laughing out loud

I'm listening to Rainbow Valley and this made me laugh out loud:

"As for Norman Douglas, he is a perfect heathen. When the last minister asked him why he never went to church he said, 'Too many ugly women there parson, too many ugly women.' I should like to go to such a man, Mrs. Doctor dear, and say to him solemnly, 'There is a hell.'" - Susan Baker.

from Brighton Rock

"He said, 'You can't conceive, my child, nor can I or anyone else the ... appalling ... strangeness of the mercy of God.'"

yarn along

This week's yarn along is all business, business, business. I'm finishing off the second sock in the pair I'm making for my Dad's birthday. His birthday is tomorrow. If only we lived in the same country they would be right on time... unfortunately Royal Mail and the USPS will determine how late they actually are... And I'm reading (well, skimming for relevant details is more accurate) Young Children's Personal, Social, and Emotional Development and Observing Children and Young People. Lots of paper writing coming up in the next several weeks...

turning heels and the life of pi

This week I'm knitting a pair of socks for my Dad's birthday. (They're gonna be late, bother!) This is my first pair of socks and I'm just getting ready to turn the heel. Fingers crossed!

I'm reading The Life of Pi for my book club this month. The club is meant to be focused on classics and while I love this book I'm not sure it quite qualifies as that, yet. It's been a few years since I read it and I don't want to give any thin away (especially as there's no know how accurate my memory may be.) So I will just say that it is a beautiful and beautifully written story. It is self described as a story that will make you believe in God.

On this reading I'm intrigued by the descriptions of Jesus by Hindu eyes and I love this quote:

"The presence of God is the finest of rewards."

All the other lovely yarn along posts can be read here.

world book day

Fern, Wilbur, and Charlotte heading out the door for World Book Day!

pig pieces and the peace process

This week I've knitted up a pink piggy. Tomorrow is World Book Day and I'm dressing up as Fern from Charlotte's Web. Hopefully my Wilbur will be stuffed and sewn together in time to accompany me to nursery tomorrow!

I'm reading The Real Peace Process, Worship, Politics, and the End of Sectarianism by Siobhan Garrigan. Still in the beginning chapters, but excited about what's to come!

If you'd like to see all the other lovely knitting projects and interesting books in this week's Yarn Along you can find them here.

knitting and reading

I missed last week's yarn along due purely to laziness. I'm coming into the last few days of my mid term break and I have done exactly that, have a break, so wonderful. Anyway, this week I'm reading Brooklyn by Colm Toibin. I picked it up in a charity shop last week. Several things about it caught my eye: Irish author, a girl living in another country away from home, the process of making your home in a strange place. I'm not very far into it yet but this quote caught my attention: "...the rest of her life would be a struggle with the unfamiliar." I've very much been feeling like this the last few weeks. Don't get me wrong, I love it here in Belfast and I'm so thankful to be here, and I don't really want to be anywhere else. Just sometimes living in another culture is tiring and I've been feeling the wear and tear of it.
On my needles today is a Jewel Cowl in a lovely shade of green. The yarn is part bamboo and it's so silky and soft! I got it in a yarn swap my local stitch 'n bitch club held at Christmas, bonus! I'm making this for my mom, but it's a surprise so don't tell!

unreasonable lengths

I've had a lot of people comment on "how good" I am with children. I've been told I "have a gift." I usually pass these comments off with an awkward smile and a shrug of the shoulders. In my mind it was simple; I've been taking care of children since I was a child, it's fun (way more fun than a sales position), I'm taking care of someone else's children (which is a huge responsibility), and I'm being paid good money. Most of all, it's something that comes naturally to me, yes I'm always learning and growing and getting better at it, but I've never had to work hard or really struggled with it. But I guess I'm coming to realise that doesn't mean that being "good with children" is an easy thing or something to take for granted or pass off as not a big deal. And at the risk of sounding like I'm tooting my own horn, the more I'm studying the more I'm realising, I am good with children. I'm reading "Child Development a First Course" by Kathy Sylva and Ingrid Lunt which is an introduction to the psychology of child development and a lot of the observations and recommendations they're making are things that I've always done, intuitively I guess. Maybe this is it, maybe I've realised what my "thing" is. How exciting!

Anyway I really just wanted to share this quote because I love it! It's from the chapter on substitute mothers, i.e. foster/adoptive parents, childminders, day nurseries (those are all British words, think nannies and daycare centres):

"It has been suggested that the crucial characteristic of the parental role is its partiality for the individual child; the child needs to know that to someone he matters more than other children, and that someone will go to unreasonable lengths, not just reasonable ones, for his sake."

How great is that?

yarn along

This is the third, and final, week I'll be posting Ishbel as my knitting WIP for the yarn along. I only have nine rows to go so hopefully it isn't overconfidence to say that by this time next week it will be all done and maybe even finished blocking! As for reading I just started Evening Class by Maeve Binchy. I'm not expecting anything more than a fun read but I found it at the £ Shop and that was too good of a deal to pass up!

yarn along

Another week, another yarn along. I just think this is such a lovely idea! (Even if my photographs leave a bit to be desired.) I'm reading Child Development - A First Course (for school obviously). We've been told many times that we should be reading more than just our text books so I finally decided I should take them at their word. I find child development to be a fascinating subject. Much more interesting than many of the other things we've been studying this year like legislation and health and safety regulations.

I'm still plugging away on the Ishbel. I'm coming into the home stretch and am so looking forward to seeing it finished. It's all bunched up on my needles now so binding off will be a big unveiling!

two of my favourite things

Today I am participating in my first yarn along! That means a post which combines two of my favourite things, knitting and reading. Currently I'm reading Pickwick Papers by Dickens and loving it. I should be finished already as it was for my book club which met to discuss it yesterday. I didn't quite make it although I'm less than 100 pages away. I'm knitting Ishbel by Ysolda Teague which is my first foray into lacework. So far I'm loving it, although I've discovered that it isn't the best project to bring along to stitch and bitch. Tinking sl1, k2tog, psso is not a very fun thing. This is definitely a knit while alone project. Audio books anyone?

the books of 2010

Here they are, in no particular order, the books I read in 2010. It's not quite as many as I usually manage, but considering all that's happened in the last year, that one of them is War and Peace and that I'm studying I decided that 47 is a perfectly respectable number!