Friday, January 27, 2012

Knitting the sky

I’ve always loved the colors of the sky here in Oklahoma.  When the sky stretches from horizon to horizon – you notice it.  And, for the most part, our skies are blue.   What I failed to notice was all the different shades of blue – and  shades of grey when storms roll in – and, just how white the clouds look against the deep blue prairie sky.  It was all right there in front of me and I didn't see it.  Or maybe I took it for granted. 

The beauty of our Oklahoma Skies was brought home to me by a knitting project -- ( check it out here:   http://www.leafcutterdesigns.com/projects/conceptknit.html )

My ‘Oklahoma Sky’ project began at the Winter Solstice.  My plan is to ‘knit the sky’ until Spring arrives – making myself an 'Oklahoma Sky Shawl’.  So far, I’ve been tracking the sky with a calendar and have knitting up to January 10th.   In the progress picture below -  you can see, we’ve had a lot of blue skies.  


With our current drought, I'm hoping to add more grey when we receive much needed rain.  But, could do without adding the dark grey and white representing 'snow' !!!


Notes:  Addi-Lace size 8 - 60" circular needles, assortment of acrylic, wool blend yarns.   

Friday, January 20, 2012

Car Pool Waltz . . .



Yesterday - 2:45 pm
Car pool line - Piedmont, Oklahoma


Time to read a cookbook or two
(yes, I 'read' cookbooks - doesn't everybody?)
and work on a small knitting project
(another baby hat - they are like potato chips - you can't stop at just one!)
Tissues close at hand
(still fighting the sniffles/coughing - but, so much better than last week)

By the way, this is how much knitting progress was made on the little purple hat - almost 3 inches


And then, the doors open, 
one teacher with a clip board starts her walk
along the length of cars that completely wrap around the building. 

As she walks, she lists names from signs posted in the car windows
(but, in most cases, she knows what cars go with which children).

The bell rings and children pour out the doors and stand in line -
hopping and skipping in place.

One by one, vehicles pull to the head of the line,
a teacher and child (or children) come forward,
car doors are opened, children step in, 
seat belts are secured, doors are closed
and another school pickup is done.

It's at this point, I'm sure
every parent/grandparent hears the same thing --
" I'm hungry! " 
It's a good thing that MoMo has snickerdoodles and fruit roll-ups ready !!!


Friday, January 6, 2012

My choice . . . . .


The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. 
Attitude to me, is more important than facts. 
It is more important than the past, than education, than money,
than circumstances, than failures, than successess,
than what other people think, or say or do.

It is more important than appearance, giftedness, or skill. 
It will make or break a company, a church . . . a home.
The remarkable thing is that we have a choice every day
regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day.

We cannot change our past . . .
we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. 
We cannot change the inevitable. 
The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have,
and that is our attitude . . .

I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me
and 90% how I react to it.
And so it is with you . . .
we are in charge of our attitudes.

Charles R. Swindoll


I don't usually make resolutions --
mainly because I'm probably not going to lose 20 pounds,
or get my house (or sewing, knitting, etc . . ) more organized,
or walk 2 miles every day. 
Just don't think any of that is going to happen. 

But, I do think I can make a determined effort
to take charge of my attitude in the coming year --
and into the next year and the year after,
and so on and so on  . . . .   
Because I truly believe that being happy is a choice