Current Crochet

Here is the afghan that I finished crocheting for my mom. It turned out to be more of a lap afghan, than a full-size blanket, but that's ok. I loved the colors in this pattern - claret, burgundy, and carrot. The warm, autumn colors really made me think of my mom for some reason.

I am now working on a cardigan from a book that I just bought called Blue Print Crochet. Instead of the typical written patterns (ch 6, join, ch 3, 8dc, join with sl st in first ch) it shows a diagram, with symbols that actually resemble the stitches. It took a little bit to get used to, but I actually think it is a much easier way to read a crochet pattern. And the patterns themselves are wonderful. Usually crochet patterns are kind of chunky and dowdy - knitting patterns generally fare better. But these patterns, which are mainly sweaters are gorgeous - delicate and detailed, and, best of all, it looks like a small is actually a small - so no adjusting the size. I am making the Renee Shawl Cardigan in a fabulous bamboo yarn in an aqua color called Ocean Spray. I will post pics when it is done, which shouldn't be too long.

After this, I will either be making a few Christmas gifts, or working on an afghan for the niece or nephew - I found a great pattern with lots of colors in a chunky yarn.

Anyone Remember Thanksgiving?

I love holidays. Almost any holiday. I love decorating and celebrating and cooking. I love Halloween - orange and black and pumpkins and trick-or-treaters and scary movies and candy. And I love Christmas - as I get older I'm definitely trying to eliminate alot of the presents, commercialism, etc. part of it and focus on the hope that this season represents. But there is another holiday between the two. It is called Thanksgiving. And I can't understand why everyone (and by everyone I think I mean major stores) want to skip straight from Halloween to Christmas. I went by Target yesterday and there were white snowflake decals decorating the front doors and a sign saying Merry Christmas. Lowe's already has Christmas trees on display, and at a hardware/produce store in my home time, they already have live trees out for sale. Commercials on TV are already urging people to put their holiday shopping items on layaway. I like holidays. But in the proper order. Thanksgiving is important. To me, anyway. To the marketplace, apparently, it's a minor blip, since there's not really a big push to buy things. I suppose that in order to maintain the proper holiday spirit, I need to stay out of the stores, and turn off the TV. Probably not a bad idea.

I Passed!

I did my orals on Monday. That is possibly the most intense hour and a half I have ever spent. There were definitely some rough points - especially the poets and some questions about my "methodology of history" - I think I babbled for five minutes about "um, the rise of the middle class, and the rise of the novel, you know, intertwined, and um, the middle class, yeah." But towards the end I talked about specific novels and some things I want to do for my dissertation, and I felt much better. And I passed! It was a much bigger relief to have this part done, even more so than when I finished writtens. It is done! I can now move on with my life. Which means the dissertation. Hopefully I'll have a nice draft of the prospectus before too long.

Youth Doing Good Things

Make a Difference Day was a big success! We had five youth to participate, and those kids worked hard! We made forty lunches with eighty sandwiches and then delivered them around our town. I was really impressed with how well the kids worked - we gave each one a job and they did great. They were really excited about it, shouting that they wanted to do this again - a really encouraging revelation since it had kind of felt like pulling teeth to get them to do any service work in the first place. I hope that the next event we do will attract even more of our youth.

Pumpkins!

Our pumpkins this year. I saw a picture in a magazine and decided to try etching pumpkins instead of carving this year. It took me a while to find the right tool, but I ended up using an Excel knife gouge found at Hobby Lobby for $3. It took a long time to do, but I think it turned out all right.

Trunk or Treat

I have given the whole "should Christians celebrate Halloween" thing a good bit of thought. I can see arguments from both sides. I think that an article from Christianity Today (http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/article_print.html?id=16017) sums it up nicely, and I agree with the author's conclusion - Halloween is what you make it, and I think we should make it about fun, candy, and costumes. There's nothing wrong with spooky stuff, as long as we keep it in the proper perspective - it's funny. Anyway, all of that to introduce our Trunk or Treat night at church last night. Husband and I love having trick or treaters on Halloween, and this year, the church decided to have a Trunk or Treat night, where grown ups decorate their trunks and give out candy to kids in the parking lot. It was a great deal of fun. Husand and I dressed up in costumes ourselves. He wore an apron and rubber gloves and went as a good husband, and I wore rock climbing gear and went as a good wife. Husband also got a big kick out of hiding in the backseat of the car, with the seats unlatched from the back. When kids would stick their hands in the candy bowl he would stick out his hand, seemingly out of nowhere, and grab at the kids (the bigger kids, of course, we didn't want to scare any little ones). It was a great time. I am glad our church has continued our third-Sunday family fun nights, even though we have a pastor again, and I am glad that we were able to incorporate holiday fun into our fellowship night.

Birthday Meal

Husband's birthday was Tuesday, so I wanted to make something extra-special. I have never made steak before, so I decided I would try that. My parents always cook steak on the gas grill - an item that I don't have. I do have a George Foreman-style indoor grill. At the food co-op, I found local, grass-fed filet mignon. I followed Martha Stewart's directions - let the steaks rest at room temperature an hour before grilling, brush the grill with cooking oil, season steaks generously with sea salt and fresh ground pepper. I left them far more rare than I usually eat steak - medium well. These were probably more like medium or even medium rare. And delicious. I topped it with thyme compound butter, and finished the meal with roasted thyme potatoes and pear-walnut-cranberry-feta salad. French silk pie served for dessert. Yummy. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and it wasn't even my birthday.