I learned something new

My friend Michelle
taught me how to
make something that
I think is pretty cool.
I'll have to stick with
the WIP photo for now
for a couple of reasons:
1) I don't have an FO
photo yet, and
2) it's a surprise!

Thanks Michelle!

A Contest

A contest as a thank you for contributing to Aaron's Afghan - a project meant to comfort a family whose little two-year-old son and brother recently passed away.

Contest details

prizes include: one set of my favorite type knitting needles, clover bamboo, in size 10 (new - I removed them from the packaging just to take the picture); one set of five stitch markers (hearts - as this is a project of love); a pretty yellow pottery bowl made by a local potter - it is the perfect size for little candies, pocket change, or just about any other small item; finally four 50 gram hanks of a beautiful cranberry-colored Flureece yarn from Knit One Crochet Too's Gourmet Collection. This yarn is 75% merino wool, 25% nylon and very soft.

how to enter: simply send a 7x7 inch knit square to Jen (email her at njbush at netins dot net for the mailing address). The squares should be knit with a soft acrylic (I recommend Caron Simply Soft) in shades of green, blue and also cream. Then leave me a comment telling me how many squares you sent. For each square you knit and send you will receive one entry.

deadline: Squares need to be postmarked by March 13th (that's a Tuesday) to be eligible. The contest is retroactive for squares that have already been sent.

winner: I will post the winner within a few days of the contest and ask that they contact me by email (for some reason blogger does not include email addresses for comments on my blog, I could probably change that in my settings somehow but I don't know enough about computers to figure it out).

Please join us as we reach out to a hurting family.

*** a little addendum - I've heard that my silly blog won't let some people post comments. To remedy the situation, I decided to open an email account in case you'd like to email your name and # of squares: aarons_afghan at yahoo dot com ***

framed

Mom's needlepoint flowers are now framed and hanging in her newly remodeled kitchen. I think they look great! My mom and sisters were pleased as well.










It took me a while to get them to our friends who do framing but our friends were quick to get them in the frames and back to us. The flowers made it on the walls on time for Mom's Valentine's Day open house last Saturday.

knitting is a beautiful thing

As you may know my mom has a fatal illness. Today I learned that someone I am related to by
marriage was just diagnosed with a rare and terminal brain disease. The progression of my mom's illness has brought a lot of sadness with only more to come. Sometimes it's easy to get caught up in the "what's the point" mindset. This is not unique to me. People were writing about it thousands of years ago:

"Meaningless! Meaningless!"
says the Teacher.
"Utterly meaningless!
Everything is meaningless."

What does man
gain from all his labor
at which he toils under the sun?

Generations come
and generations go,
but the earth remains forever.

This was taken from the first chapter of Ecclesiastes so no, I am certainly not the first person to wonder, "What's the point?"

While pondering this thought I was reading through some of my rambling files on the computer and happened upon this bit I wrote about a year and a half ago. It was inspired by a simple grave marker not far from our little Lucy's own grave. This particular stone reads simply, "Sister". I thought of how the person in the earth below my feet was no less real than I am. No less passionate, no less alive. And yet what remained for most of the world to see was a
very plain stone marker that gives no more information than she was female, had parents and at least one sibling. Sister.

life and humanity are so much bigger than my little world.

I belong to the present. The little details of my life are here and now. I am not promised tomorrow and there is no certainty that tomorrow will even know my name. The only moment I can live is now.

My worth is in this very minute. If my life should end tomorrow, my worth would depend on whether or not someone else continued for me, remembering me. And after 100 years the truth is there will not likely be anyone to remember more than maybe my name. I would only hope that the impact of the moments that made up my life would have reached down through the time that left me behind and embrace the lives of those in the future. Whether or not they know the ins and outs of my life, I hope that the substance of who I am will be passed along through lives of people to come.

Time will leave me behind and continue on without me. The clock does not need me here to keep on ticking.

I was thinking about how knitting is such a beautiful thing that can be used to reach beyond not just our own little worlds (when we send preemie hats and booties to warm little heads and feet of babies born too soon, infant bereavement sets for someone we'll never know, or afghan squares to be made into a tangable form of comfort for a family in grief) but knitting can also span time. In our home we have an afghan that fits such a description. We have cross stitch and wall art and numerous other items. We have so many things left behind from people who remain on earth only in our memories of them.

What are you doing that will live beyond yourself?

Aaron's Afghan
Emmazing Grace
Project Compassion
Heavenly Angels in Need
The Preemie Project
25 Things
LucyBug

(the photo to the right - some squares for Aaron's Afghan)

Stitch Markers Show & Tell

I have long admired homemade stitch markers like the ones found on the Good to be Girl or Purple Duckie blogs. The other night something struck in me, Hey! I could probably make those! (I tend to have those light bulb moments from time to time about something fairly easy that I should have already realized - like knitting cable braids - I should have been able to figure out how to do them. I remember watching Amy's video clip about knitting cables and how she mentioned that braids are just cables within cables. Huh? I didn't get it. However I knew at some point I would - and I did! It dawned on me one day so at that moment I sat and came up with the braided cable square for Aaron's Afghan.)

But back to the stitch markers... I picked up some of the circles today when I went into work to get my check. I came right home and promptly forgot all about everything I had planned to do today (mainly painting green stems for the flowers that will soon adorn the walls of my daughters' room) and went to work. I have a bunch of beads already from my brief infatuation with jewelry making and was able to make two nice sets of five before I was ready to quit and start taking pictures.

Now I notice that the light wasn't very good. I hope you can see them anyway. My nine-year-old daughter pulled out her own beads and made some stitch markers for her knitting projects. I should get a picture of those but that will have to wait as she was summoned by her younger sisters to go play Care Bears.