A Month in Pennsylvania

Rambling - well, we've been rambling for a month and are glad to be back home.  We enjoyed the fellowship of friends and family in Pennsylvania so very much, but not so much that we regretted coming back to Maine!  Mom is such a dear to live with, and it is abundantly clear that Maine is where we belong now.

While in PA we met with various friends for meals and fellowship, celebrated a son's birthday (Seth), attended a Mark Lowery concert at CLA, enjoyed a "Christmas party" with our bicycle club IC3, dog-sat for a friend, moved a daughter (Ruth) from OCH apartment to condo, visited grandchildren - and their parents (Josiah & Rachel), made a pie with Ruth on PI day - March 14th, shopped at The Manning's and visited with my dear friends there, attended a children's concert at CBC, knitted seven hats, went GeoCaching with Seth, Miriam and Ruth, took Miriam to Dulles airport to see her off to South Africa where she will work a few months with WOLSA, volunteered at ABWE candidate seminar to prepare new missionaries, and attended the opening Sunday gathering at York LCBC.    I'm sure I've forgotten something, but yes, we kept busy.  Wouldn't have wanted to miss a bit of it.

Designing Hats

Since moving to Maine, I've been designing and knitting hats again.  My favorite yarn is fingering weight wool, especially 2/8 Maine Line from JaggerSpun, or Palette from KnitPicks.  The prototypes for a pine cone and tassel hat and a chickadee hat are completed.  Also, a Breast Cancer Awareness hat is finished for a friend who asked for one after looking at my Facebook album.  Now I've begun working on another one of my Spider hats in black, red and gray.  On Wednesday we'll be taking a trip to PA for a few weeks, and I find I want to take along my whole stash of fingering weight wool to knit from.  What painter would travel with only half of her colors?!  Or at the very least, I must go find my colored pencils...

Moving to Maine!

Well, this is the Rambling part...  Stan is retiring from his job in Pennsylvania so that we can move to Maine to be near (with) my mother!!  I am looking forward to visiting with my friends there - so many that I've reconnected with because of Facebook!!  And the yarn stores near my mom - String Theory, Blue Hill yarn store and One Lupine Fiber Arts for instance - I can't wait to get to know them better.  It's going to be great!

Craft Cruises! Yay!

Stan and I just got home from a wonderful 9-day cruise. Melissa Gower-Pence, with Craft Cruises http://www.craftcruises.com/, did a wonderful job of organizing the Knitters' cruise and identifying yarn store and spots of fiber interest in the ports along the way. We cruised from Bayonne NJ to Portland ME (with a stop in Bath and Halcyon Yarn Store), Bar Harbor ME, St Johns NB, Halifax NS and Boston MA. I've been on cruises before, but never felt so "at home" among the poeple as I did this time. Somehow, knowing that there are knitters to hang out with, just makes you feel like you're all already friends!
Stan came along and brought his spinning wheel ( a Lendrum) and improved his spinning skills while I took knitters' classes on the at-sea days. I learned about Andean knitting and how to read Japanese patterns and charts, along with a lot of other very helpful information. The teachers were Joan Schrouder and Donna Druchanus. I enjoyed every minute of the cruise and am SO GLAD we did it! Thank you, Stan!!

Easily Bind Magazines Together - wikiHow

Easily Bind Magazines Together - wikiHow I want to try this for my knitting magazines! It will help me keep track of them, not losing one, but keeping a year's worth together.

"Lords of the Earth"

A great book that I read long ago, that has impacted my thought patterns about missions was by Don Richardson: "Lords of the Earth". It's about New Guinea, and cannibals coming to know Christ. Richardson spoke in one of my missions classes at Calvary Bible College back in the '70's. I'll never forget how excited he was to have discovered that in every culture God has left some inkling of their need for Him. Every culture has some link that when the missionary discovers their beliefs, can be used to "oil" their understanding of the Truth. This is also true in Richardson's book, "Peace Child", and I'm eager to read a third book, "Eternity in Their Hearts".

Preparing for Papua New Guinea!!!

A year ago I was awarded a trip to visit a missionary. I chose Melanie Shustack in Papua New Guinea, since I'd heard she has a use for me stash of excess yarn!! Good reason, huh? Well I heard on Friday that Stan and I will indeed be able to get into Simbai where Melanie lives, and she is planning to be our hostess for 5 days! This involves not only the plane ride to the US, West Coast, to Australia, to Port Moresby, PNG, to Goroka, But then also a missionary bush plane ride into Simbai, with some hiking and 4-wheeler riding to boot!

We got our immunizations in August, then our flu shots. Malaria medicine in hand. Fred S is leading a work team to PNG with whom we are tagging along. He saw to buying our tickets and his wife, Jennifer delivered our Visa applications to DC a couple of weeks ago. Trusting all works out! I'm looking forward to getting to know Melanie, taking lots of pictures, so that I can tell her story and help other people get to know her, too. I hope to make Melanie's name well known at the ABWE Home Office, her sending agency and my workplace.