Saturday we went to a friend’s house out of town to go trick-or-treating and, if you can’t tell, Peter Rabbit had a blast. Being an only child at home, he LOVES being around bigger kids and feeling like he’s older than he really is. I had a few moments of panic because he was trying too hard to keep up with the bigger boys which, also, meant a few attempts at running across the street without looking. Not to mention that with so many people out and about I was worried he’d get too far separated. I tried hard to not be that helicopter mom that I hate, but this…

Yesterday we ventured to Mohican State Park with some friends for a hiking adventure and discovered it was apparently peak mushroom season because the whole place was covered in fungi! I don’t think I have ever seen so many of them growing! Declan, upon seeing a clearing full of them, declared “IT’S A WHOLE MUSHROOM KINGDOM!” which made me giggle imagining little fairies and sprites and whatnot living under all those mushroom houses. I’m sure the area is well-traveled for those who actually hunt down mushrooms for eating – I don’t know enough about them to even attempt to look (and Declan would probably turn his nose up at them,…

If you follow me on Instagram, you might have already seen the above photo. It’s a Fen Dress muslin to try out the sizing. Because, see, I have this daydream where I basically live in handmade clothes. I wander my imaginary farm in perfectly sewn frocks while collecting chicken eggs and tree ripened apples, and then sit on the porch wrapped in a wool sweater and knit while I wait for a pie (from scratch, of course) to finish baking. Or maybe sitting in front of a wood burning stove while also sipping on a cup of tea while spinning yarn up from the fleece of my pet sheep named…

I have been absolutely TERRIBLE about writing here. Truth be told, I miss it – I miss having stories to tell and photos to share that aren’t just brief social media snippets of my life. For several years I’ve kept two separate blogs, one here with my name on it, another with a fake name. It always felt weird to me to have people I know in real life read my blog and then later mention something I posted, and I fought that aspect for a long time. But life is busy, and I realized it really isn’t all that different from me posting useless stuff on Facebook for everyone…

I always love it when people post up their projects in a collage, showing how their fiber came, how it spun, and then how it plied. I love seeing the change, and how something that might not be colors you love or expect ends up into this gorgeous yarn. My favorite scarf, to this day, is made out of some fiber I picked up at a festival that was busy and overly colorful and I wasn’t at all sure I would truly love it until I finished spinning it and all those colors blended and melded together to make the most gorgeous yarn I’ve ever made. This fiber is Tapestry…

Pattern: Elaine’s Blouse, modified to have ribbing on the bottom and not at the waist. I finished this back in November on my knitting weekend away, but just now got around to getting it photographed. The snow is so lovely this weekend, and it seemed like a perfect situation for some proper photographs. I had a hard time not shaking from the cold – the wind on that end of the porch was awful – but a few deep breaths to just tolerate it, knowing I’d be back in warmth in a few minutes, and it would be over. Modeling is hard, ya’ll.

Quilt blocks finished: 9/48 Hats: 1/3 Socks: 1 Ornaments made: 0 But, hey, I nailed my ginger macarons today. Little things, yes? And my holiday cards are printed, addressed, and ready for the mail. I actually went out last night for a bit of mommy time to shop at TJMaxx, and came home with a few gifts purchased since it has become apparent that I will never get the time needed to finish all these projects with a kid fighting for my attention. Knitting is actually easier with him, to be honest, because he has this habit lately of snuggling up mid afternoon to watch a movie and then he…

Today, a post on Facebook led me down the rabbit hole and I discovered this post from No Sidebar. I nearly cried at my desk as I read it on my lunch break because it hit home so very much. Maybe that’s why it’s hard to let go of past identities and the stuff that goes along with it. We spend years, even decades, carefully cultivating exterior facades to shape how we perceive ourselves and how we want others to perceive us. So, when we no longer have that same facade we’ve spent so long developing (because of a career change, family shift etc), it can be incredibly painful. In these…

Maybe if I make a point to blog my gift project progress, it’ll help keep me on track? Hats: 1/4 (maybe more, if I have time, but 4 is the minimum) Quilt blocks done: 2/48 (Oy.) Socks… to be honest, I have no idea who I’m even knitting these for, yet, but socks always seem like a lovely gift idea for those I love. The trouble, though, is knowing what size the recipient wears to knit them to the correct length. Ornaments made: A big, fat zero.    

56 days until my deadline on this quilt (right before Christmas). 48 blocks to make this up quilt. Even if I did one block a day, that won’t account for holidays where sewing isn’t possible, nor will it account for the time it will take me to quilt the beast on my tiny machine and then hand-stitch the binding up… it also doesn’t take into account that it’s supposed to be a Christmas gift and, therefore, a surprise even though he knows he’s getting a quilt (he asked for it, after all) so sewing too much of it around Declan isn’t going to be ideal. Do the math and factor…