Mmmmm, I love Saturday mornings........

Don't you? I guess it depends on what your obligations are. This morning I took a break away from Vogue Knitting magazine to take Evan to a team breakfast before his hockey game. But otherwise, my morning is all about knitting. I'm at a fresh start. I have nothing OTN or OTH. I'm not counting projects that are hibernating. (See the Jaywalker socks, and the Teapot Dishcloth.) That bread on the plate was part of a terrific gift basket from my Grammie (of the Country Club Shawl) and my Aunt Anne. Homemade goodies! The little loaf looks like a cinnamon roll, but there's chocolate rolled in too. Mmmmmmmm. I microwaved it just a little and melted a little pat of butter and sipped my Red Rose tea with it. (Someday, I'll blather on about why Red Rose is my brand of tea, bet you're all aquiver with anticipation...)I'm thinking about trying to make the pink sweater in the picture above. It's in the Winter 2009/10 issue. I'd probably make it in a robin's egg blue, a better color for me, although everybody looks pretty in pink. It's all soft and lacy and ruffly and romantically feminine, everything I love in a sweater, or any garment for that matter.
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I finished the tie last night, weaved in the ends, washed it in the sink with a mild lavender detergent, squeezed it out in a towel, and pinned it out to block on my ironing board. It already looks so much better without the puckers it has when you're knitting it.

This is how it looks in the morning light, still slightly damp on the underside. I'm dying to un-pin it and give it to Ian. Maybe he'll even humor me and try it on and let me take pics?

See the purple and gold yarn? That's all I have left from the scarf. May have to get more if I seriously want to make a tie....but then I'll really have a lot left over.... wonder if any other Cheverus students would pay money for a hand-knit school colors tie? They knit up pretty quick....
I'm having a lot of fun lining up my next round of projects. I like to have more than one project going at once. Things I can work on at hockey games, in the car, which often means in the dark. Things I can make as gifts for others, as little treats for myself, practical items for the household, pretty little crocheted doilies and tatted lace.

And then there's the itching to get a stitching project going. Have you checked out Mary Corbet's Needles 'n Thread website? I'm an avid reader, and I just want to get going on something. Check out the needlebook she made recently. I always picture Olivia deHaviland in the "The Heiress" stitching away on a gorgeous tapestry of some sort. Seems so genteel.

I'll post again on this topic when I have some projects lined up.

This shouldn't be so difficult...........

If you're a Ravelry member, you may have seen the Hogwarts House tie. It is striped with the house colors. Well, my oldest son does not go to Hogwarts, but he does wear a tie as part of his school uniform, and I'm a little surprised to recollect that this is his 4th year and I've never knit him a tie. What have I been wasting my knitting time on? As you can see below, I still haven't knit him a tie striped in school colors. (I have bemoaned the difficulty of finding both school colors in the same yarn before. When I made this scarf.) I clearly don't know how to photograph this yarn to best advantage...............

This is an easy pattern. Yet, I have ripped and re-knit soooo many times. I'm blaming this yarn. It is very difficult to see the individual stitches, It's a great nubbly texture, and mixed colors. You can see the black and white in it okay, but that other color is a khaki/olive mixture with a nice variation of proportion of khaki to olive. It is Red Heart Casual Cot'n, and I'd've provided a link, but it's discontinued. Which explains why I have some of it. Reduced price at a discount store. Thrifty knitter, that's me.....

I've made great progress on this tie, and will probably finish tonight. Now that I have the rhythm of the pattern, I think I'll pull out the leftovers from making the scarf and see if I can't make the same tie, this time with the stripes. I'll try to show pics of this tie, anyway, once I've finished and blocked it.

A Day Late and a Dollar Short

I wanted to post these birdfeeder pictures yesterday, but didn't get to it. You all know this is a blue jay, I'm sure.

There were at least 4 jays by the feeder just then and one chased off a beautiful male cardinal before I could get a picture. I never got to see if he had his lady with him. There's a goal for me this winter. A pic of a cardinal (or even a pair!) in the snow. Do you see the jay in the snow below the feeder?
That tiny little thing on the left side of the feeder is a black-capped chickadee, the state bird of Maine. They were plentiful and hard to photograph, as they flit about so much.And here's an even harder-to-identify bird due to inadequate photographing, but down on the ground is a junco. There were titmice too, but they were mainly flitting about and coming right up to my kitchen window, didn't get a pic this time.

A couple more neighborhood houses seen on my snowy walk with Jeff. Liked the sculpted drift on this roof. As we get closer to the ocean, there are fewer pines to protect from the wind, and it really seemed to be whipping around, there was even less snow, and it's only about a quarter of a mile from our place.

Back to our place, and I wanted to show you this overgrown evergreen at the corner of the house...

You can't tell it 'til at least dusk, but it's.......................

strung with lights, and a star on top.

Just let me catch my breath!

This is a big day in my blogging experience. Huge. I can't even believe how nervous and excited it has made me.

I've been awarded and tagged!




The Award comes with being "tagged" and the rules are that I must list 7 random things of interest about myself, and then I must award to 7 others whose blogs I esteem. Although, I can't tag Honore @ Bygone Knits, as she is the one who has generously awarded me.


1. I love my Yankee background, but I frequently run across descriptions of Southern hospitality and graces, and think secretly I'd like to be a Southern Lady.

2. I was born on an Air Force base in Normandy. France. I've seen the Eiffel tower and L'Arc de Triomphe and picnicked in the French countryside and I remember none of it. But I have a beautiful French birth certificate printed in gold ink.

3. In the early 1980's, Jay Leno rode his motorcycle up to an inn where I was working for the summer. He was doing stand-up comedy in our tavern and I helped him run the washing machine to wash his best jeans for his performance.

4. One summer when I was a teenager I worked at Disneyland in Anaheim, California. Tomorrowland, actually. The uniforms were hideous. Red and yellow polyester. 'Nuff said?

5. I have a Master's degree in Biochemistry.

6. Almost everyone on my mother's side of my family is very tall. So, I married a man who is almost 6'5". My sons are tall but are not basketball players, they are hockey players. I possess no athletic talent. But wish I did. Or sing, if I had a choice.

7. I have neither desire nor interest in being preserved cryogenically.



Now, about tagging 7 others. This is a bit of a challenge, because while I am so excited to be tagged. (You mean someone actually knows I exist? I've never even written a book!) However, I have noted that some bloggers are not happy about being tagged. Maybe we should have some kind of icon on our blogs that indicates either "Feel free to tag me" or "No tags, please". So, I'm going to stick my neck out and tag blindly, not knowing if my tag-ees will scoff and scowl, or squeal with delight.


1. Mary Grace @ Hooked on Needles

2. Cindy @ My Romantic Home

3. Anna @ Thimbleanna *

4. Lara @ Thornberry


5. Laura @ Decor to Adore

6. Kim @ Daisy Cottage

7. Mary Corbet @ Needle 'n Thread

What fun for me! I hope this encourages you to visit the above blogs. As I was choosing, I discovered that there are more than 7 blogs that I think are beautiful, and the people behind them appealing and interesting. I purposely avoided awarding and tagging people who get hundreds of comments for each post, as I imagine their blogging time to be busy already. Although, I wonder if Lucy will have the time and energy to play, as she is expecting to meet Bump24 very soon indeed!

*This post was changed to take Lucy off the list, as when I went to her blog I saw she had 217 comments on her last post, and I am so worried about tiring her...... I subbed in one of the many other bloggers I admire and follow regularly.. Sorry to be so dorky and not getting things right the first time. I'm all discombobulated in my excited state! Check out Lucy's blog @ Attic24, anyway. Talk about eye candy! There is a link in my blog list in the sidebar on the right.

Winter Wonderland

In case you haven't heard, we've been getting some snow up our way... This is my DH Jeff after clearing the driveway this morn and just before our walk through the neighborhood. I realized after visiting this blog post of Cindy's, that I could do a neighborhood tour. I took more pictures than I posted this time. Maybe I'll save the others for another day when I can't think what to post about......

Check out the clipper ship weather vane(above) and the moose (below)...

The photos above and below are taken with me facing southeast. Proof that the weather guy was right. The wind was out of the northwest. See how the snow accumulated on the trees?

This house reminds me of a Currier & Ives print. You almost expect to see a horse-drawn sleigh pull into view.

This is our neighbor across the street, and the trusty plow with which he plows us out regularly. :) I thought the way the wind carved the drift on the garage roof looked cool.


Do you remember this newspaper tube? Leaves still on the trees, mid-October.......it belongs to the same neighbor. Here it is today (see below.)

And while I was out in the street, I turned around and took in this view of our house. Look at all the snow piled up on my evergreen wreath!

I don't know how old this farmhouse and barn (below)are. The whole street I live on used to be the land associated with the farm. It was a real "saltwater farm" and the land borders right on the cove (otherwise known as "Biddeford Pool"). Now some of it is a wildlife sanctuary, being on a major bird migration path. Our backyard backs up to the sanctuary, so we have a pretty quiet neighborhood. The deer used to travel through our yard at night. Before we got dogs. Now my hosta and yew shrubs have a fighting chance.

No idea what kind of tree that is, love the red berries against all the white.
The pun in the sign on the barn ("Summersalt Farm") is that the current owner is a retired gymnastics coach.
They have put a row of birdhouses where there backyard meets the bird sanctuary.

I took this picture of the sundial back in the fall. It was an anniversary gift I gave DH a couple of years ago. It says: "Grow Old With Me; The Best is Yet to Be".
And here it is today.....................not telling us time without the sun anyway.

This last shot is just a teaser.............tomorrow I'll post pics of actual birds at the feeder. I finally put seed in it yesterday, and already today I've seen blue jays, a cardinal, chickadees, titmice (titmouses?), and at least one junco.

Slouching toward 2010!

Well, I'll start out by saying that I have nothing brilliant, profound or poignant to say about 2009 finally being over and 2010 here to bring us what it may.

We have had a fairly quiet pair of holidays with some much-needed rest in between.

2009 has left me weary. I have suffered loss this year, more than any other year in my life so far. I am also aware that my losses this year pale in comparison to those suffered by other people. It has been an eye-opener for me. I feel like I have been living a very naive life. Or maybe a life of denial.

In early November, my oldest son went on a spiritual retreat with classmates. He goes to a Jesuit high school, and so it is not as strange as it may sound. He was away for 4 nights and 3 days and the students participated in small groups where they talked about many things, including their hurts and anxieties, and what they fear and what they try to hide from others. It is very emotional to open up to others and for some, it becomes the first step to getting some much needed help. It also becomes a way for the classmates to become true friends. They open up, they trust, they give support and show unconditional love for each other. Barriers come down. They learn that the person they thought was a snob is really just lonely and shy. The prickly kid is angry and wounded. The distant classmate is coping the best he can. They also learn how to reach out and help. The secrets they tell remain secret within the group. After the retreat, when they see each other in class or pass in the hall, it means so much more when one offers: "How's it goin', dude?". My son tells me the experience gave him a more forgiving view of people. The perspective that people are carrying burdens that we can't always see, and that kindness and forbearance are in order for those who seem unapproachable or unloveable.

The experience was a great catalyst for discussions he and I have had. And it gave me pause to think about my year.

In mid-December, my great-aunt died. She was 87 and had suffered dementia for at least 5 years. At the funeral reception, I visited briefly with my mother's cousin (my great-aunt's daughter, follow me), who really is only a few years older than I. She had lost her father a few years ago, and had been veeeery close with her mother. In her time of loss, she came to me and reached out to me about the loss of my father last April. It meant so much to me. It's hard to explain. Since I lost Dad, I feel more of an urgency to extend sympathy to people who are grieving. Don't get me wrong, I've never lacked sympathy. I guess it's only honest to say that my expressions of sympathy have been strained. I found it difficult, unpleasant to do. I always felt wholly inadequate; I knew that nothing I could say could mitigate their suffering. What I didn't know was just that acknowledging their loss was a comfort. Now I know that offering very simple words of comfort are best, and valuable. "I am so sorry for your loss." "I know you loved him/her very much." "This is such a hard time for you." I especially loved when people told me they loved my Dad too. I'm weeping now to remember my Dad's cousin Harley tell stories of them growing up together. Stories I'd never heard, but which ring true to my Dad's personality and character.

So, all in all, I guess I'm saying 2009 hasn't been all fun and games, and that I'm trying to put the difficulties into perspective, and move forward a better person.

Here's to 2010!

(Clip art courtesy of The Graphics Fairy.)