Memorable Move

Blog Prompt: Have you ever moved? What was most memorable about it? If you never have what do you think would make it memorable?

The most memorable move I remember was right before I got married. My fiancée and I lived across each other in an apartment complex and were moving to a rental house when we married the next week. He had a lot of furniture and stuff at a storage building that was going to be moved to our new house. My assistant, her husband and three teenage boys came in their truck to help us move on a Sunday afternoon. We used the security code to open the gate in order to get into the storage building property and loaded up the truck. Then when we got ready to leave, we punched in the security code to open the gate again and nothing happened. We were locked inside the property. Apparently no one told us that after 5pm, the gate can’t be opened until Monday morning. We ended up calling 911 and the police tried to contact the owners but was unable to do that. My assistant’s husband said he had the tools to dismantle the gate if the policeman could be a witness that we weren’t stealing anything. When he got the gate opened, we unloaded all of our belongings on the outside of the gate and then he put the gate back together again. My assistant and I had to sit with all the stuff while the guys made two or three trips moving it all to our house. What an experience!

On a side note:

I finished my reindeer hat and it is hideous. It looks great in the picture but I won’t dare put it on my hubby’s head to show you what it looks like when it is on his head. The pattern is very pretty but on his head, it looks like a dunce’s cap or something from a Harry Potter movie. I’ve whined about it on Plurk and Ravelry already but there is nothing to do but chalk it up to a learning experience. Next time I try a pattern, I will look at the other projects already finished and read the comments that they leave before I decide to try it. I also see why it is important to leave comments on my own projects.

Original image: 'untitled'
http://www.flickr.com/photos/31703752@N04/3984755784

The Prayer Shawl

For about a year, I have been knitting and donating prayer shawls to our Loving Threads group at church. I’ve really enjoyed knitting these and many people have even donated yarn to me for this project. Some of the yarn has been pretty bright and colorful so my shawls have been bright and colorful.

When I was a teenager, I remember having a ski jacket that was purple, pink, orange and yellow. It was so bright that it always put me in a good mood. I don’t know why but I suddenly had this urge to make a shawl with these bright colors. I usually go through my yarn stash and wait for certain color combinations to jump out at me and urge me to make into a shawl. For some reason, as much as I tried not to pick these colors, they kept standing out among the others. Even though people looked at me with raised eyebrows, I just felt compelled to make this shawl. In fact, at times, I even wondered if this shawl wasn’t just a little too bright but I continued until it was complete. My husband told me that we could only hope that maybe someone with cataracts got it and it wouldn’t be too overwhelming.

When I turned it in, everyone agreed that it was pretty bright. I didn’t find out until later that our group leader was a little worried about who would want this bright shawl.

This past Sunday when we met again, the leader told me the story about the shawl. Apparently a woman came and asked for a prayer shawl to give to a young girl just diagnosed with cancer. They went to the box where the shawls are and there on the top was my bright shawl. Immediately the woman saw it and said that was the perfect one. That was the shawl that would brighten this young girl’s life.

Maybe sometimes we need to trust that there is a reason in life for us doing certain things. Maybe that is how God sends messages to us. I see now that God knew this girl would need this shawl and knew that I was the one who needed to make it. I hope it brings her hope and comfort as well as brightness in her life.

And the next time, this feeling hits me, I hope that I have the courage to stick with it, no matter what others say! Someone may need what I need to make.

Ravelympics

I finished my Selbu Modern Hat which was a free pattern on Ravelry. It was my first fair isle project and I’m so proud of the way it turned out. In fact, I did a better job than I expected to do. It really gave me confidence for doing more things like this in the future.

I knitted the hat to enter into the Ravelympics which means casting on when the Olympics started and finish before the Olympics ended. Since I did I earned my medal and here it is!

Sports and Today's Hoped Accomplishment

Blog Prompt: Since the Super Bowl is over, I would love to know what sports women really love to participate in or watch.

I like to watch women’s volleyball and softball because I don’t think women’s sports get enough attention. When I taught on the high school level we also supported the girl’s basketball team and the softball team. It always made me sad that the only supporters there were usually family members and not many teachers. We tended to support them for so many years that we became honorary parents and were invited to the annual awards banquet each year. I don’t watch a lot of sports on TV though because I get bored to easily but I like to watch these in real life.

Blog Prompt - One thing I want to accomplish TODAY is...

I hope to get a lot knitted on my prayer shawl today. I’m really enjoying the motion of knitting and find it very relaxing. I also need to get a lot done because our Loving Threads group meets this Sunday and I would like to turn it in. I also have a granny square prayer shawl in the making that I will finish after this one but I need to get this one done as soon as possible.