Moment of Silence

To begin, let’s all take a small moment of silence in honor of the Tar Heels who just weren’t able to play their top game during OT against the Hoyas last night. While I’m not a Carolina alum, a lot of my friends are and apparently the love of college basketball is contagious because I caught it this season. We had lots of fun cheering on the Heels throughout the regular season, to an ACC title, and to the Sweet Sixteen in the NCAA. This just wasn’t their year to take it all the way. So, we’ll take a moment to mourn, but only a moment, no need to get all depressed about it. I mean, after all, it is just a basketball game. And most importantly, there’s always next year!

Other than the basketball viewing, I had a pretty busy weekend. My little sister’s middle school chorus put on a production of Guys and Dolls. And I have to say, that her school continues to amaze me. I remember the first time I went to see one of her chorus concerts when she was in 6th grade – I was all ready to endure through an hour of bad singing and painful sounds, but surprisingly, they are actually good. And the show Friday night was no exception. Her choral director went all out with sets and even had them in period costumes, complete with hair and stage makeup. Everyone did a fabulous job and I found myself forgetting that I was sitting in a middle school auditorium watching 13 year olds, and considered it an enjoyable night at the theatre.

I was able to find a little bit of time for some creative pursuits. Last week I started on this Double Wedding Ring Quilt. The pattern is from an out-of-print Annie’s Attic leaflet called Ultimate Quilt Afghans. Quilt-inspired afghans have become a small obsession of mine recently, and the double wedding ring pattern is one that I’ve always loved in quilting, so I was excited to find a crocheted version. But this has proven to be one of the most challenging patterns I’ve undertaken since getting back into crochet about a year ago.

I think that I’ve finally figured it out though. I was able to get one complete ring finished (see picture below). Adding the white sections was the hardest part, I’m not sure if it’s the way the pattern is written, or if it was just me being dense, but I tried about eleventy-million ways on the first small white insert before understanding how it was really supposed to work. Now that I understand that, it’s just difficult and fiddly with all the different pieces to get them to line up. Definitely not relaxing or mindless crochet, but the final result is worth it.