How I Spent My Summer / August Yarn Along

Wow.  Not a single post here since the beginning of May!  I realize summer isn’t over, but today is the first day of school for three of our grandchildren. Since my own children were small, the first day of school has always made me a little sad.

I suppose I could blame my absence on the fact that I am just now finishing the sweater I was knitting for myself back in May.  And other than a knitted, stuffed horse I knitted for number 7 grandchild’s birthday in June, (and failed to photograph), I really didn’t knit much until last week.  What a surprise!  It was like spending time with an old friend.  I didn’t realize how much I missed it. 

Grandchild number 8 turns three this week.  I knitted her a sweet little sweater, Tartelette, by Frogginette Knitting, and a birthday crown.  I also made her a lion, (no pattern) to commemorate our seeing Lion King together.  Lisa Chemery has wonderful knitting patterns for kids.  The jumpers I knitted at Christmas were from a Frogginette pattern as well. (#yarnalong)

Since my knitting has been slow, I have been spending a lot of time drawing, trying to practice as often as possible.  And I have been reading a lot, mostly the summer’s best sellers:  Where the Crawdads Sing, The Guest Book, The Dreamers, and I just started Lady in the Lake.  But my reading list just became huge because I came across the book and website 1,000 Books to Read BeforeYou Die, a Life-changing List.  And it is!!  It has made my head spin with happiness not to have to wonder what to read next.

We’ve been continuing our work with our local Democratic Party which gives me hope.  We had our weekly brunches and lots of playdates with grandchildren.  And in late July our ninth grandchild was born!  Our hearts are full.

I hope your summer has made you happy.  I will do my best to cherish these last few weeks.

P.S.  Check out this short little video for a wonderful feel-good moment.  It brings tears to my eyes every time I watch it. https://vimeo.com/259818647 

Fun Things

Now that the neighbor has 5 baby goats on his farm it's the first thing the grandchildren want to do when they come for a visit.  Along the way, we collected flowers so we could make a crown for Frida and fairies out of the paper dolls.  I saw the idea on mer mag here.  Sophie only wanted to pick dandelion seeds.  Luckily mom and grandma had an eye out for other colorful flowers along the way.  Even wilted the next day they were still beautiful.

When my children were little I was constantly making playdough but I haven't done it in years.  I recently found I needed some and searched the internet for a recipe.  I will never buy playdough again!  This recipe is made with coconut oil which makes it incredibly soft.  And even better, it's colored with markers.  We used Crayola washable markers.  It was so easy!

And of course, it's always fun when the fish swim up to see what we're up to!

Spring: May Yarn Along

I missed both March and April Yarn Alongs, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been knitting or reading.  I finished the Ten Stitch blanket I was making for our oldest grandchild’s birthday.  It took all of March and most of April to accomplish it.  In truth, she received it a week late.  I also included here a picture of one of our granddaughters wearing her jumper to the St. Patrick’s Day parade.  I knitted three of those for Christmas for the three youngest granddaughters.  Now I’m working on a sweater for myself!  The last photo of knitting on the needles is the progress I’ve made in a little over a week.

I finished reading The Age of Light, a fictional story of Lee Miller.  I did not know who Miller was until one day I heard the author interviewed on Here and Now on NPR.  Listening to the author speak about Miller’s life intrigued me so much.  The Age of Light is mostly about her life before WWII in Paris when she was learning to be a photographer living with Man Ray.  During her life, she continued to reinvent herself and succeeded in three different careers. And now that I’ve finished this book I intend to read a biography of her.

Currently, I’m reading A Journal of Solitude by May Sarton, published in 1973.  I love reading journals, bits, and pieces of someone’s everyday life.  I’ve kept a journal on and off since I was a child and consistently as an adult.  The reason I mention the copyright date is that she wrote it during the Nixon years.  I’m nearly halfway through and she hasn’t written a lot about politics.  But when she has, the comparisons to today are jarring and unsettling and the realization that we have not come very far or made things better is sad to come to terms with.

Right now there’s an abundance of great things I’m watching, from PBS Sunday evening shows to Game of Thrones.  Thank goodness for DVRs.  Also from the library, I’m watching the series Genius: Picasso by National Geographic. Watching this following reading about Lee Miller has made me wish I could time travel to Paris’s golden age of Picasso, Miller, Hemingway and Gertrude Stein!  

In between knitting and reading I made a couple of bunnies from cut magazine pages and eight bandana bunnies for the grandchildren’s Easter baskets.  This year we hosted an egg hunt and Easter dinner for 15 adults and 8 grandchildren.  We had so much fun, especially the granddaughters who found a large toad in the fish pond.  It was so sweet watching them in their Easter clothes, totally over the moon, playing with it.  There’s also a sweet tinge of nostalgia watching our grandchildren hunt eggs in the same place our children did, or climb the same trees.

Each year since our oldest grandchild was a week old we take a photo of the grandchildren with the same large stuffed bunny that our children had growing up.  It’s a wonderful tradition and I treasure looking at those photos from over the years and seeing how they've changed.

Before I had grandchildren I read an article about a couple who hosted a "camp" during the summer for their grandchildren.  I loved the idea.  So I made a goal, starting during spring break and just finishing this last weekend to host several cousin sleepovers.  Over the weekend the two middle granddaughters made a fairy house in a dead tree on the edge of our forest.  They were thrilled to go out the next morning to see if they could see any signs of fairy life.  We had such a wonderful time hosting these cousin sleepovers we intend to do it again over the summer.

So spring is here in all its glory, flowers and rain.  Within the last few days, our river has exceeded its banks and flooded the valley farmland. But on the lovely side, every few days something new is blooming and I’m taking cuttings to bring inside, attempting to draw a few.  We’ve been worried because this year we’ve noticed a severe decline in honey bees.  Usually, the apple and cherry trees are humming with activity.  I’ve yet to see a single honey bee but my husband has reported that he has seen a few.  And we do have cherries on the trees. I did see a hummingbird moth pollinating the lilac bush this week.  What I didn’t know is the hummingbird moth begins its life as the dreaded tomato hornworm!  Oh how I hate them!