New year’s not really resolutions

Posted on January 22, 2012 by jove

I can’t find the camera but I’m not going to let that stop me from blogging. While I was enjoying my relaxing holiday, I allowed myself to mull over some new year type things. Words for the upcoming year. Qualities I want to experience in 2012. That sort of thing.

One day 3 words came to me. I’m still figuring out what they mean for me, but they seem like a good starting point for planning, deciding, or whatever.

  1. Connection
  2. Creativity
  3. Balance

Connection

I am an extrovert. And yet I spend a lot of my time at home alone or with just Freya and Mat.

Twitter, blogging, and a few online groups I’m in meet some of my needs but I realized recently that I need to get out and actually meet people.

Here are some of the ways I’ll do that: yoga class, the local Chamber of Commerce, the local women’s business network, making time to get together with friends (even if it doesn’t dovetail with other reasons to drive somewhere).

This week I went to a Chamber of Commerce mixer and we went to a party.

In my business, this means adding more travel back into my work so I can do live workshops. I think I have a better sense of the right balance between travel hassle and the benefit I get from doing workshops with a roomful of real live people. First up Edmonton in February (because I need my head examining, clearly) with a side trip to visit Becky and family. Then another trip to Windsor in April is being planned.

Oh, and I’m spending all day tomorrow at a conference for career counsellors and related folk. Professional development and connection. The conference is in Ottawa which means I can do a 1-day registration and don’t need to incur costs for accomodation and whatnot. That does mean I have to get up awfully early though.

Creativity

More knitting, quilting, and so on. Really making time to do this and thinking of it as a normal activity. The approach Andrea has been taking is part of my inspiration here: she dedicates one day a week to sewing (getting out to the local quilt shop most weeks, too). And just doing bits as a break from work during the day.

Today I pulled out a quilting project I started back in Birmingham (over 10 years ago!). It’s a 16″ Mariner’s Compass and a realized that the colours I had selected would go well in Freya’s room. I finished cutting the pieces yesterday and pieced it today. (see above re. misplaced camera if you are looking for photos)

Lack of precision really shows in this and it won’t quite lay flat. Good thing I’m not a perfectionist. I’m not totally happy with the colour choices — all the same value — but it isn’t awful either. I’m now mulling over how to make it into a square that can be the basis of a sort of quilt/curtain to hang over the smallish square windows in her room. I might still change my mind and make a round cushion instead (which might be more forgiving of the lack of flatness).

I have other projects started, including a single quilt using a 30s fabric jelly roll and an old white on white linen/cotton duvet cover. I have fabric for a lap quilt for my parents probably using the same blocks at the one I made for myself. I also have a batik jelly roll and some batik charm squares I should take out and ponder, 4 coordinating brights (1/2 yard each) that could make a fun baby quilt (if I knew anyone having babies), a growing stack of farm themed fat quarters (vegetables, pigs, etc) that I’ve purchased on sale, and a very small stack of music themed fabrics that needs adding to.

On the knitting front, I’m making great progress on a circle swing coat in bulky yarns using some handspun and a selection of other yarn I bought to go with it. Striping without a plan is a wee bit of a challenge for me but it is working out well. I’m almost done the main part and then I get to do the sleeves. I have even saved some of the handspun and other colours that have been used in the main part for the sleeves.

The very plain sweater knit on very small needles is also moving along, not least because it is all stockingnette all the time. I finished the body while away over Christmas and am making progress on the first sleeve. I even got 6 or 7 rows knit at the doctor’s office this week.

I’m also using my 80s Glam Sharpie markers for business planning. And this coming year I plan to make more use of visual tools from Visuals Speak in my work. I got a full set of images on sale at the end of the year and need to sit down and figure out how I can make good use of them.

Balance

This is the one I still feel like I haven’t quite figured out. And it touches on so many areas of my life.

I tell myself I’m only working part-time but it is pretty easy for me to just hang around here at the computer doing stuff (not even very efficient stuff) for much longer than that. I want to be more conscious of getting up and doing something else whether that’s something creative, or something with Freya, or exercise, or whatever.

In my work, this involves balance between different kinds of activities, especially managing the travel so I don’t burn myself out when I’m doing it. Also some of my work activities bunch up at particular times of year, so I need to think about the balance between that and other types of work. I’m starting to think that maybe part of that is just accepting that some periods of the year are slow for work and I can spend more time doing other things.

This week I think I got a bit more clarity on that, surprising myself in the process. I did a bunch of bookkeeping and finally figured out how to use my accounting data for something other than filing a tax return. I’ve been looking at charts and numbers in QuickBooks and using that to flesh out the bunchiness of some of my business activity and actually plan. I’m even setting monthly income targets as a first step to increasing how much I earn. I’m not really a bookkeeping kind of gal but I have been pretty excited this week at what I can do now that I have my books set up properly.

Right, in the interests of balance, I think I’d better publish this post and go do something else. I should really get everything ready for tomorrow so all I have to do in the morning is get up, shower, eat, and drive to the park and ride.

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post holiday update

Posted on January 15, 2012 by jove

I’m not at all sure where to start but wanted to say that I’m still here and things are happening.

Trip to England

We went to England for the Christmas holiday period. Freya went in mid-December and travelled up to her grandparents then came with them to the cottage to meet us. Mat and I arrived on December 23. We had Christmas at the cottage (picture old English farmhouse, not what Canadians would call a cottage) with family and then they all cleared out and we had New Year with friends. In between we went to Bristol for a day to visit other friends.

Freya’s friend Rachel joined us on the 27th, so the 2 of them got to spend almost 2 full weeks together. They are the kind of friends who can do that. They will go off and be alone when necessary without either of them feeling slighted. Fantastic.

Mat came home on the 2nd and Freya and I stayed. She went to Birmingham with Rachel and did various BFF things including going to school with her for 2 days. I met up with other friends of mine in London and Nottingham before arriving in Birmingham.

It was a good trip. Lots of sitting around knitting, chatting, doing jigsaws, drinking beer, eating good food, etc. A proper rest. Catching up with friends. Great family get togethers.

Parenting teens

Our trip was extended a bit when we discovered (as we were about to leave for the airport) that Freya didn’t have her passport. There was some panic. I did not shout or insult her intelligence or any other behaviour that I would regret. We all remained pretty calm.

I changed the flights before we actually missed our plane. I woke up way too many people too early on a Saturday morning (and, due to the time change, the middle of the night for Mat back at home). The passport was eventually located at the cottage on the floor of a bedroom.

Freya is a very capable and independent kid. She has travelled to the UK on her own before. She went on her own this time and got herself from London to the Lake District alone, too. Her uncle met her at Heathrow and took her to the station but that felt like just a little extra support. (And they got to hang out together a bit.)

I didn’t ask her about the passport until we were headed to the airport. I really wasn’t worried. And she had kept it with her until she got to somewhere we were joining her. It seems that as soon as I was around, she reverted to being a kid who doesn’t have to look after herself. This is understandable. She is only 14.

Here’s the important point for other parents: she didn’t tell me she was abdicating responsibility. Nor did she hand over the important documents and ask me too look after them. If you ever find yourself in a similar situation, you might want to ask your teen if they want you to look after the important documents now that they are with you. (I suspect this will get you an eye roll and protestations of how capable they are but it gives them a chance to recognize who has responsibility.)

Homeschooling bonus

When I rebooked the flights I did not know whether we would find the passport. So I booked them for Tuesday in case we had to spend Monday in London getting her passport replaced. Since we did find it we got a bonus day.

My friend Liz was kind enough to let us stay until Tuesday but they were all back at work and school and I felt like I’d been under her feet long enough. So I booked a cheap hotel in London and a train ticket down there for Sunday afternoon.

We spent all day Monday in art galleries. We started at the Tate Britain, arriving at opening time. We had a break around 11:30, and then had lunch at 12:30. Freya had had enough so we decided to walk along the river and up to Trafalgar Square (past the houses of parliament, Westminster Abbey, etc.).

Does anyone know why there is a statue of Abraham Lincoln outside the judicial offices of the privy council in Parliament Square?

It was a really nice day and not raining for a change. We got to Trafalgar Square about 2 and went into the Costa Coffee in Waterstones for coffee and cake. And internet. I also managed to connect with another friend’s son and arranged to meet him at the National Gallery as soon as he could get there (3:30ish).

So we spent more time in a gallery, after having a look at the books, obviously. We had a good look at the impressionists and then looked around at some other stuff. I got to chat to Joe (who I’ve known since he was about a year old; he’s now in his 20s), and then he had to go off to work. Mat’s brother met us at 6 outside and we went for dinner. Also nice.

We didn’t talk a lot about the art we saw but Freya did make notes in her iPod Touch of paintings she liked and I suspect that this will mull and come up again at some future point. After the Chagall experience I’m learning to trust that this will happen.

She does seem to be reaching saturation on the impressionists. She knows a lot about them and has seen a lot of their work in France and the Netherlands. And she seems to be developing an interest in modern art, or at least 20th century art. We’ll see what happens.

 

 

Posted in art, Homeschooling, Raising children, this week in my life | 1 Comment

farm update

Posted on December 11, 2011 by jove

We have new sheep!!!

These are bred ewes, East Fresian-Lacaun crosses. We plan to milk them and make cheese.

Lambing will be in April, hopefully after Mat gets back from New Zealand.

Since most of our (much more experienced) neighbours seem as baffled about our other sheep’s disappearance as we are, we have decided that it is not evidence we are unsuited to sheep farming. We’re trying again. We’ve even ordered a couple of North Country Cheviots from a neighbour to add to this tiny flock.

Chickens

Did I tell you about the dog gnawing on one of our older Barred Plymouth Rock hens? She recovered quickly and is looking really good now. She was moulting anyway and there are new feathers coming in. All is well.

The newer hens are not doing a lot of laying. I have no electricity in the hen house so I can’t supplement the light. Last winter, this was not an issue. All hens layed almost daily. This year, with different breeds, it seems to be more of a problem. Either that or else these girls are just off to a slow start.

click to embiggen

That yellow one you can see in the front of the photo is a Buff Orpington. An online knitting friend who lives in Northern Michigan had told me they are good winter layers. I believe it. She lays daily. But there is only one. Of 12 chicks purchased only 2 were female, and her sister died of unknown causes a few weeks ago.

 

I think the 2 Wyandottes are laying, too. (They are the ones with the black lacy pattern on their breasts.) Freya has seen one of them in a nesting box. And some days we get a second egg that is much darker than the regular daily egg.

The 6 Welsommers… well I have no idea what they are doing other than wandering around looking pretty. I did hear some “I’ve laid an egg” noises from the drive shed the other day so maybe a closer look at the hay in there will turn up a secret stash. Or maybe they are just late bloomers.

They are now getting a bit more light because they are going outside. I was assuming they didn’t like the snow but it seems that there is nothing enticing in their run. If I let them free range, they come out and wander around in the snow quite happily. The days are still pretty short and they tend to go home to roost before dusk but at least during the day they are outside in the sunshine.

Other random photos

I tried to get a couple of photos of the dogs today but that’s pretty difficult. Fred wants to come and look at the camera. I did get Mat to call them and got a pretty nice photo of the 2 dogs, Mat and the wee tiny tractor.

There’s a trailer on the back of that tractor and he’s hauling firewood up to the house. We need to take the mower deck off the bottom and put some chains on the back wheels if we are going to keep using it through the winter for this purpose. Next year I hope to get a snow blower to attach to the front of it but the budget didn’t stretch to that this year.

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homeschooling update

Posted on December 11, 2011 by jove

Freya is pretty independent and her new found responsibility means that I am even less connected to the details of what she does day to day. Recently I sat down with her to review and make plans.

It turns out that balls were being dropped. Oops. Latin has progressed much more slowly than is ideal. Also, she was not liking it.

Alternatives to Quitting

Steph was recently wondering about the relative value of getting your kids to stick with things versus letting them drop stuff they aren’t enjoying. (under Questions and thoughts near the bottom of that post) Latin is not a new thing for Freya. She asked to do the 2nd book. I’ve paid for an e-tutor. I explained all that and said I’m not prepared to let her just drop it. It’s a lot of money to not really give it a good chance. And she liked it. She asked for it.

I tried to help her figure out why she might not be liking it. For example, it seemed to be in her (loose) schedule for the end of the week. Did coming to it then make a difference maybe? Did she maybe really have too much on her plate, despite telling me she didn’t part way through the term?

We agreed that both of these were plausible. We made a plan for what she should aim to do before she goes away for the holidays. We recognized that Latin is going to need to take a bit more space for the rest of the year. And she’s going to try doing it earlier in the week.

The big picture

That did lead us into making a big chart of the year and really looking at what’s going on though. Science finishes at the end of January. (Good riddance.) That’s a big chunk of time every week. We want to do a bit more history and geography but we can control how much time that takes and do it in a more relaxed way.

However, there is going to be Shakespeare in Perth. We hadn’t planned on that and Freya is really keen. It’s 2 hours a week from January to May with an optional (ha!) Stratford trip in June. They’re going to do Much Ado About Nothing. We read the Lambs Tales From Shakespeare version and that just made her more excited.

Given what we’d discovered about her workload this term, I suggested that she not continue with Page to Stage at OSSD. We hadn’t yet paid for the 2nd semester. It’s in the city. She is learning a lot but Shakespeare is a strong interest of hers, she likes the other people at the Perth theatre … Decision.

Math has been going slowly but she is enjoying the Jacob’s Algebra. She has been doing it in the café between swimming and piano lessons. I’d like her to do it a bit more frequently but it’s moving along and it looks like we could finish most of it by the end of June without anyone going crazy. We’re not into anything she can’t manage on her own yet, though I’m available to help. I’ll need to keep an eye on that because asking for help before she’s so frustrated she can’t accept help is still something we’re working on.

We also reviewed the art history field trip plans. The AGO trip to see the Chagall exhibition was good. They are having a Picasso exhibition starting in May so that’s now in the plan. Given everything else, we decided that our vague plans to use airline points to go to Chicago or NYC for an art gallery trip could be put off until next academic year.

In general, the review was a positive experience. There were very few problems. She’s pretty happy with what’s she’s doing. The bulk of her program is stuff she wants to be doing. The things I require (like science and math) are not onerous. She’s learning and we’re finding ways to include them that work for her.

Even further ahead

We’ve started thinking ahead even further. Mat spoke to the woman who runs the Head Start program and University of Ottawa. It seems that Freya should be able to take a university level German class next fall under that program. We have a good idea of what documentation we need to provide and we are confident that her linguistic abilities make that a realistic proposition.

I’ve created a page for recording what we’re doing if anyone is interested. I’m going to try to keep that updated so I have some kind of record of these things. Record keeping is definitely not my strong suit.

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Field trip: Art Gallery of Ontario

Posted on November 27, 2011 by jove

This week, Freya and I went to Toronto to see the Chagall and the Russian Avant Garde exhibit at the Art Gallery of Ontario.

WOW.

We had previously seen an exhibit of Chagall’s work in Switzerland. At that time we knew very little about his work and the size of the exhibition was somewhat overwhelming. I have to admit that I was surprised Freya wanted to see this one. Then again a lot can change in 4 years.

This exhibition was organized very differently. Comparing Chagall’s work to his contemporaries opened up a lot of new things for me. And the time that had passed also allowed me to see things in some of his work that I might not have noticed before. Learning about art is cumulative and benefits from that spiral approach.

For example, later in the 2007 European adventure we spent some time in the Kröller-Müller Museum in the Netherlands. One thing we did was really spend some time looking at cubism and figuring it out. On this trip, I noticed myself noticing the influence of cubism in Chagall. (Hint: it’s in the backgrounds.) There were 2 versions of one piece in this exhibition which made that particularly clear. (A winter scene at the back left of one of the rooms.)

We also explored an exhibition of newly acquired work by Canadian artist Jack Chambers. This was purely serendipitous but we really enjoyed learning about him.

We also enjoyed the exhibit in the Italian Gallery. I’ve now forgotten the name of the artist and I can’t seem to find anything about it on the AGO website but we enjoyed the sculptures. They seemed to be playing with trees and lumber and the relationships between natural and created form. They also integrated very well with the architecture of this part of the museum.

There’s the other surprising thing about this visit. Freya seems to be more interested in architecture and was very impressed with the Frank Gehry addition to the AGO, as was I. I think I have previously written about a film about Gehry that I heartily recommend to anyone with an interest in his work or even in how the day to day work of a creative professional might look.

As I may have mentioned, I require museums and art galleries to have a decent café. Freya is the kind of person who will spend all day in there. I need regular infusions of caffeine and nourishment. The AGO did not disappoint.

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a lot of work for not a lot of learning

Posted on November 20, 2011 by jove

This is our mid-term assessment of the online science class.

Freya is maintaining a B average which is consistent with our purposes. But she’s spending an awful lot of time on this class.

I’m not sure if this is partly a reflection of the fact that it is designed on the semester model and thus assuming that it is 1 of 4 subjects the students are doing. Or, if it’s that there is just a lot of busy-work involved in the course.

We know at least one other homeschooler who has this opinion of this type of class (and thus doesn’t take them). I think it was worthwhile to try it but it certainly doesn’t meet my need for a science module that covered some basics without a lot of effort. I think we could do some things ourselves that would meet our minimum requirements for science.

The mid-term report card is similarly meaningless. In fact there are statements in one section of the report that cannot possibly relate to any actual knowledge the teacher has of her.

Oh well. She is not hating it. She is keeping up with the work. And it finishes in January.

Posted in Homeschooling, Science | 1 Comment

and people wonder why we homeschool

Posted on November 13, 2011 by jove

This weekend Freya’s choir was hosting a choir from the University of Western Ontario, Les Choristes.

They had a great time and learned a lot, capped off by a concert on Saturday evening.

The visiting choristers were billeted with our choir. We hosted 2 young women in their 4th year of university. They had some work to do for a class they are taking on 20th century opera.

Friday night Freya was on the guest bed with them reading the score and (collectively) trying to figure out what this particular opera was about. Saturday morning, she and one of the girls watched the opera on YouTube, following along in the score and talking about it.

Freya loved it.

As I said before, I just try not to ruin her. :-)

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My other Remembrance Day post

Posted on November 11, 2011 by jove

I have lots of difficult thoughts, not all of them connected.

In the mythology of WWII, we fought to defeat fascism.

My knowledge of history is very poor. Let’s be up front about that. One of the great things about homeschooling is that you can patch your own knowledge as you go.

As I read about Mussolini’s rise, the topic of Freya’s French dictée last week. As I read A Woman in Berlin and Alone in Berlin, my birthday gift from my parents-out-law. As I read City of Shadows (my own choice from the library, because I like the author).

I was struck by the frightening parallels to things that are happening right now. Right here.

And I feel the holes in my knowledge of the rise of fascism in Europe between the wars.

Why are we remembering those who served and those who died in the war that followed but not really talking about what came before? Why are we not talking about how we can prevent those outcomes?

Lest We Forget

Forget what? The war? The soldiers? That war and soldiering are important?

Or forget the cause? The ideals they fought for?

Are we remembering the former and forgetting the latter? And is that forgetting allowing similar things to happen again?

History does not repeat itself. The differences are likely to be significant. But that does not make the parallels any less frightening.

Lets not forget freedom and how easily those who would deny it can rise to power.

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Remembrance Day

Posted on November 11, 2011 by jove

I have a difficult relationship with this day.

My grandfather fought at Passchendaele, and got depressed every time he remembered it according to my uncle. I know veterans of more recent wars. I do not want to insult them or their families.

And yet I am highly critical of the way in which Remembrance is scripted culturally. The tendency to gloss over the senseless loss of life and to create heroes out of every soldier.

This post about the poem In Flanders’ Fields is fascinating and gives me some extra knowledge to underpin my discomfort.

we call John McCRae’s World War I-era verse the four hundred million dollar poem because, shortly after it appeared in the December 8, 1915 issue of Punch magazine, the Canadian government made it the central piece of its p.r. campaign advertising the sale of the first Victory Loan Bonds, printing it, or excerpts from it, on billboards and posters like the one pictured above.

The post also has an analysis of the poem as well as how the way it has been used in popular culture (selectively) has highlighted the patriotic elements. I highly recommend it. I’ll wait, if you like.

I am also increasingly aware of the extent to which Remembrance Day focuses on old men. Again, not to insult them or their contributions, but I know veterans who are younger than I am. I know women my age with sons who are veterans.

Even the old men were young when they fought. War is not a game played by old men. It is young men who go to war. Young men who come home. Young men who die. (also young women but the military is still not anything like equal in that respect)

So here’s a story for you that I don’t know what to do with but is the kind of thing that feeds my difficult and conflicted feelings about the day.

A couple of years ago I was visiting a university doing my work. The administrator and I were chatting. About nothing really, my flight, etc. I mentioned I had flown Air Canada. She said she had only flown Air Canada once. To fly to Ontario to pick up her son at Trenton.

Even as I write that, tears well up. I feel it in my chest. It was a casual comment with a real kick behind it.

For those who don’t know, the only reason you would pick up your kid at Trenton, is because he had come home in a box. You can drape a flag over that box. You can line up soldiers in dress uniform and have them salute the box. You can play trumpets. You can say kind words.

Her son, age 18 I think, came home in a box.

That’s all I know about him. I’m thinking he probably wasn’t a hero. He probably wasn’t a villain (though whoever killed him probably thought him so). We was a young man doing a job in a dangerous place.

I’m also not sure that anything that might make sense of the job he was doing would make sense of his death.

The thing about WWI is that the number of senseless deaths was just more senseless than anything we see today. Thousands killed in a single day. Men marching to their deaths over the bodies of their dead comrades.

When we visited Vimy and Ypres in 2008 I was prepared for the large monuments listing the names of those not found. I was not prepared for the number of gravestones marked “Known Unto God” or “Unbekant”.

Today I remember the dead. I mourn with my acquaintance and the many others I have not met who had to pick up their kids at Trenton.

I stand with those who came home. Who get depressed every time they think of it. Who wake in the night screaming. Who deal with the experience however they can.

And I wonder why we are still sending our young people out there to kill and be killed. To witness horrific things. To do horrific things.

I wish we knew how to make peace.

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oops, where was I

Posted on November 6, 2011 by jove

Sorry, got busy and didn’t update here for a bit. I was away doing some work in Windsor and got to meet a few of those people I’ve met on the internet while I was there. Full details (if you are interested) on my biz blog.

Freya’s new found responsibility seems to be sticking. I’m getting used to having a teenager that just gets on with stuff. To reassure those of you who don’t have one of these, I am under no illusions that this is the result of something I’ve done nor that it is in any way normal. I’m trying to be grateful and support this behaviour in the hopes that it hangs around.

I was worried that there was a lot on her plate this fall. (see what I mean here) It all started slowly and built up but I really did wonder if we were attempting too much. We had a conversation about that this week. I explained the frog and boiling water metaphor (which she found amusing) and she assured me that she was not boiling to death. In fact, she is enjoying being busy.

Interestingly she’s also doing a lot more crafty things. Sewing especially. Like I said, I’m not sure exactly how we got here but I’m being grateful and trying not to ruin anything.

That could be my main parenting objective: try not to ruin her.

I’ve been making knitting progress. The beery socks are still in time out. (A punishment I never used with kids but seems very effective for knitting.)

The grey and red sweater is almost done though.

grey & red sweaterSince that photo was taken the other sleeve has been completed and I’ve almost finished the body.

I’ve been using the peter pan technique for the grey (and tweeting with #tinkerbellknitting for support) and just believing really hard that it will last (as you do for fairies). It seems to have worked.

I normally need the measurement below the underarms to be 16.5″ and the grey ran out at about 16″. I switched to red and started a ribbed hem but don’t like it. I think I’ll rip back the red and just knit a couple of rows (for a very narrow border), a turning row, and then a hem to turn under.

Freya was saying that a bit of red there would be good to balance the rest of the sweater but I don’t want too much as I don’t want to draw attention to the hips. She assures me that pattern at the yoke is going to draw all the attention but still.

I think I’m going to reknit the cuffs on the sleeves as well. I should have used a smaller needle for the ribbing. The joy of top-down construction is that that’s a really easy fix. And smaller needles should mean a bit less yarn so just ripping back and reknitting should be just fine.

I’m looking forward to this being done. The weather is ideal for it and our house is normally at a temperature where a nice warm sweater is a good thing.

I’ve noticed myself eyeing up other sweaters in thicker yarn lately, too. I have a couple in my Ravelry queue (you can only see that if you are a Ravelry member, sorry).

We also found a pattern for a sweater with owls around the yoke that Freya wants me to knit for her. (That link will work for anyone.) The same yarn I used for the red and grey sweater will work so we’ll pop into the LYS and pick a colour. It comes in HUGE skeins but her size will take probably just a bit more than one so I’ll end up with leftovers. Chunky hats might need to be knit. I still have lots of red, too. (and yes, for those that clicked the link, the hat in the header image is very tempting)

I also finished the scarf to go with the hat that I was knitting.

Autobahn scarfAnd finally took a photo of it. I still haven’t woven in the ends and the whole set needs a wash but it’s done.

I really liked this pattern.

There are a few almost finished things in my knitting bags that I really should get to. And the sweater in really fine yarn for me that I should work on regularly if it is ever going to be finished. I started that heavy sweater as a relief from small guage knitting and seem to have got off track altogether :-)

Things on the farm are going well. All but one of the roosters are now slaughtered and in the freezer. One (the prettiest) has been kept with the hens.

I found one dead hen this morning. No apparent reason. I hope it isn’t something that is going to decimate my flock but rather some random thing.

I’ll let you know when the new sheep arrive. It should be sometime this month.

Posted in Homeschooling, Knitting, this week in my life | 1 Comment