In Stitches:
The Knitter's Life

 

Logo for www.Ravelry.com
A simply fabulous site for knitters -
the very best
 

Time to remind you that I am a constant knitter these days. I observed knitters from the beginning of my life. How I wish I could talk to those knitters today: my father's step-mother and the only Grandma I knew, my Aunt Mille who could knit  on the subway in the rush hour with long needles tucked under her arms and my mother who is still with me but cannot remember the fabulous knitting she once enjoyed.  I learned to knit at the age of ten. Attacked it seriously when I was in high school and more seriously in college. And the story goes on. Of course, I am still a quilter. But at this stage of the game I have realistically given up those other crafts that once consumed me (painting porcelain dolls, basket weaving, needlepoint, crewel, wax resist dyed Easter eggs and even macramé years ago). I guess it could be said that there are only a few crafts that I have been able to resist. One is weaving. I never had the money for it nor the space required for a good loom. But I do still spin when I can find the time.

 

Wool and synthetic blend bandana
 

silk and mohair lace scarf

Now I want to fill you in on what I have been doing lately. The work produces both the cutest little things for my baby grand-daughter and much more for our on-line monastery shop

 

www.etsy.com/shop/RedNunsRoberie .

 

The proceeds from the shop are used to support our senior sisters. All items are handmade by contemplative nuns in our monastery. The site currently includes a few hand quilted items and a hand painted icon depicting Jesus.

 

Silver grey lace shawl below is first attempt at BOO Designs shawl with beading. Yarn is Italian wool and silk blend. Light as a feather. This was achieved with a great deal of on-line assistance from the great people who populate www.Ravelry.com

New Option for Your Holiday Shopping

 

RedNuns Open

On-line Shop

RedNuns Roberie and Scriptorium

at

www.etsy.com/shop/rednunsroberie

 

 

Traditionally the roberie (French) is a very special room in a monastery;

the place where vestments are created and stored.

 Today it is the sewing room; a place where creative ideas come to life.

 

About Our Shop

“We are contemplative monastic nuns creating handmade original needlework and graphic arts to support senior sisters in community. Featuring natural fibers; handspun yarn; traditional methods in quilting and writing sacred icons; recycled papers and attention to ethical manufacturing.” Specializing in knitted lace, hand quilting, traditional icons, original greeting cards.

Redemptoristine Nuns are members of a contemplative monastic international order. We recently went through a long period of dislocation and then relocation to our current home in Beacon, NY. Three of our senior sisters have come to need special care. This Etsy Shop endeavor is an effort to help in covering the considerable cost of their care. These sisters have been dedicated to prayer for the world for a combined 175 years. They deserve the best we can provide for them. Thank you for helping us in that effort buy patronizing our Etsy Shop – RedNuns Roberie.

The nuns creating items for RedNuns Roberie have been making beautiful things by hand since childhood. Our skills, styles and materials have changed over time. Our aim today is to feature handmade items with high quality natural fibers while giving attention to environmental issues and justice in manufacturing practices.

Thank you for visiting RedNuns Roberie. Be sure to click on any item of interest. A whole page of information will appear.

Purchases may be made with a major credit card or PayPal.

A Little Gem of a Museum

Museum of Russian Icons

Clinton, Massachusetts

Icons and writing icons have become enthusiasms of mine in the last few years. Therefore it was a great pleasure for me to discover a little gem, a heavenly place for icon lovers and iconographers. In a small town southwest of Lowell, Massachusetts (home of a textile museum and quilt museum), is housed a sizeable collection of Russian icons dating from the 16^th through 19^th centuries. The collection was assembled by Gordon B. Lankton. It is mounted in a first class facility created in a former courthouse and jail built early in the 19^th century. Clinton became a sizeable textile center during the Industrial Revolution like many other mill towns in the state. Eventually the mills became the home of the Bigelow Carpet Company.

Mr. Lankton, President of Nypro, an international plastics injection molding company headquartered in the former Bigelow Mills began collecting in Russia while on a business trip in 1989. His frequent travels to Russia have allowed him to expand the collection to over 500 pieces, 250 of which are on exhibit at any given time.

I enjoyed the personal attention and information offered by a skilled and very interesting docent. The option to listen to an audio guided tour of the collection was also available. Adding to my enjoyment was the opportunity to visit an icon writing class taking place in the museum at the time of my visit. A really lovely highlight was meeting Mr. Lankton himself. His philanthropy made restoration of the building and mounting of the collection possible.

For details on hours, admission, directions, gift shop, etc. go to www.museumofrussianicons.org or call 978-598-5000.

A Great Feast to Welcome the New Year



Our Lady of the Sign
egg tempera on gesso with gold leaf
2010



We Welcome
the Year 2011

on the Solemnity
of Mary,

The Mother of God

One of the principles I carried away from a Christology course taken years ago asserted that the dogmas concerning Mary the Mother of Jesus which came out of the early ecumenical councils of the Church were often promulgated in an effort to underscore the truth of who Jesus was and is for us. Declaring Mary the Mother of God, the Theotokos, while praising her, served also to declare, contrary to various heresies, that Jesus was indeed God and man. 

We have just celebrated the great feast or solemnity of the Incarnation, the coming of Jesus among us. And the Church would have us enter the New Year, one fraught with challenges at every level, in the sure knowledge that the Jesus to whom Mary gave birth is the Son of God, master of the universe and also Emmanuel, 'God-with-us'. We can begin the year in a most auspicious way; with the image of a mother caring for her son and also caring for us. She presents to us the true God who lived among us and now walks with us, travels with us, will be at our side during the next year and always.

The icon above is making its debut today. Our Lady of the Sign may not be familiar to you but she is an ancient image in Greek and Russian iconography. The icon depicts the Theotokos, the Mother of God during the Annunciation at the moment of uttering her assent to the Angel Gabriel, "Let it be done to me according to your word." (Luke 1:38) Mary's hands are raised in the orans position of prayer. She is flanked by the seraphim and cherubim. The letters at the top are shorthand for the Greek title Mother of God. The colors of Jesus' robes indicate his humanity and divinity; the scroll his role as teacher; his face like that of an old man to indicate that he is both fully human and fully the eternal God; his right hand raised in blessing.

As a contemplative monastic community we gathered last night to celebrate the Vigil Office of Readings for this sacred solemnity. The Office was followed by Adoration of the Eucharist Exposed. We prayed for not only our families, friends and benefactors, but also for the people with whom we have only slight contact, like yourself, the local community, our nation and the needs of the entire world. We remembered the poorest of the poor, the unemployed, those struggling with diseases of body, mind or spirit, the wartorn and ravaged nations.

May much grace and and many blessing be yours in this new year. Let us love each other well. 

Contemplative Horizon Returns

AND SHE SAID "YES"

Last weekend our community had the great pleasure of participating in celebrating the 50th jubilee of religious vows of Father Thomas Deely, CSsR, former missionary in Puerto Rico and Santo Domingo.  Many Redemptorists came to acknowledge Father's fidelity.  One of them greeted me saying, "I hope things are OK. You haven't been publishing to your blog." I told him that 'yes' things were OK but there were a lot of 'things', things that I had to do and took time. And that is what the title of this piece is speaking of; all those people, things, and situations which ask something of us; all of those requests to which we know in our hearts we have no choice but to respond with the word "YES." 

The feast on which we most contemplate this great lesson, the Annunciation, was celebrated last March. We have not yet reached Advent when we might contemplate it again. But it is a lesson for all seasons. In these last two months "Yes" was the only response to community needs; to the volume of orders that came in for the work that supports our community; to help required by elderly parents; to the sister in community who is suddenly hospitalized; and to those times when the easier answer is "No" or "Not again!" or "Did I really mean this when I made that promise, or that vow or that commitment?" And no matter what our state in life this lesson seems to apply.

So that is why I illustrate this piece with the icon of the Archangel Gabriel. Gabriel's voice was heard by Mary. "AND SHE SAID YES." In July I also said "Yes" to myself. I'd been introduced to icon writing (that is how the tradionalists describe icon painting) but could not seem to manage on my own without more instruction.  I love the creativity, color and technique of a work that suits the contemplative life so well. Yet, even though I received permission to particpate in an icon retreat/workshop, I kept vacillating. There was so much to do at home. How could I spare the time? But I resisted the temptation to back out, continuing to say "Yes" to my intuitions and inspirations. In the days to come you will see more icons here. The experience was a blessing. 

The Spiritual Art of Writing Icons

Icon Retreat/Workshop

Offered at Mt. Alvernia Retreat Center

July 25-31, 2010

Three years ago I participated in the annual Icon Retreat/Workshop offered at Mt. Alvernia in Wappinger Falls, NY. It was an unforgetable experience; both spiritually and creatively enriching. The icon above was written by Sandra Hofstead, teacher of the art of icon writing and spiritual leader of this retreat/workshop. I will have the great blessing of writing another icon at the workshop this July.  The process of creating an icon is described as "writing" because icons are set expostions of Christian theology and dogma. They teach in an even more masterful way what stained glass windows taught to the illiterate masses in an earlier time.

When I have shared my workshop icon of the Holy Face (above right) with friends or displayed it here in the monastery, many have expressed their desire for such and experience. So I am passing along this information to those who may consider this experience a blessing too. Mt. Alvernia Retreat Center is now accepting registration. Their telephone number is 845-297-5706, Ext. 12.

This is a photo of the community in the Redemptoristine Monastery in Dublin, Ireland. Icon writing workshops are given regularly in their retreat house. The sisters have, one by one, been participating in those workshops and becoming more and more proficient in the work for paryfully writing icons.