Sunday Sermon - He is Risen

It has been a while since I've done one of these and I can't guarantee that I will manage to do one every week, and I won't be retyping the sermon I heard in church (I can't write fast enough to take it down anyway), just my notes and thoughts.

This morning's sermon started with a story about the shopping channel. Some people watch the shopping channel in preference to other shows and buy almost everything they see. Others prefer to wait and see what their friends and family have to say about the products being advertised.

Our first reading came from John 20:1-18 which says :-


The Empty Tomb

20 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. 2 So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”

3 So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. 4 Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, 7 as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. 8 Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. 9 (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) 10 Then the disciples went back to where they were staying.

Jesus Appears to Mary Magdalene

11 Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb 12 and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.

13 They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”

“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” 14 At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.

15 He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”

Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”

16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.”

She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).

17 Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”

18 Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.

The apostle Peter was impetuous and would follow the Lord anywhere without question. John was a people person and was always willing to see to their needs.

When Mary came back with the story that the Lord's body was missing most of the people were not ready to believe her but John and Peter ran to the grave to see for themselves. John realised that the body had not actually been removed but that Jesus had risen just as He said He would.

Our second reading was from Acts 10:34-43 which says :-

34 Then Peter began to speak: “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism 35 but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right. 36 You know the message God sent to the people of Israel, announcing the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all. 37 You know what has happened throughout the province of Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached— 38 how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.

39 “We are witnesses of everything he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed him by hanging him on a cross, 40 but God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen. 41 He was not seen by all the people, but by witnesses whom God had already chosen—by us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. 42 He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead. 43 All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”

While John left the grave believing Peter left in bewilderment. When Peter later met with Jesus he came to understand what had happened.

God accepts anyone from any nation. It doesn't matter where you a from so long as you believe in Jesus you will be accepted by God.

Ads on the shopping channel work because people tend to believe the testimonies of others. Some people will come to believe in God if we give them our testimonies.

I guess the challenge this week is to find people that need God in their lives and give them our testimonies, which is something I've always had difficulty with since I never know where to start and I seem to always start in the wrong place.

May God bless you richly this week.

Richard.

Saturday Shenanigans

Yeah, I know I usually entitle this one "The Week That Was" but it has been so long since I've done one of these that I didn't think that title was quite appropriate. Maybe I'll get back to that next week, if I'm not too tired to post.

I'm having a little trouble deciding what to do with this blog. I don't think posting once or twice a week is really enough but I have trouble coming up with content on the other days. I could do another tutorial and show you how to make this -

Crosshatch Stitch Baby Blanket

... but that will take some time to set up. There is also a variation on this where you start at one corner and work diagonally which is probably easier to start with. Of course, that only gets me one post. What do I do for others? I will also be putting the blog into hiatus while Sue and I tour UK and Ireland so I'm not sure how much I want to do before then. After the trip I will be able to bore you with all our holiday photos :).

Life is moving along here at Rose Manor in much the same way as it always has, with the only difference being the preparations for our upcoming trip. Our flights have been booked and paid for, the itinerary is being planned, some of the accommodation has been booked and this week we received our tickets for the Tattoo and our Oyster cards. Some might say that this trip is getting more real everyday.

On a crafty note, those of you who have been watching my Wednesday and Friday posts will have seen that I have finished some of my major projects and have already started more to replace them. I'm hoping to keep it down to 8 or 9 at any one time, but you never know, especially since I've started a side project with one of the ladies from church to make make Trauma Teddies. We'll see how that goes once I've refined the pattern that I came up with.

Today I went to a market in Beechworth. I've only ever been to one market in Beechworth before today and I did pretty well out of it on that day, but most of the markets there have either clashed with other markets or activities, or been on a Sunday, and since I don't do Sunday markets because I would prefer to be in church, I don't get to go to them. I had originally booked in for a twilight market back in January but that one got cancelled due to the heat and no one wanting to turn up, so my booking and fees were transferred over to today. The market is only supposed to run from 9:00am to 3:00pm but it took that long just to sell enough to make it to my "break even" amount and I wasn't feeling too happy about the day. However, since there were still quite a few people about, I decided to hang around a little longer, sew in the ends on a square I had completed earlier, and see what happened. I am sure glad I did as the sales I had in the last 40 minutes made the day worthwhile. I rarely sell more than $100 worth of goods, but those extra sales pushed me over that mark, so I'm quite happy now.

I have another market on Monday so I hope to get a but more sold then and I will hold off updating my to-do list until next week. I will say that I need to make up some more hanging towels as I running quite low on stock now. I might even get them out tomorrow and try and get a few made up while watching TV and eating chocolate.

I hope you've all had a good week and wish you all a Happy Easter or Passover as the case may be.

Richard.

FO Friday 29.03.2013

FO Friday is here again and, although I've missed a couple of weeks due to not having anything finished, I'm back. This weeks FO was an experiment. I wanted to see if I could make a teddy bear from start to finish during a 2 hour Craft 'n' Cuppa session. I didn't quite make it as it actually took about 4 hours, and here it is.

Trauma Teddy

The design needs a little adjustment but it is very simple. It's just a straight block with a change of colour about half way then change back again. I think I need to make those changes a little earlier so that the parts are a bit more proportional, but, as a proof of concept, I think it's quite good. I plan on making more of these as they're a good way to use up stash. It just depends on how many a friend from church thinks we need to make to make it worthwhile doing them. I could definitely do one of these a week without it taking too much time away from my other projects.

As usual, use the links in the sidebar if you want to see what everyone else has been making.

Richard.

WIP Wednesday 27.03.2013

Hello and welcome to Rose Manor for another WIP Wednesday round up. I had a couple of slack days this week where I didn't actually work on any projects so, just to make sure that all my projects saw some progress, I worked on three of them yesterday. Here is what my projects look like this week.

Crochenit Cot Blanket

I'm still making slow progress on this one but I think I'm near the end. At least I'm nearer the end now than I was this time last week.

Alien Guy Head take 1

I got to the decrease part and realised that I had made a couple of mistakes when reading the pattern and that this was never going to be "head" shaped, so I reassessed the first few rows and tried again.

Alien Guy Head take 2

 After trying to figure out what the first few rows were supposed to say I made some adjustments and this time it looks like it might actually come out the right shape.

Woollen Baby Blanket - square 51 from "99 Granny Squares to Crochet"

Another square done, only 27 more to go and only about 10 weeks to do them in. I don't think this one will make it in time for this year's show.

Tunisian Spiral Blanket

I'm making good progress with this one. I don't know how big I'm going to be able to make it but it's looking like it might be suitable for a knee rug.

Toddler's Jacket - Zoom by Ellen Gormley

 The second sleeve is still growing. Another 8 rows should see this one finished.

AustralianaV2 - designed by me

 The Brolga is finished and the flower is almost finished. Looking ahead at the pattern the next items are another flower and a Koala.

Baby's Jacket Pants and Hat set.

I've made quite a bit of progress on this. The back is done, one sleeve is half done and the other is completed and I've started on one side of the front. Don't worry about it being a bit short as there is a fancy edge to go on the bottom once it has been sewn up.

Tommy Turtle

The top half of the body is progressing nicely.

I did work on something else this afternoon. Someone showed me a "Trauma Teddy" the other day and I wanted to see if I could figure out the pattern and make in in a short time. I worked out that I could make one in about 3 hours but I got a few things wrong with the first one so I'll have another go shortly. You will get to see the one I made this afternoon but you will need to check back on Friday.

In the meantime, if you want to see what everyone else has been making, just check out the links in the sidebar.

Richard.

WIP Wednesday 20.03.2013

Well, things seem to be returning to some sort of normality here at Rose Manor. I have been quite productive, managing to not only work on all my WIPs but to also start two new ones (I know, I'm a sucker for punishment). Here are all the projects that I worked on this week.

Tunisian Spiral Blanket

This is one that I have wanted to start on ever since someone on the Yahoo Tunisian Group posted a link to the pattern. I didn't actually buy the pattern as it was easy enough to figure out without it. It definitely looks quite effective done in the self striping yarn.

Crochenit Cot Blanket

Another change of colour. I figure half a dozen rows of this colour then half a dozen of another and I will be ready to work on the border.

Tommy Turtle

The bottom half of the body is done and now I'm working on the top half. There is a bit more shaping in the top half as it needs to bulge.

Baby's Jacket, Pants and Hat set

Since I finished a jumper I figured I would start on another. This one is going to be somewhat smaller than the one I just finished and will have pants and hat to match.

Toddler's Jacket - Zoom by Ellen Gormley

The second sleeve is getting longer. Not much to go now before I call this one finished and start another.

Alien Guy

 The body is pretty much finished now except for the stuffing, and I've started on the head. The instructions for the head are a little vague and I have no idea if I'm doing it right. There just seem to be too many increases early. I thought the same of the feet when I was doing them so maybe the head will work out right.

AustralianaV2 - designed by me.

The next couple of pictures have been started. The one on the left is a Brolga. The one on the right is another of the state floral emblems. I probably should look them up just so I know what they are but I'm just not feeling very motivated to do so.

Woolen Baby Blanket - Square 51 from "99 Granny Squares to Crochet"

Another square finished. At the current rate I could have this one finished by this time next year. I think I'm going to have to step it up if I want to put this in the show at the end of October. I kinda need it finished before we head off to the UK in July.

That's all of my WIPs. If you want to see any more, just check out the links in the sidebar.

Richard.

FO Friday 15.03.2013

Another Friday and another FO. This makes 10 so far this year. This one was started on 21 March 2011 so, since I finished it yesterday, it took just 1 week short of 2 years to complete, and it measures about 2m square.

Rose Clan Dress Tartan Rug

I'm going to enter this one in the local show later this year, although they haven't judged tartan rugs favourably in the past so I'm not really expecting big things from it. Now that I've managed to finish a couple of my major projects I need to decide what I'm going to replace them with. I have already decided to make some more baby clothes and I'm thinking of starting a Tunisian Spiral similar to one I saw previously. I'm sure I can work out a pattern for it.

I don't expect to have anything finished for next Friday but I should have plenty of progress shots on Wednesday. In the meantime, check out the links in the sidebar to see what everyone else has been making.

Richard.

WIP Wednesday 13.03.2013

This week I have been concentrating on getting the tartan rug finished since it is so close but I have still found time to work on most of my other projects and even start a new one. I'm not going to show you the tartan today as the changes aren't significant enough to see a difference from the previous pictures (ends have been sewn in and the border has been started). Hopefully it will be finished for Friday. In the meantime, here are the other projects that I have worked on this week.

Crochenit Cot Blanket

I measured this up today so that I could how much more I needed to do before tackling the border. I think I need about 24 more rows, that is 12 of white and 12 of colour. It is getting close but it is slow going.

Woollen Baby Blanket - Square 51 from "99 Granny Squares to Crochet"

Another square complete including the sewing in of ends.

Toddler's Jacket - Zoom by Ellen Gormley

The second sleeve is getting longer.

AustralianaV2 - designed by me.

The first three elements are now complete. I was going to check to see what floral emblem that flower represents but I didn't get around to it. One of the other two elements should be quite recognisable to any body that has been to our nations capital, Canberra, as the flagpole on top of parliament house, the other is a swan.

Tommy Turtle

This is the next toy that I feel I need to make to replace one that was sold quite some time ago. This is just the bottom half of the body.

I'm still trying to decide what project I'm going to start to replace the jumper now that it is finished. I might concentrate on baby's clothing for a while to build up my stocks (not that it has been a particularly good seller lately). I do like to have some variety of colours and styles in these and there always seems to be some interest in them, unfortunately that interest hasn't translated into actual sales recently.

That's it for my WIPs this week. Check out the links in the sidebar to see what everyone else has been making.

Richard.

FO Friday 08.03.2013

Well, it's Friday, so that means it's time to show off my latest finished object. Object #9 for 2013 is one that has been on my hook for quite a while. My Ravelry project page shows that I started this one on 20 July 2011, which means that it took just over 20 months to complete. Here it is.

Hoodie for me - Dawg by Drew Emborsky (The Crochet Dude)

One of the reasons this took me so long was that I ran out of wool and had to order another couple of balls. It's quite a heavy jumper with almost 2kg of wool in it so I'm hoping that it will keep me very warm when I finally get to wear it (which won't be until next year as I intend showing it at the end of October).

I'm still working on a project that I started before this one and I'm hoping to be able to show it off within the next couple of weeks. If I do finish it before the 21st it will have taken just under two years to make.

I'm sure there are plenty of other things to see so check out the links in the sidebar.

Richard.

WIP Wednesday 06.03.2013

Well, this has been another busy week here at Rose Manor but not a lot of crochet has been happening. We've spent the last couple of weekends travelling for various appointments and it seems to have drained me. This last weekend we had a charity day in the gardens organised by the Lyons club and I had every intention of spending some time working on a couple of my projects but Sue had some problems with her new shoes so we left early. We spent most of Sunday, Monday and Tuesday driving, firstly from Albury to Katoomba (about 6.5 hours), then from Katoomba to Rookwood Cemetary and back (about 1.5 hours each way although the return trip took a little longer due to being in peak hour traffic) and then the return trip from Katoomba back to Albury. It has been a very tiring week.

As a result of all this travel, as well as trying to finish off items that are very close to being finished, there hasn't been much progress on the WIPs with only three of my major projects having any time spent on them. Since one of them is now finished (you will get to see that one on Friday) you only get to see 2 items today, and here they are.

Woollen Baby Blanket - square 51 from '99 Granny Squares to Crochet'

I managed to sew in all the ends on one square and crochet the next while at crochet class on Friday morning.

AustralianaV2 - designed by me

This was the only project I worked on while in the Botanic Gardens on Saturday and I only managed two rows before heading home.

While my intention this week is to work on the next project that is almost finished I do hope to spend a bit more time working on my other projects as well, especially since the only travelling I will be doing this weekend is to Myrtleford for a market, so you should see a bit more progress next week.

I will be back on Friday to show off my finished item. In the meantime, check out the links in the sidebar to see what everyone else has been doing.

Richard.

FO Friday 01.03.2013

I have finally managed to get an FO Friday update done. Both my FOs this week were actually ready for last Friday, but, due to a trip away, I was unable to post, so here are FOs 7 & 8 from me and FO number 3 for Sue (which was just finished today).

Graduation Owl

This little fella stands about 10cm (4") tall. I had been meaning to make him for a while as he seems to be an item that people like to buy.

Baby Blanket

I've been calling this stitch "Box Stitch" but I checked my book (The Harmony Guide to Crochet Stitches) and it's closer to the "Crosshatch Stitch". The only difference that I see is that where the Crosshatch Stitch has a dc (U.S. sc) this one uses a slip stitch. In any case, I think it's big enough now to call it finished.

And now for Sue's finished item.

1 Pair of Pink Baby's Bootees.

I couldn't find my stash of ribbon so I went out and bought some more.

Checkout the links in the sidebar to see what everyone else has been making.

Richard.