Saturday, July 30, 2011

Knitting Connections

Apparently the heat has gotten to me and I'm unable to write. That's the only reason to explain why I haven't posted anything for 20 days.

The past few weekends have been interesting and filled with fun yarn things. All this fun was courtesy of Ravelry connections.

A few months ago a lady from Australia posted in the MN Knitters group that she was coming to Minneapolis for a week and asked where the best yarn shops were. I was feeling adventurous so sent her a private message saying I would be glad to play tour guide on Saturday and show her some sites and some LYS. That meeting took place last Saturday. We did a quick driving tour of St Paul and then headed over to The Yarnery. After that Borealis, lunch and Lila and Claudine's. All this was followed by a driving tour of Minneapolis and a stop at the Mill City Park so she could see the Mississippi river and the 35W bridge since she had heard about the collapse of the old bridge all the way in Australia. All in all it was a great time. Leanie put a major dent in her credit card with several sweaters worth of yarn she couldn't get at home and returned to her hotel ready for the week's conference.

During the same time I found out about a group of knitters in Kandahar at the hospital there. I contacted one of the knitters and asked if my knitting group could send some yarn to them. My group and also The Yarnery donated yarn and the box went out to the Role 3MMU hospital this past week.

When I was working at my family friend's yarn shop in the late 70s and 80s we didn't have Ravelry or other methods of finding knitters in the rest of the world. The only patterns available were the ones at the local shops. Mail order yarn for the average person was totally unheard of. And the thought of meeting up with someone on the computer and getting together was something that only happened in science fiction, after all computers were only for big corporations and took up an entire room to house it.

Each year and decade sees so many changes in the world but one thing remains constant - people with similar interests like to get together to share those interests. I for one am looking forward to all the knitting connections I will make in the future and hope you all get to meet many knitters in your own way too.

oh - one fun side note. After posting about the whack-a-doodles last time I got a message from someone I know who's father-in-law is a minister and wanted to used that post in a sermon. Who would have thought a post would end up as a sermon!

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Watch out for Whack-a-doodles

I hope you'll bear with me in this blog post. It's a bit different than the usual but it's something I've felt the need to write for a long time.

Back in high school we had a Lay Witness Mission at our church. That's where people from other churches come and share over the course of a weekend. They share about what God is doing in their lives and how to make Him a real part of your life. My favorite quote from that time is from Bill Sunday (a preacher from the early 20th century) "Going to church doesn't make you a christian any more than going in a garage makes you a car." At this weekend I figured out that was my problem- I was going to church but had never made a decision. Being a christian involved a decision to give your life over completely to God and accept that Jesus is the only way to heaven - you can't be good enough, you have to accept the gift. (I'll stop the preaching part here.)

So, that weekend I did just that. gave my life to Christ and became born again. Friends saw a change in me. I knew there had been a change and since then I've tried to live as God would have it. Not always successfully but always God's kid.

As God's kid I see the world differently than others. I also see what appears to be "users and abusers". People who use the Bible as their own justification for doing what they want and people who abuse the term christian. God NEVER said verbally or physically attack people who don't believe what you believe. People who do this are not following The Word.

God's Word is based on pure love. When I see people on the far right saying theirs is the only true way to believe in God or if you vote against their beliefs you aren't christian it hurts my soul. What's more it hurts Christianity. There are people in the world who are not christian who see what these whack-a-doodles are doing and saying and think to themselves - if this is Christianity keep me away!

Trust me and believe me when I say the whack-a-doodles are not what God is. They are using religion not faith. They are not speaking/acting for God but for themselves. People of the faith are republicans and democrats. They are rich and poor. They are outgoing and shy. They are people who love other people and don't want to destroy other people.

People of faith listen and pray for God's instructions - whack-a-doodles tell you what to think
People of faith show love through action - whack-a-doodles tell you what you have to do or you're a bad person
People of faith follow the Bible - whack-a-doodles tell you to follow them

I haven't said this as well as it could have been said but I hope you have read this and consider - just because someone says they are a certain religion and do something mean or crazy, doesn't mean everyone of that religion is mean or crazy.

Sunday, July 3, 2011

Happy 4th!

You can wear your stars and stripes on your body or




carry your stars and stripes on a flag



or you can dress up to remember our founding fathers.

(friends dressed for the bicentennial)

However you decide to celebrate - remember how lucky we are to live in a free country!

Happy Independence Day!