On this day of Thanksgiving I am thankful for so many things, but nothing more important than the blessing of my children.

I hope that you had a wonderful Thanksgiving in your corner of the world.

First I want to thank each and every one of you who shared your computer's screen resolution with me.  I have been so busy today preparing for the holidays that I was unable to respond to comments, but you all have been hugely helpful!  I guess I will be doing a bit of work to fix that banner. 🙂
~
     The other day while I was watching some program on tv, a mention of neuroblastoma was made and it quickly reminded me of my little friend Morgan.  It was a bittersweet moment and reminded me how thankful I am for my children. 

Morgan was a free spirit and I'm betting she would have loved being a fiber grrl.  So much creativity and spirit this small child held in her being.

Morgan lost her battle with Neuroblastoma at a very young and tender age almost 2 years ago.  You can read more about my connection with this dear little girl here…..and you can read her mom's story here.

I know that people squirm at times when they hear the word donate and I know that many times in conjunction with donations come prizes.  This time around I am not going to include prizes, but rather speak from the heart.  I know that these are hard economic times and donations are not as easy as they once were, but I am hoping that some of you might think about donating one or two lunches to Lunch for Life.

The Lunch for Life program is as simple as it sounds. ……….

Every year, the Children's
Neuroblastoma Cancer Foundation has a special holiday
fundraiser.  This fundraiser challenges us to
give up the cost of one lunch to help fight this cancer.  They have figured
that:

"If just
one of us told five friends to give up lunch today, and asked that the next day
they asked five of their friends to do the same…and those five friends asked
five of their friends to do the same on the next day and so on for the next ten
days…Do you know how much money could be
raised?……..At just five
dollars per lunch that would raise $9,765,625.00 in ten
days."

[This organization is 501(c)(3)
nonprofit organization, and the family endorses it.]

While I know the times have made money tight, I am hoping that some of you will join me in giving the Betz's a Christmas present from the heart…..

Help me fill Morgan's tree again this year :).

I know that you all have seen these 2 trees in many of my pictures.  Spring, summer, fall and winter.  While technically it is still fall, what you see is what we got today…..looks more like winter to me. 🙂

After the winter we had last year, I don't think enough time has passed by for Ken to forget.  He came home muttering and sputtering………..but me, I have to honestly say, my first words when I woke this morning were "wheeeeeeee"!

I think that Maggie agreed with me. She was so excited with this first real snow of the season. She ran and romped like a crazy dog, while the others just looked on as though she had 2 heads….yep, a crazy dog.

Cleo on the other hand……….well, it's not a very good picture, but I think her expression pretty much sums it up.  She's in complete agreement with Ken. 

Of course I don't have to shovel it as much as Ken does, so there is that…but give me the cold snowy weather any time over the hot humid stuff. 🙂

In closing I have a favor to ask you.  Can you look at your monitor settings and tell me what your screen resolution is?  To do this, just right click on your desktop, go to properties and settings and you should see your screen resolution there.

When I did my website a few weeks ago, I was working in one resolution and then the kids tinkered a bit with the settings.  I noticed that at this higher resolution my website had a big white square on the left….which it is not supposed to have, so it got me to thinking.  If most people use a higher resolution, then I will have to make some adaptations, to make it load up correctly.  Personally I use a little lower resolution but then I am as blind as a bat. 🙂

Thanks grrls!

The actual
Is only the actual
In one place
And one time.
Deng Ming~Dao

I don't know about you, but there are truly days that I wish that I had a "mini me"..One to do the mundane tasks of life, so that I could spend hours doing the other things.  The ones that fulfill.

It's not Wednesday, but I thought I would share some of my works in progress. 

The yarn above is destined to become a hat….maybe 2 if I can squeak them out of those skeins.

The sock is my second Tessarae sock made with my Harmony Norwegian Woods.   I know I have said this before, but I just love this pattern….. I love the rhythm.  6 rows of this and 6 rows of that, again and again.  I am surprised that I don't get bored with it……….but I don't 🙂

I have been plugging along on my Twisted Vines sweater as well.  I didn't get to spend much time with her last week, but I'm thinking she will be a nice thing to work on after Thanksgiving dinner……soothing, mindless knitting.

This yarn is a true delight to work with. I have always enjoyed stockinette knitting and am enjoying it even more with this beautiful soft yarn.

Last on the list is a teeny peak at what I have been working on the most……in a few weeks I will show you more ")

Nope no "mini me" here, but now that the day is almost coming to an end, I am going to spend the last bit of it doing the fun stuff. 🙂

Have a great evening!

Today was a day filled with laughter, good food and football…..it doesn't get much better than this.  I hope that your weekend was filled with good things too!  🙂

We are very fortunate to be involved in a community that is filled with so many incredibly talented people.  Just before Rhinebeck, I received a blog comment from my friend Marcia and we chatted back and forth a bit.  I can't remember how the topic of Marcia making jewelry came up, but when it did, I asked Marcia if she had any pictures of her work.  She sent me a few pictures and I fell head over heels in love with one of her bracelets.  Needless to say I asked if she could make me one and what you see is what she sent to me……….it's beautiful! 

The quality of the workmanship is impeccable right down to the beautiful clasp….I really love having it! Thank you Marcia!

.

Another very recent purchase was this pretty bag from Jessalu.  My husband will be very happy to tell you that I absolutely do not need any new bags, but ………..

how in the world could I resist this?  The bag is made with a striking Amy Butler fabric on the outside and a coordinating print on the inside.

I may have been able to pass this little bag by until I saw Jessalu's signature zipper pull……..a beeutiful bee!  It goes without saying, that little bee caught me hook, line and sinker.

It's the perfect size for a pair of socks or something small that you might be working on….or a little travel bag.  Thanks Jessalu!

Yep….we are very fortunate to have such talent amongst us and what better way to support the economy then by supporting our friends 🙂

Off to patternworks………..enjoy your day!

Can you feel it yet?  A wee bit of Christmas in the air?  I know, I know…. Thanksgiving isn't even here yet, but it's been so blessed cold up here that it's hard not to look ahead to the winter holiday.

Of course working on the fiber and yarn pictured above is putting me in that Christmas mood as well.  The fiber is a Black Velvet angora blend that I started working on last February.   I do remember getting incredibly busy though last February and losing  track of what I was working on, but I recently came across my poor unfinished roving this week, so we are back on track again.  I quickly remembered how much I LOVE working with angora.  L.O.V.E. I.T.!

I can't say much about the Red Flannel Opulence other than I am excited about what it is going to become.   I do have one little gripe though….not with the pattern or with the yarn, but with the lack of a good knitting store in my neighborhood.

I will tell you straight up that I have a GAZILLION knitting needles……but do I have the size needed for this project?  Of course not.  My choice is to either drive 45 minutes to Patternworks in Center Harbor or to order online….aggghhhh!   Needless to say, with the skein of yarn wound into a ball, I am anxious to get started, so I will be heading out tomorrow to buy needles.

Yikes…..I started this post just before a work phone conference 3 hours ago and now "Life On Mars" is on so I must go….. Have a GREAT night!

If you get a chance tonight, go visit my good friend Jean.  Jean is running a hat drive for people in need in NYC.  Jean told me today that the people who visit the food van are mostly men, so I will be searching this old fiber house for some manly yarn.

A few years ago, I became a wee bit burned out on Charity knitting (I really hate the charity term)……….but it's been a while and with the very cold temps here tonight and a burdened heart I have added a few hats to my knitting list.

After thinking about it today, I decided that I am going to try to knit one hat a week throughout the winter until the end of February.  I'm not sure how long Jean's hat drive lasts…. but I'm sure a home can be found for each and every knit hat.

I am blessed to have the amount of fiber that I have and if I can spread a little of it around in the form of a warm hat to keep someone warm….then I am there.

Uphold precepts, but be merciful.
Gradually absorb, until there is no need for law.
Gain wisdom beyond right and wrong.
Deng Ming~Dao

What you see above is some Superwash BFL roving that I dyed up a month or so ago.  The wind managed to grab a hold of the roving as it was drying and the rovings tore into strips, so I wound it all up and kept it.  (yep….I get the sloppy seconds…)

When I look at the finished yarn, I can see all of the imperfections.  I probably did not pay much attention to the first part of the spinning, but I know I paid very close attention to the second part, so what you see is kind of a mishmash of spinning. 

A very dear friend who has a good eye towards perfection has been sharing what she has learned under Judith MacKenzie with a number of us.  One of the things that Judith stresses is using your dominant hand to control the twist, which of course most of us do exactly the opposite.

In my mind, I wonder why it is that the majority of us sit down to a wheel and use the non dominant hand to control the twist.  Why does that seem more natural?  It has been a conundrum to me as i have thought about it over the last week.  Of course, as a child I was left handed but forced to change in elementary school, so maybe that has something to do with it at least for me….who knows?

Normally I do not focus much thought on these things.  As in the the Tao quote, I have always taught new spinnerst there is no right or wrong way to spin…..as long as you are comfortable, enjoying it and the end product is of good quality…..but I have to admit, I am intrigued by all of this talk.

Given that the wheel I use most of the time has the mother of all on the left side which prevents me from spinning to the left comfortably this becomes a hard thing for me to try, so on Moriah I will continue to spin to the right.  I will however give it a try on my lendrum when I get around to pulling her out of her bag……just to see.

The yarn that I spun is going to become socks for Ken….it's been awhile since he has had some handknit socks, so it will be interesting for me to see how it knits up, imperfections an all. 🙂