Blogging by the Dozen

Knitting Commitment

By Adalia

Earlier today I was accused by a family member of not being committed to my knitting. Here is why.

This is the first fingerless glove I was working on. I quit a few days ago. But I had a good reason, the glove is wayyy to big. Big enough that my mom suggested I either try to felt it, or gain 30 pounds. Not only that, but when I counted my stitches, there was a big difference between my number, and the pattern. I haven't ripped it out yet, but I can honestly say that I won't mind a bit. It was fun to knit with lace weight, but I will have to find a different project to use this yarn for. 

Anyways, take a look at this picture

You can't see it as well in this picture, but this sock is big. And when I say big, I mean really, really big.  This sock was supposed to fit me. Now from the start, I had a problem. My pattern calls for size 5 needles, and I was going to use size 9, so I did a whole bunch of confusing math, to get the gauge right for size 9 needles. Then I cast on and knit happily away until I got to the heel. Suddenly the pattern got quite a bit harder, and very confusing. But I knit and turned the heel anyway, and then started on the foot. I had done probably about two rows on the foot when I realized I had a problem. I tried the sock on. It wouldn't go on, it was too small, and there was barley any heel. I was annoyed, I mean all that math for nothing. But you see, I liked knitting this sock, and I wanted a pair of socks that were not baby socks. So I ripped it out. All the way out. Then I cast on the correct number of stitches and knit away. I knit on the way up to Baker, and I knit after the kids went to bed when I was babysitting, and this morning I was ready to do the heel! I knit up the heel flap, and started turning the heel. This is where it got confusing again. I ended up ripping rows three times before I finally figured out the pattern. And right here is where I started to have the sinking suspicion that something was wrong. I kept knitting, and got part way done with the foot (where it is right now) and now I could clearly see that I was having the Over-sized Sock Problem. What will I do about it? Probably keep knitting. I like my sock a lot, and hey, a big sock is better than no sock, right? 

Now for the dress (no, I did not knit a dress, that would take far too long, and be way to see through for my comfort)

Here it is. This dress went down to maybe mid calf on me, and it was too low in the front, and I didn't particularly love it. We had a christmas party on the 8th, and I decided to redo my dress for it. I trimmed off about 5 inches, and then hemmed it up. I sewed some little bows on for decoration.

Here is the finished dress.

See, tiny bows on each sleeve.

Here I am in the finished dress, ready for the party. I like the dress wayyy better now, and am really happy with how it turned out.

 

 

Knitting Adventures

By Adalia

It was a couple of weeks ago after mom and dad had put the little kids to bed, Tilly and I were in our room, and I wanted to knit. I was going to knit little baby socks out of the blue yarn I mentioned in my last knitting post. I had my yarn, all I needed were needles. I didn't have any in my room, so I checked mom's knitting basket for the knitting box, which had the needles I needed. No box. I checked all the places it might be (ledges, couch, dining room counter, mom and dad's room, the play room, etc.) but I still couldn't find the knitting box. Mom didn't know where it was either. At this point I started getting quite worried... I mean, I was planning on knitting until bed time, and now I couldn't find needles. Sure, I guess I could have read or done something else, but I had been knitting the past few nights, and knitting is very relaxing and peaceful, so when I couldn't find needles... well it was SO not cool.

I can't find my needles!

What am I supposed to do now? You can't knit without needles (all right, some people might argue that you can finger knit, but that is not the same as knitting).

And then, all of a sudden I had a brilliant idea. What are knitting needles really? Sticks. So maybe I can find something to use instead! Using kindling had already crossed my mind, but it's way to rough, and my yarn would catch on it, and I didn't have a pocket knife to get them the right shape. But I did have something!

What are these? Skinny sticks... exactly! Actually, they are reeds, and they're there to diffuse that smelly blue stuff into the room, but they're just the right size, all they need is pointy ends! I was totally thrilled, it would be so cool to knit a whole sock on these things...

(oh yeah, notice the cacti? I got them at Lowes for $1.79 each (they were on sale) and they are the perfect plants for me, they are very hardy, and barley have to be watered. The last plant I had was an african violet, and it died quite soon after I got it.)

I pulled out 4 of the 6 sticks, and rolled them on the carpet to get them dry ( I figured I would get the carpet smelling nice while I was at it. May as well kill two birds with one stone).

Then, with reckless abandon, I snipped at the ends of the reeds, until they somewhat resembled points.

See, not really nice points, but I really did think they would work.

then I cast on the right number of stitches, knit one and a half rows, and realized this was not going to work. The reeds were flexible and bendy, not sharp enough, and pretty rough. (sorry for the horrid picture quality...)

Here it is partly ripped out, I started ripping the stitches back, and then I realized that I should take a photo before I completely ruined it. At this point, I take this as a challenge to see if I can find something other then needles to knit with. I start feeling quite creative.

Safety pins perhaps? They're sharp, and smooth... the should work great!

But it doesn't work quite as well as I hoped... the needles are now too sharp, and the yarn keeps getting wispy and then breaking.

Another horrid picture.

Anyways, after this, I give up. I can't find anything else to use, although I did think about using pencils but my gauge would be wayyyy off. I would suggest you don't try this at home, it doesn't work. But if you ever find a way to knit with something other than knitting needles, do tell me about it, I would love to hear all about your needless knitting. 

Guess what, the very next day I found the knitting box under the couch downstairs. Wow. I only wish I would have found it the day before, but oh well. Now I will admit I did go a little bit (all right, maybe a lot) crazy  with this, but it was sort of fun.

Now for part two, in which I go yarn shopping, and knit with real needles.I should tell you about the reason I wanted to go yarn shopping so badly before I get on with the story.

First of all, I knit up every scrap of yarn in the house that I could use. And that meant that I had no knitting. Not knitting anything is fine, if it's your choice, but I can't even describe the horrible feeling of wanting to knit so bad, and not having anything to knit. Not fun.  And I was in the middle of a wonderful project which I was very committed to. It was a shruglet, and because whenever I say I am making a shruglet, no one knows what I am talking about, here is a link to a photo of a shruglet from the exact pattern I am using.  I am making it out of the blue yarn I was going to make baby socks out of, and I love working on it.

So this Saturday we went yarn shopping. First we went to Michael's, where they had a bunch of yarn sales. Originally I had 10 skeins, but I downsized to 5 (I almost always do that when shopping, get a bunch of stuff, and then put like half of it back when I get to the cash register). 4 skeins of nice acrylic, and one skein of lace weight yarn, because I had never knit with lace weight before, and I really wanted to. 

Then we headed over to Handspun Yarns, where I got 3 skeins. One alpaca and merino blend, one red and gray and black, that I totally fell in love with, and finally a skein of 100% merino for only $3.75, because it was on sale. I was very, very happy with that purchase. Now for some pictures of my yarn ( nice ones too, because Tilly took them).

Me with my wonderful yarn.

Again.

Here you can see all my yarn, and you can also see my current project, which is lace weight fingerless gloves.

And this is the end of a very long blog post... 

 

 

Honduras Part II

( I apologize in advance for the photo quality... lets just say I'm not a photographer, and leave it at that:)

Matt, Steven, and Caleb working on saying their verse reviews. Canaan is in the hammock.

Hannah waiting to do verse review.

Bible marking and memory were a regular part of our routine. For Bible marking we met every morning at 6:00 and Canaan(our leader) would tell us the subject (example: Faith) and would then give us one verse at a time, someone would read it aloud, we would outline the verse, mark the key words, and then write the next verse in the margin of our Bible. So by the end we had a nice collection of Bible markings, which come in handy when you want to read about a certain subject.

Darwin writing a letter home.

Then of course there was the Bible memory. Throughout the summer we had 40 verses to memorize, and we were required to say one verse a day, and then  do verse review every Sunday. For verse review our leader would pick five random verses we had memorized to quiz us on. So by the end of the summer everyone had memorized 40 verses. I can't say I remember all of them, but I remember a lot of them, and I really want to print the list of them off the TMI website so I can work on the ones I've forgotten. It was hard at some times, but it was well worth it, and I am so glad that we were able to memorize them. I have found a lot of comfort and encouragement in being able to think of a verse in a moment when I really need it. 

Ben doing verse review.

Honduras Part I

Leah and Micah with a bucket of concrete. We spent the first week on our project tying and cutting steel, making bricks, and digging out the foundation.  I spent most of that time tying and cutting steel, which was a lot of fun. The next week we started laying the foundation, so we made concrete, and we also continued to make bricks. We built a frame for the building, and for the foundation, and then we made concrete, which was a long process, as all the sand had to be sifted by hand, and then measured and hauled to a flat spot to mix it, and after that we would bring out the big bag of concrete, open it up, and start flipping the pile until it was all the same color. Then we would start adding water, all the while mixing, until we got it to just the right consistency. After that we would fill up a bucket with the concrete and carry it over to the frames, where we would pour it in and then bang the frames with a hammer to make it settle. 

Me with a bag of concrete.

Steven, Brooke, Caleb, Matty, Kiana, and Leah making bricks.

The drying bricks.

Allison with the finished bricks.

This is us working on the fourth layer of the wall. 

There will be more to come soon!!!

Boot Camp

The bus from Orlando Airport to Teen Missions International.

 

This is our campsite, which just happened to be the farthest one out!

Me and my team walking to the Big Top (where we had classes).

Me and all my awesome TMI sisters.

We won pool once for brainstorming, and it was AMAZING!!! I mean, hot Florida, running around all day to classes, SB's (special blessing training), the OC (obstacle course), and then because we won we got to skip our SB and go to the pool!!!!

My boots, which are my mom's boots from when she went to TMI so many years ago...

Us waiting for the last shuttle launch to happen.

Ben and Caleb packing out on commissioning night.

Our awesome blue TMI carry-ons.

Boot Camp was amazing, and really, really, hard. Our team got a lot of SB's, which meant you spent free time working. One day we cleared brush, and another day we took down the visitors tent. Our team bonded and learned to work together during boot camp. I enjoyed the OC, as it was a challenge, but a lot of fun. Some of us enjoyed boot camp, but we were all glad to leave and get to work on our project... which I will talk about next time!!!!!

I absolutly loved my time on my TMI team, and if you're intrested at all, here is a link to their web site, check out all the new teams!!!!

The Little Midwife

By: Adalia

The other day Tilly and I were baby-sitting for some friends of ours and their little boy wanted me to read him The Little Mermaid. Here is how it went:

'She began to sing, and Eric rushed forward to kiss her but it was too late, she had already turned back into a midwife.'

What it actually said was 'She had already turned back into a mermaid.'

Nice, huh?

Also, ironically Tilly was reading the same book to the same little boy and she accidentally read 'The king had seven dollars, the youngest one was named Ariel.'

What that actually said was 'The king had seven daughters.'

I find this funny because we were obviously both thinking about something else. I was thinking about doulas, and midwives, and she was thinking about how mush money she needed for the thing she was saving up for.

The Pinnacle Of Success {My thoughts}

By Adalia

Times have changed, and with them so have values and beliefs. In the mid-2oth century, the pinnacle of success for a woman was considered being a stay at home mom. Being a stay at home mom meant getting up early, taking care of you husband and children's needs, cooking, cleaning, and sewing. The stay at home mom was considered to be cheerful, happy and always nicely dressed. It was something that a girl (or woman) looked forward to and prepared for during her teen and adult years. 

 

Now though, things have drastically changed. The pinnacle of success is considered to be a single, career woman. I am not saying that being single or having a career is wrong, just that now days woman put off marrying and having children to become a career woman. They decide not to "imprison" themselves and decide they need to be "independent". Then, about in their early or mid thirties, they decide it is time to get married and maybe have one or two children.

 

The life of a stay at home mom has now become portrayed as imprisoning and full of drudgery. Other woman pity their friends who are "imprisoned" by this life style and choose to spend their time with their family and tending to their (family's) needs instead of pursuing their career or looking out only for themselves.

 

Therefore, it is not a surprise that most Americans now have only one or two children, or have infertility problems. The time woman are most fertile is in their late teen years and early twenties. In bible time the average girl was married off at 12,13, or 14 to an much older man. So, it seems to reason that one of the causes for this problem is that many woman are now waiting till they are much older, late twenties or thirties to try for children. Also one of the reasons for this is that once you have had a baby, your body at least knows how to do it if you get pregnant later on when you are older. So a problem that older ladies who are struggling with fertility sometimes encounter is that they have never had an baby, and therefore it is harder to get pregnant, because their body's have not had a baby before and have trouble learning how to at an older age how to do it.

 

One of my greatest desires is to grow up, get married and be a stay at home mom with lots of children. I would still like to pursue a career until then, but after I get married my family will take priority. I have no problem with being single and having a career (as I said before)  and I am also not trying to offend anyone. What I have a problem with is that out society thinks it is more important to be single and have a career that to be married and have a family. Those who are are married and have a family are not considered to have a made as big of an accomplishment as the single career woman.

Grapefruit

By Adalia

 One of the things I got for my birthday was the book Grapefruit by Yoko Ono. Here are some of the things it says.

VOICE PIECE FOR SOPRANO

Scream.

          1. against the wind

          2. against the wall

          3. against the sky

                 1961 autumn

ROOM PIECE III

Stay in a room for a month.

Do not speak.

Do not see.

Whisper in the end of the month.

1963 winter

LINE PIECE I

Draw a line.

Erase it.

1964 spring

BLOOD PIECE

Use your blood to paint.

Keep painting until you faint.

Keep painting until you die.

1960 spring

     Isn't that just hilarious?

Fourteen...

By Adalia

Things about me.

1. My favorite song is More Beautiful You, by Johnny Diaz

2.I LOVE chocolate

3.I'm crazy

4.I have two "kind of not really" nicknames: Addie and Missc(pronounced Missy:)

5.I ramble. Constantly.

6. I am very good at stating the obvious.

7.My best friend is Keziah.

8.My best friend outside of my family is Alissa.

9.I love the names Starr, Astrid, and Troy.

10.I really like lip gloss and chap stick.

11.I love horses.

12.I love calling Keziah "Dude".

13.I love reading.

14.I don't like math(at all!!!!!!!!!)

So, as you might have guessed I am now 14! I had a wonderful slumber party and we stayed up till 1:00 and ate a BIG bowl of candy and watched Fiddler On The Roof.

I got a lot of fn presents, including: A friendship bracelet and awesome necklace from Emily, a Sweet journal from Jubilee, a gorgeous Daisy chain necklace from Hezzy, and a bracelet from Tucker, boxes of chocolate and some candy from my brothers, orangy pink nail polish from Tilly, a drawing pad and pencils from Hannah, a free riding lesson from Christiana, a Pattern and sewing kit from Devon, Vegemite and bead stuff from Kalina and a Itunes card, the book Grapefruit by Yoko Ono, a huge chocolate bar, a book lamp and a ten dollar Itunes card!!! I also got some other really cool stuff.

The Book List

By: Adalia

 

(Picture has nothing to do with the post, but blogging is boring without pictures)

This weeks book list: Socialism Is Great, Danger, and Secrets. Interesting. Don't you agree? The books Danger and Secrets and are the first and last books in a series by Christine Harris. They are about a girl named Jessie who is a secret agent.