Mom's extra good Holidaze (Egg)Nog

This is the best best eggnog ever--and the eggs are cooked in this eggnog--so no danger of the dreaded food poisoning. WARNING: if you make this eggnog you will never buy commercially made eggnog again!

Note** the "Mom" here is me. also--if you like your eggnog spiked, add some brandy or rum to your taste for that delicious holiday drink.....


This is my very first blog post from my new hometown of Portland, Oregon (AKA Stumptown)---created using my daughter's computer since it will be some time before I have my computer all set up and I am back online....more on the wonders of Portland to come in future blog posts.

Today's Quote: "Blessed be the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love."---Anon

Soul Coaching, Day 3 : De-Clutter !

Musings on Love and Happiness

Over the years, I have learned that you cannot make someone love you…all you can do is be someone who can be loved….the rest is up to them. I have learned that no matter how much I care, some people just don’t care back. I have learned that no matter how hot and steamy a relationship is at first, the passion fades and there had better be something else to take its place. I have learned that relationships cannot be controlled—no matter how hard I try and that love is a gift which I am also not in charge of—no matter what I do.

I believe that our background and circumstances may shape who we are, but we are responsible for who become, and we are responsible for our behavior toward others. I am aware that we are responsible for our lives---and when we accept that responsibility, our lives are much easier. Experience has also taught me that it takes years to build up trust---and only seconds to destroy trust. I have learned that loss is one price I pay for living fully, but that loss can also be a source of personal growth.




Helen Keller once said: “When one door of happiness closes, another opens, but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.” Open that new door—and happiness is there---regardless of the circumstances. I have learned that happiness is a process –not a thing—it comes and goes, and this process is ok. I know that a cheerful disposition can beget happiness--- and that if I pay attention I see I am having many moments of happiness every day. I read somewhere that it takes seventeen muscles to smile and forty-three muscles to frown---smiling is a lot less work---plus a friendly smile always makes me feel good.



Right now, I am endeavoring to forgive myself for being human, and then passing this forgiveness on to others. I have learned that forgiving myself involves accepting myself for who I really am, and telling the truth. I now know that whatever happens to me—for me or against me—it is what I do with that experience that makes the experience what it was.

“Last night as I lay sleeping, I dreamt
O, marvelous error---
That there was a beehive here in side my heart
And the golden bees were making white combs
And sweet honey from all my failures”

----Machadi de Assis

Liberty and Justice for ALL

As we celebrate the birth of our country on this 4th of July, let us not forget that it was a Quaker woman ---Betsy Ross---who sewed the first US flag. This thought inspires me as I contemplate what being a citizen of the United States of America means to me.

At this point in my life and in the life of our country, I actually have mixed feelings about being a US citizen. I have done enough traveling in other countries--including to Russia and China---to know that we do indeed have many human rights--(including freedom of speech) here in the US which people in many other countries do not have.

However I find myself saddened by the actions of our current administration---particularly in the use and defense of torture against any perceived "enemy" of the US. Each day seems too bring more information about the abuses inflicted on men and women held by the United States in Iraq, Afghanistan, and US prisons around the world.

No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”
—The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 5 (1948)

As a US Citizen, I believe that torture should be as unthinkable to US citizens as slavery is. This 4th of July, the United States should affirm the values that are its pride and strength. Habeas corpus allows a prisoner to challenge the legality of his/her detention in a court of law. It is one of the oldest and most important checks on arbitrary governmental power.

In 2006, at President Bush’s urging, Congress passed legislation permanently eliminating the right to habeas corpus for certain people—non-citizens whom the executive branch declared to be “unlawful enemy combatants.” The legislation defines such combatants to include people who have never been anywhere near a battlefield, much less fought against the US. Any of the 11.6 million non-citizens living in the US could be detained indefinitely without charge or judicial review.

I do not believe that removing "enemies" or non-citizens rights and torturing them will do anything to protect our country from future terrorism. As Ghandi said, "An eye for an eye only makes the whole world blind." We must tell Congress to restore habeas corpus and send a message to the world that even dreadful acts of terrorism cannot shake our national commitment to the rule of law.

I write these words as an American patriot--- (patriot, noun. : a person who loves her country and gives it loyal support) who believes in liberty and justice for all.

KNITALONG! the book!

KNITALONG : CELEBRATING THE TRADITION OF KNITTING TOGETHER
by Larissa Brown & Martin John Brown

Imagine my delight and surprise when we received this lovely book at Mrs. Dalloway's (the bookstore where I work here in Berkeley), and found my name among the other knitters on the endpapers!

Awhile ago I was surfing around the web reading knitting and craft blogs and came across the blog Stitch Marker by Larissa in Portland, Or.....and she was asking for knitters to knit a square for an afghan for a charity---and maybe she would also put the square into a book she was writing on the topic of "knitalongs" which she defined as "any organized event where people knit together for a common purpose or goal."

I happened to be leaving the next day on at trip and thought knitting a square would be a good project to work on while traveling....so I printed out the instructions and found some pretty sock yarn in my stash and added this to my carry-on backpack. I knit the square in airports and finished it just in time---I was in Portland, so decided to drop the sqaure off at the address she had posted on her blog--so we went there, only to find (duh!) that the address was a mail box...so ended up mailing the square after all. In all this traveling and knitting--I never did get a photo of the square....but here is one of the afghans in the book made from these squares.


Larissa writes about this process in her book---"I wrote a plea on my blog to recruit test knitters. Each would choose his or her own sock yarn to make a square. The squares would be mailed to me, and I would assemble them into the Barn-Raising Quilt. I didn't set a sign-up limit. I figured I'd use any extra squares to make blankets for charity. How many could that be? Well...thanks goodness Martin figured out how to automate the sign-ups at knitalong.net, because by the end there were 500 knitters." So--I was one of the 500 knitters! but still my name is credited on the endpapers...

This book also provides an interesting history of "knitalongs" of the past--including ways women tried to reduce the drudgery of knitting socks for a living, or the story of how orphans were compelled to knit for their own "self-improvement" to the tradition of knitting wartime socks--all paired with great knitting patterns the reader can use to create their own projects.

Included are 6 projects where the authors ran online knitalongs and write "we loved the way different knitters working from the same pattern produced finished objects that are so remarkably individual, so we've posted the entire galleries for you to visit at knitalong.net." I heartily recommend you check out their website, as well as purchase this wonderful book!

I have always--since I learned to knit in the 1950's from my beloved Grandmother---been involved with knitting groups, and participated in many co-operative projects---from knitting a scarf that is passed around from knitter to knitter (also a project in this book) to knitting or crocheting squares for a co-operatively made baby blanket---so this book struck a harmonious chord with me. I feel blessed to be alive now in the era of the internet which allows us fellow knitters to connect from all over the globe and create a project together, or be inspired by someone's knitting project--even though they live far away.

Since discovering the world of net knitters and knitting blogs I have made about 6 squares for charity projects and sent them off--and 3 hats! and I have knit one healing blanket for an ailing friend, and I am currently in the process of creating a co-operatively knit "healing blanket" for another very ill friend....and I certainly agree with Larissa when she writes: "Making something for another person is a profound act. In a world where we often become obsessed with "quick gifts" and piling up FOs (finished objects), its easy to forget what a fundamental and meaningful gesture it is to knit something and give it away. Giving is at the very heart of the knitting experience and the culture of knitting together."

Thank you Larissa and Martin for articulating this all so profoundly and for creating this book! Oh, and did I mention that the photos in the book are stunning?

the PEACE SIGN turns 50!

CREATIVE EVERY DAY!

Last week the venerable PEACE SIGN turned 50. "First displayed on home-made banners and badges in London on February 21, 1958, to mark the launching of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, the Peace Sign turns 50." Too find out more about who designed the PEACE SIGN and learn about the 50 year history of the PEACE SIGN---I direct you to the excellent website HAPPY BIRTHDAY PEACE.COM.

I stumbled across this site early last week, and ended up using it in our Quaker Meeting's First Day School primary class--we all created our own PEACE SIGNS. We started with a paper plate, and colored or painted or embellished the PEACE SIGN any way we wanted. The children mostly painted or drew on their PEACE SIGNS. I decided to sew buttons on mine--soon the kids were helping to pick out the buttons from the 2 boxes of buttons I had brought, and sewing some buttons on their own PEACE SIGNS. This is a great fun project with primary age kids---little ones can help choose the buttons to use, while older ones can sew them onto the the paper plate template. I cut the PEACE SIGN out of the paper plate before I started sewing the buttons on. We all learned about who designed the first PEACE SIGN, and talked about what Peace meant to each of us.

What Is Art ?

Here is a funny take on the question:
WHAT IS ART?

Mourning for the Sea and Sea/Beach-life

Human error--a large ship hits the San Francisco Bay Bridge, and oil spills out...we all pay for our oil habits--but right now the wildlife in the San Francisco bay are paying--in death and sickness.


As of Monday:
New numbers on oiled birds in care:

652 live birds
126 washed of oil
485 dead

All of the birds are being treated at the OWCN's San Francisco Bay Oiled Wildlife Care and Education Center in Cordelia.

In case you are thinking that this is not very many injured/dead birds---consider that these are only the ones the rescuers have found or captured, and how much other sea and beach life is affected by this oil spill of bunker oil. The oil is still shifting around the bay--each day we read and watch the news and another favorite beach---with abundant wildlife---is oiled. Many of the beaches impacted are in national parks --the gooey bunker oil is in football size globs---and threatens the dungeness crab fishery in the bay as well as wildlife.

I find myself saddened and in mourning for what we do--in the name of "civilization" to our ocean and planet. If the oceans are in trouble--and there is increasing signs that this is so--we are in deep, deep trouble in terms of human survival on our planet. After 20 years of a livelihood on the ocean as a commercial fisherwoman, I feel deep empathy and affinity for the ocean, and so I feel her pain when we mistreat her.

If you have been reading my blog for awhile, you know that I no longer own a car. After I saw the Al Gore movie "An Inconvenient truth" I got rid of my car (and did that feel good!), and joined our local City Car Share. I urge you, dear reader, to consider your carbon footprint and what you can do to curb your use of oil---and please take a moment to say a silent prayer for San Francisco Bay.

In the words of Bay Area folksinger/songwriter Malvina Reynolds:

"The sea, the sea, the fragile sea,
Our source, our provider and our road to liberty,
Now we use it for a dump hole in this mad economy,
And we never will survive a dying sea."

San Francisco Bay resources and nonprofits that need your money and help:
Baykeeper
Oiled Wildlife Network
Save The Bay
International Bird Rescue Research Center

Time's Up for Buy Nothing New!

Some of you readers my know that 6 months ago I took a personal pledge--to not buy anything new for 6 months. Well, on August 1st--the 6 months is over. How did this pledge affect me? Well, to my surprise this pledge did not really force much of change to my lifestyle. I already mostly shopped at local thrift stores for many items--the biggest change was not buying new books, or yarn, or beads. The 2 areas I cheated (---just a little ;-) in were books and yarn. I did buy 3 new books (in 6 months! that is hardly nothing...for me--I used to buy 3 or 4 a month) and some yarn for projects. (Not all this yarn, but you get the picture....)

The other area I noticed was the thought process I went through on small impulse type purchases. At first, I would have to remind myself--even though I liked that cool drawing pen--I did not really need it? and besides--it was new--so a "no-no." Later, I could just look at goods for sale, and know I was just looking--and WOW! did I save $$$ by not buying all those impulse purchases??? Yep! plus---less clutter from needless stuff. I guess this was a good reminder that most of the stuff we think we need (or our culture tells us we need)--we can do without.

That said, I do have a small list of new things I plan to purchase--most having to do with recycling or alternatives modes of transportation, or my design business: bike racks for my bike (so I can carry groceries), this water bottle (so I can always carry filtered water from our tap), and a larger bed scanner and printer (for my design business), and a laptop (again for my business). But most other stuff I can do without---what a revelation!

Blue and Blue again!

I just can't resist taking photos of friend's lovely house decor when I travel--- so here are a few--some nice China blue and white"eye candy" from my friend Twilo's house in Eugene, Oregon.






She had this lovely basket of Pysanky eggs on the dining room table--she collected them all over Eastern Europe.
And she is the gardener extra-ordinaire--with many prizes for her gardening--so I couldn't resist shooting a few flowers...

One Square at a Time

This 8" x 8" crocheted square I created in about 21/2 hours this morning is now flying off via the USPO to join the over 500 squares already sent to the Mosaic Yarn Shop in Blacksburg, Virginia. A few weeks ago I blogged about this yarn shop's request for donations of knitted or crocheted squares to make blankets for the victims and families of the Virginia Tech tragedy. (The post is still here--just scroll down.) Already they have received over 500 knitted and crocheted squares--you can go here to their blog for an update and some nice photos of some of the squares.

While making this square I thought about the communal process involved, and how the Internet has aided and changed the concept of a "friendship quilt" or friendship afghan, or blanket. When I was young(er), we made this type of group comfort blanket or quilt together in our local community for people who had an illness or needed comfort--and we made "friendship" quilts to honor births, weddings, and graduations. Now many many quilters, knitters, beaders, and crocheters are making squares for folks who may have experienced a tragedy (victims of Katrina, Virginia Tech shooting, etc. ) who they have never met, or for breast cancer research--all facilitated by connecting through the internet.

I find this a remarkable and positive sign that we can--as humanity--also solve larger problems we face (wars, the environment, national health issues, just to name a few examples) if we just learn to work together; I think politicians could learn something from knitters and crocheters about co-operation and helping others in need. Yes, I know--this sounds naive...but what we are currently doing is not working very well--is it? Just put us knitters together in the Congressional Halls for 3 weeks--all the national messes would be solved ( I kid you not!).

I am grateful that I had the opportunity to do something for these families--I am a firm believer that every little positive thing we do helps---and applaud the Mosaic Yarn Shop for taking on such a big endeavor.

Quote for the day: "Do all you can with what you have, in the time you have, in the place you are." ---Nkosi Johnson
Twelve-year-old Zulu boy, living with AIDS

Doodle Flowers or Patterns of Life

Since I was a small child, I have loved patterns--patterns in nature, and human made patterns--which are mostly derived from the natural world. The noted anthropologist Angeles Arrien says in her book THE SIGNS OF LIFE, Five Universal Shapes and How to Use Them, "I discovered that five basic shapes appear in the art of all cultures: the circle, the square, the triangle, the cross, and the spiral...the study [she conducted] also confirmed that people in different cultures do give similar meaning to these shapes. The circle symbolizes wholeness, the square indicates stability, the triangle represents goals and dreams, the cross stands for relationship, and the spiral means growth. It also became evident to me that the meaning attributed to each shape stands for a process of human growth, and the shape carries this process within itself."

Thus--patterns I am attracted to carry cultural meanings--which most of the time, I don't even think about or consider. Today I wandered around our house, snapping photos of a few of the patterns we are surrounded with.





Perhaps that is also why I am drawn to poetry---since poetry tends to arrange language and words into patterns much of the time.

I will speak to you in stone-language
(Answer with a green syllable)
I will speak to you in snow-language
(Answer with a fan of bees)
I will speak to you in water-language
(Answer with a canoe of lightening)
I will speak to you in blood-language
(Answer with a tower of birds)
----Octavio Paz



Arrien's book has a process to use the five universal shapes "as an effective tool that can be used to determine the connection between a person's preference for certain shapes and the same person's inner, subjective states." For example, if you are drawn toward circles and triangles--what does this say about you and your cultural world view?





Since I could draw--as a young child--I have drawn and doodled repetitive patterns, and now--in my fabric design classes, I am learning to create repetitive patterns---from these universal shapes, or from nature.

I call this "pattern" I designed DOODLE FLOWERS.

April Easter Poem

A RITUAL TO READ TO EACH OTHER
by William Stafford

If you don't know the kind of person I am
and I don't know the kind of person you are
a pattern that others made may prevail in the world
and following the wrong god home we may miss our star.

For there are many a small betrayal in the mind,
a shrug that lets the fragile sequence break
sending with shouts the horrible errors of childhood
storming out to play through the broken dike.

And as elephants parade holding each elephant's tail,
but if one wanders the circus won't find the park,
I call it cruel and maybe the root of cruelty
to know what occurs but not recognize the fact.

And so I appeal to a voice, to something shadowy,
a remote important region in all who talk:
though we fool each other, we should consider----
lest the parade of our mutual life get lost in the dark.

For it is important that awake people be awake,
or a breaking line may discourage them back to sleep;
the signals we give--yes or no, or maybe---
should be clear: the darkness around us is deep.

Unconscious Art

One night a few years ago I could not sleep-- I woke up in the middle of the night and went into my art studio and created this mixed media piece I now call " Button Boy."

A few days before this I had bought on old wooden puzzle back--the part the wooden puzzle pieces were meant to fit into---minus the actual puzzle pieces---at a garage sale. That become the base for "Button Boy"; it wasn't until a few weeks later I figured out just what this piece of art was about. At the time, I was working (my artist's day job) as a nanny for 9 year old triplet boys---this piece was about the triplets and the energy they brought into my life each day.

Over the years I have fairly consistently used my artmaking to unconsciously reflect my life at that moment. Whatever is consuming most of my time comes out of me in some creative way---whether in knitting, painting, drawing, mixed media, or beadwork---if I reflect on what I am creating, there is always a connection. Usually I am not aware of the connection when I am making the current piece---but afterwards I will have an aha! moment and suddenly see the correlation to my life right then.

Most of the time art I create in this mode I end up keeping because the art doesn't fit with the body of artwork I am making at the time and has too much personal significance to part with. I have used this process some--in therapy--to heal myself--but working with a therapist is not the same--if only because we were consciously using art to delve into my unconscious. Whereas, when I just go into my studio and create something--THEN discover later how what I just created is significant to my life---whatever I make is totally unconscious--much like acting out a dream. I am curious if other artists also find themselves creating "unconscious art"?

Give Peace a Chance

PAPER CRANES: Prayers for Peace



On the 4th anniversary of the War in Iraq, I offer this thought for the day:

"Peace is more than the absence of war, violence, or conflict, though that is an important first step. Peace is a presence--the presence of connection.

Inner peace is about connection with our true and natural self, and a sense of being part of something larger. This connection gives rise to serenity, balance, and a feeling of well-being. We connect to the living spirit of life within us all, that allows us to know all people as our brothers and sisters, and every living being – including the earth – a relative."
~ Louise Diamond

(with THANKS to the blog Women, Art, Life : Weaving It All Together.)

That said, I plan to join my fellow humans today at a Vigil for Peace in Iraq at the Rockridge Bart Station (Oakland)at 5:30 pm. While I honor our troops this March 19th, I will also call on President Bush to do the same.
Honor their sacrifice. Stop the escalation. End the war now.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY

"Cinderella and the prince
lived, they say, happily ever after,
like two dolls in a museum case
never bothered by diapers or dust,
never arguing over the timing of an egg,
never telling the same story twice,
never getting middle-aged spread,
their darling smiles pasted on for eternity.
Regular Bobbsey Twins.
That Story."
----Anne Sexton

A National Day of Climate Action

I was so excited by this nation-wide action that I wanted to help spread the word! On the Step It Up website you will find this letter from noted environmental author Bill McKibben:

Dear Friends—

This is an invitation to help start a movement--to take one spring day and use it to reshape the future. Those of us who know that climate change is the greatest threat civilization now faces have science on our side; we have economists and policy specialists, courageous mayors and governors, engineers with cool new technology.

But we don't have a movement—the largest rally yet held in the U.S. about global warming drew a thousand people. If we're going to make the kind of change we need in the short time left us, we need something that looks like the civil rights movement, and we need it now. Changing light bulbs just isn't enough.

So pitch in. A few of us are trying to organize a nationwide day of hundreds and hundreds of rallies on April 14. We hope to have gatherings in every state, and in many of America's most iconic places: on the levees in New Orleans, on top of the melting glaciers on Mt. Rainier, even underwater on the endangered coral reefs off Key West.

We need rallies outside churches, along the tide lines in our coastal cities, in cornfields and forests and on statehouse steps.

Every group will be saying the same thing: Step it up, Congress! Enact immediate cuts in carbon emissions, and pledge an 80% reduction by 2050. No half measures, no easy compromises-the time has come to take the real actions that can stabilize our climate.

As people gather, we'll link pictures of the protests together electronically via the web-before the weekend is out, we'll have the largest protest the country has ever seen, not in numbers but in extent. From every corner of the nation we'll start to shake things up.

By its very nature, this action needs all kinds of people to help out. We can't make it happen-it has to assemble itself.

Sign up to host an action. We'll coordinate the responses, introducing you to others from your area, and give you everything you need to be a leader, from banners to press releases.

You don't have to have ever done anything like this-you're not organizing a March on Washington, just a gathering of scores or hundreds in your town or neighborhood.

We need creativity, good humor, commitment. If you are active in a campus group or a church or a local environmental group or a garden society or a bike club-or if you just saw Al Gore's movie and want to do something-then we need you now.

And by now, we mean now.

The best science tells us we have ten years to fundamentally transform our economy and lead the world in the same direction or else, in the words of NASA's Jim Hansen, we will face a "totally different planet," one infinitely sadder and less flourishing.

The recent elections have given us an opening, and polling shows most Americans know there's a problem. But the forces of inertia and business-as-usual are still in control, and only our voices, united and loud, joyful and determined, can change that reality.

Please join us.

Bill McKibben

First Blog ANNIVERSARY

CONGRATS TO ME!

According to my records--today I have been blogging here 1 (yes, one!) whole year! I want to thank all of you who have left comments, e-mailed me or signed up on my "Buddy Map" (scroll down to the bottom for this goodie). Happy Valentines Day to you all! I am pleased to be participating in this world-wide craft and art bloggers community. Art is alive in well all over the globe---and the internet allows us to connect with fellow artists more and more. Is this a wonder of our century?

For instance, I recently visited family in Portland, Oregon---while there I also "met up" with 2 fellow art quilt bloggers, who I met online. We would not have had this meeting face to face without the connection via the Art Quilts List and blogs online; without the net I may never have known they existed, and missed the enjoyable afternoon we spent getting acquainted.

Yesterday, I mailed off my first internet SWAP---thanks to Mandi at the Bead Circle I swapped beads with 11 other beaders--all set up and managed via the web. Here's how it worked: She sent a few tubes of seed beads and a few plastic bags with some other types of beads (fringe beads/fire polish beads, stone donut/pendant etc.) to the first participant on the list. Each beader then took what they wanted out of the stash and refilled it with something else, then mailed the package on to the next person. We had one week to decide before we mailed the package to the next person. Everyone agreed to using their best judgement for swapping and make "fair trades." I am very pleased with the beads I kept from this SWAP---would this have been possible without those net connections? ah, another wonder!

As I mention in the previous post, I knit a square for an internet knit-a-long while traveling --- we are all so net connected now that I had no trouble finding a computer to check the site sponsoring the knit-a-long, and knit the square (in train stations and airports mostly), and send it off in the nick of time. At the same time, I found computers everywhere (even the lobby of the Seattle hotel where we stayed had one) so I could read my favorite knitting blogs : Yarnstorm, and Yarn Harlot. The third wonder of this net century--blog anywhere, anytime.

So, hugs to me for figuring out how to blog , and hugs to everyone who visits here and reads my blog--we are all wonders of the 21st century!

A note on comments: if you visit my blog and want to comment, please do! I love hearing from you and try to answer all comments that I can. I see that over 240 folks have looked at the Buddy Map (scroll down)--but only 39 people so far have added themselves to the map--I think it is fun to see where folks are from, and it only takes a minute to sign up--- no promotions or anything will be sent to you if you do put yourself on the map, so map yourself today!

Knitting and Community

(I am still on vacation!) So far, what an enjoyable trip I am on! I am knitting away on each leg of the journey--nothing like train and jet travel and train stations and airports to help one catch up on knitting projects. I find I enjoy knitting while watching and listening to people (all strangers) in both train stations and airports. Knitting also seems a great way to break the ice---folks who would normally not notice me as they wait for their airplane--let along talk with me--now ask me: "What are you making?" and then we get nicely acquainted. Since I am convinced that alienation from others is one reason our country and culture is so seemingly neurotic and violent, I am pleased when my creativity sparks conversations with strangers in public spaces. Hooray for knitting! if it helps foster a sense of community--even in an airport.

Yesterday I was sitting in a small Cafe--above a a nice local independent Bookstore---enjoying some tea while I knit, and two women approached me with their knitting bags and said--"We just had our knitting group meeting downstairs--you should join us!" they seemed quite disappointed when I told them I did not live there, but was only visiting. Ah! we are now everywhere...no longer do we feel we must hide out at home in front of the telly--but we proudly knit in public! and then we talk to anyone who will listen about our knitting. Who knew that a knitting revival could make such a difference? (well, maybe Elizabeth Zimmerman knew this) I feel blessed to be able to help spread the word how knitting together can help heal our fractured culture.

My own needlecraft group--which meets once a month at my house---very often is a time of healing or supportive advice for one of us, as well as a place where we help each other with our knitting or other needlecraft. I have now begun to knit with my ritual morning coffee---knitting while awakening is quite a meditative process, and a pleasant way to begin the day. I like beginning the day with a project where I can see immediate tangible progress accomplished. (oh! look! another 2 inches knit!)

I'm on vacation!

For those of you who regularly read my blog (!) I am off on a 3 week vacation ---I am hoping to blog some while traveling..but we shall see how that works....back around Feb 3rd !