How is it Wednesday already?! A report on creativity + yarn along!

It is amazing how much can be packed into a few weeks!

Since my last yarn along post in July, 

lots of creativity, makes and reading has happened!

I am steadily making more wash clothes on the knitting front!

Perfect and easy for summer and dealing with the heat! 

I am still reading The Wilderness Journal:365 Days with the Philokalia, picked up 

Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking: A Memoir of Food and Longing 

after a long while...am starting over as it had gotten put on a shelf and forgotten

in the business of a lot of days and seasons. 

That said, I do enjoy it and find it well written.  

I am still reading this book of letters, slowly.

***

Another creative endeavour of mine is that I started a foodie/culinary blog

All the Ribbons in mid-July ... to write about the foods newly discovered

or loved for a long time!

 I grilled beef skewers and made a peanut sauce satay for the first time

and created a very satisfying Asian noodle dish from this.

I also made a strawberry lemon cake that I am still tweaking!

I got the letters of Flannery O'Connor and Caroline Gordon recently

and have begun reading this...very enlightening...!

I created a lovely simple beef stroganoff and blogged about it on All the Ribbons,

it was so good and comforting.  

I made it the week (and actually the morning of the day that)

my Husband's Uncle Hank went to be with our Lord Jesus Christ, 

after an unexpected fall that left him unconscious and in hospital...

I am working on an essay on how creating this meal helped me

process this loss... I hope to publish it in next weeks on my 

food blog (and will let you know on this blog when I do)...

That day I also made super delicious perfectly salted cream biscuits

that I have blogged about here.

***

I really enjoyed reading and have finished Luisa Weiss' My Berlin Kitchen.

 I baked a delicious plum torte that day as well... 

I am planning on writing on this as well on my All the Ribbons blog :)

I have enjoyed immensely reading this small facsimile of an 1800 cookery book

that a dear friend sent me! 

In the creative culinary realm I also baked a lemon crinkle cookie 

that really has an old soul - from a stash of handwritten recipes

found in our dear friend +Patrick's house that we helped

organize after he joined his Lord and Saviour who he loved so much.... 

I wrote about this recipe here and recommend it as a

wonderful lemony tender crumbed cookie that keeps you wanting more!

Last on the culinary creative front, I baked Maryland fried chicken on 

Sunday and the leftovers of this have proven to be perfect,

reheated in the toaster oven!

I had a momentous journey to Philadelphia last Friday,

I think it will be one of the significant days of 2019 for me.

This Psalter (book of Psalms) was a real blessing to me 

on this morning of the train ride! 

***

On the fabric side of creative endeavours, I have made a lot of progress

on my goddaughter's quilt this past Monday!

With a friend's help I stitched together the back fabric 

as well as the batting, which was in 2 pieces. 

This quilt is finally ready for quilting!

I've been working on it since 2015

This picture (above) is the back fabric, the quilt

is all folded up, ready to be quilted later ... I am hoping to get to it

next week! 

I am really pleased with how it has turned out!

I am planning on quilting it in the lines that are already in this quilt,

it's called "stitch in the ditch" and I think will be the best way to 

quilt this one, as I am still new to quilting, this being

my second quilt and I hope my first really good one!

***

I also finished reading (well listening to!) this book,

it was really good!

This book, The Forgotten Sisters, is the third book in this series.

I was impressed with these books and highly recommend them!

***

It is such a blessing to work on various art forms!

From Knitting, Cooking, Baking, Quilting ... to enjoying the 

art form of writing and dramatic reading... 

Speaking of reading out loud, I am still reading

Tolkien's Letters out loud to Mr Husband most nights 

and it is a very enjoyable moment in our often busy days!

***

What are you creating and reading?  

You are most welcome to Yarn-Along with us! 

Yarn Along ... pinks and blues... and tea! and beauty!

I have made a lot of fun royal blue wash clothes...

knitting on the PATH train to NYC, the subway in NYC,

at my friend's house in Pittsburgh, 

at this conference which I highly recommend listening to 

the various talks, esp. this one by Fr Stephan Freeman

so insightful, powerful and such love... 

I met a lot of dear ones at the Conference,

though I was careful not to get too peopled out, 

as I wanted this to be something fun, 

not an overwhelming experience for me, 

a cross between introvert and extrovert. 

So there were a lot of people who I know from them being online,

but I did not introduce myself to them as it would have

been too much in such a short time.

That said, I really enjoyed myself, felt it went really well

and between that and an earlier visit to the 

Elwood City Monastery, so beautiful ...

God gave me this feeling of peace, of joy, of love, 

that I had not felt like that in a very long time, 

as in that abundance, like I was floating along by God's mercy... 

one of those rare times of blessings,

I am so grateful for that. 

So it's been nice to be knitting simple 

wash clothes... and in so many places! 

I have a few more I need to weave ends in...

I think I will not start any bigger projects until the Fall as

the heat makes it hard to do much else!

***

I am hoping to sew more though, 

and began the beginnings of a simple pillow,

the picture below is of the front of this pillow...

As for reading, 

I am dipping into this Psalter, which is so lovely,

reading slowly this book of letters,

which I am pondering and learning so much from;

read this novel (blogged about here, ended up being a traumatic unexpected ending,

still a bit in shock about it),

and am reading tons of cooking things, including this new to me blog,

and ordered new stack of cookbooks and memoir cookbooks 

to enjoy in the coming months! 

***

I am so glad Ginny is doing the Yarn Along once a month now,

even though I have not been able to join for some time!

I have met some wonderful blog friends through Ginny's Yarn Along

and am grateful for it and them! 

***

If you create with fiber/yarn,

yarn along with us! 

First Wednesday of Great Lent, 2017

I had a quiet day;

a long talk with my sister-friend, so nice, it has been months.

I was really worn out today and took it easy.

I watched a cheesy Christian film,

knitted wash clothes.

Read a bit more of Laurus. 

{so ends my #lentenkal + yarn along section of this post!}

Mr. Husband took me out for Lenten Middle Eastern food,

I had lentil soup and bread.

We also ordered some for tomorrow.

I do hope to make a soup soon, but at the same time, realized

I needed some re-coop time, and Friday is going to be a busy day....

A trip to continue working on Patrick stuff, and I hope

to go to presanctified liturgy back at home, 

afterwards... if the weather holds and our schedule can happen

as we are thinking. 

And then we went to the 3rd section of the 

Canon of St. Andrew of Crete....

Below are some sections of it that really struck me tonight,

I how repentance and seeing oneself to be a sinner in great need of repentance,

that this is always in conjunction with trusting in God's mercy

and not despairing. 

My Ottawa spiritual father once told me that I needed to keep at an

exact 50/50 balance the fact that

I am a sinner and that God loves me.

I find that the canon has the same balance,

and that it is a very deep text, 

as in we can think we are a sinner worthy of hell

but at the same moment, we do not despair of God's mercy.

And that was Wednesday of the first week of Lent.

***

I do hope to get a more active routine for Lent yet,

but today I just had to do a lot of resting... 

I am weak and the culmination of the stresses of the past 2 months

got to me a bit again and I had to take a breather so that I can resume

life... thank God for His mercy and that I could be at church tonight.

***

I am seeing such mercy in God's care and in that I rest.

Yarn Along ~ books, blankets and beauty

Yesterday I took the train to Princeton!

 I worked on my many squared blanket, sewing on squares with

blue yarn... it is coming along!

 This is a beautiful book, touching, poignant and
inspiring in how one can live in very difficult times.

Fr. Dimitri and Mother Maria of Paris, with others,
were all killed during the 

Nazi period in France....
they are all considered Saints, martyrs for Christ.

The book is written by Fr. Dimitri's daughter,
who was 4 the last time she saw her father. 

Her memories of her father,
from the eyes of an adoring 4 year old daughter,

are really beautiful and Fr. Dimitri was a very kind man,
incredible in his love.  

I had a really good talk with my quilting friend about this author

 and feel more settled in accepting the struggles Hall had after Jane Kenyon died.

I am looking forward to reading this book, hopefully soon. 

I am hoping to finish this blanket in the next month, if possible.

I have so much to do, that we will see...

I went to a lovely kitchen store in Princeton, 

my kind of 'window shopping' and I love this picnic basket! 

***

Leaving you with 2 pictures of Princeton... 

it's a very beautiful place. 

And that is my yarn along for today!

I hope this post finds whoever reads it

having a peaceful day!

Feel free to join us!