I uploaded pictures of books and nick-knacks I brought back from my boyfriend’s dad’s house. I have yet to photograph the posters I brought back- I haven’t decided whether I want to find a large flatbed scanner or just take a shot with my camera. Anyway, I’m still adding details about the books (copyright, edition, publisher, etc.) but I think I have some great cover art to look at now! Also included in the set are a few art slides I photographed in my light box.

In a few more weeks I’ll be adding more pictures to the set as we retrieve more items from the house. I hope I can remember to take my digital camera and light box with us next time!

My boyfriend and I spent our Spring Break in Columbus, Georgia cleaning out his father’s old house. We were supposed to go to San Francisco, but this house has been looming over our heads since Jim’s passing, and we decided it was better to deal with the house than spend money we don’t have on an actual vacation.

I can’t believe we didn’t take before and after pictures. Does anyone watch Clean House? Or Clean Sweep? I’m not even lying when I tell you that the house was in that kind of state when we started. Jason’s dad taught English & Humanities, traveled the world, and played in the Columbus Symphony for nearly 40 years. He collected books, vinyl records, art posters, art slides, mugs, and other miscellanea as others collect stamps (or yarn, in some cases!). He was meticulous about organizing and wrote lists of his favorite books, movies, and music. He NEVER threw things away. I wish I were being superfluous because it would’ve saved us a lot of work, but seriously. He didn’t throw things away- he has his college student ID from the 60s, his Marine handbook, all the cards he’s ever gotten, term papers, tests, overhead slides, teaching notes, albums galore, books by the HUNDREDS.

I tried to snap pictures as we went, but we were pressed for time, and I didn’t get a good record of everything. My boyfriend and I packed up 580 books to donate to the Phenix City/Russell County library on Wednesday. I know the exact number because we counted for tax purposes.

After friends and family came through the house to pick books and music for themselves, Jason and I got to gather a few boxes together for this trip. I got a bunch of great literary criticism books with fantastic covers from the 1950s, 60s, & 70s. I took these shots with my iPhone & plan to set up a lightbox in a few days to get a nice Flickr set online.

This post does not do the treasures (nor the clutter) justice. It’s just amazing to think about how many things Jim saved over the years- one can almost piece his life story together by examining the house. There are such wonderful pieces of memorabilia that show how deeply he loved his family and his passions. But I can’t put a glossy spin on it completely because my boyfriend and I worked our butts off this week and only made a small dent in the work that will need to be done. The treasures keep me from becoming overwhelmed, though.

Why hello, there. I’m trying to play catch up in several aspects of my life, including my blog. I think I’ve gotten up to speed with school, but several things still nag me and I figured I’d go ahead and tackle this one before I get too guilt.

On Monday, February 8, my boyfriend’s father, Jim Fletcher, passed away in Columbus, Georgia.. We received the call sometime after 9 PM, and while his father had battled heart disease for decades, this call was still a surprise. We took off in the middle of the night from Atlanta and reached Columbus around 2 AM. I left without taking any schoolwork so I got really behind. Things went as well as they could during the week of the funeral- we were surround by family and friends the whole time. My boyfriend’s father taught high school English & Humanities for over 25 years, and also taught at two local universities. All week long I heard stories about how much his teaching inspired his students- this was a man who was dedicated to changing the lives of teenagers through literature, music, and art. He invited his students to his home on many occasions to watch interesting movies and listen to his extensive classical music collection. He took field trips to Atlanta, and even to a monastery in Conyers! Needless to say, he touched many lives and there was a good representation of Hardaway High School alums and faculty during the week.

As for me, I try not to get too sad, but I considered Jim to be not only practically a father-in-law, but also a teaching mentor. He has given me many books, and we had planned to get together while I finish grad school to talk about lesson plans and teaching literature. I do get sad when I think that I won’t share my graduation with him next Spring. I think of other things I wanted him to be at in my future, but I will have to settle for keeping him in my heart instead.

As for life after all of that… it’s messy, literally. I’m almost caught up in my grad work, but I still feel like I’m a day behind on planning for student teaching. I also started choreographing for a show choir (what?!) so there are worksheets, CDs, dance shoes, flashcards, and tons of yarn all over the place. Nothing gets put away and nothing really has a place right now.

As you can see, the Yarn Monster has taken over my work table. Underneath the yarn are some half-buried flashcards I made for my students. I had high hopes about getting more items in my Etsy shop and finishing my cardigan before March. HA!

Oh yeah, we canceled our trip to San Francisco. In the wake of Jim’s death, there’s just to much to take care of involving my boyfriend’s inheritance. So yeah, Stay-Cation in Columbus, Georgia. I have promised myself that I WILL NOT get mopey about it and that we’ll have fun- going to local museums, eating tons of BBQ, and maybe a mini trip to a farm in Alabama.

I just had to put this out, mostly for my own peace of mind. I’m still working on some posts about knitting/yarn apps, and I’ll have some progress photos of my cardi soon, too.

Stay well!

Wow, my knitting queue is huge right now! Everyone wants some knitwear these days. I have about 5 active projects on needles right now and another one to start. I just wanted to share my three coolest ones really quick.

This is my Cranberry Sauce Hat! It’s the Mushy Peas hat pattern, except I screwed up some increase rows, and ended up with a bucket-style hat. I actually really like it this way. Nugget could not look less amused with me! I used some beautiful merino worsted yarn from Squoosh- her yarn & fiber always dresses to impress. I always enjoy what I order from her shop.

I’ve also started on the February Lady Sweater in a very soft blue in Malabrigo worsted merino.

The color of the blue is actually much softer than this picture shows. And oh my word is this lush. I’m on a total merino worsted kick right now. The goal is to finish this cardigan by the time we leave for San Francisco on March 6. I have to get buttons sewn on, ends woven in, and block the darn thing, so I’m hoping that’s all enough motivation to get it done.

Other projects in my queue include the Totoro mittens for Jason (!) and a cute raspberry stitch cowl in soft moss green for my Etsy shop.

In other life news- I started tutoring in a 6th grade math class this week for grad school and it’s going surprisingly well. I didn’t think I’d be able to handle it or enjoy it, but after just one week I’m kinda into it. We’ll see how long that enthusiasm lasts!

I also recently finished reading Jesus Land by Julia Scheeres. Very intense, and very good!

Gosh, I wish I had more to update about. Life just seems to get in the way! But things are going well, and I can’t complain.

I don’t know how I’ve failed to mention this before, but I’m on Twitter as @cassinator. Feel free to add me!

Oh what a tricky winter it’s been! Around Thanksgiving I mentioned that my grandmother (my only living grandparent since my other grandmother passed away over ten years ago) had a massive stroke. On Christmas Day I flew to St. Louis & waited 8 hours for a little propeller plane to take me to the Marion, Illinois airport to see my grandmother, uncle, and my parents who’d driven up from Atlanta. I sat waiting for this tiny plane all day without food because the airline told us a plane could be ready at any moment and we were so far away from the main terminal that I was too scared to leave. By the time I made it to Marion I was hungry, tired, and seriously grouchy. We visited my grandmother in her nursing home, but she was really out of it. In the morning she’d had pancakes with my dad, was talking to people, and generally doing very well. As the day wore on, she started drifting in out of consciousness and finally my mom decided to have my grandmother admitted to the ER. The next morning I learned she’d had another stroke. My mom and uncle were exhausted from staying up in the ICU with her so my brother and I took turns all weekend in her hospital room and amazingly she was able to talk for awhile, knew who we were, and wanted to listen to music. It was such a miracle that she had the ability to speak and read- she kept reading the calendar and white board on the wall with the nurses’ names. At the end of my short visit, my grandmother was trying to drink from a straw and was sitting up in a chair again. It was amazing!

I hate to put all of my personal issues out there on this blog, but I haven’t been able to think about much besides my family and work over my break from school. I made an attempt to take a few days to relax (all this snow & ice in Atlanta helped- we couldn’t leave the house for two days!), but I found myself working more in my three week break than I did over the semester.

I want to post more in 2010. I decided not to make any resolutions this year about blogging or knitting (I don’t want to be disappointed!), but I have already started to make a conscious effort to put out more positive energy into the world. I plan to knit more this year and try more service projects that involve knitting.

All this to say- I’m here! I’m breathing! Despite being snowed in all weekend, I’m feeling great and ready to work hard at school and my life in 2010!

Soaring above the clouds in the tiny Cessna between St. Louis & Marion. Exhilarating!

Our tiny two-prop plane.

My seat was directly behind the pilot’s seat- I could’ve reached up and flown the plane! (But I don’t think our pilot would’ve appreciated that.)

Last night Jason and I went shopping for some gingerbread ingredients after I saw this AMAZING post about gingerbread houses that sit on mugs from notmartha.org, and while we were at the Farmer’s Market, Jason realized that last night would be really our only night together until December 29. I have so many babysitting arrangements coming up that we just won’t be able to have any Christmas fun. So while we were at Target, we ran back to look at their trees, found one for under $30 in clearance, and came home to decorate.

I started by making some puff pastry cookies. I wanted to make pie crust cookies, but all I found at the tiny Kroger in Decatur was some ready-made puff pastry sheets. Not a bad thing, though!

They turned out so crispy, puffy, yummy-delicious! I sprinkled them with cinnamon and sugar, and was seriously debating pouring milk over them for breakfast.

I used some bite-sized cookie cutters which made them easy to pop on each trip past their resting spot on the stove. Jason almost had to duct tape their container closed.

I also made gingerbread dough for the little gingerbread houses. We used blackstrap molasses, which, along with all the other spices made the dough taste really, really, REALLY strong. The dark molasses also gave the dough a dark brown color that, as I piled up the dough on plastic wrap to rest in the fridge, looked like poo!

We also decorated the tree, but by the time we finished it was 2:00 AM, so there aren’t any pics of the finished tree yet. I did get a lot of pictures of the cats checking it out, though.

Nugget and Fat Stinky are celebrating their first Christmas.

What a fun night!

First off, many thanks to San (www.san-smith.com) who gave me her pass to the Neil Gaiman reading at Agnes Scott. I totally fudged myself by not bringing either of my two Neil Gaiman books to be signed, but I really enjoyed the reading. And I got to see an Internet pal Jessi (www.casual-dread.blogspot.com) and thanks to Jessi for letting me sit with her and getting a great view of Neil Gaiman! We had to wait a good long while to meet Neil (he signed books for every person in the chapel- maybe 400 people!), but when we did get up to him, I said I was an English teacher (ok, little white lie, but I am in school to be one!) and that I was impressed by how his books get reluctant readers to pick up a book (which is quite true!). He hadn’t looked up to speak to nearly anyone before us, but he looked up and responded along the lines that he’d heard that a lot and was glad to encourage young readers.

So yay! That was very exciting and I’m sad that San couldn’t go, but feeling very fortunate that I got to meet him and get a picture with him. I have pictures of Jessi and her friends on Flickr, and she has a picture of us with Neil. Weird camera acrobatics last night.

Anyway. The other thing I wanted to post about today was Lion Brand patterns. I was flipping through some blogs and someone posted a few photos of the wonderful crochet patterns Lion Brand has for FREE on their website. I’m still very biased towards knitting, but the winds may be a-changing now that I’ve seen the fantastic patterns on their site.

I LOVE this granny square scarf. It’s featured with a soft mohair yarn which makes it look cute and modern. Granny squares have a tendency to come off kinda clunky and old-fashioned (or maybe I just always picture the afghans my Nana made in the 70s), but I really like how bright and fun this scarf looks. The picture links to the pattern, but you need to be signed into the Lion Brand site in order to view it.

I also really liked this scalloped, lacy scarf.

Last summer I made a cute knitted dress for a girl I’d babysat with a light linen yarn. This pattern is similar to the dress I made, but I’m really digging the new handpainted yarn from Lion Brand that looks like a Noro colorway.

What a cute little outfit for the winter? I want to make this as a Christmas gift for the little one I’m sitting for now. She could wear a long-sleeve onesie and leggings or tights under it. With a soft wool it would be perfect for winter wear.

I’m hoping to add a few more items to my Etsy shop this afternoon before I go out to babysit for the evening. I’m thinking it may be a much later update, but debating between adding handspun yarn and knitting up some of my handspun. I think there are so many established and popular handspun yarn sellers on Etsy that I may be wasting my time listing just plain yarn. I’ve had a raspberry colored yarn with over 250 yards (!) sitting in my shop since March. I’ve always wondered if I shouldn’t just knit up and see how that goes. I don’t know. Are there more knitters on Etsy or people who want already-knitted items?

One of the yarns I will probably list is a beauty I’ve been holding onto for a long time thinking I would ply it. But I really like it as a single.

It’s a little over-wound in a few spots, but I plan on soaking it and giving it a good WHACK and stretch before listing it. I spun this in January and didn’t intend at all for this to be listed so close to Christmas. It reminds me more of roses and leaves than Christmas. But oh well. Now’s the time.

I better get on with my real life chores today. Have a lovely day!

Finals are OVER and I’m happy to report that I received another 4.0 this semester. I am making up big time for my undergraduate GPA. Also, my professor wants me to submit one of my final exam essays to a peer-reviewed education journal. Cool!

And I gotta tell ya, there is nothing better than coming home on a freezing cold, rainy day to a package. Especially when inside the package you find:

A hand-crocheted Jayne hat! OMG WHEEE! Thank you so much, Julia! This totally made my day.

I will be adding a few new items to my Etsy shop this week. I lowered my prices to make holiday shopping a touch more affordable, and I’m willing to (reasonably) negotiate on what’s still in there. I’ll be adding at least two other scarves and some handspun yarn. http://cassinator.etsy.com

Have a lovely weekend!

I bought bananas from Your Dekalb Farmer’s Market thinking they might quickly brown with the intention of baking something with them. They were about an hour away from black death this evening so I ran by a local chain grocery to grab some pecans, and found some peanut butter swirl chocolate chips at a major discount so I was like, “OH YEAH” and made some “Elvis” cookies! (I took pics with my iPhone, so apologies for the graininess.)

I based my cookies on this recipe from Simply Recipes: http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/banana_cookies/