Weekly Links!

~ LINKS TO SOME INTERESTING READING & Watching, FOR WHAT'S LEFT OF YOUR WEEKEND ~

-"Not Writing for Writers": I enjoyed this post about how pursuing non-literary art forms help writers write better. Here's a snippet:

What amazes me the most is that I haven’t lost anything. I don’t have less time to enjoy the audiobooks and films and tv shows and social media I love. But I have incentive to be more purposeful about what I consume, because it has to be better than spending time with my thoughts. I’ve lost patience for the empty noise, I only want the good stuff.

-"On Signaling Versus Displaying Virtue in a Trumpian Age"


-"How the Order of the Beatitudes Could Change Your Life": I can't remember ever seeing this point made elsewhere, and it's a really helpful insight.


-"I Work from Home":  I'm enough of an introvert that I can't identify with much of this, but as someone who does work from home, I still find it hilarious.


-"Dear Supporter, There's So Much More I Wish I Could Tell You": a missionary friend of mine linked to this post, and (for what it's worth) as a missionary kid, I commend it to you.

Pray for the missionaries you know, folks. And then pray for them some more.


-"Ten Meter Tower": I could not look away from this. Weirdly fascinating.


-"C.S. Lewis Talks to a Dog About Lust": So helpful.


-"Why Our Son Doesn't Have a Smartphone"


-"I Was a Black, Female Thru-Hiker on the Appalachian Trail"



-"An Iceberg Flipped Over, and Its Underside is Breathtaking": really gorgeous pictures.


-"Which Paid Marketing Works (and Doesn't Work) for Books": I know this is totally inside baseball, but I like Rachel Aaron's blog (and recommend her book), and found this long meaty post really interesting.



---Finally, on a note of shameless self-promotion, it's almost Lent, and if you don't already have a copy of "Let Us Keep the Feast: Living the Church Year at Home," now is a great time to buy one! Cate MacDonald and Lindsay Marshall do a great job of showing you simple, meaningful ways to bring the church's celebration of Lent and Easter into your own home.

You won't regret getting yourself a copy before Ash Wednesday rolls around (March 1, this year.)---


I hope you have a lovely Sunday, full of worship and rest!

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell








This post contains Amazon affiliate links; if you purchase a book from this link, I receive a small percentage of the purchase price.  (See full disclosure on sidebar of my blog.)

Yarnalong!

Today I'm linking up with Ginny, over at Small Things, who says, "Two of my favorite things are knitting and reading . . . 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?"

What I'm Making:

My cat, annoyed that I'm interrupting his nap on this marvelous new blanket by putting a book down next to him. 

He closed his eyes again right after I took this picture.

I'm still plugging away at Anna's afghan, but I'm within spitting distance of the end now. I've only got about four more stripes to go. (You can see the beginning of the afghan back in this Yarnalong post.) 

The book:

I'm reading "The Poetry Home Repair Manual: Practical Advice for Beginning Poets".  

I'm not much of a poet, but I like writing it, and I wanted to write more of it, if only as cross-training for my fiction-writing. Sort of like a swimmer doing weights or running on her non-practice days. 

Also, poetry is just a good thing. As the author of this book points out here:

Also, it made a lovely poolside read for one of our too-hot October days:

What are you making and reading this week?

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

This post contains Amazon affiliate links; if you purchase a book from this link, I receive a small percentage of the purchase price.  (See full disclosure on sidebar of my blog.)

Yarnalong: "Made for More" and "Outline"

Today I'm linking up with Ginny, over at Small Things, who says, "Two of my favorite things are knitting and reading . . . 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?"

The book:

Dorothy Sayers' essay/book "Are Women Human?" has long been one of my favorites. And Hannah Anderson's "Made for More" feels like an expansion on much of what I love about Sayers' classic.

At least, it does so far!  I'll doubtless write a review when I finish it, and we can talk more about it then. :)

The knitting:

I'm knitting "Outline" by Beata Jezek (free pattern on Ravelry), using some Pagewood Farm Sock Bites and Valley Yarns Franklin (in "natural").

I started this on our family vacation to Oregon, and I'm enjoying the stripe-y goodness of this project. It's very much a potato-chip project: it's hard to knit for just one stripe.


What are you knitting these days? What are you reading?

Peace of Christ to you,

Jessica Snell

This post contains an Amazon affiliate link; if you purchase a book from this link, I receive a small percentage of the purchase price.  (See full disclosure on sidebar of my blog.)

New Finished Objects!

I recently finished a few large projects: an afghan and a table runner.

The table runner was made of laceweight cotton, and it was one of those slow, meditative projects. I designed it myself, specifically for this yarn. Very plain, the only decoration was a line of eyelet lace on either end:

But it looks pretty on our oak table, and I've been enjoying seeing it in our dining room this week. (Forgive my terrible photography! I promise it looks better IRL.)

The afghan was another project where I made up the pattern in order to fit the yarn: in this case, the yarn was passed on to me by someone who'd decided to go a different direction with her own project. I started crocheting it, and my daughter, Bess, asked, "Is that for me?"

And with that question asked, it was. :)

Now that it's done, Bess has taken to coming home and curling up straight away on the couch and burrowing under her cozy new blanket, which is just very gratifying to this crafter.

Of course, now the other three kids are sure they need one, too.

They all already have full-sized blankets that I've crocheted them, but those blankets were made of acrylic, and I admit that I love the idea of making them all wool afghans that are really, truly WARM. I think I just might ...

And that's how it goes: projects beget projects.  

I wouldn't have it any other way.

Peace of Christ to you,

Jessica Snell

Knitted Finished Object: "Dressie Dress"

Just a short post today about a little something I made last year, but hadn't posted yet. I wanted to wait until the little girl I'd made it for had a chance to wear it. :)

The pattern (which I found on Ravelry) is "Dressie Dress". A lovely, simple knit - and it's a free pattern!

I modified it by adding extra increases at the waist, and then at the ruffle on the bottom because I wanted something a little more full.

I also added a stabilizing line of single-crochet at the neckline and the armholes, which I was very happy with.


And this was also a very happy knit, because I got to make it for a new niece. It was one of those knits where I got to pray while I made it, asking God's grace on this new baby girl who was coming into the world.


Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

"Peace Attend Thee" blanket and cardigan

My sister just had her first daughter, and I had the joy of visiting her the day she was born. Isn't she a little cutie?

This could just be an excuse to post a slew of cute baby pictures, but I'll try to talk a bit about the knitting. :)

The blanket wrapped around my new niece is the "Alpaca Baby Shawl" and I knit it in Knit Picks' yarn "Imagination" in the colorway "Giant Peach".  My Ravelry project page is here.

This was a great pattern: the lace wasn't too difficult, but it was interesting, and there were lots of stockinette rest rows. All of that knitting joy, and the finished project itself turned out beautifully. It's a warm blanket, but since it's sock-weight, it's not too warm for a baby born in southern California.

The above picture (with the cute baby) shows the yarn's true color well, but here's one that shows the shape of the finished object better:

I also made a little cardigan to go with, but no cute baby pic here because the cardigan is more 3-6 mo. size, rather than newborn:

I liked this pattern too, and was so pleased with how it turned out, but I admit: I almost gave up on it at the beginning just because there were so freaking many stitch markers. It drove me a little insane.  (The pattern is "Sunnyside" and my frustration shouldn't keep you from knitting it: the pattern's good and clear; the frustration was all my own fault. My project page on Ravlery is here.)

But I'm glad I kept on, because once more of the knitting was done and I could really perceive the shape of it, it started making more sense and I think the zigzag lace down the front and around the shoulders is classy. 

One change I made: instead of a knit picot edging, I did the edging in crochet. Not only was it easier, but I like the look of crochet picot better than knit.

All in all, these were really satisfying projects - but the most satisfying thing of all was meeting the baby I made them for!  Thank God for his great mercies. 

Peace of Christ to you,

Jessica Snell

I made a pair of earrings!

So I have been slowly (oh, so slowly) decluttering our home.

And one of the first places I decluttered was a bookshelf in our living room which held, strangely:

-children's novels
-DVD's
-video game discs
-crafting supplies

As I worked my way through the crafting stuff, I discovered that I own quite a few supplies for beading.

I organized all the beading stuff, throwing away things I thought I'd never use, and trying to get the rest of it into a condition where it would be easy to use, if I ever got the urge to make myself some jewelry.

The thing is, I got the urge to make jewelry while I was organizing.

Here is the result:

These earrings are the product of:
1) A pair of terribly glitzy old costume earrings. I pulled the pearl-drop beads off of a matrix of faux diamonds and some sort of silvery metal. (I wish I'd gotten a picture before I pulled them apart! They were a very 90s concoction)
2) Basic craft supplies. In this case: gold earring wires and a couple of headpins.

The result is something simple and lovely. It didn't take much skill - I'm a knitter, not a jewelry-maker. But all I had to do was thread the headpins through the beads, and twist them so that they hung properly on the ear-wires (which I did not make, but bought).


And now you can all enjoy my non-existant selfie skills, and see what they look like on:

Sorry for the blur!  Along with being a knitter, not a jeweler, I am a knitter and not a photographer!


Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

Yarnalong: Jaywalkers and "The Penderwicks"

I'm linking up with Ginny, over at Small Things, who says, "Two of my favorite things are knitting and reading . . . 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?"

The knitting:
I'm knitting another pair of Jaywalkers, this time for my mother.  (I wrote about my first pair of Jaywalkers here and here.)  

This pair is a belated birthday present - I only finished the first of the socks yesterday. Don't worry, my mom knows they're coming! And given our present heatwave, she's happy to wait for them. :)  (No one's wearing socks here right now for the fun of it. Blah. 90 degree heat is a sure sign of fall, right?)


The reading:
I've started reading "The Penderwicks" to my kids as our evening reading. My mom started reading this to the kids during one of our camping trips this summer. Now that I've finished our last family read-aloud (John White's "Gaal the Conquerer"), I've taking up "The Penderwicks" where Mom left off.

It's so good. It reminds me of my own childhood reads - particularly of Elizabeth Enright's books, like "The Four Story Mistake". It's a summer book, full of sibling love and country life and the world of the imagination.

One of the reasons I love this book is that my children beg for it. They want to listen to these books more than they want another episode of TV.

That's brilliant. 

I love books that teach my children to love books. And they love it because there's something there to love: there's family and joy and adventures.

Great book. Loving it.

So, what are you knitting or reading?

Peace of Christ to you,

Jessica Snell

This post contains an Amazon affiliate link; if you purchase a book from this link, I receive a small percentage of the purchase price.  (See full disclosure on sidebar of my blog.)

Weekly Links: a Day Late

Good reading from around the Web for your . . . Monday.

I hope you still like reading when it's a Monday.

"Flat Book Cover Design: Why Do So Many of This Year's Book Covers Have the Same Design Style?": a look at trends in literary art.


"Small Surprises in Growing Up":

I blinked at the email, in a sort of shocked pause. My boy is too young to have to register for the draft. Except he isn’t. Not anymore. 

"20 Years Ago This Week: A Look Back at 1995":  a photo essay.


"Fasting for Beginners":

When Jesus returns, fasting will be done. It’s a temporary measure, for this life and age, to enrich our joy in Jesus and prepare our hearts for the next — for seeing him face to face. When he returns, he will not call a fast, but throw a feast; then all holy abstinence will have served its glorious purpose and be seen by all for the stunning gift it was. 

Until then, we will fast.

"Lists of Things that Women Cannot Do: The Problem with John Piper (and Me)":

Whatever happened before, and in, and after the garden of Eden affected relationships between men, women, and God – and we have hard theological work to do to figure out where in that journey we are.

"Not All Conservatives": this is an answer to the article above - I love the conversation they're having on this blog! Well-worth subscribing to.

Complementarianism might be better understood as one expression of gender conservativism. As a response to evangelical feminism, complementarianism developed and flourishes in a specific cultural context, namely a western, white, middle-upper class context; because of this, it will reflect western, white, middle-upper class assumptions about work, economics, and home. The fact that Pastor Piper is even concerned with answering the question “what jobs can a woman do” reflects this.

"How to Weave on a Cardboard Loom": why does this fascinate me? I really don't need another hobby . . .


"Mysteries of Consciousness":

Whatever the case, though, such experiences should chiefly remind us how many and how deep the mysteries of consciousness really are. And the profoundest mystery of consciousness is consciousness itself, because we really have little or no clear idea what it is, or how it could either arise from or ally itself to the material mechanisms of the brain.

"How the Ballpoint Pen Killed Cursive": I love cursive. And now I want a fountain pen.



Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

Knitted Finished Objects: Wee Envelope Baby Sweater and Matching Baby Hat

I finished it in time for the baby shower!  And that is the very exciting news about this particular sweater.

I was weaving in the last few stitches on this sweater the morning of the baby shower while my daughter (who I hired for the occasion) baked cinnamon breakfast muffins for the same party. (I highly recommend growing your own 11-year-old gourmet.)

The pattern and  yarn links for this sweater are in this blog post, if you're interested in knitting one for yourself (or an expectant friend).  

I was pleased with how it turned out: the "envelope" neck opening really is perfect for a big, wobbly baby head.

I also made a matching hat out of the same yarn:

The pattern is one I've used before and you can find it for free here.

Looking forward to meeting the recipient soon! :)

Peace of Christ to you,

Jessica Snell

Yarnalong: "Wee Envelope" and "The Winner's Curse", by Marie Rutkoski

I'm linking up with Ginny, over at Small Things, who says, "Two of my favorite things are knitting and reading . . . 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?"

The knitting:
The pattern is "Wee Envelope" by Ysolda Teague. I love how this sweater is designed with a baby's big, wobbly head in mind. Some church friends of ours are expecting their first baby, a boy, and I'm excited to be knitting a little something for them.

I also love the chance to pray for the baby and the parents as I knit. Does anyone else do this, as they work on a gift for someone? I bet I'm not alone in this habit . . .

The yarn is Loops & Threads Luxury Sock.  I like it because it has just a touch of cashmere (10%), but that's enough to make it noticeably soft to the touch, which is perfect for a baby garment.


The book:
I started this book yesterday, during my kids' swimming lessons: "The Winner's Curse", by Marie Rutkoski. So far? So good!  It's a typical YA spec. fic. set-up: we have our disaffected heroine, our mysterious hero, our weird unlikely society . . . but it's well done, and with this genre, that's what matters. 

I know I sound cynical when I talk about "a typical set-up", but I promise that I'm not. Writing genre well is hard, and I love genre lit. In this book, the writing is good and the setting is interesting and the protagonists are likeable and I want to keep reading, which thrills me. I love finding a story that pulls me in and this one does. I'm curious to see where the author is going with this plot and these characters and I'm enjoying the journey.

So, what are you knitting or reading?

Peace of Christ to you,

Jessica Snell

 

This post contains an Amazon affiliate link; if you purchase a book from this link, I receive a small percentage of the purchase price.  (See full disclosure on sidebar of my blog.)

Knitted Finished Object: Wee Lima Sweater

So, my dear friends' new little boy is not actually named Bob, but all the little first-graders in his big sister's class (which also happens to be my Anna and Lucy's class) called him "Baby Bob" before he was born, and now I have trouble thinking of him as anything else.

So here is the sweater I made for Baby Bob:

I wrote about it before here, but now it's done, and it has buttons!  Little tiny car buttons.

I know, but they were honestly the cutest ones in the shop, so what could I do?

I hope he wears it in good health.


Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

Knitted FO: baby socks! (and a hat)

My cousin just had her first baby, and I greedily took advantage of the occasion by using it as an excuse to make my first pair of baby socks:

Itty-bitty-baby socks!  so cute!

I think I might make these again.

For my fellow knitters, here's the pattern I used. It was free, and while I might have modified it a bit to fit the way I like knitting my socks, I found it a great jumping-off point.

Yarn is leftover Cascade Heritage, the colorway I used to make my dad's gloves.


I also used the same yarn to make a matching baby hat:

I like the sock-and-hat gift set idea. I can see myself doing it again.

Peace of Christ to you,

Jessica Snell

Yarnalong: a shrug for Bess and reading about the old West

~ before getting into this entry, I wanted to remind you that  I'm hosting a giveaway here for free books. Enter to win! It's free! Okay, onto the good stuff! ~

I'm linking up with Ginny, over at Small Things, who says, "Two of my favorite things are knitting and reading . . . 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?"

The books:

My writing's taken a turn for the historical and that means I've gotten to indulge in one of my favorite pastimes: research!

My dad introduced me to this awesome series of books, the Time-Life Old West series. Alongside the history, they're full of anecdotes and character sketches drawn from old diaries, letters, and newspapers. Reading them really feels more like reading a short story collection than anything else . . . except that all the stories are true!

Needless to say, I get the best plot ideas out of these. :D  Right now, I'm making my way through  "The Women", by Joan Swallow Reiter and "The Forty-Niners" by William Weber Johnson. 

The knitting:

Bess wants a shrug and so a shrug she shall have! I'm knitting with worsted weight cotton and NOT knitting dishcloths (vive la différence). It's a revelation: the yarn is so soft and thick, but so nice and cool at the same time. Given our hot climate here in Los Angeles, I could see myself doing this a lot more. Yarn is Universal Yarn Cotton Supreme (Ravelry link).

What are you knitting or reading?

Peace of Christ to you,

Jessica Snell

This post contains an Amazon affiliate link; if you purchase a book from this link, I receive a small percentage of the purchase price.  (See full disclosure on sidebar of my blog.)

Knitted FO's: another baby hat and another scarf

It feels like all-craft week here on my blog!  I guess I've gotten behind on documenting the things I'm making . . . 

Anyway, I'd made scarfs for each of my girls (see here, here, and here) and so it was Gamgee's turn. 

He wanted blue and orange, and so I took advantage of the anniversary sales over at WEBS, and bought some yarn. I ended up with this:

I also used some scrap sock yarn to make this baby hat:

Do I know what baby it's for?  Nope!  :)  But I have a few ideas (and a lot of expectant friends).  

It never hurts to have a few gifts put away for a special occasion, because, God be praised, special occasions keep coming up.

Peace of Christ to you,

Jessica Snell

Handmade Crocheted Beaded Necklaces

So the Saturday before last, I decided it was time to make some jewelry. I hadn't done that for awhile, and so I had to dig out all my beading stuff from the dark recesses of the living room bookshelf wherein it resided.

I was inspired by the pendant in this picture, which I'd recently found at Michaels (I'm a sucker for botanical imagery):

And even though I ended up ditching the twine for some plastic beading wire, I did end up with a successful necklace:

Though I think I might go back and redo it. Not sure I like the plastic wire, even though I worked it along with some gold quilting thread. I might just use some cotton laceweight yarn instead.

But then, I went on to make this:

and I love it so much!  This was made with semi-precious stone chips (pretty affordable, actually, at your local craft store) and three strands of some DMC gold embroidery floss. I basically crocheted a tube shape for the middle stone section, and winged the two beaded sections on the end (sort of chain stitch, but with a bit of extra fiddling around to make it as thick as I wanted).  I had the closure in my stash, and now I think I need to get a few more like it, because it worked so well.

I think there's more jewelry-making on the horizon for me. It's just so much fun!

Peace of Christ to you,

Jessica Snell

Knitted FO: a scarf for Anna

My youngest daughter dearly wanted a scarf, and so I obliged:

It's just a simple garter-stitch scarf (and if you're interested in the yarns here, you can see my Ravelry entry here). It's very similar to the one I made for her twin sister, which you can see at the end of the entry here.

But it made her happy, which made me happy too. :)


Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

Knitted FO: Viajante

It took forever to finish this.

It's a very big project, and I knit it in a cobweb-weight silk that I reclaimed from a very tightly-knit Ann Taylor sweater I bought at a thrift store. (See this post for more on yarn recycling.)

But it's beautiful.  And so light and airy!

I'm not sure when I'm going to wear it - other than on Pentecost Sunday, when everybody ought to be wearing something red and brilliant, to remind us of the coming of the Holy Spirit in fire and flame - but I still love it.  It's so bright, so light . . . if it weren't so cool and comfortable, I'd say it was the embodiment of fire and lava.

I do want to try making Viajante again, this time perhaps in a yarn that behaves itself a bit more than my nutty recycled silk thread. I'm thinking about using all my leftover laceweight scraps, and buying a white yarn to tie them altogether.

What do you think?  Have you knit Viajante yet, or do you want to?


Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell