Yarn-along: March 9th edition ...

~ Two of my favorite things are knitting and reading, and the evidence of this often shows up in my photographs. I love seeing what other people are knitting and reading as well. So, what are you knitting or crocheting right now? What are you reading? Take a single photo and share it either on your blog or on Flickr. Leave a link below to share your photo with the rest of us! ~ Ginny, Small Things

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Here's my offering this week:  we're finishing up our read-aloud, Airman, which I highly recommend (especially for boys, but my now-11yod loves it, too) and then we'll move on to A Whole Nother Story, a book that sounds very much like the type of crazy story Howard Whitehouse writes (we read his triology this past fall).  For my reading, since we're starting our Lenten Journey today, I've got the classic, Abandonment to Divine Providence, Houselander's Way of the Cross and Fr. Barron's Conversion on tap.

My knitting for the past few days has been lots of swatches -- squares for the upcoming Olde Liberty Fiber Faire, swatching a new design I've got in my head:

... and I picked up a sampling of worsted weight yarns yesterday from Dog House Yarns in Culpeper.  I'm the morning speaker at Dog House Yarns' upcoming knitting retreat (out at Graves Mountain Lodge on April 9). I'll be speaking about substituting yarns, what different fibers do, and generally discussing "the ins and outs of using this for that"; the swatches I'll knit from the yarns shown below will help illustrate just what different fibers do!  I'll also be signing copies of my Great Yarns books and doing two break-out sessions in the afternoon ("short rows" and "tips and tricks").

Come join Ginny's yarn-along ... and go check out the links to all the lovely ladies who post about what they're reading and working on ... the fiber pictures will have you drooling!
 

Where should we go today? Father's Day 2010

We love Father's Day around here, doing do our best to allow dh a bit of R-and-R and getting to be in charge (for a change!). 

On dh's "favorite things to do list" is walking ... (no matter how hot) ... and walking around D.C. is higher on the list ... and walking around D.C. and visiting the National Gallery of Art is probably pretty much on the top of his list.

So, after dropping Kotch off at her summer job (she'll be teaching various subjects to inner-city middle school girls and helping with drama; all while living in Washington AND getting paid -- cool, eh?), we headed to the National Mall and our favorite, always open parking spot ... and then headed to the National Gallery of Art.  By this point, we needed nourishment and headed directly to the NGA's cafe and had amazing gelato ...

and took the requisite picture of the kids in front of the waterfall. 

Heading upstairs we wandered the sacred art galleries, the Dutch painters and investigated the dellaRobbias.  What an amazing collection we have FREE in D.C.!  We are so blessed to be able to spend a few hours, just wandering and finding old favorites and new works to add to our favored lists. 

A request from the kids had us heading over to the Archives (with a quick stop to cool feet in the fountain in the Sculpture Garden -- all perfectly legal!).  The Archives is the home of THE most important documents for our country -- Declaration of Independence, Constitution and the Bill of Rights. 

After finally getting to see them "live" we checked out the "Public Vaults" exhibit which is a great overview of exactly the job placed in the hands of the National Archive and Record Administration -- the keeper of the nation's records.

Heading home in afternoon I-95 traffic, we mused over our weekend ... which included a quick run down to Craig Springs for our annual Infant of Prague Pilgrimage -- this year including 160+ other Catholics with lots of babies and kids running around and having fun in the beautiful Allegheny Highlands.

And lest you think I was forgotten today, never fear.  ALWAYS check the sale tables ... I found a lovely art book at the NGA titled In Praise of the Needlewoman: Embroiderers, Knitters, Lacemakers and Weavers in Art ... a collection of 80-some gorgeous works of art that show women creating gorgeous works of art with a needle of one kind or another.  The book includes "The Knitting Lesson" by Jean-Francois Millet ... the work that graces the cover of my Great Yarns for the Close-Knit Family -- as well as other works of art by amazing artists.  I'm thinking this would be a GREAT book for picture study next Fall!

Prayers and blessings to all fathers, living or deceased, but especially to my dh who does so much for us ... a single day hardly seems fair ... so, since he is finally done with teaching for the summer, maybe we'll just have to let him be in charge a little longer (maybe!).