Bird's Nest Pin Cushion

I have made the sweetest little present from the book "Closely Knit" by Hannah Fettig. This is the birds nest pin cushion and it took me no time to make it and it was fun to make!

I used Lambs Pride Worsted in Sable for the nest and Nashua Creative Focus Worsted in Mint (really a robins egg blue) for the five little eggs. While the pattern calls for a size 6 dpn, I didn't have those and used 5s. I followed the pattern for the nest just as it says. I knit the first egg as it says, but I found it easier to modify the instructions so that I did the rest from the bottom up.

I love this little project and plan on making a few for Christmas gifts. I've already given one to my dear friend Suzie and I'm making one for me now!

Socks for family members are on two different sets of needles. On one set is "Second Hand Rose" a lovely hand dyed sock yarn from Woolbearers. On the other is Kroy Sock Yarn in a gray-brown. I also have a pair of mitts in Puente de Este's Java Yarn going; I'm heading towards the finish of my Shetland Shawl project and my February Lady's Sweater has about 3" to go before I start on the sleeves.

I love to knit. The needles move on their own, the fabric increases bit by bit. Sometimes I have to concentrate on a pattern, sometimes the pattern moves through my fingertips without conscious thought. It is grace.

What a Day...

What was Your Election Day like? Mine had a fun start, I stood on line at my polling place for an hour and a half. (That's an early 20th century post card of the school where I vote shown above.) That wasn't bad when you saw on the news what others had to go through in order to vote. And, of course, it is nothing when I think of the many, many people throughout the world who do not have this privilege that we do. This gift.

I was lucky enough to fall in line behind a friend from reenacting who lives three blocks away. We talked with our neighbors--complete strangers to us--about the significance of being able to vote for an African American for President. Mind you, we were two white women among a few dozen black people. We talked about blacks not being able to vote just 50 years ago. We talked about older people, white people like my 90 year old grandmother who used the term "colored," who experienced this sense of two peoples in one country in a way that I never knew and who planned to vote for Mr. Obama. Black people, like the grandmother of the woman next to me, who experienced segregation first hand and now had cast her vote for a man who's skin is the same color as hers. We talked about the awe of this day and how lucky we were to share it.

One woman said she had a recurring nightmare that she had voted for the wrong person. In the light of day, yesterday, she voted for the candidate of her choice. And her young son stood in the booth with her. I was so happy for her.

I was number 426 at about 11am. In a normal election, I've been in the mid 100 numbers, like 166, and that's usually after work at 7pm. A woman in her mid 30's voted for the first time yesterday. We applauded her and all the other first time voters in our line. It was electric to be in that line.

Then my day continued as usual. I checked my e-mails, I went through the job ads and I went knitting. I came home and I sat in front of the tv, flipping from channel to channel, seeing when cnn or msnbc turned a state red or blue. and then that magic moment. I heard Keith Olbermann's voice say historic words. And I welled with tears for Mr. Obama's mother and grandmother and wife and daughters and for him. I thought of centuries of men and women who lived and died as slaves, who were hunted, bound, sold, lynched, jailed, murdered. And now this moment when all of that is in some way redeemed.

Here is something I heard that I think says so much so simply:

Rosa sat

soMartin could walk

Martin walked

so Barack could run

Barack ran

so our children can fly

God Bless our children

and God Bless our President-Barack Obama