Yathrib is just about at the point in which I will have miles and miles of a cabled edging to work. The good news is that in the next month, we have a road trip that will allow me some pretty good knitting time for that. In the meantime, I have started up a pair of colorwork mitts for Malabrigo March and, incidentally, for the Incense Route Collection that is coming out in November. These colors are so pretty, and I really hope show my design as I want it to look. The inspiration for the design is some traditional pottery from the region, and I think it will end up pretty and interesting to make.

There was just too much going on in my life and with our family during the qualifying round of Sock Madness, so while I already learned a pretty cool technique that I think I will use on mitts or mittens one day, the sock had to go into the UFO pile, to be worked on another day.

This surprise gift is a surprise no more. I gave it to Amelia on Monday, when she and Autumn were over here, because Autumn was really under the weather, and needed help looking after Amelia. She needed some looking after herself, too. Poor Amelia was also not doing too hot, but all the antibodies in the milk must have been helping, because she was mostly fussy and stuffed up, but not too terribly sick.

Oh, I have finally gotten the photography done and edited for the second to last pattern in my Tradewinds Color Collection, and it should be published this week (tomorrow is the goal). If you are not already subscribing to my newsletter, may I suggest you look at the link at the bottom of this post and do it, you might find a neat surprise in your inbox tomorrow or Friday. Likewise, keep an eye on any of my sales platforms that you follow, for the latest pattern. This will be the last chance to get the whole collection at a discount, or you can just pick up the hood pattern by itself.

The kids and I finished both Cheaper by the Dozen and Belles on their Toes. I finished loads of light reading. Everything else was either too heavy for my sleeplessness lately or was not to my liking. So, I drifted into some happy, little, murders, and just allowed myself to escape with some brain candy. It was actually hard finding some light fiction in which the main character is not divorced and on the make. I am not interested in that. We've started The Five Little Peppers and How They Grew, because it was mentioned in _Cheaper by the Dozen_ and the kids wanted to hear it.

Linking to Unraveled Wednesday.

If you would like to receive updates and early notice of new patterns, beta knitting opportunities, and great discounts (plus pictures of new yarns, new tools, fun places, neat hints, book ideas, recipes and more) each month, please subscribe to 1,001 Knits. My best, and sometimes my only, discounts go to my subscribers.

Labels: Books, Design, Governor Inslee Needs a Frozen Fish to the Forehead, Homemaking, Knitting, MalMarch, Sock Madness, Spring Sweater Stitchalong, WIP, Yarn Along

// posted by Ranee @ Arabian Knits @ 1:46 PM 2 comments

My second surprise project is almost finished, and I am getting closer and closer to finished on Yathrib. I cannot tell you how happy this makes me, because I am a month behind, and eating into my extra time I gave myself. With one project behind me, my weekends will be freer to finish the baptismal gown, and my weekdays will be left to start on the next sweater in this collection.

Because I am foolish, I have added another project to start. This year, I decided to try Sock Madness again. I qualified as a cheerleader one year, then didn't qualify at all the next, then again as a cheerleader the year after that. However, the designer of the qualifier that last year was so sarcsatic and mean to people who asked legitimate questions (not toward me, this wasn't personal), that it took almost all the fun out of it. I still haven't finished that pair of socks, even though they were beautiful, and I learned a couple techniques while making the first. It just left a sour taste in my mouth, and I didn't participate the rest of the competition, and I didn't participate at all last year. This year, it appears that designer is not so active, so I thought I would try again. Well, the qualifying pattern was delivered today, and I have less than 14 days to finish at least one intarsia in the round sock. It is a pretty cool sock, and this is a technique that I have wanted to master, but I am not sure I can do it in less than two weeks!

Plus finish the sweater and the baptismal gown. I'm not sure I will qualify this year.

I think I have only read about two more pages in The Diary of a Country Priest. The kids and I are more than half way through Cheaper by the Dozen, and I finished The Tsar of Love and Techno. I enjoyed the writing, though I found the author unnecessarily included some obscene parts. I do not mean that there are sexual references or sexual imagery, but that there are some disgusting scenes, and as far as I can tell, they were added so they could be part of the story, rather than being part of the story that made sense. The book is a series of short stories, and while they do not form "chapters" of the same story, each story is linked to one or more of the other stories. Some of them end in such a way as to leave questions and unresolved issues. I don't mind that, but you might. Of all of the chapters, the last one was my least favorite. It didn't follow the rules of all the other chapters, and was too weak to break the rules well, in my opinion. The entire set of stories could have been written without that last chapter, and it would have been at least as good, if not better. A few more things would have been unresolved, but I think that would have been better than turning it from a somewhat ambiguous and intriguing set of historical fiction pieces to an almost sci-fi thing. If it were done more cleverly and elegantly, perhaps it could have been pulled off, but it wrung you from the story as it was written, and took you outside of it in a way that made you a spectator as yourself, rather than as part of the story or a shadow of it.

The #SpringSweaterStitchalong begins Monday! Please join in the fun on my Facebook or Ravelry groups. If you want to ask questions or start chatting, please feel free to do so. If you follow that hashtag on Instagram, or share your pictures using that hashtag, then other knitters participating will see your work, too. Both Amira and Imbat will be options to knit during the KAL, and if you are especially speedy, you might be able to make both! I will be available for help, to answer questions, and you will have others to encourage and assist you, too. Please take a look at the patterns and your stash (or go shopping for appropriate yarn) now so you can be ready to cast on for February 20.

Linking to Unraveled Wednesday.

If you would like to receive updates and early notice of new patterns, beta knitting opportunities, and great discounts (plus pictures of new yarns, new tools, fun places, neat hints, book ideas, recipes and more) each month, please subscribe to 1,001 Knits. My best, and sometimes my only, discounts go to my subscribers.

Labels: Books, Design, Governor Inslee Needs a Frozen Fish to the Forehead, Homemaking, Knitting, Sock Madness, Spring Sweater Stitchalong, WIP, Yarn Along

// posted by Ranee @ Arabian Knits @ 10:31 AM 0 comments

Well, we're more than halfway there on this sweater. I'm even further along than this picture, actually. The cabled edging is working just the way I wanted, and I did a hybrid of sewing and grafting to finish it off that makes me quite delighted. It's mostly plain knitting with some minimal shaping and some side details for the rest of the body and then the big push for the cabled edging all around the fronts and neck.

I've only read a little more in The Diary of a Country Priest, because Rich's new schedule of 5:00 am wakeups to go to the gym are hard on me. I can stay in bed, and I do, but that interupted sleep has always been rough on me. So, I am falling asleep hard at night, and pretty early. Not much reading is happening then. Now that I think of it, I should be doing it in the morning while he is gone, since I am awake, anyway. The kids and I are reading Cheaper by the Dozen and laughing our way through it. It is such a delightful book. Mostly, though, my reading has been in the two books above, as we prepare for our homeschool co-op to start again, since I am helping with a Poetry and Tea class.

Recently, I finished a book, The Mother-In-Law, that I really enjoyed. The dedication alone was worth the read: For my mother-in-law, Anne, who I would never dream of murdering. And for my father-in-law, Peter, who, on the odd occasion, I have.

The book itself is intriguing, and opens on a family receiving news of the suspicious death of the woman's mother-in-law. It is told in the perspectives, from the heads of, both the daughter-in-law and the mother-in-law. Obviously, for the mother-in-law, it has to go back in time, but we go back in time in Lucy's (the daughter-in-law) story, as well. It was really well done, and that is rare. Aside from suicide or murder, the book itself covers some rather morally questionable issues, and treats them as normal. In and of itself, this isn't too much of a problem, as I wouldn't expect a morally ill informed person to have a different view. Because of this, though, I still wouldn't recommend it to a teenager, for instance, or a person without good moral formation. However, there are some hints within it that there are some leanings toward the good in the author, or at least not an antipathy toward it. Overall, I found the book satisfying and interesting, and though I did guess some of the circumstances and conclusions, most of it wasn't until late in the story. The picture of marriage, and the picture from both main character's point of view were really done well. Any temptation to assume that one was all bad and the other all good was quickly nipped in the bud. Even the sense that one was the protagonist and one was the antagonist was done away with and the reader, instead, can see how one appears to the other, and what the motivations are behind even the wrong actions and words of each person. The only disappointment in the book was really that this seems to be a one note author. The next book she wrote was excerpted in the back of this one, and though it included different characters, a different story line, and a different setting, the perspective was basically the same. That kind of disappointed me.

If you are morally informed, I think the immoral issues in this book will cause no trouble and the writing is good. I found that aside from that, I really noticed the food. The book is set in Australia, and their casual dipping of prawns in Thousand Island dressing really threw me, and I still don't know what to think about it. Likewise, the statement that making a turkey with mashed potatoes and gravy was a terribly difficult task made me laugh out loud. That is an easy meal that we would make on an average Saturday and unless you feel like you need to stare at the bird while it cooks, most of it is done while you are getting something else completed or taking a nap. Those things aside, I would recommend this book to adults, and mature, older adolescents.

The #SpringSweaterStitchalong is only 12 days away on my Facebook and Ravelry groups. If you want to ask questions or start chatting, please feel free to do so. If you follow that hashtag on Instagram, or share your pictures using that hashtag, then other knitters participating will see your work, too. Both Amira and Imbat will be options to knit during the KAL, and if you are especially speedy, you might be able to make both! I will be available for help, to answer questions, and you will have others to encourage and assist you, too. Please take a look at the patterns and your stash (or go shopping for appropriate yarn) now so you can be ready to cast on for February 20.

Linking to Unraveled Wednesday.

If you would like to receive updates and early notice of new patterns, beta knitting opportunities, and great discounts (plus pictures of new yarns, new tools, fun places, neat hints, book ideas, recipes and more) each month, please subscribe to 1,001 Knits. My best, and sometimes my only, discounts go to my subscribers.

Labels: Books, Design, Governor Inslee Needs a Frozen Fish to the Forehead, Homemaking, Knitting, Spring Sweater Stitchalong, WIP, Yarn Along

// posted by Ranee @ Arabian Knits @ 10:38 AM 0 comments

I'm really itching to show you my surprise project, but it will have to wait at least another couple weeks. In the meantime, here is some progress on Yathrib. It should be finished by the end of next week, I hope. If not then, perhaps the following week. The cabled cuffs and edgings will likely take more time than I expect. I should be finished with the second sleeve by tonight, and maybe one of the cuffs tomorrow.

We are nearly finished with Further Chronicles of Avonlea and I am getting closer to finishing The Diary of a Country Priest. I'm trying desperately not to start another book right now. My reading time is so limited, and I really want to finish what I have open, so to speak. However, I have a stack of several books in my nightstand, plus one I borrowed nearly two years ago from a friend, that I really should get to soon.

Also, I wanted to give you a heads up that in a little less than a month, I am going to host a #SpringSweaterStitchalong on my Facebook and Ravelry groups. If you follow that hashtag on Instagram, or share your pictures using that hashtag, then other knitters participating will see your work, too. Both Amira and Imbat will be options to knit during the KAL, and if you are especially speedy, you might be able to make both! I will be available for help, to answer questions, and you will have others to encourage and assist you, too. Please take a look at the patterns and your stash (or go shopping for appropriate yarn) now so you can be ready to cast on for February 20.

Linking to Unraveled Wednesday.

If you would like to receive updates and early notice of new patterns, beta knitting opportunities, and great discounts (plus pictures of new yarns, new tools, fun places, neat hints, book ideas, recipes and more) each month, please subscribe to 1,001 Knits. My best, and sometimes my only, discounts go to my subscribers.

Labels: Books, Design, Governor Inslee Needs a Frozen Fish to the Forehead, Homemaking, Knitting, Spring Sweater Stitchalong, WIP, Yarn Along

// posted by Ranee @ Arabian Knits @ 1:04 PM 0 comments