once and done.

i am daily reminded of what a privilege and blessing it is to be a full time wife, mother and homemaker. although the financial sacrifices that come with only one income are often a concern, we are commited to this old-fashioned lifestyle.

i truly love being at home, and strive every day to be more organized and efficient, running the household and the myriad of details that go with it to the best of my ability. i feel God's pleasure when i do it well.

but to be totally honest, sometimes it's hard not to get discouraged and/or frustrated. almost everything i do is something that i will need to do again tomorrow. now, I'm not complaining, just saying is all. no matter how much (or how well) i cook, clean, do laundry, feed animals, change diapers... it all starts again tomorrow. or sooner.

that's why i love knitting so much. a friend taught me how almost 18 years ago, and I've been hooked ever since. i can knit and purl to my heart's content, and (as long as i guard my knitting needles from curious little hands) what I've knit and purled will stay knit and purled. it's very satisfying, relaxing and therapeutic.

but these days i don't have much time to knit anything too complicated. so a few weeks ago, on one of my infrequent forays into town, i bought this rather large cone of variegated yellow cotton yarn. i could feel my fingers itching to start knitting something, and what a perfect opportunity to make some new dishcloths for our new kitchen!

the pattern is an old classic and quite simple:

CO 3 stitches
K 1 row
*K 1, YO, knit to end of row*
repeat from * to * until 50 stitches on needle
*K 2 tog, YO, K 2 tog, knit to end of row*
repeat from * to * until 5 stitches on needle
K 2 tog, YO, K 2 tog
K 3
bind off

I've been knitting a bit every day, and now have 5 dishcloths to show for it. the first 4 on the left, i only knitted up to 42 stitches. the bigger cloth on the right was knitted until i reached 50 stitches on the needle. i think i like the bigger size better. I'm planning on saving the new dishcloths until we get our new counter top installed. i still don't have a sink in the kitchen, so I'll have two things to celebrate when that finally gets done- water in the kitchen, and new dishcloths!

what an exciting (but blessed) life i lead!