Here are the leaves!

My wife said they look like chili peppers. They do, actually. The way I arrranged them on the page could be a work of art unto itself.

Incurable...

I can’t escape: I was doing laundry and I saw a knitted hat my wife had, and I thought to myself, I could do that…

I was in the closet and I saw one of my wife’s sweaters hanging there, and I thought to myself, that’s an interesting pattern, I could try that…

I was reading the paper and I saw a production still from the movie, Fantastic Mr. Fox. Mr. Fox is talking to his wife, who has on a knit sweater. I thought to myself, that could have been my sweater in that movie! Does anybody else go through this?

Knittin' Archives Part 2

2-6-09 ~ I am almost at the halfway point knitting my wife's shawl:

It is 23" long so far and I am on my 5th ball of yarn. I have 5 more left but I don't know if I'll use them all yet. I'm truly getting bit by the loom knitting bug now, and I've been thinking of other projects to do, like knitting a baby blanket to have "just in case" we get invited to a baby shower or to give to a local hospital.

2-16-09 ~ Here is the progress on the shawl:

So far it's up to 29". I think it is coming out even nicer than I thought it would.
I also just finished an all black scarf for a friend who doesn't know he/she is getting it yet.
And I just started a scarf for my wife, whom I had not made a scarf for yet. I bought some of that gorgeous recycled unrefined silk yarn I had blogged about last month from TheWoolPeddler.com. It is so soft and beautiful! I bought 200g of it. When it came it wasn't wrapped in a ball so I just started working with it right away. I soon learned that I had better make it into a ball before it turns into a tangled mess. Unfortunately I had already started, so it was starting to get tangled. I had always wondered why I would see in those old movies sometimes a person with their hands out holding the yarn while a second person winds it into a ball. Several hours and a few scissor clips later I had 4 balls of yarn of various sizes.

I wasn't sure if I had enough to make the length of scarf I wanted to make, but I figured I'd just start it and order more if I needed to. My wife loves the color and richness of it, and as I work with it, it becomes more and more beautiful, since the variety of colors in it will allow her to wear it with many different outfits. Here it is:

2-20-09 ~ I am so happy with the progress I've been making on these projects for my wife. The shawl is already at 37":

I'm going to measure one of her other shawls to make sure this one is the same length (or a bit longer). However I just noticed that even though I take a new picture of it, it probably looks the same to you from week to week. I'll have to figure out a way to illustrate that it is getting longer.
And her scarf is at 17":

It isn't as hard to work with as I had imagined, though it will be thin in some spots. To me that makes it more delicate, and even though it will be a little thin, it is strong and will take a lot of abuse. The colors in it are so rich and luxurious, no one will guess that it didn't cost a lot when they see it!

3-15-09 ~ I had some personal business to take care of last week, and it took a good part of my time, so I didn't work on the knitting projects too much. But when I was able to get back to it last weekend and during this week, I finished my wife's scarf! Here it is, finished, at 68" long:

It is like stained glass:

You will see different colors in it depending on the light you're in. It is so rich and beautiful, I love it, and so does my sweetie! A great big thank you to The Wool Peddler at TheWoolPeddler.com! I advise anyone looking for some great yarn to check out their website.
I decided to hang the shawl on the door so you could get a better idea of how long it is getting. That red at the top is just a towel I put there so the dust on top of the door wouldn't get on the shawl:

As you can see it is almost the full length of the door. Right now it is at 68" - same length as the scarf - and I have two more balls of yarn to go. I expect to have it done in early April. All this knitting has really been a wonderful experience for me, and I look forward to seeing what role it will take on in my life after I finish the shawl.

3-22-09 ~ It has been a productive week for knitting, and I am finally on my last ball of yarn! I have knitted this shawl out of 10 balls of yarn, and it took longer than I thought it would. But I am grateful for the journey and excited to present it to my wife. Right now it is 83" long, and I expect to have it done before the end of the week:

As you can see, it covers the whole door now. I had to use a different door than last time to take this picture.

4-04-09 ~ I'M DONE WITH THE SHAWL!! YAY! It took me about 8 weeks to do, and I'm very happy with how it turned out (so is my wife). The total length is 84":

I was done with it last week but I didn't have any batteries for my digital camera so I didn't blog about it. While I was working on the shawl I completed 2 scarves for some dear friends of ours, who were very appreciative of them.

Back in the Zone

I got some artwork done, which is great. At first it felt a little mechanical, but then my creative zone kicked in and I was able to start drawing freely. Now I notice that even if I only have a moment to draw, the creative zone kicks in faster. I can enter in and draw without having to warm up, and the piece will look as though it may have been completed in a few sittings rather than the long time it is taking for it to be created.

The Wild Kingdom continues...

This week I saw a baby fox in our yard.

At first it was at the back of the yard, gnawing on a bone, presumably something it had killed. Then it wandered about, nibbling on things crawling about in the grass that I couldn't see. I stood still and took pictures of it. It came closer and closer until it was only 10 feet away, and that's when I got this picture:

It looked up when it heard the camera click. I moved, and it scampered away. When I looked out the window later on, it was still in the yard but further away.

And every night we can hear the cows across the street mooing. Even with the doors and windows closed, you can hear them pretty well.

I'm almost halfway done with writing my book, yay! I hope you will read it. It's about how a creative person can connect to God through quiet time and so much more than that.

Also, I wanted to include some pictures of the last two scarves I had loom knitted for two dear friends: