Snowed In

During most of the daylight hours today it snowed.  I chose to remain snowed in.  Good news for me as today I finally began to get ahead of the knitting muses that have been working against me.  I will let you know more about this soon.

When I looked out the door to our deck during all that snowing, I noticed the wind chimes.  (Maybe they should have been put away for the winter?)  This is my newest one.  It was a family gift for my (summertime) birthday.

The parrot looked so out of place, but so colorful.  He made me happy.

There will be more snow shoveling tomorrow, but there will also be more knitting.

Just one of many...

traditions...

When I was young, my dear mother liked to burn bayberry candles on Christmas Eve.  She told me that it was good luck to let them burn all the way down.

I recently learned that this tradition has colonial American roots and that there is a poem, with some variations, that usually ends... "a bayberry candle burned to the socket, will bring joy to the heart and gold to the pocket."
 

This year, we burned our candles for Christmas Eve dinner and then through the night.  My daughter was up late watching them burn.  She gave me 'permission' to use her Instagram photo.
  

 

All that was left in the morning was a bit of blackened wick in each holder.  I think that we are in luck.

Wishing for the same light, love, and luck, to you and yours!

Midweek Meditation

“I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach!”

                                      ~ Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

I greatly enjoyed the Saturday matinee performance of A Christmas Carol at Ford's Theatre in Washington DC this past weekend.  I sat in the second row and loved all the actors, young and old, the costumes (so beautiful), and the singing of a great many Christmas Carols!  Fantastic!  

I wish that I could share an image from the performance, but of course that cannot be.  My photo is of the legendary Presidential Box.

From the program: "Ford’s Theatre celebrates the legacy of President Abraham Lincoln and explores the American experience through theatre and education. A working theatre, historical monument, world-class museum and learning center, Ford’s Theatre is the premier destination in Washington, D.C., to explore and celebrate Lincoln’s ideals and leadership principles: courage, integrity, tolerance, equality and creative expression."

I do find it interesting that Lincoln and Dickens were contemporaries, having lived their lives during the same period of time.  Also from the program, "Dickens's and Lincoln's lives were woven by common threads: family hardship resulting in tough labor during childhood and a desire to treat all people fairly and charitably...This holiday season, and at all times, let us remember both Scrooge's lesson learned and Lincoln's legacy, which call us to live and act 'with malice toward none; with charity for all.'" 

Midweek Meditation

 "my body is here

but my heart is at the beach"

I have been gradually getting myself into Holiday Mode.  I do enjoy the holidays, but I also strive to balance the busyness of it all.  After work yesterday, in between a doctor's appointment and getting back home to make some dinner, I stopped at Bee Hive Gift Shop for their open house.  I bought some lovely jewelry gifts for my daughter and two nieces.

At the check out, as the proprietress wrapped my gifts, I faced this wall.

The Christmas figures on the mantle and the paper letters taped to the wall were perfect... a reflection of just where my own head has been lately... (remember my last post?)  When I asked her (Patty, the shop owner) if she would mind if I took a photo, she said, "of course not", and she told me that her daughter had made the letters and put them up for her.  (Daughters are like that.)  And then she went into a little monologue about beaches... homes in the mountains (she did not want one)... and such.  She rightly assumed that I was totally in agreement with her on the beachfront thing.

As I prepare for my own Christmas Holiday, I have been remembering Seven Mile Beach... where I was just one year ago...

 

Just Remembering...

my 2011 late November trip to Grand Cayman Island...

I was walking my dog under drizzling gray skies this morning, and I began to remember some photos that I took... some with Christmas decorations...

It was very good remembering...

FO: Tweeds in Balance

Pattern: Equilibrium Cowl by Carolyn Kern

Yarn: The Fibre Company, Acadia

Ravelry Project Page: Tweeds in Balance

There is something amazing that happens when beautiful tweed yarns are used in colorwork.

This project began and ended in October.  I worked on it at Rhinebeck.  I wore it to Gosh Yarn It! when Courtney Kelley and Kate Gagnon Osborn -- knitwear designers, teachers, authors, and distributors of The Fibre Company yarns -- came with their trunk show on November 3.  I bought their newest book which they autographed for me.  It was great to meet them.

Midweek Meditation

“I only hope that we don’t lose sight of one thing – that it was all started by a mouse."

“The more you like yourself, the less you are like anyone else, which makes you unique.”    
                                             ~ Walt Disney, born December 5, 1901

Photo credit:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/shannon-vaughan/5341460493/lightbox/

FO: Hélène

Hélène is French for Helene.

Do you like my November 26 photo of my October FO?

I was playing with the light.
It is "sideways" sunlight.
  It comes into my lower level family room
for an hour or so
just before sunset.
Even in the winter.
But only on a sunny day.

The second photo was shot outdoors in October.

Pattern: Hélène by Véronik Avery

Yarn: Quince & Co Sparrow, 100% Linen

Ravelry Project Page: Helene

Do you remember this bit of lace with the fading, end of the season, flowers?

So pretty.

(I would guess that Véronik Avery speaks French.  She lives in Quebec.
I once met Véronik.)

This was an interesting and unique pattern.  It was knit sideways in two identical pieces.  They were to be joined on each side with three-needle-bind-off from neck to bottom of sleeve... I tried that (stitch counts were not identical)... and I decided that a regular woven seam would be easier and faster... at least for me...

I enjoyed the yarn.  Though I have not often knit with linen, Sparrow is probably my favorite linen yarn to date.