scarf it up

Dude!  Here it is, the end of August and I have yet to reconcile that it still isn't May.  How did this happen?  I know that time seems to fly by faster, the older I get.  But this summer seems to have been a long day of sizzling heat, not more than a week long at the most.  And here it is, almost September already.

What have I done this year?  I honestly cannot think of any one thing, but when I do ponder, I can come up with a bunch of lil things.  But this year wasn't dedicated to any one thing, except maybe developing more of my knowledge of fiber~arts.  The anatomy of stitches fascinates me.  In the spring, I crocheted hats and scarves for various charities.  Moving into summer, I began to work on lapghans for the vets at the VA hospital in Jackson, MS.

Then I took a break from that to pick up knitting needles and pick at some yarn, holding it exactly as I would crochet.  I learned more about how loops interconnect and what sort of fabric that yields.  Scarves make wonderful swatches to teach myself, by experimenting with this method and then that; and what happens then when I combine this with that?  Those scarves will go to the kids over at Palmer Home in Columbus, the next county to the east.

Now, I'm ready to pick up crochet hooks again, finishing a few more lapghans.  And when I need to take a break from that project, more scarves are needed as there are between eighty and a hundred kids at Palmer.  There are also kids over at Sally Kate Winters in West Point, MS.  And scarves are needed for the Special Olympians in 2012.

And I have not even begun to think of holiday stuff yet.  And here it is September.  Already.

knots of love

On Saturdays, there is a small group of crafters that gather for a cuppa and companionship at the BookMart DownTown on Main Street in Starkville, Mississippi.

Yesterday, four of us helped to celebrate Knots of Love's knotting and knitting in public day from ten til two.

Knots of Love can be found here:  knots-of-love.org

It's a way cool organization, that gives warm soft handmade caps to over three hundred treatment centers for their clients who have had traumatic hair loss due to disease {such as cancer} or other causes {some forms of high stress cause folks to lose their hair such as witnessing a horrible accident, being involved in a fire, or loss of a loved one}.  To find out more about the organization's activities and how you too can help them reach their goals, visit them at knots-of-love.org

Ready Brek...?

Because I've been doing lots of wasteful things instead of primarily focusing on constructive things of late, I have been reading lots of blogs lately.  See, I belong to a group called Ravelry {link in the left bar} which focuses on us yarny types {fellow fiber freaks, yea!!}.  And in that community, many people list their blogs on their profile pages.  And if I like their work, or find them interesting, or just want to kill time doing absolutely nothing directly creative; I go blog gandering.

And I find out lil interesting tid~bits of trivial knowledge that have no significant import other than my then thinking/writing about them myself.

Enter "Ready Brek".  In the photo, it appeared to be a bowl of smushy oatmeal gripped in a chubby toddler's hand.  But I googled it lest I assume incorrectly that Ready Brek referred to instant breakfast in the guise of quick oats.  And yes, it is.

However, WIKI gave me pause as apparently Ready Brek is not only available in original, SuperOaty, and Honey...but CHOCOLATE.  My brain stuttered a bit as I tried to conceive of choco~oats in the form of a hot breakfast like oatmeal versus the super~surgared chocolatee children's dry cereals.  UuuuhmmmMM...?

And then, I remembered the conversation I had a few years back regarding peanut butter.  The Aussee I was chatting with while eating a fluffer~nutter {a marshmallow creme confection which draws puzzlement here in the South} shuddered over the thought of peanut~butter and jelly.  "Why would you do that?"  {shudder, shudder}  "What would possess you people to do such a horrible thing?"  I thought she meant mixing legumes with jelly.

But no.  She clarified that it was a horrible fate, sticky jelly smothering those poor beans.  Wasn't it bad enough that we made paste out of them?

Uhm.  Vegemite anyone?