Yarnalong: "Cleaning House" and the Bloom Striped Cowl

Ginny over at Small Things says: ~ 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! ~

So here is what I'm knitting and reading right now:

The book: The book is Cleaning House: a Mom's 12-Month Experiment to Rid Her Home of Youth Entitlement, by Kay Wills Wyma.

That lovely long subtitle there pretty much explains the premise. :)  It's the author's chronicle of a year where she worked on teaching her kids to work. Each month, she chooses a different area to tutor them in.

With that premise, it could have been a harsh sort of book, all about the laziness of kids. But it's not (so far anyway), mostly because the author focuses on what she needs to learn just as much as on what her kids need to learn. I liked this passage, where she's bringing one of her children to "help" her on an errand:

I was kicking myself. How many opportunities had I missed on the countless visits to the grocery store? More often than not, I'd found ways to avoid even taking them into the store, focusing on the immediate benefit of a quick get-in-get-out grab over the long-term rewards of a learning opportunity. I have as much to learn from this task as I do.

The knitting: The knitting is the Bloom Striped Cowl by Sharyn Anhalt.  I downloaded the pattern when it was free. It was totally an impulse, but I actually had the right yarn, so I couldn't resist. (I knit it in Universal Yarn's Bamboo Blooms Handpaints in Kanji. The white contrast yarn is Valley Yarns' Amherst.) I

It turned out to be a totally enjoyable mindless knit, so I'm glad I gave in to the impulse.

For more posts about books & knitting, head on over to the yarnalong link-up over at Small Things.

Peace of Christ to you,

Jessica Snell

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