Summer Delights

I take a break each summer by having “summer clinics”.  Each “summer clinic” is just like the classes I give in the fall and spring but only meet once a month.  I’m giving one morning and one evening clinic this summer.  They are such fun because students from different regular classes get to meet each other and often form new friendships.  At yesterday’s clinic, Mary Lou brought her granddaughter, Meggie, to class.  A couple of summers ago I gave her some private knitting lessons and it was really special getting to see her again.  AND, she definitely remembers how to cast on, knit, and purl.  I got her started on a new project: the Plump.

Here’s a Plump that I made a couple of years ago:

 

The Plump is a free pattern on http://www.ravelry.com/invitations .  Knitters, if you don’t belong to Ravelry, go to the website immediately and sign up.  It’s “knitters heaven”! 

I always tell me students that you should start any Christmas gifts that you are going to knit very soon so you’re not up all night Christmas eve finishing up a gift!

 

Some neck warmers have been on my needles recently:

 
I am calling them my " Faith’s Gifting Neck Warmer” after my student Faith who inspired them. As you can see, they can be worn several different ways.

 
We have a new member of our family (besides our adorable grandson Charlie): a 2 year old kitty that we adopted from the animal shelter.  She is so sweet, purrs A LOT and follows me around everywhere!  We named her Lizzie but call her “Izzie” because we think that might be what little Charlie calls her ( WHEN we can understand Charlie “language”!  He now babbles away at us and we respond to him as if we understand him to encourage him…so funny! )  Izzie is mostly black with a few white spots so she’s kind of hard to see when I photograph her.  Here are a couple of pictures I’ve taken:

  

Doesn't she look like a dear kitty?

She always looks so adorable when she’s asleep!

 

Last night I saw my first lightning bugs of the summer!  I had stepped outside after dark for a few minutes and lo and behold the trees were full of these wonderful sparkling lights.  I walked out a little further into the yard where I could see the sky and saw stars also twinkling away.  I was so filled with gratitude and awe at God's creativity, that tears came to my eyes. How blessed I felt to experience that sacred moment.

What sacred moments (of wonder-?) have you had?  Try and become more aware of them...maybe even keep a list for yourself.

 What a wonderful list that would be to have when things aren't going right in your world...

 

With blessings to all of you, my dear readers,

Mary

 

Spring 2012 Creativity

We have had a beautiful spring here in Maryland and lots of things have been blooming and growing. Our yard has been gorgeous:

 

The azaleas in our front yard started blooming earlier than ever this year!

The peonies that Max transplanted from his dear Aunt Elizabeth's yard have been thriving.

 The new students in my spring classes have been learning and their projects are all growing.

 Some of my students have been making TWO of the beginner scarves:

 

Here is Diane working 
on one of her beginner scarves 
and her other scarf is on the table.

 Julie is making the red scarf for her daughter and the one she is working on in class is going to be for herself.

( I always encourage my beginner students to keep their first project.)
 

 We are babysitting our "cutie pie" grandson Charlie three days a week. When he was here recently I took pictures of his little hands and feet.

 Aren't those the cutest little feet you've ever seen? 

We have so much fun with him and are so lucky to have him living close by!

And speaking of babies’ little feet, one of the things that I have been knitting recently are some easy baby booties:

 

2 other projects that have been on my needles lately have been a Scarf and a Neck warmer made from “Changes” yarn by Red Heart.  

 

   

The yarn is really so pretty and interesting.  You can read more about Changes yarn and see what colors it comes in at

http://bit.ly/GNF7CS

 To celebrate all the great “changes” spring brings, I am giving you these 2 patterns that I have designed.  You can find them at:  
 

  http://bit.ly/19xWtdc

I now have the dates for my summer and fall classes.    
You can email me at notesfromknitclass@gmail.com to register or get more information.


 

Look around you this spring, dear friends and family, and see, feel, smell the creativity of God all around you: babies wide eyed with wonder, trees that had bare branches all winder now full of green leaves, new flowers filling our world with color and life!

Fondly, Mary

My Exciting News, Spring Knitting, New Designs

I'm a grandmother!

 

I got to hold him soon after he was born, which was one of the most wonderful moments of my life.

Our little guy was born three weeks early, on January 10, 2012.  His name is Charles, we're calling him Charlie.  I'm going over to the new parents' house as much as possible to feed him, change him, and just hold and rock him.  It's such fun!

 

Even though it seems like winter will never end, it really is going to be spring again!  My spring knitting classes start in the middle of March.  If you're interested in signing up or want more information, email me at notesfromknitclass@gmail.com   

 

What's been on my needles lately?  Why, baby clothes, of course! Here are some caps and sweaters that I've finished in the last few months:

I designed and knit this “Every Which Way” jacket and cap 

for Charlie

 

Here’s an “Every Which Way” Pullover that I designed for a new baby at my church.  I made a flower in case it was a girl and a sailboat in case it was a boy.  It turned out that the baby was a little girl so I sewed the flower securely onto the sweater front.  

 ( ALWAYS sew any appliqués or buttons, etc. that you add onto a baby sweater VERY securely.  We wouldn’t want baby to chew or pull anything off a sweater! )

 

I’ve also designed 2 caps that I call “Cozy Crown Brim Caps”:

This one has a lacy brim and corkscrew tassels on top.

And this one has a saw tooth shaped brim 

with a knotted I-cord on top

I love this quote by Ann Weems:

"It is not over, this birthing.

There are always newer skies into which God can throw stars. When we begin to think that we can predict the Advent of God, that we can box the God in a stable in Bethlehem,

that's just the time that God will be born in a place we can't imagine and won't believe."

This quote rings so true to me as a new grandmother as I think of what a miracle baby he is.

God really threw a new star into the sky when our Charlie was born! 

And it is not over, this birthing.  Each time Charlie grows and changes, learns to crawl, to walk, to talk, the birthing begins again!

And with the rebirth of spring every year, God continues to throw new stars into the sky.

As spring approaches, take time to look 

for new birth all around you

and to ponder where God is throwing new stars into your sky.

Mary 

Gratitude and New Life

In this season of gifts to celebrate God's gift of Love I have much to ponder.  In Feb. I am going to be a grandmother !

Usually at this time of year I think a lot about Mary, Jesus’ mother, but this year I find myself for the first time identifying with Mary's Mother. Did she have the same sense of wonder and awe about this new life being 'knitted" together in Mary's womb?  I know that I am feeling so excited and gratefu1 for this new life coming into our family!

To celebrate our new baby boy’s birth, I am posting a baby sweater I designed.  I call it “Always Have on Hand Quick Knit Baby Garter Stitch Jacket”  It has a buttonhole on each front edge so that you can put the button on the correct side for a boy or girl.  As you securely sew on the button, you will also be closing up the buttonhole underneath that button.  Here’s a picture of the completed jacket:

 

And here’s another one I’ve made for a friend where I used various color yarns.  Also, there are buttons basted on each front edge since I don’t know whether the baby is going to be a boy or girl yet…

You can download the pattern here:

http://tinyurl.com/4ghnuom

 

In the quiet dawn a new Love comes gently into our world.  May you celebrate that Love this Christmas and always.

Love, Mary

Wow…It’s September Already!

September means school is beginning again (in spite of delays caused by Hurricane Irene!) and fall knitting classes will  begin soon! 

To let people who live in my area know about my classes, I am putting an ad in the Towson Times, our local newspaper:

 

So, if you want to sign up for a class, please let me know.  You can email me at notesfromknitclass@gmail.com to register or get more information.  I am really looking forward to the fall session starting: getting to hear about everyone’s summer, seeing what returning students have been knitting over the summer, meeting new students, and most of all, experiencing the privilege of getting to help others learn a skill that I love!

Speaking of what students have been knitting over the summer, my youngest student, Faith, has just finished a sweater for her Teddy Bear!  She has now started making a Plump (see August post to read about what that is…). 

In my August post I mentioned one of my favorite authors, Susan McGeown.  She has been gracious enough to let me interview her for my blog.  Here is her interview:

·         Who taught you to knit?  How old were you?

My mom taught me to knit and crochet.  She was a talented seamstress, too.  On Christmas I would get boxes of handmade Barbie and Troll clothes.  It was usually my best “pressie”.

·         What was your first knitting project?  Do you still have it?  

I remember buying peacock blue and gold yarn and working diligently on a zig-zag pattern crocheted afghan.  I was probably about seven.  I never finished it but I worked on it for a long time.  I was always faster crocheting than knitting and, much to my mother’s consternation, I regularly “made up” patterns when I crocheted – some successfully and some not. 

Traveling to England in my 20’s got me hooked on Fair Isle sweaters and I made a pile of them for myself and as gifts.   Had great fun with the round knitting needles and watching the pattern slowly develop.  I think there are some still upstairs in the attic in mothballs.

·         What has been your favorite project you knitted?    

I knitted my father a sweater for one of his significant birthdays.  It had pictures of things he loved:  computers, kites, books … worked into the pattern.  I used graph paper and one of my Fair Isle sweater patterns that I altered for my purposes.  It was wild and out there but it worked!! 

I knitted a sweater for my husband when we were first married.  I made it to his color and design specifications (black, grey, white with a v-neck).  It turned out horribly ugly.  He still wears on cold winter evenings and all of us who are forced to look at him wearing it cringe.

·         What are you knitting now or have finished recently?   

I crochet Afghans now in the winter … huge, big, heavy ones.  (Pictures below)  I chose the colors and make up the patterns and just crochet and crochet until they’re too big to work with anymore.  Then the kids and friends and family fight over who gets them!  

I’ve been crocheting big sweaters, too.   

I can’t sit and “do nothing” with my hands.  I’ve never claimed to be particularly skilled or talented, either – I just need something to keep me occupied!!  (Ha.)  I have to have a project that I’m working on but, I need projects that don’t require a lot of thought; mindless work.  I spend so much time focusing on writing, that in the evenings, I just like to “veg”:  watch t.v., hang out with the family, and crochet or knit. 

I don’t knit or crochet in the summer.  It’s too hot.   I saw a woman the other day working on a small knitted baby sweater and that appealed.  (Probably because of its ease of portability; you should see me loading myself and my current afghan project in the family minivan when we are going on a road trip!).  I think I’ll try a little person sweater this winter – with my own twist, of course.

·         Do you ever put knitting into your books?

I haven’t put knitting in … yet.  I’ll have to think of that for my next one, maybe!  In my book, Joining the Club, I made my heroine Elaine a passionate quilter; she sewed to relieve stress.  (I’ve done that, too.)  When her life started crashing down, she went to her work room and sewed and sewed and sewed and lost herself creating gorgeous quilts.  I love how she pointed out that sewing was a lot better than drinking because she could still drive afterwards.  Ha  J

·         How did you become a writer?  Did you know that’s what you wanted to do early in your life?

After one of my close friends read my first story, A Garden Walled Around Trilogy, she asked me where I got the story idea.  I replied, “You know how you have stories in your head?  Well, I finally just wrote one down.”  My friend looked completely blank.  It was on that day (I was about 45!) that I discovered that everyone doesn’t have stories in their heads.  From the time I was a little girl, I would amuse myself with stories that I would develop – sometimes over days and weeks.  I honestly thought that everyone was like me.  Sometimes it takes a long time to discover the gifts God has given you!

·         Anything else you’d like to say about your writing and your books

One of the things that I’m most proud of in my books is that my characters are realistic.  None are perfect; they’re all just trying to get it right.  I want the spiritual component in every one of my stories to be realistic, too.  I don’t shove it down your throat.  I try not to be preachy.  My spiritual characters are realistic, too – they’re not perfect, they’re just forgiven.  My goal is to be a woman after God’s own heart (see I Samuel 13:14) and make God smile with what I do. 

Visit my website (www.susanmcgeown.com).  All the first chapters for all of my books are available to read.  Leave a request in my Guestbook and I’ll send a free e-copy of any one of my stories that can be read on e-readers or computers.  I’m not looking to become rich and famous; I just want people to read my stories.

Thanks for asking such fun questions! 

Sue McG  (Philippians 1:20-21)

Something that gives me great joy in the fall is watching leaves slowly drift down.  I even have an app in my I-phone (appropriately called “Leaves”) where I can watch autumn leaves swirling around at any time of year!  So, dear readers, look out windows, sit outside or take a walk, to experience the joy of the autumn leaves.

Mary