I have been married to my beloved
Mr. Husband about 1.5 years now.
I first learned to knit
just over a year ago
and have just begun
my first knitting project for my
husband!
The only thing he wanted was socks.
So I am using a pattern called
While I cannot find this pattern online,
I can tell you that the name is from
the Aladdin heel, which provides a way
to re-knit the heel when the first is worn through.
This pattern also lets one replace the toe.
All I have done so far is cast on.
I meet with my knitting teacher tomorrow
to discuss and do more on it.
The next thing is to do decreases,
but I will be glad to touch base
on this before going further.
*
The size one DPNs I am using
are the clover brand bamboo ones.
I am wondering however if I should switch to metal
size ones as the bamboo seems so frail
that one wrong move may snap a needle in half!
*
I have been reading various books...
Letters to Saint Lydia
is a very well written book;
I found the ending to be very beautiful but
it does have a turn towards the end that
I found unexpected.
It is charming as it shows a girl named Lydia
who is given an icon of St. Lydia from her Mother
who just went from a Mom who loved to go out in nature
for her spirituality to someone, with her husband, who
becomes a Christian, being baptised in the Orthodox church.
Lydia is understandably confused by this,
as any high school girl would be!
She ends up not knowing where to sort out these
unexpected happenings and so begins writing letters
to the woman, St. Lydia, whose icon her Mother gave her.
It's very honouring of Lydia's struggles with her family
and her perception of the world...
The beautiful thing is that unknown to Lydia this
woman Saint Lydia writes her letters in return
and these letters are very precious and I would say
deeply mothering, so much so that
I found the whole book to be a very nurturing book,
a mothering that many are looking for...
This Saint Lydia helps Lydia through some really
tough times and is very beautiful.
I would not recommend this book to a girl who is
not high school age or older due to
some of the things Lydia faces ... however if you are a mother
of a young teen girl, I would read it first
and judge for yourself if your daughter is ready for the book
or if it should wait.
Everyone's life experience and journey are different
and the book would be needful depending on where
the reader was in this journey.
*
and then read quickly (to find out what happens!) the
second half...
*
It is very moving and gives a lot of good food for thought
for women of our times.
What does it mean to be a woman?
Can a woman in this age of feminism be a Christian
in such an era?
What about those who are where this author was
at one time, feeling that emptiness that the author felt
found in Christianity, and for herself,
the Catholic church help?...
For me as an Orthodox* Christian
it was interesting to learn
about the world that Colleen embraces.
I have some good friends who are Catholic
and who have similar devotion that is shown here.
It's a great book for thinking about women
and how we are to try to grapple with things,
as well as dealing with the illness and eventual loss of a parent
and all that this entails;
it also deals with infertility and the struggles that are found there in.
It's fairly well written and readable.
*
I am still digesting the
bio that I read on Coleen based on her book.
I admit I was rather saddened to read that she is back
in Washington DC area; my sense from her book
and from what I know of that area,
it is a stressful place to live.
But I trust God where she is being placed...
My sense is that her life is incredibly demanding and a challenge
to balance her career and family life.
God bless and keep her!
*
So what are you reading and creating?
Do yarn along with us!
*(the Orthodox church being the other church
that I can historically claim to be
from the earliest times;
though it is more simple to say that
both churches
(Catholic and Orthodox are
from the earliest times of the church
but in the 1000 - 1100s became two separate churches).
