Inside My Knitting Bag

It's been a BUSY, busy week .... the countdown is on for the Kick off for Show Choir Competition Season .... long hours of practice, tons of hairspray to hold up all those "poofs", bags filled with tights and high heels, sequins and cargo pants, denim and velvet ... it's a mad rush to take care of all those last minute details, tweak months of work on the closing dance number, try to remember what the cuts in the music are for the bows and the exit music ... but more important than anything else is the most pertinent detail:  Competition is Saturday which means hours on a bus ... hours of sitting and waiting to perform ... hours until they announce the finalists ... and then hours back home ...

which means ........ KNITTING!!!!!  LOTS and LOTS of knitting ... plans, projects and sketches - always keeping an extra pair of needles in my bag in case someone new wants to learn ..  Time to STOCK my Knitting Bag NOW ... but i need to clean it out 1st from all the projects that i've worked on this week.  With all the time we've rehearsed this week i've been able to complete 2 hats (3 actually but i had to rip one out the 1st time because i just didn't like!) .... the February Scarf is finished - - and i'm working on writing that pattern now .... and i made the cutest little scarf for karen out of that Cocoon yarn she shared ...

I used Lion Brand Yarn Wool Ease Thick & Quick on both of these fun little hats for Meredith.  Based on standard measurements and using the chart from last week, i did the "Big Girl" thing and knit a quick swatch so i could check my gauge, add the appropriate number of extra stitches for bands or ear flaps .. and just knit them in no time at all!  I tried to modify a pattern i found on Ravelry for the Ear flap hat that was originally knit top down but i think my yarn was TOO bulky for the pattern and it was just HUGE ... rather more appropriate for a BASKETBALL instead of a sweet friend headed off to study for the semester!  Her little red hat and fun 2" button will tuck easily into a book bag and make for a fun little happy from home as she sets out for the most amazing semester of college yet!

Just Do It! . . . .

I also grabbed my crochet hook and made a quick prize for Karen since she was so gracious to share her yarn stash with the sweet students at my high school  ... they can now knit hats for the homeless from a vast assortment of colorful and fun yarns that are stashed under my desk!  ;)  [face it - - you really DO need to just suck it up, go buy a crochet hook and get ready to give it a try .... it's on the schedule for June, so why not concede and just get the hook! ]

okay, bag's cleaned out ... and will soon be holding yarn for:

1)  Valentine's Baby Bib  - Need to get Cotton!

2)  Illusion Washcloth - more cotton - in 2 colors!  don't forget the pattern from Ravelry!

3)  March's scarf (hopefully in the form of a giant braided cable!) - 3 skeins of Debra Norville's Everyday
                                Soft Worsted is already packed in the bag ....

. . . and drafts for a sweet little pair of baby Uggs! [have ordered the Suede yarn off of EBay, nonetheless!]

CLEANING out ... another one of my new year's goals!  to not let my knitting bag become a receptacle for everything else i can't find a place for during the week ... so that by week's end my left shoulder is dragging because of all the 'treasures' it is now supporting within the colorful confines of a "knitting bag" . . .this mindset has also proven advantageous when i apply it to things in my heart as well ....  how much clutter and scraps of my day do i tuck within and not allow the Lord to clear out or up for me?  all those bad attitudes, or hurt feelings, or thoughts of jealousy or even the bigger issues, for me, of Nonchalance?  I like to show on the surface that my passions are my faith, my family and my knitting and that for the most part i can just 'go with the flow' for everything else.  However, truth be told ... this "easy going flexibility" that i think i'm playing off so well is often a glorified facade of "apathy" and there is no room for such in His Kingdom!  Failure to care is a nice way of saying i really don't Trust Him ... going with the "flow" of my day reveals that my eyes are not in constant contact with His .... Trusting Him requires total Awareness of every step ... there's no need in throwing up my hands in surrender to what the world brings my way and that i so often trip over!  Throwing up my hands will simply allow Him to catch me!  and there's Nothing Apathetic in that Prospect at all!

Proverbs 3:5-6 encourages this upper body 'workout' . . .

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.

In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight.

My knitting bag is now packed and ready for the bus ride ...

My knitted heart, a swatch that He's been working on for 50+ years now,  has been cleaned out, confessed up and forgiven, and is now packed and ready for today - - So Bring it On!  (a little Show Choir tune we're opening with , thanks to Stephen Curtis Chapman!)

Hands open in anxious anticipation of all that

He will bring to fill them ....

opportunities for passion rather than apathy ...

examples of devotion rather than indifference . . .

moments of the day filled to the brim with peace and rest rather than ambivalence and discontent . . .

Open the eyes of my heart, Lord!  I want to see You - - High and Lifted Up, Shining in the Light of Your Glory, Pour out Your power and love as we sing Holy, Holy, Holy!