Showing posts with label Advent. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Advent. Show all posts

Sunday, December 20, 2009

WIP weekend, still sick


My WIPs greatly slowed down this week, I concentrated on one main project: getting better. Loads of fun that is and if it weren't for the fact that I felt so miserable and my head felt like it was going to explode every time I tried to lift it I would feel terribly unproductive. As I emerge from the snot fog the inkling that I've wasted an entire week laying on my couch blowing through rolls and rolls of TP is starting to be impressed on me. Oh well, it is the last week before Christmas, must wash my hands and get on with it.

So the WIPs I have to share are primarily those of others and there have been a few busy bees around me.

O's been working like crazy, still knitting with pick-up sticks (yes, as in the game) and doing tiny clothing for favorite dolls and stuffed animals. She's enjoyed it just as much as the recipients will love getting them. Not much one to follow a pattern (I have NO idea where she gets that from!), all of these are her own design.

Sorry about the long shadows, the day got away from me before I got to take these in better lighting. Tiny sweater and pants for a tiny stuffed animal. Just need the ends woven in (again, procrastinating on weaving ends in? WHERE did she get that from?)

This is a bag knit with some sock yarn.

I think this is going to be a tiny dress (sock yarn on pick-up-sticks) for a tiny fairy but she just cast on when I asked her to bring them outside for a pic so I'm not real sure.

And a hat ornament for a friend, also knit on pick-up sticks, notice how she coordinated the colors of the sticks with the yarn?

O with all her WIPs for now. She'll finish a bunch of these in the next day or two and start some new ones for sure. She's a busy little elf.

L's FO really, a yarn wreath ornament for a friend. She'll be making several more of these this week including a big one for our front door! Her knitting WIP is still the pink bamboo baby hat, I expect that to continue for a good long while, ha!

H made a similar yarn wreath with some fun yarn which was, well, fun! Also a gift for a friend she did great and will be joining L in making a few more this week.

So this isn't a WIP any more, more of a FO. These are even, one was just more slouched than the other on my model. I need to make a bunch more of these, my girls want some for themselves as well and I think I may want a pair too though not pink. I had just enough of the darker pink (alpaca/silk blend) to finish the second leg and the exact left-overs were just enough to make a bow on them to pack up to send to the special little girl I hope enjoys her leg-warmers and tutu set. I'll be finishing the tutu tonight while we watch The Muppets' Christmas Carol.

This WIP is for V, a wool baby gown. The top is a wool blend, I'm not happy with the sleeves so I'll be frogging those and redoing them. The shoulders lace up with pink ribbon, there is a large satin ribbon to go between the top and bottom, ribbon for the eyelets in the ruffle of the skirt to make a drawstring and if I get around to it, pink flowers to embroider along the skirt. The matching hat and bloomers are already done and the booties should be a quick knit.

Obviously not a WIP yet but likely my next one, just simple, plain longies for V. Tomorrow I'll also be casting on for an iPhone case for a friend's Christmas gift but decided I didn't have any yarn that would really work for her. That sounds impossible considering my stash.

WIP of a different sort, the living room. The yellow base is finished and waiting the glaze to come and red trim but we got slowed down with being sick. Everybody pitched in to help.


Lots more to come, hope you're enjoying your Christmas crafting and other fun projects you've got going on!

Sunday, December 21, 2008

12.14.08 Benediction- An Advent Benediction

The benediction I wrote last week. It's ok, not great but ok. The running theme through the messages has carried over into my benedictions (this is a good thing) but they are starting to sound the same to me. Not that that's a bad thing, it is a theme that bears repeating.

In secret, gifts are given
Not wrapped to draw attention
Simple needs met in Compassion's glance
Love exhaled with weighty purpose
Joy poured forth
For the broken hearted
Hungry
Thirsty
And lost to dispair
Virgin womb
Now ripe with Divinity incarnate
Birth's pierced hands, feet, flowing side
This is not empty promises living
This is Emmanuel, God with us.

Justice seekers growing daily
To know God more completely
Love sacrificially
For adoration requires giving your all
Life abundant to be lived fully
See as children and saints before you
Conspire to love
As your liberating Lord

Sunday, December 7, 2008

Advent Benediction

I wrote this December 2, 2007, I think it was the first Sunday in Advent but I could be mistaken. This is a very special benediction to me, written during the season of Advent and me very pregnant with Evangeline Claire, her very name meaning clear good news or gospel. Today, the second Sunday of Advent a year later I reflect and share this benediction with you here no longer pregnant and wondering what happened to the waiting as another year has flown by.

Benediction 12.02.07

Ripe expectation
In chaos ignored
Joyful suffering forgotten
For temporal desires
Hording stifles compassion's cries
Afraid to lose what we can never keep
Apathy, our subtle friend
Blinds us to complacency's clutch

Mary, full waiting
Longing for pain
For midst the lingering groans
And washing waves
The vision of promise sweet
Is for a moment lost
Consumed by the work
Of love to be born
But from wrenching pain and stinging sweat
Each determined grip
Births creation's Maker
The Word in Flesh

Release breath
Listen now
Love's cries awaken new
Eternal wealth
Living to be shared
Like pure water
Life-giving for all

Go out and share the wealth
Divine love has come