Time is flying by

Even though it doesn't seem like I've done very many things this past week, the time has been flying by. I've been working on my mom's afghan (which is progressing even faster than I anticipated) and I've been trying to read through my stack of magazines that have been piling up for about four months. The magazines are piling up because when I'm reading a good book, I tend to focus on the book rather than other reading.

Right now, I'm in the middle of Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States. It is an amazing book, telling the history of the U.S. from the perspective of those people whose story is less told. An example is telling the story of slavery from the perspective of the Africans who were torn from their homes. European settlers to America couldn't tame the Native Americans, so shipping people across the Atlantic and throwing them in a completely different world seemed like the best idea to them.

It is books like this one that makes me think back to my high school education and how in history class, we heard about the great things that the European settlers did without dwelling on the terrible things. History class seemed like it was trying to envoke pride in us for our country rather than telling of the country's complicated past. This is not true of all high schools I'm sure, but I only had a few teachers who truly challenged us to think outside the box. My experience did set me up to discover the other side of the story on my own though and in my own time.

In addition to reading, I am starting to get very excited for our trip to the Pacific Northwest! We are flying out the night of July 3. I have never been that far West - it will be beautiful! I am already trying to think about what I want to take along with me (meaning books and knitting/crocheting because those are the things that I really need to plan). I am afraid to take along knitting needles because I've heard that security sometimes takes them away. So, I've been trying to find a smaller crochet project to work on. In looking through the two crochet books that I have and my varied yarn selection, I think I'm going to make a baby blanket for no one in particular. It will be stereotypical boyish colors, so if any of you are having a baby boy soon, I'm getting started on your gift early!

I'm looking foward to getting away from work for a while. It has been slow and honestly kind of boring lately. The pace will pick up in a couple of weeks, but at the moment, it's painfully slow. So goes.

Sew those blocks!

I accomplished my goal for the weekend already: I got all of the yarn tails sewn in the blocks and laid the blocks out to figure out the best way to integrate the old yarn with the new. The reason I had to lay it out is because the brown yarn I'm using is a darker brown than what my mom used, and the green is a brighter green compared to the olive shade my mom used. I wanted to make sure I laid out the squares in such a way that it didn't make those differences stand out.

After putting all of the squares in neat piles, I began the next process: sewing all of the blocks together. This is going to take some time. I first am sewing nine square long strips that I will then join together. I'm looking forward to being done with this process already because I definitely prefer crocheting to sewing (the same with knitting). I'm sure that most knitters feel the same way. So what I'm really saying is that I hope you appreciate this throw Mom!

In all honesty, I'm quite happy that Mom had this project sitting in the closet because it was a great motivator to learn how to crochet, and to make something spectacular on my first go. It is time I put up a picture of the project so that all of you can marvel at the '70s-ness of it (girl not included):

Squares complete (well almost)

I got all of the squares crocheted. Now I have to fasten off all then ends, and then start sewing them together. This will definitely be interesting. All I can say is that this is going to be one big throw! I will start posting pictures when I get some squares sewn together.

One more day of training, and then it's back to the real world on Monday (boo). I am hoping to do a lot of sitting outside and working on the throw this weekend.

Training and Crocheting

This week I'm in training for our new budgeting software. It's directly south of MOA which makes for fairly easy access. I'm driving all this week - bad I know.

The training has allowed me to work on my mom's afghan - the small squares are easy to transport and work on during breaks. Plus, the pattern for these are very simple, so I don't have to worry about carrying along the instructions. I bought all of the yarn I think I need on Monday. I tried my best to match the yarn colors, but, not surprisingly, the colors aren't perfect (close enough though). The only color that seemed to match almost perfectly was the orange. Good thing too since most of the border is orange!

I only have 12 more squares to do, which will go quickly. I'm excited to lay everything out this weekend so I can figure out how to best blend the different colors. Before that, I need to tie off all those yarn tails, then comes sewing all of those squares together. This is certainly a big (and enjoyable) project!

Attack of the Happy Hooker

I finally broke into the world of crochet. I inherited an afghan my mom started a few decades ago giving her the hope that it would be finished in time for her to enjoy it and for the colors to be fashionable again. Until this point, I had several knitting projects that I wanted to work on, and the crochet hook felt too foreign. But now that I've knitted most of the things that I've wanted and am thinking about knitting clothes (meaning new yarn), I decided it's time to use some the yarn I purchased specifically for crochet projects.

I crocheted my first swatch tonight. After several false starts, I finally mastered the single. Perhaps tomorrow I will try some other stitches. I have to admit that it took a long time to feel comfortable with the yarn on my left hand. Such a different technique!

I hope to start work on my mom's afghan as soon as I figure out the necessary stitches. Maybe I'm setting myself up for too much pressure (that's a hint not to ask how it's going Mom...hee hee). Wish me luck!

Buying new bricks SUCK

The cord to my AC adapter for my laptop has been messed up for some time. I put off getting a new one because I really didn't want to deal with it. Finally I broke down and did something stupid: I bought one off eBay because it was a lot less expensive than buying it directly from Toshiba.

Guess what: the brick (Chris's and everyone else's terminology for an AC adapter for a laptop) is already messed up. One of the cords is loose, forcing me and Chris to do the same thing as before which was constantly wiggling the cord until we saw the orange light. So I said f#$% it and decided to buy the one directly from Toshiba after wasting how much on the other one. Did I learn a lesson? I think so.

I'm going to be pretty upset if this laptop dies in the next year...

Summer haircut

After attempting to cut my hair myself, I decided to go into The Hair Terrace. It's a place in Blaine where a woman has a small room off the side of her house that she does hair out of. Barb is an absolutely incredible hairdresser and I highly recommend her to anyone that is willing to drive there. I went in tonight only knowing that I wanted my hair shorter, and she did the rest: