Monday, May 11, 2009

Returning to the Blog

Primary Reasons I have been away from the blog:

1. Masters in Nursing courses at University of Phoenix. I think I made an "A" in my first class, but if there were a grade, I'd be making a "C-" in housework and motherhood studies.

2. Dental Appointments: 3 children and 1 Mom, times a cleaning and at least 2 appointments each equals about 10 trips to the dentist since February. I love my dentist, though...he has never once made a remark connecting 3 kids needing fillings with poor parental dental oversight.

3. Isolation. Unfortunately, the grey depression-cloud has been threatening to pounce, resulting in some blog-avoidance on my part. I didn't think anything was really blog-worthy. But...see below.

Things I should have blogged:

1. A really funny-looking hat:






This is the Dubblemossa hat kit from Schoolhouse Press. The Unspun Icelandic wool is a bit of an adventure, and so was the two-handed, two-color technique which I learned. It's extremely warm, with 4 layers of wool around the brim, and I love it, even though it is pretty ridiculous looking, and I'm not sure I'm brave enough to wear it outside of the house.


Details:
  • Pattern came with the Dubblemossa video from Schoolhouse Press
  • Needles: Size 3 16" circular and dpns. If I make another, I'll use size 4, because this one was a little tight.
  • Yarn: Unspun Icelandic, one wheel of Natural, one wheel of Blacksheep. I love this yarn, and I'm looking forward to using it again.

2. Some mittens that don't match in even a small way. Not "fraternal twins", but more like "second cousins."



I bought two skeins of Noro Kochoran on sale from Webs. This is some seriously beautiful, fluffy and soft, bulky yarn which knits up quickly on size 10 needles. It told me that it wanted to be mittens. So, I whipped up a pair of Kochoran Mittens, but instead of using the stripe pattern recommended in the pattern, I knit them straight off the ball. And here they are, a pair of mismatched mittens. So I'm off to knit a third mitten from the rest of the ball and see if it happens to match one of these mittens better.

3. Bingo night at Chick-Fil-A! It was one of the most fun things we've done recently. Chicken Sandwiches, milkshakes, and prize-winning. Kids enjoying themselves so much they forgot to bicker among themselves. It was a fabulous Saturday night.

4. 3-D Viewing of "Monsters vs. Aliens." Great family movie, and cool glasses!





5. How about 18" of snow in April? After some 70-degree days, and just to keep us on our toes. I think God just proved he has a sense of humor, and likes to play a practical joke every now and then.

That's the gas grill, where it had been happily cooking meat the previous weekend, and the wheelbarrow, which had been involved in some gardening recently. Crazy, rapidly changing weather we have here.



6. I read some good books: The Used World by Haven Kimmel, and Breakfast with Buddha by Roland Merullo.

The Used World is a sometimes-comical, sometimes-heartwarming story about 3 women who work at an antique emporium in rural Indiana.

Breakfast with Buddha is a fictional memoir written by a "normal", Protestant, affluent suburban father of 2 who winds up on a week-long car trip across the countryside with a Guru/Yogi/Spiritual leader. This book is at once very funny, but also thought-provoking.

I'm off to do something which is really boring and unbloggable. But, seriously, I'll keep in touch better in the future...

2 comments:

Claudia said...

I love the hat, you definitly should were it. We saw Monsters vs. Aliens this weekend but unfortunately that theater wasn't 3-D despite the listing saying so. It was still good though. I am definitly going to check out that book, sounds like a great read.

TLC said...

That was all very entertaining, and I enjoyed reading it! You have much to blog about :) That hat is really cool, and who ever said mittens need to match..??