Mom I Miss You ( and here is why)

Specific things I miss the most about my Mom. Things to remember when I am home sick and homesick.
1. Getting tucked into bed. Mom really did pull the covers tight and tuck them in on the sides. I was the flat girl pancake pressed between scratchy wool US Navy blankets and cool sun dried sheets. 
2. Getting treated special when I was sick. Welch's Concord Grape Juice, tea in the tea pot, Jack and Jill Magazine, new paper dolls and scissors,  and  Waverly Crackers, all hand carried on a tray up the pine stairs to my room.

Scituate Light House my brother Chip

3. Driving us home from the beach "the long way" .  Sandy, sticky and hot from the beach. All the windows rolled down.  Cruising at twenty miles an hour past all the "ritzy houses" on First Cliff. Passing the Coast Guard Station and driving to the end of the road for a special view of Scituate Light House.  Then stopping for an ice cream cone in Scituate Harbor. 
4. Getting the sand rinsed off after a day at the beach.  Mama would have the old blue enamel wash basin out on the grass in the back yard ready and waiting with water warmed from the sun. Me small enough to fit into it and Mama washing "all the sand away from the nooks and crannies."
5. Learning all the things she taught me.  How to wash dishes. The magic of A.A. Milne's House at Pooh Corner,  sewing clothes for my doll. Teaching me to knit from The Mary Francis Knitting Book.  How to feel the breeze on my skin and think it is really truly  Heaven.

Our Kitchen in Scituate

Summer's arrival

6. Love and joy for every living creature. Especially her love of her grand children and great joy with each additional one. 


7.  Lying with her on her bed in the dark when I was a teenager.  That was when and where we could talk and talk about anything.  Books, our art projects, boys, faith, heartbreaks, and what is important. "Always Love and Always Keep the Door Open." 

Birthdays

8. Celebrations are important.  Birthdays, Christmas, Easter,  Thanksgiving. Share them with the ones you love. 
Keep traditions alive. She made me the same birthday cake every year. Chocolate devils food with Mocha icing. 

We still have her Christmas Stocking

Mom's Christmas stocking is hanging the middle here and I still have it. It was made for her in 1912. Gifts and presents came from her heart and her thrifty pocket book.  I remember the year we all got beaded Indian hair clips, and belt buckles that she had inherited from her brother David.  Now I find myself re-gifting family treasures and woe to the teenagers that might receive them. Someday they will remember and do the same.

9. Playing with my Mom's treasures. My favorite was her button tin. A black canister that was  hand gold leafed by her. It was filled to the brim with vintage buttons. My treasures where her treasures. How I would love to have that tin back and sit on the floor once more sifting button after button through my fingers. Watching them spill out into a magic kaleidoscope of colors. Mama saying "oh I remember where that one came from" and it would be off some ancient wardrobe article from the 20's or 30's.  The black jet buttons where our favorites. They were older than time and had been on some Great Grandparent's clothing.  Daddy even had buttons in the tin that he made from Walrus tusk and petrified wood. He carved them during the freezing dark nights that he spent guarding our country on duty in the Aleutian Islands in WWII. 

Mom's teapot and tea tray that she carried upstairs to my bedroom when I was sick.

If I could open that black tin once more my Mama would be in my hands.

10. My mother's voice. The things she said. The things she repeated over and over.  The story's she told me. When I was having a bad dream... She said, "I'm here, just close your eyes and go to sleepy."  When I had a fever.... She took a cool wash cloth and wiped my face and said,  " There they go I am washing away all the bads and replacing them with only goods."  

her 90th  birthday

She said, "Don't wear your heart on your sleeve."  and " Penny for your thoughts". ( I never had any to share when she said this.) I would share them now.  She called me "Lamby".   She said, "Freckles (my brother Ross's prize Ewe) was the best sheep ever."  She showed me grass has more than one color and told me how to paint it.  She said, " Don't cry over spilt milk."  We had lots of spilled milk over the years. She said, "Life is for the living".  She said, "you will have lots of beaus." She said, " Waste not want not." and she saved slivers of soap, scraps of tin foil, plastic wrap, paper bags, scrap paper. I have pencil nubs of hers that must be 80 years old and still enough lead in them to be useful.  She showed me how to use them all over and over to their end.  When she was 93 and in the early stages of Azheimer's she said, " Look at my acorns" and showed me her little enamel earings that I had made for her when I was ten. She was wearing them proudly and had screwed them onto her earlobes just for me. One last time.

 She never said it, but she showed me where God lives in all things. 

Mama Days End Breeze

I miss you Mama. Love Lamby

m

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Wee Lil Seoul's Hanbok Part 2

Wee Lil Seoul's Hanbok

Raglan Sleeve, Top-down Knit Hanbok with a single crochet edge. 

Materials needed to make Hanbok (Traditional Korean  Dress 

fits 12 " doll

 sz 8 circular needles

 US H8/5.0mm crochet hook

Yarn

worsted weight , 1. small amount white for trim

                            2. small amount variegated for bodice and sleeves

                            3.   moderate amount solid for skirt

                           ( I used stash yarn bits of  http://www.ravelry.com/yarns/library/pisgah-yarn--dyeing-co-inc-peaches--creme-ombres

2 metal snaps for dress closure

but you can use any worsted weight  yarns you have. gauge not that important

Dress:

CO 20 st(s) using #2 color 

Row I.  K1, [K1FB,PM,K1FB,K1,K1FB,PM,K1FB] K to last 6 st(s) Repeat what is in brackets thus creating the raglan sleeves. 28 st(s)

Row 2. and all even rows Purl

Row 3.{ K to first St(s) before marker K1FB, sm,K1FB,knit to one st(s)  before marker,K1FB,sm, K1FB} Repeat and knit to end. 36 st(s)

Rows  5,7,9,11,13 repeat row 3. 

Row 14. Purl as all even rows.

Row 15. K to 1st st(s) before marker K1FB, remove marker, slide all st(s) to holder, remove next marker, knit and join under raglan sleeve across the back to next marker, remove marker, slide all st(s) to holder , remove next marker, K1FB, joining under raglan sleeve,  K to end.

R. 16 Purl

Well Lil goes for a ride

R. 17. K1, K1FB, K to 1 st(s) before end, K1FB, K1                                                

R. 18 Purl

Row 19. same as row 17.

Row 20. Purl

Row 21. change to #3 color,  K1, K1FB, increase 2 st(s) evenly spaced Left front, increase 4 st(s) evenly spaced back, increase 2 st(s) R front, K to 1 st(s) before end K1FB, K1

Row 22. Purl

Row 23. repeat row 17.

Row 24. Purl

Row 25, repeat row 17.

row 26, Purl.

Row 27, Knit

Row 28, Purl

continue to repeat rows 27 & 28 until skirt reaches the toes. Bind off.

Sleeves:  

(make 2)

Knit-in-round

with sz 8 DPN 

pick up all st(s) from holder, Pick up 4 st(s) under arm. 

Knit-in-round for 3 inches, bind off.

Edge: With crochet hook and #1 color pick up and make a single crochet border from bottom of dress front up around the neck and down to the other side of dress front. Secure and weave in ends.

Sash: On Left side pick up 4 st(s)  at the meeting place of your two colors. Knit garter stitch  for 4"  bind off. 

Hanbok sash detail

Finishing:  Fold the 4" length over on itself as pictured. Tack down on front edge weave in ends.

                 Sew a snap inside Left side of bodice where it overlaps and sew a snap on Right out side of bodice and under Sash edge where it overlaps .

Mya and Wee Lil Seoul

Weave in all ends and block.                                                             

Wee Lil Seoul's Very Bad Hair Day Part 1

Very bad hair day :)

Making this wee Lil Seoul for my grandaughter Mya. Her black hair reminds me of Mya's mommy's beautiful black hair and how much fun I had combing and playing with it when she was a little girl.  This will remind my daughter Amy of the time I cut her hair into a Mullet. Still an unforgivable offense.  
This doll was designed by 
weefolkart.com/content/knitted-round-12-baby-doll-part-1-knitting-body
  I love the simplicity of the pattern. In the style of Waldorf Dolls. I am knitting her body and clothes with stash yarn, but I splurged on a new skein on Paton's Classic Wool for her black hair. 
I am hopeful that I will be able to pull off an original design for her Hanbok. (traditional girls Korean dress).

                                                                    Yes she has a belly button :)


Grandma  
할머니 
Halmoni / Halmeoni 

Halmonie, halmoni and halmony are basically all the same. 
Ie - ee / 이 (ㅣ) 
i - ee / 이 (ㅣ) 
Y / ee / 이 (ㅣ) 

Y as in pony, harmony, etc. 

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

The Mess I Love

Mya is only ten months old, but she is already walking and play reading to herself.  She gets into everything and then goes on to ten more things.  At this moment my family room is strewn with all her toys, books, cookie crumbs, various bits and pieces that have made up her day of staying with Gramma.  I know when her mother picks her up and takes her home tonight I will get a chance to sweep the floor and put the toys away for next time.  Like a bath tub plug pulled all the noise and the days activities will whoosh away and I will be left with a quiet empty space.  I will be longing for her to return.