It’s time for our monthly contest and I was all set to ask a different question, but then this You Tube video came through in an email from my mom and it changed my direction. (And then I promptly got it in 3 other emails, saw it on a couple of blogs, and heard Anderson Cooper talking about it on CNN last night.) What a great video! It’s all about a gutsy lady who had a dream and made something happen with it. So this month’s contest is to leave a comment and tell me what your dream is. Now I know fully well that some of you will not be brave enough to write it down for everyone to see, with your name attached! But I hope that you do. It seems like step one in any dream is to be bold and put it in writing, right? Of course not many people take the time to read the blog comments on our monthly contest (except for me!), so you don’t have to worry that someone you know might see and recognize you. On the other hand, some people DO take the time to read them and with a question like this, you could inspire a whole lot of people by putting your dream out there. I look forward to seeing what you all dream about doing or having or being, somewhere in the future. Will you share? (Hmmm – and another thought – if any of you read a comment and your first thought is, “Well I could help her/him with THAT dream. ” – email me. Maybe we can put some dreamers and enablers together to make things happen.) One of my dreams is to live in Colorado one day – thus today’s photo. We’ll draw for winners next week on Wednesday, so you have a week to leave your comment. I have some skeins of Wollmeise to give away.
Speaking of Wollmeise, we did a mini update with some of it yesterday, but since the great majority of our boxes are being held up by customs in Chicago, we won’t have more for who knows how long. In the meantime, we have a few things to take care of around here (Spring Fling, May Sock Club, “Don’t Be Blue Kits”) so even if it does arrive soon-ish, it will still be awhile before it’s going to go up. (Translation: no need to stalk and watch for it.) Maybe some of the customs agents in Chicago have had a dream to capture a case of Wollmeise for their very own….
Sheri whohadadreamtohaveafamilybusiness
ThankYOUforhelpingtomakethatdreamcometrueforourfamily!
I was hit by a van while crossing the street on my way to work last month, and I’m on disability for seven weeks, at least. My dream is to heal — to be able to sit, walk, stand, and lie down without discomfort. In the meantime, I’ve ordered yarn (thank you, Loopy) to help pass the time. Wendy’s “From the Toes Up” should arrive today or tomorrow, and I envision many more socks added to my wardrobe as a result.
I have recently been working on one of my dreams. Since elementary school/high school, I have wanted to be part of a rowing team. My friend’s sister rowed crew for UCSD and I wanted to do it too. The problem? I went to college in Arizona. Not a lot of opportunities for rowing here. This changed a few years ago with the invention of a town lake. Now ASU as well as my high school have rowing teams. I decided last month that I wanted to still row, so I signed up for a class. Now every Monday and Wednesday, I head to the lake and row for two hours. I hope to continue to hone my skills and row on a competitive adult team. Almost 20 years later, I am living my dream
I have many dreams. Some, I can work towards, like going back to school and getting my PhD (I’m all but dissertation in history, but want a degree in linguistics).
But there’s one I’m not sure I can attain in this part of the country. When I first moved to the US 12 years ago, I saw wooden houses with wraparound porches and rocking chairs. Now, this is fairly common in the South, and probably attainable elsewhere. But in the Boston metro area? Not so much. We’re not even close to being able to afford a free-standing house of any kind, not to mention the kind I dream of.
Still, the dream remains. Perhaps someday, we’ll own a house with a wraparound porch, a rocking chair or two, and a garden. I’d love to sit in the chair, knit socks, and watch the birds stop by my as-yet-imaginary bird feeder.
My dream is to re-find my dream. I feel like it’s time to set some new goals, but I don’t know what I want to do. I just feel very dissatisfied right now and I’m not sure why.
So many dreams- of the possible because I control them, such as winning this year’s county fair, having a wonderful vacation or losign 40 pounds (that might be on the impossible side). And then the ones like finding a terrific man to marry or running a museum on the beach which involve luck.
But I’ll vote for marrying George Clooney.
i dream of a day when i can sit home all day and knit at will, instead of having to work…
My dream is to be an integrative practitioner- using alternative medicine for prevention and wellness while having the ability and means to do lab work and prescribed medications as well. I have begun this process and will be an RN in three weeks. I am going to work myself out of debt for a while and then pursue my nurse practitioner and begin my own business. It has been alot of work thus far but worth every minute of it!
My dream is to beat cancer and live to be an old woman still in love with her wonderful husband watching my two daughters grow -up and become adults and make their own lives.
If I had just one dream it would be to have more time. I have been called mom since I was 19 and now at 46 have 4 children that I have raised on my own. I have never had a job with vacation or sick time and with that being said, I have never really had time to spend with the kids without being tired. My dream is to have more hours in a day, just more time.
My dream is to actually write down the novel that has been in my head for the past 20 years. Oh, and gettiong it published would be the icing on the cake….and maybe get it on the bestseller list, no need to be number 1.
Oh, yes, and I’d like to see cancer erradicated in my lifetime. And world peace 🙂
Oh reading about these dreams is wonderful!! Several people have mentioned their dream to become a nurse. I’ve been an RN since I’m 19 and now I am close to retirement..40 years of being a nurse..now it’s time to turn over my stethescope to the next generation! I dream of raising a puppy for Canine Companions for Independence and make jelly from the raspberry bushes I have in my yard!! There’s never enough time to do it when I’m working!
My dream is to lose the 120 pounds that I need to lose so that I can live a long and full life. I want to be able to be around for my future grandchildren. This has been an important dream for me since losing my dad to a heartache a few months ago. He was only 56 and never over wieght.
My dream is really quite simple. I would like to design knitted jewelry and sell it. Each piece would be a one of a kind creation that would draw attention to the art of knitting and beading and how well the two can be combined, while not costing an arm and a leg. I believe that knitting and beading are art forms which can and should be combined if for no other reason than to have fun and go out on the limb of self-expression. I’m working on my first piece now…I have all the beads lined up and ready to string onto the yarn, and hopefully, later this evening, I can share pictures of my creation, or at least it’s progress on my blog.
My dream is to retire next to a lake and knit socks all morning and write poems all afternoon, then swim at dusk and do it again the next day.
My dream is to be able to retire with my husband in an RV and travel to see our beautiful country. We are honest hard working people and have never had a break. I pray to be debt free, climb in an RV and take off to see Colorado, and the Pacific Northwest and then move to other sections that we have not seen.
… the dreams above are all so touching and lovely, and I have to admit I loved the … “marrying George Clooney.”
Life is complicated, and so are dreams. I’ve had a complicated life, and now really wish for a positive “carpe diem” each day now!
And of course …. I also dream about winning some Wollmeise!
I have more than one. Traveling Europe can wait a few years.
Moving back to Dallas, TX into our own home is at the top, along with being able to set up a yarn store once we move back(I miss my adopted home state more than Pa where I grew up, shameful I know). Just the thought of being surrounded by yarn and being able to have my girls with me at work at least some of the time sounds like heaven (I want a family friendly yarn store with an area just for the little ones since I know how much my girls love playing with yarn and visiting my lys with me when I can save up to buy a skein of comfort or encore or a laurel hill crochet hook).
My more mundane and practical (ie. more affordable) dream is to be able to get my hands on some beautiful sock yarn to make a couple of shawls(love ‘all that jazz’ that the harlot just finished) and a singlet for my 1 year old daughter for the summer, but sock yarn…or any yarn just isn’t in our little budget at the moment. I’ve been trying to keep myself busy and happy with my dozen (ok I’m down to 9 now) skeins of cotton and turning them into wash/dish cloths and using my daughter’s skein of yarn to make her hats and the doll cloths & blankets she requests (she used her christmas money to buy a one pound skein of red yarn).
My girls keep me busy so my knitting time is limited, but very precious and very neccessary to wind down after a long stressful day at work.
Sort of a “back to basics” dream for me: after 20 years of education and 6 years of post-graduate training, 10 years of marriage, and 2 darling boys, I find myself longing for a sense of contentment and satisfaction in my life, and I want to feel settled and secure, as a parent, as a wife, as a professional, as an American.
It’s my dream to find a nice house with my boyfriend in our price frame sometime very soon!
Also, to own a skein of Wollmeise! :o)
Besides finishing all the projects I have started and want to start….I think I have fulfilled my dream. When I was growing up, and even after I had children, I wanted to be a nurse. I did finally manage to earn a nursing degree at the age of 45 and was able to work 15+ years doing what I loved doing. Now, in retirement, I am able to volunteer at a hospital, so I can still keep in touch!
My dream is to go to Africa and go on a photo safari. I don’t know that this will ever happen, but for now I read about safaris and dream about them. I absolutely abhor large bugs, and I understand that there might be lots of them on safari, but I still dream of going. And. Just. Coping.
In the meantime, I read about safaris. I watch the travel channel when they have something on about an African safari. And I knit while I watch. And I try to convince my DH that this is something he would like to do. (He’s nowhere near convinced.)
I need to find some sock yarn in an African Serengeti colorway to knit while I am waiting.
First, I just want to say to Emily who posted on April 15 that you can totally be brave enough to go to Europe and travel it yourself! I backpacked Europe alone 10 years ago when I was 25 and it is still, to this day, the singularly best experience of my life. I didn’t think I could do it either and I flew over there terrified, crying on the plane. But once I got there and started making my way I loved it. I traveled through 7 countries and saw some of the wonders of the world, including the Greek islands and the Sistine Chapel. Once I did that, when I came home I realized how many other things I could do. It was very empowering. So I hope you decide to seize the day!
As for me, one of my current dreams is to convert a space in my basement to use to start dyeing yarn. I just love yarn. And I’ve always been a painter. My favorite kind of painting is abstract, all about color and I feel like dyeing yarn is the best of two worlds – it’s fluffy, scrunchy, hug-able color. I’m waiting to hear from my local art institute about a wait list for a dyeing class this summer. A wait list for a dye class – can you believe that?
Emily, if you go to Europe, I’ll send you the first yarn I dye. Deal?
One of my favorite things to do is to sit on the beach at Cape Point on the Outer Banks of North Carolina with the Cape Hatteras lighthouse in sight. I take my casting rod and sail my bait out as close to the bar as I can get. I’m small so I usually don’t get that far, but it doesn’t matter. It’s really not about catching fish. I then sit on the beach with my IPOD in one ear and the waves crashing in the other. I pull out a favorite pair of socks and knit. In the meantime, my husband and Chesapeake Bay Retriever keep me company next to me on the warm sand. Finally, add a glass of chardonnay and a bowl of peanuts. Can’t you just smell the salt air!?! I have 4 1/2 years to go until retirement. I’ve been working part time since I was 12 and full time since I was 16. I’m ready. When I go, this is where I want to be….with my favorite people/dog doing all of my favorite things at the same time. Gotta go! Surf’s up! 🙂
My dream is to someday have a pattern published in a book, magazine, or other large venue.
My dreams are to continue losing weight (25 down, 70 to go), improve my health and fitness so I can hike in the Cascade and Olympic mountains, (now able to walk a mile, two years ago was using electric cart to shop for groceries) and to see my very intelligent son get a ‘B’ or higher in English (he’s gone from an ‘F’ to a ‘D’ so far with lots of ‘encouragement’). I’m on my way, with miles still to go. Thank you for your wonderful question, Sheri. This has been lots of fun and very inspirational.
Hi all, I guess I am living part of my dreams! Seems my whole life I have been on the way home to Hannibal! Live a few blocks from the Mississippi river and can even see it from home! I keep a journal of ideas to knit/weave/dye because I can’t do them all at the time the idea comes along. My dream is to hAVE THE support to be able to make some of the ideas in my journal come to life. Time and space to create is what I would love to have. In a book tghat Jean Ray-Laurie wrote for quilter’s she stated that “once your family gives a space for a project, NEVER,never give it back.” At one time it was the kitchen table – – -now I have a room. And I love knitting for charity, frendns and loved ones! Have a baby sweater dubed “the sweater from hell” on the needles for a greatgrand daughter. WOW! This one snecked up on us! (Grandchildren ages from 20 to 17 months)
Love the yarn/coffee shop dreams!!!! Anty of them close?
Marilyn in Hannibal
I dream of doing what makes me happy, rather than what makes those I care about happy. It sounds silly, but I work very hard at making others happy, only sacrifice my own happiness and and sanity. I’d rather be creating yarns and designs and making everyone happy, including myself.
My dream is one-day on move closer to my brother and his family in California. But for now this will have to wait, but soon.
My dream for the world is that we would all live in PEACE.
My dream is to some day run the New York City Marathon.
My dream is to move out of my comfort zone and join the Peace Corps. I am 57 and my last child will go to college in the Fall and although I have worked my whole life helping people through psychotherapy, I have always felt a great need to work with the half of the world who suffer malnutrition, poor health care, no education, little opportunity to climb out of their misery. Although I love to knit and read and would hope to continue those loves, my real passion is to make a difference in the lives of others and do my part in alleviating some of the suffering in the world.
My dream is… to finish my bachelor’s degree before I’m 35, pay off all my debts with DH before then, as well, and have health, wealth, and happiness! I don’t want a lot of money, just enough to be comfortably well off enough to to what I want more than anything else – buy a ranch for DH and open my own yarn shop! He’s wanted a ranch ever since we got married almost 11 years ago, but we’ll never do it on what we bring in together, that’s for sure! I’ve been thinking lately that I’d like to open a shop of my own – someplace for knitters and crocheters can come together and sit, talk, and create in a comfortable atmosphere. I’d like to have a coffe and tea are with scones, muffins, breads, and cookies available. I’d also have a bookstore for the crafters to browse. I think that the coffee/book areas would also bring in other customers as well and maybe get those people interested in the fiber arts, too! Just my little dream, but I think about it all the time!
my dream is to knit something really amazing. something that makes people go… “wow”
My dream is for peace and happiness within myself and for my family. I also dream that I will live a long, healthy life and never have to live at a nursing home. I would love to travel and write a book, also if my dachsunds (Sparky and Daisy) could live long healthy lives too
My dream is to one day make money from my art. Enough so that I can be a full time freelance artist, and not have to sit at a desk any more.
Don’t get me wrong; I don’t think I’m a terrible artist. I think I’m even good enough to make money off it. Or even a career. But… as my sister told me recently, and she’s so right… I’m so scared of failing I can’t even bring myself to begin; I don’t want to show my art to other professionals. Not yet. I keep telling myself, maybe next year, when I’m a bit better than this. Maybe after I’ve figured out how to do this, or that, or whatever. And I’ve realised recently this is neverending. I’m never going to be perfect; nobody ever is.
I know this is a huge flaw in me, and it’s something I’m trying to overcome, but I’m so afraid I’ll embarrass myself or just hate everything I do, or even worse, everyone else will hate everything I do and it’ll be terrible. I feel like such a failure, and I haven’t even given myself the opportunity to fail yet.
Isn’t that pathetic? 🙁 I am trying to work on that, really I am. One day I’ll have the guts to show my art to someone who might actually employ me. Maybe. (I hope so.)
My only other dream, really, is for a quiet life. My husband and I have had a huge number of obstacles to overcome in the last two years, a lot of things we couldn’t have seen coming, and it’s been tough. I dream of having a short time – six months at least – in which nothing terrifying, extraordinary or stressful happens at all and we can both relax, and maybe enjoy life for a bit. That’d be really nice.
My dream has quite a few hurdles. First I am trying to get approval for weight loss surgery. Once I have and lose a considerable amount of weight, I need both hips replaced, so that I can walk without a walker or cane, hopefully. When all that is accomplished I want to open a LYS in my home town. Someday……
My dream is for my kids to live a happy and fulfilled life. I also dream for the day I can retire and devote more time to my hobbies.
Dream as big but possible goal: My dream is to gradually get my home decluttered and organized, with a work/retreat space that’s solely my own, and to make a regular and reliable couple hours a week to work on fun stuff that requires concentration.
Dream as wish for something that’s to a great extent out of my control: My dream is that my baby will grow up to be a competent, kind, and independent adult capable of and willing to care for his mentally disabled brother after I’m dead, and that he won’t turn out to have the same disability.
LOVED the YouTube video–tears of joy trickling down my face by the end of it–how joyous was that moment!! As for the contest, I have to thank you for helping me realize I AM LIVING MY DREAM!!!! I have a wonderful husband/partner/lover, an extraordinarily wonder-full teenage(!) daughter and two amazing stepsons, a lovely home and we have just purchased my grandmother’s cottage where I spent so many cherished summers in my childhood. I am working in a field I love and contributing to my community. I do not know if I am unambitious or just incredibly lucky but I cannnot think of anything I want to improve upon or change in my life. I am living my dream and my only request is DO NOT WAKE ME!
Cheers, Barbie O.
My Dream is someday have my front/backyard look good like when my father use
to do it everyday for hours. People would ask me and him who is your gardener?
I still have problems doing the edging straight . The other dream is to get my hands
on some Woolmeise(maybe 2 skeins
Sweet Dreams
My dream is to stop buying pre-made socks and sweaters and start knitting my own.
Small dreams: Learn to spin and dye laceweight yarn (in progress). Plus, learn to knit fair isle (delayed for about a year). Complain less.
Big dreams: Get a degree; live well on a budget, own a nice house with an acre of land, vacation in Paris and/or London, and fall in love and get married. 🙂 Not necessarily in that order. lol
I have too many times been a survivor, and have received a few of my heart’s desires, but have not to date realized a dream. I have survived cancer, divorce, being laid off from work, the death of an infant son – although a mother never quite “survives” that and with his death a part of my heart and dream died with him. Twenty two years later I still miss him – guess that’s how mothers are. The hearts desires I have received are my other two children (now 24 and 21) and having some of my photography exhibited in a local college exhibit (it was a juried show so that was a compliment) and finding another job (not the best but it pays the bills). BUT my dreams – and I have to say at my age (54) I have almost forgotten how to dream these dreams…but I would love to earn at least part of a living at writing. I would love to take college classes in photography and journalism or art (I have to work full time and too sleepy when I get home to take a night class), and after 13 years of being alone (my ex left me after cancer treatment – had cheated on me during) – I would, dare I even mention it out loud, like to find a true love. I have numbed myself to that dream so much so that I forget what it feels like to be held and cherished – just for me. Don’t even remember what it feels like to have anyone even hold my hand. I guess my biggest dream is – to know how to dream again as I think I have forgotten how to dream my dreams. I think when you don’t have a living dream – that’s the biggest loss of all.
I have so many dreams, but one dream dances around frequently in my head quite frequently. That dream is to sell everything and move to a Spanish speaking country. Possibly somewhere in Central America. Unfortunately, dreams meet fears and fears overcome dreams. It sounds like roshambo (rock-paper-scissors), but you never know, maybe one day desire will overcome those fears.
I wish that I had my own private jet! It’s a 10 hour drive to see my family and I miss them. And they are all missing my daughter growing up, she’s already 8 months old and they’ve only seen her 3 times! If I had a jet I could fly out there whenever I wanted, use up as many seats as I wanted, and take my pups with me!! Of course this jet comes with unlimited fuel, a flight crew, and all the biscoff cookies I want!!
My dream is to have a vacation home on the beach and where someday when my kids are grown, they’ll come with their families and everyone can relax.
My dream – what a loaded question! For my husband to find a job that made him happy, instead of just having one that he works at to pay the bills. Or for me to find a job that would pay me well enough that we wouldn’t have to have both of us working to pay our bills at all. I wouldn’t give up working. But I wouldn’t mind if I could knit more, I have so many projects and so little time. Oh, and we would live closer to our friends. Someone wrote that Connecticut was in the way – our problem is Virginia. If would could just move it so there was less travel time between PA and NC that would be lovely.
Dreams are funny things, they start off one way, and transform themselves in front of your very eyes as you sleep through them!
My dream is that the doctors are wrong and my dh of 26 years won’t die of stage 4 colon cancer that has spread to both lungs and liver. My dream is to still be with him when we are 70. That was the dream we had from the day we married and I’m NOT changing it, I’m believing it will happen!
My dream would be to help get this wonderful country of ours back on track – to bring back the vision that our Founding Fathers had for us. Now there is a gutsy group! They had big dreams and brought those dreams to reality through hard work and tremendous sacrifice. I look around today and it saddens me see what we have done to their dreams. So I guess my dream is to be bold enough to step out and make a difference!
My dream is to become a knitwear and accessory designer one day — after completing my career in the US Navy. I am nearly ready to take more time for myself, but still have a few years left in which I’m willing to serve the nation.