Knitting
Milestone
On New Year's Day I started my From My Window photo project. Each morning, right after I get up, I take a picture from my window and I plan to do it for daily all year. Today closes out the first month. And this week, another milestone -- sunrise started coming before 7 a.m. Here is what I saw this morning at 6:57 a.m.
This project is teaching me a lot. About the variety of color in the winter landscape. The hint of lavender I can see even some gray and cloudy mornings. The silent beauty of dawn.
Doing this, maintaining the discipline of taking that picture each and every morning, allowing the variation in times because I don't get up at the same time every day, and resisting the temptation to make it prettier or otherwise different from what my eyes see as I look out the window is in itself full of lessons. I don't use the zoom. I don't crop the photo. I let it be itself. I had no idea what drew me to it when I started it a month ago, but it has become an essential part of my day. If you want to see the whole series to date, click on the Flickr badge on the right.
Spreading the Joy of Blogging
Very little knitting done today as I spent the day from early this morning until mid-afternoon infecting a delightful group at Senior College with the joys and delights of blogging. I have never taught this kind of seminar before but I think it went well as we all had fun and I think a few new blogs will appear in the coming days and weeks. So here's a wave to any of the participants who are reading here!
I am continuing to post my thoughts after each episode of HBO's In Treatment -- it's a bit of a busman's holiday to watch and comment on a show about therapy but this one is exceptionally well done and rings truer to me than anything I have seen before. Do pop over there and join in -- you can also get there by clicking on Jung At Heart in the site map above -- lots of comments so far on the first episode.
Inch by inch, row by row
With apologies to Dave Mallett, who wrote about gardening, inch by inch, row by row, gonna make Arabian Nights grow. And grow it does. Here's where she was early this afternoon --
So you can see she's growing. Today was a really busy one for me as I finished up prep for a seminar I am teaching tomorrow on blogs and blogging for Senior College here -- being a deadline worker, of course I was doing the last of the prep work today. And tomorrow, I will be teaching all day. So there is a bit of a slow down in progress. I'll get probably 3 or 4 more repeats of this motif -- out of the twenty total needed for this half -- done by Friday morning. Then the weekend means lots of time to work on her.
I really like In Treatment which premiered on HBO last night. It is the best I have seen in portraying therapy and therapists so I will be watching all the episodes and making a post on them each day. You can find the first one here.
Longer posts and more pictures will be back after tomorrow, I promise. Keep knitting -- and let me know what you think about In Treatment.
See what I saw!
The only picture I have today is one I borrowed from a wildlife site because I didn't have my camera at hand when I saw a guy like this one --
That's an ermine, folks! I saw a flash of white in the lilac next to my window and saw one running down a branch toward the ground. I Googled here and there and everywhere and found that indeed they are native in Maine but not seen all that often. And I got to see one, right here in Belfast. And I live right in town, within sight of Main St.
I didn't have a chance to photograph the lovely Arabian Nights while the light was good. Because I am making a longer version, there won't be new design elements to see for a while, but I will get a photo for you to see tomorrow.
The new HBO series In Treatment starts tonight, something I have been looking forward to. It will run 5 nights each week, and is about a therapist, his patients and his own therapist. I plan to post my thoughts about each episode the day afterwards. Click on JungAtHeart above if you want to follow along.
Obsessed Knitter
I am truly a knitter obsessed. With Arabian Nights. It isn't easy in the face of the writers' strike, meaning there is not much on television while I knit.So it's Netfilx and audiobooks. Smart me, I just started listening to Ken Follett's Pillars of the Earth, which is over 40 hours long! Meanwhile I am accumulating clues for The Fisherman's Wife shawl, Secret of the Stole ii, and Spring Surprise mystery KALs for later. I am not even tempted to swatch the new ones!
I have finished the heavily beaded part of this half so the knitting is going faster. Here's a look at where I started this morning --
I've got pulled pork cooking in the slow cooker, my audiobook, lots of tea and my comfy chair so I'm ready for a nice day of knitting.
I am verklempt!
When I woke up this morning, you were on my mind -- Arabian Nights that is. But first came my daily photo out my window and a cup of tea and a bit of writing in my journal and then a session with a patient. And then I could get back to her, the beautissimus Arabian Nights. As I said yesterday, this is not a pattern where progress is measured in inches per hour because of the generous number of beads employed, but because it is such wonderful yarn -- thank you, Kim (of The Woolen Rabbit)! -- and a very engaging pattern, it does not feel like slow going at all. Here's what it looked like when I managed to tear myself away for lunch --
I am enjoying the drape that the weight of the beads produces and the nice crunchy feeling of the yarn. This is a terrific project!
As if being able to work on this delightful pattern weren't reward enough, I came online to find that Susan, designer extraordinaire found at A Few Stitches Short gave me an award! My very first. A huge and very pleasant surprise as this is a very quiet corner of the knit blog community.
Arabian Nights
Well, by Tuesday night I had the beads and yarn and pattern in hand and I was all set to go. Then I read the beginning of the directions :"String 1588 beads on yarn" -- and they are for the fringe and edge! So Tuesday night I strung beads. And strung them. You know, 1588 is a *lot* of beads.
I wanted to get to the knitting so I got up early yesterday and cast on and plunged it. Only to discover just as I had to stop for the day that I had cast on 2 too many stitches. :::Big Sigh:::
I met with one of my groups yesterday morning, worked with a couple of patients and finally last night I was able to get back to the knitting. Big decision -- fudge corrections or rip it out and start again? Now I confess that were I doing this just for me, I would fudge it, but I felt that it deserves my very best effort. So, I ripped it all out and decided I would start again in the morning.
Which I did this morning. In between work and other chores, I managed to complete the first 20 rows, which doesn't sound like a lot but the beads make the going a little slower. I was right that the beads are spectacular against the yarn. The pattern is very nicely done and I am really enjoying knitting it. It's gloomy out so the light is not terrific and it is tough to really capture the colors, but here is a first look for you -- I will have a good deal more to show tomorrow.
Blooming Beauty
My first amaryllis opened this morning. Every year become enchanted with them; this year is no exception. This bulb is one I have had 4 or 5 years now and it produces gorgeous blooms every year. All of my bulbs were started the same day and old faithful here was the first to produce its flower.
And Arabian Nights moves along its pat to flowering as well. The beads arrived today, silver lined crystal. I know they will look like starlight twinkling in the night.
Off to swatch now!
Wolf Moon
According to this site, the moon I see outside my window this evening is the Wolf Moon.
It was fiercely cold here today -- the high was 14F but the wind chill hardly made it above 0F. One of the other names for January's full moon, the Ice Moon, seems appropriate for us.
I've gotten the yarn for Arabian Nights all wound into a nice ball. Susan tells me the pattern should be here for me tomorrow sometime and the beads should arrive then too. Tonight I am going to swatch the yarn to see what needle size I like. I tend to use 3's or 4's with this weight yarn, but we'll see. Want to see the gorgeous yarn again? I knew you did so here it is --
Two more rows to go on Clue 3 of SSS. New clue comes out tomorrow but I won't start it. You have no idea what a novelty it will be for me to be faithful to Arabian Nights, forsaking all others until I finish it. A true test of my mettle!
One more moon picture
More about being fearless
I was talking with someone the other day about fearlessness. She said she prefers to think about it as courage, because courage to her is acting in the face of fear. I understood where she was coming from, but I don't think of tackling a complex knitting project or attempting to write a short story or beginning to work with water colors is especially courageous for most of us. I think of courage as being what I need to draw on when there is a real threat to me, my family, my well-being. And though I might be anxious about writing or doing a seminar, there is no real threat to my safety in any way, not for me living on the coast of Maine. Were I a woman in Saudi Arabia, then standing up in front of a group and talking about Medea, as I do from time to time, would be an act of courage. But not here where I am. And the fear I feel is anxiety, illusory fear coming from my own thoughts and worries rather than from any threat.
It's frigid outside today -- the wind chill is 0F -- but my amaryllis show me the hope of spring.
Being Fearless
I have been thinking a lot about fearlessness these past few weeks. I think I have written before about being fearless when it comes to knitting and I am about cooking as well -- I am willing to plunge in and do anything and without anxiety. I was talking with a relatively new knitter a week or so ago and I asked her what she wanted to knit next now that she has completed a scarf. I know that I would be moving on to a sweater or socks or something, but it would be all about what it is I *want* to knit, not what I think I am able to knit -- because I know I will only grow my skills and learn more by stretching to do that thing I haven't done before. Besides, the idea of knitting rectangles, whether for scarves or potholders, over and over again always in stockinette, garter or ribbing, would quickly become boring and and might put me off knitting. But she is much more concerned with making a mistake and only attempting projects for beginners. Her fear keeps her from leaping in and going for what she likes. I always figure that the worst that can happen is that it doesn't turn out the way I like, but I can always rip it out and knit it again or use the yarn for something else. In short, there is nothing really big at stake, so mistakes and having to struggle to gain mastery feel very low risk with knitting or cooking.
New Toy
First, I got Clue 1 of SoSii -- I downloaded it and stashed it safely into the folder for such things. Because I am not starting it until after Arabian Nights!
My BFF, the Fed Ex delivery guy, showed up early this afternoon and brought my nice shiny new MacBook.
Here's a look at the one I have been using. I seem to have a great talent for wearing the letters off keys. A while ago, a friend pointed me to Happy Bunny key stickers. And you know what? I wore them out too!
My husband will take this iBook to the Mac hospital in Camden Monday where it will get a nice new and bigger hard drive and even better, a new keyboard. He just doesn't fancy himself a Happy Bunny kinda guy and he will be the new user.
Look at how pretty the new keyboard is.
I wonder how long those nice letters will last under the pounding fingers of Cheryl?
They spent a little while talking with each other. Well actually, new MacBook sucked all of the good stuff right off iBook's hard drive.
Now all I have to do is take stuff off the old one and turn it over to Neal.
Waiting...
This is a waiting time. The yarn, pattern and beads for Arabian Nights are on their way.
Around 10 o'clock this morning, the first clue for the Secret of the Stole ii will be released.
The snow started a half hour or so ago; now the wait for it to change to the always delightful "wintery mix".
The flower buds are up so now the wait for the amaryllis blooms
But most of all, today I am waiting for this:
My new MacBook!
Back into the deep freeze
The snow stopped sometime last night after dumping about 12 inches of powdery snow on us. All the towns are getting pinched on their snow removal budgets with so many storms so far this year with February and March, our snowiest months, still ahead. I notice our usually meticulous road crew is plowing a little less often and now quite as much of our dead end street. And I completely understand.
Yesterday, at the height of the storm, we had this group out on the hill playing
Today, it is sunny, bright and cold with air temp of 23F and wind chill of 13F. The January thaw is over!
I have downloaded and printed out Clue 3 of the Spring Surprise to keep me busy until Arabian Nights arrives. Can you tell I am just a little eager to begin that project?
American Idol begins tonight and will be sucking out our brains and critical thinking skills for the next many weeks!
Snow Day!
It started snowing just about the time i got up this morning and soon was coming down really hard. We've already had about 6 or 7 inches of new snow now and looks like we will make it to the 12-14" forecast. It's windy and blowing and cold -- good day to knit and listen to books.
A couple of weeks ago I received an order from Yubina.com -- and it was yellow cashmere and silk, though I thought I had ordered a red. Seems that I clicked on the wrong box. And though yellow is not my color, I figure I will find a use for it. So I ordered what looked like a nice heathery blue -- 4 800 yd skeins of their cashmere and silk. Well that came today. And it came wound on 2 small cones and is more slate than blue and finer than the yellow. I can't really even tell if it is the same yarn. I am hoping that it will fluff a bit with washing. And I guess it will look good when I find the right pattern. But I must say I am underwhelmed by these yarns. The price is good and the yarn feels fine but it is not at all the same quality as what I get from Colourmart and the colors shown on the site are pretty far off what I see when I look at the actual yarn, whereas I have been happy with the Colourmart colors.
Son of Bonfire
This post is long on pictures and short on words. I'm working on completing Secret of the Stole1 -- 1 clue left to go -- and listening to Life of Pi, reluctantly but it is the choice of my book group for this month and the meeting is tomorrow evening.
You may remember that I posted pictures of the New Year's Eve bonfire. Well, we left soon after the bonfire got started so we didn't know until later that it had fizzled out after that promising beginning. What do you do when the bonfire fizzles? Well, in Belfast, you have Son of Bonfire or Return of the Bonfire or Bonfire Redux. And that's what happened yesterday at sunset.
Word went out last week for folks to bring their dried-out Christmas trees down to the town landing Saturday around sundown for a bigger and better bonfire. So go we did.
The colors on the water were achingly beautiful
Here you can see the old fizzled bonfire on the right and the new and improved version under construction on the left -- lots of people, including my husband but not yours truly, pitched in to move all of the old wood over to the new site.
Waiting to start...
While I await the yarn and pattern for Arabian Nights -- have I said how excited I am to be the test knitter? -- I'm bringing other projects up to date.
Today I finished Clue 2 of the Secret Spring Surprise stole -- I like the complexity of this pattern. I still choose to fly without a net, so haven't used lifelines. Probably means I am courting disaster, but it's only knitting. I really like the color of this yarn a lot -- it is so soft and pretty.
I have a couple of other things I will work on while I await the test project -- a cardigan I started in DK silk from Colourmart, some socks of course. I plan to give all of my knitting time to Arabian Nights when it comes. I have downloaded Ken Follett's Pillars of the Earth, which is a bit over 40 hours long to listen to while I knit.
Also arriving next week is my new MacBook. My husband's bit the dust and we decided to get a new one for me and give him mine. So by Friday I should have a nice shiny new one, complete with keyboard which has not had the letters worn off. I'll hardly know what to do!
Cheryl Does The Happy Dance
I have been asked to test knit a pattern for Susan Pandorf of A Few Stitches Short!
I have been nagging hinting to Susan that I really really want to knit her Morroccan Days shawl pattern. Because what I have seen of it is gorgeous. And soon I will be test knitting the Arabian Nights version of it, with yarn from Kim of The Woolen Rabbit.
I am absolutely delighted. Mystery stoles will hibernate for a bit while I knit this. There will be pictures, I promise.
Project Spectrum 3
I was thinking about Project Spectrum 3 this morning as I walked around the house. One of the things my own From My Window project -- a photo every morning from my dining room window -- is teaching me is about how and what I see. It is giving me the opportunity to look more deeply into what catches my eye and to reflect on why.
Someone who was looking at my series asked me why I wasn't using my zoom to hone in on details in the view. Well, I had to think about that because I had made the decision not to zoom and I didn't know why. Then it came to me that the project is about what I *see*, with my eyes as I look out. And I just don't have a zoom feature on my eyes. So what I take is what I see, as closely as my camera can capture that.
And as I look at the pictures, I am amazed by the light and by the shifting color, even in the winter landscape, generally assumed to be drab. The soft bits of pink and lavender that the rising sun gives, the blue of the water and the snow.
Color -- I love color! One of my brothers is a painter. In the ways that kids do, unconsciously, we chose different strengths to develop so I left art to him. Years later, when I was in my early 50's, I decided to take a painting class. I did not discover any latent talent as a painter, but I *loved* buying paints -- tubes of watercolor and oil paints. I still remember the color Opera with great fondness. And the reds -- oh my!
What about my stash?
As I read blogs and Ravelry, I start to feel that I should be concerned about my stash -- that I should be focusing on reducing it, on using it all up and trade, sell or give away what I don't use. But years of therapy have made me far less susceptible to the tyranny of the shoulds (thank you, Karen Horney, for this most excellent concept). My stash is not in for much reduction this year. In fact, it may well grow.
When I was married to my first husband and money was much more plentiful, I could buy yarn with wild abandon. And I did, probably as a way to deal with my unhappiness -- but yarn is better than drink or drugs, right? So I have a considerable amount of high end yarn in my stash, mostly Anny Blatt yarns. Which I am loathe to part with for now because I think I may use it. Like the 20 balls of bouclé wool in dark green -- it could still become something, right? And surely that corrugated ribbon yarn with the gold on the edges can be used in something?
Most of that yarn comes from the days when I knit lots of sweaters. But these days, socks and lace, mostly lace, are what I concentrate on and I have had to develop a stash of those yarns. And I have. Because, you know, what if Colourmart went out of business? What is my favorite sock yarn vendors decided to do something else with their lives? I must have yarn to keep me going, mustn't I?
About the mystery KALs
As I said yesterday, I have been thinking about these mystery lace knit-alongs and what it is about them that grips me so. Here I am having done 3 of them and embarked now on another with 3 more due to start over the next few weeks so clearly there is something about them that grabs me as other things have not.
I've not done any of the other kinds of KALs; the social aspect of knitting something that many others are knitting doesn't do much for an introvert like myself. Even with the mystery ones, I put myself on special notice very soon after they start and I do not participate in the email chat that accompanies them as they go along.
I would not likely knit a sweater I couldn't see before beginning it because style is such an important factor there. Though the shape of these shawls and stoles is a known factor, for me all of the interest lies in the interplay of the lace patterns and the yarn. I really enjoy starting and having no idea what the finished object will look like other than, of course, knowing the basic shape. The mystery of it all is so paramount for me that I don't look at pictures other people post of their progress.
Did I mention it's COLD?
Yeah, well, what should I expect living in Maine? Still, the moderating effect of the ocean doesn't seem to be moderating much now. Last night when i went to bed, it was -5F -- I have no idea if it got colder than that but I suspect it might have as the hot water in our bathroom sink was frozen until mid-morning. So it was COLD. Ah, but warmth is returning -- already it is a whopping 14F! With the bright sun, it looks warm at least.
I continue with Spring Surprise --
And we're off!
Clue 1 of the Secret Spring Surprise stole was released Tuesday and I have gotten about a third of it done. Of course I forgot to take a picture while the light was good today -- so look again tomorrow.
It was COLD here today -- our high was 4 F. That's right, FOUR DEGREES. And the windchill was around -15F.
You can see the cold in my morning photo today --
Archives, 2007
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Vestibulum bibendum, ligula ut feugiat rutrum, mauris libero ultricies nulla, at hendrerit lectus dui bibendum metus. Phasellus quis nulla nec mauris sollicitudin ornare. Vivamus faucibus. Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora torquent per conubia nostra, per inceptos hymenaeos. Cras vulputate condimentum ipsum. Duis urna eros, commodo id, sagittis sed, sodales eu, ante. Etiam ante. Cras risus dolor, porta nec, adipiscing eu, scelerisque at, metus. Mauris nunc eros, porttitor nec, tincidunt ut, rutrum eget, massa. In facilisis nisi. Sed non lorem malesuada quam egestas bibendum. Quisque bibendum ullamcorper purus. Integer id diam vel elit adipiscing consectetuer. Phasellus vitae eros. Vivamus laoreet consectetuer tortor. In congue dignissim quam. Suspendisse nec purus vel velit ultricies bibendum.
Happy New Year!
The snow stopped when it was supposed to -- after dumping a fresh 9 inches on us -- so the city was able to get the streets and sidewalks plowed in time for the New Year's Eve By the Bay revels. We went to see the Katahdin Valley Boys
and their wonderful bluegrass music.
Ameranouche, a gypsy jazz trio in the spirit of Django Reinhardt, came after them
Janus
Last day of the old year and time to look back at what has been and forward to what will be.
In knitting:
I completed the following projects:
✦ Eunny Jang's Print o' the Wave stole
✦ Scheherazade stole from Pink Lemon Twist
✦ Leda's Dream Stole -- Pink Lemon Twist
✦ Honey Bee Stole from Anne Hanson
✦ Krista Tee from White Lies Designs
I also knitted several pairs of socks, but they seem kind of matter of course to me.
Started, to be finished in a month or so:
✦ Secret of Chrysopolis Stole from the KAL of the same name
✦ Feathers stole based on Swan Lake Mystery Stole
✦ And I got this blog going!
Not too shabby, I think.
Looking ahead to 2008:
✦ I already have 4 lace projects lined up, continuing in my Lace KAL obsession.
✦ I want to knit one of Sharon Miller's patterns from Heirloom Knitting
✦ Contemplating possibly designing something myself.
✦ My daily photo From My Window, starts tomorrow. I'll create a Flickr set and put a link in the sidebar.
I don't do New Year's resolutions, so what the year ahead holds and where it will take me in knitting, reading, my work is open and waiting to be discovered in the living.
Blog 365?
Here is an idea whose time has not yet come for me -- Blog 365. Yes, a blog post a day for a year. I didn't manage to get a post a day for one month, November, so who would I be kidding to say I would do one a day for a year? I must say though that NaBloPoMo helped me to pick up the pace of my posting -- I have managed to post 20 out of 29 days so far this month and that, my friends, is progress.
Something along the lines of Blog 365 is on my agenda for 2008 though. I have a great view from my window -- across the harbor and down into Penobscot Bay. I have decided to do a Year From My Window and take a picture first thing when I get up each morning. I'm thinking of creating another blog for it -- I'll let you know.
Prep time
When I woke up this morning, it finally dawned on me that I have some serious prep work to do for several things I will be teaching in the next few months. At the end of January, I am teaching a one day seminar at the Senior College on blogs and blogging -- got to get that material organized. About Senior College -- I love this whole concept! Classes in short 6 week semesters on all kinds of subjects, many of them quite intellectually demanding, for folks who are 50 and older. It is a great group to teach plus no grades, tests or papers!
Then March 15, I will be doing a one day workshop at the C. G. Jung Center in Brunswick on Medea and Betrayal. I have done this workshop/seminar twice before here in Belfast so I have a good idea of how much territory I can cover in a day, but I want to work on it some more.
And in the spring I will be teaching about psychological type at the Senior College.
Yikes!
Then yesterday when I called Helen at Heavenly Socks Yarn -- because Spike made off with my teeny crochet hook that I use to apply beads when I knit -- she asked if I would be interested in teaching a course on beads and lace. Which I am but that's another preparation and I have to get a description in soon.
We had ourselves a Merry Little Christmas
We did indeed. Christmas Eve we finished up wrapping and baking. I finally got the stole I made for my daughter blocked -- it is Scheherazade from MS 2. I ended up steam blocking rather than pinning it all out and it turned out just fine. The photo doesn't show the design very well but you get an idea --
Merry Christmas
There are cookies to be baked and presents to be wrapped today and tomorrow. And Tuesday we are off to my daughter's home for Christmas dinner. I'll be back to post here on Wednesday.
Growing up is so very hard to do!
Stay tuned...
I am halfway through the last clue for Mystic Waters. It's possible I will finish it today though tomorrow is more likely.
In the meantime, a cookie recipe to keep you busy -- I have had this recipe for around 15 years and no longer remember where it came from.
And the meme goes on...
So here I am cruising through blogs this afternoon and I discover more items for the meme --
Christmas Meme
I saw this on several blogs, so I stole it.
Christmas Meme
Slow start...
It's a slow start to Christmas for me this year. We haven't gotten our tree yet and likely won't until Tuesday. And though my cards have arrived, I have not begun to address them. No holiday knitting for me to do as I finished the stole for my friend and will not be knitting for anyone else.
Tallying
I have finished Clue 5 of Mystic Waters, meaning I am now just 2 clues behind. The rows have become pretty long but the pattern is fun to knit so it goes easily.
Isn't it a rule...
that you start a new project as soon as you finish an old one, even if you have a gazillion others on the needles? I'm sure I read that somewhere.
Anyway, I started itching to start something new. So I made a swatch out of the terra-cotta Colourmart cashmere/silk.
SNOW!
They promised snow and it has arrived!
We're expecting 12-14". One of the things I love about living here is that a snowstorm is cause for excitement. not panic. Yesterday when we went to buy cat litter, the supermarket was not filled with panicked people buying bread and milk -- because we know snow is not the end of civilization as we know it. Pretty soon there will be kids sledding down the hill outside our house -- one of the best things about our house is that we live right on one of the premiere sledding hills in town so we get to watch and hear kids reveling in the delights of snow.
Red sky at morning
Red sky at morning, sailors take warning. There is a snow storm coming.
A new month
Well, it's December 1 and it is clear that I did not make a post a day in November. But I did manage to make 20 of them, altogether, and that is quite a bit for me. So it served the purpose of showing me I can post more often and I shall endeavor to try to continue. And next year, maybe I will achieve the target.
I have been reflecting a lot on holidays and the discrepancy between fantasy and reality as I consider how I would like to have Thanksgiving in the future. I should say at the outset that Thanksgiving has never been my favorite holiday despite my connection to its origins. For me it seems like a mountain of work to make a meal which is soon gone. And I am not the world's biggest fan of turkey -- though I must say our organic free range bird was the very best tasting one I have ever had.
When I was growing up, my father was in the Army and we were usually living too far away to have holidays with extended family. My brothers are much older than I and were off on their own from the time I was 7. One year, when I was 8 and we were stationed at Ft. Knox, I got the measles. What I remember most about that year is that we didn't get to eat in the mess hall with all the soldiers -- well, that and the fact that I threw up at dinner. So I grew up with wonderful fantasies of the Norman Rockwell kind of holidays with family and friends gathered together around the table -- the whole works. I thought that when I married and had children that was what we would develop.
Some days titles just don't spring to mind
It's another cold day and it has been snowing a bit. The Jack o' lantern that we left out for the squirrels to munch on got a nice white hat this afternoon
Chilly Sunday
It's cold today -- just 36F at noon. So thoughts of coffee cake entered my head when I got up. I searched my trove of recipes and came upon a cranberry nut upside down coffee cake that I got from somewhere a few years ago. We buy lots of fresh cranberries in season. I love the tart taste and use them in all kinds of things. And best of all, we can get organic berries grown right next door in Lincolnville.
No more NaNoPoBlo
I am not even sure what the correct acronym is, but clearly I am not a post a day kind of person, though I must say I have enjoyed picking up the pace of my posting, so this experiment is not for naught.
It snowed yesterday. Thursday it was warm and in the 50's and yesterday it snowed. Up north there was even some accumulation. Today it is clear and brisk and obviously winter is soon upon us.
Kim, at The Woolen Rabbit, mentioned in her post last night that she is not seeing so many in progress pictures these days and that she missed them. I hadn't been posting many of my various lace projects because lace is not much to look at before it is blocked. But I take her point because i also enjoy seeing things in progress. In that spirit, here are a couple of mine --
First, Leda's Dream, from Pink Lemon Twist, is now about 60% complete. I am using 2 strands of Colourmart 2/28 cashmere in the color cyclamen. which is fiendishly difficult to accurately capture.

View Comments