Triduum

Today is Holy Thursday, the start of the Sacred Paschal Triduum. I find that there is something extremely peaceful and relaxing about a weekend of going to church. The pinnacle of the liturgical year for Catholics, the events celebrated during Triduum represent our faith.

This year, my husband and I will be celebrating Triduum in our own fashion, separate from both of our families, at least for a time. I have an appointment this afternoon (half day of school) so we will not be able to attend the Chrism Mass, but we have plans to attend the celebration of the Lord's Supper. (We are still searching for a parish where we both are comfortable, so the location is TBA.) Tomorrow, E works, so I'm looking for someone to go to noon services with me. I don't really require companionship to church, but for the last 4 or 5 years, I've been attending Good Friday services with my mom and little sister, so the abrupt change to going by myself this year will be difficult. E did get both Saturday and Sunday off this weekend, so Saturday we plan on attending the Easter Vigil, with Sunday being a day of traveling to celebrate with my family. Of all the holidays, Easter is the one that both families celebrate on the day of, so E and I have to make decisions. We turned down his brother's celebration since we went there last year. My sister's birthday and my goddaughter's birthday also fall during Triduum, so we are including those celebrations on Sunday.

I'm really looking forward to the extra days off of school (Friday and Monday) even though they won't be as relaxing as Spring Break. A little rest is always needed.

Socks and Needles and Birthdays

This week, I actually have more of a variety, as I am trying new things to make the best use of my stash. Confession: I love sock yarns. They come in such a wide range of colors, are nearly always machine wash and dry, and the skeins come in a size perfect for a quick project. Problem: I don't knit socks. I mainly crochet shawls and scarves, with a tiny bit of knitting thrown into the mix. So this new project is a bit out of my zone of comfort. I've started the Sock Yarn Blankie. So far, I'm going no where near the speed that the designer, Shelly Kang, says she went (20- 30 minutes per square), but I'm finding a small, extremely portable project something I need right now. And there is the more instant gratification part of the project too. I can knit one small square and still feel mostly accomplished.  

My selection of sock yarns at 6 am.

I'm not neglecting the crocheting front in any way, I'm just at the awkward, non-portable point of my current hooking project. My sister's birthday gift needs to be finished before the weekend, and I'm hoping to finish tonight after I get out of work. I'm really loving the Stroll for this project- extremely squishable! (See also-- I'm using sock yarn for crocheting. Again!) And the color really fits the name of the shawl- Shallow Waters. This really is one of my favorite shawl patterns- a soothing repetitive pattern, with excitement at the end with the border. My sister is more petite than I am, so I'm thinking only one or two more rows before moving on to the border. She will definitely wear this as a scarf too, so I dont need to worry about making it bigger for shawl purposes. 

A nearly completed gift

My younger sister's birthday is tomorrow, but due to drive time, work, appointments, and Holy Week services, I am not going to see her until Easter Sunday. Even though I hope to finish tonight, I do have a bit more wiggle room with this project. 

I'm still reading the Scott Hahn book from last week, as it is written to be read in bite-sized chunks. There is still the hope that I can find a good novel to read, but it would probably be better if I wait until summer.

On the moving front, my husband installed the new gas stove this weekend, so we are nearly at the point where the new apartment is livable. Also, all the old, junky, left-behind furniture has been removed, so we can really start to move in as we want to. The next few months will definitely be a time of slowly transferring the winter clothes, the unused books, and similar things out of our old apartment and into the new one. I will be grateful to be out of the old one, especially since we have a deadline (the lease expiring) for this move. Any later moves will be as gradual as the first-- slowly moving things to a new place (hopefully, God-willing, a new home) from the current place. 

Yarn-Along

WIP Wednesday

Exploring Wednesday

A Shawl, A Book, and a Scarf.

I'm exploring a number of things this week. First, I'm adventuring into new book territory- theology!! The book is Signs of Life, by Scott Hahn. Before my marriage, I read a book by Kimberly Hahn, which I really enjoyed, so I'm hoping her husband is as skillful a writer as she is. Even though I'm nearly done with my stint as a religion teacher, I'm hoping that this book will give me some insight into the material I'm teaching, just on the off chance I teach it again. 

My second adventure this week is another self-designed pattern. I couldn't find was I was looking for in a rectangular stole pattern, especially something crocheted, so I am totally winging it. The heart motif is from a scarf I made for my sister a month or two back. During the crocheting of that scarf, I toyed with the thought of adjusting it, but felt that adjusting in the middle of a piece would look funny. So here's the start of the results. The yarn is Knit Picks Gossamer Lace, in colorway Sunrise. It is a discontinued line, but I find it very similar to Shadow Lace, except in the coloring. As I watch it develop, I've been brainstorming ways to make the FO more versatile, and I think this may be an experimental FO dye-job. I really love the colors, but the blue seems to pop out too much for my tastes. However, I am open to opinions and suggestions. :-)

Third in my adventuring is a previously used pattern with a new type of yarn. Shallow Waters, by Anastacia Zittel, is perhaps my most worn scarf/shawlette. When I first crocheted it, I used Shadow Lace in colorway Summer Blooms. My subsequent attempts have been in Felici, but the striping always seems to turn out funny. This attempt is in Stroll Fingering, colorway Blue Topaz. The plan is to have it done before next week, as it is meant to be a birthday gift for my sister. However, because I know myself really well, I did buy a back-up gift, just in case.  

I'm still contemplating baby items to make, though I do have a few on my list. Large (or what seems like large to me) quantities of Bare Wool of the Andes in Worsted and Bulky weights seem to be hiding out in my stash. Those skeins might get some experimental color so I can get started on a few of my projects. If only there was such a thing as a weekend for teachers...

WIP Wednesday

Yarn-Along

A Mostly Relaxing Wednesday

Multiple things in progress this week, especially since I am on spring break!

I'm hoping to use both of these yarns (and eat all the pretzels!) and get their projects started tonight. I've been hunting for the right pattern for my laceweight for a few days now. My hands are itching to start another project. The yellow bit is for a hat that needs a flower. So tonight it shall get a pretty yellow fluffy flower. My husband was giving me a list of color suggestions when I asked, most of them were just him goofing off, but when he called out yellow, and I knew I had yellow, etc, it worked out. He can be such a goof with colors, and usually is the one asking me for matching/color advice. And most times when I ask for color advice, I'm just looking for someone to give me a list of colors, and hope that eventually they will hit on the color I have in my head but can't verbalize.  

The moving and painting process is going well this week, though mostly it's been painting. Today we did a lot of moving of furniture, etc. Husband's siblings may be claiming some of the furniture, so we're hoping to begin moving more of ours in over the next few weeks. 

Itty bitty baby bump. Nearly 20 weeks now, and we had our first ultrasound. Fortunately for us, we picked the right color for the baby's room!!! (It was going to be blue no matter what, but we thought it was funny) So now I get to hunt for baby boy patterns! Any suggestions? There are so many cute girl things, but I find its more difficult to find boy things. So I will definitely need help. We have some friends who were team blue as soon as we found out we were pregnant, and we told them straight away. Todd has predicted gender correctly for the last 3 of his friends, so he was quite excited to know he was 4 for 4.

So, baby in progress :) I hope everyone has a Wednesday that was as exciting as ours :)

WIP Wednesday
Yarn-Along

Finishing Friday

Blue or pink? Any guesses?

I didn't quite finish my projects this morning, but I'm hoping by this evening to be finished with my chunky blue scarf. The other is a button cowl in a pale pink, just waiting for buttons. 

For those who caught my post yesterday, the lack of fanfare was not due to lack of excitement, but rather to 'I don't know how to proceed with this' in a sense. Work does not always leave room to get excited, but I have found some patterns to try- this sweet pinafore, this knit baby tunic, this knit blanket, another cute pinafore style dress, and this hoodie.

Once summer vacation hits, or maybe even as soon as spring break, I will start to get excited :)

FO Friday @ Tami's Amis!

Moving again- a much needed update

After prayer, discussion, and a very clear answer to our 'laying out the fleece', we are halting our house search and switching apartments.
In order for this to all make sense, you'll need to see a layout of my life since last May, in the simplest terms possible.

May
- College Graduation- the job search begins
July
- interview for two possible jobs, neither of them what I expected.
- offered two possible jobs
- take the full time teaching position, even though it was not what I had planned- not my subject, and further away from home than I had hoped, split between middle school and high school... the list goes on
August
- finish moving into new apartment (ish)
- got married
- left my hometown, my home, my family to my husband, in his town.
- honeymoon
- start teaching the day after we got back from our honeymoon
October
- husband takes volunteer fire department job on top of his other job
- my schools announce that the middle school is moving into the high school building for the next school year. My job goes from fairly secure to completely unknown.
December
- plans continue for school consolidation, everyone's job is still in murky territory
- we decide to start looking at houses
January
- we find out we're pregnant
- job looks slightly more secure- one of the principals really likes me as a teacher and person
- approved for a home loan
February
- the house we really liked came back on the market. We went through some informal inspections, etc, and put in an offer
- my in-laws kicked the tenant out of their upstairs apartment
March
- our offer on the house was completely refused- they had gotten a way better offer from someone else.
- we talk about husband going back to school in the fall for another (better) certification
- in-laws offer/we ask about the upstairs apartment.

We've decided to move into the apartment at my in-laws' house, which will be a huge change. However, we do feel that God is putting us in this place, and that we are working with his will. So cleaning and painting has commenced. And as soon as the last of the furniture is removed (stuff from previous tenants, etc) we will begin moving our own things slowly over. This, fortunately, will be a more relaxed move than we had planned on, simply because we are able to move as we feel like it is necessary. Things in our current apartment that aren't being used will get moved as we clean and paint.

All the changes can be both exciting and scary, but still so good. I'm getting ready for June, and the chaos that is all the time post spring break and the end of school.
As much as I loved my library job, I love my teaching job more. It's pretty typical for people to insult teachers, saying that they get the easy job, with summer vacation built in, but I'm pretty sure all those people would feel burnt out if they didn't get a vacation from the madness of pre-adolescents.

WIP Wendesday: End of March

Despite my inconsistency in posting, my reading has been steady, but really slow. The same can be said of my knitting and crocheting. Life has just been happening. Spring Break is next week for me, though, so I hope to get a few life updates posted, as well as yarn & books :)

The book came recommended to me, and seeing as I really enjoyed my last recommended read (My Sisters the Saint) I thought I'd give it a try. Not much to report on it today, as I've barely made it past the first 50 pages. I can say that it is a riveting story of a small town preacher trying to save the desolate street gangs of New York City. Originally, I thought it was a more recent occurrence, but this was written in the early 60s, about the 50s. It talks a lot about relying on God, no matter the circumstances, which is really hitting home with me. 

My crochet project is a chunky scarf. I bought this yarn from a co-worker, who got a great deal on it, but it wasn't what she thought it was-- super bulky single ply wool. Naturgarn is definitely interesting to work with, and not my first choice of fiber, ply, etc, but I hate passing up a good deal. So bulky scarves! They would've been perfect for this past winter, but I figured it doesn't hurt to plan ahead for next. The pattern is my own, double crochet, with some crossed stitches thrown in. As you can see, I just started, so nothing much to look at. 

In regards to the weather--- I'm ready for it to stop. It feels like this winter has been perpetually cold, and I've had a near constant chill. The weekend promises 50 or 60 degree weather, and I'm really hoping I can get out and enjoy some of it. 

WIP Wednesday

Yarn Along