The End of February

Yesterday we had a beautiful late winter snowfall. The weather was warmish so the snow was heavy and clung to all the trees in a very marshmallow way.

I enjoyed my walk with my wee Kessie. Yet didn't enjoy the filth that gathered on her underside! The dirty dog days are upon us I fear.

Ah well....I am needing Spring weather so much it is not much of a hardship!

I spent some of the weekend working on my Cloisonne sweater. I may add another layer of lace at the bottom in the brown because I think I want it to be a bit longer. Loving it though. Love love love knitting with Berocco Ultra Alpaca! It is difficult to resist burying my face in the softness on a regular basis.

If I get it done before summer (here's hoping)....(My heart skipped a beat with the idea of summer!)...it will be my Spring sweater.

Enjoy your last day of February and, if you live in the north, start taking stock of your spring clothes.

Oscar watched last night...... Colin Firth is a funny man! Yea for The Kings Speech!

Bunzillys!

The Bunzillys are getting all dolled up!

Tara and I are having so much fun creating the first of our Forest Morsels!

Bunny Sknit

Your Spontaneous Drivel

Is assaulting our silence

You sit there and Snivel

Seeking our alliance

And

All we can think

is

SHUT UP

SHUT UP

SHUT UP!

by: Martina Munroe

Sponteneity

“The essence of pleasure is spontaneity”

Right now I am laughing at myself because I am being so un-spontanious about writing about Sponteneity.

I am not a natural sponteneity-ite! I have had to learn how to enjoy and participate in spur of the moment activities.

I have been thinking about Sponteneity because a friend of mine who is a mother of 2 young children was lamenting at the loss of her freedom to be so. Children do change you. Much more so if you are a person who is used to making last minute decisions about things.

You can't just go out for the evening or go on a trip. Planning is an essential!

Book the time, book the babysitter, plan for the funds to both do what you want and pay for child care. Or, take the children with you. Which entails all sorts of planning and organizing!

I found that children increased my ability to be spontaneous. I learned to go with the flow and enjoy the moment. To sing and dance just because! To laugh without reserve. To be part of a game because it is there. These are things I learned from my children. In turn this ability has transferred over to my creative and, dare I say, social pursuits.

So to my friend I say "Yes sponteneity still can exist while raising children" It exists in very different ways than it can when without the encumbrance of the responsibilies of raising a family. It is smaller and more immediate. And, on so many levels, so much more fulfilling.

If the essence of pleasure is sponteneity then it is something we should plan to practice every day.

I know I do. And I enjoy a well planned day!

Thursday Thought

Master concentration, master anything.

This is the truth isn't it? Especially in _______________. (fill in the blank)

Wordless Wednesday

Happy V-Day!

Another Amazing Canadian Artist for your Melody Monday!

I Need to Lie Down.

It has been a while since I have posted any knitting content. Not because I am not knitting because I am ALWAYS knitting. But, because....I am knitting and running a shop and being a semi present Mother and Wife. And reading and beading and taking nutrition classes and furtively thinking about cleaning and giving input on the main bathroom redec.

Don't know about you. I need to lie down now.

At the moment I am waiting for my 11 o'clock Thursday student to arrive so I will have to pause in my post very soon.

What have I been knitting? Yes, I heard you ask.

I have been working on the Cloisonne Jacket from Interweave Knits. I am only doing it........

Blogus Interuptus...
Please enjoy this while I teach!

and I am back again.....

I am only knitting the Cloisonne during the evenings at home because of the colour work that is involved. It is not that difficult but there is no repeated row in the pattern so I can't do it from memory. I find it hard to even watch the TV at the same time.

I have gotten a bit further than in the photo but alas I have not taken a photo yet...Soon I promise!


I spent a good part of the weekend knitting eggs to be embellished with beads. I knit them with Noro Silk Garden and got a wonderful array of colours from the one 50 gram ball.

Then I started knitting Bunny Nuggets....

I am loving this tiny knitting!

I have also knit 2 1/2 socks,
a sweater for Bruce (which his wife ripped out...so needs to be reknit)(le sigh), a shawl, a scarf, a few cowls....several hearts (I still need to knit more of them)... Ah yes...I do have a photo of the hearts .

Happy Valentine's Day!

Old Lady?

When the heck did I get a wattle?

This can't be me!

Surely I am still 15?

This Just Makes me Laugh

Life in January

January is my month of birth.

I will have completed 54 years of life as of January 29th.

I am not sure what to feel about my encroaching senior citizenship. Should I be glad that I still feel (and some say look) about 10 years younger.

Or.

Should I be freaked out by the actual number of years I have lived and by the fact I still feel so inexperienced.

It is a strange thing to feel like I should be more formed and finalized than I do. I do not think I am alone in feeling this way. Or Maybe I am!!

As a child I looked forward to the day when everything in life was set and perfect. The adult life of ease and being able to make the right decisions.

Somewhere along the line I began to realize that that day had not arrived yet. And still has not.

In my 20's I knew I still had lots of time to achieve perfection.

In my 30's I was part of the creation of 2 perfect babies but I still had not reached that point of completing me.

In my 40's I was actively trying to find my life's passion (other than hubby and children).

Once reaching 50 I finally found my creative and work passion. (Can anybody guess what it is?)(a slap on the wrist to those who know me and don't know!)

And yet at nearly 54 and having found my passion I still feel inexperienced. Life still takes work. I was going to say Happiness takes work but that is not right.

Let me try this... Acceptance of the direction life has taken takes work. Even when there are really fabulous elements in my life there seem to always be more to learn and experience.

Somehow this is making it sound like I am unhappy with my life. I am extremely happy with my life but it is different than what my 15 year old brain imagined. I suppose that,as children, most of us think we will be the ultimate best at whatever we chose to be. But so often, even for the most successful people in the world, we don't end up feeling that way.

So....

Why is that?

Is it the need to learn and continually improve oneself that keeps our neurons firing and keeps us feeling young?

Should I just accept that this state of incompleteness that I feel means that my life will remain interesting and compelling?

Maybe instead of worrying about my inexperience I should rejoice in it.

Maybe that should be the aim of life. To never feel complete until the moment before death

because

once there is nothing left to learn there is nothing left but boredom.

And

Who wants to be bored?

Hmmm...

I have decided....

I should be glad that I still feel (and some say look) about 10 years younger.

Inexperience is good.

It means you are still alive and kicking.

My New Music Crush

is... Melody Gardot

Morning has Broken

Morning on December 31, 2010.

The start of the last day of the year.
The start of my daughter's adult life.
The start of the rest of life.

Happy New Year!

Christmas Day

I love a good fire.
I hope everyone had a good Christmas.

Christmas in Several Countries while Home Alone

I have the day alone at home today. It is a much needed respite from the hustle and bustle of pre Christmas busy-ness.

Not that I am not being busy.

So far I have done some kitchen and bathroom cleaning. There will be more general cleaning through the day. As well as getting serious about finishing some last minute gift projects.

While cleaning,crafting and calming down I am listening to CBC2's day of Christmas performances from Europe and Canada. So I have heard a concert from Finland and Norway.

AND THEN....or NOW...I will be spending a few minutes researching Christmas traditions in the featured countries. I will share the links with you along with a photo of knitting from that country.
Finland:

Norway:

England:


Czech Republic:

Seems that the Czech Republic is known more for bead than knitting.

Iceland:

Germany:

Austria:

Spain:

Canada:

BioRemediation

From Answers.com:

"Bioremediation is the degradation, decomposition, or stabilization of pollutants by microorganisms such as bacteria, fungi, and cyanobacteria. ...... The microorganisms feed on and eliminate the pollutants. When the pollutants are gone, the organisms die."

This idea of nature taking care of itself after an oil spill is part of what I was thinking about when I was working on my latest knit tree.

I had started the tree shortly before the gulf spill and became obsessed about the damage it would be doing to our world.

Why have we not made an alternate less volatile form of energy more accessible? How can we keep drilling into the earth and extracting oil and expect the world to stay healthy?

This doomsday thinking started to turn to thoughts that maybe the Earth has a way of adapting.

That possibly nature will mutate and adjust to the new environment it is in. That possibly our messing with the natural recovery systems that may be in place to deal with our human mess will only cause more harm. (and around the brain spins!)

And...then...from this new environment will a new beauty evolve? A beauty very different from what we have now.

How will trees survive? What will this new beauty look like?

This is the end result of that brain spinning.

It just got accepted into juried show at The Station Gallery in Whitby Ontario.

My thinking continues...

Compassion and Aging

One of the things about running a yarn shop is that I am a part of the community.

Not just a shop owner and knitting adviser.

Also a person who hears all the good and bad things that are in my clients live's. A bartender of sorts I guess. People come to relax and to relate and, sometimes, for rescue.

Rescue of the knitting/crocheting kind and of the personal kind.

Over the past years I have received a handful of items that were started by someone ill or now deceased for completion. I find it really difficult to say no to these requests. Yes, I know, not very business like. But...I yam what I yam!

Yesterday was about the saddest request I have ever received. Sad for me mainly because the couple involved were still a "real couple" even in their mid 80s.

A few months ago the couple was in purchasing yarn for the woman to knit a sweater for her husband. She sat dressed to perfection calmly waiting for him to choose the yarn and the style he wanted. He, in his jaunty hat that she had knit for him many years earlier, hemmed and hawed and touched all the yarn before settling on Manos wool Classica.

Back to yesterday. The gentleman, now donning a jaunty tartan hat, came into the shop carrying a brown paper bag. Alone. Already I am worried.

When asked how he was doing he responded "Not well."....aw geez....

Well, the story is, his wife has been knitting the sweater and has it almost finished but 2 weeks ago she started forgetting. She (who once taught knitting) often can't remember how to knit. She often doesn't remember him. She is, in his words "Losing her mind."

Such sadness. How much I wanted to be able to do for him. What I will do for him is finish his sweater.

And, I will not charge him for it. I just can't.

She had finished the back and both arms and most of one front. You can tell where she started to forget. Instead of decreasing for the arm hole she increased. It must have made her feel so helpless. The poor woman. The poor man.

Today he popped in to bring the rest of the yarn I would need to complete the project.

And Chocolate

And a hug.

note: Photos used were one available on the web, not mine.
Couple is by godw1nz.wordpress.com/ Woman's eye is at ehow.com

I'm Published!

Yup.....The Festive issue 2010 of A Needle Pulling Thread

I'm Pumped!

Crafting in Newfoundland

I am back from 10 lovely days on the rock called Newfoundland.

I managed to rekindle my creativity and relax and fall in love with the land.

I did very little knitting during my time away but did manage to throw in a class on my Slouchy Christmas Tree.
Dianne (on the right) got hers completed in 2 days!
They are still a fun and quick knit!

My projects were 2 different styles of rug hooking. One was hooking with yarn

and the other is called Ragging or Proddy. The Proddy is fun because it is so quick once the prep work is done (cutting fabric rectangles) but I have become completely enamored with hooking with yarn.

Yes, I think this is going to be my next big thing.

What I love most about it is the ability to "paint" with the colours of yarn. It combines my love of yarn and my love of surface design so perfectly!

Oh ! I also did a bit of needle felting that I added to my Tomato does Christmas hat.

In between the crafting I did get out to see some sights and do some shopping in St. John's.
Houses at Witless Bay.

St. John's Harbour.

The Duke of Duckworth.

Morton Bay.