{around the house} ~ icons in my office...

I am loving my little office nook!

A while back I got some icons up and I am just loving them!

My Oma's Blankets

For years I had this blanket, and the ladybug

pillow that you see the top of.

It was not until I started knitting

that I really feel I saw what I had

in my Oma's blankets.

The one above is such a delightful bright

use of colours in seed stitch,

with border that ties it together.

Someday I want to make one like this.

My blanket is really patterned

after this one.

Here is the other blanket of my Oma's I have

so cozy on my white chair;

Cleo loves both of these...

I am making progress on my blanket

and now have the pattern of colours repeating...

I am very pleased with how it is going...

A little hard to tell, but the third red that is being knitted

is the same as the first, below the middle brighter red.

I am still thinking of how I will make the border...

My Antonia and textured blanket progress

After one of my dear friends

and I were emailing, I got the suggestion

to read Willa Cather,

as my friend was recently reading her letters

to a great degree of enjoyment.

So I got My Antonia out from the library

and finally finished it,

after many renewals... 

*

I loved it. 

Such a clarity of vision, a redemption and salvation

of Antonia, a narration of a boy who was humble

and later chivalrous and in the end 

a narrator who honours others...

*

I loved the portrayal of the native Faith of 

'the Bohemians' and how the moral law

that God has built into the fabric of everything

is so evident into this work.

*

And the cultured understanding of immigrants,

of music, beauty and books....

I could go on...

*

Two people told me they found this book depressing;

I had a conversation with the library clerk and 

agreed with him that I could very well find this book

to not be depressing and truly I did not.

*

I think if you follow the narration of the main character,

and his loves, then the whole book is a wonder.

*

So the blanket.

It's going well!

I have all four colours in now...

I am getting much better at not ribbing when I mean to seed stitch and 

love that I am growing in my innate kinesthetic understanding of

reading my knitting,

which is one of the reasons for this blanket, 

along side of the making of the blanket itself. 

I am purposely doing mostly seed stitch with some ribbing

and am pleased with the results.

*

What are you reading and creating?

Yarn Along with us!

In the middle of it all ~ offering of a poem

I've been thinking of

something I wrote many years ago in my

undergraduate years,

when the woman who was, I see now,

my first spiritual mother,

died...

*

Many of my friends are suffering in ways

that all result in great losses.

I am reprinting this poem I wrote,
for my creative writing class,

in memory of all of these.

****

Upon finding the funeral 


A small girl searches through narrow corridors,
her footsteps whisper without reply.

A door shuts as it opens.
Words of beauty in ashes hang heavy in the air.

Her small frame
bends,
feet dig into the worn stone,
arms pull the handle,
the door unmoved:

the casket still descending.

~ Elizabeth A. R. 1999

© roosje:{little rose} blog 2014
please do not share without permission and acknowledgment with proper URL

{around the house) ~ Spoons in Mr. Husband's Great Aunt's Spoon Rack

Another example of Mr. Husband and I's

'uncanny similarities' includes spoons.

We are Dutch and both had spoons

that have been in our families for sometime.

Most in this spoon rack were his Aunt J.'s

but two are since the time of 

my marriage to Mr. Husband.

Most recently this one in the middle

from PEI, celebrating

Anne of Green Gables

The second is from our honeymoon in

Quebec.

Everyone in Quebec City I think

goes to see the

Chateau Frontanc!

This was the one thing (the spoon)

that I knew I wanted from our honeymoon.

Simple and old fashioned. 

I am so thankful!

Some encouragement along the way

I found this recent blog post 

to be greatly encouraging:

"So often we ask ourselves and one another a very tormenting question: How can I deal with my sinful condition? What can I do? I cannot avoid committing sins; Christ alone is sinless. I cannot, for lack of determination, or courage, or ability truly repent when I do commit a sin, or in general, of my sinful condition. What is left to me? I am tormented, I fight like one drowning, and I see no solution."....

See here for rest.

Christmas tea from 2013...

Mr. Husband and I have just 

a little bit of our 2013 Christmas tea left...

It seems that I may be joining Mr. Husband

in having a cold so this morning I 

brewed some of this lovely tea...

I have the ingredients in my pantry to make it again

for this Christmas and hope to get to that in the next 

month or so...

I love this simple tea pot from IKEA...

My super warm Dutch tea cozy...

(had mine for years from the Dutch Store in MI,

but found it online here)

it's like a pillow suitcase for a tea pot :)

Keeps tea hot for hours...

{Around the House} ~ Tiles Up!

My cousin H while she was with us

put up many of Mr. Husband's Delft Dutch tiles.

I just love how she did them (we collaborated on design

but she did the excellent work)!

Pray For my Beloved Ottawa!!!

 

Ottawa downtown, where I lived for 7 years,

is under attack by gun men.

Many of the children from the Orthodox parishes 

I know are in lock-down as are many of the

adults who work downtown.

Please Pray!

Textured Blanket and By the Shores of Silver Lake

So my seed stitch afghan is officially

now my textured stitch Afghan!

I kept ribbing by mistake and rather like

how it is turning out!

I am doing it with size 7 needles... 

My new goal is to learn how to do what I intend:

when I want to seed stitch and when I want to rib

instead of merely because I mixed up my knits and pearls!

I am going to add one more red yarn to this mix and then 

it will be 4 or so alternating colours like you see above.

I am really loving it!

I hope to add a border to it when it is finished.

I am thinking it may be a large lap blanket sized Afghan! 

*

I finished Wilder's 

By the Shores of Silver Lake last week

and just loved it!

I went to the Princeton Library booksale

last weekend and found the whole set in paperback! 

I can't wait to read them all!

*

What are you reading and creating?

Yarn Along with us! 

Many beautiful things ~ Christmas, Princeton, Friends, Beauty and a good Dinner

I've been talking about Christmas

for a good month already.

Of the (artificial, allergies and 

practicalities necessitate) 

Christmas Tree

I hope to get and have by our bay window...

Actually I thought of that before we even bought the house,

back in March :)

*

Today I worked on a 2014 Nativity plan...

like I did last year, I've decided that Nov 15,

the beginning of the Advent/Nativity Fast for 

my new calendar friends and family,

is when I will publish this list, which I consider

now to be my annual list...

*

It's exciting to be building family traditions like this,

and I admit that Christmas is one of my most beloved times...

my Grandma's too... she and I were already talking last week

about how she hopes to get her tree up shortly after 

Thanksgiving...

*

Well,

this past weekend Mr. Husband and I were in Princeton.

  

Cleo missed us but was well cared for as usual.

(though I changed her water bowls last night and forgot 

to add water to the new bowl and felt horrible about that :( ).

*

I met a new friend who has a remarkable amount of

similarities to me in interests, reading and crafting.

So that was cool.

I drove only a very little bit but hope to drive more again soon.

I saw another few friends as well 

and visited a lovely knitting store.

*

And then at church I was given a gift of yarn and some 

crochet hooks!

So hope to learn how to crochet at some point...

I've been wanting to (and also learn to quilt/sew) but it will take time...

things are so busy...

*

I am one that has more ideas for things than time.

And, then there's Sunday School lessons that I need to work on yet...

things have been going great with that though;

I come back after being gone for 3 Sundays,

2 of those Sundays being taught with lessons I wrote and posted

before I left and the kids are getting out the 

komboskinis and praying the Jesus Prayer before I even said,

let's pray the Jesus Prayer now!

I love my Sunday School kids... :)

*

So more Pictures of Princeton,

whose beauty I love and whose pictures of the chapel

were the last pictures I ever showed my Oma who died

just days later.

It was such a sunny beautiful day.

Mr. Husband had work that day so I played 

Princeton tourist and went around by myself,

taking myself first to the chapel...

See the man walking to the right...

gives a sense of how large this chapel is!

I can never resist taking pictures...

It is such a lovely place to be in,

to pray....

I met two new friends, a couple,

in Princeton and had a very lovely 

lunch with them and then

time talking with the wife of the couple for

an enjoyable afternoon of tea, 

talk of books, crafting and the like.

We stopped by Princeton and went to 

the yarn shop,

seeing the window shop lovely antiques on the way.

And this was a dazzling blanket at the yarn shop!

Afterwards we went out for (vegan for me) ice cream

as it was a Friday of ordinary time (which means a fast day).

*

So it was a lovely day.

*

Today Mr. Husband has the severe sniffles/cold

and I made two pots of tea for him tonight...

And I made a really easy chicken dish:

Flour, salt, pepper, garlic powder in a bag for shake and baking the chicken,

pan fry for light browning,

then put in coconut oiled pan and more coconut oil on top and bake

about 20 minutes or less on 425 F (I was using boneless chicken thighs

which were not overly thick).

*

Will try to post recipe on this soon...

But for now it is time to close with hope 

for a fun yarn along day tomorrow!