One of the most obvious (to me) things that I left out of my last post on the Knitting for Peace book, is that the peace she speaks of serves not only the recipients. The peace that is gained from dong good in the world and the chance for the quiet mind that I get when knitting is a blessing to me. So, my gift to another actually results in a gift to myself. So, charity knitting is an amazing circle of blessings that I highly recommend.
Just my two cents, for what it’s worth.
I actually have a couple of posts that I need to write, but just haven’t gotten around to it….mainly because I hate uploading photos to this thing. WordPress doesn’t really make the photo part very easy.
Anyway, I met Betty Christiansen of Knitting for Peacefame a little over a week ago. I attended the Preemie Project Craft-A-Thon at the U of Iowa Hospital. I went after work thinking I would take Grey with me and we would sit and knit a bit. I wanted her to see that something as simple and as enjoyable as knitting can be a way of giving to others. She got to see the booties I made and gave to the project. It gave me a chance to talk to her a bit about doing for others….something I think is vital in the development of a person’s character. Anyway, we show up and find about 200-300 girls scouts learning to knit. It was part fo the day. This gave girls scouts an opportunity to learn about the project and how to knot. Hopefully many of these young women will do some service work for this project. Anyway, I found Anne from Crazy Girl in the middle of about 10-12 girls being barraged with questions. She looked like she needed a hand so I sat down and offered to help. Grey and I wound up with 4-5 girls being our best buddies for the rest of the night. Once grey had her fill Henry picked her up. Then the girls scouts left. At the end of the night Betty Christiansen spoke about the joys of knitting for people you don’t know. Her book is filled with about 15 different groups who are bringing comfort to people around the block or around the world one stitch at a time. I’m such a dweeb I had to have my picture taken with her. I guess she si my first knitting celebrity. It’s funny, I have no desire to meet famous people unless I think they have something to say. She does have something to say, so I was happy to meet her. The Preemie Project Link is on my side bar….check it out.
In other knitting news…my hubby has completed his first knitted object. I have photographic evidence to support this statement! It is below. Henry had a project in books arts for a mobius. It could be made out of any material he chose. For some reason he decided to go for the yarn and needles. The photo below is his first attempt. It did not felt well and was so big that you could not really read it as a mobius. He is wearing the skinny mobius wrapped twice around his neck as a muffler, though. He cast on a second time and was much more successful. He knitted the mobius in a tweed charcoal color cascade wool. We felted it severely and then wrote family in a continuous script around the and in the mobius. It was very nice. He felt the metaphor for a family being knit together and eternal was just what he needed in his mobius. My husband is amazing. I loved teaching him to knit and it made me feel like my knitting had some value to him.
On the acupuncture front, I had my second session last Wednesday. She tapped one spot on my forehead that sent pain shooting down my face. She had to take it out because I could not take it. She said that that spot held a lot of stress. I don’t know about that, but I did not care for it. Anyway, the rest of the session was ok. I left feeling exhausted again. My arms started hurting that evening. Thursday I felt like hell. My arms were so sore I did not want to knit and I could barely function. I am not so sure that acupuncture is for me. I will keep at it for another four visits because I told myself I would. I just hope it gets better.
Two finished objects to show off and two more works in progress to keep me honest!
First and best………taa-daa:
Lori’s stole is complete. I am packing it up and it will be arriving in Georgia shortly. I started this stole in June for a going away present when I found out that Lori was taking a job at Brendnau. http://www.brenau.edu/ I was pretty heart broken and wanted to give her something special. I chose purple because it is one of her favorite colors. I chose lace because she was moving to Georgia and Lord knows…you don’t need alpaca cabled scarves down there. I chose the pattern, Kimono Shawl from Folk Shawls, because I thought it was almost as beautiful as Lori. I hope she likes it.
Sorry about the titles…somebody needs to help a girl out on the thumbnails.
Anyway, the second FO is another pair of fetchings from Knitty.com. Fingerless gloves, you either love them or you hate them. I love them. This pair is for Mycah’s lead teacher, Miss Kim. I just taught her how to knit, sort of. I gave her yarn and needles, cast on for her, showed her two stitches and let her borrow a book. Let me say that I just saw her 12 inch scarf…she’s moving right along. She is so thrilled she can barely stand it. Yes, not only do I love to knit, give knitted items and teach people to knit….I also like them to give them enough of the taste to get them totally addicted to the crac…er, yarn and needles. Without further ado…yet another pair of Fetching:
Now, on to the works in progress. The first is the Cable and Seed Stitch Cardigan from Debbie Bliss. The little sweater is going to be great. It is in DB’s cotton/angora blend. It si so soft, it’s ridiculous. This is the back. Since the photo was taken, I have doubled the length and am about to finish the back. I have to get serious on this, Elliot will be in high school before I finish at the rate I’m going. Just kidding. It only represents a few hours, baby things are so quick. I also have one to knit for Aubrey, my other new niece. I also plan on making a little something for Grey’s teacher. She is about to have a little girl.
Lastly…I’m running out of steam here, folks….Noro Mitts. This is a Blue Sky Alpaca pattern in Noro Silk Lite. I have stayed away from Noro because it is SCRATCHY. I know, this is akin to blasphemy in knitting circles, but everything I have picked up felt like burlap. I found this Silk at Crazy Girl Yarn Shop in Coralville, Iowa. There should be a link on the sidebar. Anne was knitting the Blue Sky pattern in some buttery Blue Sky Alpaca and I thought that the Noro would look great in the pattern and it felt so much better than any I had fondled. I knit this one for the shop and will make a pair for myself. As you can see, I have the one on and I did not go into skin shock or anything, but it is a little tough on the skin. I’m a real wimp when it comes to texture, but the colors are beautiful I plan on doing a little work on the fiber to see if I can soften it up. One thing you will not see on my pair is that damned ruffle. I am sure that anyone who knows me is going WTF? Ruffles…Dianne….right.
I’m crashing and burning…time for bed. Happy knitting!
Yeah…I did it. I decided to try some alternative medicine as a complement (not replacement momma) to help with some of the MS crap. I know, I never mention the monster here, not sure why. Anywho, I have been fighting fatigue and the weight gain that seems to go with it as well as a ridiculous oversensitivity to heat. So, I got the nerve to finally go for it. I saw a great woman, Danialia, today. She is younger than me (go figure), calm and sensitive. I told her I was a little nervous, so she put a needle right into the crown of my head. It literally felt like I melted into the table. The needles were almost imperceptible. Henry quizzed me to the nth degree when I came back, but I didn’t know what to tell him. I feel pretty good, but really tired. It’s funny, I feel tired in a different way than before and I certainly can’t explain that for those of you who were planning on asking. I will say that my forearms are so sore that I don’t want to knit and I am not sure about typing. I am going to give this a real try. I am committing to myself that I will try this once a week for six weeks. I am also going to start my calcium, vitamin d and the biggy B12 (terribly low) for this same period. I am also going to try the fish oil again. I am hoping that doing something is better than the nothing I seem to be doing now. Maybe since I said it in a public way I will feel responsible for sticking to my plan…..wish me luck!
I am going to indulge myself in another walk down memory lane. So, if you are looking for knitting…..today is not the day.
My first girl, Grey, turned six today. We all spent the day at the Children’s Museum playing and playing and playing. We had the best day in a long time. No deadlines, no place to be, nothing but focus on having a good time and celebrating Grey.
Most of you who read my blog know Grey well. But, some of you may not. Grey is very in touch with other people’s feelings, she is lively and curious. She is sweet and spends a good deal of her time in the clouds talking to fairies, her grandmother (who passed well before she was ever born), her dead cats and really anyone or anything she might think should give a listen.
I was thinking about the day she was born all day today. She was a week or more late and I was desperate to have her. I had been to the doc that Friday and he said that he would schedule my induction for the next week because there was no way I would go on my own. I cried all the way home. I had gained 55 pounds and was miserable. I was so miserable, I stopped at Walgreens and bought Castor oil. I drank it at a stop light and almost threw up. Any way, we had supper club that night at Lori’s house. (When we lived in the boro’, we were blessed with many friends who got together once a month for Friday night dinner.) They all knew I was miserable, so everyone of them gathered around and did a labor dance for me. I was in the center of the dance and I laughed so hard I thought I would have Grey right there. Henry and I eventually left to go to another party. I couldn’t take it so I left him there and went home. Within a few hours I was calling to get him home. By noon on Saturday Grey was here.
Meeting Grey was the most inexplicable experience of my life. All I could think of was that the little thing I held in my arms was made by me and Henry out of some random cells. She was and still is a miracle.
God, I could not be happier or more proud. Raven Grey, I love you.
Henry’s birthday is today. I kind of suck…I hadn’t done anything really. I made a decent dinner and I bought him a cheesecake at this amazing bakery in town. Cheesecake is his favorite dessert.
He has been able to kind of hang out and take it easy since school won’t be in for another week and a half…so I am very happy about that. I’m also incredibly happy that I have been lucky enough to share my life with him for the past 14 or so years and that he gave me two beautiful girls. He is probably the best-hearted man I have ever known. He is kind, strong, a great father and a loving husband. He is forgiving, slow to anger, but fiercely protective of “his girls.” This is the day we get to celebrate having him here. I think there is no better reason to celebrate in the world. Henry, we love you! Happy Birthday!
I’m so excited. We went to our first caucus. I really loved participating in this aspect of the election process. Since we did not have a caucus in TN, I had no idea what would happen. I’ll give the quick and dirty story. Once you register (new voters in the district) you get a number on an index card. Then, you go to the big gathering place. Ours was Clapp auditorium. It turned out to be beautiful and literally across the street making it very easy to walk. Anyway, after some formalities and instructions, we were instructed to move to areas designated for our candidate. I thought someone would speak on each candidates behalf, but that didn’t happen. We went to the Hillary camp and we were counted. Because there were 763 people at the caucus, each candidate had to have at least 115 (15%) to remain viable. If they did not have that much they could go around adn try to convince others to join their camp, join a different group or leave. Biden, Cusenich and Richardson (i think) did not have enough to be viable. Some of the Biden people joined us, but I think most went to Obama. In the end, Hillary had about 167, Edwards close to the same and Obama around 325. That meant that Obama gets 5 delegates, Hillary 2 and Edwards 2 from our district. I have to turn on the TV to see how its playing out.
Also, during all of this my sis is in the hospital being induced. She’s a little stressed, so prayers for strength and calm are appreciated. I should have a new niece at some point tomorrow.
I think I may have inadvertantly made a terrible blunder. I have had several positive comments on Henry’s Skull Cap…but I only knitted the cap. The pattern is actually by Hello Yarn. She is a rockin’ designer. Here is her link…. www.helloyarn.com . Check her out, please. Not only does she have incerdible designs, but she produces amazing yarn. Sorry about that universe…I need to give credit where credit is due.
Most of you who read my blog don’t do Ravelry, so I will have to fill you in. A group of Ravelry folks were have a kind of secret Santa gift exchange. There was a theme: De-stress and Knit (loosely). Part of the swap was to send something from your stash and the other part was to send something to help a person recover from the madness and stress of the holidays. I got my package the day we left Iowa and had only enough time to open it and snap a few pictures.
I had a great swap partner! She’s in the UK. I got some gorgeous green merino wool that I have never seen before, several patterns, chocolate, tea, cocoa, a recipe book and the girls each got a chocolate Santa!!!! Each item was separately wrapped which made for a good deal of excitement for me and the girls. The last to be open was the chocolate santas (per instructions) and the girls went crazy. My swap partner goes my the name Sulkycat on Ravelry. This was great fun and have had the opportunity to “meet” two new people through this experience, Sulkycat (the giver) and Cockeyed, the one I sent a package to.
This was my first swap and will certainly not be my last….great fun!
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