Peace on My Needles

This has been a tumultuous, and, in many ways, a pretty horrible year. Over the past month, I have been thinking about ways to recover from and counteract the negative aspects and events of 2016. I wasn't coming up with many positive ideas, and then along came Project Peace. The brainchild of The Healthy Knitter (Christina Campbell), it started on December 1 and is a 21-day knit along accompanied by daily blog posts focusing on ways to find inner peace and then spread that peace to others. Today, the Winter Solstice, is the culmination of the knit along, a day for knitters around the world to join together to knit peace into their stitches.

The Project Peace pattern is a cowl with an easy, meditative stitch pattern. It is perfect for focusing one's thoughts on ways to make our personal and larger worlds better and more peaceful places. I chose a recent gift yarn, Dream in Color Jilly, for my Project Peace Cowl. I am just past the halfway point, and even though the knit along ends today, I am happy to keep on knitting until it's completed. After all, I need peace in my life every day. Once the cowl is finished, I plan to chose another similar pattern and use it to take a few minutes each day to focus on ways to make a better, more peaceful world for myself and others.

Best wishes for peace and happiness during the holiday season and in the New Year!

Picturing the Winter Solstice

Four times a year, on the spring and autumn equinoxes and the summer and winter solstices, I use my camera to document the activities of my day. I started doing this exactly six years ago yesterday, when the theme of the day was this:

That's right: SNOW. It was not your typical wimpy Seattle dusting, but an actual foot of snow, which made that winter solstice memorable, indeed.

Nothing quite as momentous happened this year on the winter solstice, but it was still a very happy and celebratory day, nonetheless.

I started the day by opening the 21st window on my Advent calendar.

Then I ate some Christmas Stollen with my coffee, and finished the heel on my sock—my second-ever Fish Lips Kiss heel.

Later, I joined my knitting friends for our annual Christmas celebration, with presents!

I went from knitting with friends to eating with friends. I took the bus downtown and met my two oldest friends (from first and third grades) and we ate at a window table at the Athenian Inn in the Pike Place Market.

My eyes were bigger than my stomach! My lunch was a clam chowder bowl that I managed to eat only about half of, but it certainly was good!

Next, I headed back home, and soon after, Mr. D and I went to my sister-in-law's house to celebrate the sixth night of Hanukkah with Mr. D's family. It's really wonderful having two light-filled holidays to celebrate at this dark time of year.

We ate a wonderful dinner, including, my favorite—potato latkes—and then sang songs and opened presents. Mr. D was really happy with his gift from me, a guidebook to identifying the mushrooms that he sees while hiking.

But the best part of the evening was the light from the candles in the menorah, which for me is a reminder that there is always light, even on the darkest night.

Whatever holidays you celebrate—Solstice, Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanza—I wish you peace, happiness and light this holiday season!