Lessons of a Newbie Knitter

An unexpected hobby emerged from my CREDO experience: knitting.  Seriously.  What took me so long?  Grateful to Dina and Leigh for their patient instructions and to many, many others for their kind words and encouragement - Melissa, Chris, Beth, Heidi, and co.  Grateful to the lady in the Asheville airport who got me going again when my cast-on row had come undone and all my friends had flown home.  Grateful to the random guy with kind words as we deplaned in Houston.  It takes a village...

Anyway, knitting lends itself to contemplation, so I shouldn't be surprised by the connections and lessons it's tried to teach me (already), but I am.  Here are some of them:

1) Forgiveness is like learning to undo a stitch.  It beats the hell out of tearing up the whole thing.

2) When, as on All Saints', we pray

"O Almighty God, who hast knit together thine elect in one Communion and fellowship, in the mystical body of thy Son Christ our Lord: Grant us grace so to follow thy blessed saints in all virtuous and godly living, that we may come to those indescribable joys which thou hast prepared for those who truly love thee: through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who with thee and the Holy Spirit liveth and reigneth, one God, in glory everlasting."

we should defer to the knitters and make them preach.  Read through the lens of the fellowship of the saints, knitting is the embodiment of Ubuntu:  "I am what I am because of who we all are," or as Desmond Tutu put it once:

"A person with Ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, based from a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed."

3) If knitting approximates God's joy in bringing each of us into being ("For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb" Ps 139:13), it's no wonder God keeps going.  I can't stop, either.

4) Point number 1 notwithstanding, if knitting approximates God's joy in bring us into being, I totally get the temptation to tear it all up and start from scratch, and I commend God for only doing it once.

CREDO 239

I had the great pleasure of attending CREDO 239 at Lake Logan Episcopal Conference Center (near Asheville, NC) a couple of weeks ago (Oct 31 - Nov 7).  A fantastic trip and much to "unpack" - so to speak - but just now wanted to share some prelim photos from the week.

 

Our cabin.

My crib.

The burning bush.

Annie, with my BINGO bling.

My glue glop.

One last look out the window.

Bek's Birthday!

Bek's 30th: 11.11.11.  Jonathan back from CREDO.  Abuela y Abuelo in the house.  Dr. B's pork ribs.  Good times.  And a good time just now for an overdue photo journal.  You know, for the folks who just like the pictures.

Just another normal day ??

TACO!!

Pumpkins, Fun at St C's

Tonight, a gaggle of us gathered to watch "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" at St C's.  I especially enjoy nights like our outdoor movie nights because they allow me to come to church as "just" daddy.  I'm grateful for those in our congregation who organize and lead these evenings so well.

So it was that at 6:25 p.m., Annie and I grabbed our carved pumpkins and headed up to the church.  Annie was a Tigger to Jude's Pooh Bear.  Jude, Rebekah, and Debbie (Bek's mom) came up a while later.

We were greeted by all sorts of fun characters.  Harry Potter.  Captain America.  A Creeper.  Jason.  Martha Washington.  A hobbit.  A bumble bee.  A black cat.  A mysterious man with a cloak and a wild mustache.  And this surprising character, who left me at a loss for words.  

He's too young to be a priest, but MAN is he good looking.

Some of the characters we encountered:

Also, the pumpkin showing was stellar:

After placing votes for best costumes and pumpkins, we settled in for the show.  A fun night all around.  A highlight for me was the neighbors who dropped in to share an evening with their children.

Annie's first popcorn!  She was digging the night.

A great time with friends and open to strangers.  That's a remarkable and even holy thing, I think.  And I'm sure we'll do it again.  Like 'The Great Pumpkin' itself, nights like this one simply never get old.

Nosferatu a blustery pumpkin morning

Today is Friday, which means Daddy/Annie adventures.  Today is also the day before "The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" viewing at St Christopher's, with costumes, pumpkins, and prizes.  Finally, today is the day after the night that saw a cold-front move in, which means today is the first day of fall that has actually felt like fall.

Put it all together and, clearly, of all the adventures open to us on this Friday, one was as irresistibly compelling to us as leaf piles are to Linus Van Pelt: we set out to carve another pumpkin.



Disclaimer: I like to think of myself as pretty handy with the pumpkin saw.  It has been humbling, therefore, to discover these photos of a good friend's recent pumpkins.  (You may need to be logged into facebook to access these links).  Annie and I are thus inclined to dial down the hyperbole with respect to the pumpkin we're about to share with you.  Yes, we're proud of it, but no, this is not the greatest and best pumpkin in the world.  This is just a Tribute.

I'm looking at you, J-Scroggz

                                       Mi amiga:

 

                                         The setup:

You'll notice the fire, a tweak made possible by the lower temps this a.m.  We stopped every few minutes to look for sticks, debris, to keep it going.  A fun wrinkle.

                                         The initial carve-out:

                                         The fine detailing:

                                         The chimney:

                                         The test-run:

 

                                          The black-out:

The face is of Nosferatu, an early German vampire figure, featured in the 1922 silent film of the same name.

The weird-kinda-cool picture resulting from an unsteady camera hand:

The End.