01.31.08

Europe tour: Halle (Saale) Germany

Posted in travel tagged , , , , , , , , at 3:09 pm by theypswife

Halle. Die Stadt. Aerial view of Halle CMS+

In May 2006, I traveled with the TIU Symphonic Band on three-week+ tour of Germany, Austria, and Budapest, Hungary. I came home with hundreds and hundreds of gorgeous photos and many great memories, but one that I thought of randomly today was the day we spent in Halle, Germany. If I remember correctly, George Frideric Handel was born in Halle, which would explain why there are countless statues of him everywhere.

We actually walked past “Handelhaus” -which I believe is the house where Handel was born? I think Handel actually lived most of his life in England though.. Anyway..

We also visited the Franckesche Stiftungen – the school of August Hermann Francke

These are my friends re-enacting Francke teaching the little children. Apparently Francke educated children by collecting strange things from all over the world. Including pickled organisms, such as a human fetus.

Kinda looks like an alien, but that’s really a 300 year old baby. Bizarre.

Most memorable about our time in Halle was the kirche that had been burned out many, many times and is being rebuilt after being rescued from demolition. It was really inspiring to see the ancient shell of the church mixed with new wood and artistry from the loyal and loving Christians who are rebuilding the church. The star hanging from the rafters sent a message of hope and renewal through the whole place. I’ve been scouring the web and I can’t find the name of the church. :( Oh well… while we were in Halle we also had the opportunity to play in the Marketplatz. It was really windy and everyone’s music kept blowing away.

I’m not in the pic because I don’t play in the Brass Quintet. I was the percussion section leader. Yay me!

And my favorite – the Monastery in Petersberg where we played our first concert. Petersberg is close to Halle, but it’s in the middle of beautiful countryside and feels very remote. If I remember correctly, the monastery has been there since the year 1100 – maybe even 900. It’s really old. If I could read German I’m sure I could find out how old it is from the website.

This is the view from the monastery’s tower.

This is me in front of part of the monastery. Can you find me? Just to show you how big the place is.  Several people actually got to stay with the brothers at the monastery, but I stayed in Halle with another family.

Ok, time to get back to work…

01.30.08

Next stop: Handspinning

Posted in Knitting, yarn tagged , , , , , , , , at 4:49 pm by theypswife

Handspinning Tips and How-Tos

Oh my goodness, I don’t need another hobby or another thing to take up all of my time, attention, thoughts and energy, but I’m so intrigued by handspinning… I really want to buy my own drop spindle, a niddy-noddy and a couple roves of wool and make my own yarn… and then I’ll learn how to hand-dye it, then maybe I’ll learn how to weave too! Oh my goodness I’m getting carried away!

In other news, Sonja’s scarf is now 10 inches long, and I’m in the middle of ripping out one of the cables. :( For some reason it only has 5 stitches in it instead of 6. So, I think I had to go back about 4 rows, and I didn’t frog anything – just took the cable stitches off the needles and I’ll stitch them back up to where I was.

Today I taught my co-worker Teressa how to knit over our lunch break. She’s a natural – she said she felt like she’d done it before, like it was very familiar, but she doesn’t think she’s ever done it before. I’m going to teach my other co-worker Mindy to knit tomorrow. Then the three of us can sit around like grannies sipping tea, gossiping, and knitting on our lunch breaks. I love infecting others with my love for all things crafty and creative!

Someday I’m going to have a yarn shop of my own. Seriously! Never mind that last fall I wanted to become a professional genealogist, and last year at this time I was going to be a full-time piano teacher. And I also want to be a counselor, pediatrician, AND I want to be a dog breeder. You know, the poodle hybrids like my Leah – schnoodles, shia poos, poochons, lhasapoos, etc.

We need to move to a farm so I’ll have room to do all this stuff. :)

01.29.08

What is wrong with this picture???

Posted in Knitting tagged , , , , , , , , at 11:31 am by theypswife

Cotton Spandex Jersey Legging – - American Apparel Online Store

Who said that leggings could come back to life from the long-dead 80’s and infect the 21st century? Seriously, I wore leggings when I was a chubby little kid, and that’s enough to last a lifetime. WHY are leggings the second most popular item at American Apparel??

I feel like the world is spinning out of control.

me and matt in the 80s

This is me and little brother Matt in the 80’s. Believe me, I’m wearing leggings underneath the stonewashed jumper and tie-died sweatshirt with lacy sleeves.

01.28.08

The short tragedy of the lonely, ugly sock and the evil yarn-munchers.

Posted in Knitting tagged , , , at 5:00 pm by theypswife

Once upon a time, there was a tiny ball of fuschia Lion Brand Microspun yarn.She was all that was left from a project long finished. Fuschia laid in the bottom of a box of random craft supplies for over two years before, to her excitement, a hand fished her out of the box and into the light of day. She saw herself being twisted toward a pair of large needles and excitement filled her – she was about to fulfill her spun-tiny*.

For the few hours she was elated to be united once again with the needles and fingers, but as she was knitted, she realized that the sock she was being crafted into was large enough for the foot of Hagrid the half-giant, not for the dainty foot of the one knitting her. Who was this large creature that would be her master?

Throughout the next few days she discovered that her knitter was not the only one interested in her bright colors and soft, chewy texture.

She felt that she was always being watched with great interest by 3 pairs of eyes, rather than just 1. Many times when she was left out on the coffee table, or even when she was tucked away in the knitting bag, large, furry, noisy creatures would grab her in their teeth when she least suspected it and begin to shake, bite, and unroll her, like the opposite of a snowball until she was nothing but a heap of tangled cotton candy.

Time and again the noisy creatures would be scolded, lightly spanked, and her knitter would lovingly re-roll her ball and continue knitting the odd-shaped sock.

Eventually, because she was such a small amount of yarn, she was all knitted up, and instead of being matched with another ball of her clones from the store, she was attached to a distractedly different color – Turquoise -

Oh, she was so ugly, so large and misshapen, and while she knew her knitter loved her, there were glaring mistakes that appeared to go unnoticed, or, dare she think, purposefully left out of laziness??

It was apparent that her dreams of being a lovely, cherished pair of socks were to be crushed when her knitter appeared to grow bored of finishing the foot and began decreasing into the toe 4 inches too early. “oh well, at least she’s finishing me,” she thought. Her kitchener-stitched toe was lazily pulled together, and her ends weaved in jaggedly, leaving bumps that looked like scars upon her smooth stockinette stitches. What was to become of her? Who would love her since she was now big enough to fit several large feet inside of her!

Fortunately, her pain would not last long.

Promptly after finishing her, the hands that had spent so many hours knitting her on those awkward double pointed needles, turned her heel so carefully, kept her gussets tight and smooth… those hands took a second to examine her, laughed out loud, and stuffed her with quilt batting, bells, and doggy treats, cinched up the top, and threw her to the evil yarn-eaters!

They fought over her, growled at each other, smooshed the doggy treats through her gorgeous pink fibers, and as she breathed her last breath, they ripped her in half and devoured her contents. Her knitter unceremoniously took pictures of her, giggled, and threw her in the trash. And thus ended the short, sad life of the ugly, abused sock.

*ok, i know, it’s horrible, but i wanted to use spinning in there somewhere

Sonja’s Plaited Cable Scarf

Posted in Knitting, yarn tagged , , , , at 11:09 am by theypswife

Just Knitting Around » Free Pattern Plaited Cable Scarf

I started Sonja’s scarf last night. She found a scarf-sized piece of an afghan I started a while back (and never ever intend to finish) using Caron’s Simply Soft yarn and asked me if she could have it for a scarf. I said “No no no, that’s too ugly to give to my bff! I’ll use the yarn to make you a different scarf, a BETTER scarf!” Besides, it was a lengthwise-worked afghan, and it stretched out to about 7 feet long – not many people need a 7-foot long scarf. And, I needed a project that would teach me how to make cables! I don’t know what I was worried about, it’s a piece of cake. I don’t have a cable needle, but I used a dpn in the beginning and it seemed to work fine. I actually found a technique for cables on just two needles in The Knitting Answer Book, by Margaret Radcliffe. Great book, got it from the library!

Anyway, this is how far I’ve gotten!

01.26.08

Early Birthday Fun

Posted in Knitting tagged , , , , at 10:47 am by theypswife

Just for this year, today is my birthday! Every other year my birthday is February 3, but this year I have to share my big day with the Super Bowl and a Junior High Winter Retreat to Michigan. So, we’re partying today instead! It starts with me getting the week off from worship team. (Scott, you didn’t know it, but you made my week by giving me Sunday off!) Don’t get me wrong, I love being on worship team – it’s my one and only musical creative outlet right now, and it fills that hole perfectly. But it’s really nice to Wednesday night off once in a while, and I especially love getting to stay up late on Saturday and go to 2nd service at 10:30am instead of trying to go to bed early Saturday night, failing, trying to get up early Sunday morning, failing, getting to church late for practice and feeling sleepy and disheveled all day. So, I’m liking this Sunday-off business.

Next is that dear dear Sonja is coming to spend the day with me and the puppies! Topher is at Upward all day, so I would be all by my lonesome otherwise. We’re going to do laundry, crochet (Sonja) and knit (me), go look for boots for the Jr. High retreat, and ultimately watch all four Bring It On movies. Yes, it’s a girl’s day, and I can’t wait.

I also get to open up my presents from Sonja. I already know what they are, and I can’t wait. I would normally post pics of presents for everyone to enjoy, but I don’t think I’ll post these… hehe let’s just say my underwear drawer will be getting a sweet update!

Then the evening will culminate with bday dinner at Bob Chinn’s. I’ve never eaten there, but I know I’ll love it, as I love anything seafood and the entire city of Chicago can’t be wrong. (Bob Chinn’s won some big award for being a favorite or something).

So, I’m keeping this post short, as I need to get cleaned up, put away my mess, and eat my soft-boiled egg and pita before Sonjay-Gupta gets here.

Here are current pics of the Ugly Sock (I’m just practicing all the sock-making steps with scrap yarn and big needles so I can see what I’m doing before trying a tougher project), along with a photo of Toby and Leah begging to come inside out of the snow. I just had to prolong their agony long enough to snap a pic.

Stay warm!

01.25.08

Mommy’s pretty girl

Posted in Knitting tagged , , , at 10:55 am by theypswife


Mommy’s pretty girl

Originally uploaded by lisa.modrzejewski

This is my Leah. She is not a fur baby or a fur person or a fur anything. She is a puppy. Just want to make sure everyone understands this. She doesn’t even have fur, she has hair. So if I was to follow the trend, I’d have to call her my “hair person” or “hair baby” and that’s even more ridiculous.

Leah was born in the middle of June 2007, so she’s about seven months old right now. She is a Bichon Frise / Miniature Poodle Hybrid mix. She’s about 10 or 12 pounds right now, and we think she’s done growing. There have also been several times when we thought she was pregnant. Yes, she is still capable of making and bearing babies, and so is our other puppy Toby. Toby is a boy, and Leah is a girl. It’s like playing with fire. Every once in a while we’ll feel a bump in her tummy and say “Leah, do you have babies in your tummy?” We have fun. :)

Anyway, Leah is my puppy and from the first moment I held her at the breeder’s I knew that she was the dog for our family! Chris had to be persuaded to let me get such an “unmanly dog”, but now she’s daddy’s little girl.

Yes, I made the sweater with my mad knitting skillz!

01.24.08

Things I will probably write about…

Posted in Knitting tagged , , at 11:41 pm by theypswife

Just to prepare you:

Farm life
Homeschooling
Married life
Being a pastor’s wife
Knitting
Crocheting
Quilting
Doggies
Silky Terriers
Poochons
Poodle Mixes
Antiques
Fertility Awareness Method
Christian Colleges
Music
Piano
Drums
Worship Team
Country Music
Chicago living vs. Iowa living
Adult ADHD: Inattentive Type
My Friends
Lost
American Idol
The Office
Folk Music
Music History
Church
American Gladiators
Stephen Colbert
24
Survivor
Sonja
Counseling
PTSD
Dysfunctional Families
Gadgets
Fun websites
Fun toys
Electronics
Any random thing I could possibly think of
Cross-Stitching
Amish
Working with youth – jr. high and sr. high
Flight of the Conchords
Yarn, Thread, Floss, all fibers
Friends – the tv show
Video games
Zelda
Books
Libraries
Genealogy
History
Blogs
Snowboarding
Cooking
lia sophia
Movies
Researching
Depression glass
Dairy farming
Grain farming
Beef farming
other farm animals
Vintage stuff
maybe theology…. nah.
Photography, and how I wish I was good at it
Babies
Discovery Health
Siblings
Large families
My wonderful family
Mom, Matthew, Brad, Jessie, Andrew, Caleb

Seriously, I am interested in way way way way too many things – I have so many stinkin’ hobbies that I never finish anything because I get distracted and jump to my next favorite hobby. I guess that’s also called ADHD. I’ll talk about that too.

01.23.08

Another blog attempt

Posted in Knitting tagged , , , at 5:05 pm by theypswife

Yes, I’m being so “original” by starting my own blog. I’ve done blogs before, but always pooped out fairly quickly. This is evident with my Xanga blog, but I attribute that failed attempt to my being in college still, when I had no time (or business) wasting writing efforts on anything besides the papers, compositions and projects that I was already putting off for class. And then there were the years of Open Diary. I didn’t even know I was blogging back then because it was still the 90’s and everyone was still anonymous online. So I didn’t write about anything personal and I had no clue who the people were behind the “diaries” I was stalking. Anyway, I’m loving the format of wordpress – so clean, so simple, so elegant. Ahhh.

Now, in the year after earning my BA, life is much more laid-back – though it’s still crazy busy – and I want to have an outlet for the funny thoughts, encounters, and memories I have. Hope someone enjoys this besides me! :)

Hmm. I wonder what the difference is between Tags and Categories? Guess I know now. This is a new concept to me!