I haven’t been blogging much lately. Between updating my new website – Tabitha’s Heart & Hands, getting back into the swing of regular school work with the kids, writing Bible class lessons, and trying to get a little knitting done, I haven’t had much time for blogging.

So here is a photo essay on what I have been up to lately.

I made it to the infamous and much maligned wing on my Swan Lake (aka Mystery Stole 3). I really love this design. I think the wing is pure knitting design genius. It has been a good challenge for my knitting skills.

And I cannot believe that I have gotten this far and knitted something so beautiful. I hope to finish it in time for fall weather. I did see one wing variation that I like even better where the cat’s paw section is kind of morphed into the wing pattern that I might do when I go back to the white one. I really enjoyed the KAL experience with this stole.

I dyed some yarn. Here it is drying.

Here it is after it is dried. This skein went to Anita who won my blog contest. I call this color Blue Skies. The base yarn is Knit Picks Bare.

This skein I call Fried Eggs. I can’t wait to knit it to see how the colors are going to pattern. This one is Knit Picks Bare Superwash as the base yarn.

I am not happy with the color of this skein. I am planning to overdye it as soon as I decide what color to add to it. Also Knit Picks Bare.

I am continuing my Christmas knitting with these two Irish Hiking Scarves.

And a Ravenclaw house scarf.

I wound yarn and swatched for Dublin Bay socks. This is the sock for the Quarterly Sockalong for the FirstTimeSocknittersKAL group. We are having fun so far. Annette has already completed a pair and has a huge hunk of another one done. She is one crazy fast knitter. Or maybe she spends more time knitting than blogging -hmmm. I am knitting mine in Knit Picks Memories Redwood Forest colorway. The colors are very fall and the merino wool is very soft.

The Quill Lace socks are rounding the heel and heading into the home stretch. The Panda Cotton is getting splitty as I get closer to the end of the skein which is causing some problems with the wraps on the short row heel. I am trying a different short row heel on this pair. Will let you know how it turns out.

Had to do some frogging and reknitting of the Indigo Ripples skirt because I found a mistake in the chart I had written for the pattern. Uggh. It does look much better now.

I am really moving on the Summer Shawlette. Although since mine is Peruvian Wool it may be more appropriate for fall and winter.

I really love this pattern. And the shoulder shaping is very nice – just like the pattern said.

I put it on longer needles so you can see it much better now.

If you haven’t visited my new website, I invite you to do so. I currently have 2 contests running. You could win a copy of the book Dinosaurs Unleashed or a copy of The Daily NKJV Bible and several other goodies.

One final piece of business. To answer a question from Grammie Pammie in my comments – here is the link to the Pomatomus pattern. If for some reason the link doesn’t work, you can find it at knitty.com and cookiea.com. I would have emailed you directly but you didn’t leave an email address on the comments and I couldn’t remember which of my groups you were in.

My friend Liz sent me the following story and I thought I would share it with you. It seemed especially appropriate for today.

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A United States Marine was attending some college courses between assignments. He had completed missions Iraq and Afghanistan. One of the courses had a professor who was avowed atheist and a member of the ACLU.

One day the professor shocked the class when he came in. He looked to the ceiling and flatly stated, “God, if you are real, then I want you to knock me off this platform. I’ll give you exactly 15 minutes.”

The lecture room fell silent. You could hear a pin drop. Ten minutes went by and the professor proclaimed, “Here I am God. I’m still waiting.”

It got down to the last couple of minutes when the Marine got out of his Chair, went up to the professor, and punched him; knocking him off the platform. The professor was out cold.

The Marine went back to his seat and sat there, silently. The other students were shocked and stunned and sat there looking on in silence.

The professor eventually came to, noticeably shaken, looked at the Marine and asked, “What on earth is the matter with you? Why did you do that?” The Marine calmly replied, “God was too busy today protecting America’s soldiers who are protecting your right to say stupid things and act like a jerk. So, He sent me.”

This is a email devotional message that I received that I thought you might enjoy reading. Sometimes we need to remember the value of patience in a “instant gratification” world.

CHIPPING AWAY AT THE MOUNTAIN

Over the years, I have collected hundreds (maybe even thousands) of stories and anecdotes. Many of those stories are heard and quickly forgotten. A few of them, though, are so significant that I continue to be reminded of them because of the powerful lessons they teach. This morning’s story is one of those that I rank among my favorites:

An ancient Chinese parable tells of Old Tan Chang who had a small farm overshadowed by a towering mountain. One day he got the notion to get rid of the mountain. With the help of his wife and sons, he began to hack at the rock around its base. A neighbor walked by and scoffed, “You will never finish the job, old man! There are not enough days in the year for you to do this.”

But Tan replied confidently, “I am not as foolish as you think, my friend. I may be old and feeble, but after I am gone, my sons will continue to peck away at the mountain. Then their sons and their sons” sons will do the same. Since the mountain cannot grow, someday it will be level with the ground, and the sun will shine upon our land.”

As I read the Bible, I am reminded that God’s work often takes hundreds of years with each generation doing a little bit more until finally God’s work is completed. The Hebrew writer tells us (11:13) that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob all received promises from God, but those promises were not fulfilled in their generations. They “pecked away” at the mountain one stroke at a time, and later generations received a multitude of blessings.

It is a reminder that we need in our “instant culture”. We have gotten used to instant coffee, instant messengers, and a multitude of other products all designed to help us receive what we want as quickly as possible. The result is that when we pray for God’s will to be done in our lives, we want it done within the next five minutes. There are great things to be achieved simply by laying a groundwork that succeeding generations can build on.

It is a reminder that I need when I tackle a task that seems to be endless. Many days I have told myself that “the mountain cannot grow” and every chip I take out of the mountain makes it that much smaller, and in time, the mountain will be gone. I hope that if you are facing mountains in your life that this parable will serve as an encouragement to you as well.

“Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.” (I Cor. 15:58)

Have a great day!

Alan Smith

I announced a blog contest in my newsletter but forgot to put a follow up here – oh dopey me. Here are the details for those who are not getting the newsletter. I am very excited to have an ad-free site with my very own domain name so I am hosting a blog contest to help spread news of the new and improved Tabitha’s Heart & Hands website. I have worked hard on the redesign of the site and I would love to hear your comments about it.

To enter, simple leave a comment on this blog and tell me what you think of the changes on Tabitha’s Heart & Hands. Criticism is even okay if you are nice about it. Your name will be entered into a drawing for a copy of The NKJV Daily Bible, a copy of the book Dinosaurs Unleased by Kyle Butt and Eric Lyons, a copy of Pocket Ready Reference for Growing Christians by Paul Sain and whatever other goodies I can find between now and the end of the contest. You can get you name entered into the hat a second time by mentioning and linking about Tabitha’s Heart and Hands on your website or blog (you will need to leave me a link to the post linking to Tabitha’s Heart & Hands in your comment). You can get your name entered yet another time if someone who saw your post leaves a comment saying that you sent them here.

You have from now until September 30th to leave your comments. The winner’s name will be drawn at random on October 1st and announced here and on the Tabitha’s Heart website. The selected winner will then have one week to provide me with their snail address. If I do not hear from the winner within one week, another winner will be selected.

There is also another contest on the Tabitha’s Heart & Hands website in the Just for Fun section. The second contest involves filling out this month’s Bible Quiz. The details are on the website. Thank you for helping me spread the word.

I have been pretty delinquent on the blog front lately. It hasn’t been because I haven’t been busy. In fact, I have been working like crazy to get the Tabitha’s Heart and Hands website redesigned and running in its new ad-free environment (woohoo no more pesky ads). I also have my own domain name now – tabithasheart.com. I have added a few new features and redesigned the other pages. It is an ongoing process so there will be more changes over the coming weeks. I invite each of you to visit it and tell me what you think. There are currently two contests running on the site. One is a Bible quiz that can be found in the Just for Fun section and the other requires nothing more than a comment to enter. You can find full information about that contest by clicking the Tabitha’s Heart blog link. You can reach both pages from the navigation bar on the left hand side of the Tabitha’s Heart & Hands home page

On the knitting front, I have been plodding away on about a dozen projects – fickle, I know. It is still too hot here to be monogamous to a knitting project. I will post pictures later this week. It has been hazy and rainy here so not optimal photography conditions.