The light is coming around
Sometimes, as the season changes and the sun comes around, the light comes in of a morning and I try to capture it. I don’t have the right camera (I do, but my computer set-up has changed) to do it justice, but maybe you can imagine along with me as the mood lifts …
My bedroom faces northeast, so despite having four large windows, the sun is not often actually streaming in here…
If I remember not to be too random, I think I will start some corners here that you can easily skip if you are not interested. Knitting corner, gardening corner, sewing corner, bread corner — whatever my latest obsession, I will corner it so you can be warned!
Right now, we have —
Knitting CornerOn IG I posted my uncertainty that my button jar would yield five matching buttons of the right size for this little sleeveless sweater I made for Odelia.
She is 4 1/2 and was looking at pictures of herself at two, wearing this same sort of sweater I had made for her back then. Actually, I made it when she was one, but the yarn was stretchy and she wore it for quite a while!
I am learning about what kinds of yarn are best for each project, and I still have a long way to go before I figure it out. Knitting has a lot of learning curves, in fact, especially for an impulsive buyer and crafter like me.
I’m also working on a better tensioning in my purl rows. Experienced knitters will see that I definitely got better as I went down the body of this sweater. Or maybe I will try making such things in the round and then steeking!
Anyway, Odelia told Deirdre that she wished she was two again, so that she could wear that sweater, so of course I had to make her one that fits her now!
I did find buttons in the jar that holds white ones. This pattern calls for three buttonholes in the yoke (and I followed the directions exactly — next time I will space them better!). I wanted to add more so that it would close all the way if needed.
But that choice puts pressure on my very much helter-skelter button collection! One million buttons, very few of which match each other…
I sort them (and have had various children and grandchildren over the years sort and re-sort — an excellent activity for them) by black, white, colorful, and real shell buttons (the smaller jar in front).
The latter are expensive, hard to find, and delightful. If I am discarding a garment with shell buttons, I take them off and pop them into this jar (hopefully on a safety pin or with a thread through them, to keep them together).
I would even buy something at a thrift store just for the buttons, if they were shell (or real leather, or pretty metal — somewhere else I have a small jar of brass buttons).
How do you tell for sure if a button is real shell? Bite it! Plastic buttons are room temperature and soft. Shell buttons are hard and colder!
I think these buttons work (they are plastic and have a nice depth to the color). Well, it’s what I have! Next time I might do a zipper anyway. I put a zipper in a sweater I made for myself (that I have yet to show you, I think), and it was much easier than I thought it would be!
This little sweater is Marianna’s All-in-One Sleeveless Top. The yarn is Berroco Ultra Wool DK* in Peony. Details, with my changes, on Ravelry.
*But I think superwash is also stretchy… on the one hand, it will grow with her or at least not shrink. On the other, I have read that it’s not the best choice for children, due to staining. Like I said, still learning!
bits & piecesMy friend Patricia sent this one around: Young Irish brothers dancing!My Chicago-area readers will perhaps be familiar with this school, and its founder, who envisioned a unique educational club for adventure and imagination. But don’t be disheartened if this unique model is not near you. Instead, be inspired to offer and support, in your family and your community, education steeped in classical texts and oriented to nature and real festivity. This sort of thing takes many forms, not just one, but the main thing is to give children a connection to the past and lots of freedom within a firm structure of family and church. (“But how do I do that?” you ask? That’s what I’m here for! Let me write you a blog! Or –My Summa Domestica helps you figure out all the details.)
Having trouble getting your child to practice his musical instrument? Maybe spend some time with Hilary Hahn, concert violinist, in her#100daysofpractice series on IG. She films herself really practicing — the nitty-gritty work of it.
“I know exactly what Critical Race Theory is and I’m against it.”
Weatherproof wood with shou sugi ban, and skip the pressure-treated? from the archivesI have so much about what reading is best for children’s imaginations here on the blog — just look at the education and book categories. This post offers the perspective of the headmaster of a boys’ school in the same spirit: 10 Books Every Boy Should Hazard.
Real festivity
The liturgical year sorts out all your worries, including in education
liturgical living
St. Cyril, Bishop of Jerusalem
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My book, The Summa Domestica: Order and Wonder in Family Life is available now from Sophia Press! All the thoughts from this blog collected into three volumes, beautifully presented with illustrations from Deirdre, an index in each volume, and ribbons!
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