Dogs and Small Boys

My nephew and niece, Jon and Laura, are moving soon, from Chicago to Virginia. This means that our two to two-and-a-half hour trip to visit them will become a ten to eleven hour trip instead. We are thrilled that they have found gainful employment, but we are sad that they'll be so far away.

Much to our delight, they came for a visit on Friday. We ate some lunch (Jon was starving), and played in the park (I think the park is the highlight for the little guys). Then we all headed to the fairground, where there are dog shows all weekend. Friday's show was sponsored by the Grand Rapids Kennel Club.

When going to a dog show, I highly recommend taking along several small boys. It will shorten your stay - we only made it through a couple Best in Group judgings - but the handlers we met were delighted to talk with M and C, and help them pet the dogs. (Admittedly, you should try to find several small boys who are also exceedingly charming.)

When we watched the hound group (my favorite, because: Beagles!), we were positioned at the far end of the ring from the actual judging. So the handlers were pretty relaxed as they came our way, and they chatted with the boys, and showed off their dogs a bit.

Here are C and one of the dogs (unfortunately, I have no great pictures of M):

Mutual admiration: C and a Saluki

These photos (also from the hound group) were taken without flash, and therefore are a bit shaky.

Elkhound, adoring his handler
(and, I suspect, waiting
for a treat)

Petit Basset Griffon Vendéen (PBGV),
just being cute

Beagles! Large (15") and Small (13")

We saw dogs being groomed, and dogs that were just hanging out. I met my first Leonberger - a good looking (albeit very large) fellow. Lots of Corgis wandering around - it must have been near time for their judging. We saw some tiny little Chihuahuas heading out, and many other breeds, all of which M pointed out with glee. (It was delightful to have M take my hand and drag me off to see some dog or other.)

We headed back home, where - surprise! - we went to the park again. After dinner, we played Farkle, and had Laura and Jon show us (again - Joyce had taught us last summer) how to play Liar's Dice. I clearly was at a disadvantage - I could not remember the rules at all (I'm sure everyone was tired of my repeatedly asking for yet another explanation, although everyone was unfailingly polite). I definitely had no clue regarding strategy! Ah well.

Speaking of dogs... I recently read Mary Oliver's Dog Songs. I generally enjoy Mary Oliver's poetry, and (as any who have read my blog will know) I am somewhat fond of dogs. Accordingly, I thought this would be the perfect book - but not so. Shortly after starting this book, I heard the quote from Oscar Wilde, "All bad poetry springs from genuine feeling," and immediately thought of the Oliver book. It is clear she genuinely loves her dogs, but the poetry is, for the most part, below the quality I am used to seeing in her work.

Still, there were some that I liked. I first heard this one on The Writer's Almanac, back in September.

How It Is with Us, and How It Is with Them
by Mary Oliver

We become religious,
then we turn from it,
then we are in need and maybe we turn back.
We turn to making money,
then we turn to the moral life,
then we think about money again.
We meet wonderful people, but lose them
     in our busyness.
We're, as the saying goes, all over the place.
Steadfastness, it seems,
is more about dogs than about us.
One of the reasons we love them so much.

I did like the pencil drawings in the book; my favorite is the cover photo of Ben, who reminds me of our Bonnie.

Bonnie, for whom life is
all about the smells

Knitters on the Bus: Lots of Potential!

Well. Tonight I am supposed to be walking Bonnie and paying bills. I've done the former, and may yet do the latter (suggestion: don't hold your breath), but for now, I want to revisit Saturday's trip to Chicago.

At 7:30 in the morning, my friend Jess and I joined a couple dozen women from our local knitting guild, climbed aboard a bus, and headed to Chicago, and Vogue Knitting Live.

What do knitters do on a bus? A clue: it doesn't involve singing yarn songs (although there are some; if I have time, I'll come back here and add a link). Another clue: we're knitters, people! We ate, talked, and knit our way to Chicago.

There was one rest stop break, with a great photo op.

We got to the Palmer House Hotel right around nine, which gave us an hour to kill before the action started. We picked up our passes and programs, and read that there was a Knitter's Lounge, on the mezzanine, open from 9-3. Perfect!

We made our way to the mezzanine, and walked all around it, and never found the advertised lounge. We did find tables and chairs, with a view of the lobby, and opted to sit and knit and chat. (We never did find that elusive lounge.)

Jess

At 10, the Marketplace opened, so off we went. This year, we started with the artists' gallery.

First, we chatted with Ashley Blalock.

Ashley, crocheting, and happy I didn't make her pose

This is Ashley's installation, Keeping Up Appearances. It really is not a good picture - take a look at her website for better pictures, and some explanation.

Crocheted, not knitted!

Carol MacDonald creates prints that are inspired from her knitting. I bought a card with one of her prints, Potential.

Love this illustration!

I didn't take pictures as we wandered through the market (too much to see! too much to touch!), but we saw splendid things. Here are just a few of the vendors that I remember.

Tin Pan Arts - they had buttons galore, wonderful buttons, sparkly, shining, buttons. Unfortunately, I have found that stashing buttons is of limited value. Maybe I just haven't stashed enough yet, but I've never found what I needed in my button box - I've always had to head to the store with my finished project in hand. So, without a finished project, I could only admire these buttons, and then leave them behind. (And, sadly, I have neither website nor address for these folks...)

KnitCircus Yarns - Oh.My.Goodness. One of the things I had my eye out for was a gradient yarn. (You can read about and see some gradient yarns here and here.) So we were delighted to stumble across gradient yarns by KnitCircus. My favorite was a set of two skeins, each of which went through several shades of blue. So you could knit a pair of socks that would match (if you were a sock knitter), or you could knit two identical halves of a scarf, join them together, and have a scarf that flowed from one color, through varying shades, and then back to the original color. So beautiful! (I resisted this yarn. For now.)

Nerd Girl Yarns - Beautiful, gorgeous, bright, hand-dyed colors. I resisted (For now); Jess did not.

Sophie's Toes Sock Yarn - More glorious yarn. The initial draw here was a shawl, Sunstruck, knit in three shades of gray. It was squishy and classic and beautiful and I think everyone who walked by, wanted to knit it (or to have someone knit it for them). They also had Magic Balls, and a wall of shawls knit with them. I stood there for quite a while, and somehow my credit card came out and this fell into my bag; it has the potential to become a beautiful shawl:

Harvest Celebration

Two Grey Dogs Designs - How can you resist a vendor that hands out business cards with dog biscuits?

I could not resist for long. Their hand-dyed yarns were subtle colors, which really appealed to me. We left empty-handed, but I went back later and picked up two skeins of Schnauzer Snuggle (that really is the name of the yarn), in the color Smile a Pose. I don't yet know what this will become, but it has great potential:

We lunched on the mezzanine - which reminds me, I need to share a beagle story. The night before our trip, I packed some food for breakfast & dinner on the bus, and lunch at the show. Saturday morning, as I was getting ready to leave, I set my bag by the door. I went to get my coat, and came back into the kitchen, to discover Bonnie happily devouring one of my sandwiches. Her beagle nose certainly discovered that food quickly, and her chow-hound appetite knew exactly what to do with it!

After lunch, we went to one of the fashion shows (there was a show pretty much every hour, put on by different companies). We watched The Fiber Factor Fashion Show. According to their website, this "is a knitting design competition being held to find the next great knitwear designing superstar." Some of the garments were terrific, some were a bit bizarre. There was even a dog sweater, modeled on a stuffed animal. Now I'm tempted to go back and watch the previous episodes.

This year, I took a class as well, "Pinwheels and Pi Shawls," taught by Brooke Nico. She showed different techniques for starting the center of a shawl (which may come in handy with my next knitted elephant), and also explained several different architectures for circular shawls (concentric circles, rays circle, pinwheel). We knit some samples, got confused, and generally had a fine time. (Brooke has a book coming out in the spring, Lovely Knitted Lace, which might be worth a look.)

With the class ended, I rejoined my group, and we found our bus and headed home. It poured rain, so I was very glad to be able to sit back, relax, and knit.

I look at Carol MacDonald's card, Potential, and it seems to me that it captures the essence of why we traveled several hours on a bus: to surround ourselves with potential. When we see rows and racks of yarn, in varieties of colors and weights, we immediately start to imagine what we could make with it. When we see samples in booths, or on the fashion runway, we imagine how we would knit them, and what we might change. When we attend classes and workshops, we imagine how we will use that new technique.

And then we head home, knitting and talking and eating, and thinking about what we'll do next, with our sticks and string.

Thanksgiving Blessing

Later this month, we will celebrate what Lincoln described as a day of "Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens."

In 2007, President Eyring spoke about remembering the things God has done for us. He shared that every night, he would consider how he had seen the hand of God blessing his family, and he would record that.

I wrote down a few lines every day for years. I never missed a day no matter how tired I was or how early I would have to start the next day. Before I would write, I would ponder this question: “Have I seen the hand of God reaching out to touch us or our children or our family today?” As I kept at it, something began to happen. As I would cast my mind over the day, I would see evidence of what God had done for one of us that I had not recognized in the busy moments of the day. As that happened, and it happened often, I realized that trying to remember had allowed God to show me what He had done.

We try to do this all the time - to count our blessings, and to remember where they came from - but especially in November our hearts turn toward gratitude. In past years, I've shared my gratitude thoughts, but I think that this year, I will remember these things, and ponder them quietly in my heart.

A few months ago, I heard this poem on The Writer's Almanac. It seemed to me the perfect way to begin the Thanksgiving season - focusing on the ordinary blessings, that so often we overlook.

Ordinary Life
by Barbara Crooker

This was a day when nothing happened,
the children went off to school
without a murmur, remembering
their books, lunches, gloves.
All morning, the baby and I built block stacks
in the squares of light on the floor.
And lunch blended into naptime,
I cleaned out kitchen cupboards,
one of those jobs that never gets done,
then sat in a circle of sunlight
and drank ginger tea,
watched the birds at the feeder
jostle over lunch's little scraps.
A pheasant strutted from the hedgerow,
preened and flashed his jeweled head.
Now a chicken roasts in the pan,
and the children return,
the murmur of their stories dappling the air.
I peel carrots and potatoes without paring my thumb.
We listen together for your wheels on the drive.
Grace before bread.
And at the table, actual conversation,
no bickering or pokes.
And then, the drift into homework.
The baby goes to his cars, drives them
along the sofa's ridges and hills.
Leaning by the counter, we steal a long slow kiss,
tasting of coffee and cream.
The chicken's diminished to skin & skeleton,
the moon to a comma, a sliver of white,
but this has been a day of grace
in the dead of winter,
the hard knuckle of the year,
a day that unwrapped itself
like an unexpected gift,
and the stars turn on,
order themselves
into the winter night.

Here's an unexpected gift I came across today, while driving someone home after church:

Alamo Ave, near Nichols Rd

There is beauty everywhere, everywhere.

Thank you.

Autumn Beauty

Is not this a true autumn day? Just the still melancholy that I love - that makes life and nature harmonise. The birds are consulting about their migrations, the trees are putting on the hectic or the pallid hues of decay, and begin to strew the ground, that one's very footsteps may not disturb the repose of earth and air, while they give us a scent that is a perfect anodyne to the restless spirit. Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.
                   ~ George Eliot

Just today, a friend was lamenting the drabness of the clouds, and the lack of color in our trees. But I see beauties and surprises everywhere I look.

For instance, we came across this purple cauliflower at the market last week:

And in recent walks, I've been surprised to discover flowers, still hanging on, in spite of the changing season:

On Parkview, by
Asylum Lake Preserve

Friendship Village gardens

Friendship Village woods

I love light (Mom used to regularly complain, because I insisted on turning on lights in the house - but I crave light, and abhor even the hint of shadow). This time of year, I love catching light through the trees.

I've not yet seen solid banks of color, but Bonnie and I continue to find bits of color and beauty here and there are on our walks.

Here are several photos from our walk last Saturday at Asylum Lake Preserve.

And these are from recent walks at Friendship Village:

These are birches in Frays Park, by our house. They are a wonderful yellow, splendid even in this morning's rain, although I struggle to capture their beauty (I have many photos of these trees, I'm afraid!).

Knitting and Quilting

I finished knitting my hat for the Seita Scholars:

I'm not sure I ever shared a photo of the matching scarf:

I'll take these to our Guild meeting next week, and pass them along to Gina. That leaves me with not a whole lot on the needles - my sky scarf, of course, and a scarf for Ministry with Community, and my Hitchhiker scarf. (I started the Hitchhiker so I'd have something in the works, to take on our trip to Vogue Knitting Live in Chicago - just a few weeks off!). So far, I'm holding the urge-to-cast-on at bay.

As for Quilting... I am not a quilter - I do not have the patience and attention to detail it requires (I know that knitting requires the same, but I believe it is different flavors of patience and attention to detail. I apparently have one, but not the other.)

That said, I love to look at quilts. So, last Saturday, Shanna and I went to the Kalamazoo Log Cabin Quilters quilt show. We had a great time! We admired the quilts on display; watched a quilt turning; browsed the vendors; and showed off her cute little guy.

Here are some of the quilts I admired. I've done my best to limit the quantity (this was hard; there were lots of marvelous quilts), and to identify them.

This is Moody Blue Selvages, by Edda Kraynak.

Here's a close-up, showing a square pieced from fabric selvages:

I love the cool colors in this quilt - it made me think of winter. This is Stars for a Perfect Day, by Stephanie Peterson:

Honeycomb, by Pauline J Par:

Isn't this quilt fascinating? Michigan Beauty, by Ann Berger.

Village, by Doris Frost. (This reminded me of cross-stitch samplers I used to make.)

This untitled quilt is by Lois DeWolf. It made me think of a desert, with oases of water here and there. This one got my vote for show favorite.

My friend Sandy George made this quilt, Twenty-Five Years, to celebrate her twenty-fifth wedding anniversary.

It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, by Leah Peters (Is Mister Rogers around?!?).

Sense of Direction, by Joanne Dubnicka:

Garden of Love, by Diane Schlanser. I liked the stained-glass look of this quilt:

Almost makes me want to try quilting again... but not quite!

General Conference Weekend, Complete with Beagle, Knitting, and Apple Pie

Last weekend was our church's General Conference - 8 hours of watching the prophet and apostles and other leaders speak. We watched most of it at home, and a bit at a friend's house.

Lots of good messages, such as this talk from Elder Vinson, a member of the Second Quorum of the Seventy. He shared a story about his grandson, who was amazed because the car doors kept 'magically' unlocking and locking. The grandson declared “It’s amazing! I think it’s because Poppy loves me and is one of my best friends, and he takes care of me!” Our Savior loves us, and is our best friend, and will take care of us. But, Elder Vinson explained, he doesn't just remove our challenges.

. . . rather than solve the problem Himself, the Lord wants us to develop the faith that will help us rely upon Him in solving our problems and trust Him. Then we can feel His love more constantly, more powerfully, more clearly, and more personally. We become united with Him, and we can become like Him. For us to be like Him is His goal.

Here is the challenge Elder Vinson offered, which I have been pondering (and for which there is no simple answer):

God should be the center of our universe—our literal focal point. Is He? Or is He sometimes far from the thoughts and intents of our hearts? (see Mosiah 5:13). Notice that it’s not just the thoughts of our hearts that are important but the “intents.” How do our behavior and actions reflect the integrity of our intents?

* * * * *

While watching the sessions of conference, I knitted (of course!), and finished my Limited Edition Cowl:

Wear it as a cowl...

...or as a hood

Jim and I tried our hand at making single serving pie in a jar:

Macintosh apples, from the farmers market - terrific!

We baked and ate two right away; they were yummy! We have four more in the freezer, waiting their turn for a taste test. (The recipe said to use half-pint jars; we used 4-oz jars instead, which seemed to be a good serving size.)

Bonnie worked on being cute, and then rested from her exertions:

I wound a new skein of yarn for my sky scarf:

This is not your traditional umbrella swift. I bought this cherry swift at the Michigan Fiber Fest, this past August, from Knitting Notions. It is satisfying to use - the wood is beautiful, and it's very relaxing to wind the ball as the swift turns. It isn't a fast process - that would require a ball winder - but I was in no hurry.

With that blue yarn, I made more progress on my sky scarf. This is the photo from a few days later, at the October 9 point (8 months!) (see those solid blue sky days, near the top?!?):

Early October: Looking Like Fall

This is one of my favorite seasons of the year. I love seeing the trees begin to turn to their fall colors. Here are a few recent photos, most of them from this past weekend.

Just a hint of color

At the farmers market

Love the leaves at the base of these birches

Orange!

The changing light fascinates me, although I
seldom do a good job capturing it with the camera