Friday, April 29, 2011

{ This Moment }



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A Friday ritual inspired by Soulemama. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.
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Friday, April 22, 2011

{ This Moment }



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A Friday ritual inspired by Soulemama. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

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Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Functional Knitting on the Soccer Field



Being a single Mama of two very active, involved children can sometimes be stressful.
I find a lot my evenings & weekends spent driving here & there in the car to take one or the other to some event, party or game.  After a long day in the office, I admit, knitting is my meditation.
After taking on so much energy massaging people & doing energy work, I see my knitting as my Mala and each stitch a reminder to be present.  It allows me the time to clear my mind of all I took in during the day, while keeping my hands busy.

So, I have a confession to make... I knit in the carpool line.
And at stop lights, waiting for cross country practice to end,  horseback riding lessons & even on the soccer field.
And for the last couple weeks, that knitting has been purely for a functional purpose.
(don't you just love it when you can make something that is useful around the house?)

The simple kitchen washcloth.

My Grandma had many of these and I have fond memories of standing by her side washing dishes when I was little..the smell of the green Palmolive dish soap, the way the fluorescent light glowed over the sink while the rest of the kitchen was dark, the wrinkles on Grandmas hands and the sound of Da's laughter watching television in the next room.  In an effort to green up my house cleaning even more, I decided to ditch the kitchen sponge & create a nice stash of hand knits.

So, for the last two weeks, I have had a dishcloth in progress in my purse at all times.
Quick rows & such a simple pattern that I don't even have to look when I'm working on them giving me more time to watch the kids kick about on the field..or for the light to turn green in some cases.  ;) 

The original pattern I found on Ravelry turned out much too big for my liking when washing dishes so I modified the pattern a bit making it smaller. 
These are easy enough that you can whip out several in a day knitting a line here & there. 
Here's to functional knitting & my favorite time of year... Soccer season! 


Grandma's Dishcloth's
Use any of the 100% cotton worsted weight yarns,
such as Peaches & Creme, Lion Cotton, Bernat Handicrafter.
size US 7 or US 6 needles

CO 4 Stitches  
Knit the 1st row.

K2, YO, K to end *** repeat this row until you have 30 stitches (small) or 44 stitches (large) on your needles.

Begin decrease

K1, K2tog, Yo, K2tog, K to end *** repeat until you have 4 stitches left on your needles.

Bind off. 
 Weave in all ends & enjoy. 


Friday, April 15, 2011

{ This Moment }


*******************************
A Friday ritual inspired by Soulemama. A single photo (or two!) - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

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May your weekend be filled with all the best!
Love & Light!

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

~Make Your Own Natural Easter Egg Dyes ~

   
     Legend has it that every spring a rabbit would visit children’s homes during the night and leave a woven nest with an egg in it as a sign that spring had arrived. Take your children on a hike to search for leaves, pinecones, flowers, grasses and other materials for your basket trimmings. Then, dye eggs naturally with leaves, grasses, spices and other gifts of nature to mimic the variety of colorful eggs made by our wild critters! Your creativity and nature’s colors will give your eggs a special one-of-a-kind design - and they'll be much better for you to eat too!!!

To start hard boil your eggs! After making each dye, the eggs will need to sit in the dye for 5-15 minutes (depending on the depth of color you'd like).

PINK
1 - 15 oz jar of beets
1 c. water
1 t. vinegar
Bring beets and water to a boil, let simmer for 5 minutes. Pour through colander into a bowl to retain the liquid. Cool, then stir in vinegar.

YELLOW
1 T. tumeric or curry powder
2 c. water
Bring spice and water to a boil, let simmer 5 minutes. Cool.

GREEN
1 c. water
3 chlorophyll capsules (or make your own - instructions below)
Bring water to a boil, then remove from heat. Open up capsules and stir contents into water. Cool.
PURPLE
2 c. frozen blueberries
2 c. water
1 t. vinegar
Bring blueberries and water to a boil, let simmer for 5 minutes. Pour through colander into a bowl to retain the liquid. Cool, then stir in vinegar.

BLUE
1/2 head of red cabbage
2 c. water
1 t. vinegar
Bring cabbage and water to a boil, let simmer for 5 minutes. Pour through colander into a bowl to retain the liquid. Cool, then stir in vinegar. NOTE: Eggs will require sitting in this dye for several hours to hold color.




To make your own chlorophyll:
Making the dye out of chlorophyll will require crushing green plant materials to extract the color and putting the plant liquid and solid materials in a glass jar. Place the jar in the sun for a few days and then look at the color. Add water to dilute it and allow it to sit in the sun for a few more days. Pour the plant material into a pan and simmer the material for one hour to extract the color. The liquid should have color while the plant material should have none.