Skip to main content

Happy Independence Day!

This is my favorite holiday.

Along with Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas, the significance of this day is beyond compare. I think one of the reasons that I like the 4th of July so much is because my dad was an Army chaplain for many years. I'm glad I have had the privilege of attending funerals at Arlington National Cemetery, seeing a bit through his eyes, and getting a behind-the-scenes understanding of some of the traditions there. Thinking of the
Arlington Ladies still chokes me up. We do live in the greatest country in the world, a country that cares about the freedom of the rest of the world, too, and is willing to do something about it.

Zoom recently checked out a video from the library, (exercising his independence and his very own library card). His favorite movie is National Treasure so when he spied an autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, he wanted to borrow it. I had seen ads about the museum's Ben Franklin exhibit implying that he was a nudist, so I felt obligated to monitor this documentary while Zoom watched it. Boy, did I learn a lot about the history of our country, as well as Ben. Another video series we've enjoyed is This is America, Charlie Brown.


Besides all the serious stuff, I love the barbecue, the friends, the baseball games, the water balloons, and all the flags. I love the fireworks! And I LOVE red white and blue quilts.



I hope you have a fun and significant 4th of July.

Comments

  1. Well gosh what a great post. And Karen, I really love this quilt. Stopped me right in my tracks. That'll inspire a girl.

    Back to the great post. Also stopped in my tracks to read about your father, his work and felt how that shines through in you. It made me light up.

    Happy 4th

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wonderful post, Karen. I didn't know about the Arlington Ladies and I have to admit to a lump in my throat while reading about them.

    Thanks for the information, and i hope you have a wonderful weekend.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ooooh, look at that great quilt top! I LOVE it! I need to make a red white and blue quilt - I love them too. GREAT flag picture!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Lovely post, Karen! Your quilt is really beautiful - you've made great progress!
    Cheers!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

I love reading your comments! Please be sure to LEAVE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS (if it isn't included in your profile) so that I may respond to you. Thank you!

Popular posts from this blog

reasons I knit

I haven't posted a lot of knitting on here in the last few years.  Not much to say about it but I still knit.   I knit because I love to create. I knit because I love sweaters. I knit because I grew up with a mom who is artistic beyond the acknowledgement she receives, and it's in my blood to do something creative. I knit because I love the good things God grows, like sheep and wool and muskox and cotton. I knit because I love colors. I knit because my boys wear what I knit. I knit because I like the rhythm. I knit because it has a beginning and an end, and they are achievable.  I knit because when my hands are busy, my mouth slows down, and it gives my brain a chance to make better decisions. I knit because I'm really, really good at it, and it's one of the few things that others acknowledge, and we all need that. I knit because I love to knit. I'm working on a colorful shawl in alpaca. 

modular knitting

On the plus side, modular knitting gives one interesting options for colorwork and color blocking.  Sometimes the dye process can give the yarn its own commentary, like this changing of scales. However, there are often many more ends to weave in.  This one is not too bad, but there's at least four ends on every row - 14 rows.  Still, interesting to try something new! Details on my Ravelry page , if you are interested!!  Have you tried modular knitting?  Thumbs up or down??

getting through winter

As classes of all sorts get scheduled, rescheduled and postponed due to weather, and with the short days with less light, I often find January and February to be a forced pause.  Years like this convince me that I should get good at reading rain gauges and keeping track of the temperature.  It seems like we've had an usual amount of snow.  That should be good for our snow pack and seasonal runoff to fill creeks, lakes, basins, but we'll see what the spring brings.  In the meantime, I have been trying to tick off indoor chores and projects, and working on garden things.   We have started a handful of seedlings:  basil, foxgloves, verbascum, lavender, rosemary, onions and something new to us, naranjilla .  We have varying levels of success.  The naranjilla did take a long time to germinate; I think we used 11 seeds, and we currently have five seedlings, some a couple weeks older than others!  We're still 12-14 weeks out from planting and I really had my hands full last year -