Hosting Knit-Wits

The knitting group was organized long before we moved into our neighborhood.  The month after we moved in, one of my neighbors told me about the group and invited me to join.  I told her I didn't know how to knit.  She laughed and said there was way more to the group than knitting.  "We don't call ourselves Knit-wits for nothing," she laughed.

I decided then and there that just as I would never attend a book club meeting without reading the book, I wasn't joining a knitting group unless I learned to knit.  So...I went down to our local knit shop and bought some inexpensive yarn, a pair of knitting needles and a book about knitting.  I found some really good Web videos of various stitches and before the next meeting I was knitting a scarf, albeit a very simple one.

The knitting bug bit me and I began more complex patterns and different types of yarns and needles.  And so I became a knitter.  I especially enjoy when I am hosting the group.

Today was my turn to host the group.  I made a buttermilk pound cake.  I served it with lemon curd, fresh blueberries, and whipped cream.  For the chocolate lovers I made a dozen chocolate cupcakes.  For the light eaters I made sugar cookies.

The cake has already been cut!

(Thanks to my husband for making certain it tastes good enough to serve.)

Our group spends far more time chatting than knitting.  There were thirteen of us this afternoon so you can imagine there were several simultaneous conversations.  The conversations turn to a single focus only when we are showing our current work.  One woman is making an adorable baby sweater with little teddy-bear buttons.  Another is doing an applique.  I just love seeing what everyone is doing.

Unfortunately I cannot show you my current work-in-progress.  I'm knitting it for someone else and the recipient often reads my blog.  I will simply say the yarn is 100% silk and it feels wonderful in my fingers as I knit.  So I will show you one of the few things I have knitted for myself.

It's an alpaca shawl,  This photograph shows only one of the six diamonds that make the scarf.  The scalloped ends were very interesting, added when the body of the scarf is completed.  The wool is soft and very warm.

The best things about the Knit-wit group are that we socialize and enjoy each other's company.  We all join in to bless the prayer shawls, we discuss books, movies and television, children and grandchildren.  The more experienced help the novices.  We have a couple of knitters who love the challenge of a tangle of yarn and might spend most of the meeting working on a tangle someone brought.  It is quite fine to come to the group with no project in process.  We have only one rule.  WE WILL NOT DISCUSS  POLITICS.  We choose to remain good friends so we have politics-free gatherings..

Rainy Monday

Don't you just hate it when you have lots of errands to do and it is pouring rain?  So you fortify yourself with a couple of cups of coffee and go out to run errands in the rain?

You know that sick feeling when you look at your car in the garage and a tire looks flat?

And the tires are less than six months old?

 So you walk to the rear of the car thinking it might be just an illusion?
But it's not...and the tire is flat as a pancake?

And don't you just hate it when your mountain town is too small to have AAA service located in town?  So the nearest service provider is in a neighboring county?  So it's going to be a long wait?

And your husband asks you what you ran over, subtly insinuating it must be your fault?  And he keeps reminding you that he has never had a flat tire?

DON'T YOU JUST HATE THAT???

YEAH, ME TOO!

A Pretty Complete Education

My name is Carolyn and I am a book lover.  I last bought a book less than a week ago.  I love not only the contents but also the look and feel of books.  (Yes, I have a Kindle.  And yes, I do download and read books on it but it will never replace a real book for me.)  Not surprisingly, we own a lot of books.  We have a small library, and we have more books than the library can handle.  We recycle books periodically to make room for more.  A stack of books is always waiting to exit to friends or organizations.

Given my love for books, it is no wonder that I especially love collections.  There is one collection that I especially enjoy not only for the contents but also for the history behind the collection.  The Harvard Classics was published in fifty-one volumes in 1909.  With more than twenty-three thousand pages it is a very comprehensive collection.

Our own set of Harvard Classics

 Some say the collection is fifty books.  The additional book is an anthology of lectures that completes the set of fifty one.

My paternal grandmother introduced me to the Harvard Classics when I was a small child.  Grandma was a school teacher and a book lover and she valued her set of Harvard Classics above all books except for the Holy Bible and her dictionary.  She managed to have nine children and still teach school.  On occasion she taught in a neighboring county.  She took the school-aged children with her to board for the week and attend her one-room school and employed a live-in housekeeper to care for the house and the smaller children.  She and the children would come home on Friday afternoon and return to the boarding house Sunday night.  Grandma wasn't much for cooking and cleaning and she treasured her years as a teacher and a life-long learner.

Grandma allowed me to read some of the books, but only when I was the only grandchild around.  She didn't want her books damaged.  When I was a teen, she started receiving the "Reader's Digest" Condensed Books.  She had always said I should not read condensed versions of anything because the editors did not always know what parts should be eliminated in the process.  When I mentioned that to Grandma she said, "Well, I'm getting pretty old and I may not have time to read all the things I want to read.  Reading a condensed version is better than not reading the book at all."

I regret that I did not get to have Grandma's set of Harvard Classics, but I always think of her when I pull one of ours from the shelf.  Like many others, Grandma bought the Harvard Classics from a traveling salesman.  It was common in the early 1900s for peddlars to visit rural areas to sell their wares.  Grandma saved a little money every week in order to purchase the next book in the collection.  I'm not sure how long it took for her to complete the set.

You will find the contents of the Harvard Classics absolutely mind-boggling.  Here is a quick summary.  Edited by Charles William Eliot, the collection was also known as "Dr. Eliot's Five Foot Shelf."  His stated desire was that the collection would be "all things to all men."  (Remember the time here folks.  Gender neutrality wasn't even a dream back then.)

Who knows how many young men and women enhanced their educations and broadened their thinking with the Harvard Classics?  The collection is amazing more than a century after it was published.  Wonder why no one has come up with an anthology like this for the twentieth century?

Always Sunny at Our House

We knew we wanted a large metal scupture for our fireplace in the great room.

We didn't know what we wanted but we knew we would recognize it when we saw it.  Our daughter and I were taking some trips around and about and we saw some beautiful work done by Grace Cathey from nearby Haywood County.  We decided to visit her with photographs of the fireplace and get some ideas.

Our house is an eclectic grouping of things we like.  Antiques sit right along contemporary or modern pieces.  We have no "theme;" we collect what we love.  The more we talked with Grace, the more convinced we became that a large brass sun would be the perfect art work for our fireplace.  She made some drawings and we selected one we liked.  There was only one stipulation...the eyes had to be just right.

[NOTE:  This requirement comes from my hating a very large stain glass window in our church.  Jesus is about fourteen feet high.  He is lovely except for his eyes.  HIS EYES ARE REALLY CREEPY!  I call it "Creepy Jesus."]

Grace assured us the eyes would look upon us kindly or she would redo them as often as necessary.

My very clever and handy husband make a mock-up with cardboard and newspaper to determine the size of the sculpture.

We commissioned the sun in July and were assured we would have it by late autumn.  Alas, our artist received a big request from the NC Arboretum so our sun took a backseat.

Finally, the sun was completed this spring and now hangs cheerfully looking down at us.  We moved the mantle clock and decided to go with large pillar candles since they didn't detract from the sun.

We just love it.  And the eyes are not creepy at all.

So now, even on the worst winter days, we will have sunshine in our home.  Here is a link to Grace's Website.