The weekly “little of this, little of that” feature at Like Mother, Like Daughter!
What do you think?
I'm making shawls like summer's never coming. Inspired by pretty yarn and a new phase of life where I am not exactly sure if I'm warm or cold or what (to put it delicately), I'm on a shawl-making binge. This one was the subconscious linking of leafy green with leaf pattern, and I think it turned out well if I do say so!
If you look this pattern up on Ravelry, you will find notes in projects about how to make the ends pointy rather than squared off. That is what I did, not without the usual lost-in-a-dark-wood-wandering phase of not having a clue how to make it happen. Just stick with it.
I will load my own notes soon. Meanwhile, here is the pattern: Saroyan shawl.
On to our links!
- An interview with Deirdre's hubby The Artist's friend Matthew Meehan about Shakespeare:
http://thefederalist.com/2016/05/10/what-shakespeare-can-teaches-about-statesmen-and-the-way-they-lead/
- Another Artist's friend: Deacon Andrew Linn, who'll be ordained this month:
- Mother's Day has come and gone. What is the real meaning of mothers for the world today? And very much to the point, is it possible that women have a vital vocation that is hidden in plain sight — one that goes right to the heart of man's mission in the world, to be instruments in bringing God's truth to the ends of the earth? My friend Stella Morabito has an insightful post about this topic:
http://thefederalist.com/2016/05/05/a-little-mother-prevents-big-brother/
An excerpt:
All social engineering programs—from mandatory pre-kindergarten to gestational surrogacy to enforcement of the transgender ideology—have the effect of attacking a child’s sense of self and severing the organic mother-child bond.
This is best undertaken when mothers are separated from their children, and the earlier the better.
In all of these programs, especially when forced on children in the schools, the child ends up displaced, deprived, and de-sexed. All are destabilizing influences that an attentive mother’s unmolested presence would neutralize. But devoted mothers are an obstinate breed. As C.S. Lewis wrote in his prescient 1947 essay “The Abolition of Man:” “We may well thank the beneficent obstinacy of real mothers, real nurses, and (above all) real children for preserving the human race.
- I often reference Little House books and WWMD (What Would Ma Do) here on the blog. (Read these books out loud again and again to your children, if only so that you have ample time to reflect on the wisdom for your parenting life that they contain!) Here's a great post on respecting your child's mistakes. Key thoughts: Don't expect instant results and/or feedback. Don't freak out when your child does something wrong. Stop scolding constantly and… try to have a sense of humor! Honestly, if Pa, the most reserved, dour man in the history of the world practically, could laugh at Laura's naughtiness, so can you.
Tomorrow is the great feast of Pentecost. May the Holy Spirit fill your heart and all of our hearts, and enkindle in us the fire of His love!
Don't forget to catch up on your Spirit of the Liturgy reading. Looking forward to more discussion!
A dear reader on our Facebook page recently asked for the post about how to figure out where to move. This was the one: Relocation Priorities and the Desirability Quotient.
~We’d like to be clear that, when we direct you to a site via one of our links, we’re not necessarily endorsing the whole site, but rather just referring you to the individual post in question (unless we state otherwise).~
Sarah Chepkirui says
Dear Auntie Leila,
Last night, as I was getting my six-year old ready for bed, I thought to wash her feet along with her face — thanks to a lovely post of yours back in the archives. What you said in that post about a mother’s hands (I think that’s how you put it) is so beautiful. Thank you.
Leila says
Thank you, Sarah!
Mrs. B. says
I sure missed how to make a leafy end in the Saroyan… is it in the Instructions pdf or somewhere else? I love the pattern so much I want to knit the double leaf version as well! But my daughter has requested the Margaret Dashwood Shawl next (we found The Best of Jane Austen Knits at the library), so the double leaf will have to wait. It bothers me a wee bit that the garter edge rolls, and I wonder if there are ways to avoid it, like an eyelet row parallel to the edge, or something like that.
I’ll go ahead and confess that, as a non-native, I’m plain scared by Shakespeare… and already told my husband he’ll have to take care of teaching that to the children!
Happy Feast of the Pentecost, the birthday of the Church, as someone put it! I wish the octave were still with us – it seems a feast worth dwelling on! Nothing prevents me from doing so privately, though… with something more than cake for eight days hopefully!
Lisa G. says
I was wondering about that, Mrs. B – are you saying there used to be an octave with this feast? It seems to me also that it deserves one!
Mrs. B. says
Lisa, it’s a sad story… It seems that Paul VI even cried when he learned that the commission working on a revised liturgical calendar had eliminated the Pentecost Octave (and not only that one. There were many feasts which were followed by an octave, which in my opinion was a wonderful idea: it’s easier to fast seriously, for instance, when you know that serious feasting will follow! But all penitential vigils were eliminated, as well as most octaves, leaving the liturgical year a little more bland than before. But I digress…) The story of the Pope’s tears comes from Fr. Z: http://wdtprs.com/blog/2014/06/a-pentecost-monday-lesson-and-paul-vi-wept-2/
Lisa G. says
Thank you. Are you speaking of ember days when you say “penitential vigils”?
Mrs. B. says
A vigil is the day before a major feast. Many great feast days, like Pentecost, or the Assumption, or even the feast days of each of the Apostles, were preceded by a vigil day that was very much like a Friday, a day of penitential preparation, even with violet vestments for Mass. Even Christmas Eve was a penitential day, so much that where I grew up (Italy) it’s still traditional to eat fish on that day – my mother can still remember fasting on Christmas Eve!
It was a beautiful rhythm, I think, and a way to highlight the importance of a feast by preparing well for it (delayed gratification is a very Catholic thing to do!)
But you’re right, of course: even the ember days were abolished, and the memory of them so totally gone that I never heard of them growing up.
It must have been deeply weird to live the years after all the changes: one year you celebrate this and that, or fast now and fast then, but the next year a lot of it is simply gone.
Lisa G. says
Ah, you’re Italian! I guess I’m mistaken then, to think that yes – they do eat fish on Christmas Eve there, but also a twelve course meal! A funny way of fasting. 😉
Mrs. B. says
Yes I am 🙂 I think you mean the seven fish dinner? It may surprise you that I never heard of that before I moved here… I wonder if it’s an Italian-American thing, like Alfredo sauce? (You’ll get a blank stare in Italy if you ask for that one…) But I’m from the northern part of the country, and the fish dinner sounds a very southern kind of food to me, so I guess that’s why no one around us did that. My mother remembers (not fondly!) eel for Christmas Eve 🙂 She never cooked it for us 🙂
But it is true that Christmas Eve used to be a day of fast before Paul VI changed traditional penitential practices, so I’m not sure when the seven fish dinner became common.
Leila says
Mrs. B, yes, you have to click on the pattern in Ravelry, then search all the projects filtering by “useful” — and then you will find the changes. But I will try to round up the changes in my own Ravelry post when I get to it. I solved the rolling garter by doing a seed stitch on the border, and I think it looks really nice (and flat!).
Mrs. B. says
I found it! I wish I had known this when I started, it looks much better. And thank you also for the seed stitch suggestion: I’ll make a note for my next one!
NY Mom says
What a gorgeous shawl – and it looks very nicely styled on you. Knowing how to successfully drape such things is not my strength. I wind up looking like a peasant woman who only needs a floral babushka to top it off. And maybe a sack of potatoes. I’d love it if Ravelry also included photos of real women actually wearing those pretty lace shawls I keep eyeing, if only to give me ideas of how to carry it off with panache.
Leila says
NY Mom, click on the pattern on Ravelry and then click on “projects” – you will see people’s photos, including lots with people wearing their shawls, which I find so nice. Because yes, who knows how to do this.
Also search for the pattern on Pinterest and you will get ideas.
Teri Pittman says
Home page on Ravelry, May 10th:
Community Eye Candy: How should I wear that shawl?
My favorite is still Piper’s Journey:
http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/pipers-journey
I have four shawls in reach right now. The smaller ones are great when your shoulders get cold. I have two triangular handspun ones in lighter weight. I need to remake this one in prettier colors, as it’s easily the most feminine shawl I’ve ever seen:
http://www.ravelry.com/projects/teripittman/kllingesjal-1897englishrecreation-from-vendsyssel-museum-denmark
Congratulations on what looks like a fun trip. I see knitting and I tend to focus on that!
Wendy says
I found the federalists article on little mother and big brother a fitting end to today filled with graduations that neither glorify or even mention motherhood and fatherhood as a future for the young people. How stupid to go about this so blindly. How can Christians not see their high calling? Thank you for pointing it out to me.
Meghan says
When I click the linked articles, it no longer opens in a new tab, even if I hit ctrl + the link. This is so annoying! You ladies always have the best links, I hope you can fix this issue.
Leila says
Hm, Wendy, this “preview” version of bits and pieces is courtesy of some new update from our blog platform. Not sure how it works for us either. We will continue to tinker.
Wanda says
Love your shawl! I have done a similar one from Botanical Knits I and I wear it all through the winter. This year I am planning one in mustard:)
Lisa G. says
Leila, your shawl is so beautiful – both of them! But green is my favorite color. And why shouldn’t you make several; when you make something beautiful and useful and do it well, why not continue practicing and perfecting? The leaves look scary, or I might try it. 😯
Mrs. B. says
Lisa, try the Saroyan pattern! Knitting lace is a bit like a magic trick: it seems impossible when looked at from the outside, but if you know a little bit, all the difficulties melt away! Just take one stitch at the time.
The leaves are very easy, and I say this as a knitter with exactly one project finished (and currently working on three at the same time 😉 ) They are mostly made of knit and purl stitches, with a couple of rows with one Slip Slip Knit, a few Knit 2 Together, one Purl 2 Together, and yarn overs. I learned how to do all these things by knitting this cowl: https://blog.tincanknits.com/2014/06/06/lets-knit-lace/ – she walks you through everything, and the tutorials are excellent!