The Giving Flower

Blog air, that is. For now anyway. This happened to us before when our phone went out over a month ago and we had a fluke week of internet and phone use. You see, we have had our phone back since Thursday and internet since this morning but according to the phone company we should have neither of these. This means I need to use it as much as possible before it falls once again into the hands of the phone company and I’m once again taken hostage in my own apartment in the middle of an international city without a connection to the outside world.

I have been very busy and have so much to tell but I’ll start with I’VE MISSED YOU ALL

Oh and an FO.

Do you remember these from our Easter vacation?

I used them to make this:

The madness all started after seeing a fun beach cover up made with crocheted circles, so I asked my mother-in-law (who used to crochet and knit all the time but has long since stopped) and she said she’d be happy to crochet them for me. On one condition; she would crochet them but that would be it-neither would she sew in ends nor sew the circles together. So a couple months ago over 50 crocheted circles came my way and I had to somehow turn them into a skirt for the beach.

After sewing in all the loose ends, which took the good part of a Sunday afternoon and well into the night, I sewed the circles together. This took another two nights of work because it was soo hard trying to figure out where to put them and how to sew them together properly. Then I crocheted the waistband and sewed the skirt onto it. I put 4 hooks on it to hold it together and this is what I ended up with. I love it but I still don’t know if I’ll be able to wear this to the beach.

With my over-sized thighs and my no-longer-presentable stomach, why don’t I find the classics to knit and crochet so that I don’t stick out like a sore thumb on the beach?? I really don’t know what possesses me!

Can you find the German and American flag circles? I figured this skirt was the combined sweat and tears of an American and a German, so it would only be fitting to have the flags included. Aren’t I just the biggest geek?

OH and my Spanish students did a fabulous job on their tests, I was quite surprised and very proud of them.

I’ll sign off for tonight with a picture of Alida riding a bike for the first time.

More to come if all goes well in phone company land.

Just to let you know, I’m once again without phone and internet. We had an amazingly wild storm on Thursday night, and I’m not sure if it had anything to do with it, but we are again stranded without access to the outside world. Tamina, Saturday I was able to send an email and I received yours but shortly thereafter it was dead again. 

Thank goodness I have a few minutes to write from work, but now I need to get back to writing my 6-page, end-of-the-year test for my Spanish students. Hehe-the beauty of being a teacher.

Today I didn’t make any attempt to clean the apartment that desperately needs it. I didn’t fix my pants that I ripped when I fell running after Alida (someone teach me how to stay upright, please! Mom, you would have loved it!). I didn’t vacuum the living room that’s starting to look like we live in an all-encompassing dust ball. I didn’t clean up the mound of dirty dishes left over from breakfast on the run.

No, instead I took the kids to the playground in order to escape the chaos and to finish this:

Oh yeah, once we finally did decide to come home we played a bit with this.

Alexander would much prefer to play with this electronic construction set than anything else. This is his traffic light. Dad, I think he has inherited quite a few of your genes.

I’m off to block my skirt. Yeah!

Two things that have been on my mind all day.
Thing #1:

The Peacock Feather Shawl which has haunted me for the last year.  I’ve finally decided to do something about it.

I’m just having trouble deciding on what color to order. I’ve narrowed it down to my three favorites.

What do you think? Marine, royal or Aegean?

Anyone care to join me knitting this?
Thing #2:

The mystery stole3 KAL. I’ve signed up and I’m trying to decide on the yarn. This fascinates me and I just had to join. It will be a very lacy summer, I’m afraid. Now I think I might choose Knitpicks alpaca lace in midnight black but then again, I’m not quite sure.

The kids and I are flying to the States in 27 days and counting. We’ll be flying into Boston and then heading to the Cape to stay with my parents. We’ll be there for 3 weeks, so I was wondering if anyone would like to have a mini stitch and bitch on the Cape. I was toying with the idea that we could meet in Hyannis at Borders or maybe a good yarn store in the area. If anyone is interested or knows of good yarn stores on the Cape, please email me or comment on this post and maybe we can arrange some details.

I hope everyone was out knitting in public yesterday! With the great company of my knitting group, I was diligently working on my Vogue silk skirt which is finally nearing an end. I have lots to say and little time to do it in and even fewer pictures to prove it all, but I will try to get some pictures taken and posts written this week. Now back to those color choices. Life is tough!