the knitty gods shone down on me ...

a few days back i sent out a prayer to the knitty gods, for i truly doubted the little itty bitty ball of yarn i had left would be enough to finish the job in hand...

and the knitty job in hand was the little sweater vest i had cast on just over a week ago. 

a little vest that tested my knitty skills and ripping back ability to not quite the limit, but nearly the limit.

the knitty gods obviously heard my plea, got together and pondered, they then must have decided i deserved a little good yarny luck my way, having shown great perseverance in continuing on my knitting path despite my ripping back ways.

and thus, my little knitty vest, (recipe from Lullaby Knits by Vibe Ulrik Sondergaard) was finished with just over 2 yards of Malabrigo Rios yarn left to spare.

i did not weep, but i could quite easily have, with relief.

i love my knitty vest, it is all i hoped it would be and so much more, for it has given me the confidence to move on to the next knitty item for my granny trousseau... my lending library of little knits for my clan. 

and as i learn, i have found my little cogs have started turning, thinking of things to make and ways to do it for myself. 

this is making me most happy indeedy!

i have rambled about my little knit over on my ravelry page for those that may care to take a look see and know any nitty gritty. 

next up i am going to be making this little sweater vest. i am beyond in love with the design, so much so, i have a cunning plan. 

i will of course need the knitty gods to shine down on me but i am hopeful they will. 

for when i have made an itty bitty size, i am going to do the maths and make a bigger size for myself. 

for surely a tweedy sweater vest with side buttons over a floral frock would be really rather perfectly peachy.  

 

Latin Mass Society Conference

Last Saturday, 24th May, the Latin Mass Society (LMS) held their conference in London.  The theme of the conference was "The Traditional Mass and Evangelisation", and included such speakers as Bishop Athanasius Schneider and Very Rev Fr Michael Mary, F.SS.R.  Thanks to the LMS chairman, Dr Joseph Shaw, and to Mr Martin Gardener for the use of their photos. 

SCROLL DOWN TO HEAR FR MICHAEL MARY'S CONFERENCE IN FULL

 Arriving in London early on Saturday morning meant that Father could celebrate Holy Mass in the Lady Chapel of St James's, Spanish Place before the conference. (Photo: Dr Joseph Shaw)

 (Photo: Dr Joseph Shaw)

 (Photo: Dr Joseph Shaw)

 Bishop Athanasius Schneider delivering his address at the LMS conference in London. (Photo: Mr Martin Gardener)

 Fr Michael Mary spoke on the need to pass on the Catholic traditions to the next generation.

 Father spoke not only of liturgical tradition, but also traditional devotion and doctrine, especially of the eternal truths: Death, Judgement, Heaven and Hell.

Listen To Fr Michael Mary's conference right here on our blog!

Alternatively you can listen and download from the LMS's podcast page.

Bishop Athanasius Schneider brought the conference to a close with his blessing.

Very Rev. Fr Michael Mary and Br Martin Mary pictured with Bishop Schneider after the conference. (Photo: Mr Martin Gardener)

magical and magnificent...

when Our #1 came to stay it was both magical and magnificent for two and a half weeks. in between work hours we plotted and planned a road trip to Portland where we spent our hours wisely in secondhand stores, just like the old days. and then on other days, when i was doing my thing, she was busy doing her own with Miss Ethel.

in just a few short months Our Meg has learnt to sew clothes and not only that, but cut patterns for clothes and even more impressive to me, put in zippers. until now i have never sewn a zipper, however after a lesson from my daughter it is true to say zippers are making a scene around here.

she made me two frocks, oh lucky lucky me...

i am thinking the green wrap~around frock may well have an outing when Our #3 graduates in a few weeks time and the little brown frock with its handy dandy 'built~in' bloomer shorts underneath? well surely that is the perfect attire for wearing on a breezy day whilst cycling around and about.

i miss Our #1 now she has gone, it has been ten days since Mossy Shed lost a bit of its sparkle and in just a few months Our #3 will be leaving the nest too, choosing to go back to his roots across the pond. 

my nest is becoming quite empty... in the space of four years, three will have flown far far away. 

 i like to think i have got used to it, i tell myself that each and every day, but i must confess, it is a terrible fib.

 for with them, i am whole and without them i am a little bit broken and i am beginning to suspect one never truly gets used to it, one just gets better about fibbing to oneself.

a booky moment ...

i think my man is ready to pack his bags and leave. 

i am not a nice person to live with at the moment. i put it down to many things, a list i could write as long as my arm but none of the things on my list excuse being a 'bah humbug' and taking it out on him. 

i am hopeful he will stick around a tad while longer and ride the storm out...

i did not intend to wake up this morning and do what i did, but a chance conversation with my adopted auntie yesterday afternoon led to me pulling up my knee socks this morning and rustling around the kitchen drawer for my book writing cap. i must confess when i found it, it was rather dusty, a little moth eaten and most definitely wrinkly. 

i then spent quite a few moments unearthing scribbled notes from months and months ago, once again, telling myself off for not being better organized and having a terribly pants habit of writing in the middle of odd notebooks found lying around the place and then moving onto another random notebook found elsewhere. 

i am wondering if i need to go on an organizational camp, i expect such a thing exists.

and so i sat down at Colin the Computer this morn at precisely 8:09am after my morning walk with my little black cloud and tippity tapped away... the outline of a book i have been carrying inside of me for a year came outside into the fresh air to breath.

i know this book needs to be written, however i do not know whether i have the courage to go through the whole process again. letting it go out into the world for others to take hold of and add their vision to. to let them do so is tres tricky for me. i tell myself this time i am older, i am wiser and i am stronger than before, i tell myself many things to keep Mr Doubter from my door...

but the thing i tell myself most is, i love the working title i have. 

it alone makes me want to write another book.

'clever crafting for small beings, little critters and other folks'

and i love what i see inside my head, of what this book could become, now i have dared to peek inside.

 i have no idea whether i will be allowed to keep such a title when the time comes, nor if my booky vision will ever see the light of day beyond our Mossy Shed's four walls. however for now it is my jumping off point into a place i ran away from not so long ago. a place i now find myself running back to, with my heart beating a little faster, and noting a little black cloud slowly but surely being left behind...

Our Lady's Procession

This Sunday past was the annual procession of Our Lady of Christchurch, New Zealand.  The Bishop of Christchurch, His Lordship Bishop Barry Jones, has put the Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer in charge of this annual event, and our confrères have been working hard during the preceding weeks and months to make it a success.  Thanks be to God and Mary it was a great success with over 500 people turning out to honour their Heavenly Mother despite the blustery weather!

Fr Yousef Marie addresses the morning assembly of teachers and pupils at Mary Immaculate Catholic School, New Brighton, in preparation for the procession.

 Entering the church prior to the procession.

 Being lifted by her father, Sarah Green has the honour of crowning our Blessed Mother.

 Procedamus in Pace! The procession begins!

 The bier prepares to set out carrying the official replica of the statue of Our Lady of Christchurch.

Our Lady leads born aloft upon the shoulders of twelve men.

The Faithful follow behind praying the rosary and singing hymns in honour of their Queen.

Upon return to the church, His Lordship Bishop Jones gives the benediction of the Most Blessed Sacrament.

 Our Lady's Ribboniers and Flower Girls.

Members of the Kerelite Catholic community in Christchurch pose for a photo with Our Lady's statue.

Fr Magdala Maria with some of the Faithful.

Your can find plenty more photos by following Our Lady of Christchurch's  Facebook page!

the goldfish and the caterpillar...

today i am a goldfish,

a goldfish that cannot walk nor talk

"ummm, actually Tif, is not that true of most goldfish?"

ah, good point dearest reader, as my grandmother would have said,

"there are no flies on you"

i cannot walk because i did yoga

i cannot talk because i went to the dentist

and i am a goldfish because

ever since i did yoga my short term memory

has been zapped

this makes me a little fretful for my small beings knitty vest i embarked upon yesterday. after quite the rocky start (and i do mean a rocky start) i am on my way

i am thinking i would like to make it into a little knitty frock but no, no i must not, i must stick to the master plan and stay strong. NO wavering allowed on this knitty watch! my goldfish cogs will not allow such fool hardiness, plus i only have one skein of 'love you like no other colour' greeny goodness. (good point)

and on that knitty note, 

yesterday before i became a goldfish i joined Ravelry.

i have been pondering this for some time, the pondering grew quite long due to 'dottie angel' not being available on Ravelry. (sniff sniff) after i got over this upset, i pondered for 3 further months till yesterday i threw caution to the wind and joined.

you can find me right here.... did you find me?

it will take me a little whiles to set up my new home but for now, it is looking semi-spiffy i feel.

you will also find my first published crochet pattern. 

well i suppose that is not quite true as some are published in books, but the first to be officially put out into the world as such, in quite a big arena, amongst dearies who know a thing or two about yarn, if you see what i mean? truth be told, i am a little shaky about the whole thing.

and so it came to be, my lovely place of work and loitering, invited me to design a crochet pattern for the local LYS tour (local yarn store) which happened to happen this past long weekend. 25 knitting stores in this area of quite a bit of largeness participated. that is quite extraordinary is it not? 25 yarny stores! i think that does warm the yarny heart. 

well now the tour is over with, Tolt has popped both my crochet cowl pattern and Veronika's muchly loved hat pattern up on Ravelry.

if you are a crochet dearie and you have a Mr Hook then you can find the 'Entwistle' pattern right over here on this fine page

so that is that, and this is this, and if perhaps or perchance you are thinking, this is quite a marathon of a ramble for one who claims the memory of a goldfish. i will confess, this was all scribbled on paper for fear not one thought would stay long enough in my gold fish cogs to tippity tap this post.

and now if you were to test me, to say "Tif, tell me what you wrote up the top of this post, what was your first bit of ramble?" i pinky swear, i could not tell, even if the little caterpillar in my back yard's life depended upon it.... 

"ummm, would that be the one you trod on Tif?"

well, yes but it was an accident and one that left me traumatized

"interesting, and rather horrid don't you think Tif? swearing on his life, knowing it had been taken, just days prior... so how come you can recall that, not such a gold fish after all eh?"

ha! i see your sneaky tricky ways, trying to trip me up, i will confess the caterpillar crime happened just a few days ago, i will confess i lost sleep over it, however in my goldfish state of mind defense, can i point out i have only become a goldfish since this morning and thus everything since this morning is lost the moment it is thought, in a black hole somewhere out there... never to be seen again

"a bit like the little caterpillar eh Tif?"

ummm, yes, tis true...

and now i must away laden-ed with guilt, to my knitty vest, hopeful the memory of what i did stitchy wise last night, is still rolling around the cogs this afternoon.

"that's the spirit, Tif"

merci my petit pois

rusty and dusty...

i fear my little blog has has been left so long

it is rusty and it is most certainly dusty.

i fear i have lost the ability to ramble,

what if i have?

what if i will ramble no more?

the only thing to do is to put one rambly foot

in front of another rambly foot

and see what happens.

i am thinking my crafty knee socks

need a jolly good pulling up.

oh and my yarny cogs, 

poor poor yarny cogs

for they appear to be at an all time low.

completely dusty and oh so rusty!

i cannot for the life of me

feel settled and content with a yarny project.

i am restless and i am irritable

with my inability to find contentment

amongst my yarn.

there is a lot riding on this little knitty vest

to pull me through and out the other side

of this funk i find myself in.

'tis a lot to ask of a little knitty vest.

it may be too much 

then again, it may not,

only time will tell...

Be not faithless, but believing. (Jn. 20:27)

 

A relic of the Wood of the True Cross.

As we know, 3rd May, was the old Feast of the finding of the Holy Cross.  Back in the 1970s it was fashionable to attempt to erode and destroy the faith of the Catholic people by telling them that there are now so many relics of the True Cross to be found in the world, that if they were all brought together in one place, there would be far more wood than the Cross of Jesus Christ could possibly have been constructed from.  The conclusion that these rationalistic destroyers of Faith wish you to draw, is that much of the wood claimed to be of the True Cross, is in fact counterfeit and not really the True Cross at all. Having heard this, how could you ever know if the relic you have before you is real nor not? Perhaps it is a piece of the True Cross, but then again, perhaps it is also one of the medieval forgeries the above mentioned wise professors have told us about?  How could you know?

Well fortunately there is an answer.  It would appear that the purveyors of these dangerous ideas had neglected to study what the Fathers of the Church had to say on the matter.  Let us turn our eyes to St Paulinus of Nola.

Paulinus was born of rich and noble parents at Bordeaux, France in the year 354 AD.  Remember that this is but 42 years since the battle of Milvian Bridge during which the Emperor Constantine saw a vision of the Cross in the sky with the words “In hoc signo vinces”, In this sign, conquer, and 31 years since the Edict of Milan, in which the Emperor Constantine freed the Christian religion from persecution within the Roman Empire.  Paulinus’s family being a rich one with numerous estates throughout the empire, was given a broad education.  Remarkably he was only 25 years old when he was made Suffect Consul by the Emperor Gratian, and at 28 he was made governor of the province of Campania.

The Roman Emperor Gratian.

After the death of his wife, Therasia, he was made bishop of Nola.  St Paulinus received high praise from such great minds as St. Augustine, St. Jerome, St. Martin of Tours and St. Ambrose.  By all this we can understand that St Paulinus of Nola was no fool.  To rise so high in both the secular and ecclesiastical hierarchy demonstrates a sharp mind and sound judgment, not blown by every wind that might catch him.  Knowing this we should not take lightly the words he addresses to Severus in his 32nd letter.  Speaking of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem he writes:

St Paulinus of Nola

“Every year during the Lord’s Pasch the bishop of that city [Jerusalem] brings it [the True Cross] out to be venerated by the people; he leads them in this show of respect.  Only on the day when we celebrate the mystery of the Cross Itself is that source of mysteries brought out to mark the holy and solemn occasion; but occasionally devout pilgrims who have come there merely for that purpose beg that it be shown to them as reward for their long journeying.  It is said that this request is granted only by the kindness of the bishop; and it is likewise by his gift alone that these tiny fragments of sacred wood from the Cross are made available to win great graces and blessings.

"Indeed this cross of inanimate wood has living power, and ever since its discovery has lent its wood to the countless, almost daily, prayers of men.  Yet it suffers no diminution; though daily divided, it seems to remain whole to those who lift it, and always entire to those who venerate it.  Assuredly it draws this power of incorruptibility, this undiminishing integrity, from the Blood of that Flesh which endured death yet did not see corruption.”