5ish hours.

Notes: I wanted a quick little hat to partner with the Puerperium Cardigan I knit up for Levi and this was just the thing. I used size 6's to size down a little bit since the hat is intended for Levi as a newborn. The lacework was really simple and super easy to memorize a line at a time.


Things I Learned: Nothing new, though I did have a realization that I really don't love working on DPNS above a size 3 or so. I definitely need to check out the whole magic loop idea. I've given it a few half-hearted attempts in the past, but I think I need to give it a serious attempt on the next item I knit in that round on bigger needles.

Overall: Nice clear pattern, simple and quick knit. Loved it!

Yarn Along

I hit finishing mode this past week. I tend to run in phases as a knitter- I spend a week or so casting on far more projects than I can realistically work on and then I spend several weeks picking through them and working a little bit on each one knowing that one of them will grab me at some point and I will race through to the finish.

Then that little bit of success inspires even more finishing because when I really look at my big basket of "in progress" knits I usually find that I'm not that many hours off from finishing more than just that one.

In the last 10 days I've finished 3 baby cardigans (one here and more pics later this week as I finish blocking and photos) and a little hat and I'm ever so close to finishing two more little hats (read: needs seaming) plus I began a few little knitted monsters for the boys.

But my focus right now is on the Hemlock Ring Blanket that I started two weeks ago. I know, I know- it doesn't look that much different than the last time you saw it. I promise it has indeed grown by a bit, but all the finishing of other knits got in the way. I promise I'm working in great seriousness on it now, however, after spending much of last night with semi-regular contractions.

 Baby Girl *will* come home with this blanket!

My reading has been mostly baby/crafting focused lately as we get so close to her arrival. I had a look through Anna Maria Horner's Handmade Beginnings when it first came out and loved several of the sewing projects found there. I'm hoping to get to a few of them before Baby Girl arrives now that my sewing machine has been unearthed. 

And now that I'm closing in on a nearly empty knitting basket, I'm looking for more suggestions on improving my sock knitting. I've been savoring the Knitter's Book of Socks as I plan my next pair. It has been such an educational read for me as I work on this sock knitting thing. I already have a few changes in mind that I hope will further improve the fit, but of course that blanket is taking every last knitting second right now.

A Little Geography

We read Maps and Globes by Jack Knowlton last week and it started a little bit of a map craze around here.

I hadn't intended to start map work until next fall, but that's the great thing about homeschooling- sometimes the opportunity presents itself and it would be crazy not to take advantage.

I've always loved the geography program presented in The Core by Leigh Bortins, so I showed the boys the 5 circles and where they were on the world map and how they could use those to place their continents. I demonstrated continent "blobs" to them and they were not impressed- Ender and Ezra love to draw (and recently to copy directly from book illustrations) so the fact that the "blobs" weren't the real shapes of the continents just didn't fly. They insisted on going at it getting as close to the real continent shapes as they could.


Ezra thought the latitude and longitude lines were really cool, so all of his continents have grids.

And what would a map be without color?

Ender memorized the continents and oceans and their locations last year during Kindergarten, so his first continent drawing was a little more accurate than Ezra's.

He did decide that he should add countries (and even made a passing comment about how drawing maps would be a great way to learn the names of all the countries, haha!) and I think he at least drew in boundaries for some of the larger countries.

I told Ender we'd practice drawing all of the continents for a little while until they got to be about the right size (as compared to the atlas we're using) and then he could pick just one continent to draw for awhile. And he announced that he has a lot of thinking to do so he can pick "just the right one". I'm curious to see what that will be!

Resources:

Maps and Globes

As The Crow Flies

The Seven Continents

Rand McNally World Atlas

DK First Atlas

FO: Nephew #5 Puerperium

Project: Nephew #5's Puerperium Cardigan

Pattern: Puerperium Cardigan

Yarn: Berocco Vintage DK

Needles: Size 8

For: Another nephew, this one due in May!

 

Cast On to Cast Off: 8 days, mostly because I was also trying to finish up another knit, so I spent two or three evenings on that one.

Notes: This was a super easy knit (as in I could read/talk/look at pinterest while knitting) and I love a project like that in between lace and socks.

I especially love the detail of the buttons down the left side of the body, and that was what I was drawn to when I picked this project. I know this is a pretty well-loved project according to the Ravelry project list (almost 1000 projects on Ravelry)  and there's a good reason why- simplicity, practicality ('cuz who wants to cram a sweater over a baby's head and make you worry that you're going to break their little neck?) and a lot of room to try cool things if you want to. Stephanie Pearl-McPhee knit a cool striped one, and there are more interesting stripes on this project page.

My only modification was that I chose to do short sleeves since this is for a spring baby but didn't jump straight to the garter section. When I picked up the stitches on the sleeves I knit 5 rows, purled 1 row, knit 1 row and then cast off.


Things I Learned: Nothing new this time around, but that was just what I needed.

Overall: Good project, quick knit, and I think this may go in the rotation of great baby gift knits.

Not Yet

No- no baby yet.

Just a week that got swallowed up by work and kids and homeschool planning and knitting and a little "I-will-unpack-every-last-box-before-Baby-Girl-gets-here-no-matter-what-it-takes"-itis.


And sometimes when a bug like that hits there is absolutely no time for anything else. I've sat down to write after a full day only to fall asleep at the keyboard, and I'm certainly not getting up early these days. I know I need that extra sleep right now.


 My house sure is coming together though thanks to a lot of help from my little guys (And the big one too- he has been home all week and that is always awesome). As a reward for all the hard work this week the boys are going off to grandpa's house for the evening and Brian and I are going to see Hunger Games.

{And while I've been in "get-it-done" mode I've also finished a few little knits.

I forgot how lovely and quick little baby things are. Pics to come soon!}

Little Things

I've reached the point in the pregnancy where continuous sleep is just not possible I'm going about 3 hours, then up for an hour or two, back to sleep for a few and back up... it's quite a cruel joke to play on a woman who will soon have a newborn waking every 2ish hours to nurse.

It was in one of those middle of the night "I can't sleep" sessions on Friday night that I got to thinking about all the things that need done around here in the next few weeks and a list was born. Sometimes getting that list written out actually helps to quiet my mind so I can get back to sleep so I put it to paper and went back to sleep thinking I'd talk to Brian about it the next day and see how he could help me accomplish it since I'm not able to do very much right now.

But then came this crazy burst of energy Saturday morning- I'm assuming that fabled nesting thing I've heard so much about and never had before. I warned the boys that this was the perfect day to "just go play" and that I wouldn't bother them about keeping picked up if they stayed out of my way while I was working and came to help for a few minutes whenever I needed it. After all- they're in charge of doing any bending over and picking up I might encounter in my day.

My kitchen counters are not just clean but completely clear of *everything* but the flowers my boys brought in yesterday. Laundry and bathrooms were done, and I'm pretty sure I dusted or mopped every lateral surface in the house. Baby's first clothes are washed and ready to meet her, the boys have summer clothes in their drawers and 2/3 of their winter things boxed up, and there is more progress in baby's room. When Brian came home from work he pretty much stuttered out a "Um... aren't you supposed to be resting?"

Finding energy in late pregnancy is not a little thing, especially with the amount of sleep I'm getting lately, so I had to take advantage. I didn't lift or move anything that I'm not supposed to (the advantage of having a 6-year-old who *loves* to prove his strength!) and my list of pre-baby "Things to Do" is much shorter now.

And knowing that helped me sleep much better last night.

FO: Stripey Socks

Project: Stripey Socks

Pattern: Socks are basically formed in the same way, but I referred to the Sock Recipe from Knitting Rules.

Yarn: Patons Kroy Socks in Blue Striped Ragg shade. It took me a little bit to hunt it down since I lost the ball band pretty much the second I started knitting the socks. Someday when I'm a super-organized knitter and take care to keep track of that sort of thing this part won't be so difficult.

Needles: Size 1's, bamboo this time because it's what I had on hand. I have a shocking number of metal DPNs but not a single set of size 1's. Must rectify that soon.

For: Myself in an effort to find that perfect fit.

Notes: These cuff-down socks came together in 1 month of scattered knitting time, and seeing as how I didn't even finish a second pair in the whole year of 2011 I'd say I'm off to a much better start this year. I have to say too that the stripes made the knitting seem to go faster. I could easily look down at the color repeat and say "only 4 stripes to go before I start the heel flap" or whatever, and that made it seem that much faster.


They did turn out to be fraternal twins instead of identicals. I think if I would have been patient enough to give 1 or 2 row rounds before starting the heel flap they would have turned out exactly right, but I also didn't care quite enough to back up when I realized what had happened.

Things I Learned: I did a better job of picking up stitches along the heel flap this time, and overall I'm much happier with the fit on these socks than with the mint socks I knit in January. a smaller needle size and a the helpful little bits I learned about fit in Knitting Rules really helped this pair of socks to become the socks I wanted.

Overall: Another good knit. I was happy with my progress with them despite the limited knitting time, and I was able to make progress in my sock understanding.

Now I have an important decision ahead of me:

Do I continue with vanilla socks a little while longer,

or do I dive into a sock with a little more to it?

Planning

I *heart* school planning.


It is one of my favorite parts of homeschooling to be honest. I love planning our trajectory for the year and then breaking it down into achievable pieces. I love watching the plans play out through the year too, but it's the anticipation that comes with those brand new plans that I so enjoy.


Phase one consists of gathering ideas. I look at a ton of curriculum online, I check out what other people with children in that particular grade are doing and get a giant list going of materials that have a possibility of working for us. Basically, I induce curriculum fog upon myself and when I'm good and muddy about all the choices out there I sit back for awhile to think.


Phase two consists of writing down goals for the year. I take all that muddiness in my brain and clarify what is important to me and my husband, what I know my kids love, and what developmentally appropriate skills they need to obtain by the end of that grade.


I've been hanging out with these goals for several weeks now, tweaking anything that didn't seem quite right, and flat out eliminating some of them that I finally decided didn't fit with our overall homeschooling goals. I think they're set now, and I'm ready to move on to phase three.


Remember phase one where I looked at a million and one books to see what was out there? Phase three is defined by culling that giant list. I eliminate anything that doesn't fit with our goals or educational philosophy. And then comes all the outside factors, and this is the land I'm currently living in:

Does this material best help us accomplish our goals?

How does it fit in our budget?

Can this material be used again with the next child?

Will my kid(s) enjoy using the material?

Am I interested in this material because it looks like "another good thing" or because it will truly add value to our homeschool that I don't have anywhere else?

It's a bit of a jigsaw puzzle really. I'm trying to decide which curriculum is a must budget-wise and then the rest is a bit of give and take- if I buy a certain curriculum I may not be able to afford another curriculum, and I always want to make sure I'm getting what will truly help us most. I'm fortunate to have access to a truly awesome library system and I take full advantage for our literature, history and science book lists so that I ony have to buy spines that we'll be using for a full semester or year.


And when I make the final decisions on curriculum I'll get to the truly fun part- dividing our year into four 13 week quarters (leaving 4 weeks unplanned to account for unexpected time off or rabbit trails), then dividing the work down into weeks.


I'm really liking the look of our plans for next year so far, and as soon as I get some decisions made you know I'll be sure to share!

Yarn Along

{Yarning Along with Ginny again this week}

Now that we're really moved in and baby is getting closer and closer to showing up I've been casting on a ton. I ordered a bunch of yarn for her just before the stash busting challenge was announced, but because of packing and all that much of it has been boxed up. I'm trying to get a move on a few projects I've really wanted to make for her.

This is where I've been hanging out in any spare time- at the kitchen table with the current knit, and laptop up while I work on finalizing school plans that my husband can manage while I'm resting up post-baby and generally getting things ready for these last few weeks before she comes and the several weeks after. Plans make me feel like I can actually relax so it's worth making up a few copies of our usual grocery list, setting up meal plans for the weeks after she's born, and having a list of "stuff" for the boys to do if they need to be busy for a little bit.


The knit is the very beginning of the Hemlock Ring Blanket, knit out of (what else) Berocco Vintage. I've long loved this baby blanket and was determined to make it for my next child. I've actually never knit a baby blanket (or any kind of blanket for that matter) so I might be getting myself in trouble. But being my usual "what's the worse that can happen with yarn and needles" self I jumped in last night and we'll see how this goes. So far it doesn't seem any harder than any lace I've knit before, and with worsted weight yarn it's easy to catch anything that drops.


Any blanket knitting advice for me? I'm ready to get in some serious rows before she comes and I'm dedicating a couple of hours each night to this blanket.

Learning In Progress, February 2012

This was a really odd month for school. February can be a difficult time for homeschoolers at the best of times, but with our move and pregnancy-related issues for me it was the perfect time for a break.

We took a full two weeks off amidst all the craziness which means we did just a little bit of "regular school" and tried to read and have free art time each day. Because I was in bed for some of this time my record keeping was a little spotty.


Ender is 6 years old, in first grade.

Ezra is 4 years old and having a very relaxed K4 year because of his desire to be included in our school time. Very little is required of him on a daily basis, but he often chooses to read along with us or work on various projects of his choosing.

Faith:
Reading Ender's weekly assignment from church every week.
Finished the review verses for the Wingrunner book for Awana
30 minute Bible Study with Brian each week, Genesis 3 & 4.
Ezra- memorizing his weekly verse for Awana Cubbies.

Math:
Ender completed Lesson 25-35 in Saxon Math 1A
Continuing calendar skills with learning to write dates.
Ezra working with dominoes and dice to match numbers.
Both- playing Too Many Monkeys and Monopoly Junior.

Language Arts:
Copywork and narrations based on our history, science and literature readings
HWT (yellow)- p. 49-59
Ezra: Moveable Alphabet practice with CVC words, working with short vowels.

Science:
Both: Still learning to use our new microscope.
Watched Animal Atlas on Netflix
Narrating from Christian Liberty Nature Reader K, letter J
Read independently from the Christian Liberty Nature Reader

Geography:
Scrambled States of America game
Memory work- the names of the continents and oceans

History/Science/Literature: (These are read together unless marked IR)
Fables by Lobel
If You Lived in Colonial Times by Ann McGovern
President George Washington by David Adler
(Many picture books, probably around 20-25 that I didn't keep track of)

Memory Work
The Caterpillar by Christina Rosetti

P.E.:
Ender: PeeWee Basketball 1x per week
Ezra: Indoor soccer 1x per week

Fine Arts:
Ender: daily violin practice
Lots of free art time.

Ender's Free Reading:
Finished Magic Treehouse: Dark Day in the Deep Sea
Magic Treehouse: Polar Bears Past Bedtime
And several picture books read to his brother while I rested.

Envision

What I love the most about this house is the light.

 

And the potential.

I've spent a little too much time envisioning the canning that will happen here in late summer and early autumn (and how much easier it will be now that I have more than two tiny squares of countertop!), the upcoming celebration for Baby Girl, the crafting parties sure to happen around the kitchen table, and stockings hung on the mantel in anticipation.


Slowly but surely it's coming together- we have two more rooms in need of just a little more unpacking/organizing (hopefully to be finished today), then only two more rooms to fully unpack. Brian is on a mission to finish by next weekend and he and the boys have been working like machines taking care of what I can't. I sort what needs to go where, make them a list and off they go, moving boxes and sorting onto shelves... *loving* this teamwork.

Yarn Along

{Yarning Along with Ginny again this week}

I started this little February Sweater for Baby Girl right after Valentine's Day, sized it up a bit and got right to knitting... then realized as my yarn cake got smaller and smaller much faster than expected that I hadn't bought the second skein needed to accomodate the sizing up.

Chalking that up to pregnancy brain.

 

I finally got back to the LYS for a second skein and got back to work on it. Another 5ish inches in the lace pattern I think before the garter edging. This little cardi is my absolute favorite knit to gift little girls so I absolutely had to make one for Baby Girl. The lace is super easy to memorize, and now that I'm on my fourth knit through it I practically have the pattern memorized in entirety.

 

I also have to say that I may have developed a Berocco Vintage problem. I picked up this lovely purple last December and when I went in the other day to grab a second skein of the purple I walked out with four more skeins of Vintage worsted and one of Vintage DK. It's just so lovely to knit with! And it's all going toward baby things so that makes it acceptable, right?

 

As far as reading I'm mostly reading school-related books right now- reminding myself about the Kindergarten thing since Ezra will officially start school with us this year and making plans for second grade with Ender. I know it's early for most folks to be planning and buying for school, but I'm trying to get everything organized before baby gets here, starting with the lists for what we want to accomplish next year and from there deciding on curriculum. More on that soon, since I can't seem to stop chatting about our school plans while I'm in the midst of planning them.

In Need of Entertainment?

 

What do you do when you have two little boys that are

oh so tired

of helping their poor mother unpack box after box?

Put them to work with the swift and ball winder.

 

Suddenly work doesn't feel so much like work.

{Yarn is:}

Kollage sock-a-licious in Grape

Berroco Vintage in yellow for baby's Puerperium Cardigan.

Here

We're here.

The important things are unboxed, like the kitchen and the bathrooms. Our next priority was getting the studio set up since I had to go directly into teaching Monday morning. We were able to work on the school area a bit on Saturday night, but not well enough to start back to school on Monday. Maybe by tomorrow there will be a little bit of math or that sort of thing going on around here. Or maybe we'll just wait until Monday...

It's a bit of a crazy week this week in the studio as our recital is just a few days off, but next week starts the slower schedule that we all need for a few weeks before baby shows up.


We're spending every evening trying to get one more box put away, or figuring out how we will best use a particular space. Brian has been a champion un-boxer (surely they give out medals for that sort of thing!) while I've been a champion at, well... sitting on the couch and telling him where things go. Taking it easy as per my doctor, but still trying to get the house into liveable shape.


I haven't been knitting much these last two weeks, but I've been thinking a lot about it and missing it dearly. I have two skeins I need to wind- one for the next baby project and the other for the next pair of socks- the February sweater I started about two weeks ago for the baby is on hold until I can get my hands on another skein of Vintage. I don't know what I was thinking when I thought I could size the pattern up and STILL get it all done in one skein. I'll call pregnancy brain on that one.


I promise some pictures just as soon as I locate my camera.