Yesterday, while driving to the bakery, I heard a snippet of a story on NPR. “It’s not that bad,” the storyteller said. “I know it sounds bad in the pit of your stomach, but that’s mostly the acoustics.”
Holding that thought, I completed all my errands, thoroughly cleaned three rooms, finished my book and the Christmas gift I was knitting, and made sauerkraut for dinner, over the protests of my sons.
It was cool enough to enjoy the boiled wool throw I made from recycled sweaters in the summer. I was idly musing on a joke Dweezy told last year. A state trooper sees a woman driving along, knitting all the while. He zooms up to her and shouts “PULL OVER!” “No, she shouts back,” it’s a cardigan!”
That’s when I remembered a couple of pure wool cardies in the Salvation Army box. Frayed cuffs and little holes had forced me to get them out of the closets, but they would make great borders for the throw. So I felted them up and cut them in strips, and I will sew them on today. I am still sorry that the cables in the pink and blue fabrics disappeared into a slight general texture and the Fair Isle cardigan melded into a vague stripey mush of color, but the throw will be very cosy.
And the scraps made an absolutely perfect coaster. The search for the perfect coaster, the Philosopher’s Coaster, may not be one of the most important things you will think about today. However, the discovery of a solution to any of life’s little problems is worth celebrating. How many coasters are absorbent, firm enough to support the cup properly, heatproof, attractive, and free? This one will also give you a use for your old Backstreet Boys CDs, or the many many CD-ROMs that come in your mailbox urging you to change your internet provider. You can make one yourself. Here’s how: I took scraps from the felted fabric and a discarded CD, cut circles just to fit the CD, and blanket stitched them around the edges, with the CD inside.
I intend to pull out the bag of felted scraps and make some more, too. There is also the throw to sew up, the Hallowe’en table runner, the second DNA scarf, which is currently just an inch or two on the needles, the funny hat #2 daughter requested, a dozen Christmas gifts yet to make, 5 more rooms to clean, and — never mind. We all have more to do than time to do it in, don’t we? I also must go to my dad’s booth at the art fair, take the boys shopping, and get to church on time. So perhaps I should get off the computer and to work.
interesting what we can make out of life…
haha nice. philosopher’s coaster. wow you DO like knitting!
Anyway…Hi, im Erehnys, Thewaterjar’s friend. Thanks for taking the time to respond to that discussion he and i had on suffering and the afghani kids; it means a lot to me and i’ll value it.
Sure suffering is caused by human greed and selfishness, but its also caused by chance or by God. The flip of a coin this way or that. One year the crops are bountiful, but the next there may be a famine. No more food, and little timmy dies. Hmm, who’s to blame there? Nature, chance, Satan, God?
But the main point i want to get it at is in regards to the loss of faith. Back to the example where people lose their faiths because of suffering. Some people dont suffer as much as others. Lets compare it to the people who lose faith because of suffering (or because of some trauma)….If you take all those happy people out of their environment and switch em with the people who suffer immensely…do you think things would be different? how about faith wise?
i think things for those people would be different and that at least some of them would have their faith and world view changed because of suffering. I know mine did.
Bottom line, i was pointing out that many people have had many reasons to question their faith, and others did not. Is this fair? i dunno.
Thank you again for your input Fibermom, much appreciated. I also responded to your comment on thewaterjar’s site, because at the time the xanga virus prevented me from responding directly.
Peace,
Erehnys
hey that’s a good idea…i normally use the cds as frisbees or when i’m feeling particularly creative, as wheels joined by axles of pens and pencils…that’s also when i’m particularly bored. peace.