Now that the kitchen is done, I’ve gotten a few more minutes to finish up the Rhubarb Cardigan. The rhubarb is coming up in “Rhubarb Lane” (which is our rhubarb patch, named years before I ever knew what rhubarb was). I have been putting off putting out this pattern for far too long. I really, really want this one to work out just right.
(Rhubarb Lane right now, at the edge of a field.)
See! Rhubarb starting to roll up. It won’t be long, and this stuff will be in my belly!
The sleeves to the cardigan are now nearly done, and I just have the front button band left. It’s a thin little band, so it should be done soon. Now I just need to get a sitter for a few hours and get the writing finished up and finalized, and a good day for a photo shoot.
And just for fun, here’s some other pictures of my walk out to Rhubarb Lane:
I love that at the end of this “lane” you can see way deep into the field, an one of my favorite trees is right smack in the middle of it. It’s so twisted and inviting. If I were a child, I would dream of running away to this tree, and build myself a little fort among the strong, low branches, and eat my peanut butter and jelly. I think one day I may. I’ve actually never walked across the field to climb it. It’s further than it looks. I could though. That might just be added to my summer bucket list.
There’s still a chill in the air in the early morning, so I’m still wearing my Cozy Morning Mitts on my walks. I love these so much! I wear them all the time. I realize in the original pattern pics, I don’t have pictures of the motif with the thumb in different positions. I actually moved that motif around a bunch in my samples, and finally emailed the famous Mary Jane Mucklestone, since she seems to be the expert on such matters, and asked her where motifs were supposed to be. Traditional Norwegian mittens have the thumb placed directly under the hand.
(traditional thumb placement)
However, many modern patterns, most especially fingerless mittens, have the thumb placed on the side of the hand, not under it. I wasn’t sure which one was “correct.” I loved her reply. First I loved that she just emailed me right back and was so encouraging and sweet. Oh my goodness, what a kindred spirit! She said it should be wherever I wanted it to be. That’s the beauty of designing. Just put it where I liked it best. I ended up placing the motif with the thumb under the hand, as she called the traditional “peasant thumb” placement. I guess I just like tradition. Also, I like that when my thumb is held out to the side, the motif moves off to the side in a really pleasing way as well.
(common/modern thumb placement)
I’ll say again: I love these. Okay. Shameless plug is over. Onto the books discussion.
The kids and I have moved onto Prince Caspian this week. They can’t let go of Narnia for our read-alouds right now, and to be honest, I don’t want to leave Narnia either. I don’t think we’ll be venturing into any other realm until we read straight through to the Last Battle.
In the mean time, I’m scrounging up some books for Silje as she has finished her curriculum for the year, and I don’t want the book reading to stop until next September. So I’m sort of flying by the seat of my pants with her right now, and moving up the “researching curriculum for next year” up on the to-do list, and starting to pull out projects and curricula intended for next year. Her library stack is larger these days, and she’s spending more time with the animals outside. She has always been my kid who prefers to be inside with her head in a book, so I’ll admit I’m glad she’s finding lots to do outside that she enjoys right now. She knows all our animals so well, it astounds me sometimes. She’s also been working on her 4H projects for the fair. She’s like me and chomping at the bit to get in the garden, so I think she’ll be a great help in that.
A lot of people ask when school is done for us for the year, and I find that every spring we end up in this type of situation. You see, I’m sure moms with kids in all types of schools get frustrated with the with the “I’m bored” comments of summer. I hate that. So my kids do school in the summer when they’re too bored to think of something to do. It ends up being about twice a week in the summer and about 4 times a week in other seasons. My system year round is we do school when we are home, and if we’re out and about, or busy around the house we don’t worry about it. Oh, and I usually take the month of December off for Christmas prep. We end up getting about 1.25 years of school done in one year that way, which is fine by me. The kids grumble less too.
So my reading has been put on the back burner as I’m going through references and book lists for children’s books, and figuring out the plan for the next year, at least in the language arts department, which seems to be the only big element I’m missing on my bookshelves. She’s at that age I think a lot of kids reach where she can read upper grade levels, but isn’t ready for upper grade content. I think a trip to the used book store in town is in my future too!
We’re studying ancient world history up until the Renaissance for history next year. So books along that theme will get top priority. I find a lot in my booklist from Sonlight, and The Read Aloud Handbook always has some good choices, as well as Well Trained Mind, and I’ve recently found The Story Warren which is a website dedicated to discussing and spreading great children’s literature. That has been inspiring.
Linking up with Ginny’s Yarn Along.
SarahElisabeth Jones says
April 23, 2014 at 12:38 pmI love the rhubarb cardigan and rhubarb lane. We cut our first rhubarb of the year for Easter but are hoping for several more rhubarb dishes. Rhubarb crumble ice cream is my favourite.
Reinventing Mother says
April 23, 2014 at 1:03 pmSuch glorious pics!!!!!! And I still just love the kitchen!
elizabeth says
April 23, 2014 at 1:22 pmsounds good! looking forward to seeing your pattern and the other knits are lovely and Narnia is So Good to linger in!!!
knitinthesquare says
April 23, 2014 at 1:56 pmMom mm I love rhubarb, puréed with yogurt especially. Or with my mil’s per ogives. Delicious!
Donna says
April 23, 2014 at 3:10 pmSuch beautiful mitts! So happy that you are harvesting some rhubarb already. Wow – it’s still so cold here!
Mom says
April 23, 2014 at 3:15 pmSave some rhubarb for us when we come! I’m looking forward to seeing the finished cardigan. I’m going through the Narnia series, too and am almost done with Prince Caspian. They are easier reads that I expected, and fun!
mamasmercantile says
April 23, 2014 at 3:21 pmI love the rhubarb cardigan and off course rhubarb lane, we had our first rhubarb of the season as a crumble last week, with homemade custard…very nice!
Laura at Beehive Rugs says
April 23, 2014 at 3:39 pmLove your mitts and the pictures! The rhubarb cardigan look wonderful, can’t wait to see more pictures of it.
Natasha says
April 23, 2014 at 4:22 pmI love your mittens! They are stunning! 🙂
Anonymous says
April 24, 2014 at 10:54 amHoney for a Child’s Heart is also a great resource for books to read. We are reading through Little House and my kids don’t want to read anything else until we’ve finished that (I think it comes more from Katie’s desire to have things predictable, or she could be like her mother who hates to say goodbye to her favorite characters)! ~Heather Krupa