I love my UPS man ...

... look what he brought today:

check out this post ... the top in the center of the cover -- it's mine~!  For more info, check out this link:
More Knitting in the Sun ...
 

Yarn-along: April 6th and all is well ...

~ Two of my favorite things are knitting and reading, and the evidence of this often shows up in my photographs. I love seeing what other people are knitting and reading as well. So, what are you knitting or crocheting right now? What are you reading? Take a single photo and share it either on your blog or on Flickr. Leave a link below to share your photo with the rest of us! ~

Ginny ... small things

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... on the reading front -- the kids' read-aloud has slowed a bit since we had a few days of gorgeous weather and they wanted to be out and about but we are almost done with Another Whole Nother Story ... any suggestions for what should we read next?  

I'm about half thru No He Can't ... wow, this is the scariest book I've ever read!  Hard to imagine a, this guy was elected president, and b, that he thinks he should be given another four years .... McCullough's book is an amazing indictment of the machinations of this particular politico!

... on the knitting front all is well!  Just about finished with "Spring Garden wrap" (will post the pattern soon) done in a lovely sage-y green of cashmere/bamboo blend that knits up like a dream.  The white pieces are some short-row samples for my talk this weekend at Graves Mountain (please pray for me ... and there may be a few spaces left if you'd like to join us out in the mountains).  

I've also been playing with knitted hearts.  These two came from this great FREE design Teresa Fox did up.  These are so cool: they're knitted in one-piece, stuffed (or not), felted (or not).  The multi-color one is KP's Bare Superwash wool ... dyed in a crockpot with kool-aid!  The dyeing technique is easy, clean and gives great results (and the house smells like kool-aid for a bit!).  I didn't stuff that one, but instead left it flat.  The green-ish one on the left is Plymouth's "Poems" a silk/wool blend that I stuffed. 

I've also been playing with starting up a website (thanks to a dear friend's web expertise) and have been playing with a new logo:

What do you think of the design?  

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Come join our yarn-along ... always great fun to see what others have on their needles and on their reading tables!  I get such great ideas for both ... 

 

Help support creativity and get some real bang for your buck!

Last week, I found out about the coolest thing ... a way to support creative efforts, fledgling artists, published designers do even more.  Shannon Okey (the brains behind the phenomenal publishing house of Cooperative Press, hand-knits designer and all round amazingly creative woman) has started a month-long campaign to do even more for indie knitting designers, using a program called Kickstarter.


Here's a video that shows some of the designs that are going into the new series Shannon is publishing:  Fresh Designs:


I have some designs in these upcoming books -- a set of knitted dolls for Fresh Designs: Toys and a set of southwest-inspired sofa pillows in Fresh Designs: Home.  


Now, these books will be published this summer regardless of Shannon matching (or even better, beating) her goal of $5000.  The important thing here ... and why I've already pledged a bit ... is that this is a chance to help an indie publisher, indie hand-knits designers, and a host of other folks do something very cool ... very creative.  Any pledge, large or small (even $1) will help.  There are some cool incentives for different pledge points -- including copies of the 10-book Fresh Design books!


So what are you waiting for?  Go make a pledge, would ya?  And thanks .... from one of many independent hand-knits designers!
 

Just in case you're wondering ...

where to see me over the next couple of weeks ....

check out my knitting blog for some exciting knitting/fiber events coming up in the area!

Make sure you stop by and say "howdy" if you're able to attend either of these events.  The weather should be gorgeous ... and the content will be stellar!


 

Yarn-along: March 30th ... new design and new book ....

~ Two of my favorite things are knitting and reading, and the evidence of this often shows up in my photographs. I love seeing what other people are knitting and reading as well. So, what are you knitting or crocheting right now? What are you reading? Take a single photo and share it either on your blog or on Flickr. Leave a link below to share your photo with the rest of us! ~ Ginny at small things

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 This week's yarn-along finds us with a new design on the needles and a new book on my table.  The new design (close-up below) is a spring-shawl in a fun lacy pattern.  The yarn is fingering weight cashmere/bamboo from Spring Gate Farms (whose yarn is gorgeous -- she'll be at the Olde Liberty Fibre Faire -- as will I -- on April 16th if you want to head down for some fun and a good cause ... all proceeds from the Faire will go to area hospice!).  The idea from the shawl came from a question from Ginny ... so it's quite appropriate that it's presented here on her Yarn-Along!  

BTW, to get the nice airy look and wonderful drape, I'm using a size 8 on this yarn.  The bamboo gives the cashmere enough body to really show the stitch definition.

On the book table -- we're continuing to read-aloud the Another Whole Nother Story ... which my kids have deemed even better than the first book, A Whole Nother Story (which ranks right up there as a fabulous read-aloud).  Another one we're delving into that is great fun is M.B. Synge's A Book of Discovery -- wonderful short readings for history/geography!

In yesterday's mail, I received my newest reading book ... one for review for Thomas Nelson's Book Sneeze program.  Titled, No He Can't: How Barack Obama is dismantling hope and change, this book is written by Kevin McCullogh and details not just how Mr. Obama's administration is taking away our hope and changing what is good, but also gives suggestions on how to stop the hemorrhaging in economics, national security, human rights and accountability.  I went to bed at 8:30 last night so I could get reading this one!  It is really good.

Won't you join the yarn-along.  Check out Ginny's post and add your own link.  And let me know what you think about the burgeoning design by adding a comment at the bottom of this post!

Off to read and knit before the squidges get up!

 

March 25th: Annunciation and an Anniversary!

Icon received on our First Anniversary --
 note that Mary is holding yarn and knitting needles!

Today is a great feast in the Church -- the Feast of the Annunciation.  It is such a feast that most all Catholics will not abstain from meat today (unless they want to).  The Feast of the Annunciation is very near and dear to my heart as it is also my wedding anniversary.

Here's the story, in case you haven't heard it before:

On May 26, 1992, my husband Mike died of cancer.  He died four days after his 31st birthday, leaving me with a just-about three-year-old boy and an 11-month-old baby girl.  I was devastated, but I had the love and care of family and friends who helped me through the time.  I was climbing the corporate ladder at Delta Air Lines and they couldn't have been kinder.

But more importantly, I had the Blessed Mother to wrap her mantle around me ... to pray for grace to see me through the ordeal ... the loneliness ... the uncertainties.  God was always near.

Fast-forward five years later and I decide to we need to jump-start our lives again.  It is time.  I prayed to God and through Our Lady's intercessions, we ended up in Raleigh, NC just when the principal of a parochial school needed a computer teacher (which I could do) and had space for my two parochial school children!

How good is God!

At this parochial school, there was a certain middle-school science teacher with whom I became instantly attracted.  Something pulled us together -- we credit our prayers to the Blessed Mother.  He was a conservative Catholic and so was I.  He had been married (and annulled) and had older children who didn't live with him and so accepted mine with open arms.

On March 25, 1998, we married in the parish church of the school where we taught ... with some of our family-member and many students, faculty and staff in attendance.  Friends came from near and far to wish us well and witness to this near-miraculous event.

And so, as our 14th year together begins today: we renew our "I Do's", our fiat to live together in the state of Holy Matrimony, to assent to our Lord's will and abandoning ourselves to Divine Providence.

Thank you, dear Lord, for the past 13 years ... for being with us on this journey together.  

Thank you, Blessed Mother, for your intercessory prayers and always wrapping us in your mantle of love.

Thank you, dear Rick, for loving me even when I am not at my most lovable and thank you, too, for the three "littles" we have together and the blended family we continue to love and pray for daily.

Yarn-along: March 23rd and the swatches are almost done ...

~ Two of my favorite things are knitting and reading, and the evidence of this often shows up in my photographs. I love seeing what other people are knitting and reading as well. So, what are you knitting or crocheting right now? What are you reading? Take a single photo and share it either on your blog or on Flickr. Leave a link below to share your photo with the rest of us! ~ Ginny, Small Things

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Unfortunately, last week was a tough week for any kind of knitting as my laptop was dying a slow death and I was in the "denial" stage most of the week, trying to get the blasted thing to limp through its work.  Well, it made it till Thursday a.m. and I quickly hopped on dh's and ordered a new Toshiba (and a wireless printer while I was at it) -- thank goodness for overnight from Amazon and for design sales!

Well, this week is starting out much better! I've been knitting and reading and generally doing the good.

On the needles:  swatches for my talk at the Dog House Yarns Retreat (will we see you out at Graves Mountain on April 9th?).  The morning session will discuss how to substitute yarns for designs so I collected up different yarns, all in worsted weight, and am doing 50st by 72row squares(on size 8s) to show the differences in gauge, feel (or "hand"), drape and other characteristics.  I'm finishing up on the midnight blue wool/silk blend and then I have one or two to go and then I'll be ready to move on to real knitting again.

FYI, the yarns shown (clockwise, starting at the lower left) are:

• Plymouth Yarn's Boku (95% wool, 5% silk) in color 8 (very autumnal stripes)
• Universal Yarn's Poems Silk (75% wool, 25% silk) in color 803 "Baffinis" (greys and blues)
• Plymouth Yarn's Jelly Beenz (75% acrylic, 25% wool) in color 9623 (rosy pink with dashes of brights -- perfect for a little girl's sweater)
• Cascade Yarns' Venezia Worsted (70% merino, 30% silk) in color Forest (a gorgeous dark green)
• Plymouth Yarn's Royal Llama Silk (60% fine lama, 40% silk) in color 1842 (midnight blue)
• Stonehedge Fiber Mill's Shepherd's Wool (100% wool) in Antique Rose (a pale, but warm, pink)

On the reading table:
Our current read-aloud is the sequel to the wonderfully fun-to-read-aloud, A Whole Nother Story.  We just started Another Whole Nother Story yesterday, and it promises to be just as much fun as the first.

I just finished reading the fascinating, based-on-fact, novel, The Daughter's Walk by Jane Kirkpatrick.  I have now turned my reading toward that pile of books you see in the upper right corner of the picture:  lots of books on decorating on a shoestring!  Spring always gets my interior design creative juices flowing and these books have gorgeous ideas:  Flea Market Style, Simple to Sew Slipcovers and Cover-ups (especially for the leather furniture -- we stick to it in the summer!), Country Living's Cottage Style, Better Homes and Garden's New Cottage Style, HGTV's Design on a Dime, and Country Living's Shoestring Chic.  If those don't keep me busy this week, I've also got a few Windows 7 books to help me deal with all the changes to un-broke Windows programs that Microsoft decides we all need!

Go check out Ginny's post for today and add your own knitting/reading activities for this week!

 

Lent 2011: another desktop background ...

... based on today's responsorial psalm ...

 

Yarn-along: March 9th edition ...

~ Two of my favorite things are knitting and reading, and the evidence of this often shows up in my photographs. I love seeing what other people are knitting and reading as well. So, what are you knitting or crocheting right now? What are you reading? Take a single photo and share it either on your blog or on Flickr. Leave a link below to share your photo with the rest of us! ~ Ginny, Small Things

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Here's my offering this week:  we're finishing up our read-aloud, Airman, which I highly recommend (especially for boys, but my now-11yod loves it, too) and then we'll move on to A Whole Nother Story, a book that sounds very much like the type of crazy story Howard Whitehouse writes (we read his triology this past fall).  For my reading, since we're starting our Lenten Journey today, I've got the classic, Abandonment to Divine Providence, Houselander's Way of the Cross and Fr. Barron's Conversion on tap.

My knitting for the past few days has been lots of swatches -- squares for the upcoming Olde Liberty Fiber Faire, swatching a new design I've got in my head:

... and I picked up a sampling of worsted weight yarns yesterday from Dog House Yarns in Culpeper.  I'm the morning speaker at Dog House Yarns' upcoming knitting retreat (out at Graves Mountain Lodge on April 9). I'll be speaking about substituting yarns, what different fibers do, and generally discussing "the ins and outs of using this for that"; the swatches I'll knit from the yarns shown below will help illustrate just what different fibers do!  I'll also be signing copies of my Great Yarns books and doing two break-out sessions in the afternoon ("short rows" and "tips and tricks").

Come join Ginny's yarn-along ... and go check out the links to all the lovely ladies who post about what they're reading and working on ... the fiber pictures will have you drooling!
 

Yarn Along: March 2nd edition

Well, since my two-week hiatus from the internet, I've missed a couple of yarn-alongs.  My last one was February 9th ... and I mentioned reading Sweater Quest as I'd heard good things about it.  Don't waste your time -- she's got great info about fair-isle knitting, but it's random and rude, the language is a bit much (she swears alot in her writing!) and she jumps on the "dissing Alice Starmore" bandwagon.  Carmen, you were right ... I guess I should listen to you more, huh?  I hate when books let me down.

At least I was able to post the design for Victoria's Tee that I'd been working on for numerous yarn-alongs during the hiatus!

 This week finds me working away at a Snow on the Mountains vest in cashmere (a commission project).  This raspberry cashmere is almost idential in color to the "Victoria's Tee" ... must be the new popular color. 

The kids and I are reading Eion Colfer's Airman ... now this is a great read!  Set in Ireland in the early 1900s, it's a bit of Man in the Iron Mask but with great early aviation tidbits.  All of us are really enjoying it.  I'm in the middle of Linking Your Beads: the Rosary's History, Mystery and Prayers which is really well-done.  I'm learning tons about the rosary -- something that wasn't taught in my years of Catholic-school education (since I was in school during the post-Vatican 2, enlightened period in San Francisco!).  I'm also working my way through St. Louis Marie deMontfort's Total Consecration so that I can do my consecration to Jesus thru Mary on my wedding anniversary: March 25th (Feast of the Annunciation!).

So how is your knitting and reading week going?  Check out Ginny's yarn-along post and add your own link.  Don't forget to check out all the lovely ladies doing the same ... it's great fun and you'll get great ideas for books to read (or read-aloud!).