Taking a Break from my Knitting with...more Knitting

I have been working on the Baby Surprise for Mrs. B's grandbaby. I got the invite for the party but sadly it's on my birthday so I won't be staying for the whole thing.

It's a second kid for the parents, so Mrs. B was asking us in school in June if we thought it was appropriate to have a smaller party. I think that whenever anyone has any sort of excuse to have a party one should do so; maybe a smaller party is called for or asking for donations instead of gifts is an option. I also feel that whenever a child of the opposite gender enters a family (the 1st child a boy, the 2nd a girl, or the 1st two boys, the 3rd a girl,m visa versa and etc) you're pretty much starting from scratch in many areas so a typical baby shower is fine. Mrs. B is just a very considerate person. She never wants to offend people.

So here is a pic of the newest portions of the sweater, now with lavender stripes introduced.

I took a break from sox and the Clapotis to make a hat. Mom (Lupie) had picked out a pattern she wanted to make and I wanted to work along with her, but I was eyeing another pattern from tentenknits.

I worked on it one afternoon at Mom's house and two nights in a row when I was trying to get to sleep and finished quickly. I tried my best with the floats but know that tension will get better with practice.

Tomorrow I'm going knitting with the ChalkDust Knitters for the first time in months. I'm very excited b/c I know Karen will have the latest news from school (she is an administrative assistant in another grammar school in my district). I don't know if I mentioned it yet, but apparently my school has been closed down due to asbestos. Gee whizz, I wonder if all the cave-ins, cracks, and ceiling nipples with dripping asbestos water could have put any of my kids in danger!?!?

Warning...Crazy Teacher Rant...

I really want to know what's going on b/c I had big plans to completely re-do my classroom so that it would be more organized, easier to run, and therefore a less stressful place to be. But who knows what will happen now, and who knows whether or not all the dangerous crap will really be cleared away. I bet any amount of money it won't.

People wanna know why my little dudes can't score as high as other districts (even though we score high compared to other urban districts like our own). It's because my funny, smart, beautiful, clever, awesome, caring, inspirational, terrific students (they are really too wonderful for words) are going to school in a century old building that was permitted to slowly desintigrate. They look at drab beige and brown walls and floors every day, my posters and decorations stretching to cover up the veins of water damage and dusty cracks that have been unrepared for years.

Then people try to blame the custodians. I imagine keeping my school clean must be something like trying to dust and restore an Egyptian pyramid after someone plays paintball inside.

Teacher Rant Over

I went out recently with two women I went to high school with. It's weird to call them women:) I still feel 18 sometimes. I think if someone had asked me which one of us I thought would be married and in a stable teaching possition ten years later I would have been my last guess. I tell my students all the time that sometimes life takes you to the complete opposite of where you thought you'd be. And in my case it ended up to be the best thing as I sit here typing next to the man I never thought I'd want to meet, in the home I never imagined I'd own.

And in music news I stumbled across the two year old album of the band She Want Revenge and really liked it. So one may want to check it out...it sits just perfect between Joy Division and The Cars in my iPod, but I wouldn't say it's exactly like either.

As usual...

I was the ultimate klutz and sprained my ankle. I've been hanging around at home, unable to get help on the Surprise Baby Sweater, so I put it aside until I can get to Pepper and Mom and see the ones they are making (now almost complete).

In the mean time I started a sweater based on the Boobholder by Stephanie Japel of Fitted Knits fame.

I'm not making puffy sleeves and plan to make mine longer and looser...we'll see. The yarn is Schaefer - my favorite!

Here's a bonus pic of Smudge being cute near the Noro Silk Garden sweater I finished a while back.

Current Projects 7/12/07

I should have been working on this stuff today, but I spent the day goofing off:)



This is a toddler sweater. The white, periwinkle, and green yarns are all Caron Simply Soft, just like the Bunny Sweater . Some people get weird when it comes to yarn and insist that more expensive yarns are better, or that items made from inexpensive yarn aren't as nice. Basically, I don't care what anyone else thinks and I use the yarn that feels or looks best for me.

The varigated yarn that looks greenish-blue is Araucania Pehuen. Proof that I do mix it up as far as pricing is concerned. I really loved this yarn and had very little of it in this color. Mom suggested I use it for something special so I chose to take a risk here. I don't know how all of this will wash together, but either way, the process was nice. The Caron is so nice to work with, as is the Pehuen, but in different ways.

The next piece is something I started during the last few days of school. I had no work to do in the evenings and didn't want to go back to this Fitted Knits piece I have sitting around quite yet (I've ripped it up three times). It's a from the top down raglan and I just decided to wing it. I had some Noro Silk Garden I got on sale and it seems to be coming out o-tay.

I'm bored and figured I'd try this. Maybe I'll stick with it. Maybe I'll junk it.

Anyway, this was a pattern I dug out of one of my mom's baby books...it may be a Debbie Bliss pattern. The yarn was Caron in black and TLC in lime green. I swiss darned the bunny on there and gave her a 3D cotton tail. We're making baby clothes in prep, but I'm not prego yet.

The color in the photo is off, but you get the picture.