Yarn along 7/27/2011

~ Two of my favorite things are knitting and reading, and the evidence of this often shows up in my photographs. I love seeing what other people are knitting and reading as well. So, what are you knitting or crocheting right now? What are you reading? Take a photo and share it either on your blog or on Flickr. Leave a link below to share your photo with the rest of us! ~ taken from Ginny's blog

There is alot on at our family table this week. I am planning a move that I am in no way prepared for. I am knitting sparingly and I signed up for something called a busy bag swap. I haven't done one since I hosted a babywearing swap years ago. I am involved in a swap full of crafty manipulatives made for preschoolers.  I was chosen to make Button Snakes. Yes, a simple task when only making one snake but I needed to cut out 300 pieces of felt! I panicked a bit as I gazed out the mountain of felt. Dreading the amount of cutting involved and decided in that moment to recruite my youngest daughter, Makenzie. What a great idea!

Boy, did we have a nice peaceful bonding time and as always a lot of laughs.  I noticed we aren't very good with direction- we lack knowing our left from our right at a moment's notice. And we are terrible at math. This is the time we needed Taylor-- but she is away at a church retreat this week. We did our best to muddle through. We cut the felt in record time. Sat down to color coordinate them- found out we didn't have enough, cut more felt. Then the fun really began! She began cutting the slits into each felt piece and I sewed on the buttons. We worked for a couple more hours until I realized that my baby might be tired. I said to her, "Makenzie, you can go on to bed." Her response in a really quiet and sure voice,"I am not stopping until you do." That made me giggle. She knew her mom would sit and sew on buttons until all 30 snakes were completed! I finished a couple more until I heard her say,"How about we stop in 7 minutes-- that would make it midnight?" I readily agreed. Suffice it to say we will completing more snakes today on Yarn along Wednesday. But it(knitting) is there in the background, as always. Shortly after my post last weekend,  I decided to put away my wool things and knit on some cotton. I fell in love with wife, mom, KNITTER's hanging towel and cast on for a Simple Mitered Dishcloth. I blew through that-- it was an enjoyable knit and I was finally able to finish something completely--even adding on a button! I do love a finished dishcloth! I moved on to Camp Minocqua on red peaches and creme. WOW,  I love the fabric coming off my needles but it is time consuming and every stitch I make I doubt! It is not even lace! Normally I can find a groove in my knitting but with this dishcloth I can't seem to find it. My knitting compass has gone missing! The pattern is well written and only worked over 4 rows. But I find myself  double checking each row and frogging back even if I suspect an error. But like I said, I love the fabric coming off my needles so it all worth it and really it keeps my mind busy while the kids play in the water for hours at a time.

AHHH my reading. I have been so focused on my my bible reading. I had gotten behind a couple of days ago due to life, in general-- my birthday, sick kids, and add in a migraine and all that put me 3 days behind! UGH, I hate not being on my reading schedule! BUT yesterday I managed to finish the rest of Numbers and read through Deuteronomy and started on Joshua. AND the best part, I enjoyed what I read and I understood it! Some passages I read really stayed with me. So much I circle them!

It looks like I really rambled on enough. I can't wait to read what everyone is reading and what you all have been knitting on!