Almost done!!

Now I just need to pull the light blue waste yarn and knit the other way. I'm really happy with the way this is coming out!

Ohio Historical Society

I had forgotten about this picture!

This is Kevin and me a couple of years ago. He played on an old-time baseball team (no gloves, etc - 1860's rules) and I was the scorekeeper. I made this dress from patterns I made out of grocery bags. :-) The dress was originally made for the Yankee Peddler.

Election hooey

This is a great article - a great argument for election reform. I think Jimmy Carter is a much better former President than he was a President.

I'm surrounded by mental midgets

My job should be cancelled on the days of a full moon. The juvenile delinquents seem to go off of the deep end. I threw out my first JD today, caught one cheating on a quiz, and 2 others walked out (which equals an automatic 3 day suspension out of school). I've written 7(!!) office referrals, and I've been called all kinds of lovely names, to boot.

Makes me want to line up every one of their parents and slap the holy hell out of them. Somebody seems to have neglected to teach their children how to behave like human beings. However, when you meet some of their parents, they're even bigger a**holes than their kids.

Sign in my room: "Be good or Mrs. Craigs will beat you with a stick"

Don't I wish I could...

It's a good thing I don't drink, or I'd probably be a raging alcoholic by now.

Almost there!!

If you've never done colorwork, I highly recommend that you go to Schoolhouse Press and order the Dubbelmossa Kit. Meg's instructions make it incredibly easy! I never even attempted colorwork until this project...

Life is but a dream...

I've been neglecting my blog - oops!

The Dubbelmossa is nearly to the top! I'll be tearing out the cast-on soon and finishing it. Hopefully by this weekend. I need to start figuring out Christmas presents! Only about half of the people I'm related to actually appreciate anything I make; the rest get gift certificates. I have to wait until October 10th for the "family gift exchange" draw; that should still leave plenty of time to create something.

Updated Dubbelmossa

Progress since Friday afternoon:



I'm really enjoying this one! :-)

Monty Python!!

I think I just found Kelson's Christmas present! This is what every 12 year old needs!! He would absolutely love it! And maybe this for his birthday in May. I'd like to try to get my hands on the Flying Circus Boxed Set for him for Christmas, but $200 is a little bit steep.

And so it goes

I've decided that my job only has one redeeming quality: when I have 15 or fewer juvenile delinquents in the room, I can usually knit. Other than that, my job blows. In addition to having to deal with the *cream of the crop* in this school, I get to be stuck in the middle of the infighting between assistant principals. Throw the used car saleman (oops, I mean principal) into that mix, and it's like watching a battle of wits between unarmed people. Ugh.

There's only so long one can sit in a windowless room with a large group of JDs before one begins to lose one's mind. If I had a break or two, it wouldn't be too bad, but 7-1/2 hours in this room with only a 26 minute lunch in the middle of the day is inhumane. I hope the union does something about this soon...

Enough griping for the day! The doublemossa is coming along beautifully - I'll have more progress pictures when I get home. I have 4 pounds of natural unspun roving from Bartlett Yarns; I think I will dye one of them and make another doublemossa from that when this one is finished.

Just found out this morning that I'm going to be a great-aunt in February. At least I'll have time after Christmas to work on something for the baby (and I can get the Christmas presents done!)

It's official - i've lost it!

In 32 years of knitting, I've never done any color work (other than the occasional stripe). So of course, in order to teach myself how to do this, I have to start with a dubbelmossa! I got the kit yesterday afternoon from Schoolhouse Press and so far, I have to admit, it's going pretty well. :-)
The light blue yarn is my waste yarn for the invisible cast-on

Somebody hire an editor!!!

I hate, hate, hate it when I open a new issue of a magazine (or worse yet, a book) and see things like this:

"Because it is very easy to loose track of the steeked area, use a contrasting color of thread running up each side as markers."

This monstrosity was on page 25 in the Summer 2004 issue of InKnitter's.

AAARRRRGH!!!!! As an English teacher, I am offended when I see things like this. I swear, one of these days I'm going to have a field day with a red pen and mail an issue back to the editor. I've done enough editing in my day to justify my actions, I think.

There is no excuse for the existence of sentences like that one. Unless you've hired a 17 year old as your lone editor, you should be ashamed of yourself.

vroom!

And, just that fast, the school day's over! I wish they all went that quickly!

something new!

I just taught myself to double-knit! Criminy, it's easy! Time consuming, but easy. I'm making a DK square, with 2 garter st on all sides.

I'm thinking of using a bunch of my scrap yarn, making a bunch of squares, but putting a piece of quilt batting in each little pouch before I do the final 2 rows. Stitch the squares together - kind of a knitted patchwork quilt. Good Lord, that would be a warm blanket!!

And...it's Wednesday

Only 2 JDs in my room today, with one coming in later from the vocational school. Tomorrow should be intersting; one of the 8 lined up for tomorrow is a kid who threatened me last year.

I have to go to get an ultrasound on my leg after school today; that rates right up there with cleaning the cat box. The surgeon who was checking my "lump" last week (which was nothing - hooray!) was more concerned with the fact that my left calf aches, throbs and swells on a rather random basis.

Tomorrow, though, my Dad's coming up to visit after school, and he's bringing an ethernet card - I'm getting a cable modem! Woohoo!!! It's going to be weird, though - I've had the same email address for almost 7 years!

Lamb's Pride Sweater

 


With a cable up the middle, done in the round. This is the one that I just frogged back 4" because of a boo-boo in the cable. :-)

Alpaca/mohair/nylon glove

 


I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing here - I'm winging it as I go! This is one strand of black alpaca, and one strand of mohair/nylon that used to be an Ann Taylor Loft sweater. :-)

Golden Retriever/Tunis handspun scarf

It's hard to see, but the fur really "blooms" as I'm knitting it. It's trying to roll on the circular needles, so it looks like there's a big bump in the middle 

yippee skippee

Back to school today - I could have easily taken another sick day, and I probably should have. I still feel kinda yucky. I have 38 sick days banked up, after all... I've only taken 2 sick days (because I was sick, not my kids) in the last 3 years - and I always, always come back to an absolute mess. Today was no exception. My sub must have been an absolute idiot.

Spent yesterday with Mom, Dad, Michelle and her kids. We went out to eat for Mom and Dad's birthdays. Dad turned 63 on Saturday (9/11!) and Mom turns 63 tomorrow. Michelle's husband stayed home to put down floor tiles, and mine was still in southern Ohio on his testosterone-laden hunting/fishing/drinking weekend. All in all, a nice day, even if I still felt crummy!

I started making a scarf yesterday out of the wool/golden retriever blend that I spun on Friday. (Pics later when I get time) It's really nice, but boy, does it shed! I have it spun really tightly, too. It's for a 70+ year old woman who works here at the high school as a study hall monitor. I think she'll be surprised! :-) The retriever is from her son's dog - she brought me 2 huge ziploc bags full last week. Actually, I was happy to get it spun, just to get it out of the house.

New sign for my classroom:
"Life hasn't been the same since that house fell on my sister."
- I'm going to put it right over my desk.

I think this is a new record for this room - this is our third week of school, and I haven't had to throw out a single student, and I haven't been called a single swear word. The juvenile delinquents have actually been rather quiet so far. Now I'm wondering when the other shoe is going to drop...

I have a staff meeting after school today. I have yet to *ever* go to a staff meeting that could not have been covered in a memo.

Margaretta Bear

This is a duplication of the 1959 Margaretta letter sweater for my Dad's 45th reunion next weekend. I spun it from white and dyed corriedale, and then designed and knit the sweater. There's a "1959" duplicate-stitched on the left shoulder. The "M" is felted, and then stitched on (just like a "real" varsity letter!)

My first attempt at design! :) They're going to raffle it off at the reunion - I'm kind of hoping that my dad buys all of the tickets!

COOL!!!

I called Schoolhouse Press to check on an order for Knitter's Almanac and some back issues of Wool Gatherings. Meg Swansen answered the phone!! Of course, I sounded like Elmer Fudd holding his nose, bit I got to talk to MS! Woohoo! She was very, very polite and told if my order wasn't here by Monday, to call her back. :)

Wow! Now I've talked to 2 famous people on the phone - Sandy Maine and Meg Swansen.

sick days suck

And I think that says it all.

Although, I've spent the first part of the day with my drum carder, a tunis fleece, and a friend's golden retreiver's fur. Then I plopped my butt in front of the CSI marathon on Spike TV, and started Queen Matilda to spinning. I now have 2 bobbins full of worsted weight, ready to ply.

At least I didn't have to spend the day in bed...but I sure wish I could breathe!

ick

I hate it when I don't feel well. My sinuses feel like they're going to explode, and my throat hurts. Blech. I really don't want to be here today - luckily, I only have a few JDs to deal with.

Another bag of acrylic yarn to do something with. Boy, some of this stuff is *really* old! Some of them have Kresge's labels on them, and Kresge's became KMart at least 30 years ago! I also have some with Gold Circle price tags on them - they went out of business in the mid 70's.

Warning - if you are going to knit old acrylic yarn, don't use Bryspun needles. That is, of course, unless you really like the sound and feel of squeaking yarn. *shudder*

Shawl

This is the cat's paw/old shale shawl from Spin-Off (I'll have to look to see which issue). I finished it at the end of the summer - it's spread out over my double bed before I blocked it. I made it from Lamb's Pride worsted. It should be a little bit bigger, but I ran out of yarn. :)


Unfortunately, I can only block it as big as my double bed. I'm going to have to take it down to Mom and Dad's and block it out on their king size mattress.

This is for Niqui!!! :)

Swiped from another board...



Translated:

Wash with warm water
Use mild soap.
Dry flat.
Do not use bleach.
Do not dry in the dryer.
Do not iron.
We are sorry that our President is an idiot.
We did not vote for him.

test!

This is a test of the emergency blogging system. This is only a test.

If this were a true blogging emergency, I don't know what the hell you would do.

Now...let's see if the "publish" feature is working yet...

another oldie but goodie

One of my favorites!


Go to Google.

Type in "miserable failure" (without the quotation marks)

Hit the "I'm feeling lucky" button

Ain't that the truth! :-Þ

I feel special!

swiped from my own LJ a long time ago:


You are Merino Wool.
You are very easygoing and sweet. People like to
keep you close because you are so softhearted.
You love to be comfortable and warm from your
head to your toes.


What kind of yarn are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

bleh

Another school day has gone by and I feel like I've accomplished absolutely nothing.

The juvenile delinquent parade starts tomorrow. At least they took some of the chairs away so I can only seat 17 instead of the 28 that they were throwing at me last year.

Woo. And again, woo.

I did work on the alpaca/mohair gloves that I started while we were camping - I have the index finger and most of the thumb done. I have no idea if this correct order of the fingers; I've never made a glove before, and I have no pattern. I did look at a magazine article on making thumb gussets, though - I'm making asymmetrical gussets. Maybe I'll get a picture up later.

One of the librarians (oops! Sorry! Media Specialists! I've already been yelled at twice this year for that gaffe) gave me a bag of yarn this morning. Mostly old acrylic (one partial skein of black wool, though), but it seems to be in good shape. She said it was her mom's, and that she'll have a bigger bag tomorrow. I think I'll use the acrylic to make "squares" for a good cause. It's a great way to practice new stitch patterns, and to use up non-wool yarn.

frogging...

for S's sake (or is it N's?) :)

Frogging is the wanton destruction of knitting. At least it feels that way.
Basically, after you finish crying hysterically because you found a mistake 15 rows down, you take out the needles and start ripping the stitches out.

home from camping - more later.

a-camping we will go

And we're (almost) off to Cadiz. Camping/hunting/fishing stuff is packed, and I'm still debating which project(s) to take with me. I wish I could take my wheel...

Definitely the socks. I decided against the Einstein - the idea of sitting next to a pond, fishing on a sunny 85 degree day with a large pile of wool in my lap doesn't exactly appeal to me.

Ooh! I know! I'll start the black alpaca gloves for my aunt's Christmas present. :)

Kelson's up already - need to go wake up Kyle so we can get moving. Kevin has the Durango almost packed. I suppose it would help if I got my butt off of the computer. :-Þ

too pooped to knit

or do much of anything else, for that matter. Kevin's finally settled down and is watching the Browns game - which is good for his health (otherwise, I would have had to beat him in the head with a large stick). Camping stuff is mostly together; we can finish packing in the morning. Geez, you'd think we were leaving for a 2 week trip to the jungle!

Best thing? No teenagers (except my own, and they're pre-) until Tuesday! Woohoo!

Neener neener!

You are a masterful knitter! I don't know how you
got this result, but what the hell... Enjoy
your title, and try selling some of your
"unvented" patterns- you may make
enough for that bundle of qiviut you've been
drooling over...

Are you a knitter?
brought to you by Quizilla


(there's supposed to be Quizilla stuff down here, but it doesn't seem to want to show itself)

camping and other assorted hoohaw

Got home from school and decompressed with my drum carder for awhile. I blended some Targhee fleece with a friend's dog hair...it would have been pretty nice, but I think the Targhee needs another washing. I blended some shetland with angora and cashmere - I think I have a winner with that one!

Last minute camping trip. We're going to Cadiz, to Doc's horse farm. Trip to the grocery store and Kmart (Kelson outgrew his 3rd pair of shoes in 3 months - ugh). I'm going with the Rainman here...KMart sucks. I think they're getting ready to close this one - it looks like they haven't restocked anything in months.

Now Kevin's on a tear around the house, trying to find our camping/fishing/hunting gear. I'm just trying to figure out which project(s) to take along. I'd love to take the Einstein, but I don't know about taking a 2 lb cone of mohair loop along. Maybe a couple of socks...

whew

Finally - the weekend. And a long one, to boot.

No "customers" yet in CLC; my first scheduled juvenile delinquent is next Wednesday. I looked at his discipline record in the computer; last year (in 8th grade) he was suspended for fighting, and again for threatening a student. Then he was expelled for threatening the same student again. His parents must be so proud.
*oh boy* Something to look forward to.

Spent the day frogging a sweater from Goodwill - 70% lambswool, 20% angora, and 10% nylon. Laceweight. I did one sleeve today, and I already have enough for at least a pair of socks. I may double this with the mohair yarn that I frogged last week. Lots of expensive yarn in these sweaters! Not bad, for a $1.50 investment. :) The next sweater to be dismantled is a cashmere/silk...

There's the bell! Woohoo!

ribbitt, ribbitt

Damn it - I found a mistake in my cable 3" down. I'm just anal enough that it has to come out. I HATE frogging!

boy, do I feel stupid

I can take this $%(&@ computer apart and rebuild it from scratch, but I can't figure out how to put links and stuff on the side of my blog.


Grrr

Nobody in corrective learning today. I left Kelson's sock at home - it's too close to the end (!) to keep working on it without measuring. I brought my Lamb's Pride (Prairie Fire - I LOVE this color) cabled sweater - in the round - to work on. I have about 8 inches done (pics later - after I get past this brain cramp that I'm having and figure out how to do it)

Socks

I need some motivation on socks.
Boy - that sounds strange if you take it out of context!

I have no problem making the first one...and they come out beautifully! I just need to actually finish a pair, instead of one complete and one half done. Kevin and Kelson are both waiting on pairs of hunting socks; both pair are *nearly* done - I just got sick of them.