"I might be out of focus, but at least I know where my towel is."

These weren’t necessarily finished in this order but I feel that is just a detail.

First, I finished a lace project that I started in a workshop over a year ago. This is a sun in the teneriffe lace style (Yes, the lace style is not spelled the same way as the island. Go figure.) This is actually half of the project because there is also a moon. It just hasn’t been started.

a little lace

The next thing I finished was a scarf for my sister in the leftovers of the yarn for her hat. I used the bamboo pattern out of Vogue’s Stitchionary. I realized about halfway through the scarf that it had a really pretty right side and a bizarre wrong side. So, I fixed it by making it an infinity scarf! No need to ever see that wrong side! Here is a picture of me modeling the scarf.

Fun, isn’t it?

During finals week, I attended another lace workshop. This year I actually completed the project within the week. I feel this is a step forward. (I also bought a bunch of books. One of which is in German! I feel like that might be a step backwards, but who is counting steps? No me, certainly.)

Judgmental owl has weighed, measured and found you short.

If you follow me on instagram or tumblr, you know that Judgmental owl used about 11,000 straight pins while I was working him which made him look really badass and metal at the time.

And, finally, I finished the Victorian Lace scarf from Victorian Lace Today that I picked out to make for myself when I bought the yarn for Beth’s penguins (At least) two years ago. Interestingly, that isn’t the yarn that a bought to make the scarf in. Oh, no, it surely isn’t. It is sock yarn that I bought to make throw pillows out of two years ago. Ah, well. At least it has been used.

Victorian Scarf in Modern Sock Yarn

I have made some progress on my sweater, but I am running out of yarn (and knit picks keeps pushing back the date of when my yarn will be available for purchase again. I have made not progress of the two-at-a-time Tuscany socks. As it turns out, those balls of wool weren’t center-pull balls and thus I have made a huge mess of them. It is epically frustrating.

So, currently on my needles: a scarf for last year’s Love Letter Postcard Competition winner, the sweater and the dreaded Tuscany Socks. The smart money is on me finishing the Love Letter Postcard Contest winner’s scarf first.

Me: Thanks for picking me up at a weird time of night from my horrible adventure. Wanna beer?
Friend who is a straight, educated guy: I love beer.
at my apartment
Me: Sorry the place is such a mess. As you know, I wasn’t intending to be gone.
F-W-I-A-S-E-G: I’ve seen worse.
Me: Ya, but I’m a girl.
F-W-I-A-S-E-G: Why you gotta be so gender-normative. I have some websites you needa read

To make these, you gather up some coconut, coconut flour (in the gluten-free aisle in the dirty hippie section of your well-stocked supermarket), coconut oil (a little expensive, but delicious) and some coconut milk. Oh, and you’ll need some tempeh.

coconut batter fixin's

tempeh nuggets

coconut batter

with pineapple (it had to be done)

This is a recipe from 500 Vegan Recipes.

But, I know it is a really long book and that I may need processing time to really get anything out of it. So, the second half of my pop culture homework assignment is to read a bunch of fiction, history and memoirs. Namely, this bunch of fiction, history and memoirs.

Just a little light reading, is all.

You’ll notice one of those nooks is actually my nook. There are a couple of things on there that I’ve picked up discounted (Thank you, Free Fridays!) or that have been recommended to me that I’d like to get to. And, I’ll probably add a few things to the list as the summer goes on (Clockwork Prince and possibly a Pretty Little Liars book) but this is where my summer begins. Or, at least the part of my summer that doesn’t contain writing a dissertation proposal or making money (or knitting or cooking).

I’m going to lie; this was both a hard and an easy book to read. It is the story of Ishmael Beah, a child who sets off with his brother and some friends to participate in a talent show and ends up getting caught up in Sierra Leone’s civil war. The subject matter made it hard to read. Beah and his friends spend half of the book running and hiding, almost getting caught, getting caught, getting separated from each other and dying of starvation. The civil war in Sierra Leone, Beah tells us, made it impossible to trust strangers and it made you suspicious of your own family and friends. You know from the title that Beah is eventually recruited into the fight, but you spend the first part of the book wondering who will recruit him. Will he end up branded and fighting for the RUF? The side that probably destroyed his village and killed his family. Or, will he end up fighting for the army out of starvation and a need to avenge all that he has lost. I don’t want to spoil it for you, but he does pick a side and he does fight spending years on a drug-fueled, military-organized killing spree. When the UN gets involved, his lieutenant gives him up to an NGO who are responsible for rehabilitating him and others, to see if it can be done. Can child soldiers be brought back from what they’ve seen? Can they learn to trust again and be reintegrated into society. Beah and some of his friends spend some time at a rehabilitation camp, but the war eventually catches up to them there, too.

Beah’s writing style is easy and accessible. This book was easy to read in the sense that I wanted to know what happened to him and to his friends. But, it was also easy because Beah’s descriptions made it easy to picture things. My childhood was probably the exact opposite of Beah’s and I couldn’t even imagine what it would have been like growing up during a civil war. But, I don’t have to imagine it because Beah explains it in sufficient detail. And, it is bone-chillingly sad to imagine all of these children having to live like this.

The grand prize winner will receive a pair of hand knit socks. The winners of this year’s categories will receive a cozy of some kind (USB stick, phone, or ipod.) This year’s categories can be divided into two themes: The Message and The Postcard.

The message categories are: Most Romantic Message and Creepiest Message.
The postcard categories are: Loveliest Postcard and Most Inexplicable Postcard.

Multiple entries can be submitted. Good luck, Postcarders!

Linguist-in-waiting: You are coming to that thing later?
Me: Only if I can find some money in my couch cushions. Or, if I win the lottery.
L-i-w: You won’t win the lottery.
Me: I could win the lottery!
L-i-w: You won’t win the lottery because you won’t play the lottery because you know how probability works.
Me: Huh. You’re not wrong.

Cooper protects the world from that Hellspawn, The Fitted Sheet