It begins...

A friend recently forwarded an email to me titled "The Invisible Mother," a short essay comparing the tireless and often thankless job of a mother to the builders of Europe's great cathedrals. Both give their whole lives for a work they will never see finished, both make sacrifices and expect no credit, and both are fueled in their passion by the faith that the eyes of God see every detail. The writer of the essay was inspired by the thought that our endless efforts in motherhood, invisible as they may seem, are worth it and can make an enriching life.


For many of us, the way we choose to hold our invisibility at bay is by creating something tangible. For me, my days often end with knitting - my love of fiber and the need to do something relaxing end up producing something I can hold and look at. Nobody will know how many times I swept under the high chair that day, or how many toys I picked up, or how many times I tried to coax a "please" or "more" or "sorry" out of my 5 year old. But a darling, handmade infant hat? That you can see.


I start new projects every day, and my 10 year old does the same. In this process of creating (and yes, often not finishing our projects!) we connect with each other and a bigger picture of ourselves in the process. My plan for this blog is to share the projects that excite me and bring some accessible proof of my existence in this invisible world of mothering!


So, this blog is dedicated to the mothers out there whose days are filled with the minutia of tasks that build our children and our families. I often tell people that I haven't decided what I want to be when I grow up. But for now, I am the builder of a great cathedral. With every shoelace tied, lunch packed, and forehead kissed, I build.


And I can hardly wait to create something new...


Tuesday, March 1, 2011

A Little of This, a Little of That

There is no more fleece in my dining room! Well, it's all in the back of my car, so I guess I can't really celebrate until it is delivered later this week. I have to decide which day I can forgo "nap time" since the drive into downtown Overland Park will put Brynn to sleep and make a nap at home impossible. :P


I decided I didn't need to wait on fleece drop-off before I started my next project on YOCL: update Brynn's birthday scrapbook. I cleaned off the dining room, er, craft table and got out all the papers, photos, tools, etc. I would need. 


I worked a good 2 hours on it this afternoon and got much accomplished! However, I don't love the way it looks. *sigh* I have learned not to use paper that is too busy as the background on the birthday pages because then the pictures don't pop and it's just too much visual! I made the opposite mistake this time - I used busy, fun paper to frame the photos and used plain white as the background. Even with stickers to spruce it up, the white is just too stark of a contrast and I don't love it. But the paper was planned and purchased months ago, and I'm not going to re-do it. It does take some of the fun out of the completion of the project - gonna have to chalk it up to lack of experience in scrapbooking. Better luck next time!


I am 95% decided now on making the classic striped sweater from my last post - the trick is finding the yarn. I found the perfect thing (I really want white and green like the picture) at Knit Picks - a washable merino DK yarn called Swish. But wouldn't you know, the white isn't available until APRIL and the greens were either too light, too bright, or too dark - nothing nice and subtle. I popped onto Ravelry.com and found a discontinued green I really like (asparagus) and the white! The 3 skeins of asparagus are mine when I say the word, but I'm waiting to hear back from the lady selling the white just to make sure. So...pending.


My prayer shawl continues to get longer - I hope to have it done mid-month so that I can leave it with my mom when we go to Iowa over spring break. And I've gotten far enough up the front of the other baby sweater that I cast on for the first arm. Woo hoo! Since I don't have to be away from home tonight, I'm envisioning some solid knitting time once the girls are in bed. (And oh yay, Brynn has stopped fighting us at bedtime and has slept through the night 3 nights in a row. Can I hear a hallelujah?!?)


Yesterday, I spent most of nap time working on the Girl Scout birthday party. My junior scout helper has picked her craft, so my task was to come up with 2 games and another craft. Done! Game #1 is an easy ring toss: We'll have a sheet on the floor covered with little wrapped candies, and the girls will take turns tossing bracelet sized rings - they get to keep any candy they "ring." (And we'll have a bowl of extras for the girls who don't win any candy.) Game #2: What Animal am I? I made 28 animal cards that the girls will have taped to their back - they have to ask their partner questions and try to guess what animal they are. Craft #2: Tissue paper flowers. Woo hoo!
And that's the week so far. Happy March everyone! I will just leave you with one last picture...of my best creation EVER.
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3 comments:

  1. KathyMarch 1, 2011 at 11:32 PM

    I think the photo album looks totally GREAT. Maybe it will grow on you. :)

    Glad the fleece is gone, glad the baby sweater yarn is nearly chosen, and the GS birthday party sounds like loads of fun. I've done those last two activities in my class - very successful!

    Your final picture is just precious, as are the star creations depicted therein! :)

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  2. The Knotty KnitterMarch 2, 2011 at 1:41 PM

    Thanks, Mama! And thank you for always leaving a comment so that I know someone is reading my blog!

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  3. KathyMarch 2, 2011 at 4:19 PM

    Bet I'm not the only one. I know when I first started reading knitting blogs, I couldn't figure out HOW to comment, and then I was afraid the blogger would think my comments were 'dumb' and wonder who the heck I was.... so, you never know. There could be plenty of readers out there who just are too shy to speak up or don't know how to do so.

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