Been a while, I know!

 

 

I'm alive and well, but I haven't been knitting for quite a while now. During the school year, I never seem to have enough time to knit. I get home around 5 or 6, read my email, grade papers, sometimes find something to eat, and then it's time for bed, so that I can get up the next day at 4:30 am.

 

Hopefully, I'll be able to do some knitting over the two-week winter break. Of course, Christmas is in that 2 weeks, so I will have other obligations to pursue, beside knitting. Guess I'll see if I can get anything knitted.

 

I hope everyone has a wonderful and joyous Christmas or Hannukah.

Too Hot to Knit

Well, it is finally too hot to knit. We're under a heat advisory notice, with expected temps up to 108, but above 100 for the week. Great. It's still nearly 80 degrees, and it's almost 9:30 at night.

I don't have A/C, so I'm sitting here with a fan blowing, bouncing off the wall in my bedroom. It's enough to keep me from fainting from the heat, but it doesn't really keep me cool. I'm still sweating, and have been since about 11 am.

Tomorrow is the first day I can get back in my classroom, to start setting up for the new year. Maybe I can even learn who is in my class. Why they won't let me know that before school is practically starting, I'll never know. At any rate, I am going in to the school tomorrow, and probably the rest of this week. At least my classroom is air conditioned. And I may be spending a lot of time at my brother's house, since they have A/C. Maybe I can take some knitting with me to their house. His wife knits, too, so maybe we can have our own "Knit Nights" this week. I just need to find something to knit. I've been looking through patterns for something to do with my Silken Kydd, and for the Silk Mohair from the LB Collection. I had forgotten I'd ordered that. It's in a nice deep wine color, a bit lighter than the Silken Kydd. I've got 1,386 yards of the Silk Mohair, and although it's classified as a 1, the label says the gauge is 17s/20 rows on 8s(5mm). I was thinking of a light cardigan, maybe 3/4 sleeves. Just simple, for wearing in my classroom where it often gets too cold for me but just right for all the students, and at night (when the nights cool down again, that is). I know I've got more than enough yardage, but I can't find a good pattern for it. I've already searched Ravelry and found nothing that works for me. Most of my pattern books and magazines are in another room, and it's simply too hot to go looking through them now. I'd say I could do it in the morning, before it heats up, but honestly, 70 is the lowest temp we've had today (From midnight to now), and 70 isn't really all that cool, considering I have west facing windows in my living room and  in my bedroom, (on the 2nd floor) so the apartment warms up early and stays hot late. Oh, well.

So, I'm searching for a simple, 3/4 length sleeve cardigan which will work with a silk/mohair yarn. Something light and airy. Any suggestions are welcome.

+

I just learned Tuesday that I'd won $136. from Elann.com in their drawing. I was thrilled to win that, especially since I didn't have to do anything to enter, so this came as a complete surprise! I already spent about half of it buying some cotton yarns and a pattern book. If you've never taken a look at Elann, I urge you to do so. They offer huge discounts on great yarns ~ their own and top yarn companies. They offer something called Silken Kydd that I think is even better than Rowan's Kidsilk Haze, and at an amazing price. It's 70/30 Super Kid Mohair/Silk, and 232 yards to 25 grams.

I absolutely love Elann, and have been shopping with them for years. They're a Canadian company, but with a presence in the US, in Washington State. Excellent service, quick shipping, terrific yarns, and wonderful member benefits, too. Membership is free.

School is over, and my classroom is packed up. I have time, now, to do some knitting, but I can't decide what I want to knit.  I picked up some Classic Elite Bamboozle, and they have a couple of patterns for that yarn that are perfect summer knits (which means I can pretty much wear them year round, here in SoCal). I also got two different colors of Silken Kydd the other day, winter white and a deep wine color I can't remember the color name of. I haven't decided what to knit with it, but I'm still thinking about it.

I don't knit scarves or shawls or hats, because there really isn't a need for them in SoCal. I could use a scarf maybe a couple of times a year, if that. Hats would be decorative only, and they really mush my hair, so there's no point in knitting them. Shawls? Never wear them, so no reason to knit those, either.

Baby knits and knitted toys are out, too. No one I know is having, or likely to have, a baby. My nieces and nephews are in high school, and everyone at work is past childbearing age, or nearly so.

Which leaves me with stuff for myself, sweaters or household items. And I'm not really a fan of knitted pillows or other accessories, and I've already knitted or crocheted all the afghans I can use.

So, I'm looking for sweater patterns for me. Cardigans and pullovers. Maybe a tank or two, to go under a blazer or jacket. Maybe knit a jacket, too? Too many patterns, not enough time to sort through all of them, much less keep up with the new ones coming out all the time. And I have a huge stash, as well. (So huge I may need to move to a bigger apartment if I don't stop buying more, now!)

What I have, I guess, is an embarrassment of riches. Too much yarn, too many patterns, no pressing demands on my time (for about a month, anyway).  Heh. I'll probably end up knitting lots of washcloths.

Blogger is being hateful, and I can't post unless I log in from IE, which I only discovered today would work. Some weirdness while on AOL that says there's a problem with a subroutine between ie8 and ie9. Oh, well.

Anyway, I've been busy working, reading, knitting, and discovering the joys of my Kindle Fire. Never thought I'd use e-books, but turns out I really enjoy them.

I haven't finished the sweater I mentioned I was designing/knitting. I kept making mistakes, and frogging, so it's been put aside until I get over whatever is clogging my brain when I try to knit it. I did make a nice pair of fingerless mitts, which came in handy when we had those mornings where 45 was the high for days. No pictures, yet, since my camera has been hijacked by my sister-in-law until further notice.

And now the weather is trending toward the high 70s or low 80s, so warm weather knits are looking better all the time. The new Knitty is out, and I took a quick look earlier today. Franklin's pineapple bag is both goofy and wonderful, but not something I think I'll ever knit. And I am so not a shawl person. A couple of sweaters seemed possible, both short and long sleeved.  As I get older, I tend to avoid sleeveles or short sleeved tops, however. I don't even know why. I mean, my upper arms aren't flabby or wrinkled, so I don't *have* to cover them. I just do.

Not much else to say, just dropped in to let folks know I was still here.

No, I haven't died

Although it's been 6 months since I last posted, I haven't died, or stopped knitting. I've just been battling anemia, busy with my class (much nicer this year, and smaller in size as well), and doing some major cleaning and reorganizing. I've also been trying to do more real cooking, as opposed to either skipping dinner or heating up a frozen dinner. I used to cook a lot, and loved it, but that was when it wasn't just me to cook for. Now, I struggle to cook for one, or even two with leftovers. All my old recipes feed 6 or more, and I truly don't want to make something and have 5 days of leftovers. So, I've been adapting old receipes, not all successfully, and trying to find new ones. I keep hearing that Singles are a large minority, but there are very few cookbooks or cooking sites that recognize that. And frankly, one can't be giving dinner parties every night, you know?

At any rate, I'm still here. Taking stock of my self and my life as the New Year approaches. I'm not making Resolutions, however. I think they are greatly overrated. I mean, the gym is packed in January, and empty in February. I'm taking some time to really think things over, and decide what, if any, changes should be made. This might be the year I move out of this place I'm in. Old building, no amenities of any kind, (not even a garbage disposal!), and a noisy, busy street out front. And with my arthritis (knees) getting worse, I'm thinking maybe a first floor place is better for me. (Although I count my trips up and down the stairs as exercise, which I should be doing more of).

So, knitting. I am doing some, especially since my Winter break didn't start until the 24th this year, and I don't go back to work until Jan. 9th. I seem to have time on my hands, a luxury for me. I've been working on a sweater, my own design, using a stitch pattern I found in one of Barbara Walker's books. I screwed up a row the other day, and I just put it aside for a few days. I know that won't fix it, but I needed a time out as much as it did. Cast on for a cowl, because it's been bloody cold here already, and our winter hasn't started. I woke up to the low 30s for more than a week, which is about 20 degrees colder than normal around here. I leave home before 7 am, and often have playground duty before 8, so a cowl or two will be very welcome. If it was that cold in November and early December, then January and February, our real winter months, promise to be much more winter-like than usual. Cowls and fingerless mitts. Living in SoCal, I never really thought I'd need them, but climate change knows no boundaries, I guess.

As this last day of 2011 draws to a close, I wish all of you a terrific and satisfying 2012. May it hold everything you need and desire. And may it bring a level of sanity and civility to those who lost those things in 2011.

A Reflection

On Friday, I attended the funeral of a woman who worked with my students as a PE teacher once a week. She'd been doing this for several years. I didn't know her well ~ she provided part of my planning period, so I rarely got to spend any time with her. She also sold jewelry, by catalog, once in a while. She died on June 1st, in a one-car accident on the freeway, near my school.

We found out the next day, the day she would have been there to teach PE. The principal asked us not to tell the students; he wanted to do that. For a variety of reasons, he didn't do that until June 7th. My kids seemed to be okay with the news. Some had already known, or suspected. I fielded a few questions on Monday and Tuesday, before the official announcement.

This woman ~ call her Sandy (not her real name) ~ was not well liked by my students. They often complained that she was mean, and I had heard that in other years as well. She did tend to yell at them, but then, they were outside, often far apart, and more often than not, being noisy, so maybe it was just raising her voice to be heard.

She seemed to be a lonely person. Sandy was the sole support of her widowed brother and his two sons, I know. She approached me, this year, about going to some baseball games at a local stadium. Not major league games, not even, I think, minor league. I'm still a bit vague about it. I was stunned when she asked me, since, as I said, I didn't know her very well. I was sick at the time, and told her I'd think about it and get back to her. She was dead before I did.  I still have no real idea of why she would ask me. I'd never given any indication that I would be interested in going to any sort of athletic event. My teaching partner was, and is, a much more likely candidate for that sort of thing, and she was sitting with me when Sandy asked me.

There were rumours about her death. I heard that it was suicide, that she was despondent over a meeting at the district when she was chastized about some harsh words she'd said to students. I don't know if that is true. She had a Catholic funeral, so I doubt the official verdict was suicide, given their stand on that.

The funeral, though, was odd. There was no body, for one thing. If she died on June 1st, and her funeral was June 10th, there was certainly time for the body to be released, at least I think so. I suspect that there was an autopsy, given that it was a single car incident. They'd be looking, no doubt, for any medical reason for her to crash into a post on the freeway. (I can't remember what they call those things that support overpasses) I do know that she was going fast enough at the time to damage the post badly enough that the county had to send a crew out to inspect the post to see if it was still sound enough to support the weight of the overpass.

Sandy had a fairly large family. Her parents, 1 sister, 2 brothers, 2 nephews. One of the nephews gave the eulogy ~ which was also odd. It wasn't personal at all. He read a paper she'd written many years before, about her goals in her pursuit of a degree in adaptive physical education. It was dry and impersonal, and her nephew added nothing to it, except to say his aunt would be missed.  No other family member spoke.

It was all a little unsettling. Her death, the district's handling of notification, the funeral. Odd. I don't like funerals in general, but I've never been to one that left so many questions behind. Or one that didn't have a body. The priest mentioned it, but gave no reason for not having it there. Didn't say it had been cremated, but even if they were going to do that, it's customary to do so after the funeral. Where is it? Why hasn't it been released to the family? Did they find something medical? Was it suicide? What happened to this woman who has been a part of our school's life, and many other schools' lives, for so many years? And why didn't her family say anything personal and sympathetic about her? Three of them depended on her for their financial support. They couldn't find anything nice to say about her?  This whole thing has left me very unsettled.

Maybe it's just me. I've been sick with pneumonia and pernicious anemia for the last month or so, not working for much of it, hospitalized for a large part of it as well, or home on doctor's orders for bed rest, in between all the tests I've been subjected to. It's left me feeling a bit out of it, at best. So, maybe it is just me.

KnitGirllls Afghan Swap

I just received my four names for the people I'll be knitting afgan squares for over the next 8 months. I'm excited to get started on them!  Of course, I checked out the home pages for all of them, and looked at their projects and queues. And it occured to me that if whoever got me does the same, they'll be pretty disappointed in the information they can glean from it.

So ~ for any Ravelers looking for info to help with the KGASS, I've been knitting for over 40 years, I adore cables and textural stitches, I'm a coffee and chocolate (dark) addict, I've been a teacher for 22 years, mostly (20 years) 5th grade. (I love their sense of humor!)  I read a lot, collect knitting patterns, yarn, books, and am always on the lookout for interesting food items ~ cheeses, jams/jellies, spices, bbq sauces, etc. As you will have noticed, I don't post a lot of information about me or my knitting here or on Ravelry. Well, I talk about my knitting here, but pictures are almost non-existant. I'm working on fixing that, but it will be awhile still.

Anyway, on to afghan square knitting!