the first day

women's friendships have always been an important part of my life.

i can still remember favorite games that i played with girls in grade school.  barbie "towns" set up for days behind chairs and couchs, with friends coming over to continue the saga until my mother went nuts and the community  had to be taken down until next time.  then sleepovers in jr high and high school.  with staying up talking all night long.  i still have a very important, 750 mile friendship with a friend that during my jr high years lived next to my grandmother in South Dakota and we still stay in contact as much as we can through all that life has brought us.

friendships with women change as you marry and then have children.  you then look for someone you again have something in common with.  and that bond is set again, and it is strong.  you now talk to each other about things like what to make for dinner, how to stretch the budget, what to do for a fun, cheap, date night.   and then when the children come....those secrets questions of birth, that know one else talks about, how to live without sleep, how to live with this little one, how you ever lived without this little one, and "could you please babysit this little one?". 

now, as a new grandmother, after i've shown the grandbaby pixs to all the relatives and co-workers who do i really want to show them off to?   my girlfriends!!!!!

i can't imagine my life with out my women friends, my girlfriends.  they "get me".

there is nothing like the word GIRLFRIEND. 

guys don't have it.  they have their friends and they say they are going out with "the guys" but it's not the same.  it is stronger for us.  did you ever hear your husband say "i'd like you to meet my boyfriend, so-and-so"?

i came across this quote in one of my new favorite books this week:

"Any woman alone without friends to sustain her, to nurture and support, to hold with loving arms, like a single thread, is weak.  but the weaving, the loving, the nurturing of others, the networks of friendship makes her strong."

1994  The Kinship of Women  Maryjane's Ideabook, Cookbook, and Lifebook  2005.

about Halloween i start to really begin  thinking about Christmas.  start to make some lists, look seriously at the calendar, begin to decide on themes for decorations, realize what is really going to get made as gifts, begin planning our yearly Christmas Party (which is within the first two weeks of Dec.).

sometimes it seems early to be thinking of these things, seems like fall is just arriving....which it is....but if the planning doesn't start now, i know much of what i want to do will not get done.

our actual Christmas Holiday celebrations are FAIRLY low key.   FAIRLY.

after reading a passage  today in A Thousand Days in Tuscany, i thought to myself that i should continually work toward making and keeping them low key.  enjoying that holiday time to its fullest.  after all i have two weeks of vacation then and i should enter that time ready to relax, and enjoy the everyday. 

........"Prescribed holidays can seem a sham to me.  I'd rather have a dose of celebrating in each day, some small recognition of the miracles contained in it.  The grand spectacles put me off.  They end.  And when they do, one often feels down rather than refreshed by them.  I like my daily life enough so that I'd rather live it even on Christmas.  I want to light the fire, bake my bread, cook a beautiful lunch and dine.  Sleep, read by the fire, stomp through the  woods  ........"     page 235            Marlena De Blasi

don't get me wrong, i do enjoy the celebration of that special day of Christmas.  But many things in this passage did ring true with me.  one being that the everyday is something to be enjoyed and two that i have often found myself frazzle instead of refreshed after the Holidays. 

i guess what i'm going to try to learn from this is to practice a Refreshing Holiday and to enjoy the Everyday.

just something for me to think about.

the weekend...............

yeah, i know, i just had one,a four day one in fact.

but that doesn't matter.  i can't still feel it.  it's not still there.  under my skin, holding me together, giving me any kind of peace,  keeping my shoulder blades from creeping up around my earlobes.

yikes, this job is crazy these days.  (for those of you who are new readers i'm a jr high teacher).  yeah i know, i chose it.

but i'm on my lunch hour right now and in about an hour i head home to my weekend.  and this weekend i will relax with a visit of little pitter patter of feet on my not perfectly clean floors, playing with blocks, fall walks with the stroller, messy meals of "learning to feed myself",  playing in the bathtub, chasing the cat, and six teeth smiles.

plus i get to do some cooking for the the family, watch the cement truck pour the foundation for our new garage tomorrow, maybe some knitting and a DVD rental and visit with my daughter and son-in-law. 

yeah for two days off!!!!!!!!!!!!

just finished taking a hot bath.  made myself a cup of tea.  the washer and dryer is on the third load and i'm ready to sit down to check in on three days worth of the blog world and then watch taped shows from last week.

we went camping this last weekend from friday afternoon through today.  we had a great time but it was chilly, okay it was cold.  the first evening i think it got down to 38 degrees!!  thank goodness i brought an electric blanket.  but those mornings where a slow, cold, start!!!  no rain and sunny tho so that was great.  we were right on a dune and just a few feet over the other side to Lake Michigan.  so during the day we would bring our chairs and sit in the sun and read and relax.  all-in-all it was a relaxing weekend.  but i'm ready for my flannel sheets tonight and my bathroom just down the hall.

i didn't get as much knitting done this weekend as i thought i would.  my hands were a bit cold and most of the time when i was sitting in the sun i chose to read.  but on the car ride to and from Michigan i did make a pair of fingerless mitts for a gift.  i had made the ones from Last Minute Knitted Gifts but thought they were too plain, so re-work my own pattern and came up with something that i like.  they were a very quick knit.  now i plan to make some knitted flowers  to "spruce" them up a bit.  cute!!

today we "packed up camp" as soon as we woke up and headed out.  we drove a bit and stopped in Grand Haven, Michigan for breakfast and one of my favorite yarn shops is just down the street.  i really was not going to even stop in. i was "grubby" from camping, needed a shower, had no makeup on, (i never go anywhere without mascara, i have on mascara right now after my bath, and i'm going no where, i feel like i can't focus correctly without it, seriously) and i probably smelled like campfire. 

but after breakfast my DH said to me as we were paying the bill, "are you going to stop in the yarn shop, you should, it's you're favorite".  how could i say no.  i looked around, i wasn't even going to get anything, nothing that i HAD to have, i'm trying to stick to this yarn diet.  and considering how i CAN go crazy i really did well. 

 i walked out with the brand new booklet of patterns designed by Louisa Harding called: The Accessories Collection and she has just come out with her own line of yarns so i bought two balls to make either the Narrow Lace Scarf  w/ Rosette or the Fingerless Gloves to go with the new fall jacket that i bought a few weeks ago. 

fell off the wagon............

when i mentioned that i was on a yarn diet, and was going to knit only from my stash i don't think i said anything about not purchasing new books.  i'm sure i didn't!!!!  new knitting books are a great way to use up the stash!!!  you gotta love www.amazon.com  they have the best prices........hands down. 

see the sidebar for two of my recent purchases.  haven't spent much time looking at the first one much past the cover, which i must say is beautiful....but the second...ALTERKNITS.....love it...

i just want to say that it is so new, so ALTERnative, so "fresh" (i think i've been reading my son's page too much lately) but that is the perfect word to describe this new knitting book.

first of all i love a pattern book that also has great photography.  that is an important part of the inspiring process.  and this book shows projects in wonderful settings with cool hip models and that is both inspiring and refreshing.   it comes with this great designer's notebook that fits into it's own clear, plastic pocket in the front of the book.  and it has a fabric-feeling spine on the book.  that's a wonderful touch.  all-in-all........it's a good, quality book!

here are some of my favorite ideas from the book:

*using sterling silver wire to knit a necklace     *leather to knit a cuff  bracelet   *Habu Paper Yarn to knit mini lantern covers for string lights   *old t-shirts cut into strips and knit into rugs     *recycled wool sweaters, cut and felted for totes   and...don't think i've jumped off the pier on this one, the picture is amazing.....*nylon upholstery thread for a knitted screen door  *and what about the imaginative uses for those yarn labels that i keep collecting in a big jar!!!

*and there are many more AVERAGE projects in the book.  all great ideas!

okay....some of them are "over the top".  but i do like to think of knitting as ART and not just a CRAFT.  and this book proves that.

be sure to check it out.

i have felt like i wasn't allowed to post until i had some FO's to talk about.  so i'm back!!!!

the turtleneck shrug from Scarf Style.......... (a.k.a.NY turtleneck shrug cuz i bought the yarn in NYC) is done!  i did the bind off during Desperate  Housewives last night.  now just a bath and blocking.  it fits, it's snuggly, it's different, that's for sure.  but i like it and hope i get lots of wear out if this this fall and winter.  i started it on 16" needles and the round and round and round ribbing was nuts.  but the magic loop made it fly!!!

next up.... the grandson's one year old baby gift.  done and off to a talented seamstress for the final workings!!!!  i have some winter baby ideas for some of the leftover yarn on this one!!

vases.......this weekend we went with our neighbors to their summer home on Lake Geneva and i got a lot of knitting done.  i was knitting in the car on the way there and knitting as i was being cooked breakfast each morning (yep, Ed always makes breakfast).  we were out-and-about each day to farm stands, nurserys, shops, drives around the lake and lunch.  and as a backseat rider i knitted and took it all in.  in between all stops i managed to finish two vases that i will felt tonight.  i made a small and a medium.  it's amazing what you can get done in little spaces of time!!

tonight i will cast on for wrist warmers.  the pattern is from the Last Minute Knitted Gifts.  and these are going to be a gift for my pottery instructor from this summer.  she has some small livestock and i thought these would be useful at feeding time this winter.  again i will use the magic loop!!!  and i'm using the new Manos colorway, it's the color of her Peacocks!

i must say, it feels good to have some things getting finish around here and it feels good to hold some new yarn and start some new projects.  i'm working from my stash these days and have made a project list based on that.  i've got some exciting things on my list.  and at least for a little while...i want to stick to some smaller projects.  no sweaters for a few weeks.