The Mountains

The Mountains, a photo by january spin on Flickr.

Surprise!

What a wonderful surprise package arrived today.There was a drawing on the Knits for Needs blog (See earlier post here about the wonderful things being done through Knits for Needs.) and I was one of the winners. WOW!
 There were several knitting books and wonder of wonders, quite a few of them had patterns for baby things. I have several precious babies that I want to make things for so this was a huge gift. I am thrilled and can't wait to get started. An unexpected gift from a very wonderful cause.

I finished the prayer shawl for Prayer Shawls 4 Fallen Soldiers and just realized I didn't take a picture of it before I mailed it off. I really do think all this hot weather has melted several vital brain cells. I still have another shawl ready but haven't been able to contact the recipient to verify the address. Has to go on the Must Do list for next week.

Well, the house is being shown again tomorrow morning. Maybe this will be THE one. I am working on keeping a positive attitude but sometimes sitting in a really clean (boring) house makes that difficult. Netflix and playing with my iPad2 are the major things holding my sanity together since I can't get my craft/art stuff out. Ok, I could get it out but anyone who makes things knows that getting into a project and having to put it away in the middle of it is not conducive to creativity. Nor does it make for a happy camper.

Ok, now I really do have to go hide more stuff. My sweet realtor doesn't know I have taken a break from packing for over a month .  I need to look like I have done something before she comes to take the next set of pictures.

Babies and Two Year Olds

There is something about holding a little baby that just tugs at the heartstrings. They make little baby noises and just seem to naturally cuddle. What a shame that sometimes we lose that ability when we become adults. The cuddling part, not  the noises part. The noises part we have and it's not always good, but we should try harder to hold onto the cuddling part. Whether it's a parent holding a child, a husband holding a wife, a friend comforting a friend, or an adult child holding an elderly parent, we should remember how to cuddle someone. It's one of those things that seems to bring comfort to the one who is being cuddled and the one who is doing the cuddling.

Last night I got to cuddle the 2 month old baby of my precious niece and her wonderful husband. It had been a couple of years since I had been around a baby I could cuddle. There's magic in that feel. You look into that little face and you see all the amazing things that life can offer. At that moment, there aren't any cant's, wont's, or limits. I just see a huge world and a tiny baby who hopefully will embrace the joy of living and exploring that world. I see love and trust and possibilities.

I also got to hold her 2 year old brother . He was scared because Mom and Dad had gone out and he had only seen me a few times before in his young life. The possibilities of life were still there but some of the scariness had crept in also. He was starting to discover that life didn't always go as you planned or wanted it to and sometimes you just had to adapt. Although tears and yelling were ways to vent that frustration and disappointment , and we've all done that at one point or the other, acceptance of change brings more peace.

I've found that you can't make people's problems go away permanently. The best thing you can do it just to be there when they need you. Hold them close and sometimes when they are a scared two year old, tell them they are loved, and safe,  and sing An Irish Lullaby to them as your Mother did for you when you were two and scared.

So little ones, I wish for you people in your life who will help you explore this marvelous world and will be there to cuddle you when it looks a little bit scary. 

One at a time

In case no one has noticed, the real estate market is the pits right now. How frustrating to have a house for sale that is really priced well for the neighborhood, and is even kept clean and no one is looking!  If I have to live like this, at least people should come look at all this sterile cleanliness. Several friends have said my house doesn't even look like me with all the fun stuff packed away.

As a result of keeping things clean, I only have one project out at a time. Talk about sticking to one thing! The current project isn't boring, I am enjoying it. It's just having one project at a time to work on that's driving me nuts.

My current project is a prayer shawl for Prayer Shawls 4 Fallen Soldiers. This one will go to a Mom in GA. I am enjoying the pattern which is super simple. It's the  Lacy Prayer Shawl pattern  on Ravelry. I am about half way through and am pleased with the way it is looking. I am using worsted weight yarn and size 13 needles to make sure the pattern has an open look to it. I decided to use Vanna's Choice yarn which is an acrylic. For an acrylic, I think this one is fairly soft and it will be easy to wash and care for.

I think the next project will be to finish spinning the silk for the next shawl. Naturally, I have to hide the bobbin with the spun silk on it when the house is being shown as the people wandering thru seem to be easily distracted.  It's kind of like Hide and Seek around here.

Ok, that's it for today. I'm going to go surf the net and look at the houses in FL that are for sale that I can't buy until I sell this one. Dominoes people, Dominoes.

The Other Gold

There's a Brownie / Girl Scout song that goes "Make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver and the other gold." I always loved that song. To me it meant treasuring what you had but always being open to something new.

Although I have some Silver friends who are really in the Platinum category, I want to talk about the ones in the Gold category today.

I went to my 50th high school reunion recently. First of all, there's a big credibility gap between my actual chronological age and my mindset age. A couple of years ago I went to an immunologist and I was thrilled because he was also a pediatrician. To me it meant I was in my second childhood: however my closest family and friends say I have never left my first one. I don't consider that a bad thing. It makes life ever so much more fun.

I digress--and probably will more than once since I am right brained . Back to the reunion. Sadly there were people who didn't come because 1) no one will know me, 2) I won't know who anyone is, 3) I don't earn as much as some of my classmates, 4) I've gained weight, 5) I have wrinkles, 6) I'm not married, 7) my hair is gray (I have no hair), 8) my life didn't turn out as I expected, etc, etc, etc.

I've got news for you. When you go to a 50 year reunion no one is really seeing you as you are now. If they are there for the right reasons, they are seeing you, not with their eyes, but with their heart. If they are there just to impress people with their current status and how "successful" they are, then they have missed the meaning of success and the only thing you can do is show compassion, and avoid them like the plague!

Unfortunately when you are part of a huge senior class (620 plus), you not only don't know everyone, but you don't get to visit with all the ones you know at the  reunions. One dear friend, Judy, who was also a college roommate, didn't come to the reunion, so I called her on Sunday afternoon and we visited for over an hour on the phone. It was great fun and one of the few people I actually got to have a long visit with over the weekend.

I was thrilled to find out that Ann is now a weaver. We had discussed weaving at our 40th reunion and she had come over to see my looms and wheels. I gave her some sources and she took some classes and is now weaving. I was even able to unload give her some books on weaving before she left this time.

Jim is not only a physician but he also enjoys photography and travel so I was able to give him the contact information for a long time friend on the West Coast that I am sure he will enjoy meeting. I do love connecting interesting people with others who have similar hobbies.

Gloria and Margarette are almost always seen together and they are two people I really admire and adore being around. They both have had very impressive careers and yet their friendship remains steady and they are two of the most down to earth people I know. I just love hanging out with them.

Particularly special was seeing those with whom I had attended elementary school. Who would have thought back then that we would be living so far away from each other as adults. Several of the guys and their wives take a trip together each year. How awesome is that? Again, there just wasn't enough time to really visit, but just seeing those dear, remembered faces was a huge plus for the weekend.

To me, friendship means being involved in each others lives, not just a lunch or get together once in a while. It means calling a friend to chat, dropping a note in the mail, sending a text when something funny or special happens. It means responding to a prayer request with more than just a routine reply but rather actually doing the praying. I have been blessed to have friends in my life who get the real meaning of friendship and I treasure every one of them.

I remember my Momma had some friends that she played bridge with but that wasn't the only time she saw them. They visited with each other and truly enjoyed each other's company. Not at "functions" but rather as part of their daily lives. That's friendship: the "over the back fence" type of friendship.

Well, I told you in the beginning that I was going to ramble and sure enough I have. Bottom line, while I didn't get to visit with everyone I wanted to at the reunion, I hope that the reconnections made there will lead to better communication in the future. Finding Gold again is always special and it remains very valuable even if it isn't polished as often as it should be. I hope to do better in the polishing area.

Knits for Needs

Do you love making things but are running out of people on your gift list? There are people out there who need your knitted or crocheted items.

Based in GA  Knits for Needs  is  a wonderful project which fiber people all over the world are supporting. Knitted and crocheted items such as hats, scarves, & blankets, etc are sent to KFN and they are  forwarded on to places where they are needed.

Knits for Needs
PO Box 551
Woodstock, GA 30188

Check out the blog at Knits for Needs

Who is manufacturing the yarn?

Surely I couldn't have bought all this yarn? Some secret elf has been at work stuffing it into boxes and closets and tote bags while I slept. I just found 6  boxes of handspun cotton. SIX boxes!!! What was I thinking? Not only do I buy yarn but I also make it.

Ok, here it is in writing---I'm not buying one bit of yarn until I have made a huge dent in "the stash".

Let's face it--getting on tv because you hoard yarn is really, really going to look bad. People always ask me what I do with my handspun and I laugh and reply that I put it in baskets and admire it. Well, apparently that's exactly what I do with it. I am a process person--no apologies, that's what I am. I enjoy the doing. The product just isn't that important, or at least it's not my focus. The craft world is divided into process and product people. The product people are those that finish things. They have a goal and follow through on it. They buy yarn with a purpose in mind. They know what they want and they work until they achieve the end result that they want, or as close to it as possible.

Those of us that are process people tend to have a LOT of unfinished projects around. Once we figure out how to do something, we are usually ready to move on to something else--hence the unfinished projects. We buy yarn because we love the feel of it, or the look of it. It may remain in the stash for years unused but still appreciated. We can sit at our spinning wheels and produce boxes of handspun yarn without any plans whatsoever for it's use. We are happy in our endeavors. Every once in a while we will run into a product person. Show and tell time is where they excel. We look at what they have done and secretly resolve to do something about finishing a project so we will have something for show and tell also. We are also a bit delusional in this regard. Now every so often, we do finish something, much to our surprise and the surprise of our fiber friends. (Nonfiber people are never, ever allowed to see our stash. They would never recover from the shock of the volume.) Finishing something is always celebrated and we resolve to do more of that in the future but , well, the best laid plans and all that.

Where does the time go?

I can hardly believe it has been 5 months since I last posted on my blog. I have been busy but not THAT busy, surely. I would resolve to do better but a promise like that might involve guilt . Hopefully I will post more often but if I don't, please know that the thought is there--somewhere.

January Spin-in 2011 had 123 attendees this year. Our record high so far. I think the room may hold another 15- 20 and then we are going to have to limit the registrations if we are to keep the vendors in the same room as the spinners. Several groups came through with skits/songs and they were very well received. It's a good thing we can laugh at ourselves.

The CBSG skit involved some very impressive costumes. Perhaps the one that really  had the most time invested in it was Connie S's mermaid costume. How many people would knit a mermaid tail and top for a skit? 

The theme for 2012 is Shawl We Dance so I have started the search for the shawl that I will make to fit the theme.  I'm so glad Ravelry has so many available patterns.