A home called Kanuga

There's no place like home. There's no place like Kanuga. Here we are fed and nurtured and loved. We may receive (and give) those same gifts at the place we call "home" for 361 days a year, but the grocery list and carpools and jobs and cooking and cleaning all disappear at Kanuga for 4 glorious days.

Spending 4 days with 80 (including my daughter) knitters and quilters is a feast for all the senses: hearing the laughter and conversations of old and new friends; seeing the pile of completed, almost completed, and just begun projects that were blessed at our closing Eucharist; smelling the food for our bodies; tasting the bread and wine of the Eucharist for the soul; touching the softness of yarns and fabric... but perhaps the most wonderful sense is that all-encompassing sense of just being- being together in community and love and learning and sharing.

(Notice the sweaters on the knitters as they take photos of the creations of the quilters.)

 We had classes in rooms with fireplaces (some fires roared better than others), road trips were available to yarn and fabric shops and to a sheep farm, there were times to just sit and knit and talk, times to enjoy the snow covered trails, and daily services and meditations.

From the challenging list of classes, I chose to make the Swirl Shawl. It was a small class, so the instrustor was able to give us all the personal attention we needed. She was clear and patient, and even though I frogged and tinked a zillion times, I was able to complete almost 7 hexagons. Since I have been at my other "home" for a week now, I have managed to just about double that number. I believe the pattern calls for 82...

This is my current swirl catepillar:

We were invited to "come and see."  We are challenged to "go and tell."

 

Snow hats

A 2 1/2 day paid vacation to sit and knit! The library is not scheduled to reopen until noon on Wednesday! Yesterday I sat in my room in a chair by the window, sometimes knitting, sometimes reading, sometimes eating, sometimes going through boxes, sometimes napping, and sometimes just gazing out the window at the lovely but dangerous scene outside. I have also spent some time praying that we do not lose power.

These were taken in the backyard, since the upstairs window in my room does not open. I just have to keep that view in the camera of my heart.

I finished 2 of the "blue" projects, as well as a sibling of the first of the completed using-up-acrylic hat projects.I think I'll use "UUA" as the acronym. See this post and this post for the yarn details.

That brings the hat count to 4. At this rate, I'll meet my goal of 52 hats by December 31, 2011!

Am I blue?

No, I'm a perfect Autumn, with colors like terra cotta and rust brown and moss green and, now that I am old enough, purple dominating my wardrobe. Blue is almost never my color of choice, even when knitting for someone else. So, why do I still have so much blue in my stash? I discovered that, totally unplanned, I am working on not one but 3 blue projects, with 2 more in the immediate queue!

This is an almost completed prayer shawl, using 1 strand each of Caron Simply Soft Country Blue #9904 and Light Country Blue #9913.

This is an almost completed hat using 1 stand each of Mary Maxim Starlette #unknown and Plymouth Encore #unknown. The pattern is one I cut out many years ago from either McCall's Needlework and Craft magazine or Family Circle or Woman's Day.

This is an almost completed Brother-in-Law Basketweave Hat posted by Kody May, using Paton's Astra faded denim #2776.

The last two yarns will be used for project within the next week:

This is the next Homespun in line for my Knitting-Prayer-Shawls-Through-Almost-All-The-Colors-Of-Homespun- or Kpstaatcoh. (The "k" is silent.)

This yarn is redeemed by two factors: it is NOT acrylic and it also contains some green and teal as well as blue. It is Jojoland Melody Superwash #16 and will be used for the Swirl Shawl class I am taking at the Kanuga Knitting and Quilting Retreat 2011, assuming it doesn't snow too hard.

I must admit I do love a beautiful blue sky....

Hat #1

Look! I completed an acrylic hat! I really did what I wrote I was going to do!  

(applause would be appreciated)

Some ancient Caron Wintuk with amazing "bounce back fiber" and some leftover Berroco Comfort from the snowmen joined ends to create this hat. I have enough for another one, too!

One down, a bunch more to go.

Looking back #2: snowmen

From the aforementioned knitting group at the library, a number of snowmen took shape during breaks in the staff room. The pattern is Mr. Flurry, (other Ravelry interpretations are here) and he was adorned in many different colors by group members. One was even made with green yarn as the body and sported a Santa hat and scarf. I wish I had gotten a picture of the Grinch snowman!

These first guys are dressed for Clemson football and are now living with my 3 grandsons in Columbia. They are knit with Berroco Comfort Kidz Orange #9731 and Purple #9722. The colors did not photograph well indoors. The weather was awfully bleak before Christmas.

This snowman is sporting his house colors for Gryffindor and is living at Hogwarts in Mississippi with my other grandson. Dark Horse Yarns Fantasy #26 dark yellow and  #32 cranberry were used for his hat and scarf.

Simply Soft white #9701 was used for the basic snowman. This one has not  received his outfit yet,

but he was in his element on Christmas Day- our last white Christmas was in 1963!

Looking back: library bears

Since January is a time for looking back as well as looking forward, I thought I'd take a few days and do some editing of posts that were conceived in 2010. It has been a long labor!

A small group of us who work together at the library try to knit together one evening a week. Last year we decided to make some bears for a "future donation." These guys were finished by our February 2010 blizzard of 2-3" and enjoyed a romp outside.

After a long and highly unusual spring/summer/fall hibernation in a box in my closet (we got involved with making personal items and gifts) a few more bears joined the group later in the year. In December they rode in a box to the local Children's Shelter that was the library's charity for Christmas.

The original pattern is from the Mother Bear Project. A similar free pattern can also be found at Teddies for Tragedies.

We will be determining a new project for 2011.  Maybe we'll even get a few more knitters to join our group!

January First

 Ah, the New Year. Time to make plans, knowing full well that the "best laid plans of mice and men..." I need to have a more positive attitude!

I do have some hopes and dreams:

I hope I will be at least 10 pounds lighter by this time next year. I really do not know my weight now, but I know I will know when my clothes fit better. I haven't had to go up a size in  long time, but my current wardrobe is feeling tight... (no photo is necessary!)

I hope that if I am not in a new house/apartment/condo by next year at this time that my current house will be in shape to put on the market- from clean rugs and refinished floors and new paint to a clean exterior and manicured landscaping. (It's pouring rain, so I cannot take a pic of the crumbling retaining wall.)

I hope that I can knit through my stash of acrylic. I have nothing against acrylic (or a stash,) but I would hope to have less when I move into the aforementioned dream house/apartment/condo. It will definitely require downsizing. Right now, I am planning the Year of the Hat- a hat a week until the acrylic is gone. I'll donate them to some charity next fall. Here is a portion of the yarn that will be used:

So, what was my first purchase of the New Year? Acrylic Homespun (color Herb Garden), with a super coupon from Michaels. I hope (eventually) to knit a prayer shawl in each (well, most) of the Homespun colorways: 14 down, a little over 50 to go...

I hope to finish organizing the boxes of generational pictures and articles and artifacts. So far I am done with my Mom's family. Next I'll do Dad's, then start on the years we were a family of 4. Later comes the marriage and children and that new family. If it's a fantastic year, I may even get to my children's new families with their children!

I hope to stay healthy, to take my medicine and see the doctor when necessary. That includes eating healthy,  getting enough sleep,and (aargh) exercise.

I hope to finish reading the Newberry Award books (60 more to go.)

I hope to keep hopeful, to know more and more that "the God of hope will fill (me) with all joy and peace as (I) trust in him, so that (I) may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." Romans 15:13

Peace-