Yarn Along

Oct. 16, Feast of St. Hedwig, maternal aunt to St. Elizabeth of Hungary, widow and religious.  She lived a life of poverty and humility, despite being the wife and daughter of nobility, and went often barefoot, even in winter.  When her husband, the Duke of Silesia, gave her a pair of shoes and insisted she not be without them, she carried them under her arm.  After he died, she renounced all worldly goods and joined they monastery they founded together, where her daughter Gertrude was abbess.  St. Hedwig is patroness of Bavaria, brides, duchesses, death of children, marital problems, Silesia, victims of jealousy, and widows.  Also, I should think, of Harry Potter fans.

Here we are, still getting over the flu.  But the flu is not the flu, says the doctor.  It's only an upper respiratory infection, which means that we could still get the flu.  Lovely!

I'm way overdue on a Harry Potter book club post, so procrastination is definitely in order (thanks to Jenna for yet another free period!).  I adore Ginny Sheller's blog Small Things and finally have something to link up, since being bedridden does not lend itself to much more than reading, and when that causes headache, crocheting is a practical alternative.  I haven't crocheted in over a year, so to get used to it again and practice my stitches, I made this simple scarf--no pattern, nothing fancy, just a single strip of worked yarn, in a pretty autumn auburn.

I'm hoping to work myself up to a confidence level to attempt a baby afghan or two--I've got another nephew (this one through marriage) due any day now!  Eventually, I want to set the wool yarn I spun last spring and make something of that, too.

For reads, I mentioned last week that I checked out The Great Heresies from our parish library.  Belloc's keen observations are prophetic.  You get the lightning bolt about why he and Chesterton were friends at lines like this:

Heresy, then, is not a fossil subject.  It is a subject of permanent and vital interest to mankind because it is bound up with the subject of religion, without some form of which no human society ever has endured, or ever can endure.  Those who think that the subject of heresy may be neglected because the term sounds old-fashioned and because it is connected with a number of disputes long abandoned, are making the common error of thinking in words instead of ideas.

It's that unapologetic masculine tone that Chesterton shares, to which I am always so drawn, fortified, as by the voice of God--something like lions roaring, and trumpets that sound in the fortress towers to announce the dawn.