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.

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".

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.