Wingspan Demystified

Hi there, folks!

I have been trying to make the Wingspan pattern for a while now. I started attempting it last August, 2012, during the Ravellenic Games. I tried it while on vacation in northern Maine isolated in a cabin with little to distract me, or help me. I got helplessly confused.

I put the project aside and worked on other projects, many of them, in fact. Then, this January, 2013, I found a thread on Ravelry using the radar function where folks were sharing about the confusion of the pattern. Some advised just doing it step by step, and taking it blindly following through the first two triangles, then getting the hang of it for the rest of the triangles.

I figured I'd make one for the American Girl dolls by using 30/5, instead of 90/16 in the original pattern. The shawl came out very pretty and has a rustic beauty in Knit Picks Palette in Rose Hip. Here's a pic of it on my sofa.

The layout of the shawl also reminds me of the dragon, Smaug in Tolkien's The Hobbit. In my turn in post for Quidditch in the Harry Potter Knitting/Crochet House Cup group on Ravelry, I mentioned that the shawl was the mascot dragonette, the Hogsmeade Smaugettes for the new Hogsmeade Quidditch team. My character's aunt, the Hogsmeade librarian, believes that Smaug was misunderstood and if he'd been asked nicely that he would've given back the gold and stuff. She thinks he just had an abscessed tooth ache. Oh well, we never will know now.

I hope you enjoy this adaptation of the shawl. I have conquered the concept of the shawl and feel I can accomplish a full size one in the near future. Just have to whittle down the WIP pile first! ;)

Blanketing Newtown in Love

Hey there, Sharon of Three Irish Girls fame has started a Facebook page and Ravelry group called Knitters for Newton. She has made two unique indie dyed color ways, Love Wins and The Giving Tree. Through sales of the yarn, 20% is donation, and direct donations, she is gathering $10,000 to help those devastated by the events at Sandy Hook Elementary. She is also organizing a group blanket drive with the idea of delivering the blankets in a few months when the media's attention has faded. I plan to help by making some squares and helping with the seaming together of them. I might budget some space and money for yarn. The Love Wins is a lovely soft rainbow that would make a nice remembrance shawl. The Giving Tree is brown, green, grey, and white, the colors of Sandy Hook's school colors and mascot, the eagle. It would make a nice, sweater for K. We often ask ourselves how can I help? I'm just one person. Through a multitude of small simple acts of kindness and love, the families of Newton will know they are blanketed with love from a nation of compassionate compatriots. Hopefully, the blankets will serve as reminders that love does win that life does give. We just don't always understand why or how at the moment, or even later. Please lift the families up in your prayers, if you pray, and in your thoughts with love and kindness if you don't. Thank you for reading. Jen

Bootstraps

I can easily wallow in my troubles. That won't do any good. I need to find a way to focus my thoughts and energy on something other than my disability. So, how do I do that? Get involved with real folks. I have few offline friends, and few who live nearby. I need to change that. How? Going places and lingering to get to know folks. I liked going to the knitting circle at the library on Thursdays. I also want to get involved in the monthly writers group there too. Get active. I need to move more. I am very sedentary and my body doesn't like me doing that. Walking is easy. I just need to do it. There's a treadmill in my garage. I need to get back into using it. Complete projects. I have a works in progress list that's really long. I have started working through it, frogging projects or completing them as time goes by. Read more. I have a stack of books from the library that would have taken me a week or week and a half pre meningitis. I still haven't finished the slenderest book and am nearing the return to library three week mark. I can read it's just harder for me b/c of eye strain leading to headaches easier and for some reason I'm slower at it. I have to reread more to get what's been communicated. Write more. I like writing. That's why I have a blog. :-) I have gotten away from writing for a while, but need to get back into it. I've been writing some knitting patterns, published one, and am on the way to working on another. It's been a while since I was this excited about anything.

Forgiveness is an act of the will

In other news, I checked out 10 books from the library yesterday, four on writing by writers, four on brains (non zombie, Neuroscience stuff), one whose title *Bearing Witness* could go either way, oh yeah, that's the wife's story of her dealing with hubby's brain injury, and Erika Knight's *Men's Knits*. I remember reading the introduction to Ek's book prior to last night, so I must have checked it out before...oh well, still good ideas for Ha grid. Here's got a different style than the three brothers and my dad do, so this helps with holiday knitting. Though I'm well on my way to Christmas goodies for them all. I'm going to be working on writing more and more structured, story development, characterizations, and all the other things that make for good story crafting. I have ideas tilting around me so fluidly, that I'm amazed at their transience and their frequency. So, I'm listening to the muse. I'm also still trying figure out the neuroscience stuff that happened to me, so I'm looking for ides to write through on my path to figuring things out. I'm tired of having this burden. But, it is what it is. Knowledge is power and if I can just figure things out about my brain, I can get a handle on it. But what if I never do? Figure it out I mean? Where does that leave me? My faith says to offer up my sufferings. That phrase always confused me. Now, I'm learning it's about accepting what is here and knowing that others have it much worse than me, so if in some way my suffering helps those who are imprisoned for being female or someone else in a harsh situation then I gladly suffer this pain and heartache. I was praying the Rosary for the girls imprisoned and treated horridly in Syria, from a BBC news report about a month ago, and feeling this connection to the girls, offering my suffering to ease their tormented lives, when a small voice stopped me in the Our Father and asked could I forgive the tormentors 'as they trespassed against' the girls. This scared me out of bed. I scrambled to where K was and shared this thunderous question with her. She asked me "Can you?" She didn't think I was crazy, thank goodness! I learned forgiveness is an act of the will. Emotions will follow, but you can choose how you feel about something.

something's not right! eReaders and acess with a hint of classism

Ereaders will be the wave of the future for the information age. But, only for those who can afford access to that privileged age, place. For the rest of humanity books, hard back blocks and paperback books, will be, if literate, their only access to information after a day of back breaking work. Do I have access? Yes, but I'm also aware of how little others who don't even have access to physical books because of their gender or being poor have to look towards in living a hard life each day. Knowledge is the last class ism divide. Well, maybe not last, butt certainly, one of the class divisions in this world. The rich want stupid, uneducated workers. The poor know the power of knowledge, but not always how to get there.

Vote! Migraines and Political Action

A few weeks ago, I received a call from the Marriage Equality folks here in Maine. They wanted to know if I was interested in helping visit folks, reminding them of Tuesday, November 6, 2012, election day and ballot measures. Question one is whether to allow same sex folks to be able to legally marry here in Maine. A yes vote means my partner and I can get married. Well, I really wanted to tell the guy on the line that of course I'd help, just name the date and time, instead I backed out of that opportunity. He offered other options for involvement, and rather than string him along, I leveled with him. "I can't plan that far in advance as my health doesn't allow it. I get migraines. Often. Multiple per week. I'd really like to be able to help with what we are trying to do here, but I just can't." Thankfully, he understood. Today, a nice guy came to our home and reminded me of the vote and the polling place. I got to thinking it was good I hadn't volunteered as I do have a bad migraine today. I wished there was something I could do. Then, the migraine got worse, so I had to deal with that for a while. During lunch, I was talking about the call from a few weeks ago, today's visit from the young man, and bemoaning the migraines. Then, I realized I could do one thing. I have this blog. I can write to all of you, dear readers, and ask that you vote. I would be insanely happy to have you vote as I will, but that's not reality. I just want you to vote. Even if you vote against my ideals in every way, vote. Exercise your American right to vote. My dad gave a large portion of his life and psyche to protect and affirm our rights as Americans and voting is the lynch pin that those rights rest on.. so, get to your polling place next Tuesday and vote!