Knitting Christmas Bells

This is my favorite easy to knit Christmas bell pattern.

I make the larger ones for tree ornaments with 4ply cotton yarn on size 6 US needles. I also make smaller ones on smaller needles and fingering yarn that look great on gifts.

Cast on 12 sts.

Row 1: Knit 9, increase in next 2 sts., knit 1 (= 14 sts.) [to increase knit into front without pulling off the needle, then knit into the back, then pulling the 2 sts off.]

Row 2: Purl 6, knit 8.

Row 3: Knit 14.

Repeat rows 2 & 3 to make a total of 15 ridges (rows 2 and 3 make 1 ridge)

Bind off 9 sts, then bind off 2 sts together - twice.

Sew seam, draw up top edge with yarn. Hang a jingle bell in center of yarn bell.

Make a loop on top for hanger.

They're pretty quick and fun to make.

Let me know if you try it.

The Day Things Kept Breaking

Truly lovely sunny morning, yesterday. First there was a visit from my daughter, Sharon, with lots of laughter. Then a realization, just in time, that if I wanted to get cat food for 10 cents a pound, I'd better get moving. So I did. Got the cat food. Walked Petey, my Chihuahua, in the Sierra Vista Park. Got the water jugs filled on the way.

Arrived back in Bisbee in time to have lunch at the Copper Queen Hospital cafeteria, where 2 of my friends, Donna and Melody, were already eating. They were gracious enough to move to a larger table, so I could join them. Good company. Lunch was delicious: Minestrone soup, codfish filets, vegetable medley, and roasted chunks of seasoned potatoes. Dessert was peach cobbler. Back at home, full and cozy, I read, knitted, went through the mail.

Then things started breaking.

When I went out to the mail box, I noticed the ground around the water meter was wet. Turned out the pipe connection on our side was leaking. Nice mess of mud digging. Then in the house, I noticed that my new cordless phone (1 day old) was piling up Missed Calls. It wasn't ringing. Wouldn't dial out. Broken.

So no water, no phone. But we had a movie to watch. A Netflix. I opened the envelope and guess what? Yes, it was broken. Cracked half way up from the middle. So, even with a good start, I will remember Friday the 7th as the day things started breaking. Who says it's Friday the 13th you have to watch out for?

Today a new start. Replacing pipe and valve. Packing up phone to return. Sending Netflix back.

Self-Blessing

I pulled out my copy of Ten Poems to Open Your Heart and was impressed with Roger Housden all over again. I especially resonated with this part of a poem [Saint Francis and The Sow] by Galway Kinnell:
"for everything flowers, from within, of self-blessing; though sometimes it is necessary to reteach a thing its loveliness, to put a hand on the brow of the flower and retell it in words and in touch, it is lovely, until it flowers again from within, of self-blessing..."

Paraphrasing Roger Housden's comments: We, you and I, are full of life, unfolding into flower.
A blessing is an act of reverence, usually freely given from one to another, and traditionally within some religious context, but in this poem Kinnell says that the deepest blessing comes from ourselves. It arises, spontaneously, from the silence in us. Or not.

Blessings give life meaning, make life richer. The examples Housden gives are: like the feeling of emerging from cloud cover into an endless expanse of blue. Like a flood of warmth from the top of your head down to your toes. Or like the sensation of belonging, of realizing that you have your own unique place in the family of things.

A blessing is an influx of grace.

To listen quietly and deeply to the stirring of your own life is an act of self-blessing. To be kind to yourself. To have faith that your life has its own intelligent design and is doing exactly what it needs to, even if it doesn't feel that way; that is a blessing. For " sometimes it is necessary to reteach a thing a thing its loveliness".