let it snow

It's kinda weird, but I only like listening to holiday music when I'm riding in the car with my husband. I told him that the other day (as we were driving) and he thought it was funny.

"Why" he asked me. "Didn't you always like Christmas music growing up?"

"Yah," I said, "but I really like sharing it with you, because Christmas has become so special to me now that we're together."
One thing I haven't told him is that there are certain holiday songs that I consider to be "our" holiday songs. I don't think this is too off the wall considering that we got engaged in December one year and married in the January of the next. Some of the most important events in our connected lives have revolved around the holidays.

Christmas trees make me think of my wedding dress and the sparkling gold and silver shoes that I wore on my wedding day (that killed my feet) but they were so pretty. Totally worth it.

Happy December!

Jillian

hollyhocks & waterfalls

I don't know where I've been finding the time to knit, but another little sweater found it's way off the needles. I really love this one it's made from some soft alpaca handspun that I made over five years ago. Some of the first yarn I spun, I think. I'd forgotten about it, but then found it in a bag of yarn in my sister's closet this spring. I instantly reclaimed it and started to knit with it, but it took me awhile (lots of tearing out and starting over) to find the right pattern for it. Now that it's finished I love its super pastel softness - with the streaks of pink stitches that flash thru it.

We've been out and about. Our church had an outdoor service at Minnehaha Falls, which gave me a chance to snap photos of the falls. The park was already crowded, even on a Sunday morning when we got there. We live fairly close to this park and should visit it more often - I always forget how beautiful the falls are.

Hollyhocks seem to be the fad in the community garden this year. Many plots have large stands of them, but they are starting to develop that mold that always gets them this time of year. The blossoms are still pretty.

This was my first batch of deviled eggs for the season. The dill is growing like crazy in the garden right now. We've been putting it on chicken and in salads and of course in these deviled eggs. They disappeared (into our bellies) in less than twenty-four hours.

Hope your summer is going well!

Jillian

july moon

Much to my husband's delight I have been roasting brussel sprouts this week. It has been beautiful around here, so we've been grilling out as often as we can. Just soaking up the summer sunshine. We still comment on how grateful we are for this weather, which I think says a lot about just how hard it was go get through this past winter.

Happy 4th of July! We're sticking close to home, because we have a lot of family events planned for the middle of the month. We'll celebrate then. I picked up the knitting needles again, but not with the yarn I had promised. This yarn came off the spinning wheel this week. It's kinda a funny story (funny to a spinner) but I spun my plies in opposite directions. This means that I wasn't able to ply my two bobbins together when I was finished. I had to ply my yarn with another bobbin of yarn that I had saved from two years ago (another instance of "mis-plied" yarn.) But I really love the results. One bobbin had long stretches of lavender and pale blue, while the other was multiple shades of pastel pinks, green, peaches and purples. Sometimes your mistakes turn into your best color combinations.

I did end up Navajo plying the rest of my "mis-spun" yarn. I don't think it's enough for a sweater. Maybe I can make some booties or a small hat. We'll see where my inspiration takes me.

Adoption update: there's really not much to update. Our facilitator's website has really slowed down over the summer and they say this is normal. Less placements happen in the summer. Kinda a bummer for me. Our facilitator told me not to look at the website so much and just "take a vacation" myself. I wish I could do that, but I have stopped expecting so much each time I look at the website. Things should pick up again in the fall.

Thank you to all our service men and women who sacrifice so much to serve and defend our country. I love to see the flags waving on the 4th of July. Hope wherever you are tonight that fireworks are blossoming overhead.

XOXO

Jillian

turkey day

I'm very thankful this holiday weekend for family, hearth and home (for some reason those two words just sound so good together) and - handknits. We walked in the door at my parent's house on Thanksgiving and there was my little niece sitting in her daddy's arms on the kitchen island, clapping her hands and sporting one of my handknit sweaters. (She is now my new favorite.)

It's a rare occurrence that I get to see a baby in one of the sweaters I make for them. (Here is the link to the pattern.) I usually send then off and sometimes receive a picture of the precious little one in some soft warm wool. It's not that the sweater is the important thing. Yesterday was about all the "ideas" I knit into the little sweaters I make: sweet babies with pink cheeks and smiles, family gathered together on the farm, savory food roasting in spices making the house smell fantastic. That's why I (we) knit these things, right? There is something precious about a handmade life - or there's something very special about being able to put the things that are precious to us into something we made by hand.

And if they stay in it for more than thirty seconds, I call that a success. Little Brooke wore this sweater for most of the morning and I got to admire again the color transitions that fascinated me while I was knitting it and the clever decreases that make the sleeves and shape the shoulders - perfect diagonal slants.

I am inspired to knit another baby sweater!

puzzled

The holiday fun got pretty intense yesterday morning (that would have been Christmas) when we (me, my cousin, and my sister-in-law) sat down to put together a half-finished puzzle.

• 9:00 a.m. Things were still friendly. Chatting ensued as we sipped coffee with eggnog.
• 9:03 a.m. The subject of the puzzle: a dog in front of a Christmas tree. Several key pieces were discovered in short order and put in their place.
  
• 9:07 a.m. I poured myself another cup of coffee. (Ash and Traci put in several pieces behind my back.)
• 9:08 a.m. Half the puzzle is now complete. Suspect that people are hoarding pieces to put in last.
• 9:10 a.m. The Christmas tree is more challenging than we all thought, it is decorated with infuriating ornaments in the shape of dog bones.
  
• 9:15 a.m. Still trying to put together the tree.
• 9:21 a.m. 7 pieces left. Trying to act like a lady, but really want to "win" the puzzle.
• 9:21 a.m. Ponder when puzzles became a competitive event.
  
• 9:22 a.m. Suddenly all the pieces are getting shoved into place. Three openings left.
• 9:22 a.m. But only two puzzle pieces left. Three openings. Two pieces...
• 9:23 a.m. One piece missing. A mad scramble ensues as all of us dive to the floor to search for the missing piece. Nowhere to be found.
  
• 9:24 a.m. Traci finds the missing piece sitting on the puzzle edge "blending into its surroundings." Puts it in place.

If you're snowed in (like we are) consider competitive puzzles as a way to end the monotony. Setting up the edges can be a bit frustrating, but the excitement only builds after that.

Featured with the puzzle pieces above is some of my own hand-spun. The leftovers from the stocking in my last post. Made from pot-dyed CVM romeldale top.

make merry

The thing about the holidays : spending time with family, good food, wine, friendly arguments over past tiffs with siblings.

Posing for pictures after too much wine, presents that don't fit, presents that do fit (but you wished hadn't), sugar-crazed, greedy kids getting tangled up in the Christmas tree.

Gift cards to cheesy stores, games of pictionary, trivial pursuit and twister --all of these things are heightened when a winter snow storm looms on the horizon.

You had better make sure you have enough eggnog and wine and Christmas bread, especially when there is the very real possibility that all of your family (extended and immediate) could get snowed in with you for the holiday.

You'd better make sure the animals are tucked in for the night down at the barn: fresh hay, straw and water (with some apples saved from autumn tucked in their feeders as an early morning surprise.)

And so, in a time of big snow, I'd like to preview the ginormous stocking I made for this season. The pattern comes from Melanie Falick's Handknit Holidays; Sandy Cushman's "Funky Stockings." (May it not be filled with coal after everyone reads this post.)

I'm hoping someone takes the initiative to stuff it full of yarn and good books.

Make merry everyone! I'm happy to be back for the holidays.