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.

Raveling. . .

New idea: since I am eager to sell my knits at The Hodge Podgery, where they encourage recycled and re-purposed items, I decided to shop at a second-hand store for some sweaters to Ravel in order to reuse the yarn.

Shopped at the Community Aid store on Carlisle Pike in Camp Hill.

Bought a 100% Lambswool Anderson-Little sweater with 10 stitches per inch. It's a light tan, saddle-shoulder, raglan sleeve sweater. The seams are chain-sewn, so very easy to undo (Rrrip-it!). The sweater is new enough not to be too felted except in the armpits, so it's raveling quite nicely. There are the occasional breaks, so I just tie a knot and continue to wind the ball. A small amount in the armpits is unsalvageable because of felting.

The V-Neck was steeked, so rather than tie a knot for every row, I just cut down to the the bottom of the V and didn't try to salvage the yarn above that.

It's just the right color for the Capitol Dome hat I designed last year if the yarn isn't too fine.

Cool thought - The care label from the sweater could be sewn into a hat knit with the same yarn. But I probably ought not put the Anderson-Little label into my hat; that might offend their brand.

Had a great discovery today - www.thehodgepodgery.com - The Hodge Podgery in Harrisburg! It's a great local craft shop where all sorts of handmade and recycled items can be bought and sold. Now I need to develop my Brand (Miriam's going to help me design a business card) and knit some Harrisburg Themed hats - such as the Rachel Carson Falcons and The Capitol Dome that I knit before. And I'm excited to walk around the neighborhood again with my camera and get some more inspiration for some new designs. The Soldiers' Grove, the Fountain, the darling Garden with gazebo on the waterfront at Verbeke, Pub signs and all sorts of architectural elements around the city are getting my "juices flowing"!! There's the Pride of the Susquehanna and Strawberry Square that have inspired me in the past. I may need to be mindful of using Other People's brands. . .