Fire! One of the Four Elements!

Fiddleknits is offering another one of the four elements shawl patterns.

I really do enjoy knitting her patterns.  We have already done Water, Air, Earth.

Fire will begin end of January, but right now you can grab Fire free of charge

through Ravelry.

It will most likely be a humdinger of a shawl!

Basket Balls With Mizuhiki

Mizuhiki is a traditional Japanese paper cord that come in many colors and is often tied in elaborate knots as decoration for gifts, especially money wrappers. Cords come in many colors, in shiny mylar foil, wrapped in silk thread, or simply painted. It is said that Samurai used Mizuhiki to tie their topknots. The cords are 36” long and you can discover many ways to use them. Our favorite way to use Mizuhiki is to gather 3 or 5 cords to tie up gift packages. A simple square knot holds the cords in place, and you can even thread the ends back through the center knot to create simple and elegant designs.

Here are my Mizuhiki cords and what I have made with them.

Mizuhiki comes in many colors

Some sparkly

Here is the beginning of a 'basket ball'--I learned this technique

from the master basket maker of all time--sorry she doesn't have a 

website; but, if you are interested in these 'basket balls'

leave me a message and I'll get you to Lynn!

There are many design weavings you can do with these wonderful flexible cords!

12 Days--So Behind!

Yes, I'm so behind!  12 days of small quilt blocks seems so easy--just one little block--it measures less than 3"--and only one a day!  What could be better?

Temecula Quilt Company has featured a small quilt block the past

9 days--so I'm playing catch-up.

There are so many little quilt ideas on their website!

Shoofly

Logcabin

Pinwheel 

Journey...............................

As Advent season has begun, I'm will pause each day to reflect on the reason for the season.  During this time, I'm following along with Alive Now.  And this daily journey uses a camera--what a perfect way to make a journal of your life during Advent!

Through the dark of night, we journey to a bright tomorrow.

Pearl Harbor Remembered

Attack on Pearl Harbor

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Attack on Pearl Harbor
Part of the Pacific Theater of World War II

The attack on Pearl Harbor^{[nb 4]} was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, in the United States Territory of Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941. The attack led to the United States' entry into World War II.

Japan intended the attack as a preventive action to keep the U.S. Pacific Fleet from interfering with military actions the Empire of Japan planned in Southeast Asia against overseas territories of the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and the United States. There were near-simultaneous Japanese attacks on the U.S.-held Philippines, Guam and Wake Island and on the British Empire in Malaya, Singapore, and Hong Kong.^[13] The attacks - from troop landings at Kota Bharu, Malaya, to the air attacks ranging geographically from Hong Kong to Pearl Harbor - took place over seven hours.^[13][

The attack commenced at 7:48 a.m. Hawaiian Time.^[14] The base was attacked by 353^[15] Japanese fighter planes, bombers, and torpedo planes in two waves, launched from six aircraft carriers.^[15] All eight U.S. Navy battleships were damaged, with four sunk. All but Arizona were later raised, and six were returned to service and went on to fight in the war. The Japanese also sank or damaged three cruisers, three destroyers, an anti-aircraft training ship,^{[nb 5]} and one minelayer. 188 U.S. aircraft were destroyed; 2,403 Americans were killed and 1,178 others were wounded.^[17] Important base installations such as the power station, shipyard, maintenance, and fuel and torpedo storage facilities, as well as the submarine piers and headquarters building (also home of the intelligence section) were not attacked. Japanese losses were light: 29 aircraft and five midget submarines lost, and 64 servicemen killed. One Japanese sailor, Kazuo Sakamaki, was captured.

The attack came as a profound shock to the American people and led directly to the American entry into World War II in both the Pacific and European theaters. The following day, December 8, the United Statesdeclared war on Japan.^[18] Domestic support for non-interventionism, which had been fading since the German attack on France in 1940,^[19] disappeared. Clandestine support of the United Kingdom (e.g., theNeutrality Patrol) was replaced by active alliance. Subsequent operations by the U.S. prompted Germany and Italy to declare war on the U.S. on December 11, which was reciprocated by the U.S. the same day.

From the 1950s, several writers alleged that parties high in the U.S. and British governments knew of the attack in advance and may have let it happen (or even encouraged it) with the aim of bringing America into war.^[20][21] However, this advance-knowledge conspiracy theory is rejected by mainstream historians.^{[22][nb 6]}

There were numerous historical precedents for unannounced military action by Japan. However, the lack of any formal warning, particularly while negotiations were still apparently ongoing, led President Franklin D. Roosevelt to proclaim December 7, 1941, "a date which will live in infamy". Because the attack happened without a declaration of war and without explicit warning, the attack on Pearl Harbor was judged by the Tokyo Trials to be a war crime.^[24][25]

Mariana Mystery Shawl--A Prayer Shawl

Mariana is a municipality in the state of Minas Gerais. It was the first village, town and capital of the state of Minas Gerais. It was in the seventeenth century one of the largest producers cities of gold to the Portuguese crown. It became the first capital of Minas Gerais to participate in a contest where the village that has scooped most amount of gold would be elevated to City being the capital of the then Captaincy of Minas Gerais.

“Mariana Shawl”, designed by Aloisio santos 

 is a prayer shawl for Christmas. The proposal is that we can knit this shawl sending out good vibrations for all the people who have lost their homes and need to start over

The pattern will be available in 3 clues: 
06/12 first clue 
13/12 second clue 
20/12 third clue 
The shawl is semi-circular. The techniques used are: purl, knit, ptbl, yo, k2tog, ssk, central double decrease. 

“The Bento Rodrigues dam disaster occurred on 5 November 2015, when an iron ore tailings dam in Bento Rodrigues, a sub district of Mariana, Brazil, suffered a catastrophic failure, causing flooding and at least 13 deaths. At least 16 people have been injured. About 60 million cubic meters of iron waste flew into the Doce River. Toxic brown mud flows reached the Atlantic Ocean 17 days later. It is still unclear the total impact and environmental consequences to river and its wildlife. This incident has been described as the worst environmental disaster in Brazil’s history”

Puff--Puff--Puff

This crochet scarf caught my eye--what is this stitch?  I didn't have a clue, but do not be dismayed--we did some investigation to find Puff Stitch!  And it comes on a website--crocheting for dummies!  There are a couple of videos too that will help you navigate this stitch.

Designed by BrenBoone

The following comes from Crochet Guru

Step 1: Yarn over the hook.

Step 2: Insert the hook into the stitch.

Step 3: Pull the yarn through the stitch.

Step 4: Bring the loop up to match the same height as the previous stitch. There should now be 3 loops on your hook.

Tip #1: If there are no previous stitches and the puff stitch is your first stitch made, pull the loop up to at least match the height of a half double crochet stitch. The puff stitch may even be pulled higher if you choose to do so.

Step 5: Yarn over the hook.

Step 6: Insert the hook into the same stitch.

Step 7: Yarn over the hook.

Step 8: Pull the yarn through the stitch.

Step 9: Bring the loop up to match the same height as the previous loop. There should now be 5 loops on your hook.

Step 10: Yarn over the hook.

Step 11: Insert the hook into the same stitch.

Step 12: Yarn over the hook.

Step 13: Pull the yarn through the stitch.

Step 14: Bring the loop up to match the same height as the previous loop. There should now be 7 loops on your hook.

Step 15: Yarn over the hook.

Step 16: Pull the yarn through all 7 loops on your hook.

Tip #2: If you would like to add more loops to make your puff stitch even bigger and puffier repeat steps 10 through 16.

Step 17: Chain 1.