In and Around Our Town



The Library of Congress brought a traveling exhibit of reproductions of documents.  My favorite part was the truck, looking so official in our Five Points Parking lot.  The exhibit was good too.



I would gasp if I saw this truck traveling along a road. 

Two young musicians, Sid and Marc, stayed with us when the Heartland Festival Orchestra played at Five Points.



Bronwyn, Charr, Sarah, and I met at The Blend for a Knitting Morning.  It was our first time to meet Ravelry friend, Bronwyn.




Bronwyn shared her shawl, Lazy Katy, which is beautiful and fascinating with its unusual shape.



A Lovely Tea with New Friends

Today I had the pleasure of meeting a Danish couple who are visiting friends here. I had heard on Monday that they were in our town for a short time and was so eager to meet them. It isn't often I have a chance to visit with Danes and speak Danish. So much vocabulary has gone by the wayside, but I can still hold my own in a conversation and understand almost everything. It is amazing what remains in the subconscious, lingering for so many years. Sometimes I even surprise myself when the right words comes out of my mouth.

It was so much like summer today that I was able to set our tea table on the deck (which got a good scrubbing yesterday in preparation.) As we chatted in Danish, drinking our tea and eating pastries from Trefzger's and strawberries, I could almost imagine being in Denmark again, remembering my student days there.

It is a shame that Flemming and Pia are leaving tomorrow, but I am so glad we had this lovely time together.

Blessings

This morning the prayer shawl knitters from my church met at our local coffeehouse, The Blend. This shawl, which I have been knitting off and on since July, was blocked and ready to go. I had a faint idea of the intended recipient, but was not certain. While we were having our hot drinks (it is cold here today!) we found out that one of our fellow knitters is still not well after a fall she had several weeks ago. Right then I knew this shawl was for her. It is made of luxury yarn, Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk, so it could not go to a sick household where it could be tossed in a machine. We laid our hands on the shawl and prayed for our friend. Immediately following our gathering I took the shawl to her. She exclaimed, "It is my favorite color!" as I put it around her shoulders. She looked beautiful! It was indeed her color. I knew right then that the Holy Spirit had guided us to the right place.

The pattern is Cheryl Oberle's Feather and Fan
Triangle Shawl from her book Folk Shawls. One feature I especially like are the long tails, made by extra increases on each of the side points of the triangle. These long tails make the shawl wrap nicely about the shoulders and neck.
Of course there was all that blissful garter stitch, too!

I only put about 5 repeats of Feather and Fan on the border of the shawl and it still is a fairly ample covering.

It makes me happy knowing this shawl has found its way home.

A Celebration of Knitters

Last week the ladies in our prayer shawl group, Knit One Pray Too, met at a local coffee house, The Blend. Three of our friends have consecutive birthdays so it is a fun time to celebrate their milestones and give them cards. One of them turned 91 this week! I feel so blessed to know each one of them. We are growing in our prayer life together. One friend is going through cancer treatments so she is continually in our prayers. After our coffee and conversation yesterday we formed a prayer circle to bless shawls. These shawls will be given to people who are going through life transitions. Many of the situations are difficult ones, although we can celebrate as well in the midst of trouble.

I finished another Prayer Shawl but am not sure who will be the recipient. It is the same as one I made last summer: lots of garter stitch with lace borders at both ends. I think I'm done with that for a while!

Independence Day Shenanigans

We spent the July 4th holiday in Wisconsin with friends. We had a wonderful time...

We biked along the lake to the golf course.

The guys got stuck on the lake when the boat died.

Then they played gondolier to bring the boat back to the dock.

Carol and Dave had early morning coffee on the lake.

And of course, we knitted by the lake. This little sweater is from one of my favorite patterns: Easy Garter Sweater, from Erika Knight's Simple Knits for Cherished Babies. The colors of this little sweater remind me of the lake: greens, blues, browns and a creamy off white.

I finished it off with assorted buttons from my Mason jar: alternating and unmatching blues and greens.

Details are on my Ravelry Projects page.

A Crafty Morning

Yesterday two knitting friends came at my invitation for a surprise craft project. I had actually invited four friends but only two were brave enough. I told them the project was related to, but did not involve knitting. I am not really good at keeping secrets like this so when Nicole asked what we were going to do, I blurted it out. Sarah, on the other hand, was curious, maybe even wary, but trusting enough to show up with the specified materials: a t-shirt that could be sacrificed for the cause and a bag of polyester fiberfill. Hmmmm. That must have kept her up all night.

It turns out that 3 of us were the perfect number to make our individual body doubles. The instructions are found in Wendy Bernard's Custom Knits and this is one of the reasons I bought the book. Having a body double to try on garments is genius and when you can do it with duct tape, an old t-shirt, and some fiberfill, it is pretty cheap genius at that! We chose Nicole as our first guinea pig and she was certainly a good sport as Sarah and I read the directions step by step, pondering once in a while to figure out the next step. I think it took Sarah and me much longer to wrap Nicole than when Nicole was wrapping Sarah and me. We attributed that to the learning curve and that Nicole sews a lot.

After wrapping a body, you cut down the back and then tape it back together. Nicole and Sarah are figuring that out in this photo.

We have a few tips to share:

• The plastic wrap proved unnecessary. If the t-shirt has a reasonable neckline, we just taped around that.
  


• Get plenty of tape. It takes a lot.
  


• Get plenty of fiberfill. One large bag is not enough for one dummy and none of us are considered large.
  


• Do not attempt if you are overly modest.
  


• I thought being wrapped in duct tape would be claustrophobic but it wasn't. It didn't bother me at all and I'm the kind of person who doesn't like crowded elevators.
  


• Allow 45 min to an hour per person.

I don't look very happy in the photo, but it wasn't bad until I saw the finished product. Yikes! Am I that chubby??????????? (I asked my husband and he is smart enough to give the right answer.) Nicole looks a little wild-eyed. I'm glad I didn't know she had scissors in her hand.

The final stage was cutting a cardboad bottom, stuffing with fiberfill, and inserting a hanger.

Nicole looks happy with her finished Nicole #2.

I am just drawing a blank trying to think of labels for this post! It isn't knitting but it was fun.

A Broken Friendship

A sad thing happened today. A person who has been a friend for over 25 years decided to end our friendship. I have no idea what has caused this, although I began to notice changes with her about the time we began to build our house a year ago. She began to distance herself from me, even to the point of being rude. I let these things go past me because I valued our friendship and figured it would blow over. Last April she showed up at my door to apologize in a rambling sort of way, saying that she was sorry for all the rude things she had said and done. She said she felt as if she had been living her life through me and had to distance herself. I gave her a hug and said it was all fine now, hoping that was the end of it. Things did not change at all. Today she came to my house and apologized again, but this time said some things that hurt me very much. It was nothing I had said or done to her, nor anything I have any control over. She has created a very uncomfortable situation since there are times we cannot avoid one another. I just don't understand at all and probably never will. I didn't know what to say as she stood on my doorstep and said, "We don't have anything in common since our kids grew up." She is wrong but how can I argue if she feels that way? After my initial shock I composed an email responding as kindly as possible but still being direct. I read that email many times to make sure I wasn't just trying to hurt her back, although maybe I did want to do that just a little. I feel she has done irreparable damage now. When a person apologizes for their own benefit, saying things that hurt, then it isn't really an apology, is it? It would be better to be silent than to say harmful things about which the other person has no control.



To assuage my hurt today I started a new knitting project: a little baby sweater for a sweet baby girl! I'm not ready to jump back on the Hemlock Ring Horse yet. This project will go quickly.



It is going to be a busy weekend. I have to work Friday night and Saturday morning. We have a wedding to go to Saturday afternoon and evening. Church on Sunday morning and then an event to attend on Sunday afternoon, although that one will be just about an hour. Hope all of you have a great weekend!