Updating to say Happy Feast of St. Patrick! I almost forgot to post a song for you, because I couldn't find it, but then my friend Bronwen posted this one*, so I will share with you:
I was told that a baby bonnet wouldn't go amiss, so baby bonnets it is!
With another round of talks for me, I need these little projects that fit right into my bag and are so handy to pull out whenever there is downtime, although I will confess that I was not able to knit for the last leg of our flight home Sunday night. There's something about being told that the airport is closed due to a sudden snowstorm, we lack fuel to wait it out, and we will be landing in another state to figure things out that makes me not really calm enough for the prayers and the knitting concentration both.
Fortunately, they re-opened the airport in time and the landing, while screeching and prayer-worthy (but aren't they all, aren't they all**), was accomplished.
I've been using this cute pattern: Vintage-Style Baby Bonnet. (Look it up on Ravelry — it has one odd direction/abbreviation that ends up being a SSK, and it's nice, I think, to do an i-cord rather than a strap; these are things that other knitters have posted about.)
The yarn is from my “droned stash” — it reminds me to say a prayer for dear Elizabeth DeHority and her intentions. I did have to buy needles, because I suddenly went from having one million #2 DPNs to having 3 bamboo ones and 3 metal ones and how does that even happen.
This photo is of the bonnet perched on the ball of yarn, in case you were wondering where the baby's head is.
I finished off this one on my St. Louis trip this past weekend (just have to weave in some ends):
And as you can see I'm still enjoying that new lens of mine. It's fun to do closeups!
And now this one is on the needles:
Usually my knitting sits on that table next to the Chief's reading. He's too funny, because he's decided he needs to read the Summa Theologica from beginning to end (of course he'd read a fair amount before, just not systematically). He signed up for some sort of “read the Summa in a year” and quickly realized that it was pretty demanding, volume-wise as well as content-wise! Lots of reading. So wherever he goes, St. Thomas also goes. Like, sitting at the doctor's office? Summa. Waiting for an allergy shot? Summa.
(By the way, tragic news alert: There is one animal in the world that the Chief really loves, and that is the honeybee. Take a stab at guessing what he has recently discovered he is severely allergic to. Yes. So shots it is.)
St. Thomas is sitting there now next to my knitting. We are almost done with Breaking Bad, and I knit while watching and he reads while I'm queuing up the video (or finishing up whatever before the Rosary or almost ready with supper or just whenever)!
In other knitting/Breaking Bad news, I finished the afghan that I started long ago and that I have come to call my Breaking Bad afghan!
The pattern for this is a little one I put together from a lace pattern of someone else's. I had five balls of New Zealand lambswool and needed to come up with a project that would use them BUT — it had to be easy to manage (i.e. not one big piece that you hauled around) and not leave me with a need for more yarn, because there was no more. And you know me with the running out of yarn.
I decided to make what amounts to four long “scarves” that I then sewed together to make this afghan, which is like a warm snuggle from a sweater big enough to cover your whole body. I will post the pattern on Ravelry. Posted now! (I'm leilamarie if you want to follow me, not that it's super exciting.)
Lace + BB isn't an ideal combination, so you will excuse any mistakes you detect there.
***********
* From Bronwen:
In honor of the Feast of Saint Patrick, here's an ancient Gaelic & Latin hymn, by the 11th century Irish monastic poet, Máel Ísu Ua Brolcháin, “Deus Meus Adiuva Me” (“My God, Help Me”). Here is a full English translation:
1 My God, help me. Give me love of thee, O Son of my God. Give me love of thee, O son of my God. My God, help me.
2 Into my heart that it may be whole, O glorious King, swiftly bring love of thee. Glorious King, swiftly bring love of thee into my heart that it may be whole.
3 Lord, give what I ask of thee – give, give speedily, O bright and gleaming sun – give, give speedily, O bright and gleaming sun – Lord, give what I ask of thee.
4 This thing which I hope and seek, love of thee in this world, love of thee in that, love of thee in this world, love of thee in that, this thing which I hope and seek.
5 Love of thee, as thou wishest, give me in thy might (I will say it again). Give me in thy might (I will say it again) love of thee, as thou wishest.
6 I seek, I beg, I ask of thee that I be in Heaven, dear Son of God. That I be in Heaven, dear Son of God, I seek, I beg, I ask of thee.
7 My Lord, hear me. May my soul, O God, be full of love for thee. May my soul, O God, be full of love for thee. My God, help me (Source: Gerard Murphy, Early Irish Lyrics: Eighth to Twelfth Centuries, (repr. Dublin 1998), 52-59.)
**Yes, I have discovered that I don't really believe in airplanes.
Jenny says
I am still at the misshapen washcloth, shhh stop talking, I’m trying to think level of knitting so I am duly impressed that you can knit and watch TV at the same time.
Julie says
Auntie Leila,
I am looking for a good knitting project for a 3 week road trip I am taking with my family in a few weeks. I am a beginning knitter. I have made potholders, hats, and scarves. Would you say this would be a good blanket to start with? If not, any recommendations of one that would be? Also what did you mean by lace + BB? I am not familiar with that abbreviation. Thank you so much!!
Leila says
Julie, BB = Breaking Bad — a VERY intense, violent show with many opportunities for having no idea what your hands are doing at the time!
If you want to do lace, then sure! It just takes remembering where you are in the process — each row is a different portion of the overall pattern. Once you get it in your head, you are good to go.
However, you need to haul around a lot of yarn if you want to make a blanket. As long as that’s okay, then you’re good.
Julie says
Thank you! I chuckled on the definition of BB. No wonder Google did not come up with an answer for me when I asked what knitting abbreviation that stood for! 🙂 Perhaps I will give it a try. Hey, when you are packing up seven children and a husband for a big trip, what’s a little yarn right?
Leila says
I just got tired of saying “Breaking Bad” 🙂
You definitely need a project! Email me if you get stuck with it 🙂
I am posting instructions on Ravelry now.
Julie says
Auntie Leila,
Okay, so I bought my year, needles, and have one question before I begin! I have never sewn anything together before, as I have just done one piece things like hats and scarves. Do you think as a newbie this would be hard to do on this blanket, if I do five panels as you did? Or would I be better off to just do the whole thing together…casting on 175 stitches and repeating your pattern 5x. I don’t relish lugging around something so bulky, but don’t want to work so hard on something that at the end I botch because I don’t know how to sew it together correctly!
Thanks for your thoughts, and the inspiration to get a project started. My oldest is 12 and my youngest is 10 months and there are seven of them! Finding time to knit has to be fought for! 🙂 However, I feel so satisfied when I do, so it is worth it!
Leila says
Julie, you can do the sewing very easily and certainly easier than lugging the thing around.
To sew, get your panels done. (FYI — I made FOUR panels. Obviously you can make as many panels as you want to get your width BUT — be sure that you are allocating the right amount of yarn per panel. So I had 5 skeins and used one and a little more for each panel, leaving me with a portion of the last skein for the sewing — and I didn’t know if I’d want to add fringe or a border. See what I mean? You need to account for extra yarn when your panels are done, so don’t make one panel PER skein, or you won’t have enough when your panels are done.)
Okay, sewing. Take a length of the yarn (about 18″) and, leaving an end of about 5″ free, begin by joining the sides of two panels. Keep in mind that the design goes ONE way, so you will have two sides that don’t match up (because the knitted edge looks different on the left than on the right).
But just try to figure out how to weave your thread in one panel side and out the other in a way that is orderly and matches the rows up — but don’t be too OCD about it. It will be fine. As you get to the end of your sewing, say about 18″ from the end, match the top edges so that you can distribute any shortfalls on one side, easing the extra length on the other as you sew. This will almost certainly be necessary because even if you count rows, over 200 or so rows there is bound to be a difference in the gauge. At least the way I knit there is!
When you actually do it you will understand. It’s just so you end up with the top edges aligned.
Of course you will need new lengths of yarn as you go. Just leave 5″ or so at either end so that when you are done you can weave in your ends invisibly. Look this up on you tube.
Actually, you can look up the sewing on you tube also. Just use a simple sewing technique — no mattress stitch or anything fancy because this is a lot of sewing!
I goofed a lot in various ways but it looks just fine 🙂 I think 🙂
Julie says
Thank you so much for your detailed reply! I was really hoping that was the case, as lugging this blanket around seems a bit cumbersome! Thank you for clarifying that it was just four panels. I bought the yarn that was detailed on your ravelry pattern, so I should be good. I will just knit until I have the right length. I will trust you that I will be able to sew it when the time comes!
Blessings on your day!
Lisa G. says
I love the afghan!
Rain says
This is my absolute favorite bonnet for babies! I’ve only knit 2 so far, but hope to knit many many more.
I love the afghan.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
chere mama says
My oldest son told me about Breaking Bad and I got hooked, so to speak. It is such a wonderful, though shocking, look at real, three dimensional characters -just a highly perceptive study in human nature that I haven’t seen so well laid out in a long time….Where goodness lies, how easy it is for good men to slide into evil and evil men to do immensely tender and kind things. It’s like a roller coaster of questions and discussions after each episode. Amazing stuff! Sorry! See me getting carried away! I’ll stop now!
The afghan is very beautiful – BB and all!
Michele says
What a cheery little bonnet!!! It was a delight meeting you in St. Louis. Thanks for making the trek!! (And ditto on the airplane sentiments…)
Margaret says
I must say I am surprised to learn that you enjoy watching Breaking Bad. I really do not understand why anyone needs to watch something so violent and disturbing. Catholic friends who I respect have repeatedly told me that the show is great because it “has the right moral message”, but I actually already know that being a drug dealer is not an ethical career choice, so I just don’t see the point.
Leila says
Well, Margaret, your assessment could be correct, or it could be like saying “why read Anna Karenina — I know adultery isn’t an ethical choice.”
The point of art is to take you on the journey. With Anna we learn the consequences of her decisions and we live through them with her. While it’s not a violent novel per se, it does a number on your psychological state — Tolstoy *takes you with him* as he shows where Anna goes, morally.
Similarly, with Breaking Bad, we are shown the hell that a man can make for himself with his immoral choices. I’m finding it Dante-esque in its revelation of the narrowing of a man’s scope for choice with every bad choice he makes.
The “right moral message” isn’t about checking a box when it comes to art, drama. It’s about engaging the viewer in a way that some part of his being assents to what the artist is depicting. Otherwise, yes, it would be enough simply to say, “Don’t cook meth, it’s nasty.”
Anyway, I’m on the last episode. We’ll see.
Margaret says
Sure, I understand what you’re saying, but why are the explicit images necessary? You mention Anna Karenina, but that book (thankfully) does not include graphic descriptions of the adulterous encounters. A good writer or director can let you know that bad stuff is going on without poisoning your mind with images that are hard to forget.
Lisa says
Breaking Bad is a phenomenal lesson in how doing bad for the sake of good only leads to evil. Initially, this family man does something just a little bad in order to provide for his family upon his untimely death- a pure intention because he loves his wife and son. And then he does a little more bad, then a little more, until he is evil through and through. That one little bad leads to utter and complete destruction of his family, everyone he loves, and his soul even though his initial intention was good.
I think Jen Fulwiler at Conversion Diary has a much more articulate account of the moral lessons in the show. Even our parish priest mentioned it in a sermon once.
As for the graphic nature, it really does drive the point home how evil he becomes. I actually like shows like this one and The Sopranos. It shows how multi-faceted evil can be. I close my eyes on the gross parts though.
Leila says
Margaret and Lisa,
Well, I’m done now with the show.
I don’t think that everyone should watch it. I myself missed a good bit of it, either hiding my eyes or leaving the room (although I left during a certain train scene that wasn’t violent at all, just so incredibly tense — and trains already give me anxiety attacks so I just had to escape!).
I don’t think it’s without flaws, and I do think that depicting violence in too much detail would be my main objection. That said, the violence is not gratuitous — it is not to glorify but to expose evil. It’s true that Anna Karenina doesn’t have the visuals (or even descriptions) — instead I would compare Breaking Bad in that regard with Crime and Punishment by Dostoyevsky, who doesn’t hesitate to take us into the details of his character’s crime and his reveling in it. That said, the written word is different from drama and film.
When it comes to visuals, each viewer has to evaluate for himself. There are images of the crucifixion (and not modern ones, either — thinking of a certain Spanish one that I hope never to see again) that I cannot look at. No doubt the intention was to expose evil, but it’s too much for me.
In Breaking Bad, those limits are tested and thus I will not say “you must watch this.” However, if you can take it, I think there is real art here for modern man. Just as the descent into hell in the Divine Comedy is shown as the direct result of a narrowing of choices, a restriction of the will brought on by the perverse exercise of that will, so in BB we watch a man’s capacity to act *for the good* be constricted until he is nothing but “ego” — alone in his icy box.
The story is in the tradition of the intentionally evil character. There is a foil for Walter White in his brother-in-law, a man who makes an act of the will that goes directly against his own interests, for the purpose of rescuing his self from the fate of extinction.
To be art, this must be shown and also hidden. There must be an interior harmony of some kind. There must be clarity and there must be unity. Things must correspond to the good and the true. I think here these criteria are met, although again, I can’t say that everyone will want to experience it.
I haven’t read anything about the series yet, not wanting any spoilers, but now I will. I was a reluctant watcher but now I’m convinced that there is something of worth here.
Suzette says
Wow, wow, wow. WoW! I am thinking that I am some sort of sheltered introverted hobbit who is also a giant scaredy cat. I couldn’t make it through the first episode. Kept me up for nights. …I’m also just thinking that I wasn’t ever taught to appreciate drama and film. Ok, well! I guess I could start cultivating that now. But, in the meantime, I am enjoying this stream of comments on one of my husband’s favorite shows!
Kathy@9peas says
I’ve not watched BB yet, but it is in the Que – maybe I’ll make my own BB afghan, I love yours!!
Mary says
My daughter and I became completely obsessed with Breaking Bad. It’s just so Shakespearean and teaches the lesson well that no action (evil or good) can help but affect every area of your life and those of others too.
Mrs. B. says
Recently I have been wondering what happened to your bees with all the snow you got… I know nothing of bees: I was just hoping they would be ok and snug somewhere. Do they go away for winter and come back in spring like some birds and butterflies??
My husband is not as ambitious as yours, so he got Kreeft’s Summa of the Summa instead 🙂
Your blanket is beautiful: one looks at pictures of it and just wants to grab it and snuggle with a good book and a good drink…
If you have the time and the inspiration for it, I’d love to read what you have to say to messy beginners: I have promised my daughter we’ll learn to knit together, but I have no idea where to start. The things we got at the library weren’t as useful as I thought. Maybe we just need to begin with a class.
Leila says
Mrs. B — so far the bees are alive and well! We are hoping!! This would be the first year that they came through, I think, and it must be the great snow cover they had.
As to knitting — you tube is your friend! Simply search for what is baffling you and there will be a video for you. Also knitfreedom.com — start with a cap in the round, like a simple fisherman’s cap using worsted wool, and that will be your tutorial. You will rip and rip and then suddenly you will get it.
Also — washcloths! The link I have in this post to the lace pattern leads you to a blog that has many washcloth patterns — one a month I think! Great way to learn.
Mrs. B. says
Glad to hear about the bees! My kids will never forget the observation hive in your husband’s office – such an interesting idea.
Thank you for your knitting suggestions – especially for letting me know that ripping is normal 🙂
Leila says
Mrs. B, the Chief says this is not the first year they have survived, but certainly they sometimes do die of the cold before spring comes. Since this year was particularly frigid, I’m just so glad they seem to have come through!
Barbaral says
Leila … You just make me laugh in and about your great ideas, religious training and other stuff… I’m married almost 33 yrs , mom to 5 grown sons , soon to be a grandma and seeking to be a better Catholic… Oh and I share your feelings about flying… Used to not give it a second thought and now I find myself staring at the seat cushion and wondering how good a floatation device it really is..
NY Mom says
What a handsome afghan. I find that there’s a phase I reach in any project I take on, and that’s the Totally Sick of This and Don’t Care How the Heck it Gets Done, But Dang It I’ll Plow Through. Rather a joyless phase, but the reward’s in the finishing. So congrats!
Elizabeth says
That afghan is beautiful! 🙂 I hope to learn to knit one day — for now I am contenting myself with crochet, but knitting is on the long term goal list!
Cheryl says
Your afghan is lovely. I’m an intermediate knitter- haven’t tried making an afghan. I had the grand idea to knit my 8 children socks for Christmas last year and still am working on it….. some of them just got a ball of yarn and a promise:) I looked up your afghan pattern didn’t see a Cast on number- maybe I just missed? Thank you.
Leila says
Thank you Cheryl — of course I forgot to put that little bit of info (!) in there. CO 35. The pattern such as it is is updated now. Please let me know if there is anything else that is vague or incorrect! I’m quite hopeless 🙂
Julie says
I want to take up knitting so I can put a lovely ball of yarn in a bowl. Maybe I should forego the knitting and just toss a ball of yarn in a bowl. So pretty.
Leila says
Julie, I know! A little work of art there on the table. I’m so lucky to have some little boys in my life who gave that to me as a gift — they made it with their dad!
Kristin Wilde says
Leila,
In case you haven’t heard the news, dear Elizabeth went home to Heaven in the early hours of this morning, Thursday. It made happy that one of my favorite bloggers knew of her and mentioned her. She is at rest from her pain now.