November page and how it happened

I have been wanting to do a page with some knitting on it for awhile. I finally settled on the colors and yarn and started searching for a pattern to make a swatch from. I wanted something that was open. Turns out I was journaling again. The page reminds me of a trellis with a door knocker or portal (window) to another place.

I found the pattern in a book called The Prayer Shawl Ministry put out by Leisure Arts featuring Lion Brand Homespun Yarn. Although that is not what I used. I picked out the yarn (Curious Creek Oban in Plum Thunder and Glacier Lakes) as I had wanted to use both colors for awhile and the two colors are usually the ones I go to first (purple for sure, and normally turquoise but blue works too!) The yarns are wonderful to knit with and feel really good.

The book talks about the meaning of the colors which happened to be my birth month color (purple) and also my boyfriend's ( blue.) The colors mean: purple - wisdom, dignity, independence, creativity and mystery; blue - stability, trust, loyalty, faith, truth and tranquility. All good words. Prayer shawls are made as a gift for healing (people pray while making them) or for protection or for celebration. I picked this because I liked the pattern and a new friend I met in Phoenix on my recent trip there got my interested in the book too. But it turns out there was a deeper meaning for me behind it. And I will take all three reasons for why prayer shawls are made.

As far as the beads go, I wanted to do another rivoli with the lace (netting effect) to it and while looking for the rivoli came across the square and decided it needed to be on my page too. I seem to go from a more complex page to a more simple one, but I like that.

I am posting a picture of the material on my page, a picture of the swatch before I covered it and a picture of the completed page. I also put together all six of my pages and took a picture and am posting that too.

I can not sew straight for the life of me, if you look too closely at the page with the material only you will see what I mean! Good thing my stitching to get my material on my backing is mostly coverd up. The colors on the completed page is a better reflection of the color of the yarn.

We traveled across the country last week to TX and saw the Grand Canyon and Sedona. I am posting a couple of pictures from there too.

Finally we have another foster dog, Cookie, so I have a couple of pictures of her. She came to us yesterday. She is a real sweetheart. If the organization did not pull her from the shelter she would have been put down, however the organization I belong to has a great realtionship with the local shelters so they will always know about German Shepherd's that get into the shelter system and that should never happen. Still breaks my heart though and while it is so hard to foster a dog and then loose her, that reminds we why we do it. And they always go to good homes.

Happy beading, and knitting everyone. And Happy Belated Thanksgiving.

Grand Canyon

Sedona

Quote I like regarding dogs

I just finished reading a book called Dog Years by Mark Doty. There were a couple of quotes in there about dogs that I wanted to quote here. They are both from the same poem: The Housedog's Grave by Robinson Jeffers

I've changed my ways a little, I cannot now
Run with you in the evenings along the shore,
Except in a kind of dream, and you, if you dream a moment,
You see me there...

I am not lonely. I am not afraid. I am still yours.

The last line of the poem says it all about loosing a companion be it animal or human.

Here is a link with the whole poem: http://www.sarbin.com/otis-n-jake/stories/housedog.html

October page

Finally, I am done with my October page. I had a lot of fun doing this one. Truly felt like I was journal beading. The colors matched the season and also my mood. And boy did the beads talk to me. I have done beading in pink and started adding orange the past couple of years, but yellow (not counting amber or gold) is really new. I think part of that has been inspiration from one of the Curious Creek yarns I like, Sunrise on Daffodils. (See the link to the right if you want to check it out.) I have included some in progress shots, and some close ups. This piece was very hard for me to photograph, so the pictures do not do it justice. I have a vintage button which is really cool. And I love this material. There is so many great quilt material out there in the market place, just like beads, very addictive.

There are techniques or pieces I learned and adapted from Paula Walter (class,) Diane Fitzgerald (book,) Marcia Decoster (class) and one from the newest Beadwork, which of course I could not find at the moment. I even came up with another way to bezel a rivoli, so that was pretty cool.

I also discovered my page could be turned two ways. Since I like bead weaving so much, it was fun to bead some of the pieces separately and put them on the page.

Finally, I am hoping I can get my knitting idea together for November's page.

We will see! Happy beading and knitting everyone, Nancy.

Inspiration - recent trips

Hi everyone, I am hoping to complete my October page this weekend and will post when done. I have included some pictures from my recent trips to central Illinois and Missouri along with Port Townsend, WA. The lighthouse is in Hannibal, Missouri which is along the Mississippi River.

The Japanese Maple tree is from the front of the house. Two closeups and one of the whole tree. I love to watch it change colors. Happy beading and knitting, Nancy