Spiderwriterknits: August 2010

Saturday, August 28, 2010

August 28, 2010

So...I'm the least visible blogger on the planet. Really, I forget all about my blog. And I still haven't mastered uploading pictures.

Knitting is my pastime as the name of my bloG indicates. I change the appearance and background to show my other passion...books. Avid reader. Right now it's Dear and Glorious Physician by Taylor Caldwell. The book was published in the 1960s and Caldwell said it took her 46 years to write this book! I can believe it. She writes in the forward of the book "The first version was written when I was twelve years old , the second when I was twenty-two, the third when I was twenty-six, and through those years work did not cease on this book." Wow!

Caldwell was a prolific writer, publishing 35 books in her lifetime. She was born in Manchester, England in 1900 and died in 1985 in Greenwich, Connecticut. Caldwell had four husbands.

It's my second reading since the '60's. What a difference to read a book 50 years later with all the knowledge one thinks they have in their twenties. I've learned so much more in this second reading. Caldwell has always been one of my favorite authors. I think I'll be re-reading her books for a while.

As for knitting, I finished a number of projects since my last post, but have yet to finish the Wrap Me Up Shawl. I have 3 small sections to go plus the edging and finishing touches. Other projects have interfered with the complete of this shawl. Shawls for friends,and for the Prayer Shawl Ministry, Christening blankets and lap robes. I'm a slow knitter but seem to make quick progress when I sit down to do it.

At my age, my attention wanders and I make silly mistakes which means tinking back (for non-knitters that means taking out the stitches backwards one-by-one) or else just ripping rows to the error. This happens quite a lot. Know it is said that only God is perfect and that we must leave a mistake in all our creations. Well, believe me I leave more than one. But I can't help trying to do just one project perfect. Reminds me of my days in my twenties when I wished to type just one page without an error. Never made that goal. Now the computer makes this possible.

Speaking of spelling (Wasn't I?), I read many posts where the spelling is atrocious. (Note, after I published this post, I noticed all my spelling errors ::blushing:: I came back and edited it. Talk about red faces!) I wonder if they ever read over what they have typed. So many errors in both spelling and grammar. Makes one wonder what they learn in school. One they don't learn is penmanship. And I won't start on my feelings about what history is being taught in our schools. Just believing in history, we continue to make the same mistakes over and over again. Our Congress proves that every 4 to 6 years. Re-elections and new faces don't seem to change anything.

A congressman being interviewed recently (I've forgotten his name and the program...it's my age, sorry) said when asked if he read the bill just passed, replied, and I'm paraphrasing here,
"Of course I didn't read it. We never read these things. We just pass them and then send back to 'experts" to write the law." Reassuring, eh?

Time's wasting. See you all in a few days, weeks, months, years.

joaniecomelately

Books I've read and loved

Anthony Adverse, by Hervey Allen (read at 4 times)
Company of Liars, by Karen Maitland
Dissolution, by C. J. Sansom
Green Dolphin Street, by Elizabeth Goudge
Heart of War Trilogy, by John Masters
Historian, by Elizabeth Kostova
NIcolo Rising, by Dorothy Dunnet
People of the Book, Geraldine Brooks
The Angel's Game, by Carlos Fuiz Zafon
The Friday Night Knitting Club, by Kate Jacobs
The House of RIverton, by Kate Morton
The Hungry Tide, by - Amitav Ghosh
The Lymond Chronicles, by Dorothy Dunnett
The Outlander Series, Diana Galbadon (5 books in series so far)
The Red Tent, by Anita Diamant
The Vanishing Act, by Maggie O'Farrell
Wilderness Series, by Sarah Donati (4 books in series to date)

A New blogger, semi-old knitter, and stalled writer

Well, I've entered a new realm...for me, that is. I've started a blog. Now what to do with it?? And who in the heck am I?

Joaniecomelately seems to fit me the best. As much as I try, as many good intentions I have, I'm always late. And I hate being late. I think it is arrogant and insensitive. So, I'm working on it.

A work in progress, WIP, that's me. I feel anyone can expand their horizons, change their ways or thoughts, take on new challenges despite their age. That's the last time I'll mention age.

I'm a knitter, have been since the 1960's. Sarted as a crocheter in grade school. My Aunt Margaret taught me when I was about six years old, maybe a few years older.

I made the most elaborate, fluffy edges on handkerchiefs. Today, Several of my classmates in the 7th and 8th grades, along with myself, would work the crochet hook all during class. And this was with Sister Hilda's blessing. A stern lady, but we could do our lady's needlework. Sadly, only one of those hankies remain.

So many heirlooms of the handmade type have been lost through the years. It only dawned on me recently to look at these treasures as heirlooms. I truly wish I had that old, wool serge quilt my sister, Lois, and I slept under on those cold winter nights in the cold patch of Southwestern Pennsylvania. All Grandmother Mary did was cut squares from discarded men's clothing, most of wool serge, real scratchy material. When the square were all cut, she sewed them together to make the top of the quilt and then put on the bottom. This she stuffed with an unknown filling. When this was done, she cut small pieces of yarn to tie knots through the middle of each square to hold the fabric and the filling intact.

This quilt didn't win prizes. The colors were dark navy, brown, gray and black. Nothing pretty about it. But it was warm., especially when the ice was on the inside of the windows in the winter time. The coal stove was banked (the coals were smothered to keep the flame low so there would be hot coals to start the fire in the morning) when my parents went to bed and the ice formed quickly.

Sadly, I can barely crochet a chain nowadays. However, I do knit and I love it. Mainly , I've been working on shawls, lap robes, baby hats and blankets.

Last winter, I winter I proposed to our Monsignor that we have a Prayer Shawl Ministry in our parish. With enthusiasm I didn't expect, he gave me the go-head. I expected, prayed for two or three women to join me. By the afternoon of the first announcement in the Sunday church bulletin, I had twenty plus women on the list. Today, we have about fifteen very active ladies, with a couple working from their home in their spare time. We even have a member at a local nursing home. The rest are still on the list since we are open to people coming when they can and doing what they are able.

By November, 2007, we made and gave away 100 plus items; shawls, lap robes, and baby blankets. And the need for these is still going strong. Some of the women are lightening fast, making 3, 4, 6 items every two weeks. These are the crocheters in the group. We knitters are slower but just as productive in the end.

I thank God daily for the enthusiasm and dedication of these ladies, all of whom I did not know a year ago. Now they feel like old friends.

Writing is another passion of mine, but my husband is finding this hard to believe since I haven't written a word in quite a while. But I will write again, this is for sure.

Several unfinished manuscripts are logged in my writing files and saved on disks. One of them, is the story of my ancestors immigrating from Eastern Europe and settling in the col towns in Western Pennsylvania.

I want to show the hardships and obstacles they overcame to make a better life for themselves and their families to follow in successive generations. In this, they succeeded, despite all of the animosity encountered from some of the citizens in the surrounding areas. The same threat citizens felt when the Irish, the Germans, and other nationalities came to the United States.

For now this is enough about me. As this blog progresses, I hope to share the accomplishments of my fellow prayer shawl ministry members, my own knitting triumphs and missteps along the way. And maybe even a chapter or two. Miracles do occur.

joaniecomelately