dreams of spring yarn along

 Knitting and reading... ahhh; a most delightful pursuit on the best of days, irregardless of the weather outside. And my world is shouting "SPRING"; perhaps too early, the peach crops will tell the true story this summer.

This particular knitting project was knitted in Baby Bee Sweet Delight, colorway, get this, Boo Pink...love it! The pattern can be found on Ravelry, Garter Yoke Baby Cardi by Jennifer Hoel. 

This sweater is an accessory for a smocked bishop dress I am presently sewing for baby Ivy, of course. I am thinking Easter dress, but her first birthday is just around the corner, so who knows.  Spring can be finicky in these parts so you never know when you might need a wrap or sweater of some sort for a chilly Easter morn. I lined the back of the garter yoke sweater with the fabric in the dress and likewise covered one 5/8 inch button at the top.

The book is typical Susan Branch charm. I especially love her quotes scattered throughout the handwritten pages.

Another wonderful opportunity to join with Ginny's Yarn Along this Wednesday.

earl grey lattes

Charlotte has a new violin teacher, a newly married beautiful, young woman, who is currently a student working on a Master's degree in violin performance. I do enjoy sitting in her upstairs apartment while the music lesson is going on... yet I recently happened upon a charming coffee/ crepe shop right across the street. And right from that very first visit  the deliciousness of earl grey lattes has become one of my weaknesses.  Yes, I can make them at home, but I would need to pull out my espresso machine with the cream steamer to truly get the same effect. You know how that goes... easier to walk across the busy street and buy them. This particular Monday afternoon while in town for lessons, I bring along my knitting and traffic sounds fade as I sip and knit for 45 minutes in the car.

silk ribbon emboidery

All it took was a Saturday morning gathered around a dining room table with a few ladies, an array of silk ribbon in beautiful shades of pink and green, and an intended project for creating a thumb pin cushion. 

I came home and after finishing my pin cushion(see in right hand corner), I went online and ordered a book and some spools of silk ribbon. Now I am accumulating my own stash for future projects. A new love of hand sewing has been birthed.

Monday afternoon...

...the last one in January 2017.

I am sitting in my sunny sewing room, but I should be outside walking, and I might yet take a brisk walk around the block in the next five minutes. But as I was sitting here journaling, I took the time to download some photos from my camera, and I discovered some past drafts and decided to post them.
Then that led to the question of why not post a bit about my Monday afternoon...?
St. Dalfour organic Earl Grey tea, my Bible, a journal, and Bach on Pandora.

And I  have set up a bit of a tea table in the corner of my sewing room. Note the sweet creamer and sugar bowl with the sewing notions. A friend brought those back from Ireland...perfect!

Hope your Monday is going grandly.

tweet-chirp dress

 Still working on something to tuck in baby girl's pocket. Something she will not get choked on because as we all so well know, everything goes in the mouth.

last day of november yarn along

       Thanksgiving is over and even though we lighted our first Advent candle on Sunday, and the Christmas tree is up and the decorating way on its way, the event that truly welcomes Christmas celebration into our family with full intensity is attending the annual performance of Handel's Messiah given by the local oratorio society/orchestra, which we attended last night. It was nothing less than glorious.

But with the balmy days of late and the carpet of leaves left underfoot, a source of confusion is created in my mind as we are on the brink of flipping our calendars to December.

 Nevertheless, I knit on, and I read books about godly woman.

 Women I want to emulate in their quest to know God, to serve Jesus, and to obey the voice of the Holy Spirit.

These particular socks I am presently knitting, I named the Merry-Go-Round Socks; the color of fir and pine trees against clear blue skies with the golden glow of sunny days... yes, Merry, a word we hear quite often during this season... and the constant going round and round on the ribbing and knitting that sock knitting certainly affords. I am thinking I will do an afterthought heel on this pair of socks.

I have finished the Fair Isle sweater mentioned a while back.  You may read about it if you like on ravelry, or on my past post.

And on this last day of November I am thankful to be able to join Ginny's Yarn Along.

...with a grateful heart

Sense of beauty is the gift of God,
for which those who have received it in good measure,
can never be thankful enough.
                                                      ~ Gertrude Jekyll

 Why does one upload from a wide, or not so wide, array of photos?
It does not have the sphere of making the day any more lovely. But for remembrance sake I share several photos of our Thanksgiving Day feast at Witt and Clarie's house, a distinct place where I found myself breathing and relaxing on a grand scale on Thanksgiving Day. To me that must be a sure sign of  being hailed as a good host and hostess. It was a day of balmy temps, spoken thanks, and palatable food. Claire's curry pumpkin soup was my most favorite dish of all.

*Claire set a beautiful table from her assortment of dishes and thanksgiving decorations.
*Don and I brought the collards and pumpkin pie
*Claire cooked the brined turkey and other side dishes
*the day was so warm we sat in the garden and watched the bees
*until I became chilly and moved into a patch of sunshine
*Charlotte, our photographer of the day, sat on the deck for a spell with her chevron glass of ginger ale

Thanksgiving

I have much to be thankful for this day.  Beef stew simmering on the stove anticipating a side of buttermilk biscuits for supper, an organic cabbage fermenting in the larder, and a walk in the woods where even the brambly briers that grabbed the legs of my jeans scratching through to my shin did not deter me.


And a completed sweater.

You may read about this sweater on my ravelry page. 

fruit

Years ago I became aware of a Bible memory program that I liked, and I found that it helped me have a organized way to memorize God's Word. The boys and I would spend summer afternoons learning and reciting Bible memory verses that were organized into appropriate age groupings and particular subject categories, or Bible books, that made memory work easier for anyone who wanted to take on the challenge. Even Rose as a preschooler would belt out the verses from her ABC Memory book.

Most summers I will intentionally find bits of time to memorize Scripture.  Because of the development of smart phone apps I've now discovered Scripture Memory Fellowship has excellent helps for memorizing God's Word.

I am presently memorizing the book of II Timothy. Sounds ambitious, yet amazingly, the secret is dailiness. Taking time to be attentive to the effort of memorizing pays huge dividends.

I pray it will produce fruit in my life.

And speaking of fruit, scuppernongs are only in season briefly; I love their wine- flavored sweetness. 

and today's knitting...

These days I desire more time to knit, to actually squeeze knitting somewhere into the minutes of my day, unambiguously between this and that. Yet, irregardless of how much I want it or try to make it happen, some days it just does not happen.

However, today turned out with the grateful allowance of a few rows of knitting on my
 Ellen Cardigan while Charlotte was at her piano lesson.

I sat upon this lake's bank on a left behind beach towel stored in the the back of my car and gleaned  what was to me a feast of calm and knitting, with a bit of refreshment from a wee bottle of ginger kombucha on the side.

Serenity.

listing...fair isle knitting

Okay, I like to make lists. I have even revisited listography this summer. So it made perfectly good sense to begin a list at the beginning of the summer upon which I jotted down several things I hoped to accomplish during the summer. Intentionality precedes the process of making it happen I am discovering.

*Knit a Fair Isle Garment

My first attempt at Fair Isle knitting was the Baa-ble hat by Donna Smith. Since I had mastered English and Continental knitting a while back, my main focus was concentrating on having the floats become like second nature to me. I loved everything about knitting up this hat. This is a free pattern on Ravelry with modifications I found here after reading about the original hat pattern's larger sizing. And pom poms add such fun don't you think? Or maybe that is because the charm is in the fun of making them! 

Back in July a local yarn shop held a sale on all their yarns which enabled me to save big on the yarn for knitting a cardigan I had anticipated knitting since last year. It too is a free Ravelry pattern, the Ellen by Amy Christoffers. I only chose five colors to do the actual color work pattern, and I am pleased with the results. 

All I can say is I have found a new love...my daily knitting time is never enough, but then isn't that true of everything we love, being satisfied yet wanting more?