Following instructions

As yummy as the feel of this yarn is, the instructions make my heart smile every time I see the label:

Knit, Relax, Smile. Repeat!

Sometimes we just need simple instructions to get our creativity flowing. Eliminate the complicate. Stick to simple. Simply put, this sweet skein is going to become a gorgeous little scarf. Now the question is...what pattern should I use?


Suggestions?

Cozy Friend-Knitted Socks

Socks this time of year are especially cozy. Chunky socks are even more cozy. As it is suppose to get so cold tonight, it seemed the right time to put on some cozy socks. A friend knitted these and popped them in the mail...now I am having a hard time choosing which pair to wear first. Too bad for me!
    I've been planning on starting a pair of sock. I've been practicing with some teeny-weeny knitting needles--but I may just try a pair of chunky-socks first. I know I need new glasses, but seriously, my arms are not long enough to see clearly all the small stitches. Yes, I have bifocals already.
   Ah well, toes are toasty and my heart is warmed too by the sweet gift of socks. 

Tonight is for knitting

Picked up some yarn today: yummy red for some "hope threads" tonight. Simple little bracelets and maybe a few beads. Soft reminders of someone thinking of you during difficult times. As they say, necessity is the mother of invention. These are a good example of the truth of that statement. Difficult days call for simple tasks that bring comfort and can be passed on.

Hello Creative Peeps

Hello again, yes, it is me. I've been absent from here for too long--and have no idea who, if anyone might still stop in to see if anything is alive here in The Dresser Drawer. In short, life has been hard these last many months, and while I have been journaling, reading, knitting, writing letters and posti, playing with some collage, poetry, stamps and taking pictures, what I haven't been doing is blogging about it. Well, that is not quite true. I have still been blogging on my hope blog partners4hope. 

Wilbur, the-marvelous-white-cat-in-residence, is as fuzzy as ever and equally amusing & personable (yes, that is an orange  peanut butter M&M he is balancing on his head.) Wilbur helps me keep my sanity. His zen-like presence is very calming--most of the time.

This is, again or still, a time of contemplation and discerning for me. I will share more soon. 

Check the right hand column and you will see my montage of art and creativity books from my Goodreads page. I am currently perusing more than a few books on creativity, crafting and business. If you are interested in finding a copy of any of these--or other books, you can click the Powell's Books graphic and search their site for new or used copies. If you haven't ever been to Powell's in Portland--I highly recommend a trip there.(And, yes, it is true they buy books too, in person and online. There are easy to follow directions. 

from exit 109

What a day! A beautiful NW sunny day drive to Lacey/Olympia--the Olympics were out in all their glory, traffic was not bad (well, it was 11:00a in the morning....most people had already arrived somewhere.) My friend and I stole away from different directions and met to spend a day walking, talking, eating, laughing, wondering, encouraging, telling, listening, laughing.

We ate lunch at amid the lime green walls at Darby's (the amazing salad is from lunch). From there we visited the Tea Lady--who has way too much fun gathering teas, cups, tea pots from all over. From there to Whodunit Books --all mysteries and a woman who knows her stuff about authors and what she has and if it is available. Excellent place. Then just a smattering of wandering in and out of a few local shops before heading to one of the main reasons for meeting in Olympia--an enormously wondrous knitting haven (and much more) Canvas Works. After sufficiently (if this is possible) sating ourselves in yarns, patterns and possibilities...it was time to head back to the car and off to dinner. Dinner found us at The Falls Terrace with a wonderful staff and table by the window...salmon of wonder and as it grew dark the falls were lit by light. We found reason aplenty to talk all through dinner and all the way back to the my car.

A most excellent day was had by all. There is nothing like having a friend to yourself for the whole day. To catch up, to dream, to consider life and all its myriad of weirdness and to love you no matter what. Thank you dear friend.

(And a book was released into the wild somewhere in Olympia.) Check out BookCrossings if you've never heard of doing this!

my knitting, reading and writing notes

In the Knitting Realm
Well, last night I got back to and into the eyelet section of my Nirvana Shawl #2 and now need to dig out my second skein before continuing. I picked up my current hat, put it onto the four double ended needles and started the decreasing so that is nearing completion. I am still slugging away at a special scarf that was meant to be a Christmas present--except that I started it over once and now that I am nearly 1/2 done I am having the urge to start over again--something about it just isn't right.....

In the Reading Realm

I am nearly done with The Story of Edgar Sawtelle and it has been quite a ride. I will not spoil it for anyone who hasn't read and plans to, but...there is a lot to the book and in the story. I can't imagine what David Wroblewski will come up with after writing this as a first novel. I can't wait to finish tonight. (Even though it is huge, it is my bedtime read.)

My morning read is A Beach Walk by Joan Anderson and I happen to be near the end of it as well. It is filled with wonderful conversations with her mentor Joan Erickson (I hope this link to a video of her works!) Before reading this book I read two others of Joan Anderson's, but now I would have left her second book An Unfinished Marriage till after this book.

Ah well, I am reading other creative things like Life is a Verb and a few new magazines from Somerset : Journaling, Artful Blogging, Somerset Life, Where Women Create, Somerset Sew well, you get the idea...I am letting my mind wander and wiggle in the free room of the week.

In the Realm of Writing

My great accomplishment yesterday was to actually almost finish my Heart Prayers book on Blurb. Right up until I made one move and somehow added a page or lost a prayer...I have to go back and figure it out today...I had even finished previewing the book and fixing the font size irregularities!!! URG.

Good Hot Tea--Please!

It has been one of those weeks. I said this first on Tuesday, and then Wednesday--and yet it has just kept building. Where do you go when everything feels too much? I retreat to my breath prayer:

breathe in HOPE......

breathe out fear....

And a good hot cuppa tea...it is late afternoon or evening...by then tea is my thing. The warmth of the cup extends the gift of the prayer. It keeps me in place.

And I knit. Knitting also keeps me from jumping up too many times...to stay in one place and see the relaxation through. Knitting takes me deeper into myself--just like the prayer. I can shed layer after layer of 'what if' or 'why' or 'what now.' I can listen to my heart--and that is important because it takes me out of a worry mode--worry does nothing for you.

"Doing something with you hands, rather than your

head, is often the best route to clarity." (Joan Erikson in A Walk on the Beach)

Here's to our world

Here's to all my dear friends

Here's to all our loved ones

Here's to the stranger in need

Have a cuppa good hot tea.

a mindful knitting retreat--awesome!

Now, this would be fun....a mindful knitting retreat in Vermont! Ok, a mindful knitting retreat in Vancouver B.C., in St. Paul, in Half Moon Bay,CA.... almost anywhere would be fun, but you see my point? Seriously, check this out and dream a little.

Mom, I know you're laughing now

Okay it has been close to 40 years since my mom taught me to knit using her tried and true dishcloth pattern.... I mostly dropped stiches because, as I remember it, I was too busy watching these big long 'sticks' go up and down by my elbows...if she had only used circluar needles she may have had me hooked then and there. As it was I never did complete a single dishcloth--until now! I was reading the Tips/Ideas/Patterns section on Prayer Shawl Ministry Home Page the other night and found a pattern for a Payer Dish Cloth (thank you Julie Hopp, Peru, NE) and just had to try it in memory of my mother. Of course, I made mine not quite square because that is how I like them. I plan to do a few mini cloths also because sometimes those come in handy for counters.

Casting On

Starting my Knitting Journal was a bit more complex process than I first envisioned...or, I am making it harder than it needs to be? But it is FOR ME so it needs to be this complicated-- right now.

• I have a two-part journal. I have the part I am going to write in and plop, paste, tape and staple pictures and quotes into along the way (it is the brown item on top with the big printed KNIT on it (its cover has started to take shape)
• I have a folder with sleeves front/back and clear sleeves and dividers --for actual pre-printed patterns I collect along the way...hand written ones will go in the brown journal (it is the on the bottom--and very rudimentary right now

This is my beginning...no apologies, just fun. As usual I find that I have many papers, patterns, skein sleeves saved. I tossed most of the catalogs, but am saving a few printed newsletters--pre blog/web newsletter.

Blustery Day

Today is a day for double stick tape, scissors, torn paper, lots of pens and markers, words and glue stick. It is a day for wearing fleece and turtlenecks, sweats and fuzzy-lined crocs. It is also a day for melty-cheese sandwiches, a movie and lots of knitting...okay and some vacuuming and chores thrown in....but it is windy, wet and cold outside--so it is a day for letters, blogging, email and journaling (and later some Baseball--to watch our old friend Jamie Moyer pitch once again.)

I am:

1. nearly 1/2 way done with a wildly multi-pink comfort scarf
2. still working on the apple green prayer shawl
3. starting a self-stripping-ish hat
4. and yet to finish the navy blue chenille hat

...and then there was: NIRVANA

Ok, the two little mystery skeins are a treasure. Their color sent me off in search of more shades of turquoise for a shawl pattern I found called, "Aunt Phebe's Comfort Shawl." It just begged for some deep-tropical-turquoise-sea-blue. I found it in this yummy soft Angel Hair/Turquoise yarn by Sensations. So I have started my first triangular shawl. So far it looks like a diaper for a large stuffed bear. It's coming along--between all the other things I need to fit into my days and evenings....including the house being shown by surprise yesterday afternoon. I find now that I have two hats and two shawls going at the same time. All different yarns, different colors, different textures and so they fit there is something to work on no matter what my tactile mood happens to be at the moment.

I have collected enough odds and ends, quotes, patterns, pictures torn from things...I feel a knitting journal coming on. I reason that I have to have somewhere to put it all--why not have that somewhere be somewhere creative and fun? This realization demands making a choice of size, type, etc. More fun!

Speaking of fun, a friend from our Prayer Knitting Circle made me this hilarious bag for my knitting. It was a surprise birthday gift earlier this summer and it makes me smile every time I pick it up. Yes, it is chickens/roosters knitting. You can turn it inside out and then the material is a much more 'sedate' ball of yarn and two needles...you know, in case I need to be in company who would just not take to roosters knitting. Why would I want to hang out with folks like that?

Soft Inspiring Blue...is Heavenly

Someone donated two skeins of this most wonderfully soft blue...called Heavenly. It doesn't look blue enough in this picture. This makes it look little-boy-blue, and it is not that at all. I have no idea how old it is and I am afraid I if I went looking I would not find it again. So, two little skeins it is. There is no telling what it could become....eventually.

beer can chicken and a yo

My sister-in-law, Karen came to dinner tonight...which was a yummy first attempt at "beer can chicken" and coleslaw. Paul did an awesome job with the chicken! Afterwards I asked Karen to show me how to correctly do a yarn over...yes, simple I know, but I was doing it differently every third time so I did need help. Well, now I see how easy it is--and the correct way was one of the ways I was doing it....but just one! So I will be attempting something soon made with the pattern called 'mouse tracks.' The picture with the post is of the sleeve of an old italian sweater I found when cleaning out my mother's closet after she died. I kept it and have warn it as my cozy sweater in the house after work and on weekends--nearly wearing it out in the last 8 years. It wasn't exactly new when I found it so it is no wonder it dissolving in places.