Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Inspiration

For years, I have been meeting once a week with a group of women. The group has changed over the years. People move in and people move out.  Even the meeting place has changed, many times. But, the group has survived.

We usually spin, knit, or crochet during our meetings, but at home other projects are worked on as well. Here are some of the projects from a couple of our recent show-n-tells.

Below, Liz knit this gorgeous shawl, as part of a Knit-A-Long on Ravelry, with Stephen West. Liz's yarn is from her stash of handspun yarns. She does her own dying and her own spinning for her yarn.


Then we have Marlene's quilt. Isn't it gorgeous?? Marlene is a master at many different fiber arts and her work is always stunning.


This is Marlene's traditionally hooked rug. It is not latch hook or punch hook, those are different techniques. For this technique you use 1/4 inch strips of wool fabric and a tool that looks like  a fat handled crochet hook. You hold the strip below your rug base fabric and pull loops of your strip through the fabric with your tool. The finished size of this rug(wall hanging) is about 18 or 20 inch square, I think.


Laurie the wonderful crocheter extraordinaire, made this great shawl using cotton yarn and a Doris Chan pattern named the All Shawl. Laurie did make a couple of custom changes and it looks fabulous.


Then last, is my show-n- tell. I designed and knitted this shawl from sock weight yarn. It started at the top neck and worked to the bottom. It was a lot of fun to knit, because I changed the stitch patterns frequently adding to the interest of the knitting. I even inserted a few beads too.


There you have it. Show and Tell. I hope that something here has inspired you to keep going and to keep creating.  :)

Sunday, September 11, 2011

A Tribute

Everyone has memories of where they were on Sept 11, 2001.  Me too.  I was getting ready for work, when my daughter, Rebekah, called and said, "Mom, turn on the TV, a plane just flew into the World Trade Center!" I turned on the TV and together, on the phone, we watched live as the second one hit.... The rest is history. Children lost parents, Parents lost children, Spouses lost spouses, Uncles and aunts lost nephews and nieces.... The list goes on and on. Being a transplanted New Yorker, we were concerned for family and friends and went on the search to see how our friends and family were affected. Yes, we were hit with some of the disaster, as extended family and friends were hit with it.

So, today, as we remember 10 years ago, and needing to go to the local home builders store, Home Depot, I was able to get some photo's. Here are some pictures of what we saw in Texas, as Texans remember and honor our fallen heroes, from that day so long ago and those since.

Flags at half-mast.


Our local fire station, they will never forget.

Along Interstate 35.




The local hospital.

The orange truck is owned by a local lawn care company. They put up a lot of the flags for the businesses on every patriotic holiday.


We won't forget, will we?
Just an aside, the light brown ground, isn't desert sand.  It is our very dry grass, as Texas really is in a drought situation.