From The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran

THEN a woman said, Speak to us of Joy and Sorrow.

When the treasure-keeper lifts you to weigh
his gold and his silver, needs must your joy
or your sorrow rise or fall.

We have a choice about how we behave,
and that means we have the choice to opt for civility and grace.
[Dwight Currie]

We have only to turn on television to remind ourselves that true civility is a rare trait in the world. Civility is an expression of respect, and respect requires complex thinking coupled with grace.

The recent trend toward being politically correct is such a sham and totally useless when it it superficial — which it often seems to be. My word for that is patronizing. The trouble with that is, faking political correctness covers up the essence of the problem like wearing a clean dress over a dirty petticoat. It is as bad as saying something crude. We need to address the essence of the problem.

It is easy to open our mouths, let whatever crosses our minds come out, and never think about our biases or the effect they have on other people. The challenge is to think. What are my biases? What crosses my mind? What do I have to change at my core so that when I open my mouth I don’t have to watch what I say in order to be civil? I think all of that starts with learning to respect myself and others. I choose to opt for civility and grace.

If you don’t understand how a woman could both love her sister dearly
and want to wring her neck at the same time,
then you were probably an only child.
[Linda Sunshine]

Louise Misegades (left), Katherine Misegades (right)

Easter always makes me think of this photo. Our mama made Easter into the most special of holidays. She supplied us with new hats and hand-sewn outfits. She even hand wove our Easter egg baskets. There in lies the backstory to this photo. Our mama tried to pose us for our annual Easter photo with us holding our baskets. She couldn’t snap the shutter on her Brownie before I ruined the image. After a bit of a skuffle, we shed our baskets and she caught this image. My sister, the one who looks like she could wring my neck, had just tried to explain to me why I shouldn’t toss my eggs out on the sidewalk. I think I was lucky to be a younger sister.

May Easter joy be yours.

Unquestionably, there is progress.
The average American now pays out twice as much in taxes
as he formerly got in wages.
[H. L. Mencken]

There are times when a person has to put aside her knitting needles and tend to other things—like doing dishes, earning a living and gathering stuff for tax preparation. I am amazed that, no matter how organized I try to be, it still takes me a lot of time to get everything together once a year for tax reporting. Also, the lump in the pit of my stomach isn’t breakfast. It it the dread of finding out how much more I owe. For me, the main drawback to being self-employed is keeping up with taxes. Every year, I try to adust my witholding so it will come out even in the end. Every year, it doesn’t.

This is the time I remind myself of the assets of being self-employed. My boss is a fuzzy little fellow who lies at my feet while I work. My office is my converted dining room where I sit surrounded by my books and assorted treasures. I’m not required to attend superfluous meetings nor am I interrupted by office politics. Every day is casual Friday although I do try to change out of my night clothes before lunch.

I’m heading out to mail a book order and pick up my finished tax forms from my accountant. This makes me feel as boyant as I do when I’ve successfully completed a big project. I just wish congress was as frugle with my money as I am.

Creativity can be described as letting go of certainties.
[Gaily Sheehy]

A while back, one of the blog comments was about stranded knitting used in socks. She hesitated putting that much work into the sock then having it wear out. With that thought in mind, I started knitting a sock that had only a small amount of stranded knitting for decoration. Here it is with the cuff and leg finished. This is knit with US#2 needles using a yarn that is a bit finer than DK weight.

CUFF: Cast on 56 stitches and work a k1, p1 ribbing for 10 rounds. Note: this cuff was started using an invisible cast-on technique to give a smooth edge to the cuff. If you want instructions for doing this technique, let me know and I’ll post them for you.

LEG: The stranded knitting pattern is worked with 7 repeats per round and takes 20 rounds to complete. Here is the chart for the color-pattern repeat. Read it bottom to top, right to left.

Since stranded knitting is less flexable and draws in a bit, I chose to work a k3, p1 ribbing for the rest of the leg. Another choice would be to change to a size smaller needle. I worked 30 rounds of this ribbing in the dark red yarn.

As soon as I have the heel gusset finished, I’ll post a progress report with another photo.

February is merely as long as is needed to pass the time until March.
[Dr. J. R. Stockton]

Last summer, I posted the postcard of my home that is shown in the upper left corner. I took the larger picture today. We have had a week of sub-zero temperatures. I believe the scientists who say we are experiencing global warming so I have a question. How cold would it be without global warming?

Having to go out to potty in a sleet storm makes me long for summer.
[Toby]