Thursday, October 18, 2012

Lap Blankets

One thing I learned from watching Knitty Gritty, when it used to be on TV, was that it is fun to make things from scraps of left-over yarn.  People tend to stick to colors that are in the same color scheme.

With this in mind, I took a lot of my left-overs and decided that men don't need Prayer Shawls, but a nice lap blanket would be nice.  I had a few skeins of a mixed color beige and every few inches, I would add a row of solid color.  The beige is just knitted in garter stitch and the solid color is stockingette.  You can see the results and I think they are beautiful!  Instead of adding a cross charm in the corner, I thought it would be nice to just sew a cross in the corner.  I thought the picot trim was a nice touch.  I've made 2 of them, and may have enough to make one more. 

Charleston Ghost Adventure (a.k.a., my brothers wedding)

In October 2004, my brother got married in Charleston.  Now, it's just not right to go to Charleston for the first time and just spend 2 days there.  So we decided to go a few days early with my sister's family.  I did an extensive internet search about all the haunted restaurants, tours, hotels.

So we left Birmingham after work on Wednesday, and spent the night on the NE side of Atlanta.  We typically like to break up our trip.  Andrew was of course, excited about ghost hunting.  My niece on the other hand, was being all prissy girl about it. We spent the night in Augusta at the Jameson Inn and all she did was whine about ghosts and being scared. Andrew only wanted to see Fort Sumpter. 

Around noon on Thursday, we checked into the Indigo Inn.  The six of us shared a room only on Thurs night.  My brother made reservations for the bridal party for Fri-Sun only and only our room was available, so Sue, Steve and Elizabeth stayed with us.  As we were unpacking our belongings, my niece was refusing to go to Poogan's Porch, a haunted restaurant.  Andrew was talking non-stop about going to Fort Sumpter.  He didn't understand why we couldn't go immediately and why he had to wait til Saturday to go.  As we left the Inn, Andrew and I were arguing.  I told him that we were on a budget an I didn't know how much food would cost until we ate a few meals, and once I knew how to budget our food, we could talk about going to Ft. Sumpter.  Phillip had picked up a brochure in the lobby and Andrew saw it and said, "It only costs $10 a person to go to the Fort."  I told him to shut up about it, and he said, "If granddaddy were here, he'd give me $20 so me and daddy could go and leave you here."  Just as Andrew said that, a $20 bill blew up against Andrew's leg.  Granddaddy passed away the year before and he and Andrew were very, very close.  They always talked about Civil War and WWII stories.  Ft. Sumpter was where the first battle occurred, starting the Civil War.   I just looked at Phillip and said, "I guess you are going to the Fort."

As we walked down the beautiful streets, we saw Poogan's Porch.  A quaint building with a small statue of a dog out front.  Elizabeth was no longer scared.  She wanted to eat at a place that may be haunted by a cute little doggie.  I didn't tell her the real hauntings, but the wait staff told us many stories of ghosts in the kitchen.  We didn't see any ghosts there, but I had a good feeling about this trip.  And now, the kids were totally on board with ghost hunting.

General Beauregards House:
When we finished our meal, we then went down to the Battery Park.  On the way there, we passed General Beaurgards house.  Andrew wanted to go inside since he saw a Civil War dressed people inside giving tours.  We wanted to get to the Park before it got dark, so took a picture so we would remember where the house was.  That night we went on a Revolutionary/Civil War Ghost Tour.  As we walked across the street of the Beauregard home, we were told the house is now privately owned, but people have seen ghosts of the General and his troops looking out the windows of the home.  That is what  Andrew saw.   When we got back to Birmingham and had the film developed, the one of the Beauregard House had these mysterious sunlight rays on them.  The photo was taken around 3 in the afternoon, but it looks like sunset with orange/reddish hues. 

Smoke in the Room
Thurs night, I could not go to sleep because our room had a slight smell of cigarette smoke.  On Friday, Sue, Steve and Elizabeth moved into their room.  The smoke smell was getting stronger, although no one else could smell it but me.  Housekeeping had changed the sheets, but the smell was even stronger.  I couldn't take the smell any longer so went down to the lobby to request another room.  The manager told me that the entire Inn was smoke-free and that it was not possible for the room to smell of smoke.  It was so bad Fri night that I could not sleep.  Phillip and Andrew said I was crazy.  Saturday was spent running around doing wedding things...hair, nails, etc.  Sue and I were sitting on a park bench Saturday night and she started talking about Aunt Grace.  I had been to see her twice over the summer, hoping she would tell me things about my biological grandmother, because they were best friends, but she wouldn't tell me anything because incriminating Margaret would also incriminate Aunt Grace.  She never told me anything.  Sue said she needed to send Uncle Charlie a gift card to Outback because all Aunt Grace wanted and the ONLY thing that made her happy was when she ate a Blooming Onion.  Sue said she would get one when we got home and I needed to give her Aunt Graces address.  We made fun of Aunt Grace because she had smoked so much of her life, that it was impossible for her to stop.  She had 1/2 of one lung removed and a portion of the other, but the doctors said the withdrawal of cigarettes would most likely kill her, so she continued to smoke non-stop.  Her house reeked of cigarette smell and I didn't like visiting her for too long.  I told Sue that my room smelled just like Aunt Grace's house. 

Sunday morning, we all gathered in the patio area for brunch.  Mom was crying, as she had been most of the weekend.  I thought it was because she was upset that her golden child was marrying someone she didn't like and that Wendy was pregnant.  It turns out Aunt Grace had died and  mom had gotten the call just as they were packing the car to come to Charleston and mom was upset that she could not attend the funeral.  Sue and I agree that it was Aunt Grace visiting me and I still smell her from time to time.  I think her soul left some unsettled business with me.


The Ghost Sweater

Wow..there's an orb on the sweater
This is my favorite ghost story.  October is a strange month for weather.  In the South, transitional months are fickle, so we watched the weather until the moment we pulled out of the driveway.  Saturday night was supposed to be 82 at sundown.  So I took one of my favorite dresses.  Of course, when we checked it again on Friday, it was predicted to be 65.  Did you notice my dress is sleeveless?  Sue and I kept talking about popping into a Gap or something to get a black cardigan during our adventures.  We went into a few stores but couldn't find a cardigan, so I purchased a shawl-type thing and a brooch. Friday night after dinner and the ghost tour, Sue and I sat down on a bench to chat.  I think the boys were looking at tombstones.  We were talking about how dysfunctional our family is, how mom was having a difficult time time with me putting together her biological family, etc.  We stood up to walk back to the Inn, and Sue says I forgot my sweater.  I didn't have a sweater, but next to me on the bench was a black cardigan sweater with pearl buttons and it still had the tags on it.  It was exactly what I was looking for that day, and was my size.  I know that sweater was NOT there when I first sat down because I brushed off the bench before we sat down.  We call it the Ghost Sweater and I still wear it.

The Prostitute killer
 Okay, this next story Phillip doesn't even believe, but until my dying day I will swear it is true.  We went on an Adult Ghost Tour.  It was mostly about erotic murders, whore houses, etc.  We went to this one House of Prostitution.  There was a man who murdered the young prostitutes and was hanged.  That night, I had this vision.  It wasn't a dream, it was different and it was real.  I woke up around 5 am and went back to sleep, but I wasn't asleep.  I floated out of our room and down the staircase.  There was this man dressed in 1800's style clothes.  He was very angry.  He looked at me and said he needed to talk to me because I could hear him and others could not.  He told me there was no hell, that earth is hell.  He said he cannot leave earth.  I told him when he sees a light, he needs to go into it.  He said his punishment is not being able to see the light and that every day he has to see women but he cannot touch them.  That is his hell.  He said that when he saw me at the dance studio the night before (that is what the house of protitution became in the early 1900's).   He would watch the little girls dance and try to touch them but couldn't.  That is his hell and he was angry about it.  He freaked me out and I zoomed back to our room.  I swear I communicated with him.

Then we had the typical ghostly things...orbs in photos, hearing people talk outside our room when no one was there, etc.  Many of Steve's photos have orbs in them.  Especially the ones taken in the basement prison.

Charleston is one freaky  town, and I can't wait to go back.  I'll write about our New Orleans haunted hotel room tomorrow.
 



Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Scarves for the Homeless

Our church helps a mission in downtown Birmingham called "Under the Bridge Ministry".  It feeds the homeless who live under a large viaduct.  Last year, at the very.last.minute.  our minister asked the Knitting Group if we could whip up over 100 scarves and gloves.  We haven't been asked yet, but we are prepared.  Here are 2 of the scarves I made.

One of the good things about using 'cheap' yarn is that is is usually polyester or a poly-blend, which is very warm.  And it cleans up easily too, and that's important to the homeless population.

I'm back..and boy have I been busy

I've been knitting a little over the past 3 years.  Mostly scarves and prayer shawls for my church group.  I'll post pics later....after I fringe them.  I'm so happy to be getting rid of the yarn around here...I need to stock up on MORE pretty colors.  I mostly have ribbon or fun-type yarn.  I'm also changing the format of my blog so bear with me as I mess with it!