Reverie

Hey!  It has been a while since I put anything here.  Sorry about that, missed saying something about the craft work I was doing.  Truth is, my job has been so incredibly consuming of my time, my thoughts, my energy and my life that I haven't been doing a lot of crochet work or knitting for months.  I did manage to make a few small things, bookmarks and booties, a hat here and there, but nothing to brag about. 

I am getting back to my knitting work and will keep things better posted here, for my own sanity and emotional needs if nothing else.

Pink Doily

Ok, so I enjoy making lace, especially doilies.  Here is a pink one that I am working on, one that is coming along slowly.  The picture in the pattern I am using shows a blue doily, but I chose pink for it and am happy with that color.

New Post, New Job, Same Unwashed Knitter

I see that it has been a while since I have posted anything here, so I will do something to correct that now.

It has been a busy year so far, very busy.  I have begun a new job, at a new location, this time in downtown Seattle, which means, BAM! I am a commuter again.  But I like to ride our lovely Light Rail train into downtown Seattle, so it works out well and offers me a free half hour to knit or something.

My family has been out and about a lot this year so far, and all of it without me.  My mother, my brother and my brother's girlfriend all packed up and took a trip to Italy in February, at the time I was beginning my new job, so I could not go with them (I didn't have a passport or any money for traveling anyway).  They returned safely and stayed at home a whole two weeks or so, and then went off, along with the girlfriend's mother, for their SECOND trip to Hawaii without me.  They haven't even sat down with me and shown me much of the pictures they claim to have taken during their trips.  Oh well, perhaps I will just have to bug them for it.

Meanwhile I stayed here and worked, and knit, and crocheted.  I am making a beautiful pink doily, picture soon forthcoming, and a white doily.  I am working on a crochet sock pattern, but it is not going well, so probably no picture of that.

I need to make more lace.

White Doily

As I mentioned earlier, I want to show off a bit, so here are a couple of pictures of something that I am rather proud of, a white doily that I made for my mother. It was her Christmas present and I think she liked it.

The design is from a pattern book and is specifically called pineapple because of the shape of each motif. However, I think that, from this angle, those motifs look more birdlike, dovelike, which is beautiful when you consider the next picture.



The pineapple motifs really look like doves flying toward the nativity scene! I was amazed when I saw this picture, since the pattern didn't look like this until I photographed it.

The doily rests on the mantlepiece in my parents' living room, so I am fairly certain that my mother liked her Christmas present.

New Year, Productions and Values

The new year has started off well, am feeling a lot more like myself, after the troubles at the end of last year.

I have a good resolution, I am actually going to get more pictures onto this blog, to show off my completed projects a bit more. I don't intend to turn this into a mini-Ravelry, but I do enjoy showing off once in a while (I am a boy, after all).

Also this year, I am going to set about making some new crafting friends, and I have already started on that. HI KEEGAN!

May this year be more comfortable for all of us than last year; may we see our stashes grow; may we see our children succeed in life; may there be a warm hat on every head and a loose cotton shirt when the weather is warm; may the weather treat us more kindly; may our love be returned in like measure and more; and may we share our lives and our projects to all our mutual admiration.

Holidays, Holy Days, and Then Some

My best of holiday wishes go out to all of my family, close friends, and acquaintances this holiday season. Some of my friends and acquaintances are Jewish, so I wish them the best Hanukkah ever. Most of the rest are Christian, following a Western tradition, so we are about to celebrate the Lord's birth. I have not been much of a Christmas fan for the past few years, but I am getting back to it now.

I wish for all of us to have a good year in 2010! May we have all the love, support, yarn, food, companionship, good health, good times, safety, and yarn we need in the coming year, and more.

When the new year comes, I am going to say a prayer that it will be better than 2009. Being a reflective person, I spent some time recently considering my life this year. Alas, I found that I spent way too much time being miserable somehow, either unhealthy, exceedingly lonely, marginalized to a degree, unwelcome, absent-minded, having lots of trouble at work (see previous adjective) that I will not allow again, and also some grief. This did not make for a comfortable year 2009, so I am very much hoping that the coming year is going to present a great many greater blessings and opportunities for good.

People Changes

My grandmother's funeral was last Saturday and it was very beautiful, a Mass of Christian Burial at a Catholic church in Sunnyside, Washington. She was laid to rest next to my grandfather, who died in 1962, at the cemetery in Sunnyside. I miss her, but she is on to something better now.

My aunt, with whom Grandma lived for the past couple of years, told me that Grandma did get to use that purple and white blanket a couple of times, so I feel better about it, knowing that I made something for her that liked and actually made use of.

I don't think that I will ever be able to use that same pattern again, no matter who may ask for it.

Fortunately, there are lots and lots of other patterns to use and make beautiful things with, so I will be crocheting and knitting for quite some time to come, I imagine.