On The Needles

Right now I’m working on a Tab Button Jacket by Debbie Bliss. I’m using Knitpicks Swish DK yarn in Garnet Heather.

I’ve been working on this sweater for a very long time.  I started it around Memorial Day weekend of 2011. I’ve been taking breaks in between each piece.  I’m easily distracted by new yarns and patterns, and I’m a bit bored by the pattern. The back piece was especially boring.  All those rows of tiny, stockinette stitch seem endless and dull.  It’s a good take-a-long, or knit-in-front-of-the-TV project, as it doesn’t require much thought.

Even though I’m finding it boring to work on, I like how it is turning out so far, and I have learned a few things along the way. This is my first sweater, so I am a little worried about it turning out too big, or too small, or misshapen in some other way, but it actually seems to be knitting up just right. I hope I haven’t spoken too soon. I would hate to have spent all this time on something that ends up in the donate pile.

Since I just finished the right sleeve, I’ll probably take another break to knit a small project for some immediate gratification. I just have one sleeve and the neck band left to knit. I am determined to finish it before winter ends so I can enjoy wearing it at least once.

 

Reading List

I’ve been meaning since the last post to start this blog going again, but I always have trouble with beginnings. I never know exactly where to start. Especially now, because I’m starting in the middle – or restarting, so-to-speak.

Then yesterday morning, I received a box full of new books to read. I get a new box every new year, courtesy of the gift card to Barnes & Noble that my Mother-in-Law sends me for Christmas every year.  I figured books would be a good place to start.  Although, I’m unsure of which book in this stack to start with.  I’m leaning towards The Whites of Their Eyes: The Tea Party’s Revolution and the Battle over American History (The Public Square). With all the historical fundamentalism and revisionism that has been happening lately, I think that might be an interesting and timely read.

But before I can start a new book, I must first finish Anna Karenina by Tolstoy. My husband got me a Kindle for my birthday last October and I have been taking advantage of all the free classics that come with it. Somehow, I’ve managed to avoid reading most of them. I loaded up on science and math classes during my school days, so I guess I never needed to read them. Now that I’ve reached a sort of mid-point in my life, I feel as if I’ve missed out. Now is my chance to catch up. I’m enjoying Anna Karenina so far (according to my Kindle, I’ve finished 75% of the book), but it does get a bit long. I find the relationships fascinating and engaging, but sometimes it gets a bit wordy and mundane. I get impatient for the story to move along. I’m even more impatient now that I have a whole stack of new books waiting for me.

Speaking of Kindles….of course I had to make mine a custom sleeve.  I wrote up a tutorial on how I made it.  I will post it soon, hopefully next week.

 

But Who Made God?

The other day, my son came sauntering into the kitchen while I was cooking dinner. “Mom, do you believe god or a big bang created the universe?” he asked.

“Well….define god,” I answered.

“You know…a big, bearded man in the sky.”

“Well then, if by god you mean a big, bearded man in the sky, then I would go with a big bang. But, I think it might be a little more complicated than that. God means different things to different people. What do you think created the universe?”

“A big bang.”

“Why?”

And he went on to give a pretty through description of the Big Bang Theory for a 10 year-old; including little universes, explosions, atoms, and other things. When he was finished, I thought about what he said. I couldn’t really disagree with him, but decided to test his thinking and debating skills, because I know around here, he will be challenged on this and I want him to be prepared.

“Some people would ask who created those atoms that smashed into each other. They would say you are wrong because you can’t create something out of nothing. Maybe God created the atoms. What do you think?” I asked him.

He cocked his head and thought for a brief moment before he shot back, “Yeah but, who created God? Either way you look at it, something was created from nothing. That argument goes both ways, Mom.”

Check and mate. I had nothing.

 

The Reason for the Season

The kids went through the Toys-R-Us wish book that came in the mail the other day. My daughter, who has always been gift-motivated, cut to the chase and wrote on the front cover, “Santa, please bring me everything in this book.” My son got very upset with her and her materialistic ways, and as we were discussing Christmas gifts and Santa over dinner, he could no longer contain his disapproval of her.

“Christmas is not just about the gifts,” he said. “It’s also about Jesus. Christmas is when we celebrate Jesus’ birthday, even though Jesus was really born sometime in the spring or summer, Christmas is when we celebrate it. You need to remember that.”

He paused for a minute and was thinking so hard about what he had just said, you could almost the hear wheels in his brain turning. Then he asked, “Mom, why do people celebrate his birthday in December if he was born in the spring? Why isn’t Easter his birthday?”

I really love how his logical mind works. I was also pretty proud that he remembered my lecture last year about Jesus’ birthday. And then we had a very long and interesting discussion about religion, Christmas, and holiday celebrations of all kinds. We even discussed the “reason for the season”, which for us is less about Jesus’ birthday celebration and gifts and more about reflecting on our year, celebrating with friends and family, giving back to the community, and remembering everything we have to be thankful for.

 

Happy Halloween!

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