Does posting about not posting really count? Because this is my post about my lack of posts. I'm just writing to excuse my absence. To be honest I hardly knit at all through most of December and the beginning of January. And with Ravelry, my other blog, Facebook, Myspace, Gmail and blog reading going on I hardly had much "online-time" to post anyways. And don't get me started on my new friend BitTorrent and it's stash of Battle Star Galactica episodes (my heart goes pitter-pat)!
So I haven't posted. But I will...or I might... I've been knitting more recently anyhow and should have some things to share with you...if you're still out there...if you ever existed at all.
Well, Happy February anyways!
(Today would be my Grandpa's birthday if you still had birthdays after you passed...so go use a hammer or a tool, or go fix something in his honor, would you?)
Visit my Non-Knitting blog here
Saturday, February 02, 2008
Tuesday, January 01, 2008
My thoughts and my prayers
I've known Mara since we were young teens, or possibly earlier. Then, in college we were roomates for a year...well, a year cut short by her getting married. During our time together I got to know her and got to know her amazing family through her love for them. I spent some time with her and her mother through that year and saw one of the strongest similarities between mother and daughter that I have ever witnessed. And their relationship was not like any I've ever known. They are both strong, independent women with headstrong ideas and ideals.
Mara's mother, Stephanie, has a blog that I've been reading for several years. During the past few they have chronicled her knitting projects, her family gatherings, the birth and love affair she's had with her grandson Liam, and her struggle with pancreatic cancer.
Stephanie is now fading. Her family is with her, she is still lucid, and she is still knitting, but the time is short. I am honored to have known her and been able to follow along through her blog and those of her family members as they have taken this journey.
If you are of the praying sort, please keep the Dornbrook family in your prayers. They are an amazing, warm and loving family and deserve all the courage and comfort possible during this time.
Saturday, December 01, 2007
Saturday, November 17, 2007
Thursday, November 01, 2007
Just in time
I put the final touches on my blocking of my red lace doily just as the clock was switching over to midnight and marking the beginning of November, better known to me as Novel Month--where all knitting becomes a guilty pleasure as I procrastinate from writing.
This year's novel is a modern adaptation of the classic fairy tale of Little Red Riding Hood (with perhaps just a bit of Hansel and Gretel mixed in). I'm very excited about it. If so inclined I might even share a bit with you all.
If any of you are or ever have been interested in writing a novel, now is the time to do it! It is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and a whole slew of people around the world will be happy to cheer you on, share their stories and share the misery of trying to crank out 50,000 words in a single month. You can find them at Nanowrimo.org. If you decide to try it let me know, I can always use more writing buddies.
Visit my Non-Knitting blog here
This year's novel is a modern adaptation of the classic fairy tale of Little Red Riding Hood (with perhaps just a bit of Hansel and Gretel mixed in). I'm very excited about it. If so inclined I might even share a bit with you all.
If any of you are or ever have been interested in writing a novel, now is the time to do it! It is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and a whole slew of people around the world will be happy to cheer you on, share their stories and share the misery of trying to crank out 50,000 words in a single month. You can find them at Nanowrimo.org. If you decide to try it let me know, I can always use more writing buddies.
Visit my Non-Knitting blog here
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Friday, October 19, 2007
Mantra Knitting
So I recently read "Eat, Love, Pray" and was really into the idea of mantras, and how they focus the mind and control the "monkey mind"--that has a tendency to wander. I've long said that I kind of like the more complicated lace patterns as they really keep me focused and when things get really stressful at work it is nice to concentrate on something that won't allow my mind to wander back to the stress. So as I thought about the similarity of repeating "Knit one, Yarn Over, Slip one, knit one, pass slip stitch over, etc..." over and over I thought it would be better to be using words that meant something. I Googled mantra knitting and found that some people were repeating the word "love" over and over while knitting something, hoping to infuse a bit of that spirit into the object knitted, but didn't find anything that really focused on the activity of knitting and mantras. So I made my own.
I thought first about the mantra I would want to repeat. I had been meditating on a few words recently : Humility, Love, and Patience.
Humility I thought was most like a knit stitch--the basic and unobtrusive, the most common and humble-ist of stitches. Love I thought would be to knit 2 together into one. Patience (and I laughed out loud when I thought of this) would be a slipped stitch--as one would be so patient that you would not knit it until later. But looking at these stitches I realized I'd have a decreasing pattern and I needed an increase stitch. A yarn over seemed the most likely increase and as soon as I thought of the opening created I thought "oh, like open and honest"
So: "Humble, Loving, Patient, Honest" became my mantra. I picked up stitches and, no knowing how it would turn out started knitting. I picked up rather randomly and ended up with one extra stitch at the end of the row which became a little bit more Humility. I turned the piece over and repeated my mantras, again with a stitch of humility at the end.
It worked beautifully and I continued knitting my mantras and repeating the words with each stitch until I had run out of yarn (it was a remnant and I had no idea how long it would last.)
It was really a great exercise and I now find myself using my mantra words while knitting other patterns that include the same stitches now--it adds even more peace and calming power to my knitting time. I highly recommend it.
I thought first about the mantra I would want to repeat. I had been meditating on a few words recently : Humility, Love, and Patience.
Humility I thought was most like a knit stitch--the basic and unobtrusive, the most common and humble-ist of stitches. Love I thought would be to knit 2 together into one. Patience (and I laughed out loud when I thought of this) would be a slipped stitch--as one would be so patient that you would not knit it until later. But looking at these stitches I realized I'd have a decreasing pattern and I needed an increase stitch. A yarn over seemed the most likely increase and as soon as I thought of the opening created I thought "oh, like open and honest"
So: "Humble, Loving, Patient, Honest" became my mantra. I picked up stitches and, no knowing how it would turn out started knitting. I picked up rather randomly and ended up with one extra stitch at the end of the row which became a little bit more Humility. I turned the piece over and repeated my mantras, again with a stitch of humility at the end.
It worked beautifully and I continued knitting my mantras and repeating the words with each stitch until I had run out of yarn (it was a remnant and I had no idea how long it would last.)
It was really a great exercise and I now find myself using my mantra words while knitting other patterns that include the same stitches now--it adds even more peace and calming power to my knitting time. I highly recommend it.
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