Inspiration

Inspiration comes in all forms. For me, it comes in the form of an ugly, 70's-inspired, Red Heart acrylic, well-used, and well-loved afghan.

Although my mom will argue that it's not "ugly" due to her love of all colors autumnal, it's hard to deny that a orange, gold, yellow, and green zig zag afghan is not that pretty. However, this afghan is one of those items that makes home what it is. Given to my parents as a wedding present from a group of elderly ladies at the St. Louis Central Church, this afghan has been through a lot.

It kept sick kids warm as they huddled on the couch with a large mixing bowl for company.

It ended up in a snow drift one night after Dad unceremoniously dumped Jacque over the porch railing outside after she stole his spot on the couch.

Kids snuggled under it as they listened to familiar Uncle Arthur's stories at worship.

It probably has fruit stains on it somewhere from when I would stretch out and read a book, accompanied by a bowl of frozen blueberries or apples.

In short, this afghan represents what every home should have - comfort, humor, and love.

Thus, I have taken it upon myself to create "ugly" afghans for my friends as wedding presents. After dealing with two indecisive sisters regarding desired colors, these afghans are now done in their respective wedding colors. Although only two have been finished by the actual wedding date, so far eight afghans have come from my hook with another one currently in progress. I guess my sappy self dreams that, with an ugly afghan, a home is complete and will be filled with all that it has brought for me - comfort, humor, and love.

How many digits can you name?

March 14 was Pi Day, and as such, I decided that it would be appropriate for me to bake a pie. Armed with my mom's copy of Joy of Cooking (must buy me a copy of that some day) and a quart of her frozen raspberries from last summer, I tackled the project. I also included one mango for some extra jazz. It turned out rather nice, don't you think?



I managed to make it back to Union with another quart of raspberries, although they have a different form. While they started out frozen in Idaho, due to an unexpected overnight layover in Denver and a Double Tree hotel with no fridge or freezer, it was a somewhat dubious TSA agent that let me through security Monday morning with a rather juicy bag of raspberries. And I quote: "They're so liquidy...."

Idaho

Although United's handling of their flights does not fall into this category, many items fill the list of reasons why I love Idaho. As I fill in the hours waiting for my flight, permit me to list a few of those here (in no particular order) as noted during Spring Break.

1) The Boise airport offers free wifi courtesy of University of Idaho; this is particularly nice as it allows me to write posts and amuse myself while waiting for late flights.

2) My parents live here. Although my week wasn't chock full of activities and goings-on, it was still nice to chill at home with the parents, knowing that all was right in my corner of the world.

3) Where else does a state trooper pass you on the freeway, on the right, when you yourself are already over the speed limit? Enough said.

4) The first official day of spring actually FEELS like spring, which is more than I can say for the "lovely" state of Nebraska where it snowed Saturday.

5) Somewhat related to the previous item, a person can take a blanket, a couple pillows, and a good book outside to the backyard in March and relax all afternoon without fear of frostbite, soggy grass, or snowmen-not that I'm normally afraid of snowmen, it just kinda typed itself. :)

6) Although I didn't have the funds to do it myself, Idaho presents the opportunity of skiing or snowboarding during Spring Break.

7) Small churches are established here where they don't mind if two slightly out-of-tune clarinets and one French horn stumble through the hymns Sabbath morning during congregational singing. Also, the greeter (whose name I didn't know) remembered me from Christmas and asked if I had brought my flute along (sadly I had forgotten this Sabbath).

8) Cheap, two-dollar theater still exist instead of being torn down to provide more parking space.

9) Boise is home to the Northwest's most challenging half-marathon: Race to Robie Creek.

10) Residents have multiple reasons to own four-wheel drive pickup trucks.

11) On my flight in, I sat next to the chief-of-staff for Senator Risch, who not only chatted politely with me about my future plans, but also expressed genuine interest in my knitting and asked me to show him, slowly, how I do it.

And eleven seems like a good number to end with; after all, it's prime.

I Know an Old Lady...

Here's a little ditty written during Abstract Algebra. Even us math majors become bored at times. The meter might be a tad off at times, but I think it still works.

I know an old lady who took MATH 351.
I don't know why she took MATH 351, perhaps for fun.

I know an old lady who tried some proofs
That mocked and sneered and made her feel like a doof.
She did some proofs because she took MATH 351.
I don't know why she took MATH 351, perhaps for fun.

I know an old lady who blew a fuse.
She blew a fuse? Yep, 'cause she was confused.
She blew a fuse because she did some proofs
That mocked and sneered and made her feel like a doof.
She did some proofs because she took MATH 351.
I don't know why she took MATH 351, perhaps for fun.

... or a Woman

Here's a poem brought to my attention by today's Sabbath School lesson on self-control. Me thinks I like it.

If by Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!

Good Things Come in Threes

The Knitting Olympics were successful! Although I'm not sure that I quite followed the rules on "challenging enough," I did indeed finish my scarf within the time-limits. Admist pressure to instead work on my senior education portfolio due the next day, I finished the last eight inches of the scarf and cast off on sunday afternoon. The second half of Prairie Home Companion and Thistle and Shamrock accompanied me as my fingers flurried to the finish. I would have preferred to finish while watching the USA/Canada hockey game, but alas, we do not have a TV in the apartment and Jenne never got me her cable info.



The scarf measures in around five feet long and used approximately half a skein of cream while barely denting the skeins of the six colors used for cables. Although it wasn't quite the challenge I expected to do color cables, it was a challenge to finish during the two weeks of the Olympics. Having a portfolio due the next day as well as the project not being transportable with me to the Student Center to watch said Olympics greatly reduced the amount of time available to work on the scarf. So do cooking up yumminess like this red curry:



Recipe is a knock-off of a friends; basically I can't quite remember how she made hers, but mine tastes yummy and that's what truly matters, right? Ingredients are as follows:

1 onion
3 cloves garlic
2 cans diced tomatoes
to taste:
curry powder
coriander
cumin
tumeric
salt

And just what does this yumminess fuel? Well, it fuels my feet as I run in what I now dub my new best friends.



And I'm taking it as a good omen that after my first run in my brand, spankin' new shoes that the distance registered on the treadmill was 3.14 miles. :D

Day 1 aka Day 3

Sadly, I wasn't able to cast on for my cast during the opening ceremonies. However, I did cast on while watching the opening ceremonies two days later.


Here's the first inch of my Persephone scarf. Figuring out how to work the color changes was a bit fiddly at first but now I'm cruising along. Although I haven't taken any more pictures since Sunday, I now have about a foot of scarf. Here's the back of the scarf as well as the pretty line up of yarn skeins. Since I'm a poor college student, I'm using I Love that Yarn from HobbyLobby.



Let's see if I can stay focused...

Running, Knitting, Baking: A Kaleidoscope of Verbs

Although I hate coming upon blogs that begin with these words, here they are anyway: "It's been a long time..."

I have decided to give the blog another try, but this time with a new direction. The blog was originally created with the intent of documenting my travels throughout Spain and Europe during my year of studying abroad. Now I'm back at Union College in NE and finishing up my college career. In an attempt to keep myself accountable, I intend on keeping track of my progress in the following three areas: running, knitting, and baking. Here's why:

1) Running: I've decided that I'm going to take on the challenge of competing in Lincoln's half-marathon on May 1. Even if no one reads this blog, I hope to keep track of hope much I run each week between now and then right here.

2) Knitting: I've also recently decided to join up with the Knitting Olympics, both the Harlot-sponsored ones and the Ravelympics (via Team uKNITversity). This blog will be a great spot to keep track of my progress and see how it all turns out. I'll be casting on tomorrow night during the opening ceremonies for a multi-colored cabled scarf based on the pattern from Smariek's Persephone Mitts.

3) Baking (and cooking too I suppose): I've been experimenting in the kitchen recently (I'm starting to get sick of that word), and I've decided that I should share the yumminess with whoever might happen to drop by. So I'll be posting pictures and commentary regarding how recipes do, or don't, turn out.

Here's to diverse verbage! :)