Awesome thoughts to start the day

GOD'S ACCURACY

How lovely to think about the way our Creator God planned everything so
carefully and perfectly, everything with a plan. As His highest creation,
'we are fearfully and wonderfully made.'

God's accuracy may be observed in the hatching of eggs.
For example:
The eggs of the potato bug hatch in 7 days; those of the canary in 14 days; those of the barnyard hen in 21 days.
The eggs of ducks and geese hatch in 28 days; those of the mallard in 35 days.
The eggs of the parrot and the ostrich hatch in 42 days.
(Notice, they are all divisible by seven).

God's wisdom is seen in the making of an elephant. The four legs of this great beast all bend forward in the same direction. No other quadruped is so made. God planned that this animal would have a huge body, too large to live on two legs. For this reason He gave it four fulcrums so that it can rise from the ground easily.

The horse rises from the ground on its two front legs first.
A cow rises from the ground with its two hind legs first.

How wise the Lord is in all His works of creation! God's wisdom is revealed in His arrangement of sections and segments, as well as in the number of grains.

Each watermelon has an even number of strips on the rind.
Each orange has an even number of segments.
Each ear of corn has an even number of rows.
Each stalk of wheat has an even number of grains.

Every bunch of bananas has on its lowest row an even number of bananas, and each row decreases by one, so that one row has an even number and the next row an odd number.

The waves of the sea roll in on shore twenty-six to the minute in all kinds of weather.

All grains are found in even numbers on the stalks.

The Lord specified thirty fold, sixty fold, and a hundredfold - all even numbers.
God has caused the flowers to blossom at certain specified times during the day, so that Linnaeus, the great botanist, once said that if he had a conservatory containing the right kind of soil, moisture and temperature, he could tell the time of day or night by the flowers that were open and those that were closed!

Thus the Lord in His wonderful grace can arrange the life that is entrusted to His care in such a way that it will carry out His purposes and plans, and will be fragrant with His presence. Only the God-planned life is successful. Only the life given over to the care of the Lord is safe.

*Author unknown

All in a Weekend's Play

October is without a doubt my favorite month. Perfect temperatures and beautiful, cloudless skies. We made good use of the time this weekend. We are blessed to live 3 miles from this trail that runs parallel with the Natchez Trace and have been walking on it almost every day from 2 to 4 miles.




Today, I found this bodark "apple" though I never did see the tree. The squirrels love this "fruit" and usually make a big mess with them. I brought it home as it reminded me so much of my childhood. My paternal grandma had one of these on the hill in front of her house. As children, we loved putting them under the wheels of the car. Daddy would always pretend he didn't know what was going on and would accelerate to reverse. The crunch would set us laughing. As many thorns as are on the tree, I'm surprised that Daddy or one of his brothers didn't have flat tires.


I have needed to organize my circular knitting needles for a long time and have been scouting for something that would hold all but the Denise interchangeable. Everything I have seen up until now would not have held them all or been portable and were somewhat pricey. I ran across this zip-up binder at Office Depot this weekend and am tickled with the results. There are 13 sections, enough space for all needles up to size 13. I enclosed each needle in a sandwich ziplock marked with the size and length. The front has a zip-up mesh pocket in which I placed a tape measure, stitch holder and ruler/needle sizer. There's room for other items too. I think I will really enjoy this.








Originally, I had planned to include white lights on this grapevine arbor but in hindsight, I should have wound the lights around the ironwork. The grapevine is almost impossible to wind the lights in so, we will enjoy it like it is and wind the lights around a plant or grapevine wreath. It was fun to do.

I am preparing to part with an old friend in order to buy a Macomber and thought I would post here in the event any of you are looking for a special loom. Here are the details:

Norwood 40" 8-shaft cherry floor loom - Solid, super-size cloth and warp beams, a ratchet brake system that needs no adjustment, an excellent shed and extra long weaving space. The floating lamms, jacks and harness tracks are constructed of wood, allowing for quiet operation. Sectional warping rails. Beautiful craftsmanship and top grade cherry wood. One reed and lease sticks included. Weaving width 40"; number of shafts 8; number of treadles 12; number of heddles 2000 (1000 more than new); overall width 47"; depth open 42"; depth folded 31-1/2"; height open 39"; height folded 45-1/2"; depth between reed and breast beam16-1/2". Weight approximately 175 lbs. (New birch looms are 150 lbs.). Excellent condition. Email with questions at Margaret@heritageyarns.com or leave message at (601) 956-1478.

Spinach Chicken Parmesan

Here's a recipe I tried a few nights ago that we both enjoyed and Don is not crazy about chicken. I will be making this every few weeks. The original recipe came from allrecipes.com but I followed every variation. Here's my take on it.

Spinach Chicken Parmesan

1/3 c. grated Parmesan cheese
1/3 c. Italian bread crumbs
1/4 t. Italian seasoning
3 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
2 T. unsalted butter
1/2 c. chopped onion
2 cloves minced garlic
1 8 oz. package sliced mushrooms
1 T. all-purpose flour
2/3 c. nonfat sour cream
1/3 c. milk (I used 1%.)
Red pepper flakes to taste
1 10 oz. package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained thoroughly
1/2 c. chopped roasted red peppers
Kosher salt and black pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a small bowl combine cheese, bread crumbs and Italian seasoning. Roll chicken pieces in bread crumbs and cheese mixture to coat lightly. Reserve remaining cheese mixture for topping. Arrange chicken pieces in an 8x8x2 inch prepared (Pam) baking dish. Mix milk, sour cream and red pepper flakes; set aside. In a large, non-stick skillet, saute' onion, garlic and mushrooms in butter until tender. Stir in flour. Add sour cream mixture and simmer, stirring until bubbly. Stir in drained spinach and roasted red peppers and mix together. Season to taste with Kosher salt and black pepper. Spoon spinach mixture over chicken and sprinkle with remaining bread crumbs and cheese mixture. Bake uncovered for 40 minutes or until tender and chicken juices run clear.

Enjoy!

Sea Cruise 8/2 Tencel

I never cease to be amazed at how the same colorway can look so different on a different fiber. I painted Sea Cruise this week and, though I have painted it in Serenity (out of stock for a while), I decided to give it a whirl on tencel. I love this yarn and the saturation of color that it gives. I also dyed Blueberry Hill this week and am now champing at the bit to combine the two closely related colorways.Forgot to add... that Blueberry Hill is shown on top and Sea Cruise on bottom. I do think I'm going to have to try this.

Color on a Gray Day

What to do when we're rained out of our trip to the coast? Knit, take pictures and make the best of it.

These mitten ornaments were knitted with a free pattern from the knitlist and Kollage Luscious cotton sock yarn. Our guild is decorating a Christmas tree for the Craftsmen's Guild of MS in appreciation for their providing us with a place to meet.
I had fun knitting these Dolly Faroese Shawls. The first one was knit with Jojoland Melody Superwash in color MS26. I love the way the color travels in this yarn. It is a marled yarn of variegated yarns with long repeats as opposed to a marled yarn of solids that would give a barber pole effect.
The second and third were knitted in hand painted Serenity; first colorway is Gulf Breeze Sunrise and second is Sagebrush.

Fiona, given to me by my friend Sandi, is modeling the Sagebrush shawl.
I recently knit HeartStrings Lace Leaves in Kollage Luscious cotton in cherry. This yarn has a wonderful hand and there is sufficient yardage on one skein to complete the scarf.

Our guild has adopted MS Heart Scarves as a permanent service project. Our goal is to gift every woman in MS experiencing a heart procedure with a hand knit or handwoven red scarf. The project was established here in MS by our dear friend, Tina Bradford, who passed away on May 1 with heart disease, the number one killer of women.
This is HeartStrings Maple Leaves Scarf that I completed last year. It is knit with Jaggerspun Zephyr 2/18 in Garnet. I love this yarn! it is 50% merino/50% silk and is absolutely wonderful to the touch, very warm and light.
Another HeartStrings pattern. Any surprise? (-: The pattern is Peggy's Shawl. The yarns are one end of hand painted Peacock Iridescence 8/2 Tencel and one end of Jaggerspun Zephyr 2/18 in Ebony. Love, love, love this pattern and the hand of this shawl. This just might be my favorite thing to wear.

Apart from the stormy weather, it has been a good Labor Day. Now, I think I'll take Don up on his offer of a game of Monopoly.

Knitting finally blocked!

This is a close-up of the Scotch Thistle Lace Stole. I knitted it with Jojoland Melody Superwash in MS08. This makes me long for cool weather.














Second object finished that I can remove from the UFO list is the Reversible Lace Ladders. The good news is that I can wear it right away as it is knitted in Lace Sensation Raw Silk.