Yarn Along

I had no intention of getting back here today. It was our last day of schooling before Easter, and I have a long, long list of things to do before Sunday. But, I listened to a really great book today and I had to come here to share. So I am linking up with Ginny at Small Things.

The title of the book is Surprised by Motherhood: Everything I Never Expected ABout Being a Mom by Lisa Jo Baker. It is the book I wish that I could have written, and the author and I have so much in common I really felt like I could have written much of it. Both only daughters with brothers, mothers of single girls with brothers, and she lost her mother right around the same time I lost my father -- she was 18, I was 19, and our parents were the same age at the time of their deaths -- 42. She is a woman of great faith and tells the story of how she thought she would never have children, having had a rough time after her mother was diagnosed with cancer and died. It's a new book, and I found it just by sheer luck divine providence, looking through the audiobooks available through our online library. I started the book yesterday and finished it up this afternoon. It was good, really good. I highly recommend it, especially to moms of little ones whose days and nights are all running together and think they might never get out from under the piles of laundry or maybe ever take another shower. The one thing the author and I don't have in common is her children are still young enough that she hasn't had her heart broken by the things kids do when they get to be the age that you can no longer keep them safe from the big world. I hope she writes another book after she hits that point. Of course, it will be too late for me at that point!

I have three wips right now, but mostly I am working on my Tiny Tea Leaves Cardigan. I am usually knitting while I am sitting in the parking lot of the dance studio or waiting inside the dance studio, so it's a row here and a row there, but I just started the stockinette part of the sweater -- the three beautiful rows of increases and decreases are finished.

I always have a dishcloth in my car for when I am waiting on someone, or in the doctor's office if I have forgotten my knitting bag. These are baby wash cloths, but I also knit dish cloths. Have you ever knit yourself dish cloths? Some people are always busy knitting beautiful things that they forget about practical projects. The thing is, handknit wash cloths are as much a luxury as handknit sweaters. They are so much nicer to use than manufactured dish cloths and wash cloths. I have used patterns before, but I find a square or rectangle knit using the seed stitch is just as nice as any pattern. These pictured are 32 stitches wide by 38 rows using sugar and cream yarn.

This stays in my knitting bag and usually I work on it in doctor's offices. I have the pattern memorized so I don't need to refer to any directions. I will just keep knitting until I run out of yarn. Notes and specs here.

I'll check back and update this post to link to the Yarn Along when Ginny's blog is back up and running.