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Today I had the privilege of presenting a prayer shawl to a newly baptized member of our church congregation. It has become a tradition in our church that a prayer shawl is made and presented to anyone who chooses to be baptized as a member of our church, and I've been delighted to make the prayer shawls as needed.
In June, shortly after I learned that Maggie had asked to be baptized, I was in Michael's looking for yarn for another project when I spotted a yarn I hadn't seen before: Red Heart Collage. The Blue Wave color virtually leapt off the shelf into my arms, loudly proclaiming "I want to be Maggie's prayer shawl!" Naturally I couldn't argue with a proclamation like that (not to mention the excuse to buy yarn!), so three balls of the yarn went home with me that day to become a prayer shawl.
I really love the way it turned out. The color is totally reminiscent of baptismal waters (the light blue is a little bluer than it appears in the photo) and three balls were just enough to make an awesome shawl. I don't know (right now) of anyone else needing a prayer shawl but I certainly wouldn't hesitate to use this yarn again.
About a year and a half ago, my friend Sue invited me to attend a yoga class with her. This class has been going on for a couple years and is free to anyone who wishes to attend. I'm grateful to her for the invitation, because I would never have had the gumption to show up on my own, and going to yoga is absolutely the best thing I've ever done for myself. The class is available five mornings a week (and two evenings) and I attend every morning I possibly can get there.
In January, Sue began a training course to be come a certified Pranakriya yoga teacher. The course ended with her graduation on Sunday, September 13. Yesterday our yoga group celebrated her graduation with a wonderful dinner in the (awesome) home of one of the class members.
I've been working on a prayer shawl which I presented to Sue at the celebration dinner. In order to make it more of a group gift rather than just from me, I precut strands of yarn for fringe and everyone at the dinner was able to help tie on the fringe.
Although it doesn't show up very well in the photo, the shawl has the word "namaste" knitted into it. "Namaste" is a Sanskrit greeting meaning essentially "The light within me honors the light within you", typically offered at the end of a yoga practice.
Congratulations, Sue! Thank you for being a wonderful friend. Namaste!
I received my check today from Mary Maxim in payment for the pattern that I sold to them. I guess that officially makes me a published designer now. Not to mention that we can definitely use the money!
I did verify that the baby blanket I submitted along with the big blanket did not win any prizes. In fact it should have been returned to me in July when they sent back all of the non-winning entries. Now they're busy trying to track down what they might have done with my blanket so that they can get it back to me. It will be up for sale on my Etsy site as soon as I get it back.
The heart blanket will stay at Mary Maxim to be photographed for the catalog and the printed pattern folder. It is supposed to be returned to me in March or April. Meanwhile I will be sure to post a link as soon as the pattern is available on their website.
Those of you who know me in real life are no doubt aware that I have been a nationally certified Child Passenger Safety Technician for a little over six years now. What that means is that I've attended a certification class and lots of trainings so that I can (and will!) tell you more than you ever wanted to know about car seats and child passenger safety. I can also tell you that despite massive advances in child passenger protection, car crashes remain the number one cause of death of children between 1 and 14 years of age, in part because some families lack the resources to provide the correct seats to keep their children safe.
In the past six years I've worked closely with our local Safe Kids coalition and the Public Health Department to help with checking car seats for proper installation and use, and distributing free or low-cost seats to those families in need. For several years the Health Department has distributed seats to families that for whatever reason lack the means to purchase a seat on their own. These seats were purchased with grant funding from the national Safe Kids organization. Unfortunately Safe Kids, being primarily funded by contributions from General Motors, has fallen on hard times and the grant funding is no longer available for the Health Department's distribution program. The loss of grant money means that Public Health will not be able to provide car seats to families that have need.
As a temporary measure to “bridge the gap” until more permanent funding can be secured, our church's Mission Leadership Team is issuing a challenge to all of our local religious and service organizations to provide at least 1 car seat per month over the course of 6 months, for a proposed total cost of $360 for each congregation/organization.
I am proud to say that as of today, a little more than a week after the original letters were sent to the other churches and service organizations, we have commitments for a total of $1020 in car seat funding. In addition, our congregation has already given $230, plus one additional car seat was purchased and brought to the church (and has been delivered to the health department for distribution).
The Mission Leadership Team will be tracking the response and I'll update with new totals as we receive updated responses from the other congregations and organizations on the list.
Today I checked into the Lincoln Land Community Learning website and discovered that the fall schedule has been finalized. I'll be teaching a knitting class on three Thursdays, September 24 and October 1 & 8. I'll also be available for one-on-one computer tutoring for anyone who wants to sign up.
The schedule also contains a photo of me (scary!) and a short blurb about my knitting and computing skills. If this semester works out well I'm hoping to add a couple of additional knitting classes in the spring, and maybe one-on-one knitting tutoring as well.
I really love the way it turned out. The color is totally reminiscent of baptismal waters (the light blue is a little bluer than it appears in the photo) and three balls were just enough to make an awesome shawl. I don't know (right now) of anyone else needing a prayer shawl but I certainly wouldn't hesitate to use this yarn again.
