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...


Thursday, February 20, 2014

Lebanon

What a dreary, blah day. :P  Brad is travelling, and the girls are both at school this afternoon so I've been preparing for our Girl Scout "World Thinking Day" event tomorrow evening.

 Area troops are gathering to celebrate Girl Scouts being worldwide.  Each troop was assigned a country to present and we will rotate around the room 'visiting' different countries.  Our troop was assigned Lebanon, and 10 of my scouts gathered a few weeks ago to put together our board.

They did a GREAT job, and are really proud of the information they chose to display.  It was suggested that troops bring SWAPs to hand out, but I TOTALLY forgot to have my minions work on that when they were here, so the job was left to me. I decided to stick to a simple flag SWAP, with information on the back of each one to tell the flag's history. I just put 80 wee flags on safety pins, and can cross that off my list!

Rowan's Junior vest was also in need of a few patches, so I tacked them on this morning and she's all set to represent.

And now...more afghan blocks!

 I got excited about trying a "frame" and some bobbles in my next two blocks.  I had to re-adjust both patterns for less width, but they turned out pretty well!  (Btw, the awesome book I am using for the majority of these blocks is called "Knitting Block by Block" by Nicki Epstein.) I used leftover Cascade 220 yarn from way back when I knitted my girls' Christmas stockings, and from a time when I was making striped sweater vests for kids in Afghanistan.

The next two blocks took some simple lacework and cabling - using some lovely, soft yarn from my mom's stash. The cable doesn't quite want to stay where I blocked it, but should stretch a bit wider when sewn into an afghan.

The last two I'll share today were fun to make, albeit a bit scratchy.  The basket weave is a bit wobbly (I still struggle with tension issues when I switch from knit to purl stitches) and I couple of those cables look a couple rows too long, but oh well!  The yarn used was from my mom's stash, and if I remember correctly, it was a leftover bit from some yarn a friend brought her home from Ireland. A bit scratchy, but that's ok - it's authentic Irish wool!  I literally had about 3 inches of yarn left when I finished these. How about THAT for using up stash!

 Tonight I will host my monthly knit night, which is always an evening I look forward to. Friends, food, wine, knitting, and awesome conversation.  Love my Knotty Knitters - see you tonight, ladies!!
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