A New Creation

I'm going to cheat again and copy the sermon notes from youversion, hope you don't mind.

A New Creation

2 Corinthians 5:17-20 NIV
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God.

Woman at the well

John 4:28-30, John 4:39-42 NIV
Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, "Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?" They came out of the town and made their way toward him. Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony, "He told me everything I ever did." So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. And because of his words many more became believers. They said to the woman, "We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world."

A New Creation

We all mess up. We say things we later wish we could take back. We do things we wish we could undo. We miss opportunities. This happens in all spheres of our lives. Sometimes we make mistakes at work, sometimes we hurt the people we love, sometimes we disappoint God. Because of this we many of us enjoy opportunities for new beginnings, to start over. Have you ever felt like you had given up all hope? Read the story in the gospel of John, chapter 4:28-30, 39-42 This woman had learned to live without hope, but the scripture does not agree with this feeling. But rather we read in 2 Cor 5:17 about a new beginning. When someone has decided to dedicate their lives to Jesus, Jesus begins a new “act of creation” in their lives. Eventually the woman at the well realises that she has met the Messiah and that He has begun to recreate her. Outwardly she looks just the same, but inside—inside she is a new creation! When we meet Jesus as our personal Messiah, then our lives are filled with a deeper purpose, then we become His ambassadors, then we are entrusted with the message of reconciliation.

My Comments

New Years is a time to look back at our achievements and to set goals for the next year. Sometimes when we look back there are things that we would like to take back or do over, but what's done is done, whatever has been said can't be unsaid.

Sometimes we think we have messed up so bad that we think there is no hope (like the woman at the well), but the Bible tells us that there is hope. We are promised that Christ will make us new creations and all we have to to is accept Him as our Lord and saviour.

May God bless you richly this week.

Richard.

The year that was 2011 and plans for 2012

Well, it's New Years Eve and time to look back on the year just about to finish and look forward to the year that is to come.

A little while ago someone asked if I kept track of my yearly progress. The short answer to that is 'no', but if you look back back through all my FO Friday posts I'm sure you will see that I finished a blanket featuring the Salvation Army Crest that I started a couple of years ago, a tartan rug that I started last year, about 2 dozen wine glass socks, at least a dozen hanging towels, a couple of rose towel hangers, half a dozen bottle cosies, a dozen or more jug covers, half a dozen teapot cosies, a few matinee jackets, booties and bonnets and other baby's clothes, a few dishcloths, a number of toys, an angel and a few Christmas trees.

Listing them out like that makes it seem like I've been very busy but I also found time to teach crochet class, move house, spend some time at the Albury Show where I picked up a second place in the "Open Crochet - Other Items" category, spend a few hours a week at the gym as well as multiple visits to a chiropractor, a remedial massage therapist and doctors, all while looking after Sue who had her knees replaced.

It's funny, but my life doesn't seem to be all that busy. There's still plenty of time to visit friends and family, attend church and have afternoon naps. Next year I might have to forego the afternoon naps as I will be attending college for the first semester. This will also eat into the time I have for my craft, but I will get Fridays off so I will still be able to teach at the local community centre.

As for next year, I have a to-do list that seems to grow all the time and here it is in its latest incarnation:-

Things to make to replace stock for my market stall:

Set of Wine Glass Socks
Large Turtle
Pink booties

Current Work In Progress:

Rose Clan Dress Tartan Rug
Crochenit Cot Blanket (trying a method for doing rows that are longer than the hook)
Knitted Scarf
Toddlers Jacket
Jumper (sweater to you Americans) for me
Doily in #40 cotton

Things I'm itching to get started on:

Crochenit Knee Rug (same as Cot Blanket and will also use up some of my stash of 8ply)
Crocheted Slocks
Something from my "99 Granny Squares" book
Something in Tunisian Crochet Lace (I'm thinking of modifying Ellen's Jacket pattern by substituting a lace stitch in the main body of the pattern)
Something from Ellen's new book.
A doily from an old pattern book I bought.
Australiana2.0 Table Runner (Graphed and on my e-book reader, ready to start)
Banner for Stall (Graphing it out)
Table Runners for each Australian state and territory (started graphing out ACT, still plenty of design work to do).
Tunisian Crochet Intarsia Table Runner

Some of these things will be entered into the Albury Show in October. I only entered 2 items in this year's show and hope to have a few more covering a few different categories next year. All of this will only happen it it's the Lord's will of course, if He wills differently to what I will then He wins out every time (I learnt that lesson a while ago).


I haven't really made any resolutions this year and can't remember making any last year. I'm less likely to break them that way. The only resolutions I am making this year are to end the year with no more WIPs than I started with (I currently have 6 so that's the target for next year), to use up some of our stash (I'm more likely to buy more yarn than Sue), to finish the TAFE course that I will be starting shortly (Cert III - Web Design) and to improve my overall fitness.


Wishing all my readers a happy and prosperous new year, may God bless you richly in all your endeavours.

Richard.

FO Friday 30-12-2011

My last FO Friday for 2011 and I have a dishcloth that I finished last week but didn't show because it was the subject of a tutorial.

Octagonal Dishcloth

I do have a couple more dishcloths finished but they are also the subjects of upcoming tutorials so I will feature them here after I have finished the tutorial.

Check out Tami's Amis for more FO Friday goodness.

Richard.

WIP Wednesday 28-12-2011

My last WIP Wednesday post for the year and I have plenty to show.

Crochenit Cot Blanket

Another change of colour has happened here. I couldn't find a green so I'm using a yellow/green/blue variegated and hoping it will look OK.

Tunisian Crochet Toddler's Jacket (Zoom by Ellen Gormley)

I went out and bought another ball of the variegated green and was quite surprised when I managed to get the same dye lot. KMart mustn't sell much yarn over summer as it's been a couple of months since I bought the first lot.

1st Sleeve of Hoodie (Dawg by Drew Emborsky)

I'm quite surprised at how easy it is to work with this wool in spite of the heat. I usually have trouble working when I'm all hot and sweaty as the yarn seems to stick on the hook and not slide. Maybe I should work with pure wool more often, if only I could afford it.

Knitted Scarf

This scarf is technically long enough now, but I don't know what I will do with the yarn that is left if I stop now. It isn't my usual 8 ply acrylic so it won't really mix with my usual stuff, and there won't be enough left over to make anything else.

Daffodil Doily

This is the start of the first section of a five section doily done in #40 cotton. This is the finest cotton I've ever worked with and I'm a little worried about ruining my eyesight. I'm restricting working on it to no more than 1 hour at a time, which is giving me plenty of time to work on other things.

I would normally point you to Tami's Amis for more WIP Wednesday goodness, but the linky on her blog doesn't seem to be working at the moment so I'll have to check back later to see if that has changed.

Richard.

Tutorial Tuesday - Tunisian Short Rows Octagonal Dishcloth

A while ago I featured an octagonal dishcloth on this blog and someone asked if I could do a tutorial on how I made it. It has taken me a while but I finally got around to doing it, unfortunately, my camera isn't real good for close ups so the photos aren't particularly clear so you will have to rely on my written instructions.

I am going to assume that those reading this know how to do chains and tunisian simple stitch. If you don't, there are plenty of tutorials, complete with videos, available on the net.

Since I am using 4 ply cotton I start with 25 chain. You would only need 15 chain if making this in 8 ply (DK) or 10 ply (worsted).

Starting chain

Pick up a stitch in the second chain from hook.

 

 

 

First stitch picked up

 And then do the return pass (yo, pull thru 1 loop, yo pull thru 2 loops).

After first return pass

 Next row, TSS in second vertical bar and in next stitch in chain.

Second row picked up

Do the return pass in the usual manner (yo, pull thru 1 loop, (yo, pull thru 2 loops) twice).

Second row complete

Continue picking up one extra stitch in the chain each row until all stitches in the starting chain have been used.

First segment, all stitches picked up

First segment complete

TSS in the second bar of the row and return.

First row of second segment picked up

First row of second segment complete

TSS in second vb and next vb of last row of first segment.

Second row of second segment picked up

And continue in this manner until all stitches in the final row of the first segment have been use.

Third row picked up

Second segment complete

Continue with the third and subsequent segments the same as the second.

Most of the short rows tunisian dishcloths I've seen have been hexagonal, but when I got to 6 segments I couldn't see any way that this would sit flat once sewn up as there was too big of a gap between the 1st and 6th segments.

Dishcloth after 6 segments complete

So I did 2 more segments, slipped stitched along the last row to neaten it up before cutting the yarn leaving enough tail to sew up the seam.

All 8 segments complete

dish cloth after seam was sewn.

I then re-attached the yarn to the out side and did a dc (US sc) border.

Finished dishcloth with dc border and all ends sewn in.

If you have any questions, bouquets, brickbats, suggestion for more tutorials you think I could show you or any others comments, please don't hold back.

For my next trick, I plan to show you how to make a square using the same technique.

Richard.

Prince of Peace

I was a little lost this morning. Firstly, because it's Christmas we don't have to wear our uniforms so I had to decide what to wear. Secondly, because the band wasn't on duty I had to decide where in church to sit, and thirdly, because I didn't have my music bag with me (I keep a pen in there) or a meeting lead to write on I didn't have any way to take notes and the notes aren't on-line this week. Looks like I will have to work from memory.

Some people ask how can we have peace when there is so much war and fighting going on around us, but, by accepting Jesus as our Prince of Peace, we can have His peace so that we can have peace in the middle of life's battles.

May God bless you richly this week.

Richard.

The Week That Was 24-12-2011

Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house, just one creature was stirring, and also a mouse, well, actually 2 creatures and 2 mice and a couple of keyboards really, and there seems to be quite a bit of stirring outside as we can here the noise of thunder rolling through the night sky.

I can't say that this week has been particularly busy. I have managed to finish the table runner I was working on as well as 3 dish cloths (complete with progress pictures) for a few tutorial type posys that I'm going to put up over the next few weeks (watch for them on Tuesdays).

The band had one last engagement on Thursday evening, serenading shoppers outside KMart in the city. It seems that our audience enjoyed our performance so we gotta be happy about that.

While I was there I went and bought the necessary yarn so that I can complete the jacket that I started. I also bought some additional ball of the other colours I have at home so that I wouldn't run out while making the next few.


I think that's about it for me. I still need to wrap Sue's present (probably should have done that while she was having a nanna nap) but it's a little difficult to do it secretively since she is sitting at her computer behind me.

So, with the sound of the storm raging outside (wind, rain and thunder that just doesn't seem to stop) it's time to wish you all a Merry Christmas.

Richard.