Happy 4th of July (on the 5th!)

Happy 4th of July (a day late!) :-) I had a nice day off yesterday, relaxing, nothing to do...but of course I did stuff. I am Knitter - I can't just lay there or sit there. I had an hour devotion time, after I got up at 6:15am (cats don't sleep in), which I need to do a more often. My normal devotion time is about 20 mins. Anyway, after that I knit for about an hour, then went for a walk around Virginia Lake. It was warm, even at 9 in the morning. Then it was poolside for about another hour, then back to the nice cool apartment for a nap!

After lunch, I finished the lining on this:


This is the Shetland Shawl I finished a couple weeks ago - I just love the color combination! I could have done a better job on sewing the lining on (hand stitched) - but I am please with the outcome nontheless. I am more like my mom than I realize, I think, now more than ever before. When she is going to do a sewing project (or probably anything involving more than 1 step) she sees in her mind exactly what steps she is going to take at what time. No skimping on the details either!

I lay out the lining with the shawl upside down on it, then pinned both together, making sure that I pinned straight along the line I was going to use to tack the fabic to the shawl. After pinning I cut around the shawl - only 3 sides, as I used the selvage edge for one side. That I did about a week and half ago. Yesterday, I lay the shawl down with the lining facing up and folding the edge over the pinned line, I ironed the seam, folding it under again to hide the cut (and slightly uneven) edge. After it was cool, I reversed the shawl and lining so they were wrong side to wrong side, and it was right side out. After pinning again, I then matress stitched the lining to the shawl. That part actually took the longest - about 2 and a half hours. Whew! My neck was stiff after that - but so worth it. If I had machine stitched it the thread would show on the green. Not cool, to my thinking.

Anyway, after that was done, it was dinner time, and plopping down on the couch with current knitting. More pictures to come a little later - I seem to be on a roll with shawls! It's the "Summer of Shawls." :-) Some knitters do socks - I do shawls!

No fireworks viewing for me this year - yesterday was simply a day off rather than celebarting our independence. While it does have meaning to me that 231 years ago, our nations founding fathers wrote the Declaration of Independence - the values and freedoms that this nation - One Nation Under God - was founded on seem to be disappearing rather rapidly into a cesspool of darkness. Besides - I take comfort in the fact that my citizenship is not of this world but in Heaven, with our Lord Jesus Christ. With Him in my life - I enjoy freedoms that many people don't. Freedom from despair and darkness. Amen!!