a hat and cowl

hat and cowl

honey cowl

new hat

So, we’ll see how this works. I’m up at yoga training, so I’m posting from my iPad. I had one more knitting post I wanted to make before I came up here. We’ll see if I can get all the links to work right and stuff. I’m having a hard time getting my photos to resize how I want them to, but you may just have to see them smaller than usual.

My cute hat is a pattern called “Off Piste“. I really wanted a new cream colored hat and Barry really wanted me to have a hat with a brim, so here you have it. The bottom edge curled a bit funny due to the cables, but I ran some elastic thread through it and that perfected it.

I knit my cowl a while ago with leftover yarn from Eva’s Camilla. The pattern is the Honey Cowl. It got a bit monotonous, but I do love it and wear it often.

Now a little about the project at hand– yoga immersion.

Tonight’s meditation mantra was the natural breath mantra “ham sah”. We naturally make this mantra as we inhale “ham” and exhale “sah” with every breathe. In Sanskrit it means “I am that” (“that” being your inner self, the essential part of you that has always existed, that is connected with God) which in my Mormon mind is “I am a child of God.” So, as all of us children of God are going about breathing we are saying “I am a child of God” with every breath whether we know it or not. What a beautiful thing to tune in to– that our very breathe affirms who we are and whose we are.

It all starts back up tomorrow morning at 5:30 AM. I’ll try to pop in with photos soon.

zuzu’s petals for a friend

I visited a friend in November and left her house wondering what I could do to lighten her load.  As I pondered, the thing that came to mind was a friend I had in Ohio who was always knitting a prayer shall for someone.  She was Catholic, so recited prayers as she knit in behalf of someone in need of her prayers, but I thought there was no reason I couldn’t add my own Mormon flavor to the prayer shall idea.  So I searched ravelry for a pattern and settled on Zuzu’s Petals, bought some Cascade Ultra Pima in a pretty blue color, and got to work.

a zuzu's petals for a friend

zuzu's petals

a zuzu's petals for a friend

I tried to be mindful of my friend with each stitch, sending love her way and asking the Lord to help her and her family with whatever they needed.  It was a sweet experience for me to work on something in a mindful way and then give it away.  I wish I had more time to do this kind of thing.  I have several friends in need of lots of prayers.

the Beard Beanie

Among my brothers and their wives we draw names for Christmas gifts and the brother I drew this year had a very specific request.  When we were together over Thanksgiving he whipped out his phone and thumbed through his pinterest pins to show me the coolest thing ev-ah.

A Beard Beanie.

merry christmas to my brother

(Excuse the photo quality– these are all from text messages we’ve exchanged.)

I used this pattern for the beard.  It was quick and painless.  For the hat I used “The Man Hat.”  As for yarn I used some Martha Stewart acrylic/ merino blend that I found at Jo-Ann’s.  I had to use two strands to get the right gauge.  It is super soft and my brother likes it.

Ty's beard beanie

beard beanie and a smile with teeth

So does his wife.

yikes!

spiral rib leg warmers

headstand in leg warmers

I think it’s been a while since I’ve talked about yoga here, but you know I love yoga, right?  I do.  Whether I do a rigorous practice with lots of sun salutations, standing poses and balancing, or just relax deep into some floor stretches I ALWAYS feel better when I’m done than I did when I started.  I love the exhilaration of progressing and noticing that I’m getting stronger when I can get into a new arm balance or hold downward facing dog for a long time without fatigue.  I love connecting with my breathing in difficult positions and riding the wave of my breath through those moments my legs are shaking and just want to give out– but I hold on through it just one more breath, and then one more.

That connection with my breath has never served me better than when I was immersed in the labor of those final hours before I met a new baby.  When I was expecting Eva I had really strong, overwhelming impressions that I should become a prenatal yoga teacher.  I started asking questions of every yoga teacher I took a class from, researched teaching certification and talked it over with Barry and we decided the best way for me to to yoga teacher training is do go to an immersion program.  So– that means I’m going to be spending 10 days in January up in the Colorado mountains, then 11 more in April.

It will be cold in the mountains in January.  Hence the need for leg warmers.

super duper leg warmers

Spiral Rib Legwarmers to be exact.

spiral rib leg warmers

They’re warm and wooly and were a pretty mindless knit after finishing my Pintuck Tee.  They came with me on the road during our trip in September.  Once I had one done it was a little boring to make another, but I persevered.

Ravelry notes here if you want to know what yarn I used and stuff.