A Yarn Along and a Baby Shower Update!

The best.  
That is what all of you guys are.  THE BEST.  When I was planning this baby shower for Sarah I admit, a little part of me was nervous that people wouldn't be that into it.  Was it too much to ask people to give toward a gift?  Would anyone even sign up for the prayer calendar?   

Oh my, I am downright silly.  THANK YOU all so much for your gifts for Sarah and her boys.  People are so generous and as of this morning we have raised $460 to diaper those baby boy bottoms!!!!  That is a LOT of diapers and I know Sarah and Andy are so grateful for every single one.  And the prayers are even better.  We've filled up July, August, and half of September.  If you click into the calendar, you'll have to click into September to find an open date to claim (open dates are in RED!).  What a tremendous witness to the Body of Christ.  

If you haven't yet joined in on our shower and gotten a chance to win one of those fantastic prizes (a few more have been added since I originally posted!), click on over to join in the fun and celebrate these babies!

Onto a Yarn Along on this fine Wednesday morning with the lovely Ginny (who just announced that SHE'S expecting a little bundle of boy as well!)...

I realized I don't often post pictures of completed projects and instead some shapeless mess of yarn still on the needles.  I've been knitting a lot of baby hats lately but for John Paul's birthday I finished up the Knitted Chainmail Hauberk (No, I didn't know that word before either.).  This was that project that I had originally planned for a Christmas gift and I had planned to make one for each of the three older boys.  And I ran out of time.  I knitted about half of John Paul's and then it sat for six months.  I think it worked out perfectly, though, since on John Paul's birthday list what did it say?  Pretend chainmail.  Procrastination pays off sometimes?  I finished it up in the days leading up to his birthday and I am so glad I did.  He LOVES it. 


  Several times on the day of his party he made it a point to tell me how much he liked it which was awesome.  ("When I opened it, at first I thought it was a sweater and I was like, "oh, that's good, I need a sweater."  And then I realized what it was and I was so happy I couldn't even remember what it was called!"  Heart melted again...)  It's already getting a lot of use and unfortunately, even looking a bit fuzzy in spots.  Is there a way to prevent that?  Is that just to be expected when you use (cheap) wool yarn?  There's still so much I don't know about knitting and the basics of fiber arts.  I'm not too upset about it because it is made for play after all.  It just adds to my hesitation to take on a nice sweater or something because I don't want to do all that work and yarn cost only to have it looking worn and messy after a few wears, you know?

Most of my reading has been with the boys lately.  I did read Teaching in Your Tiara, the new homeschooling book by the lovely Rebecca Frech (ahem, and the one you can WIN over at Sarah's shower!) and I have Ten Ways to Destory the Imagination of Your Child sitting on the piano waiting for me to open it.  With the boys we've been working through the next Wilder book By the Shores of Silver Lake.  I have to say, this one I haven't been enjoying as much as the others.  The boys still seem to like it, though, and I want to make sure we don't skip anything in the series so we'll finish.  Brian has started The Hobbit with Michael and David and The Fellowship of the Ring with John Paul.  I love seeing them read together and love LOVE that the boys are discovering the magic of these stories.

Hope you have a wonderful Wednesday and click on over to Ginny's for more Yarn Along!
(ooh, also gonna link up with Jessica for her new What We're Reading Wednesday!)

13 comments

  1. The chainmail looks great. Does he ever take it off? I can imagine him wearing it everyday.

    So glad the shower is going well. Maybe you can include some finger sandwich & dessert recipes so people can have their party treats, too.
    Grandma & Grumpy

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    1. Ummmm, no. One of the best benefits of hosting an online shower is that I don't have to have a fancy menu or clean my house ;)

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  2. Oh this little knight's tunic is adorable. I also made one for my biggest boy years ago...now it may be time to knit up another for the littlest. He sure looks brave and true!
    xo Jules

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  3. What a fun project and wonderful that it was so well received! Lucky boy :o)

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  4. how very cool for him! I know some little one who would also LOVE this...

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  5. His reaction to the gift is even cuter than the picture!!! You're the best!

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  6. This is craziness! Wonderful craziness! You all are just crazy wonderful. :)

    You are going to LOVE Esolen's book, Mary. It is sosososososo good.

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  7. Oh my goodness!!! Your little knight is absolutely adorable and that pattern looks fantastic. As for the yarn looking fuzzy, I've had that experience with wool so I usually use wool blended with cotton or some other fiber. (Just my 2 cents.)

    Silver Lake was my least favorite of the Wilder books, but it's great that your boys are enjoying it. And yay for Tolkein love!
    ~Willow

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  8. Yes, I was going to suggest cotton for the chainmail. It looks awesome! With many godsons, I may have to make some myself. That's the second time today I've heard about Ten Ways to Destroy Your Child's Imagination, I'm not a big non-fiction reader, but I might have to check that out. Thanks for linking up!

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  9. Read all of those titles with my boys, and I have to say, those are some of the happiest times of my life.

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  10. Hello! This shower you're hosting is just super wonderful! Such blessings for Sarah, and for all of us to be able to lift her up in prayer and help out materially as well.
    Your hauberk is fabulous and your little guy looks awesome with his sword! My guys are all grown up now and have real maille they made themselves some years ago (one of them started with a crocheted coif before they learned to 'knit' the real stuff). I love seeing the pictures of your boys!

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    1. Oh wow! So neat that they made real maille! (And I didn't know you could spell it like that!) I bet my little guy would be fascinated by that! Thank you so much for stopping by!

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