Yarn Along

Once again, I’m joining in on Ginny’s Yarn Along.  I love reading, and love knitting, and love hanging out with other people with similar interests and sharing what we’re doing.  It’s like a taste of a “knit night” and “book club” gathering of girlfriends.

I have a lot to show off this week because of our extended leisure time last week.  I finished A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and absolutely loved it.  It was so beautiful in so many ways.  It’s been awhile since I’ve read such a “meaty” book in every literary sense and it was like all my classes in college on English Literature came flooding back to me with all of the fond memories of late night study sessions and discussions in the literary theory class all came back.  When I finished reading it, I wished so much that I had my old classmates around me so I could discuss various elements of the book, because Elias sure didn’t get what I was talking about.  Maybe we’ll wait for him to be in kindergarten to start literary discussions.  (Ha!)  I don’t think I’ve had this much satisfaction in reading since I read Reading Lolita in Tehran about 2 years ago.  I didn’t have anyone to discuss that book with either.  Maybe I just like memoir/biography type books, I guess.

Also, as school supplies are starting to appear in local stores, I was reminded that I was intending to read all of Silje’s “readers” for this upcoming school years so that I would have one less thing to do during the school year, and could discuss those books with her without doing daily reading alongside her.  So I started and finished The Whipping Boy which is on her reading list this upcoming year.

My impression was “eh…” but I really think she is going to love it a lot!  Apparently, this really happened back in medieval times.  Several rulers/kings really would keep a servant called a “whipping boy” to take the spankings/beatings of the prince, because the prince was to high of a person to be punished.  It was shocking to me, and will hopefully lead to so many interesting discussions with Silje.  When the king got mad at his son, he would beat the whipping boy in front of the prince so that the prince would suffer no physical injury.  With such a heavy subject matter, it’s written in a very light, almost silly sort of way that it becomes very childlike.  The silliness annoyed me for some reason, but I think Silje would really get it.

I’m very interested to hear Silje’s thoughts on this book.

I also threw in the picture of of Silje’s book.  She has been reading a few hours every day by her own ambition…following in her mother’s footsteps as a child of shying away from being outside in the warm weather and sitting comfortably inside in the cool with no bugs.  She’s working her way through both the “Little House on the Prairie” series, and the “Sisters in Time” series.  The “Sisters in Time” books are from various Christian perspectives and take place in various times of history.  This is her second book read from the series and she adored it.  It was about a freed slave during the civil war hunting for her parents.  She said it had a lot of adventure, so naturally, she couldn’t put it down.

We’re also finally getting our science for the older two done for the summer, which was the plan.   I’ve decided that the best way to hold their attention for this book is to read it aloud to them during snack time.  This has been so much fun!  Yesterday we talked about a planet’s matter and mass and how that effects gravity.  We’ve also read about the various atmospheres of the planets and how that effects the temperature, and how earth has the perfect rotation, gravity, and atmosphere for our survival (and of course what in theory it would look like if the earth had a faster/slower rotation, more or less gravity, and differing types of atmosphere)  At last, David is really getting into it, which is what I was expecting last fall and is actually happening right now.  The only change I made was reading it to them while they eat their snack at the table instead of reading with them on the couch.  (Mental note, when David is fidgety during read aloud time…move read aloud to snack time.)

Lastly…the knitting.

These are the fingerless gloves I’m working on for myself that will hopefully be ready for showing at the county fair.  I’ve never submitted anything to the county fair, and am a bit nervous.  I picked this project because I thought I could get it done with one skein that I had on hand (without the label…although I could have looked it up.  It’s Frog Tree Meriboo.)

I was excited to have just one skein for the project so I wouldn’t have to join any yarn ends mid project, but half way through the second mitten, I ran out of yarn.  I had to send Knut to the yarn store last time he was in town because I wouldn’t have a chance to get there for awhile.  He was a bit concerned that the ladies there knew him at first glance even though he’d only been in there once before, and asked what it was he was picking up for me.  Uh…I guess they kinda know who I am over there.  (Or it could be that last time he was in there he bought me my really nice interchangable needle sets for Christmas.)

Anyway, I did my best to join it without using a knot, as I know that is a crucial part of the judging process at the fair, but I’m not 100% sure I did it correctly on the technical level…so that has me a bit nervous.  I’m going to look at that in further detail when I spend the time doing flawless finishing work.  That’s the part I often rush through, and it will be good discipline for me to do this well.

This one just needs a thumb and the picot edges hemmed.  How’s it look?  Any advice from those who have submitted things to a county fair before?  I hear it’s all in the finishing work.  I’d love to get any tips!

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