Yarn Along

Although I haven’t done a ton of personal reading for me this last week, I read a ton on our trip.  I really enjoyed reading the first book in the Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy and a good way through the second one.  The second one isn’t quite as exciting as the first so far.  I’m wondering when I’ll be able to pick it up again.  I think the next few Yarn Along posts will include several children’s books.

Kristin Lavransdatter is like this piece of excellent literature of which I can’t believe I haven’t be aware until this last year.  I could have easily studied this in college.  I would love to be in some book discussions about it.  I plan on reading it more than once.  It’s not a Christian romance, so don’t pick it up expecting that because you’ll be disappointed.  It is about a girl who goes against her parents plan for her in search of a marriage that follows her heart, but not necessarily her brain. Each character in there is so real to me, that I know that when I finish the whole trilogy I’ll miss each of them, as I do after every really good book.

I especially love the character “Lavrans” Kristin’s father who reminds me so much of Knut.  That would make sense I like him.  😉  Kristin’s character is so beautiful, and has so many human traits (basically foolishness and not doing everything quite right) although she is also so able, and seems to improve everything she touches.  I love the complexity of her mother’s character, and the lovable boyishness of Erlend.  It’s so good.  It’s good from a writing perspective, a historical perspective, an enjoyment perspective, an intellectual perspective…I could go on.

This week for knitting, I’ve been doing some little projects, and finishing up some unfinished ones while I wait for some yarn to arrive for another big project.  I’m a little nervous that yarn isn’t here yet because the project is due October 1st and I’ll need every day of knitting that I can get because it’s a lace-weight project.

When we were out at the family lake cabin for our annual Labor Day camp out there, I cast on an easy project for the new baby due in December.  Some regular readers may remember the romper I made for Solveig so she could wear it home from the hospital.  I think she wore it nearly non-stop for 2 weeks, and certainly always in the car seat for a month or so.  I just loved holding her in it as it was the coziest of her outfits and just looked comfy!

I loved both knitting and using that romper so much that I was sad when I realized I didn’t have time to knit her the next size up that winter.  I would have liked 2 of them: one in the newborn size, and one in the 3 month size.  So since we found out we’re having another girl, I’m making a 3 month romper to follow up Solveig’s that will be used as a hand-me-down. This time I’m making it with a periwinkle colored yarn which will probably require some girly embroidered embellishment on top because for some reason whenever I put a baby in purple, people think it’s blue and its a boy.  I’m assuming periwinkle would be even closer to blue, but I thought it was pretty and decided to use it anyway.

I got the 2 skeins for the project and bonnet online, which comes with risks because the 2 skeins came from 2 very different dye lots.  So this time I’m having to knit from both skeins at the same time, alternating between the two.  It is kettle dyed yarn, so it’s normal for them to have some variegation anyway, but that comes out stronger with the 2 dye lots that give an extremely subtle stripe.  I kinda like it.

The newborn size took me a few days last time around.  I’m assuming this one will be super fast as well.  Already almost the whole bodice is done after 2 days of very light knitting.  I’m a little bummed that it will have to be put on hold once my lace yarn for a paid project comes in the mail.  In the mean time, it’s a really, really fun knit.

The lace yarn coming in the mail has some silk mixed in with the wool, so you know…I’m not exactly going to be suffering as I knit that one up either.