Tue and Wed

Yesterday was a busy fun day. Taught the sign section for Silent Night to South Middle School Sensations in their teachers absence. Computer drove me nuts with crashes but all is okay. Great classes at the studio including a 50% increase in the Belly Dance Class from 2 to 4! I just think it's so much fun that I didn't mind teaching the 2, but 4 is 2x the fun. Wish I had a few more in my young adult classes, had quite a few register but changed minds as the real world of work interferred.

Came home and knit on my mitten, nearly finished with it, wish I'd done the long cuff all in ribbing though, oh well.

Today while waiting for computer to finish doing something I knit 3 rows on the never ending shawl, correcting 2 mistakes in transit instead of ripping back, yeah me!

and today Lynn in KC asked to publish the poem I put up here in her guilds newsletter. That's fun too!

Tomorrow will not be much fun as Sid and I must go to a funeral for a friend of his. Richard was only 51 and a lot of fun to be around at the few ham meetings I attended. I think his massive heart attack really shook Sid up considering Richard was younger than he is and apparently in better health. Unfortunately, we will be attending more funerals in the future.

sitebuilder grrr

Okay, all I needed to do to the wesite was to add the Moscow Ballet button to the navigation bar, link it to the page, create the photo page, link it and publish it all. Sitebuilder locked up 3 THREE!!! times, crashing computer each time. Finally, I just deleted the blankety -blank page with the audition photo's on it and was able to save and publish...weird and frustrating!

Nearly done with mitten #1, I think I should have done the cuff to thumb gussett a little differently, but I wanted long mittens so my wrists wouldn't get cold when I shoveled snow this winter and I think they will work just fine. Mitten #2 may be a few stitches smaller across the palm, doesn't matter since I wasn't planning on entering in the fair as they'll look worn after snow shoveling this winter!

Nutcracker!

Wow I have been so busy with the Nutcracker auditions that I haven't had time to do much of anything! My 3 readers must be going into withdrawal! (ha!) Having re-knit the toe of the tiger socks several times, I finally have the 2nd sock finished, picked back the toe of the 1st sock and am nearly done with it. I'm really surprised at how different the Opal knit up in this regard than the other yarns (Regia mostly) that I've been using. Still not entirely happy with it but, should be okay. I need to reknit toes in a couple of pair, and was just going to get a skein of Ivory Opal but reconsidering now.. hmmm

YARN OR STRING
Yarn or string, making things
Loopty-loop, through the hoop
Over under around and off
Cats and yarn both are soft
Petting cats you make them purr
Petting yarn feel the fur
Acrylic yarns from a beak(er)
Wool yarns from a sheep(er)
Doesn’t matter which you choose
Only matters that you use
Skills and talents nature gave
To knit, to use, to give, to save

Finished .... not

I finished the shawl last night, carefully measureing out my remaining yarn and determining that I had enough to do 2 rows of plain knit then the bind off...but after much looking and wearing and showing to friends....I've decided that it's not finished, it's too small...so...I'll pick back and continue on...I bought a skein of the woolease in the center band intending to work a border with it, guess I'll cross that pond when I come back to it. Everyone likes it, so I guess it's worth continuing on with the project. The right hand edge looks fine but something is wrong with the left hand edge, must have gotten an extra stitch or something, which is why I wanted the border.

"Back " to work!

Studio reopens today! (Not that it was ever closed!) Yay hooray! I am so lucky to love my job! I can't wait to see all my babies again, and all the new babies are coming to play with me today with a Bitty class for 3's and 2 PreK Combo classes for 4's and 5's . What fun!

I'm about 4 rows from ending the shawl, but now I want to add a knitted edging to it. I'm looking for a pattern that will teach me how to do it. I understand the knitted edging but don't understand how to do it...I think that I pick up a stitch from the edge, cast on my number of stitches, work back to the edge, pick up another stitch etc, but not sure.

Leslie says that I have at least 2 readers, how fun, I've always thought I was just typing away to myself!

Lisette and Tony didn't get to come over yesterday and I was missing "family" time, but my brother Eric sent me some photo's from the family get together in Omaha so I felt a little included that way. It's hard being the only one who doesn't live there. I don't feel very connected to everyone. Oh well... guess that's life.

Determined to get a number of things done this am that I have been putting off so I'm off to make a 2nd cup of coffee, and a list and start knocking them off!

Got hired for a "choral-ography" job, easy one, just re-teaching a piece I did last year to a new crop of kids, 3 class meeting will do it, and they want me to do a 2nd piece too, that'll be a little harder being new work, but it's always fun to work with the 8th graders.

"Babies"

Karim, sleeping under a blanket I made. Nephew Alex enjoying watermelon and niece Michaela stealing chips!

Labor Day and Stash Shawl

We worked soooo hard on Saturday, applying 15 5 gallon buckets of black goopy sealant to the dance studio driveway. 8 hours for each of us, although I must be honest and say that Sid did more hard work than I did because I could not lift the buckets so he had to lift each bucket 4 times (off the shelf, into the car, out of the car, onto the driveway) and I hosed the sand off the driveway while he scrubbed the 1st 3 buckets onto the surface. It looks nice, needed to be done to preserve the drive, and thankfully won't need to be done again for 6 years (according to the buckets!). In 6 years I will hire someone to do it!

In the evening and yesterday I worked on the stash shawl, starting the 3rd color. It's 24 inchs long now and I've got enough of the ivory yarn for another pattern repeat. (Takes approximately 5 yards per row) The only other color in my stash that would coordinate is a bright yellow, and I'm not sure about that at all! EV wanted to know where I got the pattern.(I'm always a little surprised to get a comment as I never think anyone reads this blog!) It's Lion Brand Big Diamond Shawl www.lionbrand.com that is supposed to be done on size 13 and with homespun. I started to make one for my sister in law Lisa, but kept getting lost and I couldn't see the pattern developing in the yarn, so to familiarize myself with the pattern I started out with the yellow gold ball, then decided to continue with some gold Wool-ease, then just kept going with the ivory mystery yarn (acryilic I think). I have finally gotten to where I "see" the pattern and when I finish the stash shawl will start on the homespun again...need to get new needles though, the wooden 13 circs I have are way too blunt to do the k2tbl !

I so admire all the beautiful lacework people on townsendknits are doing. Maybe I'll be that talented someday. Just takes practice. I do want to make a beautiful shawl for a fair entry this year. I should buy some yarn from my new local lys, but I want something like socks that rock, not just opal. I'll buy a skein of baby blue from them for baby sweater for Karim.

Nearly done with the gussett of the 2nd tiger sock whoo, hoo, looking forward to wearing them. I'm thinking I'm going to have plenty of yarn left for socks for my favorite niece Lauren.

Studio opens tomorrow and I need to "no-slip" the A room floor (damn laminate, only mistake we made building that building, as soon as I can raise the $2000, I'm putting woodstep marley down in there!) New season will severly cut into my knitting time in the evenings as I'll be home at 10pm or later instead of 8pm, but it's what I love. I'm one of the few people I know that loves her job.