Pumpkin Sunrise

Something new is on the needles, happiness and joy!  I started another Hitofude cardigan and this time around I'm making the sleeves long instead of 3/4 length.  I'm guessing and fudging and hoping that the sleeves will look fantastic.  Also, I've mastered the crochet provisional cast on.  My first   Hitofude I was too lazy to dig out a crochet hook and so I knit the beginning with a waste yarn.  After the sleeves were knit up, I was sadden by an entire day of unknitting that lazy decision and have learned my lesson.  Do a proper provisional cast on. My reading is new as well.  I started  The Shipping News  by E. Annie Proulx.  Since I've just started the book, I have no opinions at all.  Let's see how the book goes. What are you knitting and reading this week? Joining Ginny and Frontier Dreams

I finished this shawl last week and now it's sitting patiently in a box for the fall weather. The pattern was a fun and easy knit.  If you have knit lace before this would be a great pattern for you. I ran short of yardage and had to end the shawl quickly but with blocking this shawl is a nicely sized.  Blocking makes everything better :)

Weekends are for memory making,  relaxing and enjoying quiet moments of our days.   If you would like, please share your weekend moments    in the comment section with a link to your blog.  I had a wonderful Easter celebration, did you?  Every day fiesta ware dishes were set aside for my green dishes (royal china- old curiosity shop)  that my grandmother and mother collected from a grocery store while I was a little girl. I have many, many pieces and some of them are chipped or the glaze is ruined, but luckily I can cobble together a place setting for six, sometimes eight if people are not inspecting. The coffee table doesn't look that messy but it still can disturb my inner peace.  Each time I walk by I try to tidy.  Then someone else comes around and undoes my tidy. - we went to morning Mass and now we are in the Easter season! -we walked and wished for slightly warmer weather -there was:  cake, laundry, talking, laughing, dirty dishes, sunshine,

By this afternoon both children will be home for the weekend.  This pristine coffee table will be filled with books, computers, pens, earbuds, and scraps of paper.  Our daughter will return to her apartment for work on Monday but our son will have a spring break for a week.  The groceries are bought and the menu is planned.  I am ready! To be truthful, I've been lax in my yoga practice and the unexpected snow this past week has made walking daily a challenge.  In turn my sleep has suffered.  Yesterday was a brand new day, I did my yoga in the morning and in the afternoon walked with Frodo.  Oh my, simple medicine for my overall well being.  I'm thankful that I figured this out quickly.  Phew! Spring is taking it's time arriving.  Everywhere is brown and today the skies are gray.  Each morning as I sip my coffee, I hear the robins calling to each other and my resident sparrow sing chirpily - she has become quite vocal.  Yesterday, Frodo sat on his stoop in the backyar

Are you stunned by that snow in the background?  I was and still am.  Here I am a winter lover by heart and have slowly adjusted to the arrival of spring and all of it's promises only to watch a snowstorm all day yesterday.  Crazy weather.  Today and tomorrow will be quite sloppy as it quickly melts and we are once again facing forward towards marching into spring. This week I've been focusing on these socks , my goal is to have them done by the Easter weekend.  This is an achievable goal if I focus....  I think I can! My reading is the same.  I'm in the midst of The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry  and Pollyanna .  I do love Pollyanna, she seems to see the bright side of life.  As for A.J. Fikry, I'm adoring ALL of the novel title references and plots and characters that are sprinkled throughout the book.  If you are an avid reader, you might love this book. What are you knitting and reading this week? Joining Ginny and Frontier Dreams

Weekends are for memory making,  relaxing and enjoying quiet moments of our days.   If you would like, please share your weekend moments    in the comment section with a link to your blog.  My weekend had some really good mail!  Ine from a picture book mind blog  sent me some sock scraps and lots of little goodies.  Some tea, some photo cards and a lovely hand drawn card, thank you Ine!! Also our daughter and fiance came for the weekend for a reception food tasting.  My the tasting was more like a meal and we left with most of our decisions made.  The facility is lovely and I am confident that come July the wedding is going to be a beautiful event. There was some mindless bookstore perusing, book flipping and enjoying being with like minded people as they look and discuss.  I sort of ease drop and listen in on the discussions.  I sometimes agree and sometimes have no clue what they are talking about.  You can't listen for long, just a slow walk by listen. Tod

I've been mulling over this quote I came across for the whole week and I thought I'd share it with you. Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.      -Lao Tzu     This week has been sort of busy and sort of quiet.  A mixture of the two and when the quiet times were strung together I felt quite relaxed.  My husband's work hours have been kind of crazy these past weeks, it's temporary, but both of us get caught up in being disappointed in the hectic schedule.  But then there are days that ordinary hours occur and we forget the crazy schedule. I've been looking ahead in the coming months, thinking and planning in my imagination, trips to take, visits to organize with our son and our daughter.  Oh yes, and the wedding.  Not much thoughts on the wedding details, but I do think of the household tasks I'd love to complete before the entire family descends on

I finished reading A Tale for the Time Being  by Ruth Ozeki, my oh my was it a good book.  I will warn you though, it's a sad-good-hopeful kind of book.  I love how it delved into teenage bullying, writer's block, nature and how we take care of it, generations, mind - body connection.  All good. I'm still savoring bits of what I'm thinking about. I started a new book, The Storied Life of A J Fikry , and since I am in the beginning, I have no opinions as of yet. I also finished Daddy Long Legs  on my Kindle and it's another novel from my youth.  Apparently I was really into reading about orphans.  This one was a nice walk down memory lane.  I started Pollyanna  on my Kindle, another orphan but I never read this one!  I'm sure I'll enjoy it just as much.  The Kindle reading is my knitting time when I'm knitting simple knits. This week I started another Citron Shawl , because I have been wearing this one religiously this winter. I'm in my happ

I finished the baby cardigan for my nephew's soon to be baby.  While my sister was visiting, we popped into a big craft store and then I stood trying to decide the buttons.  Oh the buttons, the choices.  I could have had sports, cars, crayons-the list goes on and I was frozen with the possibilities.  I decided after a long thought on the elephants.  Can't say why, I guess I was in an elephant mood. Ravelry notes here

Weekends are for memory making,  relaxing and enjoying quiet moments of our days.   If you would like, please share your weekend moments    in the comment section with a link to your blog.  My weekend was quite nice.  We spent the day with our daughter in her small town yesterday.  Our town is smaller and so there was an adjustment to the traffic, the sitting, the waiting.  Sometimes I wish I had those fancy stores in the "big" cities, but then I'd have to sit through a couple of lights to get where I'm going.  So I'll take the slow town where I'm creative where I shop and I arrive to places lightening fast. Today has been the same kind of Sunday as always.  We went to Mass-I cannot believe that Palm Sunday is next week! The laundry is half way done and I threw together some kind of dinner that turned out okay.  I stir fried asparagus and mushrooms in some oil and served it over left over buckwheat noodles and thin spaghetti (I

I've been doing a bit of reading and research about meditation.  I've never dipped my toes into Zen meditation, maybe I will.  However, upon further reflections, I find that I do indeed embrace meditation but differently. When I pray my Catholic prayers, I enter a calmer sense of being.  The older I get the more I appreciate all of those Catholic school days and how they are valuable to me on so many levels. On my daily walks as I place one foot in front of the other, a cadence is developed and soon I let go of tiny worries.  Sometimes I think about the birds I hear or the deer I see and sometimes I'm not thinking about anything in particular. Those nothing moments are treasured. When I sit down and pick up my knitting!  My, I love how each and every stitch I create lulls me into a state of happiness, quietness deep down inside.  I have knit through joyous times and in trying times.  If I am actively worrying about something, I'll pick up my knitting even if I