We get by with a little help from our friends

friend:  /frend/  

           A person whom one knows and with whom one has a bond of mutual affection

Where would we be without our friends?   I hope I never find out.   In a stroke of good luck, T2's best NJ friend's family has annual Disney passes.  So every spring break and every summer we have been able to spend time with them at the "happiest place on earth".    As if seeing the boys so happy to be together were not enough, the two families get along really well too.   This week, only T2 and I were able to get away (T1 had spring break a couple of weeks ago and Hubby had to work).   We had a wonderful time.    We met our friends at Epcot where we gorged ourselves on good food and good company.    The  culture shock of moving to FL from NJ has been pretty isolating and it was renewing to be able to spend time with people with whom we can be ourselves without fear of hostile judgement or censure.

Rosen Shingle Creek

We used Priceline for the first time and we were able to score a gorgeous room at a nearby, golf resort for $55 a night (I was careful to specify 4 stars in my bid).    How cool is that?!    I admit to being terribly impressed with myself.   The room was large and very nicely appointed,  the beds were luscious, and their buffet (although a bit pricey) was awesome.    We never did get to the pool and we don't golf but both were lovely to look at during our after dinner explorations.

We finished off our mini vacation with stops at Ikea, and a new to me yarn shop called Knit, arriving home last night tired and happy.

Serenity Knits rides again....

It's official.   I am the new knitting/crochet teacher at my local Michael's.   If you've been reading since before we moved to FL, you know that I loved teaching at my Michael's in NJ.   I am thrilled to be able to go back to doing what I love.  Keep an eye on my sidebar.  I am hoping to have class info up soon.

As if  my new job is not good enough, we finally found an alternative to Clearwire for our internet service provider.   After three long years, DSL has finally come to our neighborhood.  So far, we can't get the super fast service, but what we do have is good enough, and much more reliable, than what we were getting.   Things are definitely looking up.



Do you like my labyrinth?   I spent a few weeks participating in a "Spirit in Practice" workshop.  One night the facilitator suggested that we go home and create something that incorporated something of our individual spiritual practice.   Since the guided meditation was my favorite part of that night's gathering, I decided to embroider myself a finger labyrinth.   The Sublime Stitching pattern has been in my collection for a while, the thread is from my stash, the hoop is wrapped in leftover fabric from this rope basket that I made last year, and the back is finished with a felt circle cut from a recent experiment with Kool Aid dyeing.   I love that it came together so well using just things that I already had on hand.

Thank heavens for Panera...

Panera Bread

  You may have noticed that I blog a lot less frequently these days.   There is a reason for that, that goes beyond a busy home life.    Where we live, we do not get cable or DSL.   As far as entertainment goes, we miss cable but do not hate Direct TV.    What we really do hate is our internet provider, Clearwire.   I have talked about this before.    Our service is awful with upload/download speeds so bad that we can't even load a network speed test.   There was a nice long stretch when the situation improved.   However, that stopped some time ago and the service is now worse than ever.   We pay a monthly fee for "unlimited high speed internet".    As you can see, our internet speed is not high and now, apparently it is not unlimited either.   It seems that we are being "throttled".   Meaning that Clear is limiting our speed based "high usage".   What they call high usage, we call weekend only gaming, and the occasional Netflix download (twice a week?).   Other than that, the boys do homework, hubby sends and receives email, and I blog while haunting Facebook and Twitter.    I can't imagine how this adds up to "high" usage.   Their customer service has proven unhelpful to say the least.   We have found their reps to be inept with a questionable command of the English language.

What does this mean to the blog?    It means that, much of the time, I cannot get a post uploaded without going to Starbucks or Panera.    For a while that was both a treat and an inconvenience but during those months when I had to share a car with T1, it was impossible most days.  Even now, that I finally have my own car again, I am finding it hard to get out as much as I would like.

So please bare with me.   We are exploring other options.   Hopefully we will find a better alternative soon or, maybe, a way for me to spend more time sipping lattes in public.

Masters Prayer Shawl 

Toe-Up Socks

Though not blogging as much, I have been knitting.   I recently submitted a design to a major publication and then, because creativity feeds on itself, I dreamed up two more must do designs that I hope to have finished and up on Ravelry soon.    The only things I can show now, are Hubby's socks and the friendship shawl that I referred to a couple of weeks ago, both of which are coming along slowly but surely.

As most posts are these days, this is brought to you from Panera, because Clearwire Sucks!

Farewell Disney, we loved you well.

We have been soooo lucky to have annual Disney passes for the last three years, but the time has come to let that luxury go.    Having one child in college, even with scholarships, has turned out to be way more expensive than we anticipated.   That combined with a stretch of unforseen circumstances (including multiple car accidents & health challenges), have made it necessary to cut back on non-essentials.   Sadly, it was necessary to admit that Disney is a non-essential.

Rather than sulking (no matter how tempting), we decided to make our farewell a weekend long event.    As the date got closer, T1's ongoing health problems necessitated a short hospital stay and some tests, I became ill with a re-occurrence of Menier's, and T2's cold got worse rather than better.    The reservations were made with Marriott points so were non-cancellable, so we stocked up on meds and went anyway.

Surprisingly (or not, I have a pretty wonderful family), we had a good time.   We spent Saturday at Epcot.   Hubby and I roamed the World Showcase while the boys took off to ride the rides and eat in almost every country.  We stayed to see the fireworks which were wonderful, as usual.   We really lucked out in that the park was not busy at all.    The only line longer than 5 minutes was for the  Patisserie in France.   Sunday we spent at Magic Kingdom.   By this time we were getting pretty worried about T2 (who was not breathing well at all), so we made a list of favorite rides and shows.    We hit those highlights (Haunted House, Carousel of Progress, Hall of Presidents, Space Mountain, Buzz Lightyear, Pirates, & the Jungle Ride) and grabbed sweets at the bakery.    We were home in time to unpack, shower etc. and watch our Sunday night favorites (60 Minutes, Amazing Race, Walking Dead).

All in all, we had a lovey weekend, there was even knitting.    I am making  hubby a pair of Toe-up Socks from Last Minute Knitting Gifts.   Socks really are wonderful.   Not only are they luscious to wear but they are the perfect take-along project.   I knit in the car and around the world and in the Kingdom.    Knitting really does "sooth the troubled spirit".

P.S. Turns out that T2 had bronchitis but he is doing much better now.

One thing leads to another....

“As I get older, I just prefer to knit. ”

― Tracey Ullman

Last night, I realized that come Sunday morning, I would have nothing to knit at church (or at the classical concert we are going to Monday night).  Right now of my knitting attention has been taken up with reviews and designs.  Neither of which can be shown off here until they have been posted and/or published (which hopefully they will be).   


UU's are a pretty relaxed bunch so there are no rules regarding knitting in church. However, I do have my own church knitting rules. I only work on mindless knitting, the kind that require minimal attention (I am an accomplished movie knitter so I rarely even look at simple projects). Also, I just don't feel good about working in church so I don't work on I don't work on anything destined for sale.  These are my rules. They work for me but I would never presume to apply to anyone else.


So, there I was on Saturday night contemplating Sunday morning and this is what I did.  With a little research (thank you, Ravelry), and a productive stash dive, I came up with an answer to my Zen knitting needs, as well as my hitherto unformulated plan to give a much needed hug to a dear, but distant, friend.    I quickly settled on the Masters Prayer Shawl and Patons Pure Organic Cotton. I have exactly enough of one colorway and a little more in another, complementary colorway. If the first one gets the job done, great. If not, I can work the edging in the second color and call it a design enhancement.  Swatching didn't seem necessary since I probably have enough and definitely have a back-up plan, so after sending the pattern to my phone & Kindle, I packed up my pretty yarn & needles and went to bed.  This morning, during a lovely talk on different kinds of love, I cast-on for my expression of love for a troubled friend.

Happy Valentines Day, indeed!

Principles of Knitting

Ooh Yay!!!  Principles of Knitting has finally been re-released.   Even though I am one of the lucky ones with an original copy (thank you, Manny!), I have had this new version on pre-order for what seems like forever.    The hardcover is due on Feb17th but the digital version came out at 12:01am today.    I already have it loaded on my laptop, netbook, Kindle, Fire, & my phone.   How cool is that?!

On a roll...

 I have been trying to get some necessary and/or lingering knitting done so that I can move on the what I think of as work knitting.    With that in mind, I have finished three things in three days.

First is the long lingering “Summer Wrap” by Mac & Me.    I really took my time with this, working on it mostly in church or at the movies.    The pattern was simple but lovely and I loved, loved, loved the Blue Sky Alpaca Organic Cotton yarn.   It has a luscious feel that I have not come across in any other cotton.   I am already thinking of knitting another, bigger, “Shawl That Jazz” with the remaining yarn.   Wrapping myself in this baby will be a delight.

Also, finished are the latest pair of simple socks.   I started them so long ago, that I don;t even remember which yarn I used (not Koigu, not Jitterbug, maybe Claudia Handpaints).    Socks are my emergency/pocketbook knitting so they only get worked on when I don’t have my knitting bag with me (which is not often).    Lisa Knits Simple Toe-up Sock pattern (8sts/in) is my go to sock pattern.   While I do have it on all of my devices, I rarely have to refer to it anymore which really adds to the Zen of the experience.

Last, but not least, I whipped up a quick baby hat for an expecting friend.   I used Ann Norling's Kids Fruit Cap pattern but choose colors that, I hope, made it look more like a flower.    Over the last couple of years I have drastically cut back on KnitPicks yarns (They seem to be trending away from affordable luxury and more towards acrylic/nylon blends.  Not my thing).    However, I still consider their Comfy my go-to baby yarn.   I resisted it at first due to the acrylic content but really it does live up to its name in that it is very soft and comfy.   For  a baby, that and washability are a can’t beat combination.   

As for past & future “work knitting”.   Like so many others, we are really feeling financially pinched these days.   Hubby is much happier at work these days but it took a small pay cut to get him there.   On top of the whooping one he took to move us to FL,  a struggling college freshman, and a rash of trials, we are struggling.   If I can’t find a way to help, we could be in real trouble.   So, I have thrown a couple of knitting irons in the fire and am hoping to put my talents to productive use.   Wish me luck.