Groundhog Fave Fives

 Welcome to Willow's Cottage on this auspicious day when animals predict when spring is coming.  Eleanor Elizabeth is in agreement with all the groundhogs that Spring will arrive sooner rather than later.  Hopefully...

And now it is Friday, February 2nd, still winter.  But the sun is actually shining!  Since it's Friday, it is time for Friday Fave Fives with Susanne and a whole bunch of other people who list five things (and sometimes more) that have blessed them this week.  Here are mine.

1.  A new family member has been added!   Little M was born last Sunday evening.  He is the son of a young man we have known for more than twenty years and who became our 'grandson' just because we love his family so much.  (they're the ones who followed us here to Ohio two years ago)  We haven't met M yet but have seen a couple of photos.

2.  We met a friend and her mother for lunch on Monday.  This friend is very special to us because of her involvement in missions work in Uganda.   She managed the Ugandan Lambs for years and introduced us to Daniel and Mark who we have sponsored for a long time.  She even brought a gift to us from Mark.  (If you have read this blog for a while, you may remember our heartbreak when Daniel passed away three years ago.)  Uganda is dear to our hearts.  Now our friend is living in Hanoi and again working to help the lives of children and young adults.  It was a blessed time.  In my opinion, it is a good thing that she has family living in Ohio, so she visits them every year, and we can see her, too.

3.  That gift from Mark.  A wood carving to hang on our wall!

4.  The weather has moderated a bit and we have been able to take two walks this week.  Yesterday, while we waited for Tall Boy at his piano lesson, we just walked around that neighborhood.  It's the best way to learn your town AND get some exercise at the same time.

5.  I've been planning a rather industrious knitting project.  I have had a big bag of handspun and hand dyed wool sitting in my studio closet for a long time.  The biggest issue was that there wasn't enough of any basic color to use for a vest or sweater.  So I decided to pull out my spinning wheel and spin up some undyed wool.  First I had to finish spinning some lovely grey alpaca from Peru.  Yesterday, I finished it. 

Now I am on to working on the wool.  I am pleased that I finally pulled out the wheel and am actually getting some spinning done.  These are the dyed colors.  I chose a basic beige/grey wool which I think will work well with all these bright colors.

I am so thankful for the opportunity I have to use my hands to create such beauty.

Lizzie Vest, A Fair Isle Pattern

 I finished the fair isle vest!  And I wore it on Saturday.

Here are the details about my 'practice' vest.

Pattern:  Lizzie Vest from the blog (now inactive) Yellow Pink and Sparkly.  You can click on the link and find the Lizzie Vest pattern on the side bar.

Needles:  The pattern calls for size 3 and 5 needles; however, I adapted to using size 7 and 5 because the yarn I used called for those sizes and because I also adapted the size to fit.

Yarn:  Caron x Pantone.  Bamboo.  Five colors.  I purchased the yarn as a set with navy being the main color.  Unfortunately, it looks like Caron is no longer making this yarn.

Full disclosure:  I used the pattern as a guide for knitting the fair isle patterning; it is not exactly the same.  Mostly, this is because I did not have enough of the three colors pink, white and plum to follow it row by row.  But even so, I love how it turned out.

The edging is Knit 1 Purl 1 ribbing.

The fair isle patterns were fun to knit!

A Month into Winter Fave Fives

 Welcome to Willow's Cottage this grey and misty day.  This week we have moved from this (never above freezing temps for a week):

to this: quite warm but very foggy.

That's ok. That's life in Ohio, evidently.  Don't like the weather?  Wait a few minutes.

Why do I begin my Friday Fave Fives talking about less than ideal weather?  Well, we are supposed to be joyful in all things, thankful for everything.  For me, that seems so very easy because I am not living in a dangerous place in the world. I have food. I have shelter. I have water. I am safe. I never take these blessings for granted.  It seems like I have just written all my faves for the week right here.  But wait!  There's more!  (the link above takes you to Susanne's blog where she hosts our FFFs)

1.  I am thankful for a cleaning lady.  She helps me once a month with chores that my hands don't like me to do.  What a blessing she is!  She has been out on maternity leave, so I am especially happy she is back.

2.  I am thankful for friends.  One very important factor in living a longer life is having companionship.  As we often do, we met our friends T and S for coffee one morning this week.  Three hours!

3.  More friendships.  We drove north to meet other friends between their new home (they moved 'home' from Oregon where we knew them) to have lunch with them  We took Mia with us because she had the day off from work and because she knew Laura from the time she was in middle school.  It was a great reunion and catch up.  We look forward to many more lunches with them.  Even Eleanor Elizabeth Bunny enjoyed the lunch--lots of lettuce and carrots for her!

4.  I am thankful to live near my daughters.  One evening the two 'girls' popped over to talk with us about summer plans.  I love living a five minute drive from them both.

5.  Mia also helped me with something that has been nagging at me for a long time.  I own the rights to a website, willowscottage.com.  For a long time, it has sat there just doing nothing, no photos, no information.  This week, Mia showed me how to make the first steps in setting it all up.  The only thing there so far is a link to this blog... try it.  www.willowscottage.com

I hope you have found many many blessings in your week, too.

PS:  I am almost finished with the vest I showed you last week!  Come back later today or tomorrow and get the details.

Cold and Snowy Faves

Hello from a white and icy Willow's Cottage!  In a zoom call this week with my Art Girls group, one of us mentioned her focus phrase for 2024-- JOY, no matter what.  YES!  That is what Friday Fave Fives is all about.  Finding and focusing on the blessings, no matter what else is happening.  Here are my Friday Fave Fives for this frigid week. (follow the link to Susanne's blog to join and read more)

This has been a week of rest, coffee, and books.   I didn't plan my week to be like that, but with our below freezing temperatures all day and night and now the snow which is falling, I haven't been out much and I haven't had much energy, either.  I truly am thankful for all the downtime.

We did make two expeditions out in the cold.  One trip was to have our annual eye exams.  Results were all good.  No changes, no new lenses, no new frames.  Our optometrist is wonderful and personable and professional.  It was a joy and a blessing to have that visit.

The other trip took us to the medical center for my m--m-gram.  Again, all good.  On the same trip, we did our big shopping trips to Costco and TJ's and added in REI and LLBean.  These stores are thirty minutes plus from us, so we group them together and do the trip once or twice a month.  Again, I am thankful that the medical visit is done and all the shopping is, too.

The Professor and I had a fun and relaxing coffee time with Mia, Younger Daughter, on one of her days off.  We enjoye our coffee in a sweet shop in a nearby town.  Ragamuffins Coffee is definitely a favorite.  While we were there, two people who work for our county's park district came in and grabbed their coffee.  A quick conversation about our knitting projects cemented the woman's name in my mind (I'm not usually good with names, so this was unusual).

Much to our surprise, we met that Park District lady at our eye doctor's office as she arrived for her appointment.  I remembered her name!  Then she told us about a volunteer program the park district has for people interested in helping keep the trails in good condition, and she invited us to join.  We'll definitely be looking into that since we walk the trails all the time, anyway.  I love those serendipitous meetings.

Extra:  update on the Fair Isle vest...  in rummaging around in my extensive yarn stash, I pulled out a bunch of yarn that came as a combination of five different colors in small skeins with a couple of the colors in larger skeins.  Perfect for me to make a 'practice' vest!  So that's what I have been knitting this week.  If all goes well, I should have it finished by next week.  Here's a quick glimpse to entice you...

Mid January Gratitude Warmth

Greetings from cold and windy (dare I say frigid?) central Ohio.  It's a grey and chilly Friday.  But.  Even in harsh weather or maybe difficult situations, there is always sunshine and goodness if you look for it.  That is the whole point of Friday Fave Fives.  Susanne leads other bloggers in this exercise of gratitude each week and for me it is important to look back and note the blessings I might have otherwise missed.  I am so thankful for Friday Fave Fives (the link takes you to Susanne's blog)

1.  Does working through your mending pile count as deep cleaning?  While I did not manage to clean any cupboards or floors, I did do all the mending.  My daughter's beautiful green cashmere sweater had a hole-- she brought it over and that set off the chain of sewing.  Of course, the next day, I had to start a new pile...

2.  On the one day when the weather cooperated (no rain, no snow, no below freezing temperatures), The Professor, Young Daughter and I took the two 'puppies' for a walk.  Three and a half miles!

3.  We have friends from here who have been on a road trip to the West Coast.  Knowing that we have lived in the Pacific Northwest and that we have driven those routes numerous times, they asked us to help them out with planning their trip and being their weather reporters.  They're on their way home now, and so far,  they have had only one nasty weather day (yesterday in Utah and Wyoming).  We are monitoring and texting with them (well, it's mostly The Professor) and are thankful they are safe.  One extra blessing is that they have sent us photos of all the wonderful places along the way and especially the Columbia River Gorge.

4.  A morning spent with Younger Daughter at a local coffee shop.  We chatted about so many different things including knitting, of course, and her work as a nurse.  I think she is going to love being a nurse.  It's her passion.

5.  Our discussion about knitting?  I am in the planning stages of using up some of my handspun and hand dyed wool yarn.  I want to knit a Fair Isle vest or sweater (or both).  My biggest issue has been having enough of a single color of yarn for the base color.  Then last night I had an AHA moment!  I have some unspun wool fiber in my stash!  So, I made a mess in the room I call my studio and pulled out two rolls of roving.  Now I just have to spin it and make sure it is the same weight (size) of yarn as all the skeins I already have.  If you care about how yarn is made and how it can be dyed, you can click on these three links and read some old posts I wrote years ago.  Handspun    Dyeing Wool    More Dyeing 

Bonus.  Cold weather means I stay inside more.  I have finished reading several books!

Simply Garter Vest

Here are some details about the vest I finished last week.  I added a photo of it on my Friday Fave Fives,  and various people commented about it, so I thought I'd added extra information.

The pattern is Simply Garter Vest from the pattern book Folk Vests by Cheryl Oberle.  I have used this book to knit several vests and highly recommend it.  This is the second Simply Garter Vest I have made; last year I knit a purple vest for my younger daughter (Mia).

Last fall, I was given a huge bag of yarns from someone who is organizing her home to get ready to sell it and decided she doesn't want to continue knitting.  So I had eight skeins of this lovely yarn.

A mix of 70%wool and 30%mohair from Green Mountain Spinnery.  Excellent company with high quality yarns.

I used almost five skeins.

Size 8 US needles

This vest is really cozy warm.  I will be wearing it ALL. WINTER.

First Fave Fives of 2024

Good day to you all.  Here we are in the new year, 2024.  It doesn't seem real somehow.  But it is.  I have my Friday Fave Fives for you to read (the link takes you to Susanne's blog where you can read more and find other blogs writing FFFs).

1.  We spent most of New Year's Eve with family, watching the celebration of the New Year in London and hearing Big Ben ring in 2024.  Then we toasted in 2024 with some sparking cider (and water for the one who doesn't like cider) and watched a movie.  Yes, we were all home and in bed before midnight here.

2.  On New Year's Day, we gathered the family of two girls and three grands and three dogs and took a walk/hike at Black Hand Gorge along the Licking River.  The weather wasn't great but the exercise and conversation was. 

3.  Tuesday, January 2nd was our Little Warrior's fourteenth birthday.  How did he want to celebrate?  By a visit to Dayton's Air Force Museum.  Five of us piled into our car and made the drive down there and spent the day wandering around several of the museum's many hangars which are filled floor to ceiling (literally) with planes, helicopters, a few tanks and so many displays of various wars and eras.

This quilt naming all the US Air Force bases was hanging in one of the hallways.

4.  A finished vest.  This vest was knitted in a simple garter stitch pattern.  The yarn came as a gift from a friend who is moving and getting rid of all the yarn she doesn't want.  Green Mountain Spinnery's Mountain Mohair. 70% wool, 30% mohair.  Charcoal gray color titled Raven.  It's a very warm vest, which is what I need in January and February.

5.  I was able to do some deep cleaning this week.  Laundry room and kitchen.  My goal is to deep clean every room this winter.  This week was a good start to my goal.

There it is.  Five good things from this cold cold cold first week of January 2024.

Photo Recap for 2023

 I spent some time scrolling through the photos I took in 2023 and chose a picture from each month.  OK, a couple of times, I chose two.  And evidently I didn't really take any photos in April.

Anyway, enjoy!

JANUARY

FEBRUARY

MARCH

APRIL

I got nothin'.

MAY

JUNE

JULY

AUGUST

SEPTEMBER

OCTOBER

NOVEMBER

DECEMBER

The Week Between

 Good Friday morning!  Here we are in the week between Christmas Day and New Year's Day.  Many people consider this time a 'holding pattern'.  For us at Willow's Cottage, this week has been filled with family.  I am so thankful for so much.  Here in my Friday Fave Fives I am only touching on a small amount of the wonder of Christmas at the Cottage.

1.  Of course the arrival and visit of Younger Son (shall I call him Dr. Mike?) is the absolute best.  We had not seen him for more than a year as he now lives in San Diego.

2.  All the breakfasts, lunches and dinners shared with family.  Christmas Eve was pasta.  Christmas Morning was The Professor's coffee cake along with all sorts of eggs and bacon/sausage.  Dinner was take out that we brought in from Thai and Chinese restaurants (we were cooked out...).  The rest of the week has been meals together to eat all.the.leftovers.  What feasts of abundance!

3.  Phone calls from our missing Older Son (Chaplain Dan) and his family, including PAL.

4.  I managed to catch a few photos.  Three of the four kids.  Three of the four grandkids.

No, you can't open your stockings yet.

Say Cheese!

Just chillin'

5.  Are you noticing a theme here?  Family!  I am thankful for family including lots and lots of texts from my brother and sister-in-law in Oregon.  One topic was our father's birthday, December 27th.  Dad would have been 101!

One of my favorite photos--Dad standing by the Old Columbia River Highway at the tunnel.  1942.

Bonus:  Our weather wasn't frightful, except for the rain, so we were able to get out to walk twice on the paved trails near our home.  We really needed the exercise!

I hope you enjoyed your Week Between and found many blessings, too.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

 The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

John 1:14a

Merry Christmas to you from Willow's Cottage!

Almost Christmas!

 First, thank you to all who sent get well wishes last week.  Thankfully, I am feeling so much better especially since Christmas weekend is almost here.  As I fell asleep last night, I realized that for the first time in at least two weeks I wasn't coughing constantly.  I really am getting well!

This is the Friday before Christmas.  All through my house, I have lights, red and green fabrics and decor, and little piles of Christmas cards.  There is so much to be thankful for this Christmas of 2023.  Here are my Friday Fave Fives which I had to narrow down to just five things I noticed this week that are this season's blessings.

1.  I was well enough to attend a very dear and sweet friend's birthday party Sunday afternoon (yes, I tested negative for c-vid) and then an open house time at other friends' home.

2.  On Monday, we had our first snow!  It is now melted, but it was lovely to watch while it lasted.

3.  I finished that last baby blanket (last week's mention) and we delivered it to the parents on Tuesday so they can give it to their son for Christmas.  A bit out of focus, but the pictures show all the colors.  If you want details on the pattern, here is the link to the post I wrote for the other afghan I made.  Simply Soft yarns, size 8 needles.

4.  The weather was warm and sunny, so I took my first walk since being sick.  A half mile may not seem like much, but it was something to celebrate that I could walk that far and not feel completely fatigued.

5.  Do you enjoy cleaning?  Evidently, I'm one of those weird ones who like to clean and organize.  Younger Daughter requested my help in doing some deep cleaning at their house, so I spent much of Thursday there at the Hive (we call it the Hive because they are all busy as bees). It truly does give me great joy and I am thankful I have the energy to do it.

Bonus:  And now...we excitedly await tonight's arrival of Younger Son from San Diego who is coming for Christmas!

There Are Always Blessings, No Matter What

I certainly did not imagine that, ever, I would write a post about being thankful for catching that nasty virus the world has labeled C-v-d.  And yet, here I am, searching my foggy brain for Five Faves from this week.  I'm sure we would all agree that we are thankful that we are able drink, eat, breathe.  Last week, I thought I was dealing with a nasty cold.  Nope.  Tests on Saturday showed those dreaded black lines.  But as I Thessalonians 5:18 states, "Give thanks in all circumstances."  So here are my Friday Fave Fives, giving thanks even in the circumstances of illness. (the link takes you to Susanne's blog where she collects our links)

1.  I have finished reading several books.  Some I had started but not finished.  Others were on the table staring at me, waiting for me to pick them up.  So as soon as I had the energy to pick up a book and open its pages and when I had the ability to focus, I read three, maybe four? books  So I am thankful for quiet reading time.

2.  When your eyes won't focus any more on the words in the book, you pick up your knitting.  I finished my last baby afghan for the year.  Again, it is blocks of different colors randomly arranged.  This one is for a little boy who can use it to snuggle and learn to identify the names of the colors.  Sorry, no photos at this point.  My recovery hasn't quite made it to photographing anything.

3.  Being confined indoors and basically without energy to do much, I am thankful that the sun was shining in through our windows and cheering the whole house.

4.  I am thankful for a healing body.  Maybe TMI here, but ALL the mucus that one has to cough out of their throat, nose and sinuses, is the result of our amazing white blood cells sacrificing themselves to help us heal.  Yes, I knew that, but I am thankful that The Professor reminded me so I would not be grumpy about constantly blowing my nose and coughing up all that muck.

5.  Not quite sure how to phrase this as a fave--- Older Daughter loves to dance.  She's a member of the local youth ballet (which also has classes for adults).  We had tickets for their last performance in a beautiful theatre in a nearby town.  Sadly, I missed it.  But I am thankful that all the rest of our family (plus friends T and S) were able to attend. 

So, my friends, I hope you are well, and if you're not, you still find the goodness of God in your life.  And enjoy some poinsettias from my photo archives.

Soon

Hello to all my friends from around the world.

If you came here looking Friday Fave Fives, please return in a bit.  I'm fighting what is most likely a cold and need some rest.  Then I'll post my usual Five Blessings from the week, one of which will undoubtedly be that I am feeling better.

Until then...

Thanks for your patience.  I am feeling some better.  Here are my Friday Fave Fives from this past week.

1.  I am thankful for all the OTC helps I've been consuming.  They really have helped me feel better.  My favorite is still Cold Care tea from Traditional Medicinals.

2.  I'm thankful The Professor has been doing so much to help me.

3.  Can you imagine feeling sick and living in a cold house with no heat?  I am so thankful for my heated home, cozy blankets, and warm clothes.

4.  OK, on to other things...  Last night (Thursday) we attended our first Sights and Sounds of Christmas.  It is a tradition here and we loved walking around the center of our town and visiting eight churches and listening to Christmas music--bells and chimes, choirs, organs, harps and pianos.  It was beautiful!

5.  I love our library!  And I am thankful for all the books I can read which I can request from the library.  Especially when I am 'confined' to my recliner.

December Has Arrived

 Hello December!  We've made it through eleven months of this year.  And wow, has it flown by so quickly.  I really do need to slow down every week and contemplate what has happened, how I've been blessed and cared for.  And the best way for me to do that is to focus and plan my Friday Fave Fives.  (the link will take you where you can read more and share, too, if you want)

1.  Baby, it's cold outside!  I am thankful for my warm home and cuddly blankets!

2.  We are starting to decorate for Christmas.  Again, I am thankful for a  home where I can celebrate Christmas season.

3.  Both of our daughters were traveling this past week. The weeks around Thanksgiving are the busiest of the year, and all kinds of delays, problems and cancelations can happen.  But both are home safe and sound. For that, I am thankful.

4.  We were invited to attend an event about one and a half hours drive northeast of us, in Amish country.  After a wonderful buffet dinner, we walked over to the concert hall and enjoyed listening to The Hoppers, a Southern Gospel group.  I love music, and it was great fun to spend the time with friends in the car, too.

5.  And of course, I had an opportunity to grab photos of barns along the way (until it was dark...)