Alternate between solitary and the social.
Whether alone or with others, keep serenity.
Deng Ming~Dao

~

Pattern:  Snow Drifts
Designer:  Veera Välimäki
Yarn:  Woolen Rabbit Kashmir
Colorway:  Rowan
2014 Yarn club pattern and yarn available for sale August 2015

Well, it's been a little bit of a spell since I have visited with you here.  I have definitely been in a solitary mode with my dye-pots.  The last 3 weeks have been very busy and long days in the studio, getting ready for Spa and then turning right around to dye and mail out the large yarn club.
I won't lie, I took the day off to enjoy the wonderful sunny warm day that was gifted upon us today…and actually went on a nice walk.  It feels good to be able to get outside walking again.

I have so much to share with you over the next few days.  While I have been quiet here on the blog, there has been a lot going on in my Woolen Rabbit world.  One of which is this beautiful design for the 5th yarn club mailing designed by Veera Välimäki.  The fairytale that she chose was Snow White and I have to say that I just love this shawl.  Veera's designs are always filled with wonderful movement and this shawl is no exception.

The sign ups for the New 2015 Yarn Club will be on April1st starting at 9:00 am EST
If you are interested, you can sign up here on my website.
It is limited to the first 150 people to sign up.
I am very excited about the line up of designers that I will get to work with this year.  It promises to be another fun journey down "The Once Upon A Time" Rabbit Hole!

Ten years ago I discovered the world of blogging and I was mesmerized. My friend Anne, introduced me to the world of blogging all those years ago and through her links, I discovered a few more blogs. With each week that went by I found that I really looked forward to reading each and every post on these blogs…such a treasure! It was such a new way to share and read my love of fiber and knitting.  Back then, I think that I may have been following 10 blogs and one of those blogs was the blog of someone I so love to call "friend" now. 
Margene and the Zeneedle blog.

Over the years we grew up a friendship that I have grown to love.
I have visited her home in Utah and she has come to New England to visit with our close-knit group of friends here, and each time we visit, it's like we have known each other all of our lives.  It's a friendship that I treasure, along with a few other of my blog friendships.

Margene always commits to handwriting notes to friends in February and I love that I am a recipient of one of these notes most years.  Like Margene who says she has terrible handwriting (not so much), I have handwriting that is challenging to read as well, so I completely appreciate and love the effort that she puts into her February notes.  When I opened up the card from I received from her this week, I could only smile.

"Sparkle" was what I saw first and it did indeed make me smile. 

When I discovered the world of blogging, it opened up a huge new world for me living way up here in the North Country of New Hampshire.  Through blogging, I have met what I now consider to be my best and closest friends.  We have supported each other through the highest highs and the lowest lows and I know we will continue on doing the same.

Thank you Margene…you are a huge sparkle in my life and I am so happy to call you friend!!
xoxo

Pattern:  Chic Knits Elisbeth Cap
Yarn:  WW Kashmir
Colorway:  Red Riding Hood
Needles:  US 8

After having knit so many headbands and another one on the needles due to daughter #3 losing hers and wanting another one, as she is known as the girl with the knit headband, I thought it was time to give the cap a try.
I went with the longer slouchy version and I love it!

Hannah just happened to be home for a few days, so I managed to get her to let me take a few pictures before she headed off to work.  She has to work one shift every so many weeks to stay on the payroll where she works, and she wants to work there again this summer, so she comes home, which is nice.

When she saw the hat blocking yesterday, she laughed, saying "Mom, that is huge!"  It's going to be waaaay too big.  I said, you are going to be surprised.  I don't wear hats and I would wear this one.  She laughed at me in disbelieve.

So when we finished with pictures, guess what her response was?  " I think I would love one of these!"  Ha!  I'm seeing the succession of hats now with 4 daughters and a granddaughter.

Thanks Bonne Marie for another wonderful pattern!

So, today's Ten On Tuesday is ten things I am looking forward to right now.  I asked Carole if I could just write "Beach" ten times…but I figured that was not what she was looking for, so here you go.

It's no secret, this winter in New England has been crazy and with 2 more storms heading our way this week, it's hard to stay positive.  Last year I lost that battle, but this year, so far those twinkling lights have led the way…..like a lantern in the night and I am getting through it with a smile.  March is almost upon us with day light's saving, so it's all downhill from here. 🙂
  These are the things that I am looking forward to right now..

1. Our week on Cape Cod.  The picture above is one that Courtney took of the dock that we share with our neighbors a few years ago. I plan to spend a little time knitting in those chairs. (click on this picture….it is so amazingly beautiful.  Courtney has a great eye..this was taken with her phone).
2. Kayaking and this year I look forward to spending more time in the coastal marshes where there are amazing birds
3. SPA…although it's work for me, once the work here is done, it's all fun.  I love spending time with my friends that I don't get to see enough of, even if the bulk of my weekend is work…the rest is pure fun!
4. Having our bathroom finished.  I am SO.VERY.TIRED of looking at the hole that used to be my bathroom and now that the hot water heater is crapping out…yes, I am looking forward to having it completed.  (Not Ken's fault….the plumber is un-thawing everyone's frozen pipes.)
5. Getting back outside walking again.  I just can't do the dreadmill, but as soon as it warms up a bit, I will be back outside again. 🙂
6. I've said this before, but researching further education.  I love working with fiber, but I know that realistically this back can't do this forever.
7. Getting my hands back into the unfrozen dirt.  This year I am going to raise up some seeds again and I think I may dedicate a bed to flowers that I can cut to keep the house full of flowers for the entire growing season.
8. Finishing the huge picture project I am working on.  I will share that with you later in the week.
9. A potential trip to spend time with friends…
10. Climbing up my stairs tonight to finish a book that I have been slowly reading…a few short chapters at a time before I fall asleep.

~

And the sky's so cold and clear
The stars might stick you where you stand
And you're only glad it's dark 'cause
You might see the master's hand
You might cast around forever
And never find the peace you seek

I need light for my lantern, light for my lantern tonight.
Josh Ritter

You breathe,
Frosting mountains white,
Exciting trees to verdant flame,
Dancing sparrows on your wing,
Swirling waves into long sighs.
You breathe,
And all things live.
Deng Ming~Dao

It's hard to tell in this picture, but if you click on it, you may see the sparkle that glistens on the snow.  Tuesday morning when I put the dogs out for their early morning run, I was mesmerized by the snow.  Every where you looked it glistened and sparkled…it was so beautiful and peaceful
…and when I stood in that peaceful moment….I heard the birds. 
No, not the birds of winter, but the sounds of early birds coming home.
Yes, this winter has packed a punch for sure, but the sounds I heard on this morning let me know that Spring is on her way, and we can start looking for her in these quiet moments even with impending blizzards.
~
This is my sparkle for the week and it is a sparkle that makes me smile a big smile!
Have a wonderful weekend and stay safe and warm!!

 

Well, I missed both Ten on Tuesday and Wednesday's Work, so I thought that I would combine them here today in one post.
Carole's prelude into her Ten on Tuesday was this:
"Valentine’s Day is just a few days off and I thought it would be fun to focus on love for this week’s Ten on Tuesday post. Not necessarily people I love (you all know I love Dale and Hannah and my stepkids and the rest of my family) but things I love doing, and things I love having. So, I am finishing the sentence “I love …” ten times for you."

• I love the quiet snowy days of winter.  My brain quiets down on these days and I can hear myself think.
• I love to knit, but that is no big surprise, right?
• I love to sew….I wish I had more time for it.
• I love New England Sports!!  Not long before Spring training rolls around for the Red Sox!
• I love Tai Chi
• I love kayaking….I can hardly wait for late Spring to get our our little boats in the water
• I love sunny warm days at the Beach!!
• I love Martini's, but you already know that about me. 😉
• I love the birds who call my yard home.  I look forward to their return, especially since they chase those darn pigeons away!
• I love starting a new knitting project and that lovely red yarn is going to become an Elisbeth Cap.  Time to change it up.  I love the hat and the color, so it will be an enjoyable knit!

In honor of Valentine's Day, I am going to give you the gift of Red!
All of our yarn bases in the Red Riding colorway will be on marked down 10% off on
Saturday. 🙂

What can I say?  It's life in New England, right?

A lot of the weekend was spent dealing with shoveling off roofs, roof raking and snow clean up in general…three days of snowing will do that.  I'm not complaining though. It's true…we have more than enough snow up here, but our friends who live in the Boston area have been buried. With reports of at least one more snow storm heading towards New England, it doesn't appear that winter is going away any time soon, so we just need to settle in and accept it I guess.

Ken and I spent Saturday down in Portland Maine, having a few recalls on our van fixed.  I can't say enough good things about Berlin City Honda in Portland.  We arrived at 9:30, dropped off our van and they had a free shuttle over to the mall, which was great as I needed to go to the Apple store to have a glitch in my phone worked on.  They picked us up a few hours later and the bill ~ zero.  Sweet!

Living in the boonies definitely has it's drawbacks.  We have outlet stores and mountains to ski at, but we do not have the stores that most people really want to shop at, like Micheal's. Usually I have to resort to online shopping for so many things….thank goodness for Amazon Prime!
So, given that we were in Portland, why not take advantage of wonderful shopping choices, right?
Ken was kind enough to accompany me into the deep end of Micheal's while I looked for a few things for my One Little Word project.  Normally I hate having him shop with me, but on this day, I was glad he came along and spotted that little corner cutter that perfectly cuts round corners. 
It saved me a lot of money!  Instead of purchasing a kit, I was able to do it myself with card stock, an old paper cutter and this little tool.

Yes….winter's in New England can be long and boring, so we have to find the things that make us smile when we can. 😉

No need to say more……
Have a wonderful and relaxing weekend!!

Wow, this week has flown by.  Here it is Thursday and this is my first post of the week!
I've been pretty busy taking new yarn pictures as I have been dyeing and working on the website and just like that…whoosh, the week has almost passed me by.

Today however, my back was squawking at me enough that I decided to listen to it and take the day off to catch up on office stuff and a few things that have been waiting in the wings for me to do.
One of those things is the "One Little Word" project that I signed up for.  I wasn't quite sure what it was all about, but when Carole mentioned it to me, I thought it might be a fun way to explore the word that I chose for 2015.

Today I finally found the time to listen to the January video and download the prompts and I think it is going to be fun.  I am not super scrapbook crafty, but with some modifications, I think I can have fun with this and maybe learn something about myself along the way.

I also took a little time to get reacquainted with my Morning Coffee sweater.  I have just finished my 4th headband this year and felt it was time to move onto something else for a little bit, so I dug down into my knitting bag and pulled this out.  I quickly remembered how much I enjoy mindless stockinette knitting, so much so that I have almost completed the entire back.  I did a lot of that knitting today listening to the One Little Word Videos, so even though I was not out in the shop working today, I feel as though I still managed to be a little productive.

Sometimes we just need to stop and listen to what our bodies are telling us to do and I am glad that I did just that today.  I enjoyed the quiet time knitting and listening. 🙂

"Never let anyone dull your Sparkle….."

Last Saturday after our Tai Chi class, my friend, Donna, handed me a lovely hand made box and tucked inside were these beautiful nesting pins.  She reads my blog and knows that my word for 2015 is "Sparkle", so she gifted me this special treat. 
OMGoodness!!, every day I look at these lovely art deco pins from the 1930's and I smile. 
Yes, Donna…you know me well!!  I will treasure these forever!

Donna, who not only has given 3 of my dogs the most wonderful home, is also the person who introduced me to Tai Chi and for that I will forever be grateful for as well.

~

Today when I visited Facebook, I had a congratulatory note regarding this picture appearing on Chic Knits new Winter Newsletter.  What?? 

I had forgotten to change my email address at Chic Knits, so I didn't receive my newsletter from Chic Knits today.  Needless to say that I was beyond excited and flattered to have Bonne use this picture of Ashley in her lovely Elisbeth Headband!  Thank you Bonne Marie!

As you can see in the first photo, tucked underneath those beautiful sparkly pins, is another headband heading out today for the very generous woman who purchased it during the auction I mentioned last week.

Two sparkles in one week that have made me smile big! 
If you look hard enough, there is always a little sparkle somewhere.

Sparkle On and have a wonderful weekend!!