in the forest at dusk

The other day I got an email from Goodreads with my 2017 reading tally. The year's not finished yet, there are still pages to be turned and books to add, so I'm not going to link to it just yet, but it did make me think about all of my 2017 accomplishments. All those seeds I've planted, all those miles I've driven, all those weeds I've pulled, all those lunches I've made, all those podcasts I've listened to, all those words I've written....

2017 feels like it's been a productive year. Despite my wish for a simple life, growth just happened. I guess that's what being alive is all about. Moving forward, trying to do better, trying to learn, trying to teach, trying to grow.

I look forward to thinking about and blogging some of the tallies and some of the things we achieved in the past 12 months over the next couple of Fridays as the year comes to a close, but for now these photos are of the girls modelling the two wraps I knitted this year.

I took these photos to add to my Ravelry projects page to try to work out my knitting tally for 2017. (My desk might be a crazy mess, but at least my Ravelry page will be neat and ordered.) These photos were taken last Sunday evening straight after a trip into town to the supermarket, but a bit before the bugs started biting. One of the wraps was knitted for Indi and worn to school all through last winter. And the other was knitted for my mum and only given to her last Monday.

I love that my Mum saw her granddaughter in skinny jeans, Blundstone boots, a linen shirt and her wrap and decided that she wanted one of her own.

These photos make me so happy because they remind me of the origins of this blog when it was purely a craft record. Each time I'd finish something I'd get the girls to model it for the photos. Long before high school and long commutes and homework and boyfriends.

The details for Indi's wrap are here.
The details for my mum's wrap are here.

As well as traipsing through the forest at dusk snapping photos of girls in knitwear, this week I watched and really loved My Mother's Lost Children.

I also watched and cried my eyes out at this short film called I have a message for you.

On Tuesday we celebrated 18 years of marriage!

On Tuesday while mowing the middle apple orchard I listened to all three parts of 36 Questions - a musical in a podcast. A few years ago I'd heard a Modern Love podcast about those same 36 questions and was somewhat intrigued.

So on Tuesday night when we went out for dinner to celebrate our anniversary we asked each other and answered Arthur Aron's 36 questions. Well most of them anyway. It's one thing to use them to fall in love in the first place, and quite another to ask them of someone you've loved and lived with for almost 21 years.

This week I've been reading Roxane Gay's Hunger and thinking a lot about my perception of my physical body and also about how much space people take up.

I cast off my tree socks, ravelled here.

I opened a box full of information for my flower farming course starting early next year.

I ordered some cord to further my macrame obsession.

I bought and planted a couple of rows of flowering plants.

And I ate strawberries, and salads, and broad beans and peas.

This week we're celebrating our three girls who have had wonderfully successful school years.

We're loving the thought of six weeks off from the school commute.

We're planting and weeding and watering.

And while I'm hiding in our bedroom typing this Bren and Jobbo are putting the finishing touches on the deck that comes out from the sun-room and goes all along the front of our house (photos soon)(check my instagram story if you're too impatient to wait til next week), Jazzy and Pepper are painting on face masks and Indi is vacuuming the carpet for her birthday party tonight. I'd better hurry up and publish this so I can go and help her with the preparations.

I hope you have a beautiful weekend my friends.
Can you believe there are only two Fridays left for this year?
Are you starting to think about your bests, and worsts, and tallies for 2017?
Do you want to come and help me make a flower crown and string up the fairy lights?

Big love to you lovers!
See you next week.

Love Kate x