Knitting for the Troops

Started a helmet liner for my favorite guinea pig ... I mean my son. We are extremely proud of him and all the others who have willingly served their country in far flung places around the globe. They deserve a big HUA! THANK YOU!

As for the helmet liner, I'll get his opinion before I knit it for anyone else and find out that my version doesn't fit the average head. Gauge seems right but you never know ....

Wildlife

Outside my window at work is a bird feeder along with corn for the squirrels. The pecking order exists at every level! The squirrels not content with the corn, chase the birds from the feeder. The magpies and jays chase each other and the squirrels and the finches squawk at all other small birds in order to hold onto all of "their" seed.

The deer munch on the few berries and nuts on the ground and stare at me through the window. A noise from the doorway scares them and they trot away to safety. What a wonderful place to work and see the "zoo" at my little portal on the world.

Circle of Life

Today was an extraordinary day. A child entered into the world to one co-worker and another co-worker lived through a family member departing this world. Phenomenal, uncommon and differing are these two experiences and in between the rest of us carry on our daily existence.

The happenings of this date are quite unique to my experience. These occurrences makes one ponder the transistory nature of human life and the importance of taking and making each day special and memorable.

Wool Musings

Yarn, wool, sheep -- part and parcel of the countryside in the Olde Country since the beginning of the merchant class in the early 1200s. The Wool churches in the Cotswold towns, the reminders of where the wealth came from in the name of the main streets in many villages: "Sheep Street", the continued varieties of sheep in different locales across the nation, and the local yarn shoppe all delighted my fascination with knitting.

What a treat to visit several yarn shops and the Stitching and Knitting Show at the Alexandra Palace in London! First was Sheepish in the Shambles in York. What a lovely little shop with Yorkshire yarns. I bought some pink multi merino spun in North Yorkshire. The other shop was Burford Needlecraft which was also a B&B in the little Cotswold town of the same name. In the basement, the various yarn things were cloistered. Spying some lovely bulky Colinette yarns (made in Wales), I selected three skeins of a bright multi along with a pattern for a vest. The proprietor, Jan, was extremely helpful in finding the perfect yarn and pattern complement.

Arriving at Alexandra Palace, a Victorian Hall containing a plant arboretum and glass conservatory, surrounded by rolling hills that reminded me of Valley Forge in the mid-Fall, I thought I had died and gone to heaven! Like a newborn, I entered into the site of my first stitching event. The Eirian Short Needlearts Exhibition was a feast for the eyes, instilling creativity back into my being. What a thrill to meet the artist who in her 80's still enjoyed her craft. Visual stimulation and textural delight just produced such rhapsody in my soul. Almost a song of joy filled me with the enthusiasm to create and be part of life again. Many ideas swirled around my brain faster than I could record them and gave me great inspiration and incentive to learn and expand my horizons in all fields of the needlearts applying them in new and maybe unusual ways.



Many other activities were taking place at the Show including Booths staffed by Debbie Bliss, the Wensleydale Sheep Farm where I purchased wool gathered and spun on the farm in North Yorkshire (next trip I want to visit there!), and yarn stalls from America, Australia, New Zealand and even Canada; exhibits of modern knitting applications, one example of which was a knitted parlor (all furniture was covered in a Aran knit pattern; and a fashion show of newer designs.

The HIGHLIGHT of this England trip consisted of my mental musings on creation both God's and woman's wherein I found insight into the created. It was not only a jourey of expectancy but of hope and life forming a ray of light into recesses that had been neglected, forlorn for many years.

It seems strange to say that this revitalized my walk with my Savior, Jesus Christ, and reminded me of activities once enjoyed and forgotten, including my study of His creative person and joy in knowing me.

Kings, Knights and Knaves

No tour of England would be complete without visiting castles, stately mansions, vaulted cathedrals and Tudor abodes.

My favorite this trip, if one had to be selected, was Leeds Castle with its moat, maze and menagerie of birds. The day was misty and a light fog hung in the air of the lake surrounding the walls of the majestic fortress built by one of the Norman knights. Black swans, geese and white peacocks freely roamed the property enjoying the fall air. Leaves gently floated to the earth in varying hues of red, yellow and orange. Horse chestnuts dropped to the ground with a light bounce reminding me of my youth and the neighbor's trees in Pennsylvania.
 
 

Lyme Park, our choice of stately mansion, embodies the countryside of olde England and the Lord and Lady of leisure. The surrounding lands may have been the subject of a landscape painters' legendary recording on canvas. The grounds and gardens flowered and bloomed even in October. The variety of flora and fauna at this time of year impressed me with its kaliedoscope of colors and textures. Darcy of Jane Austen fame and Pemberly were the object of this visit. The site was used to film the estate scenes of Pride and Prejudice and the location did not disappoint. On the hills scattered like white cotton on green damask were sheep lazily feeding and enjoying the sunshine and breeze of the "remote" and homey Peak District.

York Minster, Bath Abbey, Westminster Abbey, St. Paul's Cathedral and Canterbury were the religious sites visited on this trip. However, of all these the one that impressed me this time was the site in Canterbury and the small village town that surrounds it. Visible to any observer, Canterbury Cathedral had been on the pilgrim tour for many years as the well-worn stones told where Thomas a Beckett was murdered and showed the path to his tomb. The English population made a shrine out of the site during the ensuing years following his death by four knights at the supposed request of Henry II. The Gothic architecture included multiple panels of stained glass with the stories of the Bible contained therein for the public to be able to "read" the contents of their Faith.

As for the Tudor abodes, they came in several varieties: Shakespeare's home, the Tower of London and the Merchant Adventurer's Hall of York. All saw different stories of life in Tudor England. The rise to prosperity of the shepherd in the Cotswolds (the Hathaways), the brutality of the King toward those who committed offenses against the State and the compassion of the merchant class to a few of the poor in their community. If only halls and walls could really tell the tale ...

Pastoral Peace

The realization hit me when in England last month that the reason I enjoy the Cotswolds and the Peak District is the past. The peace of farming, the unspoiled countryside with sheep and the simplicity that comes with being in the outdoors under the sky, hearing the wind speak through the trees.

So when I start to long for the English countryside, I think I need to go for a walk in the woods here along the mountains and enjoy the creation God has so richly given to each of us.