Sunday, December 2, 2012

Getting Ready

Getting ready for Christmas. The tree is now up. The stockings are hung by the chimney with care. The wreath is getting lights today, then it will be hung up on the front door. Also I am getting ready for the anticipated Christmas visit of my nephew, Merlin and his new bride, Jennifer, so I am doing a major clear out of "stuff". Also, my Da should be joining us. Thus far there are four big blue Ikea shopping bags of stuff and not nearly done. Le Sigh Enorme. Too, I am getting ready for a new round of an art exchange in a Moleskine with my International Moleskine Exchange group from Ravelry.com. I am really excited for this new round. We took a hiatus for 2012 and I missed my Moley mail. I ordered something special for the ladies in the group, which I won't share here as yet, since more than a few of the participants read this blog. This Moley has been on travels before. It is a themed one. It was started the year of the 200th anniversary of Edgar Allan Poe's birthday and the 250th anniversary of Robert Burns' birthday, so the theme is Ravens and Roses. This will be it's third go ~ round and hopefully it will be filled up completely this g-round. As well, as getting ready to re-read an Echo in the Bone by Diana Gabaldon for the Ravelry book themed swap to begin in 2013.

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

You Have the Right

I think there are three things every American has to or should do. 1. Vote! No matter what your politics, you must exercise your privilege to vote. If you don't vote, don't complain to me. No matter whether your candidate or party wins or no, you exercised your privilege. 2. Answer your Jury Summons: Everyone should serve on a jury at some point in their life. I haven't had the privilege as I have only been called twice and sent home both times as I am a certified paralegal and know enough to be dangerous, LOL. 3. If you can, run for political office and learn better the fine details of how your government works.

Monday, October 1, 2012

Day 31 ~ Accomplished

I did it! I posted a photograph every day for 30 days. Woo~hoo. I did a few extra posts as well for significant events, like the one to commemorate 9/11 and another one for Pinterest Make it Monday.

Saturday, September 29, 2012

Day 29 ~ Purchased

The pattern to make this shawl was my purchase on Wednesday. I found it on Pinterest.com first and then went to Ravelry.com to look at it in further detail. I think I will make it in some of my handspun yarns as I have 4 different shades of yarn I can work with.

Friday, September 28, 2012

Day 28 ~ Daily Routine

This should really be about the morning routine, but here tis. Brush the teeth, check the phone, make the coffee and indulge in my worst vice.

Thursday, September 27, 2012

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Day 26 ~ Something Old

My parents were given a Hudson's Bay blanket when they married in 1952... I have slept under it on and off since then.

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Day 25 ~ A Sunflare

Hmmmm? I haven't never had an opportunity to take a photo of a sunflare. This makes for a search project for this post. I found this photo on this site.
Pretty amazing and certainly glad I am out of range.

Sunday, September 23, 2012

Day 23 ~ Sunset

Since I live in Colorado Springs, CO I don't get much of a sunset as Pike's Peak tends to swallow the sun pretty quickly. Here's a sunset in Arizona where it lasts so much longer without obstruction from a 14,000 foot mountain. Interesting effect taking a photograph from a moving car, true?

Saturday, September 22, 2012

Friday, September 21, 2012

Day 21 ~ Pretty Pattern

The title would more than likely make one think of something like this: patterns on fabric
However, I think of something like this: knitting patterns
My neck tends to get chilled as the cooler weather sets in. You should knit a cowl, also called a neck gaiter by some to wear this winter and all those to come. I thought to myself, you've made oodles of them for charity but not one for yourself. As my daughter, Erin brought me one (1) skein of Rowan Pure Wool Aran weight yarn in a lovely celery green from England, I decide to look for a pattern that I could use it for. I went to Ravelry and looked in my favourites to see what I had pinned there and lo and behold, there was Nic's Ashford Cowl requiring less than 180 yards of yarn. Woot! So, now I have cast on and have one repeat completed.

Thursday, September 20, 2012

Day 20 ~ What I Read

I always have two or six books going at the same time. Currently, these are the books I reading. They are, in no particular order, Shine, Shine, Shine by Lydia Netzer, Cross Stitch by Diana Gabaldon (Outlander's British title), The Shetland Bus by David Howarth and The Gourmet Detective by Peter King. I generally catch up on magazines and newspapers at the library. However, The National Geographic and the Smithsonian come to the house, so I am perusing them as well.
I troll Facebook on and off all day if I am to home, so I read numerous updates and articles linked by my friends. I also read, on the average, six to ten blogs a week. Again in no particular order. I regularly read Rebecca's, Erin's, Nic's, Celia's, Dave Lowe's, and Alan Doyle's.

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Day 19 ~ Where I Slept

My wee colourful bed. The quilts on the bed are two of my favourites. The light coloured flannel at the foot was made by my co-workers at the Great American Quilt Factory when I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2001. The quilt hanging on the wall was made by my friends from the Quilt Mavericks for the same reason. The log cabin quilt in batiks was a Ladies Choice. I chose the block and six wonderful women from an on-line quilt group made 4 blocks each. I pieced them together and my dear friend, Susan Geddes quilted it for me. She quilted the flannel one as well.

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Day 18 ~ In My Bag

This is just what's in it today. The bag is from Dolly as a Pay it Forward giftie. The embroidered zipper pouch (which contains things like a Swiss Army Knife, a nail file and such) is a gift from Peru. The amber necklace is a gift from my friend Kipp up in Estes Park. I really need to put that back in my jewelry chest. The knitting is the Outlander scarf in the Beauchamp colourway from Knitter's Brewing Company. What's missing is my current Moleskine as I was making notes in it last night and now it's sitting next to my sewing machine.

Monday, September 17, 2012

Pinterest Make it Monday ~ Because I Did

By now most of you have heard of Pinterest. Pinterest is made up of virtual "pin boards" of various topics. I enjoy looking through them for inspiration and ideas. My girlfriend, Katte uses it like Google to search for things (and regularly pins the most amazing tatting and costuming). I always find it interesting to see what amuses, interests or makes nostalgic my many friends who are also on Pinterest. As most of you know, I am a arty/crafty person. I like making things with my own hands. It fills my heart. I have a personal board on Pinterest called "Pinterest Make it Monday". I have been pinning and pinning and not doing anything with the ideas I have been collecting. I decided a few months ago to dedicate a day to making something based on something I had pinned. So far, I have made a smashed penny charm bracelet, a up~cycled denim and cotton maxi~skirt and today I made firestarters. I thought that with Fall rapidly approaching that would be a good one for this day as soon we'll be having fires in the fireplace. As luck would have it, I had all the ingredients to hand to make them. I used old newspaper, pine cones, string, herbs and spices. Just rolled 'em up like a Christmas cracker and wallah!

Day 17 ~ On the Shelf

There are many shelves. Collections as it were. Shelves that hold books, fabric, yarn, art supplies, music, dreams and ideas. The shelf holds both yarn and ideas. Some of my handspuns and store bought yarns. They are either just collected or are dedicated to a specific project. I might even get them all done before I shuffle off this mortal coil.

Sunday, September 16, 2012

Day 16 ~ What I Ate

Herewith, is what I ate. I am not normally a breakfast eater. I need to be awake for a while before I face food. As it is nearly 11:00 am on a Sunday morning and I needed to write this post, I decided to make myself a bacon and tomato sammie for the brekkies. The tomatoes are the first harvest from my Patio Tomato. I wasn't sure I was going to get any tomatoes this year as my plants were beaten nearly to death by a hail storm back in June.

Friday, September 14, 2012

Day 14 ~ Flowers

Here's is long view of my rose.
As many of you know, I volunteer as a gardener for the grounds of my church in downtown Colorado Springs. I get my fix of flowers by performing a service to my fellow parishioners and experience the joy of watching the blooms come in their appointed time. I have planted over a dozen roses, countless Spring blooming bulbs, pruned all the roses every Spring, dead-headed, watered, planted annuals and weeded. I don't have much of an opportunity to create a garden at my home as my HOA frowns up me digging up the water wasting, to no benefit sod. That, and there is no outside water source available to the owners/renters as the HOA really, really don't want ANYONE washing cars in the parking lots... That said, I have a garden in containers that are currently producing carrots, radishes, chives, oregano, rosemary, lettuce, tomatoes and hopefully potatoes. There are also a rose, an Easter Lily, daffodils, grape hyacinths, nasturtiums, yarrow, violets and a morning glory. Most of my flowers are Spring bloomers but for the yarrow, nasturtium and the morning glory. My lovely rose is, I believe, an Elizabeth Taylor and it is on it's FIFTH bloom of the season. The deer haven't dined on it as yet, thank you so very much. Here's a close~up of a rain be~dewed single rose.

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Day 12 ~ Close Up

Here is my mohair hand spun on my Thurmaston Suitcase Spinning Wheel and then I hand knit this shawl. I made it this summer as part of the Ravelry Ravellenic Games which is a fun competition associated with watching the Summer Olympics. It is now ready for it's close up...

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

A Prayer for Those Who Do Great Harm

This was written by a Francis Wade on September 11, 2011 in memory of the 10th Anniversary of the attacks on New York City, Washington, DC and the plane that went down in Pennslyvania. I share it today in honour of the 11th anniversary of the day that changed my world in a huge way. Almighty God, whose will it is to place awesome power into the hearts, minds, and hands of your children, let your care and our compassion be on those who do harm as well as those who are harmed. Lord, you reached across the limits of human understanding to embrace the outcast and the lost; reach now beyond our understanding and embrace those who have caused so much pain and death this day. We cannot but commend them to you,for in our hearts are seeds of hatred and in our nostrils the stench of madness. As you touch them in your healing ways, Lord God, dry also the hate that could grow in us, smother the fear that would blind us, and deliver us from the temptation to follow instincts that are far from the path you have set before us. In the Name of the One we always hope to follow, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. Thanks to Elizabeth Bennett from Saint Thomas Episcopal Church, Park Hill for sharing this.

Day 11 ~ Something Fun

This is Montone. Montone is a glow in the dark alien Christmas tree ornament I was given by Mark about 10 years ago. He's named for a character in Outland, a movie from the 1980s. For fun I take him places and photograph him. He's been to the London Eye, Stonehenge and the top of Pike's Peak. Here he is in Grace's living room in California. He lives in one of my Altoid tins devoted to knitting accouterments, so he travels with me all the time.

Monday, September 10, 2012

Day 10 ~ Something I Made

I have many things that can compete here. I chose this yarn that I spun as it's such a lovely colour.

Sunday, September 9, 2012

Day 9 ~ Faceless Self-Portrait

Hmmm, how to convey me in a self portrait that's faceless? Valiant effort on my behalf, if I do say so...

Saturday, September 8, 2012

Day 8 ~ Technology

Got a new phone, it's smarter than the last one... That is all that I have to say about that, sigh...

Friday, September 7, 2012

Day 7 ~ Something New

My something new is going to Estes Park up in the mountains with me today. It the weekend of the Long's Peak Scottish ~ Irish Festival and I am going to be hanging with my family and friends for the long weekend. I got a camp cot as these old bones are tired of getting off the floor of the tent after a night. With an egg crate mattress and real sheets and a quilt, I will be most comfy. Easier to get my shoes on for the trip to the loo in the wee hours of the morning as well.

Thursday, September 6, 2012

Day 6 ~ Childhood Memory

So, so many memories to choose from. It would have to be reading books to start though. I was a reader from the age of four and haven't let up yet. It was a family joke to see how long they would talk about me whilst I was reading before I became aware of the conversation. Family legend records that my record was 45 minutes. Shown are my original copies of Winnie the Pooh, Alice in Wonderland, The Thirteen Clocks, The Night Before Christmas. Then, I grew into Lord Peter, Sherlock Holmes and many other British mysteries. The Joy is there, as I cannot ever remember NOT seeing a copy in my Mum's kitchen. Baby cup and rubber ducky are pretty self explanatory.

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Day 5 ~ Someone I Love

Here's my dear daughter, who left yesterday for her home and husband in England. It was lovely to have her here, after nearly a year being gone.

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Day 4 ~ Favourite Clour

My favourite colour is green. All the shades of green that exist in the world. Be they the earthy tones of nature or the glaring neons of modern dye technology. Herein some of my greens..

Monday, September 3, 2012

Day 3 ~ Clouds

I love watching clouds. I often try to replicate them in coloured pencil, sometimes I am more successful that others. I love seeing the red ones, the pink ones, the gold ones, the black ones and the grey ones. These are grey clouds over the Pacific Ocean.

Sunday, September 2, 2012

Saturday, September 1, 2012

30 Day Photo Challenge ~ Day 1 - Self Portrait

My blog has been sadly neglected these days, so I am going to do a 30 day photo challenge to kick start me back to updating it. It will indeed be a challenge as I am going to be really busy this month what with Erin leaving on Tuesday then the Highland Games in Estes Park next weekend. I am going to learn if the schedule feature of Blogger really works. Herein is the first post for the 1st day of September:

Thursday, August 2, 2012

Whoops!

Thought I was going to start a 30 day project on the 1st but I forgot. Now I am thinking that I need to wait until September as August is going to be way to busy. Highland Games this weekend. Daughter arrives from the UK in two weeks. House sitting with Murray later on. Then a trip to CA for the oldest boy's wedding to the lovely Jennifer. So, September it is...

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

The Sunset Tree

This was the Sunset Tree. It was located near the Mount Vernon Unitarian Church in Alexandria, Virginia. It was broken by the last round of severe storms that hit the D.C Metro area. Many a happy memory were gathered under this tree. My first proposal of marriage from Mark was under this tree. I was 17, maybe. I had the great, good sense at that time to just say no. I wasn't prepared to marry anyone at that age. Fast forward to 1995 (I think), Mark asked me to marry him again, for the 3rd time and I finally said yes. He took me to the tree afterwards as we were on our way to a Labor Day Concert at the church. It was a fitting circle. Sadly, Mark passed away before we could marry and it's been that long since I actually sat beneath the tree. A friend of a friend has retrieved a limb from the tree to send pieces to myself, Earl and Rocky (and Katy, if she wants a piece) as remembrances of a special tree at a special place for us all.

Saturday, April 21, 2012

This is a test, it is only a test.

Well, I am not so sure I like the changes to Blogger, this is a test post to make sure I can manage to do a post and have it come out right.
I spent the day at this zoo in celebration of Earth Day. I was helping Fred and Shelley Guana and their daughter Faith with the Fry Bread and Taco stand. It was a lovely warm day with singers (one of whom was amazingly awful) and dancers and such. I got to pet an armadillo and see a Waterbuck (an African Savanna dweller who prefers to be belly deep in a stream) for the first time, I was also up close and personal with a cranky raven named Raj(sp?). Quote he "Caw".

Thursday, April 12, 2012

What I did Yesterday...


I regularly get the LBY Studio blog from the Lion Brand Yarn Studio. This wee project caught my eye on Tuesday and appealed to me in many ways. It's about memories and I have a lot of them relating to knitting. My mother taught me to knit when I was six years old. She also owned a fiber retail business called By Hand in Philadelphia, PA when I was in my teens. I spent many an hour either knitting samples from our new yarns or helping our knitting customers to be more successful with their projects. The memories of being taught to knit and the various projects I worked on over the years is a very long thread of my life. When I was in England two years ago, I was working on a pair of kilt hose for my Da whilst riding the train down from London. A wee lassie watched me for awhile and then asked me what I was doing and how long I had been doing it. I thought about her questions and realized that I had been knitting at that point, for fifty years!

I also am enjoying passing those memories on to the next generation as I have taught both my daughter, Erin and my niece, Mimi to knit. I think both of them will far surpass my skills in the end. After all, Erin has become an extraordinary independent yarn dyer with her own business called The Asylum for Wayward Yarn and Mimi has just finished up a lace shawl project called Evenstar that also included 3000 beads.

So, onto this project. I grabbed some of Erin's hand dyed yarn that was leftover from a hat I knitted for my dear old friend, Rocky. I just cast on 15 stitches and did 4 rows of seed stitch and then 4 inches of stocking stitch and 4 more rows of seed stitch. After casting off, I folded the fabric in half and crocheted the seams and then the loop. Wallah!

There will be a meet and greet for this project at the studio in NYC in May, which sadly, I will not be able to attend. After that, the wee bags and their stories will go to the Wales National Wool Museum for an exhibit during the summer. I, of course will not be able to visit the museum while the exhibit is there, but the thought of my bag being part of it makes me smile. Hopefully I can convince Erin and Guy to make a run to Wales and see it for themselves.

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Been Remiss

I have been traveling and knitting and working on my year long altered art project. I apologize to my readers for the brevity of words of late.

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Leap Day

I have been making art, but I haven't gotten it photographed. Too much else is going on in my life of course.

Altered Art Journal project is going well. Three two page spreads, got done. One was for Ash Wednesday, not sure if I will share it publicly, as it's verra sad.

I made a wee shawl for a friend to give to his wife for her birthday. Made from a lovely hand dyed alpaca. I need to get more of it and make something for myself.

I have also made 10 hats for charity. I also figured out what lace pattern I wanted to use for Angelique's sweater and am now merrily knitting along.

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

2012 Art Journal Project

Here are the two page spreads I have done for the month of January from my personal year long art journal project. I also have done some single pages for the month, but thought I would just share two of my favourites thus far.

To those that know me, YES, I am using all those bits and bobs that have been gathering dust all the while. Except for certain print outs, I am using the enormous collection of found objects, ephemera and such to create the pages for this project.

Thursday, January 5, 2012

2012 - A New Year


How did that happen? Another year, yikes!

However, this year, as of two days ago, I have been cancer free for ELEVEN years.

What are the goals for this year? I haven't a clue.

What I shall do is finish projects that started last year. Yes, of course. I might even finish them before I start another new project. Hah, those that know me will be rolling on the floor in laughter.

I do know that I will make every effort to learn something new EVERY day.