The End of the Year is Coming. So. Fast!

I can't believe it's already December, and I don't think I've posted here even once this year!  Wow!  It's been a busy year, and the beginning of the school year has been crazy!

We started using a new student information system in DPSCD, and none of us feel quite comfortable with it yet, so it's taking about twice as long to do anything as it should.  My kids are still pretty much the same - some are a lot of fun, and some are a challenge, but I enjoy them all.

And, of course, since I seem to have difficulty saying no to friends, I am now co-teaching 6th grade in Family Ed at our synagogue as well as assisting with the 7th grade on Sunday mornings.   And I'm helping with the materials library for the Speech Department at work.  As if I don't have enough to do.

So about the only thing keeping me sane right now is knitting, even though I fall asleep with my needles in my hand just about every night, so I'm not making a lot of progress on any given project!  But I continue to try, because of the Yarnathon!

I know I've mentioned the annual Yarnathon from Eat.Sleep.Knit before - I have been participating for a few years now, and it never fails to give me so much joy.  I love finding projects that I can work into the Knit-alongs and to make for badges, and I often find patterns I love that I might never otherwise have found just because I went looking for something to fit into particular parameters.

Take this sweater, for example:

This is an example of a project I would never have considered if not for the Yarnathon - I needed a project that qualified as a "fade" and this fit the parameters.  And I'm thrilled with the finished project!  I also made these socks for the "fade" Knit-along:

I guess, if I only finish a few projects this year (and it has been far less than I've finished in previous years - see above about falling asleep every time I sit down to knit!), at least I am finishing projects that I can use and enjoy.  And I feel like in part of have ESK to thank for that.

I do like to support my local yarn shop as well, but I don't usually have the time or energy to attend local knit nights (again, falling asleep is not how I like to be social), but I feel like I have an ongoing knit "night" in the ESK Ravelry group, and I can drop in any time.  And ESK is a local yarn shop - it just isn't local to me. 

I don't know how many projects I'll finish before the end of the year - certainly fewer than I had planned.  But I guess that just means I won't have a dearth of things to knit in 2020!

Donors Choose

So, as you may know (since it is in my profile and all), I am a Speech-Language Pathologist, and I am now working in Detroit Public Schools Community District.  I don't work directly for the district, but for EBS Healthcare as a contractor, but still...

I'm really enjoying DPSCD, for a number of reasons.  The Communications Disorders department is like a big family, and they are all very supportive.  Not only do I get great support from EBS (much more than from the contract company I worked for previously), my DPSCD supervisor is responsive to questions and concerns, and my coworkers are always willing to help when I have a question.  The department also has a materials library that we can go to once a month to borrow assessments and therapy materials so we don't have to purchase our own. 

One of my biggest complaints about my previous district (which I won't name here, but I probably have named in the past) was that we were not given sufficient direction when we were asked to do something, and supervisors were not responsive at all to questions (I mean, phone calls went unreturned and emails went unanswered for weeks, when we have timelines we have to adhere to in order to be in compliance with federal law).  That is certainly not the case in Detroit.  These folks are organized!  And I appreciate it.  And it still feels like a family, even in so large a district.

All that being said, I still like to have a bunch of my own stuff for therapy with my kids.  Working with preschool and elementary school age kids, I often like to do literacy-based therapy, especially at my Head Start.  Many of my kids don't get read to regularly, and I want to help instill a love for books and reading, as well as give them a good foundation for language growth and development, so I have quite a collection of picture books with related activities that I use a lot.  I also have my own iPad that I have purchased several speech apps for - articulation and language/concepts apps.  The kids really enjoy using the tech, and so it becomes something of a reward to have an iPad day.  I have even used some of the reinforcer games in the apps as a break when I'm testing a student - we will take a short movement break and they can play a game before moving on to another test.  The problem is, my iPad is getting old and glitchy, and since I can't update the OS any further (I'm currently running iOS 7, and most of the new apps require iOS 9 or higher) it crashes a lot.  It's getting frustrating.

Enter Donors Choose, the website mentioned in the title of this post.  Donors Choose is a website where educators can post projects with very specific requests for supplies and materials for their classrooms, and, like the name says, donors can choose which projects they will donate to.  You can see exactly what is being requested and exactly how much it will cost, and when the project is fully funded the website staff purchases the requested materials and sends it to the teacher at their school.  There are pictures of the classrooms, and when appropriate, students will write thank-you notes to donors and you get to see your donations being used by the students so you know what kind of difference you made. 

I have created a project asking for a new iPad to use with my speech students, so I can get some updated speech apps in order to engage them with technology that doesn't constantly crash on them and frustrate them when they are trying to learn.  If you want to look at my project, here is a link:  Putting the FUN in Functional Communication. 

If you decide to help fund me, thank you.  If you just can't right  now, I understand, but thanks for looking anyway.  Maybe you know someone who is interested and able to help. 

Happy holidays!

More Art in the City

A couple of years ago, I posted some pictures of murals and graffiti I drove past in the city of Detroit when I was taking my son down to a summer day camp or going down for grad school.  I love that there are so many hidden pictures in the city!

And, of course, now that I am working in Detroit Public Schools Community District, I get to see a lot more of it.  Also of course, I am usually driving, and so not prepared to snap pictures of it - so it often takes me several tries/several drive-bys before I can get a halfway decent picture of a given mural. 

That being said, I want to post these few before I forget about them:

I drove around the block an extra time to take this picture - seen from Fourteenth, just south of Warren.  I was on my way to a meeting that morning, but this was worth the few extra minutes.

This one isn't a mural, obviously, but it made me laugh when I saw it.  It took several trips down to the school this is across the street from before I got a decent picture - I wish I had a Little Free Library this cool in my neighborhood!

  This one is on Grand River south of 7 Mile - I like how someone incorporated the hole in the boarding as part of the flowerpot.  It's a great metaphor for the community working together to make something beautiful grow where there is blight and decay.  I hope they can be successful.

And I really want to get a better picture of this one, but I never seem to be prepared for it, and I always drive by too fast for a good shot.  The colors of this one make me happy.  It's on the side of a charter school right off 7 Mile, though I never see kids there, so I don't know if it is still in operation.





Lots of art in the city, lots of creative people who work to make their surroundings more beautiful.  I'll post more when I have more pictures for you. 

New Year, New Knitting Challenge - Come to the crazy side (we have yarn)

Boy, I've been terrible about posting here this past year!  Of course, I've spent a lot less time playing on Ravelry in the past year also, so maybe that makes sense.

I  believe I mentioned in an earlier post that last year I participated in the Eat.Sleep.Knit Yarnathon, in their group on Rav.  Of course, I didn't really start doing anything until April or May, so I didn't do as much as I might have, but I did complete a really cool blanket that looks fabulous on the couch in my living room, and is really warm!

See - here it is on my bed.  Really pretty, right?  Anyway, I had a lot of fun trying to make my knitting projects over the past year fit into the Yarnathon structure, so I'm going to do it again this year.

The theme this year is Candyland (last year it was Space), and they have a really creative artist on staff who has made some adorable graphics for the different teams, as well as for the prizes and different games, badges, and knit alongs.  And I had a lot of fun chatting with the others on my team, and sort of virtually working together to finish projects and support each other. 

And I think I may be slightly insane, because they are doing another blanket knit along, and I'm gonna knit another crazy blanket!  At least I'm not doing the fingering weight version, although it is absolutely gorgeous.  I'm making the worsted weight version, and I think I might have an actual chance to finish it, because I'm starting in January, and taking it s-l-o-w!  (We'll see how that works - probably I'll finish it, because I'm knitting along with a bunch of other people, and there are prizes and stuff for certain finishing milestones.  Unlike the sock yarn mitered square blanket I started for myself YEARS ago, and have only got about 12-18" of the queen-sized blanket done!)

Anyway, the blanket is called Persian Dreams, and it is lovely!   Here is a link to the version of the pattern I am doing (it's a Ravelry link).  Come join the insanity - it's a lot of fun on the crazy side!

Knitting Along

Oh, so long since I posted!  But this month, I participated in a knit-along in the Eat.Sleep.Knit group on Ravelry, and I had a lot of fun!  I don't think I've ever participated in a KAL before, and having the deadline really pushed me to finish my socks on time. 

Of course, the fact that Eat.Sleep.Knit has a year-long yarnathon, with teams and prizes for milestones (yardage knit, etc.) doesn't hurt.  When I join in the Tour de Fleece or the Ravelympics/Ravellenic Games, I'm just knitting and spinning along for the fun of it and to challenge myself - there is no one else who benefits from my participation.  But with the yarnathon, in addition to individual prizes, the winning team all gets a prize, so we all benefit. 

Which means that I'm planning a few more knitted and crocheted birthday and holiday gifts this year to go along with yarnathon challenges (as well as a few gifts for me! Like these socks).  And, as much as I like to support local yarn shops whenever possible, I still shop online occasionally, so I don't feel too bad about it.  They have some nice yarns that I can't always get locally, and they ship really fast, and there is always the shopping at midnight benefit - can't do that with a LYS! 

For now, the Tour de Fleece starts in a few days, and the Olympics start in Rio in about a month, so I have some planning to do for those.  And in the meantime, I have a few more KAL's to join!

New Pattern - Finally!

I showed a glimpse of these fingerless mitts in my previous post - the first prototype is what I had on the needles last August when we went to the lake, and is what you can see in the picture there. 

I've been working on these off and on for about 3 years, and since my last post, I have finished both the prototype and the written pattern, the pattern has been test-knit, and it is available on Ravelry.  I'm so excited!  This is the first pattern that I decided to charge for from the start (I recently decided to charge a nominal amount for my previously free Mayday Wrist Distaff pattern on Rav as well - it's only $1, so I don't think it will break anyone's bank). 

I call them Lakeshore Fingerless Mitts (Ravelry link - the pattern is also available in my Etsy shop, Mandarella Knits).  I feel like a new parent.

Take a look:

The Tail End of Summer

Well, here it is, almost the last weekend of summer, almost the end of August, and only a week until Labor Day and time for the Boy to go back to school.  Kids in the district where I work come back to school this Monday, so the Boy gets a week more vacation than I do.

For the last 5 or 6 years (approximately), our family has spent this weekend at a YMCA camp in Lexington, Michigan with other families from our synagogue.  It's a nice way to wind down the summer and reconnect with friends we don't get to spend a lot of time with the rest of the year, mostly because of kids' schedules and other commitments.

The cabins are pretty rustic, but the location is beautiful - right on Lake Huron.  I get to spend a lot of time knitting and reading, and I usually bring a drop spindle as well, which always draws some attention and questions from adults and kids alike.

This afternoon I'm sitting on the deck of the dining hall, taking advantage of the camp's wifi, drinking mediocre coffee, and working on a fingerless glove pattern inspired by our time here.  I'll post more pics and a pattern link when it's ready, but for now, you can enjoy the same view I get to enjoy:

Doesn't that look tropical?  Michigan in the summer.  Happy end of summer to you all!

Where the Wild Things Are

So, for the past 3 weeks, I've been driving the Boy down to Wayne State for a summer day camp program through the Engineering department.  He seems to have enjoyed it, but the back-and-forth has been exhausting me.  I'm spending about 3 hours a day in the car, and I've had lots of time to listen to music (found some new artists that I'm enjoying) and looking at the graffiti.  And Detroit has, in addition to the typical tags on seemingly every other building, some very nice public artwork.

The ones that inspired the title of this post were the ones that got me started really looking:

 This one is on Woodward Avenue, just north of the Davison, and he feels to me like he is kind of guarding the neighborhood.  This area is really struggling, all the buildings along this stretch of road are burned out and falling down, but this creature looks pretty happy and ready to take on the world.




This one is on the side of the building that houses the Russell Bazaar, on the east side of the I-75 service drive.  Someone put a lot of time and love into this beast, and I think he is pretty spectacular.  Can't call him graffiti - he is definitely a mural.  My son really loves him.

 Here is a closer view.

And a few more murals that I always enjoy seeing when I go into the city:

 It's hard to take pictures while I'm driving, so I had the Boy take some of these - he didn't do too badly! 

There are lots more examples in the city - these are just a few that caught my eye.  I love these expressions of the beauty that lies just beneath the surface of the city.  There is some truly lovely architechture in Detroit, but these are ordinary buildings that are elevated to art by someone's vision and effort.

I'll post more as I find them.  But here is one more that the Boy took on our way north out of town on our last day - this place looks really intriguing: 

It's not the best picture, but this is a chiropractic/alternate therapy clinic and vegetarian cafe.  I might need to stop in some time!  Their website is here.

Quick Update...

Wow - hard to believe that I haven't posted here in over a year!  I guess life just got busy.  I signed up for another year in Pontiac schools and, while this year is slightly less stressful than last year (since I have my CCC's now, and theoretically know what I am doing), it is still frighteningly busy.  Caseloads are through the roof, and there isn't enough time in the day to see all the kids and do all the paperwork and testing that I need to do, so I end up bringing a lot of stuff home.  sigh

Knitting is what has been keeping me sane - if I wore slogan t-shirts anymore (haven't worn them in years), I would definitely want the one that says "I knit so I don't kill people."  So true!

I've been a shawl knitting machine this year - I joined a shawl knitting group on Ravelry - 12 Shawls Forever - and am trying to knit 12 shawls over the course of the year.  I'm close - I have 9 completely done and blocked, one being bound off currently, and 2 on the needles.  We shall see if I can manage to finish the last 2 before the end of the year!




The boy's Bar Mitzvah was last month, and it went very well.  I was kind of sad because my little sister had some health issues and couldn't come out for it, but I'd rather she stay healthy than get on a plane when she is already not well, so we dealt with it.  Hard to believe that he is 13 already - it seems like just yesterday he was my (not so) little baby, and here he is almost as tall as me and reading Hebrew like a pro.

He did such a great job! I wanted all my family and friends to be there to see him!














I'll try to post some knitting pictures soon - I have a bunch of new stuff on my Rav project page, and a pattern for fingerless mitts that I have been working on (off and on) for a while now that I really need to finish!  I think this will be one that I actually charge for - I hope people like it!  It's a very textural fabric, inspired by the rocky shoreline of Lake Huron at the camp we go to every summer with our synagogue.

I'm currently working on getting the cuff just right, but they are hibernating right now, while I try to finish up my shawls and some holiday gift knitting (other fingerless mitts for my niece in Phoenix).  Soon, my pretties.  Soon.

It's been ... One Week

First week on the new job is officially over, and I'm still here.  There were moments when I had my doubts that would be the case.  But I now know what my caseload will be, and brought home a TON of files to go through to start to get to know the kids and plan what I want to do with them when I start seeing them. 

I have about 20 students with ASD, and the rest of my kids are regular ed language and artic.  I am going to be busy! 

It feels very odd to me when I wake up in the morning and remember that this isn't just a semester-long gig - I'm not a student anymore, and this is real life.  I don't stop working with these kids and get a re-set in December/January.  It's been a couple of years since I could think like that, and it's going to take some getting used to.

Also learning a little bit about the school building I'm in - for the first 3 days this week, it has been absolutely freezing in the building, then yesterday they seemed to turn on the heat and today it was swelteringly hot in my office (I have my own office!  I'm so excited!).  Also, internet service was down in the building today (which I'm told is a regular occurrence), and it stopped working while I was in the middle of writing an electronic IEP that is due tomorrow.  Fun.  Oh, well, I can only do so much, and I did contact the mom today, so we are all good.

Tomorrow I go to renew my CPR certification (the contract company requires it, since they place a lot of people in medical settings, and I figured it was a good idea to have it anyway), then I'm going to spend my weekend getting up to speed with about half my caseload.  Maybe I'll bring home the other half next week.  Wish me luck.

No knitting to speak of this week, although I did add a couple of squares to my sock mini blanket while I watched the vice-presidential debate last night.  I don't know if I'll ever finish that blanket, considering how rarely I work on it, but I just love the idea of it so much that I keep pulling it out periodically.  I do need to make the boy some new mittens for this winter, and I guess I should get on that, since the weather has turned very definitely cold.

Heigh ho, heigh ho...

Tonight I'm a little nervous, a little excited, and a lot frantic - tomorrow I start a new job!  After 3 years of post-bachelor work and earning my master's degree in speech-language pathology, I finally found a position with a contract company and I start tomorrow as an SLP in an elementary school.  Now I just have to hope I remember everything I've learned over the past 3 years!

The interview was only last Monday, and everything went very fast after that - I found out within an hour of interviewing that I was the candidate they wanted, and the rest of this past week has been spent filling out paperwork, getting fingerprinted, filling out more paperwork, getting my drug screening done, filling out more paperwork, and taking some online tests for OSHA (the contract company also places a lot of people in medical settings, so I guess it is standard practice for all their new employees to need information about bloodborn pathogens, tuberculosis, and HIPAA (well, SLP's need to know about HIPAA too, so that didn't surprise me.  Plus, if I ever want to work in a hospital or skilled nursing facility, I'll need the other stuff as well).

Plus, last week I was dogsitting, so I wasn't even at home.  I've been doing a lot of running back and forth.  I'm sleeping at home tonight for the first time in over a week, and now I need to get my clothes together, and gather up all the things I might need tomorrow, and figure out what I'll be packing for myself and the boy for lunch tomorrow, and be ready to drive my husband to pick up his rental car before I go to work in the morning (because he is going out of town for the week tomorrow).  It never stops.  But now I'm gainfully employed, so that's okay.  What a relief.

Wish me luck.

Those Darn Socks! (some down-at-the-heels footwear)

About 2 years ago, I knit a pair of house socks in worsted weight yarn for my mom for the holidays.  She loved them, they were a big hit and kept her feet nice and toasty in her chilly house, and I've since knit more for her because I know they will always be appreciated.  Here is a picture of them:

They are Red Dwarf Socks (Ravelry link), which I have knit a couple of times, and which I like very much.

Of course, since Mom has been wearing them almost non-stop for almost 2 years, she has worn holes in both heels.  She also says she didn't realize they could be fixed, so she kept wearing them even after they got holes in them, because, heck, they were still keeping her toes warm, and that was the important part, so she could deal with holes in the heels.  Then she told me she had worn through them (new socks this winter? hint hint) and I said I could fix them.  Just wash them and send them along.

And so, when my husband went to her house this past week to do some minor plumbing repairs for her, he brought me some socks to darn.  Oh, my:

Here are the holes, along with my darning tools.  Both heels.  Fortunately, the holes didn't cross the short-row wraps, so it was just a rather large section of straight stockinette stitch that needed to be filled in.  And, since I don't generally care for the look of woven darns, I did it right.  I followed the suggestions I found here, and it worked out very well (once I figured out what the heck I was doing, and was able to line up the lines of stitches at top and bottom of the hole).

This is just another view of the ginormous hole in one of the heels - sorry it's so blurry, but my camera doesn't take very good pictures that close.

And here are the repaired socks - I think they came out very nicely, if I do say so myself.  I hope Mom will get several more years of wear out of them before I have to fix them again.  I did tell her that if any of her handknit socks develop any more holes, she should get them to me when the holes are SMALL!

   

Not perfect, but definitely wearable.  I'm happy with them, and I know Mom will be.

Wow, Summer's almost over!

So, it's been a while since I've posted an entry here.  Lots of things have been happening.  I graduated in May, with my master's degree in Speech-Language Pathology, and I've been looking for a job since with no luck yet (had an interview last Thursday in Waterford schools, so I have hope there).  I will persevere.

I've also been doing a lot of crafting these last few months, since I can do it without worrying about it interfering with schoolwork.  I took part in the Tour de Fleece on Ravelry, which is an event in which we spin yarn while the cyclists spin their wheels.  Lots of fun, and I ended up with about 1 1/2 miles of new yarn! 

I'm also taking part in the Ravelympics - oh, excuse me, the Ravellenic Games (thank you USOC!).  Tonight is the closing ceremonies of the London Olympics, and those of us participating in the Ravellenic Games have been knitting, crocheting, and spinning our little fingers to the bone to finish our projects by midnight BST tonight in support of our national teams.  It's all in good fun, and simply another way to enjoy the Olympics while challenging ourselves a little bit.

Anyway, I'm also trying to get in a little bit better shape with some support from my Rav friends, and to that end am trying to eat better and work out more.  I've already lost about 12 lbs since I started at the beginning of July, and I have about 4 lbs to go to meet my goal for August (as well as working out at least 3 times per week - ran on the treadmill today, so I'm doing that too).  Here is a recipe I made up for lunch today, that I liked quite well, and I think it will lend itself to a lot of modification as the mood strikes me:

Mandy's Ginger-Lime Cucumber Salad

• 1 medium cucumber, peeled & seeded, cut into 1/2" dice
• 1/2 yellow bell pepper, cut into fine dice
• 1/2 green bell pepper, cut into fine dice
• 1 cup grape tomatoes, halved
• 1/2 a small-medium onion, cut in half and sliced thinly
• 1 oz diced cheese (I used a cheese stick, cut lengthwise into quarters and diced up.  Fresh mozzerella would be better, but I didn't have any.  Crumbled feta would probably also be good, if you wanted that salty kick)

Dressing:

• 3 Tablespoons lime juice
• 2 Tablespoons organic honey
• 1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon rice vinegar (cider vinegar would also work)
• 1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger (I keep a jar of the ground stuff in the fridge, but if you have a fresh ginger root and a ginger grater, go for it!)
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Combine the veggies in a bowl.  Whisk the dressing ingredients together and stir into the veggies.  Chill at least 10 minutes before serving.  That's it - Enjoy! 

I'm Still Here! (Really!)

Wow! I haven't posted here in a really long time! So much has happened in the past 8 months!

First, school: Over the past 2 semesters (spring/summer 2011 and fall 2011) I finished my on-campus coursework. This semester (winter 2012) I am taking a couple of on-line courses and working at a full-time internship in a public school. The end is in sight! I'm working with elementary-age kids with a variety of speech and language disorders, from articulation disorders to the autism spectrum. It's challenging, but the kids are great and I love my supervisor!

In January, the whole class took (and passed, whew!) the department exam, which covered everything we learned over the past 5 semesters. Two weeks after that, most of us (all but 2, I believe) took the Praxis test, which is the national test that is required for licensure and our C's (the C's are the "Certificate of Clinical Compentence," which is abbreviated "CCC-SLP" for speech pathologists and "CCC-AuD" for audiologists - hence, "C's"). We got our scores on the Praxis on February 7th, and I'm proud to say that I passed with a very good score!

I also published my final newsletter for the student organization, and passed that responsibility on to the next class historian. I'm quite looking forward to getting my first newsletter from her to see what she will do with it!

In March, I will be presenting a paper from my Dysphagia class (last summer) at the Michigan Speech-Language and Hearing Association's annual conference in Kalamazoo, along with 5 of my classmates. I'm a bit nervous, I have to say. Of course, I've given any number of presentations over the past couple of years (if you look back, you'll see some past commentary on group projects), but this is the first one I've given that isn't primarily in front of my classmates or other students. This will be in front of professional SLP's who might very well (I assume nothing, of course) know more about the topic than I do. But it will be fine - my professor wouldn't have asked us to present if she didn't think the papers we wrote were good, right? Because it would reflect badly on her if they were lame. I'll still stress a bit about it because that's what I do.

So, that's school. Graduation is in May, and I need to start looking for a job now, but I'll post more about that later. On to the knitting!

In December, I made a really excellent driving cap for my husband, using the Morgan pattern by Anne Kuo Lukito from http://www.knitty.com/. It came out awesome, if I do say so myself, and he loved it!

Also finished some socks I started (*cough*) three years (*cough*) ago:

I also finished a couple of other projects, but I'll finish posting them later. This post is already getting long.

Profanity

I know I haven't posted in a while, but I saw a post on Samurai Knitter's blog today that got me thnking, and I wanted to comment. But my comments kept growing and I decided (like at least one other reader there) to just give it a whole post of it's own.

Like Alwen, I kind of subscribe to the theory that words have power, and the more seldom you use certain words, the more impact they will have when you do use them. I rarely swear, so when I do, it means something. I am either making a point, and people are shocked enough by it to pay attention, or I am extremely frustrated and it is really cathartic. (I also have a very even temper as a general rule, and a really long fuse, but when I reach the end of that fuse, the resulting explosion can be heard two counties away, and my husband cowers in fear.)

I find that I tend to have a low opinion of people who curse with every other word out of their mouths - whether for right or wrong, I tend to think that they aren't intelligent enough to express themselves without resorting to the lowest common denominator. Just my own personal bias. I don't find "comedians" who swear constantly funny either.

My son knows most of the common swear words, but we've always told him that part of being mature enough to know them is knowing when it's appropriate to use them (and it's almost never appropriate for a 10-year-old to use them!), so he doesn't use them gratuitously either. He hears us finding creative and eloquent ways to express frustration and anger, and my hope is that he will do the same.

That being said, in the right context, swearing can be hysterically funny - one of my favorite scenes from the movie "Four Weddings and a Funeral" is the opening sequence, where Hugh Grant is rushing around, running late, and muttering to himself "Fuck, fuck, fuckity-fuck-fuck-fuck!" Makes me laugh every time!

Happy New Year!

A new year needs a new look!

Well, we made it past the holidays intact! I finished the mittens I was working on for my friends, and they were successfully gifted last Sunday. I wish I'd gotten pictures of the recipients wearing them (Scott said he would never take his off - I think that might eventually get awkward, but it's not up to me), but here are pics of the finished products anyway:

These are a Brooklyn Tweed pattern by Jared Flood (love Jared's patterns!) called Strago (Ravelry link). They are made out of alpaca, and the pattern was just perfect for my friend Mark.

These are Scott's. They are felted, and I think they will be extremely warm, but the thumb on this pattern was a big disappointment - it's huge! I don't think any normal human being has a thumb that is that long in proportion to their hand, and I wish I had realized that the thumbs would not felt down enough when I was knitting them. But Scott loved them, and that is what matters.

***

Now I'm working on a scarf for my husband's aunt to give to a friend of hers as a birthday gift. It's going slowly, probably because I would rather be working on something for myself! But, she is paying for this scarf, so it would be a good thing if I were to finish it quickly.

***

We are going to a family birthday party tomorrow - we always celebrate the birthdays that are grouped close together at one party, so the aforementioned aunt (whose birthday was yesterday), my sister-in-law (whose birthday is tomorrow), and I (my birthday is Tuesday) are celebrating tomorrow. Should be fun.

***

That's all for now - hope your year is starting out well!

I Can Breathe Again!

Took my last final today, and my first semester of grad school is now history! I'm just glad that I can relax for a couple of weeks, do a little knitting (still have a mitten to finish before Christmas, a scarf to finish for my husband's aunt before January, and a second sock for myself that I started back in September), read a few trashy novels, and maybe organize some bookshelves. Not too ambitious. Oh, and put together my clinical portfolio. Can't forget that.

I'm not even going to stress over grades (although I do know that I did not 4.0 this semester - I have at least one B+. I'll live.

I think I want to make some cashew brittle tonight, after the boy and I decorate the Christmas tree (which we still have to buy). And I need to make sure that his big gift actually works. (Don't tell him, but his cousin in Phoenix sent us his Wii, because he never uses it anymore, so that's the boy's big gift this year and I didn't have to spend $200. My nephew totally rocks!) Other than that, Christmas will be light this year.

Another school year, another head bump...

At least this year's call wasn't nearly as bad as last year's! There I was, sitting in the basement of the Rackham building with my group, working on our presentation for our Neuroscience class next week, when my phone rang and an unfamiliar number popped up. Turns out it was the school nurse at my son's school, calling from the clinic where the boy was sitting with ice on his head. Apparently, his head collided with another student's knee while the class was gathering for reading time. Tears ensued, as did a trip to the clinic for ice and the requisite call to Mom.

I told the nurse that it was much better than the call I received from school the previous fall, when the boy couldn't stop in time while playing freeze-tag in gym, and crashed face-first into a light switch. That time there was a nosebleed, and a light switch-shaped cut on his forehead, and bruises. He has a sort of mini-Harry Potter scar now, only it isn't quite shaped like a lightning bolt - more like an upside-down T right in the middle of his forehead.

This is a tradition I can do without!

Yes, that light at the end of the tunnel is an oncoming train...

Okay, it's been a couple of months since my last post (again!). I finished Tour de Fleece pretty well, with 5 finished skeins of yarn:

That's two skeins of BFL on the right, spun on my wheel; the pink Romney next to them is my first-skein of spindle-spun, so I am inordinately proud of it, even though I find it a bit scratchy; next to that is another skein of spindle-spun from a mixed batt of Falkland, merino, alpaca, and mohair - it was a bear to keep even, but turned out really pretty. The last one is a skein of Lisa Souza Wensleydale that I spun on the wheel, and it is lovely (maybe a tad overspun, but lovely nonetheless) and almost laceweight. Here's one more picture collage of all of them:

In other news, the boy and I drove to Grand Rapids a couple of weeks ago to visit Fredrick Meijer Gardens with my mom. It's a pretty cool place, and if you live within reasonable driving distance of Grand Rapids, Michigan, it's well worth the trip - especially if you have kids. The children's garden is really cool, and the other item well worth seeing is the Da Vinci Horse. The boy loves it.

They also had an exhibit of glass sculpture by Dale Chihuly while we were there (that was actually the primary reason I wanted to go - we've seen the horse before, but the glass was a limited time exhibit). It's there through the end of September, 2010. Very cool.

Close-up of that towering thing up above.

These reminded me of pitcher plants

. . . . like these.

Also, since it's September, my son started 5th grade last week, and I started my master's program the week before that, and I already feel like I've been hit by that train! I shouldn't even be taking the time to post this, but I needed the break from studying and reading and taking notes and filling out forms, and the semester is only two weeks old.

Whine, whine, why yes, I would love some cheese to go with it.

And yet, I know I will really enjoy it, once I get the time management thing down. I've never been very good at that.

Just needed to vent for a minute. I'm okay now - going back to studying, since I have two quizzes this week and I still need to make a grocery list to go shopping tomorrow and do laundry. G'night.

Tour de Fleece 2010

I've decided to participate in the Tour de Fleece - yeah, it's a last minute thing. I'm all about the last minute. Anyway, my goals for the Tour are pretty modest, but I think they're attainable

• Finish a couple of spinning WIPs I have going


• Get more consistent with my drop spindle


• Finish my first skein of spindled yarn (2-ply)

And that's all of them! I would have added one about spinning the dog fluff I have from last spring when my niece's dogs were staying with us, but I don't have any carders to process it yet.

So, here is my first progress picture:

I've been working on that pink Romney batt since last August, when I got my first drop spindle in a swap. It's been sitting for months, and I hardly ever pull it out because I'm so comfortable on the wheel that I almost always turn to it when I want to spin. But I can take the drop spindle with me, so I really want to get comfortable on it as well for traveling.

I got 4 oz. of the undyed BFL in a swap last summer sometime, and I just started spinning it up last month, but its been sitting for a couple of weeks and I don't want to let it sit too long. So this is 2 oz of it (I think - I didn't weigh it before I started, but there are about 2 oz left). I'm going to spin the last 2 oz on another bobbin and see how close I can get to even with them.

I'm really enjoying spinning both these fibers - when they are going well, they go really well! And the BFL is especially nice!