And one last post

Here it is. I’m getting set apart as a missionary tomorrow night. Which most likely means no more internet (and even if it is allowed, I won’t have time!).

So this blog is on a temporary hiatus, until I return from Sweden in a year and a half. However, in about December I will be able to start e-mailing my family every week, and my brother will post some of my e-mails on my special mission blog, Haley’s Mission to Sweden (http://systerhegstrom.wordpress.com).

Check it out. And if you want to write me, my mission address is on the “about” page of both of my blogs.

Vi ses!

One more knitting picture

I finally finished my scarf!

That’s my fifth and final of the summer. This is what became of that delicious Inca Cotton yarn (Joseph Galler, Inc.) that I bought at Green Planet Yarn. It took the whole twist, minus a few inches. I’m going to attempt to write a pattern for it at the bottom of this post.

The other thing I wanted to say was that I was originally going to take it with me to Sweden, but then I heard about the Red Scarf Project, and now I’m seriously considering giving my beloved scarf up. The Red Scarf Project takes donated homemade scarves and gives them to foster kids entering college. Did that just break your heart? It did mine. I just wish I’d heard about it a month or two ago, because I could have made an extra scarf just for the project. As it is, this is what I have. And it was fun to make, but I don’t really need it. I’m kind of a scarf addict, so I’ve got plenty. It’s always way more fun to make scarves for other people, anyways.

(p.s. I know my scarf isn’t red, but they accept any gender-neutral color)

The reason I mention the Red Scarf Project at all isn’t to make myself look good (remember, “considering” giving up the scarf means “considering” keeping it, too :p ). But I figure that the more links there are to this amazing organization, the more a few other ambitious knitters out there will find out about it. Even if I don’t give this scarf up, I might inspire some other people to donate to the project this year (The current submission period this year is September 1 through October 31, so you knitters out there better get started!). And now that I know about it, I have some good knittins to look forward to when I come back! Besides my goal to make a sweater.

Okay, here’s my attempt at writing a knitting pattern, so unless you’re really interested, you can stop reading now. :p

Haley’s Cable Scarf

Cast on 38 stitches.

So I started and finished with a little bit of ribbing just to make the ends smooth, so it’s about 6 rows of knit 1, purl 1, on both sides.

Then the cabling starts.

Row 1: Purl 2, knit 6, purl 2, knit 4, purl 2, knit 6, purl 2, knit 4, purl 2, knit 6.

Row 2: Knit 2, purl 6, knit 2, purl 4, knit 2, purl 6, knit 2, purl 4, knit 2, purl 6.

Repeat Rows 1 and 2 one more time each.

Then you do the same stitching for Row 1, except now you do the cable stitch-switching (I’m a great pattern-writer—you can tell I know what I’m talking about! :p ). It looks something like this:

Purl 2, put 3 stitches on cable needle, knit 3, knit the 3 stitches off the cable needle, purl 2, knit 4, purl 2, do the same thing with the cable needle, purl 2, knit 4, purl 2, do the same with the cable needle, purl 2.

Do the next row just like Row 2, then do the same Row 1, Row 2 pattern for 10 rows

When you feel like your scarf is just about long enough (for me it was when I could tell I was running out of yarn), do (I think) only 5 rows (Row 2, Row 1, Row 2, Row 1, Row 2) after the cable switcharoo, then 6 rows of knit 1, purl 1 ribbing.

Bind off.

I’m sorry it’s not more concrete than that, but I was just kind of figuring it out as I went along. You might have to play with it a little to get it to look right. Just remember that you do the cable switcharoos when you’re knitting on the front side and any switching between ribbing and cables is done on the front side. If that makes sense.

Good luck!

A note on politics

I don’t know if anyone’s noticed, but I’m going to be gone before the November election, and yet I’m encouraging people to vote on this or that (vote Obama! vote yes on California proposition 8!). Don’t worry. I’m a permanent absentee voter. I will in fact be perfectly capable of voting in this election. All of you staying home, it’s even easier for you. Don’t let your vote go to waste. Research the issues, even a little bit, and make sure you understand what your vote means. And then use it. I don’t care if you disagree with me. Just play your role as an active and invested citizen of the United States of America. Remember Dante: The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in a time of moral crisis, remain neutral.

Don’t be a fence-sitter. Vote.

T-minus two weeks and counting…

That’s right. Two weeks from today I will be entering the MTC. That’s crazy. I had my farewell on Sunday, which went really well. People definitely pay more attention when you tell relevant stories (which makes the things you’ve learned more personal) and bear your testimony from the heart. I’d like to think that the only people not paying attention were screeching children. Actually, a lot of people couldn’t be there for one reason or another. My best friend Allison’s knee went out (she showed up at my house later in a knee brace…which just shows you how much she loves me ). One person had a migraine (poor kid!). Lots of people were out of town or had a simultaneous commitment they couldn’t get out of. And that’s fine, because a farewell’s not supposed to be some big pageant anyway. It’s just a missionary speaking in church before they leave. It’s nice to know that peoples’ lives will go on without me while I’m gone.

I’m just tying up loose ends—like calling Wells Fargo and telling them I’m going to be in Sweden for a year and a half so they shouldn’t worry when purchases start popping up on my card over there—and gathering a few more bits and bobs from my list. I bought towels on Monday, for example. And today I’m going to Costco to order new glasses and contacts—the contacts for the first time ever except for my trial pair, the glasses with a brand new prescription. I think I’m getting emo-type frames so that’ll be fun. I thought my old glasses were cute when I got them, because I thought they looked like little granny glasses (I must have been the only 18-year-old in the world who thought it’d be cute to look like a grandma), but now they’re just kind of blah. Not to mention the right lens keeps popping out in the occasional mad break for freedom.

I also think I’ve more-or-less got the luggage situation figured out. I’ve decided to use my brother’s old suitcases after all. They’re used-looking, but no worse than brand-new ones would look after a few transfers (with an Elder. I think “normal use” by a Sister and “normal use” by an Elder constitute entirely different things). He left his carry-on behind in England, but those are easier to acquire (in my opinion) than a whole big new set. Cheaper too. We have some laying around the house, and I’m not picky about my luggage matching, so I think it’ll be just fine. As long as I don’t go over the weight limit.

You know, and it still hasn’t really sunk in that I’m leaving so soon, and that I’m going to Sweden, of all places. I think that every time I start to feel excited, I squash it down and go back into denial mode. I wonder why that is. Am I worried about being too excited, so I repress the feeling? And why would that worry me? Do I think it’s too good to be true? Or am I getting swallowed up in fears and worries and stress? Stress, in getting everything ready, fears and worries that something will suddenly come up to not let me go, or that I’ll get out there and go back to my lazy habits and fail?

And yet, as I’m typing all of this, I’m completely, totally calm. More emotion-squashing? Who knows. Jitters have always affected me in weird ways.

Save the Family

Joy Saunders Lundberg and Janice Kapp Perry have teamed up to write a song called “Save the Family,” and a video has been created with this song in the background and posted on YouTube. Its primary purpose is to spread the word about the importance of the family and to support California Proposition 8 this November. Okay, it’s Mormon pop, and therefore just the teeniest bit cheesy, but its message is good and its moral is strong. If Americans (and, right now, specifically Californians) do not stand up to pressure and protect the family, our nation will crumble. It is as simple as that. If we cannot support and respect a president who has cheated on his wife, how can we let this fly?

Watch the video.

Vote yes on Proposition 8.

Here’s the url. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1GRQGc5GQ0. Pass it along.

T–minus 20 days and counting…

That’s right. In 20 days I will be in the MTC. That’s crazy. I don’t even have luggage yet (yeah, I really need to get cracking on that one).

This week has been a flurry of unproductivity. Well, I went to the temple again on Tuesday and I consider that VERY productive. And I’ll say, I already feel a lot better about it! It wasn’t as scary this time because I actually knew what to expect, and I had some idea what I was doing. And I got to go see the Temple President and ask him all sorts of questions, and that helped too. He was awesome! He told me to come back, because he likes talking about temple stuff. I know that things in the temple are too sacred to mention outside, but inside I love that you can ask questions. It truly is a house of learning, and that furthers my belief that it is a little piece of heaven on earth. I think heaven is the one place where you can ask any question you want and get the full and true answer. It is also a place that never runs out of questions, if that makes sense. Because every answer you get opens up more and more questions (like that saying that it is the truly learned who truly realize how little they know), and you never stop learning! You keep learning and progressing and growing throughout eternity.

I’ve been puttering around and getting all sorts of little things done, but in reality we should be cleaning the house and getting ready for our “not” open house Sunday. I’m speaking on church Sunday (everyone speaks in church just prior to serving a mission and just after returning), and so we’re having food at our house for anyone who wants to stop by and say goodbye to me. We’re not really supposed to have a “farewell” and make a big hullabaloo about me leaving, but it does make sense to have a time when anyone can come to visit and say goodbye, since I’ll be gone for a year and a half. It also seems soon to say goodbye, but next Sunday is the primary program, and the Sunday after that I’ll have already left for Utah, to enter the MTC that Wednesday. It’s funny how things sneak up on you. I think part of it is also because I invited a few nonmembers to come hear me speak, and it seems rude to be like, “well, thanks for coming to see me, you should either go to gospel essentials or go home.” It’s much kinder to say “well, there’s food at my house if you’re interested and you have some time to chat!” Another thing kind of weighing on my mind about the whole matter is I feel like I’m inviting everyone last-minute. But then, I wasn’t given much time between when I got my call and when I’m supposed to report. I remember with my brother it was a few months and he had plenty of time to prepare, and people kind of had advance notice. Oh well. I’m glad I don’t have to wait so long!

I also went and visited some of my old high school teachers this week. They always love to chat, but every year they grow a little more distant, a little less involved in my life (and I in theirs). That’s fine; I mean, that’s the way it’s supposed to be. They nave a new fresh crop of students every year to worry about, and while they’re happy to have made a difference in my life, that time has come and passed and it’s time for new students for them and new teachers for me. It’s not like their entire universe revolves around when one little old student comes back to visit. I guess it’s always just a bit sad to grow up and move on.

And I can’t make a post today without dwelling on the fact that it’s September 11. Has it really been seven years? This day was made Patriot Day, a holiday to remember what happened. But what are we going to do with that memory? What does it really mean? Other holidays are easier. Independence Day you remember the signing of the Declaration of Independence and remember how thankful you are to be an American Citizen and to have the basic freedoms of life. Thanksgiving you remember all sorts of things you’re thankful for, one of those being, once again, living here in America and having religious freedom that the pilgrims came all the way across the Atlantic Ocean for. Christmas is the birth of Christ, wherein we give gifts to each other and remember the one great gift of His sacrifice and Atonement. And so on and so forth. But Patriot Day? I think that what it means to me (and therefore what it should mean to others, of course :p) is a day to remind us that there is ugliness and hate in the world and to make us ask ourselves what we are doing to combat that ugliness and hate. What are we doing to foster peace and understanding, not just with other countries but among our own fellow citizens? It is a day to remind us that diplomacy and discussion and reason will always be more effective and more noble than acts of violence.

conta–whaat?? part 2

So I got contacts on Wednesday. Weird. Seriously, they’re really weird. I’m getting more used to them now, but it’s still weird putting them in and taking them out. I thought yesterday there was something seriously wrong with the prescription in my right eye, but I put the contact back in the cleaner and it was fine—I’d probably just smudged it with finger oils or something. The optometrist still thinks I’m weird because it’s such a weak prescription, but it is nice to be able to see street signs. And I think it’ll get better when I’m more used to them. Right now I kind of get a headache if I stare too hard at something. Well, if they still bother me after a couple of weeks I’ll figure I’m not meant for contacts. I guess we’ll see! The adventures continue…

yet another life step…

I went through the temple for the first time today and took out my endowments. It was a really happy experience. Overwhelming and kinda confusing, but happy. I can see the truth in what goes on in there, and I’m excited to go back and learn more. One of the nice sisters said it’s like reading the scriptures: the first time you read them, they’re pretty confusing, and there’s tons of information, and they’re even kind of boring. But each time you read them, you grow to understand and love them more and more. I want to go back again and again so I can understand and love the temple more and more. I’m not too worried that I didn’t quite “get” everything. I will. I’ll get there.

More needles!

So the knitting excursion to Green Planet Yarn yesterday was a success! I have brought another convert to the world of knitting, and she loves it too! I also made quite a bit of headway on my own scarf; I’ll have to put a picture up soon. And it was fun to see all the regulars as well as some new faces. I always like making friends! And I got to tell Gunilla the Swedish employee that I’m going to Sweden for a year and a half! She was jealous because she hasn’t been there in sixteen years but she was happy for me.

Plus it was fun to get to know my coworker better. We stopped at her house and I got to meet her parents, and I guess I’m not the typical friend she brings home (I’m like, clean-cut or something?). She got a kick out or saying “bye, we’re going knitting!” to her parents. Haha.

Good times!

Needles!

Knitting update: I finished the cable scarf a couple weeks ago and promptly gave it to Tashina as a birthday present. I also completed another checkerboard scarf, quite like my first one—same yarn and everything—except narrower, and gave it to my mom. See, she coveted the first one I made and kept hoping I’d change my mind about giving it to Allison. But Allison’s birthday came first. Game over. Anyways, now she has her own Haley original to keep her neck warm and fuzzy.

And I have finally started my own scarf with that delicious Inca cotton I bought. It’s got some fat cables and some skinny columns, which I’ve considered making into cables as well, going the opposite direction, but I’m not sure I want to think that hard. My goodness that cotton is soft! Someday I’m going to make me a sweater out of it.

And if all goes well, I’ll go back to Green Planet Yarn tomorrow with a coworker who wants to learn how to knit, and I promised her I’d teach her before I leave on my mission. We’d better get ‘er done soon, because I’m T-minus 30 days and counting!

I also think I might be getting a carpal tunnel flare-up in my left wrist from knitting so much. Well my wrists will get a nice long vacation in Sweden, because I won’t be doing TOO much typing, or piano, or knitting, or guitar. Mama’s got bigger fish to fry!