Languishing...

To say my blogging has languished since February would be the understatement of the year.

So, where was I? I finished Macroeconomics, which I truly enjoyed, and also finished Organizational Behavior, which I truly did not enjoy. I realize now that when the professor tells you up front about the high standards for the class, the dialog is directed at recent high school graduates who may not be as self-disciplined as a 50-year-old non-trad who's been working for a LONG time. In short, I freaked out over nothing. My DDs would say "what's new?"

I've moved on to Contract Law (another very fun class) but dropped Finite Mathematics (again, what IS that?) when I found out there was a prerequisite and thought the professor didn't like me. Since I have the text already, I'm going to work through it (with a little help from my brilliant engineering friends at work) this summer and then take the actual class this fall. I hope the professor will NOT remember the panicked emails I directed to him the first week of class.

On the crochet front, I've finished quite a few projects and even taken a few pictures. I've enjoyed trying tapestry crochet (using Carol Ventura's book, web site, and Yahoo mail list for inspiration. I finished a LARGE bag (because I used worsted weight yarn instead of a DK, sport weight, or smaller yarn) and then made a much smaller "pocket" bag with the same pattern.

I did a baby blanket in crazy stitch (straight version instead of diagonal) in various shades of blue for Tiny Ninja's sweet friend and new baby boy. I'm using the same stitch pattern (found at Crochet Cabana) to make an afghan for the Victory Junction Gang camps - this is a great organization started by NASCAR driver Kyle Petty. I'm doing the afghan in bright yellow with a few rows of alternating black and white on either end (kind of simulates the checkered flags). It's a fun project, easy to work on while watching TV with Nearly Perfect Husband, and I'm excited to finish and send it off to camp!

For my sister's birthday, I made her a cute tie-front cardigan with three-quarter length sleeves from Doris Chan's excellent book Everyday Crochet. For me, the patterns are difficult to follow but well worth it because the finished garments are beautiful. For my sister's sweater, I used Lion Brand's Cotton Ease in a dusty blue color.

I've done some smaller projects, too - when I feel the need to actually finish something in one evening (hats, dishcloths, swatches to test new stitch patterns) - and a market bag in black Omega nylon and pink Sinfonia cotton (ran out of the nylon) that ended up looking like a cute summer top (will try to find, photograph, and post).

So, having said all this, I will try to get back into a more regular posting rhythm and dispel the need to dump large quantities of information at one time!

Jeremiah 29:11

Homework - Done!

The discipline of being a student has been harder to resurrect than I expected, but I'm finally done for the week with time to spare. This is a good thing, because I'm such a Nervous Nellie I'll probably re-do the assignment just to make sure I didn't miss anything!

What's been the hardest thing about starting this new venture? The disruption of our venerable routine. Yes, my Amazing Husband and I have a routine - we get home, chore, talk about our days, clean and fill the corn stove, fix supper, eat supper, watch re-runs of game shows (Weakest Link & Who Wants to be a Millionaire - AH skunks me every time in our head to head competitions) and George Lopez (why didn't I know about this guy before the re-runs? the whole cast is great). Usually I am crocheting a hat or something during TV time.

Now along comes Macroeconomics and I need to read and answer questions and post on the discussion boards and - what, AH? You want me to watch this scene, answer this Millionaire question, hang out with you? Sorry, my professor is calling...

What I discovered this morning is that I concentrate on classwork much better in the morning - it's quiet and not much of a change from my typical morning routine, which is reading email and surfing the 'net. Guess I won't know until my assignment is graded if my brain is actually functioning this time of day, though.

What's up with that avatar?

One of my passions is crochet - I have enough yarn, hooks, and patterns to do nothing but crochet for at least a year without visiting Knitting Warehouse or KnitPicks, my favorite online yarn retailers.

Long ago I started this blog as a place to talk about crochet and show photos of my work. The effort to blog about crochet fizzled out but the projects didn't. One of my favorites was a pair of socks for myself, which I photographed from the back deck with my feet propped up on the railing. My avatar is a crop of one of those sock photos.

And crochet is one of three inputs to my blog title - the other two are my faith (search here for "joy") and my husband (last name Joy). Am I not clever? Am I not totally fishing for compliments?!

I know you won't sleep a wink if you don't see my complete socks, so here they are:


Do you crochet?

Do you wear socks?

Let me know, and have a great weekend!