I guess 3 pics per post max on blogger.....

Here's the pics of knitted stuff....

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

One of my favorite holidays. I always cook christmas eve dinner. I used all white lights to decorate indoor and outdoor this year. I have been busy cooking, baking and knitting. I am still finishing the sweater for Maricella, It's being blocked (talk about last minute!!!!) I will post the finished project also. I will be seeing my father for the first time in almost 2+1/2 years tommorrow. I really missed seeing him and talking to him so I am very thankful to be able to see him. This year has been a difficult one. Lots of stuff going on that I don't feel ready to talk about yet. Let's just say that it has been a learning and growing experience. So I bought 2 ornaments that express things that need to be in our day to day lives: peace and love. I have learned that I need to slow down and rest. My new motto: "It is what it is" no sense in always pushing things, they must happen for a reason. I'm in a book club with my yoga teacher, "Radical Healing" by Dr. Rudolph Ballentine. The book explores alternative -eastern philosophy/medicine. Very cool book if your interested in that stuff you should pick it up, I bought mine on amazon. So I will leave you with pic of sweater and mini skull bag that I knit for my niece as a present- she's into the goth thing (I remember those days), I also bought her a pair of Docs (her first!!!!) Merry Christmas and Happy New year.

getting ready for the holidays

Hope everyone had a great turkey day. I have been so busy it's difficult to find time to post. Hubby took this picture of kitty. Isn't she so pretty? Poor little her, so sick lately. Can't seem to keep food down. Last night it was bad. And she is currently on the all you can eat boiled chicken diet. Our new name for her is gray ear because she has suddenly turned very light haired on her head. I just think it's liter dust H just rolls his eyes at me. She's 15, pretty up there in kitten years, she's my pal. She is also a daddy's girl as you can see from the pic, she would never let me dress her up and take pictures of her.
On the knitting front I finished another pocketbook, boy o boy can't decide if I want to keep this one or give it away for christmas... This bag I used Lamb's pride yarn and bought the ribbon from M&J trimmings in NYC. The handles came from one of the oneline shops, but they were very expensive. Too expensive, at M&J you can get the bamboo for about $8-9 these I paid $14. The ribbon was pricey but it's hand dyed silk- so pretty and soft. I also purchased a super duper heavy needle for my sewing machine ( I broke 3 on the last bag I lined). It made installing the lining a breeze... And of course my newest obsession is funky fabric so I have plenty on hand.

peace

The peace tote is finished! phew! That was alot of work. I don't think I'm a big fan of the intarsia thing. Weaving in those ends seemed to take forever. I am thinking I may want to felt the bag additionally, what do you think??? I think it can shrink a little more. I stuffed about 10 balls of yarn in it in this pic. It's wrinkly also. I dried it over the back of one of my kitchen chairs, because I did not have enough plastic bags to fill it. So I guess I'm slightly disappointed.
What a day today was. I was going out to the post office and I forgot my husband's truck was behind me and CRASH. Yup cracked up the bag of my little car. Pretty badly. Oy. Put a nice big crack and dent in his car. My head was just not in the moment. A million thoughts swirling around. Yet another reason to start meditating again. So I had taken the day off of work for some doctor related stuff, and I took a 2 hour nap. My body is telling me to slow down. My husband is telling me to slow down. I think I am, but I guess not enough. I need a vacation, yeah, that's it. A month or so in the Carribean would help me slow down. HAHA HA. No pressure no problem mon. better start playing the lottery.

some new knitting stuff

I have been MIA. I know, but I know you can relate because your knitting your fingers away making christmas gifts too...So two of the newest things I've been working on. This is a cable bag. I'll have to try taking another pic, you can't see the cables very well , ok now you can see the cables better. I also used my sewing machine to line the bag with pretty maching fabric..anything using the sewing machine is a challenge. I have definetly been learning alot (on my own) about sewing. So I originally was only going to sew the sides because I didn't think the needle would go through the yarn and fabric, but it DID!!! No problem. easy peasey. I also completed another newsboy cap. I had the idea of including a band and small flower for something different than the norm. wow ok, blogger won't let me add another pic. I guess this is how they get you to sign up for the new version. old version doesn't work.

picture continuation

trying to post this additional pic of me with my two cousins, and FINALLY blogger lets me post it. Cheers.

picture continuation

trying to post this additional pic of me with my two cousins, and FINALLY blogger lets me post it. Cheers.

Greetings from south cacalackie

My "baby" cousin got married last weekend so hubby and I spent some time in Charleston, SC. Nice place. The family rented a very large home on Isle of the Palm. BeaUtiful home. I found it very easy to find places once we were there. If a sign says something is somewhere that's where it is. Trust me that is not the case in NJ. We arrived early wednesday, had lunch at Coconut Joe's right on the beach. Then I went in search of a yoga studio I had looked up via the internet. I enjoyed the class I took. Just what you need after flying is a nice yoga class. The first pic here is at the rehearsal dinner. My lovely Auntie, the bride and groom. The rehearsal dinner was in the house the brides family rented which was a mansion right on the beach. Lovely. I took my knitting with me but, did not even finish a hat. Too much other stuff going on. This second pic is my other cousin with my grandmother. She looked so pretty. My mom and I also wore purple. On thursday my cousin, his wife and me and hubby checked out Wild Wing's Cafe. Holy makeral you have to go. We ate 75 wings between the 4 of us (really the only time I seriously went off my diet). They have something like 80 different wing sauces. Yum!!!! So it was a lovely wedding. Very elegant and the bride looked lovely. The first time I met her was at my wedding and she fit right in with my crazy family. Welcome to the clan. All in all the trip was a nice one and hubby and I would like to go back for a tour. We really only rode through downtown charleston and did not get to see much of the city itself.

Working like crazy!!!!!

I have not posted because I have been stuck at work!!!! My partner's wife had a baby and he's been out for almost 2 weeks already. Phew. I am exhausted. In addition I finally had 2 days off this weekend, and I had a booth at a local Cranberry Festival. It was alot of fun, but it was work. I sold alot of newsboy caps and some scarfs. Seems to be most people don't want to pay more than $30.00. I have a gorgeous shawl that is made with Colinette Giotto. I put a pretty purple flower pin on it and priced it at $70.00 ( a steal, when you know how much that yarn costs). Every person that passed my booth stopped, and looked at it. Saw the price tag, kept going. Oh well, I guess I'll wear it on my next vacation. My sister and I also sold homemade baked goods. Growing up we called our grandmother Grandmom Goodie. She was always baking something. Her pie crust was the best I have ever tasted. So we decided to call ourselves Grandmom Goody's Girls. We sold out of the baked stuff. Good thing too because, I made from scratch cranberry brownies and yum, I would have continued to eat them. A special thanks to my mom who really helped out, in the kitchen and at the craft fair. I also enjoy meeting all the fellow knitters that are out and about at these craft fairs. It's always enjoyable for me to see other people's work. I met this very nice lady Joann who had some really cool hand knitted socks. Someday I'm going to try the sock thing, and it will be one more kind of yarn to be added to the growing stash pile!!!!!

My nose is stuck in a book

Have you ever read a book you can't put down? This is the second book in a series, the first was "Twilight". I honestly must say that it has not been since The Witching Hour and the Lestat books that I have been so absorbed in literature. Don't get me wrong, I read alot, every night in fact. But these books are very well written. I finished the first on monday and bought the second tuesday and I am already 3/4ths of the way through. Not good that the author will not release book 3 until fall 2007 according to her website. I found it in teen fiction?!? Um, I guess, I mean it doesn't mean you have to be a teen to enjoy it. I think it's because the main character is a teenager. So, if your looking for an excellent read, check these books out. I also purchased a new "yoga" cd, Jala compiled by Shiva Rea. It's decent, a little fast for my class, but, I can take some of the songs off of the cd and they will work well. I am trying to decide on a knitting project for the winter. I think maybe a hoodie.... It's time to make something for me...Sorry I haven't been posting my free recipe sundays, but, I have been super duper busy ( Hopefully I can clue you in on what soon)... But I did happen to bake last friday pm for a bd party. Here's a little idea.. Follow the nestle tall house choc chip cookie recipe, add 1 cup of finely crushed walnuts and 1 mushed up ripe banana..And you get some yummy banana,choc chip walnut cookies. They were easy peasey and an instant hit.

sharin' my stash

What's that women's mantra? If you've got it flaunt it. Well here is the stash (most of it). I am sick, I have a problem. Defintely need an acrylics anonymous meeting. Actually looking at it this way it doesn't seem like much. At least to me. That being said, some of this yarn has been around since the beginning of my knitting, which at this point is about 4 years. So, yeah, that's pretty long. The bin in the back with the blue yarn I actually acquired at a neighbor's garage sale. Cheap. Nice stuff too. Lots of Lopi. The bin in the front on the right is full of cascade 220. This second pic is just a draw full of odds and ends, projects waiting to be started. On top of it lay the never ending junk pile. Items to be felted, patterns, etc.. The alpaca in the other pic is from my trip to LBI. I had forgotten my 10.5 dpn's. I was shocked to find Island Knits. A fairly new shop in LBI. Nice lady. Can't just buy sticks so I bought some alpaca (4 skeins). The teal is lovely and I can't wait to work with it. I'm thinking cabled scarf???? Ok, that completes my show and tell for today :)

Back from Vacationland

I've been vacationing in LBI (long beach island for the non-jerseans in the crowd). Of course it was freezing cold down there. With hurricane waters. But, hey, no work and that's ok with me. Hubby and I stayed in a condo 1 block in from the beach. You could hear the waves crashing as you went to sleep at night. I grew up near the ocean so this is like a lullaby to me. I do have some ranting to do. Now, I know I need a little work on the old figure, so I did walk (sat, sun and tues) for about 40-45 mins. I kept the alcohol to a very minimum ( 4 cosmos all week). And I really watched the food I was consuming. So according to WW I am up 0.4lbs. Not bad for coming back from vacationland. So here is rant #1, if you find yourself vacationing in LBI please do a favor to all the women who are not a size six and don't shop at this botique on the island N**A ( I have not posted the full name but, there is only one of it's kind in Beach Haven and it is on the same block as Fantasy Island. I couldn't wait to check this place out. Have credit card, on vacation, blah,blah.... So upon entering, several salespeople mulling about and COMPLETELY IGNORING ME. I was in there looking around for a good 20 mins. Not one person said a word to me. Nothing. Zip. This my friends is not the first time that this has happen to me. Contrary to the snobs that work in these botiques, I am not overweight because I sit home shoving it in my cake hole. No need to treat me like I'm beneath you. Besides, how do they know I'm not shopping for someone else????? Perhaps I should open a botique with trendy clothes for the over size 12 crowd. How awesome would that be. Because in this particular N**A botique 3 sales people were falling all over a 17 year old girl. Know why???? Because that is about the average age of the the american woman that can fit in a size 6, therefor, she is their customer base. So. That's my rant on that. Don't shop there. They are not very nice people. They don't deserve your hard earned cash. Rant #2, actually it's more of a story. I, like alot of people read Knit and tonic, because... Wendy is a super cool gal and I enjoy the stories she tells. I especially like the gym stories. So low and behold, in the calmness that is my gym..... erupts a story. I was on the treadmill, minding my own business, reading my mag. Woman next to me is running. A gal comes up to her and says, Are you ok??? I heard all about the screaming. my ears perk up ever so slightly.... Turns out, from what I gather, this woman's love interest or something of the sort got mad at her over something ( I missed that part) and decided to start screaming at her while she was running on the treadmill. Screaming and issuing death threats. (Oy. Glad I was not there at that point). Must have happened the day before because she said he keeps leaving her messages on her phone, begging for her forgiveness. Ugh. I need to start working out at home. So I was going to post another pic, but blogger is not cooperating with that so.... On the knitting front, lots of work for upcoming cranberry festival. Lots of newsboy caps working...will post pics soon

WIP'S

Time for a little knitting content on this knitting blog :)
I decided to post some of my WIP's some have been sitting in knitter's jail for quite some time now. I know I have said it in the past, I am self taught and get frustrated after 5 or 6 frogging sessions, so I just put the piece aside until I am motivated to pick it up again. This first project is from Knitty. So cute. It was for my girlfriends daughter who at this point is almost 2 (woopsie). I had a major problem with the bobble thing. I had even practiced the teqnique on a scarf before setting out on this venture. Yeah, I have bobble issues. I believe that there is a great tutorial on bobbles over at http://pieknits.com/tutorial.html . I should probably check it out myself and then I'll have ubercool baby hat for the next girl to be born. Project number two, also from Knitty , a lovely tank top that I originally viewed over at Faerycrafty. (check out Stacie's website she's got all kinds of free links for patterns and she's a very cool chick! Link is on sidebar). This also has been in knitter's jail for about 2 years. Problem was v-neck. I just couldn't see it, got very confused and finally in exasperation laid it down. I think I could probably finish it at this point, but it probably won't fit right now, and the summer is almost over, so.....maybe next spring (haha). Actually maybe I should give it as a BD present. The next project is something I just started yesterday so, it's coming along fine and I foresee no problems...This is from KnitScene. That little mag put out by the folks at Interweave press , I'm using stash yarn!!!!!! This is Baby Alpaca Grande from Plymouth yarns and it's really soft and yummy. I also have several ribbon yarns (in the 'ol stash) that I can use for this. The pattern is really simple and I should finish it up shortly. Will post finished project. There are alot of clothing items in this mag that I would like to make. My coworker and fellow knitter Janet told me I should really start making some clothing items for myself. She's right. I haven't made a sweater since my original lessons. Long,long time ago. So the final WIP is the peace tote. I took it to NY state with me last week. Guess what, I ran out of fricken yarn yet again. I'm probaby 1/4 of a ball short. I have 10 rows to go. I have yet to weave in all the ends on the intarsia side. But I have to say I think it came out pretty darn good.

Free Recipe Sunday

Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers for baby Kiona. She is the tinyest peanut, but her smile is radiant. She is finally beginning to eat on her own and gained 4 oz this week. Such a sweet baby, Aunt Becky held her and got lots of smiles. I will not go into things, but prayer is apreciated because her life is off to a rough start.

So here are some pics of my new craft table and sewing machine :) I put the shelves together all by myself, hubby just helped lift the top on. I placed my knitting books on some of the shelves.( sheesh I thought I had more knitting books than that..). I have alot of knitting magazines saved, so they will be next to get shelved. I do want to buy the magazine holders to keep a neater apprearance. That was the agreement with H, I can put the craft table in here but I cannot load it up with "junk". The sewing machine is a Singer. It's what my mom has always had, so, like mother like daughter. I figured it's a simple enough machine to get started with. It's not like I'm ready to go on Project Runway.. Don't you love that show? I did not watch it last season, but my friend Heather got me hooked on it. OK, so one more pic and I will give you the recipe of the week. When mom and I were in LBI, we went to this store called Sun Dog. I have been there many times before and I know they sell sari fabric. So I had an idea in mind for my living room window which is unusually small.. I bought the wooden piece on top and sari material from the shop. The wooden piece has a slot for the sari material to go through. I want to get a nice wide piece of gold satin ribbon to it with. Cute, right? OK so today's recipe is for Asian coleslaw. A yummy recipe that has been circulating through my family since the start of the low carb diet. Trust me it's anything but diet food..

1 head green cabbage, 1 head purple cabbage, 1 small red onion, 1 bunch scallions, 2 TBl olive oil, 1 cup rice wine vinegar, 1/2 cup sesame oil ( I buy the dark type-roasted?), 1/4 cup of honey, s&p and some cayenne pepper (optional),peanuts

chop up the cabbage, onions and scallions, combine in large bowl. sautee peanuts in olive oil until toasted. Add remaining ingredients and peanuts into bowl, mix well. Refridgerate this for about 2-3 hours..the longer it sits the better it tastes. You may have to play around with the spices to get the taste you like.. Enjoy!!!!!

Baby Kiona

Welcome baby Kiona. She was born on August 17th a mere 5lbs. Kiona is not well please send out your prayers for this sweet little soul. I have not met her yet but she holds a special place in my heart already. Kiona is an American Indian name that means brown hills. I am very emotional now and cannot find the words to explain my feelings. All I will say is that, life is such a delicate and precious gift. Treasure your life. Love your children.

'Ol Buddy 'Ol Pal

Having sisters is a great thing. My one sister and I are seperated by 2+1/2 years. This is the perfect age gap. You are basically going through the same experiences at the same time while growing up. Don't get me wrong, we had those sibling fights when we were kids, but for the most part... I had a built in pal to play Barbies with. To get into mischief with. To set up the Haunted house in the basement, put on "musicals", etc.. My sister has 3 beautiful children. For a long time she was in an abusive marriage and I did not get to spend very much time with her. Abusive men tend to seperate their wives from their families. But she has been divorced for many years now and I (as most of my family) was there to help her when she finally left him. She now has a wonderful man in her life and I finally have my 'Ol pal back. We try to spend lots of time together. I am very proud of her. She went back to school 2 years ago and has almost received her Associates degree. This is an awesome achievement. She got her GED from highschool and was out of school for about 20 years when she decided to go to college. You go girl!!!! So this past weekend hubby and I went to a wedding in Pittsburg. Nice place!!! Very clean and we both said we would go back to stay and check it out. Has I known how nice it was I would've applied to Duquense. But, that ship has sailed. So we went to an Indian/American wedding. Very nice. I got to wear one of my sari's that I bought on the India trip. Let me tell you, they are comfy. I would wear one to all the weddings I attended if I thought I could drape myself. My mother inlaw has to help me out with that part :) But then again, that is part of wearing a sari. The tradition of the draping.

Five Generations of fun

This past weekend we had something really cool happen. My gram is up from florida so we had a group photo taken of the women. Five generations of women. I think I have mentioned that with the birth of Maricella my mother has become a great grandmother. So my gram is a great,great grandmother. How completely cool is that?????? I remember my great grandmother and my great grandfather, she spoke hungarian and my ggpop(on the other side) used to take us out for rides in his fifties style station wagon. He always brought circus peanuts (those sickly sweet orange candies) and malted milk balls. He always had candy! What a great way to be remembered-"sweetly". The other cool thing about this picture is that my sister(the one with the big belly here) hasn't even given birth to Maricella's second cousin yet. All of my second cousins are in my mother's age group. These two will be more like sisters!!! It was a fun weekend. I enjoyed spending time with my gram and getting to hold that precious little baby. She's extremly alert and is already beginning to teeth (at 2 months!!!!) Her mommy is going to have lots of fun :)

Free Recipe Sunday

Going to a family get together today and decided to bake a plum tart. This Recipe is from the BareFoot Contessa. One of my favorite cooking shows. You need a 9-10 inch false bottom tart pan. I found mine at Michael's Arts and Crafts. (it came in a three pack, this was middle size pan)
mix 1 cup flour, 3/4 cup brown sugar and 3/4 cup finely chopped walnuts in a mixer.
add 1 egg yolk and 1+1/2 sticks of butter (chilled and chopped in small pieces) until mixture is crumbly. Take 1+1/2 cups of mixture and press into pie tart for crust. Slice 5-6 plums into half moon shapes. Arrange plums in a lotus pattern on crust, cover with remaining mixture. Bake at 400' for 40-50 minutes. Everyone at the get together enjoyed this. It was gone really fast. Here is pic of finished pocketbook. I'm proud of it, my first bag pattern. I need to tweak the handle connection because it's a little too tight, but otherwise I'm satisfied with the results. I have also been working on the peace tote, check it out.. Almost finished with the front. Now my question is should I do the back in solid blue, yellow or a mixture of the two. Anyone want to share an opinion?

Big Loser

Just came back from trip to AC with my grandmom. She moved to florida 2 years ago and only comes back to jersey maybe twice a year. We went for our second annual overnight AC trip. We stayed at the Taj. It was fun,but we both lost, pretty big(ssshhhh don't tell anyone). It's nice to spend time with her. I also haven't posted in awhile because I was away with my mom this weekend. Our annual Long Beach Island trip. 3 days of sand and surf. Last year it rained the whole weekend. This year we had lovely hot, sunny weather. We stayed at a B&B run by a lovely irish couple. Her daughter owns a coffee/dessert place accross the street called The Chocolate Bar. They have a shop in NYC also. The inn keeper bakes all their goodies. I personally am not a big sweet fan, I prefer salty crunchy snacks. However, I (upon this woman's recommendation) tried the spicy brownies. Holy cannoli! They were awesome. I have a new favorite dessert. I bought 4 of them back from LBI and they are gone. Imagine choc and chipolte pepper, with a dash of cinnamon. If you are a hot food fan (which I am) this is the dessert to try. If you google it, there are some recipes. I will attempt a few and get back to you on the results. I also received my sewing machine and craft table. Now, I bought the craft table from Target thinking it was a complete table, wrong, only a table top, for an additional $400.00 I can buy the book shelves that the table fits ontop of. However in the picture it shows it as one unit. In my excitment to buy it at 7am I overlooked the fine print. So now I have a table top. It's a large table top sitting in a box in my foyer. Hmmm, hubby says to send it back, no room, too big. But it is exactly what I wanted if I dish out the additional money for the remaining parts. What do you think? Imagine having a space that is designated to crafting? No using the kitchen table to measure stuff out. 12 built in shelves to store all your crafting items. 1/2 the price of the pottery barn craft table, and it looks the same. What's a girl to do?????

It's a sickness for sure

Oy. I got a delivery yesterday. More yarn. Correction: more cascade yarn. I ordered via net, at www.kyarns.com check it out. Once again, fast service. So one serious thing I am learning from buying yarn this way, the colors are not exactly the way they look on the computer. I looked at these colors online and it was all I could do to stop at only this many skeins. All the colors looked pretty. It's like the dress shop that uses a skinny mirror. You buy the outfit, take it home, and go....uh, how come it doesn't look as good on me at home? So although I highly recommend the kyarns, I think it's best to see the yarn up close and personal before buying. I also bought some purse handles and magnetic closures for the pocketbooks I'm working on. I also bought a sewing machine....pics of that to come. I've been wanting one for some time now. I can't wait to get started. I used to sew in highschool (mom taught me), so it's been awhile. I figure if I can teach myself to knit, why not sew also. Better yet, if I can handsew my pieces together, why not figure out a machine... Hah, famous last words.. So I also wanted to posted some pics from my friend Dan's gig. Pics are grainy due to use of regular 35mm camera, and dark club..Oh yeah, these were taken at the Legendary Stone Pony in Asbury Park. Band name: The Verge. We used to work together when I was in pharmacy school. I have known both of his sisters for quite sometime now. So dan is a great friend. We both like the same alternative music and we used to hang out in belmar, play trivia and drink screwdrivers made with fresh squeezed orange juice. I highly recommend this drink, it's worth the extra work of squeezing the oranges. yum. So that's it for me today, have a peaceful weekend.

Orange ya glad it's summer?

I decided to get pedicure today. Needed the relaxation after a harrowing morning getting blood drawn. Ugh. I'm feelin like a pin cushin already. And the phlebotomist, taking her time, poking and tapping on my veins. Jeepers lady, just take the fricken blood already. I swear, if she would have asked me to pump my arm I would have been on the floor. I came close. I saw white spots and nothing else. Just brutal. Anyhew, after that I needed a little TLC cudos to Chrissy for a job well done. I'm also currently in the market for a sewing machine. Nothing too fancy just the basics. It's been awhile since I have done machine sewing, but I think it would be a nice thing to add to my craft arsenal. We have a stonybrook near us that carries the most beautiful fabric. I bought some snippets last week. I'm thinking some lavender eye pillows for my students. It's a nice thing for shavasana (final relaxation) . I also thought it might be nice to line some of the pocketbooks I am making. The paisley fabric is beautiful, this picture does not do it justice. I also found a friend in the garden today..He was just hangin out on a branch and I zoomed in for a close up. Waiting on Mr. Mailman to bring me some goodies. Will take pics when the stuff arrives....

Something new and blue

Have you ever put a knitting project in "knitter's jail" ? Have you ever tossed it aside due to 1. several frogging sessions 2. total lack of skill needed to complete 3. just being plain cranky and losing patience to the point of boredom.. Well this was my Knitting Olympic project. Slightly like Michele Chen (? is that her name? the iceskater that dropped out before starting???) . Yup, that was me. Started out gung ho. Frogged this thing 5 times and just could not understand what I was doing wrong. So it's been sitting since feb. in a pile. in my yarn closet. all alone. still messed up. I couldn't even bring myself to frogging it the last time. See, the pattern calls for an increase at the beginning of each row. Cool. know how to do that. But then the written directions tell you to cont. in patt. Well, up until a month or so ago, I wasn't very good at that. Now, well, I learned something. All by myself.. I learned how to look at the stitches and see the pattern, and, voila, finished shoulder cozy. easy peasey. Those cool shades... New.. I needed to treat myself this week, so, yup, Chanel. My credit card is still smoking.. But H said, Buy yourself something nice. Um, men need to learn to add, "within reason" to that. However, the week and news I got this week, well deserved buy. The yarn I used for this is Debbie Bliss super chunky cashmerino. Very soft, and I bought it on ebay for a decent price. I also decided to show off the shawl I made last year.. I used colinette giotto.. I tried to sell it at a couple of the craft fairs but no one wants to pay what it's worth. People want pretty things but they want them on the cheap. If you've ever bought Colinette, it's not cheap!!! This wrap is also very long in the back. So, it's mine now, which is ok by me. I love pretty things. So next week return of Free Recipe Sunday. I promise, I wanted to post some knitting stuff today. Besides, it's too hot to cook..

Ahimsa, and lack there of

Sorry to miss free recipe sunday. My girlfriend and I went to NYC to see Amma (www.amma.org). This was my second trip to see her, so I am still a "newbie". She is an awesome humanitarian, and most who see her feel she is enlightened. She has devoted her life to God. She leads a selfless life. She is truly awesome to behold. She is also known as the hugging saint. When you go to see her you wait for darshan or a blessing in the form of a hug. She loves everyone unconditionally. In the practice of yoga there are yamas(principles) and niyamas(practices in life to be followed). We are human, but we try to follow these "rules for living" to bring us more spiritualty. I have spoken before about nonattatchment or aparigraha. Today I want to talk about ahimsa, or nonharming. Ahimsa is about nonviolence in speech, thought and action. I spend alot of time in my classes speaking about ahimsa, especially in forward folds, where, people tend to pull at their feet to get further into the pose. I think ahimsa is important for people to practice. We live in a world where humanity struggles with kindness. Alot of people are out for #1. I see this, daily, and I now recognize it as ignorance. People need to see the big picture. We all have something in common, we are, all from the same origin. There is a thread that binds us together. So why all this talk of ahimsa? I want to share something with you that happen to my girlfriend and I when we went to see Amma. We have not seen each other in about 4 months. We went through our teacher training together, and that is how we met. In hushed tones while we were waiting for our darshan we were "chatting". Now we were in the Manhattan center, there are vendors all around the sides, and Amma is up front. There is a live band playing music. People are sitting on the floor up front mediating and just enjoying being in the presence of Amma. As were my girlfriend and I in our own way. The woman in front of us turned around and said, "Can I ask you a question?" and I'm thinking to myself, sure but, I'm not too familar with this process of seeing Amma, and I don't live in the city... so we both say "sure". (now, we have little smiles on our faces because we're so happy to be experiencing this, and we're happy to be spending time together). The woman then in a very nasty tone says, "you would think in the prescence of such a supreme being you would not be talking to each other like your on some street corner, go to the back of the room". The look on her face....anger...hate....pure and unadulterated disdain. I think my girlfriend and I nearly fell off our chairs. Here we are, completely, belittled. In the enviroment of love. Hmmm, what's that all about? Should we not have taken it to heart? Were we in the wrong? possibly. Could it have been said in a nicer, kinder way? Um, I believe so. So I didn't feel angry at the woman. I felt sorry for her. Because she's ignorant. She doesn't get the big picture. Such a shame. Spread love people, or at least try. Listen to the Beatles, "All you need is love"
More knitting to come, almost finished with my shoulder cozy.....

Bag is finished....

I'm really not happy with how long it takes to felt in my washing machine. I am happy with the way this altered triangle bag came out. New flower added. It's a twist on the regular bag. I love this color combo. Just a brief post today. I'm on my way to the gym. I also stopped off at Barnes and Noble this afternoon. Bought 2 knitting books and 2 books for my niece, who is "totally bored" at her father's house. I have always loved to read. I used to read the whole summer list in the month of June. Especially when I was "bored" at grandmoms house for 2 weeks. Grandmom's beach house. Jeesh, how bored could I have been? What I wouldn't give to have a beach house. This Knit Cafe book is so pretty. I couldn't help myself. Here's a woman who gave up corporate and followed her dream. Nice. Maybe someday.....