Known, Loved, and Knit

I had enough yarn left over from last month's rainbow jumper commission to make a kid sized sweater, and an eager kid who ravenously watched me make the adult sized version and kept asking for one, so my first finished project was a mini Rainbow Sunshine Jumper. She is absolutely delighted (as you may be able to tell from the photo) and has very thoughtfully worn it as much as possible, but taken it off during meals and potentially messy tasks to avoid ruining it, which I honestly really appreciate.

We then had a cold snap and my youngest had outgrown his sweatshirts from last year, so I gathered some leftover yarns in his favorite colors and ad libbed a little pullover for him. He is quite pleased and when I put it on him he immediately ran off to show everyone his new "fweater." It's just a top down raglan in DK yarn, with stripes to make the yarn run out gracefully. I found him a pair of black furry sweatpants so when he wears them together he looks like a Sesame Street Muppet, and he insists on having lots of hugs because he's so fuzzy and snuggly.

Someone I care for deeply asked me to make a black baby hat, and it is a marker of how much I love them that I not only agreed, but also knit the hat twice because after I finished it the first time I felt like it looked too small and reknit it bigger (my intuition was correct). The ribbed design isn't very visible what with the light-consuming nature of the color, but it is very effective and adorable in person.

Not something I made (although I did support the Kickstarter and I'm going to make something fabulous with that rainbow yarn soon!) but I have really been enjoying this Knitter's Oracle deck by Wild Hunt Design (one of the cards is also in the hat photo above). I absolutely adore knitting and I've immersed myself in every aspect of it (as both a hobby and as an industry), so it's delightful to have a deck that feels extremely intuitive. I've been using it for my weekly reviews and it's spoken to me on a deeper level than any other deck I've found so far - I connect with both the meanings provided with the cards, but also intuitively. (As as example, last week I pulled The Moth for my energetic ally for the coming week, which I correctly took as proactive choices to prevent heartache). Ennyhoo, if that's something you're into (or you know someone who is!), now you know it exists.

Still in progress but approaching the end, the Exchange Wrap I started several months ago. I did not finish it in time for the camping trip that I originally planned to have it for, but it was big enough to make a nice lap cover while I worked on it fireside, so I still got to use it, if in a slightly different way than I initially planned. Hoping to for really real finish it next month!

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Reading and Writing

#attunedpracticetuesdays: where we share the rituals and routines that are aligned with our sense of peace and wellbeing A couple of months ago, while working on a commission project , I started a new practice. I was listening to audio books while working since the project required my eyes but not my full attention, and since it was fairly labor intensive, I took the weekends off (not something I would normally do). Lacking something to do with my hands, the first Saturday I decided to put my speedy reading to good use and read a novel in one sitting (my preferred method, anyway). Then I read another novel the next Saturday. And now it has becomes a weekly thing. The only rule is that it has to be fiction - I read enough non fiction that a novel a week isn't going to hurt anything (and it wouldn't anyway, reading is reading). Helping out with Paper Heart Books and attending a bring-your-own-book-club meeting last week helped restock my dwindling supply. I like to get hard cop

Festivals and Fairs

October is the Month of Fun Outings. The weather is generally pleasant, many things are less crowded than they are in summer because school has started back, and there are also an array of local events. We try to make the most of it, since I got used to not getting sick while we stayed in for a couple years so now we ride out the germiest months at home. But before that, we frolic. We'll miss our favorite fall festival due to scheduling conflict, but there will be a small one at my eldest's dance studio, and we're all going to the state fair this year. There are street fairs and at some point soon we'll go and each choose a pumpkin to stack on the front step five deep, and my littlest will name each family member while pointing at their pumpkin every time we go in or out the door. I've started leaving windows open at night, and sometimes it's been cool enough to have them open during the day, too. My desk candle has expanded to three candles on a cheese board b

3.3 - Forage

I recently looked up the rest of the Mary Oliver poem that ends in "tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?" because that was the only part I had ever heard, and it turns out the rest of The Summer Day is about going for a walk and lying about in the grass. That's what she planned to do with her one wild and precious life. I feel like it gets misapplied a lot. As the weather grows cooler, I've been thinking about foraging, as a concept. I am a terrible gardener. Even as a child I loathed getting up early and tramping through the dewy grass to the dusty garden to water and pull weeds. As an adult, I stumbled onto the one plant that likes the climate of my front windows but claim no personal credit for their flourishing. If we ever move I may have to leave them here, to ensure their survival. There's also a pot of mint by my front step that survives on rain water or when one of the kids points out that it's a bit crunchy. Plants

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