learning to knit

Last night I finally was able to sit down with Jon and teach him how to knit (along with the aid of knittinghelp.com). I knew he would catch on quickly, but even he surprised me with how fast he picked it up. About an hour into his lesson, he was searching for techniques to increase speed. He finished about 8 inches of a scarf in three hours. He'll be making sweaters like Jared Flood in no time.

Of course, the cats were slowing him down a bit. Now he understands how hard it is for me to knit when the cats are chasing after my yarn and sitting on my projects! 

wips

My crafting time has been a bit diminished lately, but I am still trying to fit in a few projects here and there. I'm especially enjoying all of the extra knitting time I have between the presidential debates, class lectures and new episodes of The Office.

Size 7 needles seem to be in high demand lately, so I had to finish up this ballband dishcloth that's been on the needles since August...

I finished strip 1 out of 8 for my zig afghan and now I'm moving along to strip two. Oddly enough the maroon/gold strip are the colors of my undergrad school and the green/yellow are the colors of my grad school. I definitely didn't plan that, or maybe I did subconsciously...

I received this delightful bunch of vintage fat quarters from the sheet swap that I participated in last month. I'm thinking about making a stacked coin quilt (as seen in Last Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts) and finally trying out the diagonal crossed quilting that Jacquie does so well.

I can't start on a new project until I finished this plain spoken quilt that has been taunting me for months. I got a little start on the quilting part of it last month and am hoping to carve out some time to finish it soon! I'm attempting to do a version of the free motion quilting from the sample shown in the book (Modern Quilt Workshop).

Toledo Zoo

Jon and I took a little road trip to the Toledo Zoo on Saturday. I got to tour the library with a student group from my school and Jon and I got to spend lots of time enjoying the antics of crazy zoo animals.

While we were in the South American rain forest exhibit I noticed a sign that said "Sloth" and asked Jon where it was. We both looked up toward the ceiling and this guy was about 5 feet from our heads. We both let out fairly large gasps. It's not too often that a sloth makes you jump!

Sigur Rós

Jon and I saw one of our favorite bands, Sigur Rós, perform at the Fillmore Detroit on Tuesday night. It was an emotional evening, both because of the great depth Sigur Rós portrays in its music and because their music reminds me of so many events and milestones that Jon and I have gone through these past five years.

I loved their finale of Gobbledigook, complete with a drum line and confetti. This picture definitely doesn't do it justice.

One day, we hope to travel to Iceland to see them perform live. One day...

Soup Swap: White Chicken Chili

Many thanks to Jessica of Turkey Cookies for hosting an autumn soup swap. I took her queue a few weeks ago to start making big batches of soup and freezing for work lunches and it's worked out great for us so far. It's so nice to have the variety each day rather than eating leftovers of one type of soup for an entire week! And it's nice to not have to think about what's for lunch (or dinner) during the week now that we're so busy in the evenings and running around to different events and classes.

I first sampled this recipe three years ago at my friend, Linda's, annual chili party. I'd never tried white chili before and I officially became addicted to this stuff. The recipe is super easy to make and can feed Jon and I for about a week. I'm sure it makes at least 12 servings.

Linda's White Chicken Chili

47.6 oz.Great Northern White Beans (undrained)
6 cooked/chopped chicken breast
1 extra large onion chopped
4 garlic cloves minced
8oz can green chilis
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp cayenne pepper
6 cups chicken broth (1 large can)
1 block Monterrey Jack cheese

1. Boil chicken breast until cooked. Cut into bite-sized pieces
2. Saute onion, garlic, chilis, cumin, oregano, cayenne pepper for 15 minutes.
3. In large stock pot, add beans and chicken broth. Bring to a boil and add sauteed ingredients.
4. Add Monterrey Jack cheese to boiling soup before serving. Take off burner so cheese doesn't burn on bottom. Be careful of burning if you reheat the chili.

And, here are a couple other chili recipes that we've been enjoying around our house, thanks to Rachael Ray:

Buffalo Chicken Chili
Creamy Chicken Apple Chili

knitting projects

I finished up the Twilight Saga this afternoon (finally!) and now I can get back to real life...

I bought some yarn a few weeks ago at an LYS 20% off sale so now I've got two projects in my queue.

1. Habitat, hat pattern by Jared Flood of brooklyntweed

For this pattern, I purchased two skeins of the softest, hand-dyed (50% Merino Wool/50% wool) from Louisa Harding: Grace Hand-dyed

2. February Lady Sweater from Flintknits (making this along with just about everyone in blog land, right?)

And for this sweater I picked up 14 skeins of Mission Falls 1824 Wool in Pistachio. It's a 100% superwash merino, so hopefully it won't be too scratchy.

I want to make a bigger dent on my zig afghan before I start another project, so I've been busily knitting away on this strip over the past few weeks. Before I started the pattern, I hadn't realized that it's basically just knitting up 8 bias knit scarves and sewing them together into an afghan. Scarves are not really my thing anymore because I get so bored with them, so hopefully I won't run out of steam on this project!

And I'll leave you with a few happy pictures from our house this afternoon:

The cats napping (almost) in harmony

and more zinnias from the garden

Did I Expect Angels?

Did I Expect Angels?

I was excited when Trish from TLC Book Tours asked me to read and review Did I Expect Angels? I’m always interested in checking out new authors and books, so I was happy to join in on the tour.

Did I Expect Angels?
by Kathryn Maughn
172 pp.

In this novel, Jennifer, a widow and mother of a young daughter, is on the verge of suicide. While she‚Äôs out buying pills to end her life, she meets her angel, Henry, and he shares his story of grief with her. The novel switches between Jennifer‚Äôs personal perspective and Henry‚Äôs story to show how events in their lives are parallel. 

This was a touching and moving novel. The characters were extremely well developed, which made it very easy, yet emotionally difficult, to relate with their life events. Maughan’s descriptions are incredibly realistic and accurately portray emotions that surround depression and the grieving process. This book really delved deep into human emotions in an intense and powerful way.

One distracting point of the novel for me from a design standpoint was the italicized text used for Henry’s narrations. The italics weren’t necessary because it was obvious that they were switching back to his character and it made these sections more difficult to read. However, this is just a minor complaint about the book.

I would definitely recommend this book, especially if you have dealt with grief or depression before. While the book is a tear jerker, it teaches an invaluable lesson about reaching out to and uplifting friends or acquaintances when you see them going through difficult times. Jennifer was lucky to have two people in her life, Henry and her mother-in-law, who shared their stories of grief and how they overcame the depression in order to encourage her and show her a new alternative for coping with grief.