at home: cooking, knitting, dreaming, rambling

katie's legacy bread, again. 

we've been home for over a week now. i'd like to say that all is going swimmingly but the transition is resulting in rather grizzly bouts of mood swings for all of us. i feel like i'm yelling all the time and i don't like it. the kids have gotten used to being outside all the time and our need to keep them indoors so we can keep house isn't working very well. and i was all zen about doing things one thing at a time in the forest but now that i'm home, i can't help but will myself to grow another 3 pairs of arms. i seem to have all too quickly lost my centre and need to re-frame my state of mind. so many things to do, so little time. so many things i want to do, so not happening. that's the trouble  challenge with the blessings of work and family: finding balance and rhythm to the extent that as many necessary needs as possible are met at the same time. 

in an effort to bring myself back to centre and meet some of my family's needs - including mine - i have, of course, been knitting. the boy's sweater is blocked and finished, which pleases me to no end. 

better photos, anon. i promise.

i have also found myself in the kitchen: baking bread and eating tomatoes and green beans freshly picked from our teeny garden.

roma and heirloom cherry tomatoes with green beans 

the kids love to help and feel included in kitchen decisions. and i really love having them in there.  i made katie's legacy bread again to better success, i think. the recipe makes 4 loaves and i let the boy do what he wanted with a quarter of the dough.  those little loaves were devoured immediately after this photo was taken, plain

the next morning, the boy requested pizza for breakfast with the bread he made. i made garlic bread by rubbing garlic on the partially toasted bread, added cheese, and broiled until the cheese melted: a breakfast hit (we ate all the tomatoes).

i have been itching for a walk to the river beach but time and tide really hasn't allowed it. 

my baby cousin (she's 27) was in town for a conference so we've spent as much time as we could with her before she returned to toronto. i took very few pictures. i just wanted to focus my energy on her precious company. she's getting married next year to a boy (he's 28) she's loved since she was 15. she has chosen the wife and i as her candle sponsors, the boy as her coin bearer, and the girl as her flower girl. we are so honoured to be part of it all. she's the closest i have to a baby sister (i have 2 younger brothers) and we've been connected since she was born. we've always been there for each other. 

i am extremely proud of the woman she has become and feel privileged to know her. she's so good to my kids. and i just can't help but love her more because she loves them so much. so naturally, while she was here, i took a break from all the sweater knitting to knit her a hat.

this is my second renfrew (the first was for me!) and i will attest that it is such a fun, fast, and easy knit. in fact, i still plan on knitting piles of hats in this pattern as christmas gifts. this time, i used anzula for better or for worsted in mauve (from the stash). 

anzula for better or worsted is probably my favourite plied yarn of all. its cashmere-merino blend makes it just like butter to knit with. the cashmere in the yarn gives it a melting hand that enhances the softness of the merino; and the bit of nylon in there makes the yarn almost bounce back slight when you're knitting, which made it feel as though the hat i was making was knitting itself.

as you can see, the yarn results in lovely stitch definition, made even more beautiful by its luminous hand-dyed depth of colour. i dream of sweater quantities of this yarn, it is so delicious. 

and on that wistful note, i must come down from my anzula cloud and return to my responsibilities. 

i am happy to be home. i am grateful for my bed, my job, my family, my life. there is much to keep me in the here and now. but i can't help but steal away a few moments here and there to dream - of yarn, of time outside, and of change. after all, "a change is as good as a rest." and i don't dare disagree with the dowager countess of downton abbey.