For all you knitters out there…

You know it must be important when write two blog entries in two days, and it is. I have something I want to share with everyone, especially the avid, and even not-so-avid, knitters. There is a project called the Dulaan project, which will be featured in the March 28 issue of Vogue Knitting. People send knitted sweaters and hats to needy and orphaned children in Mongolia. Below is a link to a site with photos of the kids and their lovingly handmade clothing!

The text on the page will warn you that this is a tear-jerker, and they are right. When I read that, I thought, yeah, well, I am not a cry-baby, and anyway, I had a good cry yesterday already. Driving home, I had the rare opportunity to listen to the Halleluia Chorus of Handel’s Messiah. The music and the subject alone are always enough to bring tears to my eyes, but yesterday all I could recall was when our small church choir accepted the daunting task of performing Messiah one Christmas. My dad was the organist, and as I have no singing voice, I was drafted as his page-turner. Now my father was the regular church organist, and generally had no problems keeping up with page-turning. But this was a special and difficult event, and nothing was left to chance. We practiced many weeks with the choir, and I can still recall the elation when the choir performed their very beautiful rendition of the chorus. There was jubulation all around, and quite frankly, relief, upon completion of the piece. Remembering sharing this event with my father made me miss my dad in a way that I have not felt for sometime. I simply cried. After that episode, I thought I had all the tears out of my system for awhile, so I was quite surprised to be reaching for the Kleenex as I looked at these children’s faces. Visit the site, and if you can, try to contribute! Thank you!

Here is info about the Dulaan project:
http://www.nwkniterati.com/movabletype/archives/MossyCottage/DulaanFlyer2006_color3.pdf

Here are the photos of the children:
http://www.nwkniterati.com/movabletype/archives/MossyCottage/001591.html

You call this Spring?

I know it’s been ages since I’ve posted; and thank you to everyone for urging me to update the blog! I would say it is because I have been so busy, but quite frankly, when I look back on my accomplishments over the last couple of months, I cannot account for my time. Late winter is supposed to be a time of rest, meaning to us that we do the “indoor” things: update the web site, create fancy new brochures, work on knitting and weaving. Maybe even clean the basement. But none of those got done. Sure, I finally got 28 sets of clipper blades cleaned and sent off to be sharpened (yes, that sounds like an awful lot of blades, but we hate to interrupt our marathon shearing sessions once we get started just to send in blades for sharpening.) I got our first entry for our first show of year in the mail this morning, right on deadline as usual (see you in Illinois everyone!) But my Pinata-and-white scarf remains only half done, and the lavender silky llama scarf I promised my mother has not even been officially started yet. I have mailed out several orders of llama yarn, and finally finished the jet black silky llama roving that I promised Lee Ann of FuzzyLogicKnits in Canada. The only problem is, I promised her this last Thanksgiving! Thank heavens for her patience. Actually, I can’t wait to shear some more of this heavenly silky pure black; I can just imagine myself with a ruana out of black, perhaps with a little angelina for good measure, to wear when showing my favorite llamas when the cold permeates the show ring. But that can wait; I have more projects than I can handle right now anyway, and I know Lee Ann will love the black llama and make something marvelous out of it.

I did order my garden seeds, for which I spent extra for expedited postage. The “pea fence” I ordered arrived almost immediately; but the seeds took another two weeks. I won’t waste my money on that option again. I have not gotten the energy to trim the overgrown Concord grape vines, but I did convince my husband to use our one dry weekend to till my garden! It sat ready for potatoes and spring vegetables, which I was stealthily planning to sneak in after the next rain. Last weekend would have been perfect, but…we decided to reseed a couple of the pastures instead. It seems that March was again going to be true to its name of “out like a lion,” as they were predicting snow! There is an urban legend in Indiana that we always have a heavy snow fall during basketball tourney-time. Fred and I can each remember a heavy March snow during our high school years, meaning we get one about every ten years. I don’t see that this constitutes a consistent weather pattern, but everyone is convinced that this is our “tourney-time” blizzard. Whatever you want to call it, I don’t like it. I came to work extra early in blinding snow that was just starting to accumulate. They are predicting 5 or 6 inches here in Indy, and we may get more “on the hill” because we are farther south. So much for the second official day of Spring. The snow will help settle in that new grass seed, but otherwise I have little use for it. My thoughts are turning to outdoor things, including cleaning the trailer…my goodness, that first show is only three weeks away! Let’s hope the weather is more spring-like by then.