January for me always has the same arc, I’ve come to realize: around the second week I find, after the holiday busyness and socializing, that I’m so cold and so sleepy. I used to wonder if I was sick, and of course sometimes I am, but not always.
I’m just actually… hibernating!
So this past week was a bit like that.
It would have been good to take a walk but there was an icy wind for days and I just couldn’t. I took solace in some targeted, limited, focused tidying and a bit of bread-baking and then spent the rest of the time knitting!
When I had kids around I’d just try to do what I could early in the day and then we’d read lots of chapter books and Mama would have to put her head back for a little snooze while they played with their new Legos and what have you.
I’ve learned that in another week or two I’ll be okay!
(And actually next week I’ll be going to visit Rosie and family in Texas, so we’ll have a little break here as well).
Knitting Corner
Or if you’re not a knitter or even really that interested, perhaps if I chitchat about it, you can transfer the organizing principles to whatever craft you are called to?
I have been thinking about minimizing vs. curating and I have to say, I really appreciate having materials to work with all around me.
Whether it’s a dowel, a scrap of fabric, or a box of old cards, this is actually how I live! And always have.
Whenever I have purged the random bits and bobs, I’ve regretted it later. I am certainly not the most creative or crafty person I’ve ever met, but when the urge seizes me, I appreciate having materials to execute.
The latest thing is to bandy about the idea that you have seasons of life and some of them require minimalism. It’s so often said that maybe it would be worthwhile to think about it just a little before accepting all its implications.
Is a busy time of life the time to get rid of everything, rather than reasonably assess what you have, with an eye to creativity? Actually, it’s when your kids are young, boisterous, and draining that having random stuff to create with — for you and for them — means the most.
The thought of deciding beforehand what my gang will make (and am I deciding? I find they decide, inspired by what they see) and then going out to shop for it is what exhausted me. Later you still have a lot of stuff to deal with — and it cost you time and money to boot.
Unless the idea is you are outsourcing all that to school… Then your house will be tidy, sure, but also lacking in busy hands, laughter, and a connection between creativity and home.
Granted I have a big house (and enormous cavern of a garage). You can only keep what you can fit!
And organizing the things — or as I like to think of it, curating — is very important. If something is trash, throw it away. If it was a silly trend, probably not good to store it. If it’s broken and not worth fixing, toss it.
But good things with which to make other things merit baskets, sturdy shoeboxes, plastic bins, and jars. There are plenty of busy moms who also knit! and quilt! and make things with wood! Don’t let the time to be creative slip you by because some other people think it’s not worth it.
For something to be handy when you need it, you have to know where it is — where to look. I admit I’m not the best at this aspect. Right now, in the middle of winter when it’s too cold to do anything about it all, certain areas are looking pretty darn hoard-y!
The other day, the Chief asked me if now (meaning post-gift-shipping-season) he could burn or discard boxes out in the garage. I am that person who clasps all the boxes to her heaving bosom, but I relented just a bit.
Anyway, having finished knitting and blocking the little sleeveless cardigan for my granddaughter*, all I had to do was bop up to my sewing room** to find three buttons.
*The yarn for which was in my stash and actually was from my mother’s stash so we’re talking generational stashing here.†
** Not everyone has a sewing room! But we’re talking about a jar or two of buttons…
†My yarn stash comprises not much more than one of those little three-drawer plastic organizers. Well, two of those… and my mother’s yarn is in a few small plastic bins. She really liked putting things into other things…
Well, I almost got fatally sidetracked…
I do have them roughly organized into jars of multi-colored + metal, white, and shell/bone (also white). The latter are quite precious, actually, really finishing off a garment in an elegant and timeless way.
But finding three lavender, purple, or white buttons the right size was a bit of a challenge!
Here is where a determined young child would have come in handy. It’s like doing a jigsaw puzzle but has a real purpose: sorting through the shapes, sizes, and colors to find the matches.
If you went out and bought buttons (or ordered them) for each project, it would take a lot of time and be much more expensive.
29¢ for four large fashion buttons (would look amazing on a big cardigan or chic blazer)! I think Habou bought these back in the day. Today they’d cost $3 each maybe!
And honestly I’ve tried — and the nice variety just isn’t there anymore. Sewing used to be a much more serious occupation, with much more variety and quality than exists today.
After being sorely tempted to sit down and sort these all out, I decided I don’t have three lavender buttons (close, though; and if I had a 7-year-old to do the search, I bet he would come up with them) and needed to stay on mission.
So in the interest of not getting sidetracked but posting this post, I settled on these white ones:
I used a bit of the mohair to sew them on.
If you too would simply prefer to have your own “store” of things like buttons, I recommend starting with a button jar. Eventually you’ll branch out with your categories.
When anything is worn out and you are tossing it, first take off the buttons. (For instance, if a flannel shirt is on its last legs, you can cut the fabric up for great rags and harvest the buttons.)
Lots of men’s dress shirts have basically the same buttons anyway! So you can replace one down at the bottom, where it will be tucked in, moving the matching one from there up higher. Some come with extra buttons in a little plastic bag — toss it in the button jar if you don’t want to take the time to sew it on the inside of the shirt for safe-keeping.
It’s helpful for the future hunt if you take a needle and thread, or safety pin if there aren’t many of them, and get them all connected.
When you’re out thrifting, pay attention to garments with buttons even if you don’t want the item itself. It’s worth paying $3 or $4 for a set of shell buttons or a few really pretty brass or pewter ones!
Sometimes a sweater with fancy buttons loses one, and you have to replace them all so they’ll match. Take the old ones you’re removing and pop them in the jar, again, somehow securing them together.
I want to also mention that not only will an older child profitably sort them for you, a very young child (2-4 for instance, but even older) will be entertained for a long time if you set him up with a tray or pan and let him pour the buttons out. Heck, even the stray husband has been known to sift through buttons on a tray! Buttons are pleasing to touch and look at! Nothing bad will happen.
bits & pieces
- My friend Mary Eileen pointed me to this wonderful lecture, Dr. Andrew Dinan Makes the Case for Virgil’s Aeneid. Home educators can be encouraged by it and everyone will learn something profound from its deep and well reasoned argument. You can prepare your young children for the later challenge of the poem by having them read the story first — there’s this one.
- An excellent article on how modern mothers are perplexed by having a young child at home and what they could do (instead of worrying about pre-school or curriculum); I’m gratified at the mention of my work!
- Pine trees have great medicinal value and an amazing healing substance that can be collected and used as medicine! The bees collect it and make propolis, which we try to harvest but need to get better at. It’s so interesting that some speculate that the reason bees don’t have much of an internal immune system is their reliance on pine resin, which offers a sort of externalized one for them instead. I found this video helpful to visualize collecting it, even though Natalie lives in the Pacific Northwest and I don’t think there are many Douglas Firs here in New England. But I think there are fine substitutes.
- Speaking of general health, do you make kefir? I have started making it (thanks to grains given to me by my friend and knitting comrade Kathryn) and it’s so much easier than yogurt! Here’s a primer on the benefits. I generally make a smoothie with frozen fruit and some honey syrup (honey dissolved in warm water so it mixes rather than clumps). Do you have any good tips for me?
from the archives
liturgical living
Pope St. Hyginus, St. Theodosius, Abbot or Cenobiarch
The Feast of the Baptism of the Lord is celebrated tomorrow in the Novus Ordo and commemorated on the 13th in the Traditional Latin Mass.
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I loved making kefir last year but had a hard time keeping up with the abundance! My favorite ferment is always kombucha, simply because it doesn’t die when I neglect for a month (or several months).
You are coming to Texas? Where in Texas? I am in Coppell, which is in the Dallas area.
Have a fun trip, and visit!
The button hunt!! I was gifted my husband’s grandmother’s collection of sewing buttons this past year when my in-laws were cleaning out her house. We took the vast majority of the buttons home with us in plastic bags. Many of them were plastic but there were a surprising number of beautiful old shell buttons. So a few weeks ago when I was finishing sewing my daughter’s Christmas dress, I pulled out the big bag of white buttons and did the hunt for four matching shell buttons to put on the back. Thankfully my husband is amazing at sorting and helped me, otherwise I think I would have given up! I have been pretty faithful about keeping buttons over the years, but I still had to buy buttons often to finish off knitting projects which needed more than 2 matching. So it was very happy to simply pull out the button bags this year and sort through to find those Christmas dress buttons and later some brass buttons for my son’s sweater (that I had just finished knitting). If I’d had to run out to the store for buttons, neither item would have been finished in time!
My grandmother-in-law also had many of those “Le Chic” button packs! She had so many nice sewing supplies. I noticed that even the sewing thread in her sewing box seemed heavier than what you would buy now.
Do you find that the shell buttons suffer in the wash at all? And have you had any luck cleaning those which have yellowed over time?
It’s really helpful to sort the buttons the way I said in the post, and if you had a lot of smaller jars, you could sort by each color too.
Plastic buttons have their place!
I don’t find the shell ones discolor, but they can break in the wash. I think that’s one reason that old-fashioned housekeeping advice says to turn garments inside-out to wash.
Maybe discolored ones can be bleached?
Yes, thankfully we kept them sorted vaguely by color and type in small bags, but I like the idea of jars. I will have to look in the kitchen cabinets and see what I have on hand! I did not think of putting a tray out for them, we just used the kitchen table, but a tray would have been a much better idea!
I do like plastic buttons for some things, but I’ve found recently on a few projects with dark fabric or yarn that they seem to stand out and look cheap, and I needed a wooden, brass, or shell button instead. But for play dresses and baby sweaters and things like that I do like the plastic buttons!
I wondered recently if the inside-out directions were also to help prevent clothes from pilling more quickly? But it also makes sense that it would protect more delicate buttons. hm. There is always more you can learn about laundry, it seems like!
I use these for some antique buttons that I have used.
https://www.wawak.ca/cutting-measuring/sewing-pins/safety-pins/steel-button-safety-pins-00-34-10pack/#sku=sp4003
You can then take off the buttons before you put them in the wash without having to resew them on each time. I am not sure I would want to use them anywhere that was directly touching my skin or where they would dig in, though.
Ooh thank you for linking that. I did read something about taking the buttons off before washing but I thought it seemed highly impractical to cut them and re-sew every time! This is interesting.
Lots of Kefir info here: https://www.culturedfoodlife.com/how-to-make-kefir/
I use A2A2 milk if I can’t get it fresh from someone’s cow.
Vanilla bean makes a second fermentation taste wonderful. Slice lengthwise, a couple of inch -long pieces and ferment two hours or so after removing the grains.
If it turns to curds and whey, it is not ruined. Best wishes!
I haven’t cracked the housekeeping code. Over the past few weeks, I have thought of your advice that a mom must spend an hour a day cleaning, and dishes count! But Auntie Leila, I think it’s possible that I spend an hour each day ON THE DISHES. With homeschooling and laundry and making dinner, I’m pretty much maxed out. As much as I love the idea of a crafty closet with lots of potential projects in store, it just doesn’t seem a reality for me at this point. Also, my darling brood of 5 would simply take over the stash and creatively leave it all over the floor. I’ll just have to keep dreaming! Someday it will happen! Your knitting and button photos are beautifully inspiring. 🙂
Thank you!
Remember — I raised seven kids so I know! I’m not one of those clueless bloggers with one or two children LOL
Be sure to read my posts about doing dishes!
Task a child to unload the dishwasher ahead of time (or multiple children –when mine were pretty young I had the eldest — tallest — do the top rack, the middle the bottom rack, and the younger the utensils). Put your dishes in a bottom cupboard/drawer so they can reach.
Get the flow going and make EVERYONE follow it: https://likemotherlikedaughter.org/2010/12/flow-in-kitchen/
Task a child with drying and putting away dishes in the drainer.
This job should not take so long! But you have to think about it!
I also made my children ask permission before going to the craft closet (or cupboard in the dining room when they were younger and we lived in a house with fewer closets). Put a shelf up high around a handy room and store your things there, or get a hutch with the things you don’t want messed with in the top part of the hutch and a childproof latch on the bottom.
I’m a reluctant housekeeper and I credit following Leila’s advice as a young mom is the reason I ever even bothered to try! At a certain point, 6 kids in, I did need to develop better routines and the flylady system for me helped me pick up where Leila left off. But like Leila says make sure your kids are working too. It is too much to tackle alone. I don’t think the hour guideline is out of reach if you have good routines.
Yes, kefir is so easy and so rewarding! My kids like it mixed into a “yogurt drink”– not even a smoothie… just a bit of cran-whatever juice blended with the kefir to make it like a very thin yogurt. Maybe a little honey to sweeten it further but maybe not. It tastes like those ridiculously expensive and junky Danimals (?) drinkable yogurts but much nicer and with all the benefits.
I never thought to warm/thin the honey before blending– thank you for that tip!
Good ideas! It doesn’t really work to warm the honey, because it gets cold again when it hits the cold liquid and then clumps up. It takes a moment to dilute it with warm water, but then it can be kept in the fridge and mixed with kefir — and cocktails! 😉
Just don’t heat it over 90 degrees or you lose its benefits.
I do like kefir, but had not thought about making it myself. I’m going to give it a try. I have to say, however, that my favorite flavor of the store bought variety is cherry, which is wonderfully sour. I’m not sure I could match that flavor at home. (It’s probably artificial 🫤)
The sleeveless cardigan you knitted for your granddaughter is lovely! I also enjoyed reading about your button selections and seeing all those buttons. I have so many wonderful memories sorting through and playing with my grandmother’s button collection. I can still remember the old fruitcake tin she kept them in and how fascinating they were to me as a young child.
Lastly, the article you linked to about mothers learning how to be home with a young child—such a good one! I plan to forward that link to several new moms.
Have a wonderful time in Texas visiting family!
You could (cheaply) experiment with a can of tart cherries. I just got some the other day and they really are sour! Maybe just using the juice in the can would work, or you could blend them up and strain.
I am also scared by the requirement of drinking all the kefir. I could maybe do 8 ounces a day, but then what? Help!
“And honestly I’ve tried — and the nice variety just isn’t there anymore. Sewing used to be a much more serious occupation, with much more variety and quality than exists today.”
Boy ain’t that the truth! I was blessed with a Grandmother and Mother who sewed and taught me to sew as soon as I could hold a needle and now I’m almost 40. I have absolutely noticed a decline in the quality of sewing supplies, especially fabric! Ugh! What used to be average, standard quality stuff you’d get at JoAnn’s or Hancock Fabrics (remember then?) is now all being marketed as “high end” with the astronomical price tag to go with it! And the standard stuff is just really thin and cheap. Not really worth making a garment out of.
The other thing about sewing is the obsession with calling all sewers “sewists”. Has anyone else who’s been sewing for decades heard of that term? It seems a woke social media thing and I always roll my eyes when I hear it because I never heard anyone in sewing use that term until maybe…2018? 2019? Maybe I’ve just been under a rock but we were already using a gender neutral “home sewer” so it seems….dumb.
Anyways that’s my little rant!
I think they say sewist because sewer can be read in one of two ways — the one is not nice!
Pine needles are great! If you want a deep dive into medicinal herbs, take some courses from The School of Natural Healing! I did their Master Herbalist program and it gives you a wealth of information on not only which plants are medicinal but how to use them in specific protocols for specific diseases. So not just tips here and there but the whole healing plan to get from sick to well on even serious things like cancer, strokes, etc. It was founded by a doctor who had a clinic in the 40s-60s and instead of prescribing drugs or surgery he would prescribe herbs and natural protocols. So his school was a lot more in depth than most schools nowadays. Now everyone is mostly teaching “academic herbalism” where they share the historical uses of an herb but may or may not have clinical experience using that herb.
Anyways, I hope I am not stepping on any toes, Leila-I noticed the article advertises herbal courses and I’m sure they are fine but just wanted to sing the praises of my herbal alma mater!
What a lovely sweater! And the buttons are sweet. I am wondering where you get your yarn (besides a multigenerational stash!) I have been an almost exclusively acrylic yarn crafter for years but now that I have children I think it’s time to level up with something more suited to actual wear! Are there fibers one can safely order online and trust that it will not be too itchy? I don’t know where to get yarn in person besides ubiquitous JoAnns. Have you or any readers worked with bamboo yarn? It feels nice in the store but I wonder if it wears well.
Look for merino wool, it’s the best for next to the skin if you are sensitive to scratchiness! There’s also a French/American equivalent, Rambouillet. I have mixed success with buying online from Knit Picks, but it’s a good intro to nicer yarns and they run frequent sales, so you can try new things without a big investment. Otherwise look for a local yarn store (but they tend to be more pricey).
My friend Sara owns a yarn / knitting business, and has become rather knowledgeable about yarns. She’d be happy to answer questions and help you make progress! Tell her Margo sent you 🙂.
https://www.yarn-soup.com/
What is it about buttons? I’m not at all crafty or domestic, but I always save extra and particularly nice buttons in Altoids boxes. My kids enjoyed playing with them. I love it when I need a button and have an excuse to go through them, too!
The sweater is adorable!
I didn’t know Rosie was in Texas now. I’ll keep an eye out for you at our TLM in case we’re so fortunate!
I think I might have tossed my tin of buttons! I always want to declutter and then regret it, like you.
Your sweater and hats are adorable, especially the ones with the color work. Sadly, I also “decluttered” Ravelry during the huge dust-up and now regret not having access to some really great patterns.
Finally, my oven is on the fritz and the first repair didn’t work. Do you still love your new oven? I hate electronics, but negative reviews have me paralyzed.
Well, I guess you can always go back on Ravelry. It’s so annoying!
I do love my oven. It’s great. The only issue is it doesn’t broil well, which might be a function of its size? But I do have my electric oven too, which broils excellently.
Other than that, it works extremely well. And has no electronics other than the light that goes on when it’s preheating, and the one that indicates the fan is on (also electric, but not electronic — those things don’t involve a computer).
If the power goes out, it can still be lit.
My favorite use of kefir is in a bowl of granola for a bedtime snack. I’m not crazy about smoothies in the winter — it’s too dang cold! 🙂
Thank you for sharing my Substack essay! I’m humbled that you deemed it “excellent”!
Buttons!
I barely sew (I can do buttons and some mending), but I’ve always loved having a stash of buttons – to the point that I think my grandmother gifted me some when I was a child.
When my daughter was little (around age 4-5), I rigged up a blunt needle and thick embroidery thread, so she could string and re-string the larger buttons over and over. My boys were never interested in quite the same way (hah!) but I have taught them how to thread a needle and do basic mending on their stuffies and blankets. (I still do most clothes mending, since holey pants and shirts don’t seem to bother them – why?)
Thank you for your words of encouragement about January hibernation! For years I have been worried I was ill, too, or suffering from an acute attack of sloth. Perhaps it’s best if I do what I can, and prioritize rest. Long and warm days full of activity will be here before we know it.
Beautiful knitting! The perfect hibernation activity.
Do you have a pattern for the knitted sweater for your granddaughter?
It is so sweet!
Yes, it’s here: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/lazy-daisy-all-in-one-sleeveless-toddler-top
I have had trouble finding the toddler version there, though it used to be on the site. If you really want to knit it and don’t see it there, email me and I will send the file.