Rain on Leaves

The heavy and steady rain with the winds the other day brought down a lot of leaves.

Photo by ChristineMM taken near my home in Fairfield County, Connecticut on November 8, 2008.

Losing Its Color

Photo of a burning bush taken by ChristineMM near my home on November 8, 2008, in Fairfield County, Connecticut.

Finished PJ #1

Last night my younger son and I finished PJ pant #1.

I was so excited. Well after putting in the elastic per the directions he put them on and I realized I would have to cut off about 5 inches of fabric from the bottom before hemming it. So I did that.

In the end I was so psyched!

Then he put them on and we realized:

1. the ankles are giganticly-wide
2. the waist is too loose and they fall right down as he walks
3. they are still too long

It looks like for pair #2 I will have to modify the book's pattern to be something else that will fit him better.

I feel like this is an experiment in progress.

The good news is that the sewing is going well. I have successfully problem-solved a few issues, wound a new bobbin, changed a needle, put the presser foot back on, and other basics. I'm getting more confident with the sewing machine and that is a good thing.

After the digital photos are downloaded I'll share some photos...

Sewing Pajamas for My Son

My worst fear in life is machine sewing. I am not kidding.

I have had a hard time finding decent cotton flannel pajamas for my younger son (age 8) that are not coated in horrid chemicals to make them flame retardant. I understand that it is a federal law to have such a chemical on the PJs. Actually most boys PJ pants are made of 100% polyester. When my son wears one pair he has of those he has a nightmare and/or wets the bed every time. Hmmm.

Also in general for some weird reason, I just can't find PJ pants for my son anywhere. Old Navy staff tell me they are a seasonal item only sold at Christmas time. Interesting. After going to six different stores I gave up and decided to sew PJs pants for my son.

Oh boy.

A few weeks ago I got up the courage to buy the fabric.

Days later I read the pattern. I'm actually using a book that is intended to be used with boys, children and teen boys to teach them beginning sewing and it includes patterns boyish things for them to make.

I re-read the directions on another day. Trying to get my courage up.

I then cut one piece out. Got worried and stashed it. Got busy with Halloween prep. Put it off for a week.

Today my younger son begged me to get to work on it. I knew I didn't have the right elastic but knew I could do all but that. So I launched in. I had three panicky calls to my mother asking for help. The first one included a statement, "I think I am too stupid to learn to sew as I just can't understand what they are saying to do".

I am a person who learns by reading very easily. However I have huge issues with directions for things in writing that are three dimensional and I do with materials and my hands. I can't convert text directions easily to 3D objects. For example the basic instructions for how to set up and use the sewing machine is very difficult for me to understand. Sometimes the directions of things get mixed around like it say counter clockwise but I swear the thing I have to do is clockwise. Tonight my husband insisted that to turn it that way indeed is counterclockwise. Well I thought there was a typo in the instructions.

Okay I'll stop complaining. I did everything on pair #1 of the PJs except the elastic band. And I didn't cry or break down or stomp around, yell or swear. Younger son helped me a little including doing the pressing (he loves to iron with supervision).

Tomorrow I need to buy the elastic band I need. I'll check length and tweak the pattern before I sew pairs #2-6. Yes I am making 6 pairs in total for that son.

Oh, and I did buy the cotton flannel on sale for $5.99 per yard. Despite that savings I'll share that each pair will cost $15 in flannel and $1 in elastic band. So it is not a big savings, as Old Navy's PJ pants are $15 per pair and the ones at The Gap are $19.50. As someone told me, home sewing of clothes is no bargain anymore.

For the record, this is one project I'm doing just for the final PRODUCT and this is not about PROCESS for me, not this sewing!!

I can't wait to go knit and try to relax!

Started My First Sweater

I finished frogging my third sweater. I had about a week of knitting nothing. No projects in process.

Last night I bit the bullet and decided to start my first sweater. I picked the Faux Fair Isle Raglan in Shannon Okey's book "Spin to Knit".

(I am loving this book so much I think I'm going to have to just buy it, I've renewed my library copy once already and think I may be due to renew it again!)

I chose a hand wool spun yarn (no name on it) that I picked up at a vendor booth (with no name on it) at the New York Sheep and Wool Festival last month. The colored part around the neck is shades of pink and rose. The rest of the sweater will be a natural color. That is from Wild Apple Hill Farm Ltd out of Hudson New York, and I picked it up at the same festival. This yarn was a bargain at $5 for a 210 yard, 4 ounce skein, it is a bulky wool.

My only worry is that the handspun wool for the accent color looks to be a narrower yarn. I don't know how to address that.

I am doing my first ever swatch to check gauge. Tonight I will finish the main color swatch and will begin a swatch for the accent color.

Whenever both are done I'll wash them and block them and see how it all turns out.

I am using the book "Knitting Rules" to help me understand how to check gauge.

I will confess to feeling quite nervous about this endeavor. My worst fear is that after the sweater is done it won't fit me or will look terrible on me.

I also don't understand the stitch k1f&b in continental. I have spent over 30 minutes on the Internet looking for a video that shows how to do the stitch through the back with continental stitch. So far all I have found is that stitch in American. I'll deal with that later, for now I have swatching on my mind.

Make It From Scratch Blog Carnival #88 Has Been Published

The Make It From Scratch Blog Carnival #88 was published on today at A Bit of Flour. Check it out and get inspired to make something from scratch.

Consider submitting to this blog carnival if you make things from scratch. It can be anything from cooking and baking to sewing and crafts.

Gratitude

Scenes like this are all around me. These pretty sights are so common here they are often unnoticed by most people including me. There is beauty in the architecture of an old church building. I appreciate also that the building is old and the special place that religion had in the settlement of Connecticut.

I am trying to take notice of sights like this, to appreciate them. I feel grateful for the beauty all around me which is there just waiting to be noticed.

I made my husband stop the car so I could snap this shot. So often as I'm driving or the passenget I see a sight and think, "The light is lovely shining through those leaves, I would love a photo to remember it" but I often don't stop to take that photo. Often I regret that later.

I'm glad I snapped this one.

This church is in South Britain, Southbury, Connecticut on Route 172. Photo taken on October 26, 2008 by ChristineMM.

Rip It Good!

I have no current knitting projects.

The focus now is on frogging thrift store sweaters. Last month I did one cashmere sweater. I finished the second cashmere sweater last night. I then began ripping a bulky cream colored wool sweater last night.

My older son loves to help me. He likes ripping out the stitches. I've been winding them around a Sterlite plastic bin that is about 12x18 inches in size.

Today while out I'm going to buy a clothes drying rack as we don't own one and I've improvised in the past. I will use this to dry sweaters that I've washed, to dry wet pieces of machine felted or hand felted wool, and to hang skeins of frogged recycled yarn on to dry.

I've not washed or hung the recycled yarn yet as I have no where to hang it.

I've been taking photos and after will share the before, during and after shots.

Our Yard in October

Here are some photos from our yard on what I feel was the peak fall foliage day in my area.

This year the foliage has been long lasting, due to the fact that we had many rain-less days and hardly any wind. We've had moderate, sunny calm days and cold nights . That is a recipe for long-lasting bright fall foliage. The burnt oranges, browns and purples came out after the nights dropped close to freezing.





















All photos taken by ChristineMM on October 12, 2008 in Fairfield Couny, Connecticut.

Knitted a Green Hat for Me

I finished this hat in the car at night, with the little reading light on. I was so happy that I had my husband take this photo of me wearing the finished hat, even though it was late and I was exhausted. This is not the most flattering photo of me by any means.



I purchased this handpainted wool yarn and the mohair boucle from a vendor, Handmade in the Hills, at the New York Sheep and Wool Festival in Rhinebeck New York on October 19. I started the hat on October 20th and finished it on October 25, 2008.







The yarn was a complete impulse buy after seeing the vendor's booth which really struck me as pure eye candy. I just had to buy something from them as I felt so inspired by the gorgeous handpainted yarns!





The hat was inspired by a hat that the vendor, Handmade in the Hills had on display. Deb Schildt's display hat had a wavy look to the yarn. I asked which yarn it was that looked that way and she said that it was two strands together. I had already picked out the base yarn and she helped me select a complimentary color mohair boucle. I was trying not to just buy yarn that didn't have a planned project. I was wearing my green-tealish colored wool toggle coat at the Festival and these colors were lovely with the coat. So right then and there I hatched the idea to knit a hat to match that coat, because I have no hat (or scarf or mittens) to go with that coat and usually wear plain black ones because that is what I already owned.

This was the first time that I knit using two strands together. It was also my first time knitting with boucle which I found slow going and annoying. My needles would often catch in the little circles and pull in a not-good way.

The hat pattern is the same as the other two I made for women, it is from a book called "Spin to Knit" by Shannon Okey and is the "Power Station Hat" on page 89. Although most of the stitches in the hat itself are up to the knitter becuase the pattern says to basically make up the stitches as you go and to change it every inch to inch and a half, then to start decreasing when it reaches a certain height.



With the leftover yarn I hope to knit mittens. I was thinking of using the boucle as an accent at the wrists or something like that.

Gauge! Gauge! I Get It Already!

I finished my third hat using the same pattern. The pattern was written for hand spun wool.

I thought by substituting it with an Aran store bought factory made yarn would be alright. That yarn is said to be knitted on #9 needles. The first hat I made using that pattern and #9 with Noro Kochoran is large. It is also loose. My husband says it gives it a classy look. It is supposed to be more of a tight winter hat but it is baggy and has a bit of a shape to it. It is not supposed to look that way.

For hat #2 with same pattern and another Aran yarn by Noro (Iro) I downsized to #8 needles. I thought the length was okay but when it was done, it fit like a tight winter hat and my earlobes are exposed.

For hat #3 I used a worsted weight handpainted wool yarn by a cottage industry from Pennsylvania. I also knit in two strands, the second being a mohair boucle with #8 needles. The result is a tightly knit winter hat that is tight to my head and does cover my ears. This is the tightest hat so far.

I have come to the conclusion that this is a gauge issue.

I am a non-conformist and resent being told in a pattern which exact yarn to use. I want to pick the yarn I want and then find a look I like and have it turn out right. I've been reading "Knitting Rules" by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee. The chapter on gauge has been eye-opening. Now I just need to be sure to use a pattern that explains the gauge and to knit a swatch and figure it out from there.

This is on my mind as I contemplate jumping in to knit my first sweater. I have all the yarn ready to go (purchased at the New York Sheep and Wool Festival a couple of weeks ago).

Make It From Scratch Blog Carnival #86 Has Been Published

The Make It From Scratch Blog Carnival #86 was published on October 21 at Heaven’s Homemaking Haven. Check it out and get inspired to make something from scratch.

Consider submitting to this blog carnival if you make things from scratch. It can be anything from cooking and baking to sewing and crafts.

Good Advice

This goes along with my word of the year, "content".



I thought of this recent post at Mental Multivitamin when I saw this old mug at a thrift shop the other day.



I had never heard this diddy sung by Burle Ives until I saw the link at the MMV blog, it was released before my time. However I could not get this song out of my head for days after hearing it just once.

Love It

Notes by Mo Willems made while listening to a lecture.

I loved hearing Mo Willems speak at the Rabbit Hill Festival of Literature yesterday.

A Hat for a Friend (or I May Keep It If She Remains Too Busy To Connect With Me!)

I purchased two skeins of Noro Iro colorway 41, it is 75% wool and 25% silk. The main color is black with strands of blues, browns and some pink. (Later I realized there is a good amount of purple in it also.)

I bought the skeins with the intent of making at least a hat for myself and possibly a scarf and mittens. I have a black ski jacket and also a long black dress coat. I had hoped that the hat made of this yarn would be warm to wear when sledding with the kids in my sporty coat and nice enough looking to wear with my nice dress coat.

Then I got the idea to use this yarn to make a hat for my friend as a birthday gift first. I can always make my own hat later if I wanted one!

I decided to fashion the hat based on the same pattern that I made my Noro Kochoran hat, using the general pattern found in "Spin to Knit" by Shannon Okey. Since my Noro Kochoran hat with #9 needles was loose I decided to make this one using #8 needles and see how it panned out. I would have liked this one just a bit longer as it doesn't quite cover my earlobes. It fits much snugger than the hat I knit with #9 needles. (Of course I have no clue how this will fit my friend!)

As I began to knit I realized that just when the ribbing at the edge was done, the color variagation was changing. The general gist of this hat is to make up your stitches as you go along, doing an inch or so of one stitch/pattern before changing it to whatever you feel like doing until it is time to start the decreases.



As I knitted I decided to make the switches where the color changes. So this looks a bit like a striped hat but truly it is one variagated yarn. I also loved how the top was coming out with the crown being all shades of dark blue, going to pure black.

It is hard to capture the essence of Noro yarns with photographs. Below is one photo with the flash on and one with the flash off. I'm trying my best to capture this yarn's beauty...

I started this hat on October 15 and finished it on October 16, 2008. I took a little more than four hours to knit.

Some of my notes on the yarn are:

I worry this is a bit too scratchy for a scarf. After loving the softness of the Noro Kochoran scarf and hat that I made (Kochoran has angora in it), I don't think I'd want this Noro Iro next to my neck, even though it LOOKS great. However if I want some kind of set perhaps some mittens of this Noro Iro, especially if I line them with something softer, would be GREAT.

After working with the Noro Kochoran with the angora in it this felt more stiff and scratchy.

One of my favorite things about working with Noro yarns is just watching and appreciating the beauty of the unique strands of color, as the variagation changes, it can't really be described. I didn't know this about knitting until I started knitting myself, that part of the fun is just handling the yarn as I work with it and really enjoying the beauty of the yarn as I watch it change. For this sheer aesthetic appreciation I don't know if I'd like working with a very plain, flat color! I'm getting spoiled by working with such lucious yarns!

Technorati Tags: Noro Iro, Noro Kochoran colorway 41, Noro hat.

Woodsy Hat for Younger Son

Here is the latest knitted finished project of mine.



Younger son with his new hat, watching a llama and alpaca show at the 2008 New York Sheep and Wool Festival.



Younger son wearing the hat, happily watching a presentation with live reptiles at the Festival.

Younger son complained that the wool hat (Lopi bulky yarn) that I knit for him is too scratchy. The main intent of having the wool hat was to wear at his outdoor six hour long class where he hikes all day. I wanted wool because I knew of wool's warmth properties and that it also breathes when the person is hot, and that when wet it is still warm. I figured wool was best for warmth all around. It also was to be used when on Cub Scout camping trips especially when in cold weather and they need to wear a comfortable and warm hat to bed.

I already had this acrylic yarn on hand. I purchased it in August with this project in mind. The yarn S.R. Kertzer Northern, worsted. It is variagated and is a bit of a forest type camoflauge versus old militray green camo or desert military camo. The story with this yarn is I was in a local yarn shop looking for a camo yarn in wool and the shop owner talked me into buying this yarn as she said that acrylic would be good enough for young boys mostly as all kids, teenagers and even adults who don't fully appreciate hand-knit gifts from loved ones or friends, some of whom wreck said hand-knitted gifts. I was swayed by the opinionated woman (you would not believe the rest of our exchange if I told you, she was so brutal that my husband was upset by her, he was with me you see, and he thought I should have chosen to refuse to patronize her store, but I did, as I was out of state on vacation and desperate for yarn to knit with and thought I'd start the hat that very week ), so I bought it. Thinking back, I don't know why I had not brought back to mind the base fact that I wanted wool for its warmth for the hats for my boys and stated that to the shopowner to get her off my back about buying this acrylic yarn.

This was my first experience knitting with acrylic and I didn't enjoy it. It slipped and slid on my bamboo needles like wool never has, for me. I had a hard time keeping the row of stitches from twisting as I worked. Also my needle kept splitting the yarn and then it would fray and I'd have to deal with backtracking the needle to fix that and it just was sloppy to work with. I also had a had time with the tension. And acrylic yarn is so stiff and unforgiving!

I decided to use the 'pattern' that I used for my own hat. That is, after casting on, knitting a one inch rib with K2, P2. Then making up whatever stitch you want for about an inch, then changing it, so on and so forth. I winged it and did whatever I felt like doing until it was time to start decreasing for the crown.

I began this hat last Friday night and finished it on Saturday night. It took less than four hours for me to make. I knitted as my younger son and I watched two movies.

My younger son loves the hat so much he went to bed wearing it on Saturday night and wore it all day Sunday at the New York Sheep and Wool Festival even when it was warm and sunny enough to no longer require the wearning of a hat!

Technorati Tags: knitted hat, S.R. Kertzer Northern .

My First Knitted Scarf

Last week I knitted my first scarf. It is to match my hat. It is knitted with Noro Kochoran colorway 31 dye lot D2. This blend is 50% wool, 30% angora, and 20% silk.

I modified a pattern used in the book "Spin to Knit: The Knitter's Guide to Making Yarn" by Shannon Okey. The original scarf in the book casted on 200 stitches and used different yarns to make long vertical stripes in garter stitch. So what I decided to do was cast on 200 stitches with a #8 needle (I use circulars) and to use this yarn which is variagated so it would have the effect of the long stripes rather than short stripes going the other direction, which seems to be a more common scarf design technique. I started by knitting up the rest of the leftover yarn from that first skein that the hat came from then added in the next new skein when that ran out. I kept going in garter stitch until the scarf was almost 5 inches wide. I stopped when I got worried that the skein may run out. So with two skeins of this Noro Kochoran I made the hat and this scarf with a little bit of yarn left over.



The scarf is super soft and it is so warm! I love it!

Because this scarf is only using the knit stitch, cast on and binding off, this is a PERFECT project for a beginner knitter.



Technorati Tags: Noro Kochoran, Noro Kochoran colorway 31, Noro scarf.

Started a Kids Hat with Acrylic Yarn

Last night I began knitting a hat for my son in an acrylic yarn. I continued on it today while I sat in a meeting and I will continue it tonight while I watch a movie.

A local yarn shop talked me into using acrylic for hats for kids as the shopkeeper said the kids never appreciate handmade stuff and it gets wrecked.

I don't want to sound like a yarn snob but I am really NOT enjoying this.

The yarn is splitting, meaning that when I move the needles I accidentially split the yarn. I have to remove the needle and restart. The yarn is so inflexibile that it is so much different than wool yarn to work with. I find it stiff and hard to hold. Also for some reason it is slipping all over my bamboo needles and I am having a hard time holding the stitches in place to prevent it from twisting.

I am bound and determined to finish this hat. I'm not enjoying this experience.

I also realized the other day while finishing hat #5 (yet to be photographed, sorry), that part of what I enjoy about knitting is the yarn. I like holding it and I like seeing it as I work with it. I love the Noro variagated yarns as the different colors are spun together in a way that no two strands are the same. I enjoy seeing the colors change. Also that Noro Kochoran which has wool, silk and angora was so soft in my hands it was lovely to work with.

Wish me luck while I hopefully finish this acrylic hat tonight.

Today I visited a local yarn shop that I'd not been in before, "A Stitch in Time" in Bethel Connecticut. I was looking for double pointed needles in size 2.5 but they don't sell them there. I am considering learning to knit with the magic loop or doing two socks at once. I don't know what to do. In the mean time I guess I'll keep knitting hats.

I am looking forward to tomorrow when I will be going to the New York Sheep and Wool Festival in Rhinbeck New York with a friend. We are each bringing our younger sons along so the kids can pal around together while their moms shop for yarn.

Wrong Size Needles

I wanted to make socks. I was reading they often are knit on size 2 or 3 needles.

I had to go to Joanne's for some fabric and picked up a set of double pointed needles in size 2 and size 3. I thought I was all set.

I went to the local yarn shop and bought a skein of Opal sock yarn. I thought I was all set. I had looked at a lot of sock yarn and a lot of labels and finally just grabbed one and bought it.

When I got home I realized the entire label is written in German. Great. The visual key shows knitting needles and a crochet hook and says "2, 5". What the heck does that mean? Does that mean size 2 needle or is there a 2.5 needle? Joanne's carried Clover brand bamboo needles and there was no 2.5 size.

I just read on an online yarn shop site that other Opal sock yarns require a size 1 needle.

I have no clue what this yarn needs but if it is a size 1 or size 2.5 double pointed needle I don't have what I need.

Ugh.

My set of circular needles starts at size 6 and goes up to size 13.

Just had to share that.

(I finished knitting a hat last night for a gift for a friend. I am ready to start a new project and need to figure something else to knit tonight while I watch a movie at home with my younger son.)

One last thing this exact question is perfect for asking on Ravelry.com. I have been searching to see what others are saying about knitting socks with Opal yarn but so far am not learning much.

A Hat for Me!

Here's the full story on my hat #4.

My kids were in a history class for homeschoolers in Westport one day last week. I had time to kill so went to their wonderful public library and scanned the knitting shelf. I sat down at a gigantic table (all alone) with a stack of knitting books spread before me. I then sat in silence and poured over the books for a couple of hours. Let me tell you that experience was pure bliss. What a wonderful way to spend a morning!!

One book that I was inspired by was "Spin to Knit: The Knitter's Guide to Making Yarn" by Shannon Okey. At this time I do not spin. However I did buy an inexpensive drop spindle at a homeschooling conference and figured it might be a fun thing to do for a history-related craft project with my kids.



I also have roving on hand so if I do figure out how to spin with the drop spindle I already have what I need to make a bit of yarn.

I borrowed the book from the library.

I then went to the yarn shop to buy some yarn but they were closed! So two days later when I was in that town again I swung by the LYS to get yarn for my husband's hat and picked up two kinds of yarn to make myself hats with. One color will match my winter coats well. The other color I thought would look nice with my skin and hair color.

I liked one hat in the book "Spin to Knit" which I'll call a semi-pattern. I say that because the intention is to use over-spun hand spun yarn and the fact that it is over-spun gives it a different visual effect. The fact that the yarn is hand spun doesn't make it an easy match to substitute for store-bought yarn so I wasn't quite sure if the gauge of my yarn was right or not. Also the only true parts to the pattern are the cast-on, the first inch of ribbing then the decreasing. For the rest it says to basically use all different stitches in a random manner, using one stitch for about an inch or an inch and a half. So we are to improvise and make up our own pattern. The pattern is called "Power Station Hat" by Shannon Okey and is on page 89. The hat in the book has a more solid color striped look to it (shade of brown and white) and the hat I was making was using a multi-colored yarn where the strand may have two or three colors in it and changes colors throughout the skein.

So I made the hat but did not use hand spun yarn, and did not use over-spun yarn either. I just used a lovely new yarn that I bought the other day. It is
a super soft blend of 50% wool, 20% silk and 30% angora (Noro Kochoran colorway 31 dye lot D2, handpainted and made in Japan).

This is my first all-finished, ready to use knitted project I made for ME!

I did a tiny bit of work on Thursday night before bed, continued Friday night before bed, and finished it this morning. I didn't time myself, I think that I spent six or seven hours on this.

This was also the first time I ever knitting with stockinette stitch other than in small swatches to practice. It was the very first time that I knitted in moss stitch. The hat has combinations of garter stitch, stockinette stitch, moss stitch and some random striping going from knitting in knit stitch then switching to some in purl stitch.

I really like the hat even though it is a bit longer than I had hoped for (even though I stopped knitting when it reached seven inches as the pattern said). It fits a bit on the loose side also.

I love the colors and it is so soft and warm!

One last note about the book, it is so inspiring. I have the urge to learn to spin! I want to hand dye my own yarn! I really like the creating part of making stuff. I'm not so much into following someone else's directions and just making projects. I like figuring out what to make, adapting things to suit my own tastes and also creating stuff from nothing into something that involves my own creative process. To me so much of the fun is in the creating part not just enjoying using the finished project.

My Third Hat

Third Hat with flash on camera


Third Hat with camera's flash shut off

My husband asked me to knit him a simple hat to use while camping, especially to wear to sleep while camping in the cold weather.

After he tried the first hat made out of Lopi wool yarn he asked if I could find something a bit less scratchy.

I took a trip to a local yarn shop and found a wool and merino wool blend (85% wool, 15% mohair Lamb's Pride Bulky color M-82 Blue Flannel Dyelot 0192). Husband asked for navy blue. I bought the darkest blue I could find.

I started the hat before going to bed one night. The next day I knitted in public, knitting my way through a Boy Scout Court of Honor ceremony. I continued before going to bed and finished it up the next morning.

Pattern Info: I used a pattern in the book "Stitch 'N Bitch" by Debbie Stoller. The pattern is called "Hot Head" and was designed by Alex Zorn, although the original was striped using different yarns in hot flame colors and I used one variagated yarn instead. It is on page 162 in the book.

My First and Second Hats

I taught myself to knit using circular needles using directions in a book.

After two failed attempts which were frogged, I finally "got it" and so hat #1 was in progress one evening last week. I was so excited about it that I finished the hat the next morning before I even got out of bed.

Hat #1 (flash used on camera):



Hat #1 was made in size medium. I was not sure which kid it would fit. It was a perfect fit for my older son (age 11). It is a simple ribbed hat. The yarn is Lopi Jungle Green variagated #9980.

I do admit that some errors were made and it is imperfect. The dark color and variagation hides the errors which might not be noticed by a non-knitter.

That afternoon while watching a college football game on TV I started hat #2 in size small for my younger son. I finished it before bedtime that night.

This second hat has just one error in it, I believe. My son hasn't noticed yet.

Hooray!

Hat #2 (no flash used on camera):




The bad news is that despite them loving the color they feel the yarn is a bit too itchy and they want new hats that are softer.

And yesterday the kids had misplaced their hats. Ugh. So much for them taking good care of a handmade item. Then last night I got bad news when I found one laying on the garage floor. What an insult!

Future blog posts will contain the next projects.

I really like Lopi yarn! It is bulky and knits up fast. I made the two hats out of one skein and have more yarn left over from the skein.

here is more info on the Lopi yarn I used:

Brand: Reynolds

Yarn name: Lopi

Fiber: 100% Icelandic Wool

Weight: 100g

Yardage: 110yds

Needle size: US 10 - 10 1/2

Gauge: 3 1/4 - 3 1/2 and 4 1/2 - rows per 1"

Care: Hand Wash

Pattern Info: I used a pattern in the book "Stitch 'N Bitch" by Debbie Stoller. The pattern is called "Hot Head" and was designed by Alex Zorn, although the original was striped using different yarns in hot flame colors and I used one variagated yarn instead. It is on page 162 in the book.

Time spent: Each of these hats took me 3.5 hours to complete.

Practicing Purl

Here is evidence that I was practicing the purl stitch.

A homeschool mom friend re-taught me the purl stitch at a homeschool park day two weeks ago.

This was my first practice, done about two weeks ago.

The skein of yarn by the Brown Sheep Company was purchased at a charity thrift shop on Cape Cod for a quarter. It is 50% cotton and 50% wool. It is odd getting used to working with a cotton blend because the cotton has a stiffness to it that is different than 100% wool. I chose to work with this because when I first tried using a variagated yarn in dark colors I realized I could not see the stitches well. Working in a lighter colored solid was much easier for me, to learn the new stitch and to be able to see what the yarn was doing more clearly.

How Much?

I had not purchased new yarn in a yarn shop in over two months.

I went in to the local yarn shop to buy a soft wool yarn (one skein) to make a hat for my husband.

Noro makes my favorite yarns. The colors are to die for.

I want to make a hat for myself out of a Noro yarn. It cost $20 for one skein (160 meters).

I really, really want a Noro sweater. Today while online I figued out that Noro sells patterns. However to make a sweater with new Noro yarn will cost me $140-$200 in yarn alone.

I feel as if I've been tortured.

Do people really spend over $100 on skeins of yarn to make one sweater?

I think I have been spoiled by the prices of factory made sweaters sold in stores.

Groan.

If you don't know what the Noro yarns look like here is a link to a site selling books of patterns. By clicking on each book you can see numerous photos of projects made with these Noro yarns.

I have been using "World of Nature" Kureyon, I just bought some Iro and Kochoran.

Wise Words on Creativity and Finding Time for Creating

Today while doing work at the computer I was listening to the Creative Mom Podcast #111 “Slippage”.

I wish I could quote what Amy says starting at the 14:00 point, where she gives a quote from a show she had done a year prior. She is speaking of finding time to be creative and busy-ness and the importance of carving out time for ourselves.

It is brilliant.

I love the part about being gentle with ourselves.

Take a listen, even if you start the show and fast-forward it to the 14:00 point.

Felted Octopus

Here is a silly octopus that I needle felted.

If you like the cool colors, the wool roving is from Peace Fleece. I had bought some extra from a friend of mine.

Almost Done Knitting This

I began knitting this in the first week of July. It was intended to be my July project. In reality I finished knitting it last night so it turned out to be a full three month project.

This is all in garter stitch as when I started the project I was having trouble learning the purl stitch.

The plan was to knit a bit rectangle then sew it into a bag such as a tote bag and then felt it.

The yarn is Noro Kureyon, 100% wool, hand painted and made in Japan. I love these colors.

I used #9 needles, first using straight metal needles then, after I bought it, transferring over to my set of interchangable bamboo circular needles.

This is my fourth knitting project since I learned to knit in May.

In the beginning I don't know what I did wrong but you can see holes or stretched spots.

I also somehow made accidential increases and so the beginning is shorter. When I realized that I had made that error I paid special attention to every stitch and the work evened out.

Also when I realized that I had holes in the work I started paying attention to every stitch and the holes stopped happening.

I lost count but I think this has a total of 4.5 skeins of yarn in it, if not, it is 5.5 skeins.

Last night after taking this photo I finished off the row, I then binded it off. Then I took swatches of similar colored yarn and tied the holes closed.

I think what I will do with this is machine or hand felt it as is and then afterwards will decide what to do with it and use the sewing machine to sew it into something.

I was disturbed to read some posts on Ravelry.com that said that the people had sewn pocketbooks and tote bags with this yarn but when it felted up it was thin and not durable or thick enough to withstand being a decent bag to actually use.

I also really loved these colors and working with this yarn. I would like to make a sweater for myself out of this Noro Kureyon yarn. Perhaps when I perfect the purl stitch I will make myself a sweater out of it.

Purling, Finally

Last week at the homeschool park day I went with two sets of knitting needles and partial projects. I begged my friend to teach me to purl. She is the only friend I have very close by who knits continental style.

She did teach me. I then spent spare moments over two days purling so I would not forget.

I had the hardest time with books and even videos.

I made sure to let my kids see that I struggled so they can see that learning is hard for adults also. My kids, and I've been told other kids think this too, think that they struggle to learn while adults have no problem. This leads them to sometimes think they are dumb and adults are brilliant. How sad is that?

Other Knitting Updates

I washed three "like new" XL cotton sweaters that belonged to my father-in-law and will frog them and will re-use the yarn. We were going to donate them to Goodwill but I asked myself why am I buying sweaters from Goodwill to frog and then donating other good sweaters to Goodwill? So anyhow three inherited sweaters are ready to frog...

Other Fiber Updates

Last night I pulled out the wool roving for the first time in a few months. The kids and I worked at it while watching the first episode of The Amazing Race season 13. It was fun to needle felt again!

Paper Crafting Notes

I have not paper crafted in so long. I have been concentrating on keeping the house decluttered and also clean. I have been doing homeschooling with the kids. We have been catching up on doctor's appointments and dentist appointments. Younger son is going to have braces put on so consults for that have been happening. Two false blood results, one for me and one for my younger son had to be investigated and retested. We are both normal, thank goodness, and don't have the problems the first blood tests thought we had. All that has been sucking up our time. Oh and in the last four weeks we went on two trips out of state for a total of 10 days. I have been on a whirlwind, it feels like.

Blogging

I need to find photos of my projects and upload them here. That has been a low priority, sorry.

Can You Not Imagine...

how a painter could literally go mad trying to paint something realistically? I imagine that trying to capture the exact coloration of this morning glory might be a huge challenge that might just make a person certifiably insane. And in a nutshell you now know why I do not paint realistic images. I don't feel that I'm capable.



Photo of morning glory flower that my younger son and I planted from seed in a container on our deck. Photo taken by ChristineMM on September 17, 2008.

Alton Bog

This is the view of the Alton Bog looking to the west from I-95.



Sunrise over the Alton Bog, near Bangor, Maine, looking east while driving down I-95 heading south to home after visiting my grandmother in northern Maine.



I never knew this was a bog and while a teen I wondered why the trees there never grew high. I had no clue, no ideas of why. At about age 20 while driving myself up to visit my grandmother, I pulled to the side of the highway and got out to investigate. I was surprised when I stepped onto the peat bog, to find it squishing under my feet and so wet. I then realized it was a bog.

Years later while reading a book I saw mention of this being the Alton Bog. A few years ago the highway department erected a sign announcing to the passersby that this is the Alton Bog.

I love looking at the Alton Bog as I drive past it, it is one of the highlights of the trip.

Technorati Tags: Alton Bog, Alton Bog Maine.

A Photo Scare

My husband bought me a digital camera for Christmas 2002. He had dreams of no more film processing and printing costs, it was done out of a desire to save money. I had made it clear I wanted no part of a digital camera. Giving to me as my Christmas gift was an affront as it was imposed on me against my will.

I barely took any photos in the beginning, still used to being thrifty with how many pictures I snapped. I also still was using film in that first year. Don’t tell him that though. Back then I didn’t trust digital cameras.

The photos from 2002 and 2003 were put onto CDs and taken off my husband’s hard drive at some point in time.

Two weeks ago my husband installed an update onto his computer. Suddenly he had no space on the disk. He decided to take the photos from 2004-2007 off his hard drive. First he backed them up to our external hard drive. I then told him if anything happened to that thing and all our photos were lost I would kill him. Literally. He then took CDs and put copies of all of those photos onto CDs.

I asked where were the CDs for 2002 and 2003 and for the week we spent in the Outer Banks which was for some odd reason, not on his hard drive. He found the old CDs, popped them into his pretty new PC and found out that, whoops, the newer computer could not read those old CDs. Actually when it happened he didn’t even tell me. I’m skipping forward too quickly, sorry. What happened was he started to act all twitchy and I could see his body language was indicating some problem was happening. At first I ignored it and kept on folding the laundry but out of the corner of my eye I saw him getting more and more antsy. Then he said something in a bad tone of voice. I then said, “Tell me what is going on. Now.”

He then admitted he could not retrieve the old photos from 2002 and 2003. I was about to lose it. Really lose it. I mean, really lose it. I took deep breaths. I walked away and busied myself doing something or other. I needed to get away from him to avoid freaking out.

He then pulled out the old laptop of his and lo and behold that CD could be read on the old laptop. He said something about the speed of the computer being too fast on the new one to read the old slow CD or something technical that I don’t understand.

He then took the oldest photos on the slow CD and put them onto our external hard drive. I asked him to put all the photos onto CDs as a second back up. So he did that. It took a long time because he had to split up the photos in odd ways to get the most photos on each CD.

Then he hit the delete button on all those photos from his hard drive. That made me nervous. Really nervous.

This is what I feared about digital photography. I feared that our technology would change so rapidly that someday we’d not be able to view those old photographs. See, my fears had a foundation; they were not a figment of my imagination.

Here are two other horror stories are that once my father-in-law only had his photos on his hard drive. Then his computer crashed, the hard drive was broken and all those photos were lost. Another time my husband’s uncle did something and lost all his photos. Fortunately my husband was able to retrieve them with a special program called Restorer 2000. The lesson in both cases is that it is a better idea to back up your photos, possibly in two places.

Technorati Tags: saving digital photos, storing digital photos.

Purl Stitch Video

I am trying yet again to learn the purl stitch.

I have been super busy, traveling, and have not had the time or energy to devote to new knitting projects. I am still working a big rectangle of garter stitch in wool yarn which I'll probably felt then afterward, sew into something.

Tonight after I climb into bed I think I'll try yet again to learn the purl stitch.

(Last week while out of state I tried teaching myself from a book yet again and failed.)

Inheriting Half Done Projects

My husband and I have been helping my mother-in-law, here and there, clean out stored items in her home since my father-in-law passed away. My mother-in-law cannot do this work herself due to her medical condition. My two brother-in-law's are 'thrower-outers'. We are trying to go through some things before one of them orders a big dumpster and just throws everything out like they keep saying they want to do.

Two things that one brother-in-law can't wait to throw out are:

1. A wool rug handmade by my husband's grandmother. When she finished it, it was warped. They tried to wash it. It mildewed before it was dried. They had it professionally cleaned and it has no mildew but it has mildew stains.

So much work went into it that my father-in-law could not bring himself to throw it away.

I have never seen the rug. I don't know what condition it is in. My husband shudders to throw it out as well. I don't know if it is worth saving.

2. My father-in-law once started to hook a rug with wool yarn. I am told he started this to pass the time when he had injured his back and was on bedrest for weeks.

The new yarn is there, saved in the cedar closet.

What now?

I know nothing about hooking rugs. I'm a packrat, sorry to admit, but to throw that out will kill me.

I have a feeling the thing will come home with me.

Oh boy, perhaps this will be yet another handcraft for me to try?

If not, I would rather give this away to someone into hooking rugs to finish off.

Smaller Stuff

We took home two half-completed latchhook kits from the late 1970s. Both are masculine themes. My boys want to finish these. They like to do latchhooking.

There are a few partially finished needlepoint kits. One is a famous scene from the college that my husband earned his MBA through.

There is an almost done petit point needlepoint seat for a dining room chair. There is a story behind that which I'll not get into at this time.

I thought I'd share this short story because some of you who are into handcrafts may also be shuddering to think of these things being thrown away.

Totally Finished First Felted Bag

This is a very imperfect first knitted item.

This is the first thing I knitted, a small felted bag.

I had trouble felting it. In June I thought it was done. In July I felt it more in the washing machine. Here it is after that second felting.

Handles for Cheap

I was in a local yarn shop looking at handles to buy for my first big felted tote bag.

The shop had large (not huge) bamboo handles for $8 for each handle. So if I wanted two handles on the bag it would cost me $16.

I would have purchased them if they matched. Oddly they had one that was kind of longer and flatter and the other was taller and more of a steep upside down U shape so they could not be used as a set on one project. Perhaps some people make a bag with one handle and then that would be fine.

The next day I went to Goodwill to make a donation and popped inside to see if they had any knitting needles, yarn or anything else of use.

I was surprised to find two handbags with bamboo handles.

The large bag cost $4 and the bag was in like-new condition. I cut the handles off the bag and will re-use them in a future knitting-felted bag project. Net, two medium sized handles for $2 each.



The small bag was brand new with the original labels still on the bag. I paid $2 for that bag. Net, two small sized handles for $1 each.



These handles will be easy to attach due to the metal clasps they have on them. I plan to use yarn and go around and around to make a thick attachment.

Some in the green living movement call this "upcycling". By purchasing things at a thift shop, things that otherwise would have been thrown away, we are putting money to a charity and re-using existing stuff for a new purpose rather than buying the item newly factory made and sold for profit by a commercial vendor for its first time use.

I did feel guilty throwing away the rest of the bag but I got over my pack rat tendencies and did throw the bags in the garbage.

I'm at Ravelry Too

For knitting networking I'm at Ravelry.com. My name there is ChristineMM (the same as here). I mention this in case you want to network with me there or look up my stash or something!

I am having problems getting photos to upload there, which is very frustrating to me. I am sure I am doing something very simple incorrectly. I'm trying to upload photos of some of my yarn stash.

I enjoy looking at what other people have made with the same yarns that I own.

I have knitted up four skeins of a yarn and it has too many mistakes that I worry won't be fixed by felting this project. I think the yarn is too beautiful and expensive to use it on a sub-par project, the more I think about it that is what I'm concluding. I am considering ripping it all apart (gasp). I'm heading over to Ravelry to see what others have made with this yarn...

Back Home & Stat Counter

I just got home from eight days out of state on vacation. I had no Internet other than five minutes at a public library one time.

We had a good time.

I missed the Internet! I wanted to look up information about going to places while away and could not do it. I realized how I use the Internet for little information look-up's not just blogging or email or for discussion groups.

I am nearly finished with one knitting project. I finished one book. I started and finished three others.

We had good family fun.

I had a problem with Site Meter the morning I was leaving town and I had to pull it off of my blog. I just reinstalled it. I usually like to peek at my blog visits that happened while I was away but now I have no data for the last eight days.

Creativity Stifled

I have been so busy with our foreign exchange student and also volunteering at day camp for about 40 hours in the last week, outdoors in the heat, that I have had little time for thinking about art or doing any crafts.

Being dog tired, physically drained, emotionally and mentally sapped, leaves no ability for creativity. The tiredness was also exacerbated by the fact that I was woken up too early (five in the morning) by various things (younger son's nightmare, on another day, the cats playing and knocking a framed print off the wall and smashing the glass front and so forth). I was so beat last week that I didn't even have energy for taking many photos while at camp. I could have cared less to snap a photo of a lovely cloud or the beautiful butterfly I saw. I had to force myself to even look at those things let alone SEE them and enjoy them. I literally forced myself to stop walking to watch a butterfly flitter and to look at the colors and I had to give myself permission to enjoy it.

I didn't knit for a week. I didn't journal. I barely blogged. I didn't watch much TV and I had no time to read a newspaper or listen to radio or TV news. I just slept at every possible moment that I was not entertaining people, taking care of home stuff (eating, cooking, laundry, pet care and so on) and volunteering.

This has me thinking that the door to creativity is not just about finding time and 'having time' but it is about having the mental and physical energy to allow creative energy to even flow.

Excited to Host a Foreign Exchange Student This Summer

In June an email was posted to a local homeschooling discussion group asking families to open their homes to a Japanese foreign exchange student for four weeks this summer. This is something I always wanted to do back since I was in high school and a number of European exchange students attended my school for a full school year, being hosted by families in my town. I had hoped that some time our family would be able to do it. We had a family meeting to discuss it. We decided to apply. After a phone and in-person interview in our home, we were approved.

As to which child will be our guest, this organization has two rules. One is that the child is the same gender as your ‘host sibling’ and the other is that they are within two or three years of age of each other. Knowing that, we were able to pick from a list with information listing the children’s personality traits and personal interests. My older son felt that all the kids would be a good fit, but it was me that narrowed it down to those who had the closest interests to my children and whose personalities I thought would make a good fit with our family (the profiles included personality traits such as shy, talkative, likes to laugh, and so on).

Later I received a phone call with a stipulation about the boy we selected that I must agree to or else would have to select a different student. I think this was the problem with getting this boy placed in a home, why he was not chosen on the first selection (we entered the process later, in phase two). He is a strict Buddhist and he does not want to see or hear prayers to Jesus Christ, such as before a mealtime. He does not want to be taken to a church or forced to attend Christian worship services. We agreed to this although it will mean that our family will have to alter our typical routine (when in reality we are supposed to take the child into our lives and live as we typically do). My older son was disappointed that he could not take him to his youth group religious education sessions at church on Sundays. I’ll have to juggle around our family’s routine, but that is okay. The organization hosting this is not meant to have these visiting students converted to the host family’s religion, I understand that. However the lack of tolerance of allowing a family to practice their own religion just in the presence of the student is a bit different for me to comprehend because here in America we are so open minded and I’m used to more tolerance. It is one thing to not want to pray but another to not even want to hear the host family praying in his presence. I’m open minded to learn more about the Buddhist lifestyle.

Not knowing much more about the student, we were curious and excited to learn more. After about a week we received a paper application in the mail which contained more information about the student as well as some photographs of him and his family. For some reason this family has not provided us with their email address so that we can communicate with them right now via email (as other families are already doing). I do wish we had that option available.

I tried buying some books about life in Japan (children’s books) but found that Amazon didn’t have many that I wanted in stock and some were obviously out of print, which was quite surprising. (I’ll take a guess. Learning about the Japanese culture is not in state’s educational plans or on the standardized test for NCLB so the books are not in demand.) I then went to two public libraries to borrow some books. I have been reading the books and my children are reading some. Our family has been learning and discussing the differences in our cultures.

My kids and I have been discussing the different things we want to explain about life in America. We have been brainstorming foods to make sure we eat for dinner and places to go, such as our favorite, farm ice cream stand and to the best pizza restaurant around here. After the boy arrives I will try to figure out his preferences and see if he has a preference about attending a baseball game, a Broadway show, seeing sights in New York City or Boston, touring Yale University’s campus, and/or museum trips. Our family does do all those things so these are all in line with our normal lives. I would prefer that we do the things he has an interest in.

Then later we received a letter from the student and his mother. They were worried as the date is fast approaching and the boy had no placement. They are relieved now. I had been told the children speak English but the letter from both his mother and the boy says that the boy speaks very little English. I got a little nervous. We wrote letters back and explained some about what we will be doing while he is here. I included photos of our family to show more of what we are like.

A few days later we received a letter from the boy’s father and two more family photos. This letter again stated the boy speaks little English and he asks me to praise his son on his English speaking abilities. Since the boy says he is shy, I take this to mean that with encouragement he will feel freer to use his English. At this point with all the mentions of his challenges with speaking English I’m getting a little worried.

At an orientation meeting one family mentioned they purchased an electronic translator gadget for about $130. I envisioned something that I could type a sentence into and it would translate. I spent about an hour on the Internet investigating options but from what I figured those devices are little more than electronic dictionaries. They do not translate sentences. Some have phrases that are common in travel, such as for an English speaking person to use to ask a waiter for food when visiting Japan. Perhaps it might say “where is the restroom” when I need it to say “do you need to use the restroom before we leave for a two hour drive”. The expensive ones talk, which is useful for the example I just gave. Some run upwards of $500 but still they don’t translate full sentences. I settled for a good print dictionary instead (about $11) and am also getting a “point and speak” dictionary with images of many things that happen in normal daily life along with the English and Japanese words for the pictured item. That book is published by a United Kingdom company and is not really available in America; the only Internet provider I could find was company in Japan, with slow yet expensive shipping times. I mentioned this to the program coordinator (it is good to say such things) and found out they sell it in a Japanese shop in Manhattan, which she happened to be visiting the next day, so she picked up copies for everyone at the meeting that wanted them.

I was impressed and a bit envious at the meeting when I saw that a small group of homeschool mom friends were all hosting an exchange student. Two people were even sisters. They all live close to each other and plan to spend lots of time together. I knew some of them a little bit through homeschooling circles, they all live over an hour away from me. Some of them did this last year and they said it worked out great as the Japanese teens could talk to each other and it helped them not get lonely. As a matter of fact this group will be doing a camping trip together. I wish I could convince a group of my friends to do this together so we could hang out as a larger group!

I am both excited to expose this child to the American lifestyle and interested to learn more about life in Japan. Of course I want this student to have a realistic and positive opinion of Americans. It feels strange to feel that our family will be a major influence in this student’s opinion of our country and of American people (a bit frightening to be honest). What I will be concentrating on is who we are as people, how we treat each other (with respect), being kind and being just ourselves. I would like to somehow convey that in America we don’t have the same class system especially including that women are NOT second class citizens as they are in Japan. I also want him to see typical American life, daily life routines and how we go about living. To that end I am keeping our schedule as normal with an orthodontist visit for one son, a mammogram for me and a visit to the barber. I am not interested in showing off material wealth or giving him a full American history education.

As to what this visitor can teach us, I expect this to be a learning experience for me, my husband and my children too.

One thing that I have been doing is looking at our entire house and thinking about our lifestyle, trying to see it through new eyes. I noticed clutter that seemed invisible before. I noticed dust on places that have eluded the last cleaning, and I even found a few (small) stray Christmas decorations that somehow never got put away. I am trying to view our home as it may look through the eyes of not just a stranger but someone who will judge the American lifestyle on what this one house looks like and how this household is run. Yikes.

To make a good impression, I have been working to finish up some projects that I’ve procrastinated on, such as ridding the house of piles of papers. I have tidied up the overflowing books on most of the bookshelves and gotten rid of yet more books. I finished the playroom reorganization, because that is where the visitor will sleep. I had to rearrange furniture to make a good spot for the bed to be set up. We got rid of lots of toys that our children outgrew or are no longer using. My older son’s bedroom was entirely reorganized and straightened up as well as deep-cleaned. I’m even working on the clutter in my own bedroom. All the bathrooms are being scrubbed from top to bottom. The last thing on the list will probably not get done by the time he is here. That is to finish moving books around for next year’s homeschooling. Right now the family library has stacks of books on the coffee table about a foot high and the two end tables are stacked. Other books are stacked in neat piles on the floor. Perhaps I can continue that project after he gets here, or perhaps that will have to wait until after he goes.

I hope the student has a good time here and is happy to be here. I would hate for the teen to have a problem and put on a false face just to be polite. From what I read and have been told in the Japanese culture it is a sign of immaturity to show emotion on one’s face or to express emotion verbally. To have a more serious face and to be very polite is more important than being truthful about how one feels. If a person is given a food that tastes terrible to them they also would eat it and would not say anything and would even say they liked it. The focus on being polite to others is more important than having a person’s emotions known to others or one’s internal happiness. This is so opposite of the way American children are and the way many American adults are! I’d like to explain at least to the boy that in America open expression of emotion or opinions is welcomed, even if he cannot do it himself. Apparently it is a sign of maturity to mask one’s feelings, facial expressions and body language.

The last thing I’m worried about is giving my kids some down time by themselves. I’m worried especially for my older son to feel over-taxed by keeping the boy company and ‘being on duty’ all day long. To that end I have prepared a separate room for this boy to use as his bedroom. I am told that sometimes the Japanese exchange students prefer to sleep in more crowded, shared quarters with their host sibling(s). However I think at the end of the day my son needs some quiet time, as he does right now, to read in bed alone and to have lights off when he is ready for it. We’ll see how that pans out.
It is interesting to hear reactions that some people have when they hear that we are going to have a foreign exchange student in our home. Some say they would never open their home or give their time in this way. I don’t have a problem with using my time in this way or sharing our life with a child, my biggest worry is the ability to communicate and if the child’s personality will be compatible with our family.

I can’t help but assume that many positive things will come from this experience. I don’t know what interests or doors this may open for my boys but you never know. Maybe it will result in them being more interested to learn a foreign language, for example, that is the type of thing I am hoping they take away from this, as well of course, as learning about another culture and realizing that people are people and we more alike than different even when living across the world from each other and even living with different cultural beliefs. I hope the core common foundation of kindness and friendship will be established between us.

We are so excited about this opportunity!

Note About Blogging This Experience

For privacy reasons I don’t plan to blog about the details of the hosting experience while it is happening, nor will I share photographs of the Japanese foreign exchange student. I do not plan to mention this hosting experience again until it is over and then MAYBE I will blog some general information or some thoughts that don’t directly relate to the student that we hosted in our home after it is over though. I plan to maintain confidentiality and privacy out of respect for the student. Depending on how it goes my blogging may also occur less often as we prepare for this experience, as well during that time.

Technorati Tags: hosting a foreign exchange student, homeschooling.