Wrap Up

When last I posted, I was working on the Peace Cowl. I enjoyed the project very much and finished a few days before the end date of December 21. I have another skein of the yarn and may knit some mittens to match. I plan to donate the cowl to another woman in the New Year. I am trying to finish a pair of 2016 socks but they are dealing me a fit. I have knit the second heel twice and it needs to be ripped out again. Perhaps my mind has been on other things or perhaps it is time for me to learn a new technique for knitting heels. I knit socks with a traditional heel flap, turn, and gusset because that is the way I learned to knit socks. I am going to purchase Susan B. Anderson's pattern, Smooth Operator Socks, for her detailed well written instructions for an afterthought heel.

We celebrated a quieter Christmas season this year. While we missed our children and their families, we found other joys this season. Since I enjoy baking cookies, I baked old favorites like Gram's spritz and my sister's peppermint brownies. I tried a more labor intensive cookie recipe I've always wanted to bake. The Raspberry Linzer Cookies, more like a pastry than a cookie, were pretty and tasty. I gave cookies to neighbors and friends. We also have plenty in the freezer for another day. I decorated a small tree in the dining room with cookie cutters (something else I've always wanted to do) and German stars that were once a gift from my sister. I read a Cather novel, Shadows On The Rock. This lovely story follows a young girl and her father through a year in Quebec in the late 1700's. The girl with a devout faith is very resourceful and the relationship between father and daughter is quite touching. In a Christmas scene, a young ragamuffin of a boy, who the pair have befriended, brings a hand carved beaver for a creche sent to the girl from an aunt in France. Cather's description of ordinary and simple events is beautiful and peaceful.

Currently, I'm pondering some knitting projects and a Christmas Quilt for the new year. Three grandsons have Christmas quilts so I need to get started on one for the fourth little guy. This year he is still in his crib but next year will be a different story. I am also considering a word to adopt as my intention for 2017. In the meantime, I plan to finish a few New Year's greetings and enjoy the last days of December.

Peace

           Pray for peace on this
           Earth.
           All are welcome.
           Come join hands. Let
           Each one reach to another.








These December days I'm sipping hot tea and knitting the Peace Cowl. The stitches makes a pretty texture on both the right and wrong side. The pattern also has a nice rhythm, one I could easily speed up in order to finish. I decided to stay with the spirit of knitting one repeat each day and am enjoying the slower pace. I'm a few repeats behind but then it is December. I started a few days late and ripped out the first repeat and cast on to go up a needle size. Yesterday while my sister and I were chatting and knitting, I made a mistake and ripped out three rows. Peaceful knitting does gets interrupted now and then. Some evenings I read The Healthy Knitter's blog post on peace and knitting. I take comfort in knowing a peaceful, health-seeking knitter lives in Iowa, not too far away. I thank her for her pattern and her writing.

In between rounds of the Peace Cowl, I'm knitting a hat and mitten set for the children of the Pine Ridge Reservation. Bundles of Joy, a Ravelry group contains information for knitting and sending clothing.

May peace fill your heart all year long.