It is Wednesday and it is time to be wordless.
Buster and Grizz
Look over the shoulders of other wordless ones here
Scavenger Hunt Sunday –March 25
Scavenger Hunt Sunday items:
Whimsy — Playfully quaint or fanciful,
especially in an appealing and amusing way.
To me, this squirrel fulfills the definition.
Create
Maybe this hat I knitted this week for grandson, Alex
could be called whimsical, also
Dust,
the Farmer makes dust as he cleans up the sides of the driveway.
Seed or Sprout
These succulents sprout flower stalks every spring.
and Swing or Drop
I went looking for dropped blossoms from magnolias or camillas;
What a Find!
a real swing,
a dropped orange
and a dropped red camilla
seen through a chain-link fence laced with wisteria vines.
I had fun looking for scavenger items; the harder part was picking out which pictures to use this week; come on over to Ashley’s blog and check out some others.
{this moment} as long as there are weeds
A Friday ritual inspired by SouleMama. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment to pause, savor and remember.
May your weeds be few!
Five Minute Friday – Loud
On Fridays, many weeks I join with Ginny @ The Gypsymama and write.
I never know what will appear. sometimes it is hard to start, sometimes hare to stop. Sometimes I find myself laughing, sometimes crying. Sometimes I am please with my work and I want everyone to see what I have written. Most of the time what I write looks young and needy, waiting to grow.
Ginny says “We finger paint with words. We try to remember what it was like to just write without worrying if it’s just right or not.”
So remember finger painting can be very messy, indeed
Prompt — loud
start:
“When the voice in my head is so loud I can’t hear what I’m saying.”
That is the first thought that came to mind when I saw the prompt for today.
The voice in my head
Sometimes I just want to stuff a sock in it’s mouth
Be quiet
Leave me alone
Let me have a little time to find out what I need to know
I’ve listened to you over and over
And I’m still in the same place. . . stuck.
There is a saying if you want different results you have to stop doing what you have been doing.
So, Voice, you need to hush!
I figure out what is good for me.
So I go to my secret place.
I leave the voice and the busyness and the cares
And I meet with the One who said,
“I am the way, the truth and the life”
And I find rest.
stop.
Yarn Along — March 21, 2012
I saw “Man’s Rasta Hat by Annie Modesitt and Drew Emborsky” and knew I had to knit it for my oldest grandson Alex.
I used some Lion Brand Wool-Ease I received when my Mom weeded out her stash when she moved. I started Sunday afternoon and finished Tuesday. For me, a fast knit. If I make it again, I’ll shorten the ribbing. Alex had to turn it up about 1 1/2-2 inches; it should fit without folding. He was one very happy guy!
This Wallaby sweater is my take along, so it is coming along nicely. I didn’t add the pouch this time. The sweater will look a little more dressy, which will suit the young man who will receive it.
I’m calling this shawl ‘Tweedily dee’ I like the way the striping is knitting up and it is a nice kind of mindless knitting to balance the lace knitting.
Alpaca Sox Shawl by Yarn Garden
I’m listening to Kathy Reich’s, Bare No Bones, one of the adventures of forensic anthropologist Tempe Brennan.
I love checking out what others are knitting and reading, often adding titles and projects to my lists, at Small Things with Ginny . Come and see what’s going on with two sticks (or a crochet hook) and string.
I also linked with Tami at
Alex’s Hat
I saw this hat and knew I needed to make it for my oldest (13) grandson, Alex. His parents weren’t quite as excited when I explained it had dreadlocks. Alex was super excited.
After a couple weeks, Alex asked ‘have you finished my hat?’ opps!
That day I started. This hat was a lot of fun to knit. And since it only took me two days a fast knit, of course, the yarn is held double.
I have visions of having to knit more of these, when the other grandsons see this one…..a son might not want to be left out.
I received this yarn from my mother who cleaned our her stash, thank you.
I had approx 40 yards leftover from each skein.
The hat is from this book — Drew Emborsky and Annie Modesitt, the co-authors of Men Who Knit and the Dogs Who Love Them, thank you.
Scavenger Hunt Sunday, March 19, a day late
This is my first time joining the Scavenger Hunt. I commented on Andrea Dawn’s pictures ‘if I were brave enough;’ that sparked a post joining with Five Minute Friday(also late). So I’m putting on my bravery mask and cape and sharing some pictures I’ve taken during the past year, Maybe I’ll have current ones in the future.
Vintage
My 1935 Singer Sewing Machine a gift from my husband, the Farmer.
Word or Quote
I crossed stitched this years ago, it sits above the sewing machine.
Nature’s own
You would find this in my Mother-in-law’s garden, August, 2010
People
My grandsons crowding and listening, I love this picture.
Photographer’s Choice
What I saw one morning looking out my front door.
If you enjoy interpretation of words through pictures: go here — Ashley’s blog
Five Minute Friday on Monday — Brave
Around here we write for five minutes flat on Fridays.
Where your words are welcome, just as they are!
Prompt is Brave.
go.
Last week I commented on a blog where I have visited several times and ended with “if I were brave enough…..”
That was the prompt I needed to write about being brave. I don’t think I am.
So it seems I missed a lot.
I was the one as a child who said we better not do that I was afraid.
In high school I didn’t learn to play tennis because I was afraid of what I would look like and that I wouldn’t be able to do it.
When asked what I wanted to do with my life I didn’t speak up, because I was afraid.
I said ‘oh, I knit a little bit’ —- because i was afraid I didn’t knit as well as others, even though, I put on my children items I had made,
and that blog, just series of pictures, I can take pictures. I have posted pictures, I have shared pictures on my blog and on Facebook.
I don’t take pictures for them.
I take pictures for me.
I don’t have to look over others shoulders to have fun
I don’t have to be afraid
AFRAID, Shut up!
I can and I will be brave enough to climb the ‘afraid’ mountain.
stop.
I went over time and reading it. Afraid whispers, this isn’t smooth, it is rough, it is not as good as, why do you think you can do this. . .
I said “Publish!”
Joining Lisa Jo at Gypsymama and many others being brave enough.
Yarn Along — March 14, 2012
I was attacked by a severe case of startitis!
I was knitting along very happily on the Anjou and the Slice of Pi, when it hit.
Alpaca Sox Shawl by Emily Devlin
Now I have to knit a little and knit a little there, here a row, there a row. Oh I love each and every row!
Slice of Pi is blooming beautifully.
This is where my pretty ones sleep, right next to my chair.
Busterford Jones has taken over the basket when Grissabell isn’t in it.
I’m listen to A Widow’s Story, A Memoir by Joyce Carol Oates, the story of her life after the sudden death of her husband. The topic isn’t pleasant (what word to use), but the author’s ability to describe the roller coaster ride of a widow is very well done.
Joining Ginny at Small Things. If you visit, you’ll find many beautiful works in progress – some are even finished.
March Joy Dare — Part 1
One Thousand Gifts in 2012
March Joy Dare–capturing these gifts and joining Ann Voskamp at A Holy Experience.
“Joy is always a function of gratitude — and gratitude is always a function of perspective. If we are going to change our lives, what we’re going to have to change is the way we see.”
March 1 — 3 gifts at 3pm
Watching the chickens run out of their pen for free-range eating
The quiet of nap time
Gathering fresh laid eggs
March 2 — 3 gifts green
I have started two knitting projects of the same pattern
both in green different size yarn
but oh how different
New Spring green growth
March 3 — 3 gifts wore
A hair net to keep the bun in place
Tights, I love tights.
My shawls, knit, ripped, re knit by me, until I got it right.
March 4 –3 gifts HARD to give thanks for
Leaving our home
The illness of a daughter-in-law
The learning in this season of my life
March 5 — 3 gifts found
Primroses pushing up out of the barren looking soil
Knitting needles hiding in yarn dens being organized
A place for a dresser returned
March 6 — gift bent, gift broken, gift beautiful
Our deck furniture is wrought iron –bent
My idea for my future is broken
God’ perfect plan for me is beautiful,
Psalm 18:30 As for God, his way is perfect:
March 7 –3 gifts in the kitchen
New pans from Brother Bob
Just enough storage space
A window over the sink
March 8 — 3 gifts loud
This littlie is very loud
the Farmer’s tractor (sometimes the loud is a bit too much)
The singing at family night
March 9 — 3 gifts carved
A pair of knitting needles made from the walnut trees grown
at the farm where I purchased them
White washed wooden candlesticks
A bear from my Mom and Brother
March 10 3 gifts in Christ
Every need supplied
Job 23:10 But He knoweth the way that I take:
2Corinthians 1:3 -4 Blessed be God, . . . the God of all comfort; Who comforteth us in all our tribulation,
Gifts 296 — 326
Where I come from. . .
Reflecting on where I come from. . .
- from stock that left Oklahoma to come to California for a better life
- from a family that didn’t understand in-laws/out-laws — just family
- from being the oldest of 5 children and the only girl
- from 4 of us sleeping in one bedroom and pulling the baby in bed with me when he fussed
- from Sunday dinners at Grandpa & Grandma Ripley’s, you could smell the oven baked chicken in the driveway
- from the adults playing cards and being allowed to watch if you were silent and didn’t touch anything
- from having to eat everything on my plate, even the stone cold sweet potatoes
- from hours of playing Aggravation on the board Daddy made
- from a week with a cousin at G & G Ripley’s,
- picking out any cereal we wanted,
- riding the cultivator with Grandpa,
- catching the clothes as they came out of the wringer into the wash tub,
- picking and stringing green beans for canning
- putting on good clothes for a trip 15 miles into town for errands and lunch out. Grandma wore stockings (she put on wearing gloves to protect from snags) and shoes with low heels
- sleeping in a room with a bee hive in the wall
- using the outhouse when the indoor bathroom was busy
- eating grapefruit that had sugar sprinkled on it the night before
- knowing I was loved
- from coming home from school on Tuesday’s and smelling starch from the ironing done that day
- from learning to embroider at 6 years old
- from going to Sunday School and learning ‘The Wise Man Built His House Upon A Rock’
- from learning to make cornbread from scratch at about 9 years old
- (I still use the same recipe)
- from the year the Easter dress wasn’t new, and my only shoes were tennies with a hole at the little toe. Mom washed them white and darned the hole and we had Easter dinner at Grandma Ripley’s.
- from changing schools in the 5th grade and not liking riding the bus or the new school
- from making my first quilt at 11 years old
- from a Dad who could see the possibilities
- from walking to the Sanger library every week in the summer and buying a brown paper bag of sunflower seeds from the bulk bin at the 5 & 10 on the way home
- from driving Clif’s Triumph Spitfire to school my senior year for two week s until he got his license
- from a Dad who built a 4 seat merry-go-round with a center platform for all
- from a Mom who before I was born made me a rag doll from a pattern, embroidering the face, adding yellow yarn for braids, picking the cotton for stuffing, sewing the dress and panties. I still have the pieces of the doll, body, arms and legs, hair is gone, dress is gone………the love has never changed.
- from suppers ready exactly at 5:00pm
- from meeting a young man at 17 years old
- from getting engaged January, 1967
- from walking out of my family’s front door on my father’s arm, down the grassy aisle, to a gladiola decorated arch to exchange vows with the man who would become the Farmer
In this blogging world sometimes we play ‘follow the leader’. Mary (oldest daughter) followed Ann, a friend and I’m following Mary, whose next?
{this moment} March 9
Joining with; {this moment} – A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.
Not this week, but I moment I don’t want to forget.
To see other’s moments go here.
Five Minute Friday — Empty, Yet Full
We lie down in our words and make snow angels.We try to remember what it was like to just write without worrying if it’s just right or not.
Snow angels come in all sizes and shapes, so our words reflect us and it is not until we get up, turn around and look – that we see. . .
Today’s prompt — Empty
go.
It was the last day I would ever walk in the house that had been my home for the previous 13 years.
I picked up the leavings,
the last of the remnants of the life lived
I check the closets, the drawers, the cupboards
I looked in all the rooms,
gazed up at all 12 of the skylights,
dusted the mantle of the river rock fireplace,
and finally mopped the hard wood floors for the last time.
I listened and heard
laughter and raised voices
singing and prayers
whispered dreams and loud defiance
cat purrs, dog barks, bird singing
candles, birthday cakes, Mom’s meatloaf, family nights,
thankfuls around the circle
The house was empty, quiet and still
My eyes will tears overflowing
My heart with so many memories . . . full.
stop.
To read about other’s emptiness go here
Yarn Along — March 8
I am making progress on Anjou this week.
Last Week
This Week
The Lace
This piece has charts for the individual sections. I have completed:
Point to Pears – Cast on 5 stitches, 35 rows of knitting, 27 stitches on needles
Widening – work all 12 rows 5 times, 5 pears completed, 57 stitches on needles
The Straightaway – work all 12 rows 17 times. Whether following Charts or written instructions, work each row as follows, Charts A, sm, B, sm, C, sm, B, sm, D.
I am on my 6th repeat down the straightaway. Once I became accustomed to working the multiple charts and highlighting the ssks to help distinguish from the k2ts, the progress has been easier and faster.
I’m enjoying this project, if I could only stay focused and not sidetracked to all the other beautiful things I want to try.
Sharing my WIP with others here.
Thoughts of Grace 