a simple yarn

Coming and Going

Cheryl — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 02:02:37 +0000

Robert Downey, Jr. Good Hollywood comeback.
Lance Armstrong. Brave cycling comeback.
Britney Spears. Amazingly enough, successful music comeback.

But not all comebacks are good. Like trying to resurrect my lovely little blog from Dublin days. I confess I’m not feeling the love nor the inspiration. Shoulda left it on a high note and made an elegant exit. Ah no, I have to trip and stumble, bumbling in and out of blogdom. Graceful, I am not.

But I guess I had to make sure that the we’d done everything before pulling the plug. Limiting myself to 50 words…what was I thinking? Recent photos…pegging the scale on the crap-o-meter! It all seemed gimmicky, kinda like patterned leggings or the entire fashion decade of the 80s. Feeling a bit silly and anticlimactic, it’s good though, to end on yet another high point.

You see, Norma came to town, bringing with her red scarves for the Orphan Foundation of America. Along with Lynn and Tracey, we trotted along to Mount Vernon for a bit of touring and red scarf photo ops.

Apologies, Dishing-The-Gossip-Diversion Ahead:
If you think Norma is a bit of a whirlwind in her blog, she’s a veritable cyclone in person…in the good sense of whirl-wind-i-ness, mind you.

(Okay, her face isn’t that dark. Another crappy photo, intermixed with periods of ‘cam-nesia,’ where I forget to pull it out altogether. )

Needless to say, it was a lovely excursion, full of laughter and over all too soon.

Kinda like this post.

And this blog.

This is the end.

I really mean it this time.

Thanks for reading it over the years.

Gonna go now.

Time to hit ‘publish’.

As Barbie said at the end of Toy Story 2…

Buh by…

Bye by…

By-by…

Goodbye…

(Still can’t seem to manage a graceful exit.)

Chalk it up

Cheryl — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 02:55:45 +0000

Trying to fit family-of-four-communication-hub into pre-purchased bulletin-cum-dry erase board isn’t working. Alex likes his new chalkboard. Hmm…I’ve still got paint…

Customized with…

With Mount Vernon blacksmith-made hook…

With a handy used-to-be-curtain-hook chalk holder…

Love it!

Graffiti

Cheryl — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 04:01:52 +0000

Young sons and cream walls do not good bedfellows make.

But a ‘brick’ wall, chalkboard paint and a little graffiti might be the beginning of a beautiful friendship. About $35 of supplies and a drearily rainy afternoon made for a satisfying day’s worth of work.

PS, graffiti is challenging art!

By lantern’s light

Cheryl — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 04:01:55 +0000

How ecologically virtuous I feel when rescuing half-burned candles intended for the mansion’s rubbish bin.

Then each evening, how gladdened I am to light the lanterns outside my own little cottage, radiating a warm and welcome glow for those who pass by.

Syringa Vulgaris*

Cheryl — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 21:16:13 +0000

This should not be.

Amidst the musky decay which naturally comes at the end of creation’s life cycle, this welcome aberration, giving the house a hint of spring-time-yet-to-come fragrance and a cheery countenance during the dark days of autumn.

*common lilac

Crimson Tide

Cheryl — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 04:01:33 +0000

Autumnal leaves are sporting scarlet blushes, why shouldn’t I? Knit for winter work wear in Irish Kilcarra:

XO Cardigan from Folk Vests, by Cheryl Oberle. Modified for Os only, as I didn’t want to be a walking Tic-Tac-Toe board.

Sunflower Tam from Knitting Nature, by Nora Gaughan.

Momentum

Cheryl — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 14:05:40 +0000

I am hurtling along this autumn, as if strapped to a luge, careening downhill at the speed of light. Must slow down.

Image courtesy of clatterymachinery.wordpress.com

It’s not even Christmas yet! (Though it might be as green and red adorn shop shelves) What’ll happen in a month? Better start digging in my heels…

Multiplicity

Cheryl — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 22:07:45 +0000

It is much less difficult to age in 5-year increments. Easier to remember, counting by 5s. Today I am 45 for the third time. And I will be so until I hit 50.

Cheryl — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 02:03:28 +0000

If current communication is twittered down to 140 characters, could I manage to blog in a meaningful way? Hm, I sense a challenge coming on…

Nota Bene

Cheryl — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 13:18:59 +0000

The kindness of others around the world has given me the impetus to do a bit of a postscript blogpost…

I don’t speak French or German or Portuguese, but that obstacle hasn’t prevented my one-off knitting pattern from being translated into other languages. Many thanks to other knitters around the world, for now this simple little pattern is multi-lingual. You can find the various links posted below…

Original ENGLISH language Tudora, as published by http://knitty.com.

You can find FRENCH Tudora here. Many thanks to Canadian knitter Carole D’s efforts in making the translation and to Helene for posting the instructions on her blog.

To request a GERMAN translation of Tudora click here. Thanks to Strumpfbina for her work!

The PORTUGUESE Tudora translation can be found here. My appreciation to Renata for it!