overboard

We bought a ninety year old house.  It wasn’t our first choice when we moved here a year ago, but it was what was available when we needed something fast.  It had issues, many of them, which we discovered one by one as we rented it for a year.  I spent the year trying to convince my husband we needed another house, and he spent the year trying to convince me this was the house we needed.  Somehow we fit here, though, and with a little elbow grease and paint (and a huge investment of our time and money) this house will become the house we wanted.  Already my husband has started ripping up all of the runners on the stairs, and my two big kids pulled down the partition to the third floor.  We are talking kitchen cabinets and counters, central air, and we’re expecting the new dishwasher any day.  It’s exciting, and a bit daunting!

The same week we bought the house happened to be the final week of our first term of school and exam week.  It was painful--growth and change are so hard. My older children had to get used to the new expectations, when they’ve never had exams set by me before.  I learned so much from their exam answers, and Fr. G and I have some better ideas of how we will outsource classes next year.  Our new term is now in full swing, with giggly little sister copywork helpers and chant lessons from dad.  I pray this term is as fruitful as our last one.

Jill posted a nice lenten danish recipe on her blog.  It looked like just about the right amount of work for me in this current busy stage of our life, and easy enough for the kids to help in making.  I made her version first (with double the pastry dough) for St. Catherine’s feast day, and it was such a hit that we made it again.  This time we tested a new filling: chocolate walnut.  YUM.  I blitzed about 1.5 cups of walnuts, 1/3 cup cocoa powder, 1/3 cup powdered sugar and two heaping tablespoons of vegan butter in the processor until it became a paste, and spread it in the pastry dough.  Next time we’ll try toasted almonds instead of walnuts, along with some almond extract.  And maybe some sliced almonds atop the glaze?  Delicious.

Even before I had finished her wedding veil (which wasn’t finished until two months after her wedding) my sister texted me a photo of a positive pregnancy test!  I hurried through her wedding gift, the mosaic blanket, so that I could commence baby knitting.  I don’t know that I will have any more babies (I don’t know that I won’t either, haha) so I am pouring every bit of my love for her new child into knits.  It's more than I ever knit for one of my own children at once, and all of it teeny tiny.

Here’s the projected layette:
Anker’s Onesie in Brooklyn Tweed Peerie, rainier colorway
Karen’s Bonnet in Quince and Co. Finch, shell colorway
Perfect-fit Newborn Socks in O-Wool O-Wash Fingering, trillium and mustard seed color way
Baby Bloomers in Brooklyn Tweed Shelter, fossil colorway
Popcorn Vest in Madelinetosh Tosh Vintage, aura colorway
Garter Ear Flap Hat in Cascade Ecological Wool, natural gray
Baby Thumbless Mitts (my own pattern based on Selbu mittens) maybe in some Tosh Mo Light I have?

Most of the yarns for these items come from leftovers or my stash...so a stash busting layette?  I really love tiny baby knits!