So far this year I have knit twenty pairs of socks, eleven shawls, eight hats, five scarves, four pairs of mitts (fingerless or nearly so), three blankets (including one ginormous afghan), three cowls, a cardigan and a tank top, along with about fifteen other assorted goofy items. And on the needles I have a pairs of socks and another shawl, with an infinity scarf in the planning stages. Most of my knitting projects were completed to earn points in a couple online challenge groups in which I belong. The Harry Potter Knit/Crochet House Cup honors all things “Harry Potter” including house assignments (I’m a Ravenclaw), classes, O.W.L.s, N.E.W.T.s, and this last “term” they added the Order of the Phoenix as a source for challenges.

In fact, my initial Order of the Phoenix Mission was completing the six pairs of socks that comprised the 2011 inaugural Tour de Sock competition. While I was not an outright leader in this ‘fastest knitter’ challenge, my knitting speed is somewhat competitive…and the same can be said for my teammates. In fact, the team with whom I competed (Dumbledore’s Army, comprised of fellow House Cup participants) managed to lead the team scoring. My prize yarn should be in the mail today…

Another group that leads me to distraction is called Nerd Wars, which celebrates fandoms of all shapes & sizes. I allied myself with one of my longest-lasting nerderies: Star Wars. As a member of Team Rogue Squadron, I completed projects to respond to challenges in categories such as Intellectual, Technical, Scientific, Nerd Culture, Team Spirit, and a wonderfully philanthropic Giving Geeks. This category usually involves contributing in some fashion to charitable organizations, and crafting a project isn’t required for this one.

But knitting isn’t the only thing I’ve done this year. My travel was scaled back from the prior year, but the trips I took were big ones, and chock full of memories and photos. In the spring I vacationed with friends in Hilton Head Island, which was a wonderful girls’ getaway. In the summer, my westward adventure to Oregon truly blew away my expectations. I came home with a new group of friends, a better relationship with my aunt & uncle who live in southern Oregon, and a renewed appreciation for the Pacific Northwest.  I will definitely return to Portland for Sock Summit in 2013, but I’m also thinking I’ll visit southern Oregon in 2012 – there was so much my aunt & uncle wanted to share with me, but my schedule this year just didn’t allot enough time. I learned my lesson!

I learned a lot of other things through the course of the year, and I was blessed with an exponentially large number of God moments. Serving on a Cum Christo team was a huge highlight for me, as well as finding a new share/prayer partner. These steps in my faith walk have renewed me beyond measure, challenging me to invest more of my time toward piety, study and action, the pillar elements in the Cum Christo (and other Fourth Day movements’) philosophy.

I’ve had some emotionally taxing times this year, too. I’ve lost some very dear friends to cancer, and each death seemed to hit me harder than the previous. I’ve made efforts to maintain and strengthen some other friendships, as life is too precious to take anyone for granted.

Hopefully I’ll have another opportunity before Christmas to share some further reflections. For now, though, I need to resume my cleaning day. Knit on.

Carson was happy to oblige me with a photo with Skippy Jon, too.

After my class ended, I met up with Becky. We had tickets to attend the Oregon Brewers Festival kick-off brunch celebration. We hopped the Max to get over to McMennamin’s Crystal Ballroom. Sadly, neither of us paid attention to which train we hopped on, so it took a while before it registered to me that we were not coming up on the stop I was expecting. In fact, we were about four blocks south, and at that point, about three or four blocks east of where we had expected to get off the train to walk to our destination. Oh well, at least the weather was beautiful.

We arrived at the tail-end of the brunch, but there was still plenty of food left…and more than enough beer. Our brunch ticket provided for two beers and the all-you-can eat buffet. We had just enough time to get a plate-ful and our allotted beverages, and then it was time to make our way to the street for the parade. I didn’t realize until halfway to the river that we were in the parade…but we still got to see plenty of folks in costume. They were quite entertaining.

At the festival itself, we watched the ceremonial tapping of the first keg, and then we wandered through the grounds in search of our desired samplings. The brunch ticket also provided us with a commemorative mug (of tres chic plastique) and four tokens, each good for one beer sample. I should also point out that Becky had a class to attend at 1:30 that afternoon, so I was responsible for getting her back to the Convention Center in an upright position and on time. So many beers to choose from though!

I ended up sampling two beers, one from Hawaii & one from Alaska. Both were interesting…and then I was done. We stopped to play a game of cornhole with a couple students promoting the groupon service, and then we came to the snack table, or – as Becky called it, the crafts table. We each put together a “necklace” of orange ribbon on which we strung pretzel knots. Some students in the area had gotten creative in assembling their snack-jewelry, too.

Little did we know, but our snack-jewelry ended up being quite the talk of the Sock Summit. Everywhere we went, folks were commenting on them. An ingenious idea, perhaps this may spark similar “craft tables” at future knitting events. It’s so handy to have your snack food right there. And a more-agile person might even manage to nibble without putting her knitting down…

I got Becky back to her class right on time, and then I headed to my hotel room for a bit of rest. Shortly before 4PM, though, I returned to the Convention Center to get in line for the next event: the grand opening of the Marketplace. This was a students-only event, though instructors were also present, giving us first dibs on the goodies the plethora (125+) of vendors had to offer. The most bizarre thing I saw at the opening was the mob scene at the Rainy Days & Wooly Dogs booth, home to the insanely popular Goth Socks yarn. The proprietor was tossing skeins of yarn into the crowd for folks to feel the softness of the fiber. Some people misunderstood and walked off with what they thought was free yarn. Instead, the fiber was priced at about $30/skein. I moved on…

The one booth I most wanted to visit was Knitters Brewing Company. This was my prime opportunity to get up close & personal with Wendy Gaal, the proprietor of this online sock yarn company, who is also the designer of several pairs of socks – as well as one shawl (so far) – I have knit. Her yarn brand has been trademarked, and Sock-aholic yarns mostly get their names from cocktails and other spirited beverages (Cosmopolitan, Speakeasy, On the Rocks, Beer Goggles, Butterscotch Schnapps). Wendy recognized Skippy Jon when he emerged from my bag, as he has appeared in numerous photos of my knitting projects on Ravelry. So the pair of celebrities loved a photo…

Wendy also interviewed me to be included in her post-SS11 podcast. I haven’t listened to it yet, but you can check it out here: Yarn On Tap Podcast

The lone purchase I made on Day One was at Blue Moon Fiber Arts, home of the beautiful Socks That Rock collection. Realizing I had to pace my purchases out over several days, I nabbed my first choices straight away: ST-1, a colorway designed especially for Sock Summit, and Rare Gems, a unique collection of one of a kind colorways created by over dyeing existing colorways. I picked out a skein of bright colors which would become my Flashmob skein.

Following the Marketplace visit, we plopped down for some rare knitting time, meeting up with some of the ladies we’d toured the town with the day before. And when the time came, we wandered up to the ballroom for the Opening Night Reception, and our formal introduction to our esteemed coordinators, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee and Tina Newton (ST-1), as well as their illustrious support team (ST-2). The leaders opened the event officially by passing through the Sockgate…

Stephanie and Tina make up quite the comedic duo, and had us laughing and crying, talking about the challenges they faced in putting this conference together, along with noting differences compared with the challenges they faced two years earlier. We also had our first group practice of the flashmob dance…

(I will have to post a link to this later…can’t find it at the moment!)

All in all, it was another glorious day of fiber and friendship (and beer, oh my!). We wandered up to Burgerville to grab some dinner after the reception ended. Then I retired for some much needed sleep.

Knit on.

Lunch was very timely and delicious, and it gave me a chance to sit and rest for a bit. I texted my roommate who had made the reservation, knowing she was due in just after 11. And that’s where my story gets awkward and uncomfortable. I’m sure some folks would be way to skeptical or safety-conscious to consider this, but I had agreed to share hotel accomodations with a stranger. I found Linda on a Ravelry message board thread about people interested in sharing their hotel costs during Sock Summit. The hotel prices were a bit out of my price range when I started looking, only because of the up-front payment and the fact that I was looking to stay for five nights. If I’d had more time to save up, it wouldn’t have been an issue. But Linda, also known as woolyartist online, was graciously open to sharing her hotel room, which was already booked for the same days I was needing. I sent her payment via Paypal for 1/3 of the room cost, as she had another roommate joining her from her guild. But I had also agreed to bring my air mattress, as the room had one king-sized bed, and we were trying to minimize costs, figuring that a roll-away bed may increase the room charge.

Now that I was a stone’s throw from the hotel, I was anxious to wheel my boat-load of stuff to my room so I could get out and explore. I got a bit flustered then, when Linda sent me a reply text that said they’d just landed…and since we couldn’t check into the hotel for a while, they’d see me in a couple hours. Gasp! I over-reacted thanks to exhaustion and hormones and a momentary lapse of faith, and I panicked a bit (sorry, Linda!). I asked if perhaps I could leave my luggage at the hotel’s registration desk so that I wouldn’t have to cart it around with me for “a couple hours.” After all, I had places to go, people to see! Replies from Linda took a while, and I’m sure the hustle and bustle of travel was the cause. You might think I should’ve just gone right to the hotel and asked them to hold my luggage, and eventually I did that. But I was initially hesitant because…I didn’t know Linda’s last name! After a lot of self-talk, I finally hauled my stuff over to the hotel’s lobby and approached the desk. Strangely enough, I did not panic when the hotel clerk told me they didn’t have any reservations for a “Linda”. So, I asked if I could sit in the lobby until the illustrious Linda arrived, which was fine. Eventually, my head cleared a bit, and I dug up the Ravelry message where I’d gotten her e-mail address to Paypal my share of the room charges, and the e-mail had her last name. Score! Still, they wanted to wait for her to arrive and check in. Well, a couple text messages later and Linda had asked them if I could check in ahead of them, and that’s what we ended up doing. Phew!

I was so relieved to have a place to leave my stuff. I think I took all of ten minutes to get over the stress that this mini-drama had caused. And, just a bit late in the game, I prayed. This was a prayer of thanksgiving as my adventure was resuming its course. Then I was off to the convention center. My plan was to pick up my registration packet and see about meeting up with the “other” new friend I’d made while planning for this trip. Becky had posted information about an event at the Oregon Brewers Festival, which opened on Thursday, and it seems she and I were the only ones who purchased tickets to the grand opening brunch before they sold out. In the two weeks or so before our arrival, we had exchanged messages with info about what classes we were taking and such, and a friendship began. Becky had invited me to join a group that would be touring downtown Portland on Wednesday afternoon, so I accepted, provided I could check in to the hotel in a timely fashion. Having accomplished that, I gave Becky info about how to recognize me (the perfect t-shirt: “Knit Big” in bold print across the front), and she found me straight away as I descended the escalator in front of the registration booth. While we chatted briefly, my roommate Linda, along with our other roommate, Kim, came up to me for introductions. And then the whirlwind began.

Our tour started at the Alder Street lunch carts, with 20+ vendor carts to choose from. I’d already eaten, so I just hung out with Becky, chatting and such. All the while, I was noting our surroundings. There was a group of musicians sitting on one corner, which captured my attention straight away. They were still there after we’d circled the block, too. I snapped a less-than-perfect photo as I was trying not to stare…

After everyone had eaten, we made our way to the first knitterly destination: Urban Fiber Arts in the Pearl District. We had fun petting the yarny goodness, and Skippyjon chose to nestle in the alpaca.

I was well restrained and did not make any fiber purchases, though I was certainly enjoying the view! Our next stop was Cupcake Jones, aka Dessert Extraordinaire! Perhaps I was a tad predicable, but I took a traditional approach in selecting the Downtown Chocolate Brown. Others dabbled a bit, selecting sampler-sized cupcakes in a variety of flavors. The most raved-about was the white chocolate marionberry. I was quite happy with my selection…

Next stop: Powell’s book store, which I have described as the Book Loft on steroids. The building takes up a city block, and features many rooms of books. I was on overload, though, and wanted to eat my cupcake in peace. Three of us headed to their coffee shop to get some sweetened caffeine to go with our confectionery delights. My mocha was amazing, not to mention ginormous!

That was just the boost I needed to keep me going, too. Next stop: Knit Purl, another LYS to drool over. And here I was taken by the wall of Koigu.

Our final destination on this tour was the Button Emporium. I did make a purchase here, though it’ll take time for me to decide how to use the goodies I bought.

Our group then returned to the Convention Center to sit and knit a bit. The organizers of Sock Summit are truly brilliant folks, and they had the foresight to place a whole slew of tables in the open space outside the meeting rooms so that knitters could do what they love, sit & knit & chat. Most of our tour group opted to sit and hang out, and eventually someone hatched a brainstorm of an idea for dinner. We’d had our fill of walking on the afternoon tour, and while the same guide (Denise, you rock!) had put together an equally brilliant evening tour to include dinner, most of our newly formed cluster decided to go with Plan B. Granted, we were a bit hazy about Plan B, but the key elements would be: ride the MAX, step off the MAX and enter a pub (someone had spotted something straight off the MAX, or so she thought), sit and eat & drink beer. Good plan, isn’t it?

We managed to pull it off, too, to some extent. We rode the MAX back across the river, and stepped off the train when someone spotted the illustrious pub. It wasn’t exactly “right off the train” but we only had to walk a block to get to the front doors of Kells Irish Restaurant & Pub. And thus began a very entertaining evening. While it’s true that “what happens at Sock Summit stays on Facebook, Twitter & Blogs,” I won’t regale you with all the tales of the evening’s entertainment. But I will share one tidbit because it was just plain cool. At some point during the evening, Becky looked up and spotted money on the ceiling. No kidding. Money. See?

I asked our server for the scoop. He explained, that this collection of cash is for charity. A one-dollar bill and two quarters, along with some Irish magic, will stick to the ceiling. Every year they do a sweep of the money on the ceiling and the money gets donated to the Children’s Hospital. Naturally, I forked over the cash to see our server demonstrate the magic. Success. Now, beer…(sorry, no photo of the Smithwick’s).

After dinner we were sufficient wiped, so we all made our way back to the MAX to find our way. A couple ladies in our party were in more remote locations, but we eventually discovered that three of us (including me) were at the same hotel, so it was nice to walk with friends. My very-long-day came to an end at last. And with the new day will come Sock Summit!

Knit on.

I will start by pointing out to all my GK2 friends that a lot of this information will be virtually identical (if not totally) to my posts in my “Watch This Space” thread on Ravelry. When I travel, I make a concerted effort not to advertise that I’m traveling. On this trip out west, that plan went slightly awry thanks to one of my new pals who had fun advertising that she was out and about in the US with some really cool & fun ladies (including me, in case you were wondering). Still, I stayed pretty silent on Facebook, with the exception of my plea for prayers after my back gave out. But that story comes later.

On Wednesday, July 27th, I boarded a plane at oh-dark-thirty (that’s in the morning) to make my way from Columbus to Portland, Oregon. This would be my first visit to the Green State, but I know it won’t be my last. I certainly fell in love with all they had to offer. There were two primary draws to make this journey. The big motivator was Sock Summit 2011, a convention devoted to the art & science of knitting socks and fostering friendships among the thousands of people who enjoy this craft/hobby/obsession. In addition, I was not about to fly all that way and not visit my aunt & uncle who moved to southern Oregon some 17 years ago.

The first leg of my trip was somewhat lengthy, flying from CMH to Denver, Colorado, but this flight was pretty uneventful. The plane was smaller than I might have expected, given the distance. Classified a “regional jet,” it didn’t have a whole lot of that new-fangled technology. Still, I was uber-excited to be flying across the country for this long-anticipated adventure. I should also point out that I got virtually no sleep prior to my flight. I had worked all day on Tuesday, then went to dinner with my son, after which he “treated” me to the movie Captain America, for which I will be eternally grateful…or at least until it comes out on DVD. When I got home from the theater, I finally began packing my suitcase and carry-ons.

You have to understand that while I was packing for a week-long vacation, there were some heavy-duty expectations as to what would be happening, where I’d be going, and so on. Therefore, I had to pack a week’s worth of clothes, plus the standard toiletries and such. That would also include about ten pairs of hand-knit socks (sock knitting convention, remember?), with some intentional color coordination with the aforementioned clothing. I knew I’d be knitting, so I packed three projects: the Bridge of Roses socks which were all knitted up but still needed a bunch of roses to be stitched on; my colorwork mystery socks for one of my knit-alongs; and the latest shawl-in-progress, since 2011 is my Year of Shawls.

Traveling to a new location, with various planned and wished-for activities, also means a need for cameras, so I packed my Nikon DSLR with its second lens and external flash unit, as well as extra batteries, the battery charger, and a spare memory card…and my Kodak digital point-and-shoot, its battery charger and a spare memory card. Each camera serves its own purpose, and each will travel on location in a different case: heavy duty Lowepro knapsack for the Nikon and all its pieces & parts, and a hip & happening fanny pack for the Kodak… Plus, I wanted to be able to off-load photos from the memory cards on a daily basis, so I packed up my laptop and a cute new external hard drive for storing all the goodies. Plus the assorted power cords and such, and a surge protector power strip. Nope, I wasn’t leaving anything to chance here.

Oh, and since I was bringing the knitting along, I also needed to pack my Nook Color…and its charger. And my Blackberry was going with me, so it needs a charger, too. I was honestly amazed at how quickly I got through security at 5:30 a.m. that Wednesday. Oh, and did I mention that with the knitting I also had a couple spare circular knitting needles? And darning needles…and scissors. Nope, no issues with security. Score!

And the last thing I had to be sure I packed was my go-to photo op pal: Skippyjon Jones (or Sir SJJ, as one fine lady has dubbed him). Skippyjon had sported a lovely sweater back in February at the Pittsburgh Knit/Crochet Festival. But this convention is in July in the Pacific Northwest, which is a very temperate climate. A sweater would be overkill. So we left that at home. What Skippyjon needed for this trip, though, was a new pair of socks. So I knit him some. I started the project in the Denver airport during my layover (once I’d had enough coffee to focus on the microscopic knitting task), and finished up the second sock on the plane bound for Portland. A couple of the cleaning staff at Denver International were quite entertained, particularly as I’d be trying a sock-in-progress on SJ’s foot to make sure it would fit well. The final result was presentable, if simplistic. Then again, they are only 3/4″ long…

I boarded the plane in Denver with continued excitement, particularly now that SJ’s socks were shaping up to be freakin’ adorable. This was a much larger plane that would take us over the Rockies, complete with multiple video screens so we could watch some form of entertainment during the flight. But it took a while for the in-flight shows to start. And in the interim, I was introduced to Spencer & Jeremiah. These characters were never formally introduced to me, and yet, by the end of the 2.5 hour flight I knew far more about the two of them than I would ever want to know. And these guys were complete strangers who just happened, by a stroke of fate, to be seated next to each other, and right behind me. Jeremiah, hailing from Oklahoma City (or Oh-Kay-See, as he proclaimed) and on his way to visit his aunt & uncle, proceeded to thump me in the back continuously throughout the flight. For some bizarre reason, I never quite got up the nerve to pop my head up over the back of the seat to ask him to please quit doing whatever the heck he was doing, opting instead to suffer in silence. Not that it was silent, obviously, for the odd couple never stopped talking. I ended up plugging my headphones into the armrest port, listening to music, then the Hispanic dubbing for Hawaii Five-O, before finding the English channel for the show. I was never so happy to see two people walk away than when Spencer & Jeremiah parted ways on that flight.

In addition to the planned in-flight entertainment, I enjoyed views of the mountains and plains as our plane made its way along its course. The most spectacular, though, was my first glimpse of Mount Hood. Truly breathtaking.

Well, what do you know…I am at last feeling droopy-eyed and ready to crash. I guess I will pick up in Portland when next I resume blogging. I really do want to share so many of the experiences from my PNW vacation! I hope you’re interested in reading about them. If not, just smile and wave. But don’t be surprised if I call you Spencer or Jeremiah. It’s not an insult. Honest.

Knit On.

Matt came to my house this morning, and we ventured to Gahanna together to have lunch with my parents. He’s been telling me for a few months that this was not an eagerly anticipated birthday, as he’s sad to no longer be a teenager, but being under 21, the age doesn’t seem to mean a whole lot. Still, it’s the conclusion of his first two decades of life, and I think he has a great deal to show for it. I’m certainly proud of the man he has become.

Last week I spent the work week in Deerfield, Illinois, just outside of Chicago. It was a business trip, and there was a lot of work to be done. The first half of the week was spent in training, while the second half was devoted to testing. The whole week, though, offered a unique opportunity to spend quality time with my colleagues. Since I joined this global team, where more than half of my “immediate peers” work remotely, this was my first opportunity to meet a few of these colleagues in person. Four of us traveled from other offices/locations: Toronto, Charlotte (NC), Eugene (OR) and Columbus (OH). The only staffer who did not attend is a woman in Princeton, NJ, who has been recovering from surgery. I managed to meet her last year while I was on the East Coast. While our team talks regularly via conference calls, everyone present in our sessions agreed that “face time” goes a long way to foster the team atmosphere. We’re hoping that management will continue to grant us these opportunities going forward.

While the week was productive, it certainly took a lot out of me. I did manage to work in knitting throughout the week, but my energy was definitely drained regularly. Being in a social group from breakfast through late dinner was taxing on my “intraversion” process (see Myers-Briggs info about this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myers-Briggs_Type_Indicator#Attitudes:_Extraversion_.28E.29.2FIntroversion_.28I.29). In the future, I will have to keep this in mind and carve out more time by myself so I can recharge during the trip.

When I returned from Deerfield, I continued to knit on the birthday shawls I have in progress, but I also whipped out a cute little Golden Snitch in honor of the weekend’s movie release. This project also satisfied a crafting challenge in the Nerd Wars competition, so that’s a plus. Now I need to continue recharging in anticipation of the coming work week…

Knit On.

After all, who wants to leave their fortune…their fate…their future up to some random prediction printed and packaged in a factory? No one knows what lies before us. Our future is, as some may say, what we make of it. But our future is always uncertain, for it can be altered so easily by so very many things, intentionally or unintentionally. That doesn’t stop us from making plans though. And this weekend I plan to take time to put my feet to use in support of my friends. Friday evening I will be participating in the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life in Groveport, Ohio. I’ve also been invited to sing for the Luminary Ceremony, which is a tremendous honor for me.

Last summer, I participated in a Relay event in Hilliard, and at the time I was walking in support of my friend Tony. In a couple weeks, we will mark the anniversary of Tony’s death. And I’m stunned as I sit here thinking back over the past year, realizing how many more people I know are fighting this battle. It seems like every day I read an e-mail announcing another diagnosis or a death. One friend had surgery today to have a kidney removed in the hope that cutting out the offending organ will relieve her pain. I’m no stranger to pain, what with my chronic back condition that has plagued me for nearly fifteen years. But I can take some Advil or Naproxen and lie down, knowing the pain will subside and that the condition isn’t fatal. As I witness my friends’ struggles, realizing the pain they’re enduring, I’m further humbled. I do what I can, when I can, where I can. And so I’ll be walking. I’m also hoping to knit a bit while completing laps – so let’s pray there’s no rain on Friday or Saturday. And while you’re at it, please say a prayer for Tim and Jacinta and John and Charlotte and…add the names of your friends and family.

If you’d like to contribute to my fundraising efforts, you’re welcome to stop over on my page: http://main.acsevents.org/goto/roocmc, but my deepest request is for prayers. And maybe once the Relay event is done, I can finally start looking at pictures and reminiscing about the fun I’ve had so far this year. And then I think I’ll go to the zoo…

Knit on.

In May I took a wonderful vacation trip with friends to Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. It was an interesting “experiment” as a girls’ getaway with an interesting amalgamation of personalities & interests. The whole adventure began with a recommendation to my scrapbooking friend, Tammy, who is also a rabid avid golfer, to check out a friend’s villa on HHI. I’d been there a few years ago, so I could easily recommend the vacation. Tammy loved the idea, and instead of following my (silent) train of thought regarding a family vacation, she decided it would be perfect for a girls’ getaway. And so the planning fun began. We each extended invitations to friends to try to fill the 6 sleeping spaces. Splitting the cost 5-6 ways meant it was a fantastic deal, and Tammy suggested we book the week of her birthday.

The week was chock full of wonderful memories. Our final entourage included Tammy and me, my knitting-friend Liz, Tammy’s golfing-buddy Sondra, and Sondra’s mom, Chris. The five of spent a fair amount of time together all week long, dining out together most evenings. We all went to the spa on our first day to get pedicures (photo worthy!). We took a beautiful sunset dolphin-watching cruise, and drank several different wines and beers, among other things. There were alligators and anhingas in our backyard, and squirrels. Lots of squirrels.

I still have to sift through all the photos from the week-long adventure. I shot nearly 1600 images, and of those there should be at least 600 “really good” pictures. Scrapbook to follow!

Since returning home, though, it’s been back to business-as-usual with life and work and the every day. I’ve had an increasing number of crying spells, and more than a handful of depression dips. But I have more adventures to look forward to in the coming months. My son will turn (gasp!) twenty years old next month, so I’m bracing myself for that. And there’s always knitting – lots and lots of kitting – to do. And yet somehow I’ve still managed to chew my fingernails down to nothing. What’s up with that???

Since the grind is still moving along, I’d best get back to it. I’ve got a knitting lunch today, so I need to finish up some work first…

Knit on.

A few weeks ago, I talked about the graces I’ve received this year, despite the dark moments. And I continue to look for the positive things in my life. This week I’ve through about the multitude of blessings in my life. God gives each of us a combination of time, talent and treasure, and we are charged with taking what we are given in these three areas and investing it wisely. Some are more abundantly blessed with more of one than others. My maternal grandmother died before her 54th birthday, so she had less time in this world than my mother, who turned 74 last month. I have been blessed with artistic abilities in music and art along with logic, math skills, and a love for the written word. I’d like to think my abundance of talent makes up for what I perceive to be my lack of financial stores.

I think, though, that the most misunderstood category of blessings is treasure. I just mentioned financial treasure, but having pondered this for several days, I realized that my most valuable treasure in this world can’t be stored in a bank. It can’t be bought or sold or even insured, at least not in a tangible sense. No, my greatest treasure is my family and friends. I have blessed year after year after year with more friends than I can count (though Facebook may try…), from all walks of life. Having lived in four different states (and they all connect: CT, NY, PA & OH), I have established friendships in each of them. Granted, I’ve lost touch with far more than I’d like to consider, but I still remember them, and I hold a part of each of them in my heart. I’m thrilled that Facebook has allowed me to reconnect with a lot of them (Hey there, OLP gang!). I can only hope that a part of me has stayed with even some of those hundreds of people, for this is my legacy.

What we do with our time, talent and treasure shows the world what matters to us (“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Matthew 6:21). And using these blessings we’re given to make the world a better place is our calling in life. I have yet to read a book sitting on my desk at work, entitled Outlive Your Life by Max Lucado. But I have a sneaking suspicion that the gist of the book is to use these blessings to leave our mark on the world.

Once we’re gone, it is our legacy that will remain, but only if we’ve made an effort to do so. Some of the wealthy insure their legacies by donating money, then have a scholarship or a building or some similar perpetuity named after them. I don’t have that kind of money, nor do I desire it (okay, maybe I do a little…). My choice is to invest my time and talent in honor and support of my treasures, those I care most about.

Two of my dearest friends are doing the same, and this is where the favor I’m asking for comes in. Two very special women in my life are taking up challenges to invest in the future, using their time, talent and treasures for the greater good. I won’t spend a lot of time on their stories, for each has done a good job of that already. My friend Liz, who is recovering from surgery, and her husband have assembled a team to walk in the Susan Komen Race for the Cure, to be held here in Columbus in a couple weeks. I’d be shocked if someone told me his or her life has not been touched in some way by breast cancer.

My other “spotlight friend” is Nichole. I’ve only known her for a brief time, but she has certainly made her mark in my life and on my heart. She and her 9-year-old daughter have accepted the challenge to step waaaaaaaay out of their comfort zone in an act of faith, hope and charity. Later this summer these two lovely ladies will be traveling to Brazil to volunteer their time and skills in whatever capacity they are needed. They are responsible for transporting themselves to the volunteer location, and then the charitable organization through which they’ve arranged this mission trip will provide room & board. Still, each participant has a responsibility to finance their costs via the organization.

I can only do so much to help these women from a financial perspective, but I have an incredible resource in my network of family & friends. So I’m asking a small favor. Please consider donating to the fundraising campaigns for the three of them. Even $5 can make a difference. If each of my friends contributed $5 to each person ($15 total), their fundraising goals would be met and exceeded. I know that not everyone has the means to assist, and so many of you already contribute to the causes that are near to your heart. But I can ask, and I trust that this is enough.

The link to Team LizNoe is here: http://columbus.info-komen.org/site/TR?team_id=161842&pg=team&fr_id=2104&et=7UFnSP9BI6d6NW9qfsn5BQ..&s_tafId=63857

And to contribute to Nichole and her daughter (Raven), the link is: https://my.crossculturalsolutions.org/sponsor/sponsorsearchpage.aspx (enter Glover as the last name).

And again, since this is primarily my knitting blog… I finished the wedding afghan (yay!), and pictures will be posted following the wedding next month. I’ve also joined a charitable knitting project called Socks for Soldiers, knitting socks for active military personnel. The guidelines are somewhat rigid, but I think the organizers are flexible enough that I can incorporate this sock knitting work into my regular knitting schedule. Time will tell…

Knit On.

Still, even with all of the tear-filled nights I’ve spent this year, there have been some incredible, grace-filled moments/hours/days to counter the down and out moments. Even now, I just glanced out the window and was taken aback for a moment with the beauty. Some may not think of it that way, as I’m looking out into a parking lot downtown, with rows and rows of cars and asphalt and such. But when I did turn and look out, my eyes fell first on the brilliant emerald-green grass, practically glowing in sunlight – and hey, we’ve got glorious sunlight and a cloudless azure sky above. Even the rainbow-colored array of cars in the lot glints in the sun.

I’m working on floating back down to the real world, having been on a mountain-top experience this past weekend. I was blessed to be on a team leading a Cum Christo weekend, a spiritual event presenting a “crash course” workshop in Christian living. I had attended a similar weekend back in 2002, but neither my sponsor for that event nor the team that led it did much to emphasize the importance of maintaining my relationship with the community following the weekend. The Spirit drew me to the Cum Christo community when I joined the Church of the Resurrection parish in 2006, and my involvement in the community has grown significantly in the past couple years.

For this weekend, the 144th retreat held for women by this community, I was assigned the role of musician, being responsible for leading the music for praise & worship, during our team’s formation process and throughout the weekend itself. My thirty years of music ministry experience certainly provided me the skills and confidence to fill this role, but it never ceases to amaze me how the Holy Spirit could surprise me. Somehow we seemed to always have the most appropriate song selected, often without even knowing what would be presented.

Now our team is thrown back into our own environments in “the Real World.” We’ve had a number of e-mails broadcast among the members, sharing our thoughts and feelings, looking back on the weekend and expressing our collective disappointment that our time together is effectively done. But, every end is also a beginning. We’ve concluded our time as this team, this particular, distinctive combination of sixteen mind/heart/soul components (people) who bonded into a single cohesive unit, singularly motivated to provide the best experience for our candidates (retreat attendees) that we could. This was definitely an example of “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” For these 26 women who attended, this was the precise formula of team members, leaders and spiritual directors to meet them where they were on their 26 individual walks.

The team, though, became a family – that singular unit. So the “disassembly” of the team is a painful process. Fortunately, we don’t have to quit “cold turkey.” As team members, we are asked to attend the next three Ultreyas, weekly meetings designed to renew the Christian friendship experienced on the weekend and to strengthen our personal relationship with Christ. The “graduates” of the weekend course, now lovingly called “Babe Chicks,” are strongly encouraged to attend these three Ultreyas in order to reinforce the elements presented on the weekend, and to introduce them to more members of the community. As the team musician, I will be leading the music for those Ultreyas, too.

Having team members in attendance helps the Babe Chicks by surrounding them with familiar faces to foster their sense of belonging in this community. I know that if I hadn’t seen folks from Resurrection when I attended Ultreyas, I would’ve been considerably less inclined to return. But with each meeting, we expand our circle of friendship. I know that everyone there shares my love of Christ and desire to share that with fellow Christians, and this understanding reduces the strain on my introverted mind when mingling with these not-yet-friends.

I have a long way to go to process all that I gained from this Cum Christo, and I’m hoping life doesn’t get so crazy that I get too far away from the experience to be able to retain all the nuggets of wisdom I received. I took a lot of notes during all the talks, so that should help. But I need to commit to reviewing those notes to dig deeper and put this experience into practice in my daily walk. After all, the ultimate goal of Cum Christo is to keep us living authentic Christian lives as Christian leaders and disciples of Christ. Allelu – oops, nope, can’t finish that one until Easter Sunday.

Oh, and since this is also my knitting blog… in the nearly-two months since my last post, I finished four pairs of socks, two scarves, a doily, a shawl, a pair of fingerless gloves, a cowl and a tank top. I’m 80% done with the wedding afghan, and hoping to finish that by the end of this month, and I’m 30% of the way through another shawl, this one being one I’ve designed myself. Further, I have signed up to be part of the Socks for Soldiers (SFS) team, knitting socks for active military. After all, I couldn’t possibly have enough knitting projects already on my plate…

Knit On.

In honor of Presidents’ Day, while I wanted to take advantage of “bonus” knitting time, I multi-tasked by watching a couple PBS two-part documentaries. One was all about President Harry Truman, of whom I knew startlingly little before watching the show. The other was a Ken Burns biography of Thomas Jefferson. Since I had done a lot of reading before, during and after my trip to Washington, DC last summer, there was a great deal about our nation’s third President that I already knew. This biography, as all Ken Burns shows do, gave explicit detail and information from others’ viewpoints, so naturally I did learn a bit more about the author of the Declaration of Independence. These two shows have inspired me to want to see much more on my next visit to the capitol, hopefully this summer.

Another key goal I had for the three-day weekend was to get some real rest. The previous weekend I had spent in Pittsburgh, primarily to attend the Pittsburgh Knit & Crochet Festival. This three-day adventure was fabulous, and quite the whirlwind. I met a co-worker and his family for dinner on Friday, took a couple insightful classes on knitting techniques, and made several wonderful new friends. Sunday was the busiest day of all, though, starting with 7:30 Mass (sadly, without music) followed by a photo-filled visit to the Pittsburgh Zoo (tiger cubs – awesome!). I returned to the convention area for lunch, another stop at the festival’s marketplace, including a photo op for Skippy Jon Jones with celebrity guest Steven Be, and one final class. Then I had to buckle down and drive home. All this activity, while lots of fun, truly wore me out. It honestly took me all week to recover. Note to self: take the day off after such a busy weekend! So I was grateful for the opportunity to sleep in on two of the three days, though I was still up and about to complete my chores well before noontime on Saturday.

My next big adventure will be the week-long vacation at Hilton Head Island, but that’s still a few months away. In the meantime, I have a weekend retreat to prepare for, a wedding gift to finish knitting, a number of smaller knitting projects to get through (courtesy of online challenges in the Harry Potter Knitting/Crochet House Cup and Nerd Wars, among others), my monthly zoo trips, and who knows what else God has planned for me! My brain is rather jumbled with all these prospects, so perhaps my next weekend will be spent sorting out my schedule and prioritizing…or maybe I’ll just do my laundry and knit!

Knit on.