Major Knitter

Summer Reading - Another Piece of My Heart

What have I been doing since I obviously haven't been knitting?  Well, I've been reading.  In fact, I want to share with you a great summer read - Jane Green's Another Piece of My Heart.

This book is about a blended family.  It's about parenting.  It's about teenage angst.  It's about the different types of love.  Here's the official description from Jane Green's website:

Andi has spent much of her adult life looking for the perfect man, and at thirty-seven, she's finally found him. Ethan--divorced with two daughters, Emily and Sophia--is a devoted father and even better husband. Always hoping one day she would be a mother, Andi embraces the girls like they were her own. But in Emily’s eyes, Andi is an obstacle to her father’s love, and Emily will do whatever it takes to break her down. When the dynamics between the two escalate, they threaten everything Andi believes about love, family, and motherhood—leaving both women standing at a crossroad in their lives…and in their hearts.

At first, I have to confess, I wasn't sure if I could continue reading it.  It was a lot like my house (except I have two teenage boys and my husband is probably more the Andi than I am).  This book was about teenage angst from the perspective of a mother.  I have enough of that at home.  I wasn't sure I wanted to curl up and read about it in my free time, too.  But I did.  And I'm glad I did.  Why?  Because the second half of the book is written from the teenager Emily's eyes.  Ooh.  Interesting.  I liked that.  I liked trying to figure out what the teenager was thinking.  

Now if only I had a book for reading my two teenage boys' minds...

So go read about modern real-life families and real life love stories.  I think it will make you hug your children a little tighter at night... with a little bit more perspective into what they're thinking.

And I keep wondering - how does Jane know what a teenage girl is thinking?  Well, aside from having teenagers of her own, I think she might just have an inside track.  

P.S. - If you don't know, Jane lives in Westport and one of the things I like about her books is she often weaves some of our nutmeg items into her stories - from a coffee shop, to the beach, to a favorite store or street.  This time, the book is not set in Westport... but I still imagine it set here.  How can I help it?

If you read the book, let me know what you thought?  Do you think she did the modern family/modern romance correctly?  Having gone through it myself, or rather, I should say, going through it myself, I think she gets an A+.  

Thanks Jane for another great read!  Now if we could just get you knitting...

 

Wilma on Wednesday - Looking Good Girl!

This is one of my favorite Wilma poses.  I thought you might enjoy it, too.

The way she sits just cracks me up.  It doesn't look comfortable at all, but she loves to sit this way.  Awww Girly Girl.  You make me smile.

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

Last week our knitting group had a great time kettle dyeing our own yarn at Michelle's house.  

I brought along some sock yarn and decided to make it a dark green (I was shooting for forest green).  Mmmm - looks  good!

There were two gorgeous skeins of blue.  I think this was the peacock blue.

Beautiful blue!

We cooked our yarn outside on camp stoves in pots that were picked up for a pittance at the local Goodwill.  These pots cannot be used for food again, once they're used for dyeing!  That's my green yarn in the orange pot.

Betsy's yarn (the pot on the left above) turned out a lovely orange-chestnut color.

I'm very pleased with the deep rich hue of green I obtained under Michelle's guidance.  I already have a person in mind to receive handknit socks with my very own hand-dyed yarn.  I don't know if this person will appreciate the extra step that goes into this gift, but I know and it feels like it's being given with even more love!  How fun.

How about you?  Do you ever dye your own yarn?

National BSA Scout Executive Plays Carpetball

At last weekend's ConnJam 2012, Bob Mazzuca, the national BSA Scout Executive played a game of carpetball at our Troop's station.

Watching him is Michael Card in the blue vest who masterfully chaired the entire ConnJam event.  It was a great time and the carpetball table now resides in my basement.  Anyone up for a challenge?

Major Knitter Takes Up Slacklining

Sorry I've been so quiet lately.  My knitting mojo disappeared after knitting 1,001 miniature snowmen and wreaking havoc on my body.  OK - it was really only 13 snowmen, but my body could have sworn I knit an entire regiment of two-inch snowmen.  So while giving my knitting muscles a rest, I was very busy with my second biggest passion - Scouting.

This weekend was our triennial ConnJam (Connecticut Jamboree) for our Connecticut Yankee Council at the Orange County fairgrounds.  We had thousands and thousands attend - (I heard numbers like 3,000 overnight campers and upwards of 6,000 during the day) - and everyone was very, very busy.  I was busy with my Troop and Crew - and we also hosted a carpetball station which the fathers and sons made in 2006-2007 when they were in the Cub Scout Pack.  It was a huge hit!  I even learned a new skill at ConnJam where I tried my luck at slacklining  (I admit, I was double dog dared!).  OK - I may or may not be holding the professional's hand from Gibbon Slacklines - but I did manage to balance and even bounce around on the slackline.  It was quite an accomplishment and I had such fun!  More news to come about this great weekend.  I'll post some non-knitting posts for awhile until my knitting mojo reappears.  In the meantime, go try a new skill and report back on it.  If you try slacklining... let me know how it goes!  

P.S. - My friend Jay just sent me THIS LINK.  This guy makes me look lazy!