Yarn-along: February 9th edition ...

With this yarn-along, I can FINALLY say that I am FINALLY finished with "Victoria's Tee" (formerly named "Victoria's Tank" but String Bean and I are planning a tea party for her bday so tee/tea is on my mind)  ... all is done but the blocking, photographing in situ, and writing up the design.  I think it turned out nicely, don't you?

On my needles now is the cashmere vest ... I've got the pattern all charted out, casted-on and now the knitting begins.  This is similar to the Snow on the Mountains designs but since I can NEVER repeat, I've changed it slightly just for this design. 

On the reading front:  the kids and I are finishing up The Book of Story Beginnings ... a wonderful read-aloud and exciting story that proves the value of writing good beginnings for a great ending!  Waiting underneath is the classic The Pushcart War ... I remember really enjoying this when I was younger and someone's mention of it the other day reminded me that I hadn't yet read it to my kids.  We will remedy that as soon as The Book of Story Beginnings is done.

For my personal reading I've got two books just starting up:  The Mountains Bow Down is one I'm reading to review for Thomas Nelson Books and Sweater Quest: my year of knitting dangerously is just for me as I've heard great things about it (and it's about knitting so why not give it a shot!)

So how is your knitting/reading adventure evolving this week?  Head on over to Ginny's and check out the links to some wonderful folks' activities!

 

Yarn Along: January 19th edition

Last week, I was reading Defiant Joy (about GKChesterton ... excellent book!) and readng Lost in Peter's Tomb to the kiddoes.  I was also finishing up a cashmere design which I've titled Blue Ridge Sunset (it's available for download from my Ravelry store).

So, what's on my reading table and knitting needles for this week?

Reading:  reading to the kids a Newbery Honor book (from back in the day when that meant good literature), A String in the Harp by Nancy Bond.  It's a great story about a family who moves to Wales after the death of the mother ... and their adventures in the midst of dealing with their grief.  So far, the reading is wonderful -- the images Bond conjures with her words are amazing!  The book I'm reading is one I found at the library last week and was so thrilled with, I ordered a copy for my shelf: 
Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks!  This book is fascinating -- seems Christie scholar John Curran deciphered Christie's hand-written notebooks to create this book.  It's a creative-writing lesson in book form!  For this wannabe-writer and Christie fan, this book is perfect.  What a fascinating glimpse into the overall writing process!  Loving it!

On my needles is a new design that I'm calling "Victoria's Tank".  The body of the top is a classic Victorian knitted-lace pattern that will have a bodice put atop.  I'm using KP's Comfy Fingering (a washable cotton-blend) and it is kniting up beautifully!

So won't you join the Ginny's yarn-along posts .... and any comments on my designs or suggestions for great read-alouds for the kids would be most appreciated!

 

Yarn Along .... two of my favorite things ... knitting and reading!

~ 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! ~ from Ginny's blog, small things

This is only my second time posting for Ginny's yarn-along ... shame on me!  It's not that I haven't been knitting ... it's not that I haven't been reading ... it's just that I've been so busy knitting and reading, I haven't had time to post.

So, I apologize.

on my needles:  finishing another cashmere design for Spring Gate Farm ... a cap (which is done) and a coordinating scarf which only has about seven more inches (than I must start the tam for Cast On!).  I'll have this design posted on my site by the end of the week.  If you'd like to see my other original hand-knit designs, check out my knitting blog, By Hand, With Heart!

on my reading table:  re-reading Sweater Design in Plain English ... love, love, love this book! A "second edition" is coming out in April that of which I'm hoping to get a review copy so I can see if it's worth it to buy ... I'll keep you posted!  I'm also reading Defiant Joy: The Remarkable Life and Impact of GK Chesterton that I'll be reviewing later this month.  Our read-aloud, which we started on Friday, is Lost in Peter's Tomb ... a book we've had knocking around for a while so decided to read-aloud.  It's really an interesting read that fits in with our "explorer" unit we'd put on hold during Advent/Christmas.  The story is a mystery set in Rome with siblings and their aunt helping the Pope discover who is getting into the Vatican and why!

Thanks, Ginny, for starting this yarn-along ... it's always fun to see what others are doing!
 

Unit Study: Dickens and Weeks 2 and 3

Last week we read the second Christmas novel penned by Dickens:  The Chimes: A Goblin Story of Some Bells that Rang an Old Year Out and a New One In.  This is a beautiful ghost story, with echoes of his A Christmas Carol, with the themes of love and family and charity.  It's a particularly interesting read for those of us who don't see government programs for the poor as the solution -- Dickens would definitely be in our camp.  This is really a good read and the enjoyed it and understood the point!  Dickens' writing is so fun to read aloud.

We also learned more about the history of Christmas, with a particular emphasis on the Victorian/Dickensian celebrations.  We watched Christmas Unwrapped: The History of Christmas , which is an interesting DVD that describes the history of Christmas since pre-Christian days through to today.  This video includes descriptions of the major influences on current practices (especially important for our study:  Prince Albert's bringing the tree from Germany, Christmas Cards in Britain and Dickens' influence on "traditional" celebrations.) Note: this is a very secular look with only a nodding reference to Christ!

Another resource we used was the book, The Man Who Invented Christmas, by Les Standiford. I read the book for background information but then read-aloud the end of Chapter 14 and all of Chapter 15 which describes Dickens' influence on Victorian Christmas from food to decorations and activities.  The book quickly points out that Dickens was anti-organized religion so his books and writings don't include any reference to the theological side of Christmas but rather the spirit of the holidays -- charity and love for all.

The 28th chapter of Dickens' Pickwick Papers gives a wonderful description of the reveling of a wealthy folks over a Christmas weekend.  Pickwick and his friends jump right into the revelries with dancing and eating and drinking Christmas wishes at midnight!

This week we read the third Charles Dickens Christmas novel: The Cricket on the Hearth: A Fairy Tale of Home.  The Dickens version is NOT to be confused with "the original TV classic" done in 1967 and using the voices of Danny Thomas, Marlo Thomas and Roddy McDowall.  The video (which we borrowed from the library and wasted an hour watching) is also called "Cricket on the Hearth" but has very little to do with the original story.  If you can, get the book!

One thing we've been doing while I read these books to the children is having them working on Christmas crafts:  individual nativity sets (started on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, with our baby Jesus figures blessed at Mass on the 3rd Sunday of Advent -- I'll post pictures of the finished sets), ornaments and Christmas gifts for family and friends.  The crafting element has been a wonderfully fulfilling time for the kids this year -- I think  they're just the right ages to really enjoy the hand-work and their items are beautiful.

Next week we'll be reading The Battle of Life: A Love Story and finish Dickens' Christmas novels during Christmas week by reading The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain: A Fancy for Christmas Time.

Enjoy your last week of Advent!  We sure are having a wonderfully creative and active Advent ...

 

Unit Study: Explorers and Exploring

I have been quite remiss in mentioning the unit on which we've been working. 

About six weeks ago, we were browsing a book store and I came across this awesome book:  How to be an Explorer: An Adventurer's Guide .  This is one of those really fun books that has pop-ups and letters and diary-entries and games all rolled into a book that is meant to be "an adventurer's guide" written by "Sir Henry Hardcastle" to teach kids how to explore.  "Written" in 1931, the book is a guide to explorations of the Thirties -- archaeological digs, Polar treks, jungle safaris and animal discoveries. 

My kids were so enthralled with this book ... I decided to do an explorer's unit with them.  A great way to tie together history, geography, map-reading, orienteering, nature study, survival skills and just plain fun all into one. 

So off we started ...

The how-to book breaks exploring into perfect unit sections:

1. tool kit -- which we'll make after Christmas using the wonderful haversack directions given in Alice Cantrell's Tin Cups and Tinder: A Catholic Boy's Little Book of Fire, Food and Fun.  We'll fill each haversack with binoculars (they'll each get a pair for Christmas ... shhh!), journal, sewing kit (also made from Cantrell's book), first aid kit, magnifying lens and other critical items (incl snacks of course!).
2. ideas for exploring and training -- we'll be armchair training by reading about explorers as well as watching great videos like:  Marco Polo, Christopher Columbus, Around the World in 80 Days, as well as watching the documentaries that Michael Palin has done:  Around the World in 80 Days, Pole to Pole, the New Europe, and others (for Netflix subcribers, the Palin vids are on instant queue!).  We're also reading Voyage of the Dawn Treader (getting ready for the release of the film in Dec) making maps of the islands as we go from C.S. Lewis' amazing descriptions!  This is what we've been studying for the last month or so ... reading and watching videos!
3. individual areas of exploring (we'll take about a two weeks on each of these):
1. sailing the seven seas -- KonTiki
2. beneath the sea (a great op for reading 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea )
3. jungle and rainforest
4. lost civilizations and archaeology (we've started on this a bit in history while reading All Ye Lands)
5. polar quest -- antarctic and artic (we'll watch the first and last segments of Palin's Pole to Pole again, watch Shackleton, and re-read Mr. Popper's Penguins )
6. desert adventures -- Lawrence of Arabia
7. mountains -- Heidi
8. finish with an overview of some famous explorers -- Lewis & Clark, Magellan, Captain Cook, and others

This breaks into such a wonderful long-term lesson plan for us.  We'll take a break for our Advent study (on Dickens and Victorian Christmas -- that will be the next post!) and be able to pick up right after the first of the year with exploring this amazing world God gave us!   As the weather improves in the Spring and Summer, we'll be explorers in our own part of the world .... adventuring into the mountains, down into the caverns (a field trip to Luray in April), out west in the Summer for a niece's wedding (a rode trip that is thru some amazing parts of God's ocuntry!),  and other wonderful areas around and about the Old Dominion.

Come along for the journey ... ok?