Thursday, October 30, 2014

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...

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

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.
*
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!

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

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

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Monday, October 27, 2014

{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


The second is from our honeymoon in
Everyone in Quebec City I think
goes to see the
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.

Friday, October 24, 2014

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...

Thursday, October 23, 2014

{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)!


Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Pray For my Beloved Ottawa!!!

 

Ottawa downtown, where I lived for 7 years,
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



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 
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! 

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

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




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!