Shawn L. Bird

On the heels of my gratefulness to all of you who visit www.shawnbird.com, leave me comments, and even those who write me to tell me I’ve left them too long without a post, I’ve decided to make this whole week about gratefulness.

It isn’t hard to be grateful, since I have been given a really wonderful life.  I have a husband who is a truly amazing and brilliant man (this is unanimous, ask everyone who works with him), I have very independent kids, I have adorable canine companions, who pay back their hefty vet bills with lots of affection, and I have a very rewarding job.  I don’t take any of it for granted.  I have friends who are divorced or widowed, estranged from their children, or emeshed with them, who have lost their pets, and who are out of work.  I am thankful for the good decisions and the good luck that combined to make my life.

Good decisions?  Well, I met my husband at a college, not a bar.  I think that improved our chances of avoiding a lot of agony that comes with addiction issues that have hurt other friends.   We very conscientiously trained our kids to make their own decisions and let them make their own mistakes and get on with it.  We don’t ever expect to see them moving back in with us because they can’t make a go of it in the real world.  We went to university and got education that gave us practical career skills.  Although we didn’t imagine our careers would go as they did,  our training has provided us with a good life in a beautiful place.   

Although we improved the odds with some good decisions, in the end there is a lot of luck involved in any happiness.  A major illness.  An accident.  Any little thing could have crashed through this  very fragile balance, and made us widowed, unemployed, and suffering. 

I’m thankful for my good fortune.  May you be as blessed.

I am constantly amazed by the site stats for this blog.  Yesterday I made my 250th post since May 16, 2010.  That’s not quite one per day, but it’s pretty close.  There are 399 comments from visitors. I love this!  I remember how excited I was when comment numbers passed post numbers!  Now I’m aiming for the day when there are twice as many comments as there are posts.  (Feel free to help me  reach this goal, by leaving a comment somewhere on the blog today!) 😉

Most important is the sheer number of people who drop by.  The number is closing on 9000.   That is so fantastic!  Nearly a thousand people a month pop in to pay me a visit, and I am so honoured by this fact.  I love that I have readers, and that you keep coming back! Thank you for coming.  Thank you for supporting the endeavour.  Thank you for being you!

I ran into a former student the other day. She’s the kind of kid that it’s easy to make assumptions about. She has flaming fuchsia and kool-aid orange hair. She has about a dozen extraneous holes around  her face, some  half an inch around. Her arms are an art canvas.   At age twenty-two she’s demonstating a seriously colourful personality (though I assure you, she was pretty colourful at sixteen, as well).

So what would you think of her if you saw her on the street?  Rough kid?  Loser?  Street kid?  

It might surprise you that though she looks like she’s out on the fringes, she has well-paying job, and you probably would not be shocked that it’s in a piercing place, but would you be surprised to know that she has had an apprenticeship and has been working in her trade since she was 18?  Would you be surprised to know that at age 22 she owns her own house, mortgage free?

She may look like a rebellious teeny-bopper, but there’s a lot of sense and responsibility under all that colour.  She’s not the first kid I’ve known whose outward face belies amazing brain power.  Here’s to those visually non-conformists who show remarkable financial sense.  They’re puncturing holes in stereotypes, one piercing at a time.

I saw this on a random bulletin board today, uncredited.

Nothing is impossible. Even the word says “I’m possible.”

That’s cool.

Let’s be realistic: not everything is possible. I’d like to talk to my grandmother, but she died in 1968. No matter how much genealogy I do, or how much I find out about her life, it’s impossible that I will be able to have a conversation with her. There is nothing I can do to make it possible to talk to her.

But that doesn’t mean what seems impossible, actually is.  If you are five hundred pounds you are not going to win the Boston Marathon, for example. At least, it’s impossible as you are.  However, it is possible, if you lose weight and get fit, you may just have a fighting chance. That means what is impossible at this moment, may not be impossible forever. You just have to think, what do I have to do to make this happen?

Some things truly are impossible, but lots of things we think are impossible just need a little tweeking to become possible.  Change is the key.  What do you need to change in your life to make the impossible say “I’m possible!“?

So– um.  People have asked me for the pattern of this sweater, but since I kind of make it up as I go along, it’s a bit tricky to share.   I’ll do the best I can!

You’re going to have to already know how to knit to follow these instructions, because you’re going to need to be experienced enough to modify it if you don’t think it’s working for you, and to have a clue what I’m talking about.

First- I found this yarn in a bargain bin at Zellers- 3 balls for $5.99.  I have no idea of its name, brand, weight, etc.  There are two different yarns knit together.  One is a varigated black/beige boucle  (which created the diamond pattern with no help from me!) the other is a thin ribbon yarn in lime green.   I used less than 2 balls of each for the sweater.   It was knit on 7.5 mm regular needles to start the first sleeve, switched to 7.5 round needles (only so all the stitches could fit- it is not knit ‘in the round’) for the body, then back to the regular 7.5 mm needles for the other sleeve.  A 6.5 mm round needle is needed for the ribbing at the neckline. It’s knit all in one piece and is a size 12 or thereabouts.  The body diameter is 34″ but stretches quite a bit.  Make whatever modifications you need to make it work for you.

Cast on 50 stitches.  Knit in garter stitch (knit every row) for 14 inches.  Switch to round needles.  Add on 50 stitches, knit back, add another 50 stitches on the other side.  (this is the body) Knit 2″.  (one shoulder) Knit 45 stitches, cast off 10, continue to knit to the end of the row, return, and now add two new balls to continue.  Knit back and forth on one set of balls for the front, and the other set for the back for about 13″. Knit one side, cast on 10 to join up the neck again, tie one yarn into the other and cut (using just 2 balls again) continue down the other side.  Knit another 2″ to create the other shoulder.  Cast off 50 (back), knit to the end of the row turn, cast off 50, continue knitting the sleeve 14″.  Cast off. 

Using 6.5 round needles, pick up stitches around the neck.  (Pull yarn through every second vertical stitch onto the right needle).  Decide how high you want your neckline to go- this was knit 4″ in knit one purl one ribbing, then cast off loosely, folded over and whip stitched down.

If you wanted it to become a dress, you could use the same ribbing technique along the bottom hem to add 5 or 6 inches.