Felt Like Knitting

Savannah

This weekend we took a quick trip to Savannah to tour SCAD.  What an incredible school!  If you are the creative type, they have something there for you.  There are majors in fiber, sequential art (comic strips), architecture, graphic design, film and television, production design,...  SCAD has restored building all over town to house their classes and studios and that is very cool.  Examples:  They turned old hotel buildings into dorms.  An old junior high school now houses freshmen foundation classes.

We didn't have much time to tour Savannah itself and I'd like to go back again to see more.  Tybee Island is very close and the first thing we did when we got to town was drive out to the ocean.  Wouldn't it be hard to study, knowing you're only 30 minutes away from the ocean?!

              

                                    

Tybee Island

The Waving Girl Statue

Flannery O'Connor

 

 







 

February Simple Living Challenge - Pick 5!

I don't think I've mentioned this and I should have done it before now, but Knitty Gritty Thoughts is working on simplifying her life and encouraging others to do so, too.  She has been posting lots of links, book sources, etc. and it's really been helpful.  For February, she challenged her readers to pick five things to trash and five things to donate - each day in February!  While I haven't been doing it each day, I have been making progress.

And it's not nearly as painful as I thought and makes me feel better.  Here's what I got rid of today:

Trash

Sweat pants, mismatched socks, ratty shorts

Donate:

Two garbage bags of clothes, a little table, two large wooden shelves, hangers, a decoration, shoes, and purses

What can you trash or donate today?  Maybe we should race to see who can purge the most belongings.  :)

Shaking it off

  It's amazing how many more cherry blossoms there are after just a few days!

Today's Ten on Tuesday topic is a fun one but I don't have a list.  And yesterday was pretty much wasted so I don't have anything interesting to share.  I spent most of the day getting my car repaired (8AM - 1:30PM) then ran home and took Emma to the mall so she could visit with friends.  This was followed by a quick salad then a church council meeting.

But today I am going to shake all that off and get some serious work done.  (I especially have to shake off the car repair.  Toward the end it was not a good wait and the repairs were expensive with more promised at the next service.)  Monday is my day to do the laundry, clean out the fridge, make a grocery list and clip coupons, and get the trash gathered.  None of that happened yesterday aside from getting one load of laundry done.  Fortunately I don't usually schedule much for Tuesdays so I should be able to get caught up.

I can get a lot done each week when I am able to stick with the schedule I've developed.  (Sticking with it is often a problem!)  How do you divide out your chores and responsibilities?

 

We enjoyed beautiful weather this weekend and I hope you did, too!  It was nice to not have to wear a jacket.  On Saturday, Steve and Emma went on a college visit while I was in my knitting class.  (They visited a nearby college that I can check out anytime so I didn't feel like I missed a ton of stuff by not going.  I'm going on the next visit, though!)  Yesterday I spent the whole day at church:  worship, meetings, a trip to get dinner, back to the church for a class I'm taking.  It felt good to get home and change into comfy clothes!

The thing that most impacted me this weekend was a movie we watched on Friday called  Food, Inc.  What a convicting movie!  I haven't watched it before because I was afraid I wouldn't be able to eat again.  But instead of feeling anxious afterward, I feel educated and empowered.  For dinner last night, I bought some grassfed ground beef.  I plan to continue my education in healthy food purchasing and would love any input you can give me.

What was the best part of your weekend?

FO Friday - 1/2 pair of socks

Just finished binding off the first Coralicous sock today while waiting for my physical.  (Pretty good report, by the way.)  One down, one to go!

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Book Club and Berg

I've decided to join my neighborhood's book club.  When it was first started I had a time conflict and then I forgot it was going on.  But recently I saw something about it on Facebook and decided to jump in.  (Plus, last November someone was asking for directions to our house.  A neighbor knew who Steve and Emma were but not me.  Hmm... time to get a little more involved?)

This month's selection was Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger, the author of The Time Traveler's Wife.  I usually do not like ghost stories, but this book wasn't too creepy.  The premise is that two twins, Julia and Valentina, inherit a London flat (next to Highgate Cemetery) from their Aunt Elspeth, who was a twin to their mother, Edie.  There is some family secret that the girl's can't figure out and strange things are happening in their new home.

I liked the character development in this book.  It felt like I really got to know each person and cared about them.  The history of the book was interesting and when I get back to London, I'd like to visit the cemetery.  I wish I had looked at the cemetery's web site as I was reading the book.  It is much larger than I pictured.

Being a person who loves totally happy endings, the conclusion left me feeling a bit hollow.  Some characters' stories were wrapped up neatly but I would have preferred different endings for others.  However I suppose it ended the way it needed to.  Wish I could be less vague but I don't want to ruin it for you if you read it.  :)

When I picked up this book, I also checked out two books by Elizabeth Berg.  Talk Before Sleep is a story of two best friends, one who is dying from breast cancer.  Open House is about a woman who is discovering herself while going through a divorce.  Both were good books and yesterday I checked out two more by Berg. 

WIP Wednesday - Colchicaceae troubles

            

First, the good news - I did get half the garage cleaned up!  (Emma helped with the heavy stuff.)  Even though they aren't good, I'm sharing some before and after shots with you.  Steve was really surprised.  :)

Now the bad news...  Somehow I've gotten the purls wrong on Colchicaceae.  Instead of ripping it out, I'm going through each section with a crochet hook to get a balanced design.  It may not be exactly how it's designed but it will at least look okay.  I have to admit that I was pretty tempted to leave it like it was.  But I thought it would look even worse after blocking.  (Have you ever left something then regretted it?)  I blame Masterpiece 'cause that's what I was watching when I starting goofing up.  I think.  :)  What are you knitting this week?

 

Ten on Tuesday - 10 Favorite Non-Knitting Blogs

I don't currently read too many non-knitting blogs, but I just happen to have exactly ten on my reader.

Craft Apple - Sewing blog.  Lovely sewing patterns!

Nesting Place - Decorating blog.  Beautiful colors - her house looks so peaceful.

Something Woven This Way Comes - My friend who used to live here switched to weaving when she moved.  I always tell her that it's like she's speaking a foreign language when she talks about weaving.

Suburban Tree Hugger - My friend Reesa has her own Internet business featuring cloth diapers and environmentally friendly baby products.

The Unsinkable Molly - One of Emma's teachers from a few years ago has become my friend.  And she blogs!

Transformers Robotics - The robotics team's blog.

Culinary Memoirs of a Soulful College Girl - Mary's daugher's cooking blog.

Geninne's Art Blog - Recently found this somehow and I really like the artwork.

Mama the Reader - One of my previous knitting students blogs, too.  While she does sometime have knitting on there, it is a blog of her life.  She has some great recipes on there, too!

Tartlet, Tartlet, Tartlet - A cooking blog by Mary and her two daughters.

There you have it!  To participate, check out Carole's blog.

 

 

 

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!  Just a quick post today because I have a special gift to prepare for Steve that needs lots of time and labor.  I don't think he reads my blog, so I'll tell you...  I bought him some candy and an iTunes card, but the big gift is that I'm going to clean out his side of the garage today.  That will definitely take me all day long and will definitely make him very happy!  And I plan to make a special dinner tonight for the three of us: Spicy Orange Beef with Vegetables from the Weight Watchers Take Out Tonight cookbook and Strawberry Shortcake Kabobs.  It will be special because we will all be together.  Some weeks that doesn't happen much!

On Thursday night Steve and Emma went to the annual Father Daughter Dance at the church that has her school.  They always have a good time and it's fun to hear their review of the event.  On Friday one of my guitar students gave me some Hershey's Kisses and I've been trying to eat them sparingly.  :)  Saturday evening Steve and I went to our church's Valentine's Dinner that is hosted by the youth group.  So Emma worked and we ate and talked with friends.  That is always a fun night!  One of the best parts of the weekend was the 60 degree sunny weather we had yesterday!  Loved it.

I hope you have had a lovely celebration or that you will have fun today!  

 

FO Friday - Cedar Leaf Shawlette

I love, love, love this shawl!  It's the Cedar Leaf Shawlette by Alana Dakos of Never Not Knitting.  Short rows give it a crescent shape and the leaves are applied when the body of the shawl is done.  My favorite thing is the shape.  Crescent shaped shawls seem to be easier for me to wear.  The shawl I'm knitting now is crescent shaped and I have another shawl or two (Rav link) picked out to knit that are, too.

The yarn is Cash Iroha and it was on sale at my LYS.  I thought the color would look nice with my eyes and with jeans.  The last time I used this yarn, it got very fuzzy and almost kind of felted.  But the shawl will be more lightly used than my mitts are so I'm hoping for good results.

I want to knit this again with slightly thinner yarn or with smaller needles.  (Unfortunately, I didn't write down the needle size when I knit it in December.)  I'm happy with the size and look, but I wouldn't mind having one a little smaller and with a tighter gauge.

What have you knit lately that makes you happy?