pottering about

My favorite kinds of days are those spent crossing little, insignificant tasks off my list, with no particular plan.  Waking early, sipping tea while preparing my students' next-term readings, maybe taking a moment to dust that light fixture that's been looking especially dirty or pruning some of my houseplants--that's a dream day for me.  If every day followed that plan (or absence of one), I'd tire of it quickly, but as there's a dearth of pottering days, well...I treasure 'em.  I've had a few pottering about moments lately, just little snatches of time here and there.

I'm teaching handicrafts to the littlest group in our co-op this year, so I spent recent spare moments making samples of our work for the first term.  I'll use my sewing machine to string the samples together into a garland for the classroom later today.  It's been a long time since I've done any classroom teaching work, and while I'll be the assistant for the class, rather than the lead teacher, I am incredibly anxious: Will I forget all of my plans?  What if my classroom demeanor isn't up to snuff?  I am blessed to be working with an incredible team of faithful women, whose humility, industriousness, and patience are models for me to emulate.  Since they're such examples, and I know my own shortcomings (so many!), I would hate to be a disappointment! The community is also one of prayerful support, so I am leaning on that.  Our first day of classes falls on St. Euphemia's feast day.  She's one of my favorite female saints (Little M was almost Euphemia), so I'll be especially asking for her intercessions.  

My nephew turns one in a few weeks, and my niece turns five a few days later--both need birthday crowns!  C loves Big Bird, so her crown got some yellow feather embellishments.  I've been letting the ideas for their crowns stew for a few months, and it's a relief to have them finished.  Now, if I can just package and ship them before the end of the week, we'll be in good shape.

Sometimes, all I need is a little nudge to work on a languishing project--the felt crowns came together so quickly, I was inspired to pull out my Alicia Paulson ornaments.  Maybe this is the year I finish all ten that are left?

And finally, around mid-August, I finished the linen cardigan I was knitting this summer.  I wrote about it back in July, detailing yarn and pattern so I won't rehash that here.  Some notes: I'll knit this again, but go down a size, I think.  Or knit with a tighter gauge?  I like the fit of this one, but I'd like another, more snug version.  The linen is lovely, but a challenge to knit with.  It's not very elastic, so by the end of several rows my hands were sore.  Also I noticed some "rowing out," which doesn't usually happen when I knit with wool.  It was nothing major or noticeable.  Our dear neighborhood yiayia commissioned a white linen summer shawl, so I'll have a chance to try a different type of linen.  We'll see how that goes!