I didn’t get out this morning to take a photograph. Not sure why but I didn’t so here’s a photo from yesterday that seems appropriate for today. Mothers/’s/s’ Day. Maine has been experiencing the Aurora Borealis storm that much of the northern part of the country has been but we’ve missed it at our house … the first night because we were too tired to stay up late and last night because of thick cloud cover. Maybe tonight it’ll happen for us?

Today is Mother’s Day (singular) in the USA. A day to honor our mothers when we should be honoring them every day since they gave us life. But I learned something today from Heather Cox Richardson about the origin of Mothers’ Day. Professor Richardson says that Mothers’ Day (plural)

… “actually started in the 1870s, when the sheer enormity of the death caused by the Civil War and the Franco-Prussian War convinced writer and reformer Julia Ward Howe that women must take control of politics from the men who had permitted such carnage. Mothers’ Day was not designed to encourage people to be nice to their mothers. It was part of women’s effort to gain power to change society.”

You can read more here: https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/may-11-2024

I’ve been receiving HCR’s Letters From an American since its inception and have learned a lot about the history of our country and how what’s happening today fits or doesn’t. Today’s post talks about Julia Ward Howe, who wrote the Battle Hymn of the Republic and who hoped after the Civil War to have women keep their new role as participants in national affairs. But the 14th Amendment established Black men as citizens and didn’t specifically mention women. Howe had an abusive husband and if she left him, her children would belong to him. Her activism lead her to believe that mothers were the only way to stop war; wrote an Appeal to Womanhood Throughout the World, organized a Woman’s Peace Movement and Mothers’ Day events to encourage women to speak up and speak out because she realized that a woman’s life didn’t have to revolve around a man, that they should share human rights and responsibilities equally with men. A fitting reminder today that women must make their voices heard and they must have the same rights as men.

I thought I’d update you all on my knitting WIPs. They only seem to be growing and not much is being finished. I seem to have a case of castonitis. (For those non-knitters, it’s when you start a bunch of projects which in knitting is called casting on.) I have cast on another Emotional Support Chicken and a sweater gift for a sweet mother-to-be and I have two more sweaters for little people that I want to knit and bought the yarn for because I don’t have the right yarn … of course.

I have two FOs. One is a bit older than the other but I’m showing them side by side for the size difference. On the left is my worsted weight ESC and on the right is the DK weight ESC. The one on the right will be going to my granddaughter. I will likely be knitting another one because we’re doing a window display for the summer … a chicken coop. Ha! Ha! We’ve asked our customers to participate in a Chicken-along, we stole the idea from Franklin Habit who is doing the same, and we’ve asked to borrow the chickens for our window. I hope we’ll collect a few! This pattern is so much fun to knit and there’s an equally charming crochet pattern. I made the first one just for fun and then made a second one who’s gone to live in Florida with a dear friend and the third I made with one 50g ball of Plymouth Dream Baby Paintbox. I used the same pattern as the worsted weight chicken and a US3 knitting needle. I love her!

Remaining on my needles, however, there are several active and several passive WIPs. The active ones, ones that I will actually pick up and work on over the last couple of weeks are coming first.

In the order in which they appear … My Jelly Roll Blanket is half-way up (down?) the third strip. I was working on it while on a zoom meeting with my friends from college on Friday night and did something screwy and had to frog a few rows, and then a few more, reknit a few, frog a few … not sure why I couldn’t get the stitches back on the needles successfully, but there you go. Today I was watching an Arne & Carlos YouTube video and got it fixed and then continued knitting almost to where I had originally made the mistake. I think I’m going to like this crazy patchwork-y scrap buster!

A new cast on. I have a young woman in my life who I mentored when we both lived in Florida and she was a student at my local school. I fell in love with her as a ten-year-old and love her still today as a young woman and soon a mother of three boys. I cast on this sweater to send to baby #3 who is due in a few weeks. I’ll have to head to Target or somewhere to find a little something to send to the big brothers, too. The sweater is an oldie but a goodie – it was in a magazine in 1982 and is out of print but we have a very poor copy of the pattern at work and I’ve used it a few times. I’ve chosen Cascade’s washable/dry-able acrylic and wool blend Pacific Print to knit the Zip Up A Baby Sweater. Since the yarn is multi-colored, I decided to do the plain front and sleeves rather than the cabled one. The yarn is busy enough!

My second pair of Hermione’s Everyday socks are coming along slowly. I finished the first sock and have started the second. This yarn was deeply stashed ages ago but it was calling my name. I love this pattern and even mentioned it to a customer at the store on Thursday who was going to knit her first pair of socks. (I didn’t suggest it as her first pair. I suggested she use the Yankee Knitter sock pattern for her first pair and when she’s ready, she can branch out.) Anyway, the socks travel with me to work and when we’re out and about.

I’m knitting a little cotton sundress for Sylvie. I couldn’t resist this dress when I saw the pattern and I am loving it. The pattern is Sunbeam Kids Dress (on Ravelry) and I’m making slow but sure progress. It’s still too cold for Sylvie to wear it so I’m ok here. I suspect she won’t be wearing it for a while since our weather has been so bizarre. I am hearing rumbles that we might get snow next week? Are you kidding me?

The Oorik Tank Top (vest) has been languishing in the project bag. I have exactly one sleeve opening to finish and I haven’t touched it. I think it would take me less than an hour to pick up the stitches around the steek and knit a few rounds of ribbing but I haven’t done it. No reason, no excuses. I’d like to say that I will finish it this week but I’m not a liar. Ha! Ha!

And last but not least, the Fiddlehead Mittens. I’ve started the first lining and have reached the thumb gusset but I’m more interested in knitting baby sweaters than knitting mitten linings apparently. So it goes. They’ll get done one of these days. I’m working on keeping my sanity and not fretting about not finishing things. It’s all good.

I’ve still got the pink mittens and Three Seasons Cardigan in “time out” and they’re not really even on my radar right now. My knitting mojo has been a bit “off” and I’m trying to just go with the flow and knit what speaks to me. There’s a time for everything in its time.

We celebrated Mother’s Day here with a trip to our favorite Longfellow’s Garden Center in Manchester, Maine. We bought some new compost and soil for the new raised garden bed and we bought flowers to fill the window box and the bee pot in the door yard.

The term door yard is used a lot here in Maine and it helps me because we two main doors in our house – one at the lake side of the house that leads to the porch and the other at the back of the house that we go in and out of from the driveway and yard. We aren’t sure which is really our “front” or “back” door so I’ve decided to use the “door yard” for the (technically) back door which is the main entrance door that would typically be termed the “front” door. It’s confusing. But they’re pretty and cheerful now and let’s hope the weather stays reasonably warm because some of them need to be hardened off and some are already. If it decides to snow, I’ll pull them in. Let’s hope it doesn’t snow.

Gone knitting!