Where Do Babies Go to Dream

Where do babies go to dream?

Lashes dewy on their cheeks.
Sweet surrender slumber deep.
Where do babies go to dream?

Far away and past our shores spirits soar.
Beyond this world loves shared kiss
mingles there.
Where do babies go to dream?

Briefly hugged by those above.
Tender whispers go back, go back
wrapped in love.
Where do babies go to dream?

Breath's soft breeze
fingers furled, mouth and cheek
nursing seek.
Where do babies go to dream?

Sweet caress loves tenderness.
You're here with us and stay you must.
Where do babies go to dream?

Amidst our loved ones now unseen.
The kiss of God upon your face.
Where do babies go to dream?

Awake, awake from deep embrace.
Mother's breast upon your cheek.
Where do babies go to Dream?


Anne Pierce 1/30/2011

The Best of a Mess. Prayer Shawl

wristers

Prayer Shawl

Some things are just too hard. Like knitting a sock.  I have spent hours with four metal sticks and some baby fine wool making little knots and loops to create a pair of socks.  Maybe it is the light so I have adjusted the goose neck lamp. Or could it be my progressive lens glasses?  I have cleaned them thirteen-umpty times. What to do? Frog the sock and start over? Call it quits and admit I am too old, too blind, too arthritic to knit a sock? How useful would bulky knit socks on large needles be?  At least I could see them and make them, my fingers would not cramp so much with the larger needles.  What is the point?  I should be enjoying this.  Decision made I am not going to give up on socks.  They will be a work in progress....and put away for a while in the stash bin. I will try wristers in fine wool and tiny needles first. At least no heal to turn. They will stand a chance of getting finished. I feel more determined with this decision and I really want my own pair of delicate wristers for semi chilly Florida weather.
So back to difficult situations and knitting.
My son is on a liver transplant list.  He has been fighting his disease  for over 2 decades now and yet he is so young. Thirty-four. Not fun, unfair, sad beyond words.  I weep. I pray. I put it out of my mind. I can't get it out of my mind. It becomes my mind. I have no mind. I am finding the point. I am missing the point. He is better. He is worse. Dr's are miracle workers. Dr's know nothing. Prayer helps, Prayer frustrates me. I can't pray, all I do is pray.  I am on my knees. I am mad. I am handing it over...no I am taking it back.  I am a mother.

Ross at 24

I am knitting my way to the city of oblivion. Along the way I make some nice things. I make messes. I solve some problems. I frog my knitting. I become a yarn snob. No I will use any yarn...just keep busy knitting. I use yarn I got at Goodwill. Acrylic. No I need to use pure wool. Wool so natural the lanolin faint on my fingers.  I need the connection to life to real wool. Sheep. Silly sheep in the fields.  Chewing their way to the earth to get every taste of green grass. Sheep are such good lawnmowers.
I grew up with sheep. My brother Ross raised sheep. My mother's oldest son and he died so young at twenty-four.  My oldest son trying so hard not to die young.
Sheep, wool, knitting, mothers, children, prayer, projects, desire, love, things that fill my life and clutter my mind.  I am doing my best in this mess. My best is not enough.  The wool is lying slack in my hands with metal needles all akimbo. My son in a hospital.  My son on a list. Far away in the north. My prayers sent into the abyss.
I picked up the Acrylic yarn from Goodwill and began to make a prayer shawl. K3P3, and the opposite on the returns.  Father, Son, Holy Ghost. The Best of a Mess. Prayer.

Pray

Hattie's Dress

• 

free pattern for Hattie's Dress

 Hattie helps herself to some of Mom's beads

 Hattie relaxes in the Palms wearing her  purple leggings and lavender sweater

Hattie's beaded dreads

Hattie's Dress Hattie is 13 " tall
You will need some scrap yarn worsted weight and sz 5 needles
Knitted flat. side seamed.

~cast on 16 stitches
rows 1-6 seed stitch
~1 1/2 " stocking knit stitch
~4 rows K2P2
~1" stocking knit stitch
shape arms
K2tog knit to end
P2tog purl to end
repeat these 2 rows once more you know have 12 stitches.
~2 rows stocking knit stitch
~knit 3, bind off 6 stitches knit to end.
Making shoulder straps.
Put first 3 stitches on a holder or yarn scrap.
Knit each strap to 3" (first one strap, then second strap)
~On last row of second strap cast on 6 stitches in the center of the dress's back. Pick up and knit the 3 stitches from the first strap. (12 stitches)
~2 rows stocking knit stitch
shape arms
~Increase 1 stitch beginning of next 4 rows  (total 16 stitches)
~Stocking knit stitch for 1"
~ K2 P2 for next 4 rows
~Stocking knit stitch for 1 1/2"
~next 6 rows in seed stitch
bind off
fold and
sew side seams. weave in ends.

Hattie's dress is my original pattern.
Hattie herself is made from the lovely  pattern
scrappy doll by Fawn Pea  http://f.peablogspot.com/available on http://ravelry.com