YARN ALONG

Killer Angels 

by Michael Shaara

Great book, I have read before several years ago.

It takes you through the battle of Gettysburg from both the North's and South’s

perspective. Being a history buff- this is a well written book with lots of interesting facts.  One interesting fact that always amazes me - is that General Lee had a heart attack during this campaign.

I had to frog this dress last week and spent most of saturday re-kniting ( paying close attention to the directions ) and it is working up great…hmm!  

Pattern in

Fair Isle Style

A big THANK YOU to Ginny for this wonderful Wednesday 

YARN ALONG

4th of JULY

A very Happy 4th of July to everyone, hope your holiday was spent safely and with loved ones. 

I spent mine at home doing a lot of nothing, just the way Eric and I love our weekends. We did manage to get to a farmers market for some cherry pie and herbs for tea….yum.

Otherwise it was spent watching the History channel all the while sewing on a beautiful quilt , scrap quilt my favorite, knitting and some long walks taken early morning before the heat of the day. 

I’m on a roll again with the knitting, the fair isle dress is coming along nicely and my pi shawl is a great summer knit. So easy and mindless-just knit and knit and knit. 

It has always felt to me that once the 4th is over, summer is more than half over. The schools will reopen in less than 6 weeks- then on to my favorite season fall….
Normally I don’t like time moving so fast, but I have some amazing things happening in the near future.
Hope your weekend was calm and the week we are headed into even calmer.

YARN ALONG

 Ok, first I apologize for the poor, very poor pictures!

Buttt-what the heck happened to this skirt I knitted for Caitlin. When she sent me the picture I laughed so loud and hard, you know one of those BIGG belly laughs. She said it "fits great at the waist and the length but my hips are not in the correct place”, that the skirt was incredibly comfortable, she loved it but could I fix those wings on the side?!

No, it is not the pattern, the fault all lies with me! I was knitting this on my lunch breaks and didn’t keep the pattern in the knitting bag, I was "eye balling” it! I knew my eyes were changing - but OMG!

I have also been working on this fair isle dress and yes frogged it all back, my count was awful.

Not my knitting week- though I have enjoyed the process and am ready to start again.

 really need to pay more attention to the patterns….its the details!

One grand success, the a-line dress I made for Caitlin. She looks beautiful in it and it fits like a glove!

Not the best picture, my poor photo skills, trust me the dress and Caitlin fit each other like peas in a pod!

Been reading a lot lately:

Bowling Avenue

by Anne Shayn

she wrote Mason-Dixon knitting as well.

Simple Ways to BE More with Less

Both books have been good summer reads.

Happy Yarn Along Day to you all.

OH THOSE GIRLS

oh, those girls are pretty amazing. on fathers day they came over and made their dad some of his favs- fish cakes, beets, salad and dilly bars for dessert. we ate on the porch, it was cooler there than in the house ( and yes we have central air but i have not turned it on yet). well eric was in hog heaven, he loves fish cakes and with an amazing tarter sauce from scratch…wow! then beets and salad with homemade dressing( my only contribution), only to be topped with dilly bars from dairy queen. oh yes those girls know how to put the lovin on their dad!

i’ve been under the weather this week, home from work last two days with an earache! i have never had an earache before, but this one knocked my socks off-the throbbing and pain to even touch my ear, mercy me!!! i’m on the mend now, feel as if i turned the corner late this afternoon. have been treating it mainly with garlic and mullein oil, it works with a lot of patience and rest! i did manage to roam in the front yard early this morning and took some pics with my i-phone as the sun was rising. 

i was thinking, that now,  daylight will start to get shorter-i prefer shorter sun light days and cooler. 

yes i am a cool weather gal!

since i have been laid up, i have been knitting …a lot. hopefully will get some pictures this weekend for the blog. 

YARN ALONG/SUMMER SOUL CAMP 2015

what a morning already, I have been up since 4am, not because I wanted a jump start on the day but because I have a whopper of an ear infection! I’m all swollen on right side of face, hearing in right ear immensely decreased and achy. so it will be off to the store for mullein/garlic oil this morning, then warm presses and apple cider rinses for the rest of the day.

I finished one sock this week, though not super happy with it. the sock fits but a wee bit too small. I started with 68 stitches, decreased down to 62 and still tight to get sock on. I guess I will start with 72 on next sock. I use to make them too big for me, now the opposite problem…ugh!

also started the pi shawl {elizabeth zimmermann} using the blue cakes pictured above. This is the last of the yarn from china!(tear). the pi shawl is an absolute delight to knit, easy no brainer summer knit. the best part, it will take several months to complete, no rush, great put down and pick up again whenever.

no pattern just multiply pi~ numbers.

joined summer camp 2015 over at beauty that moves.  love heather’s writing, not a big fan of summer, so thought maybe this 10 day course will help reframe my negative summer thinking!

Of course the gods have to throw in this bothersome earache to get me off to a wonderful comfortable start. (2nd ugh)!

reading several books at same time, but what I really want to read is my yearly summer book,

to kill a mockingbird. I read this every summer for the past 15 years for some reason. 

please join ginny for

yarn along

and stop by 

beauty that moves

ps: any ideas for a natural remendy for external ear infection?

THE ABBEY

St.Walburga

crucifix made from colorado clay

crucifix inlaid in ties on floor

see the nun with her apron over her blue robes?

it was 97 degrees today! i would not want to be doing labor in long sleeve robes and a long veil….

i went up to Laramie today to meet a friend for lunch and on the way home i stopped at the abbey.

i am so glad i stopped, what an amazing place! the abbey of st.walburga is a benedictine monastery of contemplative nuns, roman catholic. the abbey has 21 nuns that are totally self sufficient, i mean they grow all their food, make their clothes, do all the labor on the land ! amazing! the order of nuns came to united states in 1935 to get out of nazi germany, settling in the boulder area till they out grew the property. in 1997 they relocated in northern larimer county. 

the abbey has rooms to rent for personal solitude and pray at an amazing price. also they have hikes and prayers and of a mass said several times a day, most impressive though is they do monastic chants, if you have never heard monastic chanting you are seriously missing an amazing sound. oh, and they have a cute little store that i saw some hand woven rag rugs, hand made bees wax candles, plus of a lot of literature regarding the abbey. 

i’m going to go back to the abbey, hopefully next week to look around a bit more. on my drive out i noticed “station ave” which is a beautiful foot (all natural) path that winds up the hill with crosses placed every 100 feet or so. it’s the stations of the cross! (if your not familiar with catholic church, here is an explanation).

how i would love to spend three days in silent , meditative solitude up in those beautiful mountains at the abbey.