Beauty

18 Sunday Jul 2010

Posted by Katherine in Favorite Things, My Client's Sites, Photography, Thoughts, Writing

Love of beauty is Taste.
The creation of beauty is Art.
[Ralph Waldo Emerson]

A photographer friend of mine. Jim Miller, is on a working vacation in Colorado. When I say working, I mean he is taking photographs for books and videos that he is producing. Some folks really do have dream jobs. Meanwhile, he emails postcards back to those of us who stayed home. I used the first one for his homepage at Willowgreen.com but when he sent this one, I went all soft and selfish, and displayed it here. Isn’t it beautiful? It is taste and art all rolled into one.

TNNA 2010

15 Tuesday Jun 2010

Posted by Katherine in Favorite Things, Knitting, Knitting Sites, Other Favorite Sites, teaching classes, Thoughts, Writing

≈ 3 Comments

Don’t waste time learning the tricks of the trade.
Instead, learn the trade.
[Author Unknown]

Remember the story about the blind men and the elephant? Each described only the part they could feel—be it the tail, trunk or leg. Writing about the summer trade show that The National Needlearts Association just hosted in Columbus, OH is like describing only part of an elephant. My highlights would be different than others.

Andrea Wong taught classes and introduced her new book, Portuguese Style Knitting at the show. I helped in Helen Hamann’s booth and spent the day drooling over her colorful design and Alpaca yarns. I also took a couple of quick trips around the floor. Kramer Yarns of Nazareth, Pennsylvania caught my eye since I enjoy using their products. Durango Button Company of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma sparked my imagination as well. I think buttons can make or break a handmade garment. Not only were there endless varieties of yarn and needlework items, but notions, publications, and accessories were bountiful as well.

I usually have little contact with the enterprise end of the needleart industry so this was an end-to-end learning experience for me.

Traveling Funerals and Other Joys

06 Sunday Jun 2010

Posted by Katherine in Favorite Things, Other Favorite Sites, Review, Thoughts, Writing

≈ 5 Comments

I’ve always thought that a big laugh is
a really loud noise from the soul saying,

“Ain’t that the truth.”
[Quincy Jones]

I have at least one addiction; electronic publications. As with most addictions, it started out small and practical. I was teaching myself how to produce eBooks. Then I found audio books. Then I discovered I could listen to them and knit at the same time just like listening to the radio back when it had programming I loved to listen to (about 55 years ago). At first, I only ordered non-fiction, history books thinking I could expand my mind and turn out sock patterns galore. That is what is called, rationalization. I now know more about seven major wars than most history majors.

Then a friend recommended I read Annie Freeman’s Fabulous Traveling Funeral by Kris Radish. That is where the laughing comes in. The laughing, the crying, the memories—all those things that make me glad to be a woman. This led me to Kris Radish’s blog and more laughing.

Years ago, a friend of mine hurried in late to work, collapsed into her desk chair and said, “Only Erma Bombeck would understand why there are bare foot prints on my bathroom ceiling.” I love people who can level out rough spots in life with humor.

That reminds, me. I’ll start posting the designs I’ve conjured up while listening to books.

Blanchard Blessing

01 Tuesday Jun 2010

Posted by Katherine in Favorite Things, Photography, Thoughts, Writing

≈ 1 Comment

Be thou the rainbow in the storms of life.
The evening beam that smiles the clouds away,
and tints tomorrow with prophetic ray.
[Lord Byron]

This is the Methodist church in Blanchard, Iowa (pop. 62) after a ferocious storm. My friend, Ray Hoffman, lives down the street and snapped this photo just in time. He submitted it to a local radio station. It is today’s photo of the day on KMA’s Website.

If you live in an urban area, you might enjoy a taste of small town, mid-America with a quick tour of the KMA site. It certainly reorders priorities from what one finds in city life—kind of like going on a vacation.

Memorial Day—2010

31 Monday May 2010

Posted by Katherine in Favorite Things, Thoughts, Writing

≈ 2 Comments

A hero is someone we can admire without apology.
[Kitty Kelley]

Eliza E. George, Fort Wayne, Indiana’s noted Civil War nurse, has long been one of my heros. About twenty years ago, I was hired to draw a picture of her for a Lincoln Museum publication, and did some research about her.

She was in her mid-fifties when she volunteered to travel with the Indiana regiments as a nurse. Her son-in-law, Col. Sion S. Bass, had been killed at Shiloh. The soldiers she served came to call her Mother George.

After General Lee’s surrender at Appomattox, she traveled to Wilmington, N.C. to help with released prisoners of war. There, she died of typhoid fever.

Mother George was buried in Lindenwood Cemetery will full military honors and the Indiana Sanitary Commission erected a monument to her memory.

I decorate Mother George’s grave with a small flag on Memorial Day in respect to military nurses everywhere.

Class of ’65

24 Monday May 2010

Posted by Katherine in Favorite Things, Nursing, Other Favorite Sites, Thoughts

≈ 2 Comments

When you’re a nurse
you know that every day
you will touch a life
or a life will touch yours.

We gathered for dinner at the University Place Hotel in Indianapolis last Friday night. Nine of us attended. Even though I only worked as a nurse for ten of the 45 years since we graduated, I welcomed the chance to visit with my classmates. Since we are looking forward to our 50th reunion in five years, I maintain a website for the group with an eye toward gathering everyone together for our big celebration. Here’s a LINK to our site.

The new masthead was photographed by Jim Miller of Willowgreen
during a spring tour of the Smokey Mountains.

Glass Knitting Needles

05 Wednesday May 2010

Posted by Katherine in Favorite Things, Knitting, Knitting Sites, teaching classes, Thoughts

≈ 4 Comments

People are like stained-glass windows.
They sparkle and shine when the sun is out,
but when the darkness sets in,
their true beauty is revealed only if
there is a light from within.
[Elisabeth Kubler-Ross]

During my recent trip to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival, I caved in and bought something to go with the yarn that I also bought—colbalt-blue, circular, glass knitting needles from ERNST finely crafted glass. Not only do these needles knit with greater ease than any needles I’ve tried, I feel like I’m using a piece of art. I’m one of those people who write better with a pretty pen and draw better with a special pencil (at least I feel like I do). Just thought I’d share that.

Bookmaking Revisited

05 Wednesday May 2010

Posted by Katherine in Favorite Things, Knitting, Thoughts, Writing

≈ 9 Comments

Live to live and you will learn to live
[Portuguese Proverb]

… not that kind of bookmaking. I’m talking about making books. Printed books. Electronic books. In this case, a knitting book.

I’ve been working as a graphic designer for twenty five years and still learn many new skills with each job. I haven’t kept track of how many printed pieces and publications I’ve produced over the years, but I’ve created most of them with one Adobe product or another. I recently wrote a short post about upgrading to CS4 and studying the courses on Lynda.com to update my knowledge. I have learned a lot and have been doing it while I’ve been helping Andrea Wong produce her new book, Portuguese Style of Knitting.

I’ve included these topics in recent posts, but wanted to share a comp of the cover design. We are getting close to finishing the layout and will send the book to print after the proofing and revision processes are complete—this spring. We have sent Andrea’s book to print, and it is due back from the printers in early June.

I do most of my traveling through books. I especially enjoy books that record history and cultural aspects of regions all over the world, and apply that to the work of people’s hands. Andrea’s book does that for me.

NOTE: This post was originally published in January, 2010 with a different cover design. We revised it to show more of the fisherman’s sweater that she has included in the pattern section of her book.

Silver Fleece

08 Friday Jan 2010

Posted by Katherine in Favorite Things, Thoughts, Writing

≈ 4 Comments

Silver fleece,
shorn from a woolly sky,
drifting down through the twilight—
each frozen tree and hedge
knitting a sweater of white.
[Bethami Watson]

Yesterday’s snow storm inspired my knitting friend, Bethami, to compose this thought poem. She shared it with me. I was inspired to share her sharing. Thank you Bethami for finding silver fleece in storm clouds.

Grandson and Model Train

03 Sunday Jan 2010

Posted by Katherine in Favorite Things, Thoughts

≈ 4 Comments

And there is the headlight,
shining far down the track,
glinting off the steel rails that,
like all parallel lines,
will meet in infinity,
which is after all where this train is going.
[Bruce Catton]

Grandson, Michael, learned how to run my model train today. It took only one showing for him to realize the orange lever controlled the speed of the train, and the black button made it whistle (much to the dog’s consternation). I was amazed since he just turned two. Then he looked at me with those Paul Newman eyes and called me by name for the first time. Misegades is a complex word for a two year old. I immediately decided I’d have to write a will so I can leave my model train to him.