Namaste Zuma

For my birthday, my in-laws gave me a beautiful, fabulous new purse/knitting bag. Well, actually they gave me money, which I used to purchase this fabulous new bag, the Zuma by Namaste.



As you can see it is beautiful, but you may ask what makes it so fabulous? Well, I am happy to tell you.

Fabulous Feature # 1
It is a combination purse/knitting bag. This all but guarantees that I will always have my knitting with me. It also means that I don't have to make the choice between either hauling both my purse and knitting bag, or taking a knitting project in its individual project bag and knotting it to my purse handles.

Instead, the center compartment is large enough to carry not one, but several knitting projects, along with patterns and notions (which were always a pain to cart around). In addition to safely carrying my knitting projects, notions, and patterns protected from the elements, the inside pocket is also big enough to carry my reusable bags, my checkbook and my camera. I could also toss a book in there is I wanted to. Heck, I could carry my laptop in there (but remember I have a pretty little laptop).



The front pocket has enough room to carry my wallet, change purse, iPod, cell phone, and lip gloss. And the back pocket has enough room to carry my work keys, name tag, and car keys.



Fabulous Feature # 2
Despite having all of this storage, the bag doesn't look super huge or bulky. Granted, it is a good sized purse, but I've owned bigger ones that have not held nearly as much.

Fabulous Feature # 3
It has a cool, almost retro doctor's bag look. It doesn't look like a knitting bag. Not that I'm ashamed about being a knitter, but many traditional knitting bags look like they should belong to a 90 year old woman who knits toilet paper cozies and sweaters for her 53 cats. And there is the added benefit that if no one knows it is a knitting bag, no one will think about mugging me for my handmade socks and squishy wool yarn.




Fabulous Feature # 4
The center pocket closes securely, but does not have a zipper. Zippers are a dangerous thing on knitting bags, they snag your yarn. Instead of a zipper, this bag has 4 magnets, pretty strong ones. The design of the bag allows me to hold it upside down when closed and shake it and nothing will fall out.

Fabulous Feature # 5
The main pocket opens wide and stays open. This makes it easy to find things when I'm digging through the contents of my bag.


Fabulous Feature # 6
The bag is made of a vegan material that looks and feels like real leather. Granted, I have no problem with leather, but I would imagine that this would be a selling feature for some people. It really does look and feel like leather, I've had people doubt me when I told them that it is not leather.


Fabulous Feature #7
It comes in a variety of great colors. I selected the eggplant color for myself, but the variety of color choices could meet anyone's taste. I had a hard time selecting between the eggplant and the peacock blue, which was made easier by the fact that I discovered the blue was sold out. The colors of the Zuma coordinate with the rest of the Namaste bags.

In all, there are very few things that I would change about this bag (I'm listing them because I used reviews that came up on blogs when I googled the bag to make the decision and I'd like this entry to help the decision making process for any other consumer that stumbles across my blog). I'd like the main compartment to have some better pockets for organization. There are three pockets on the inside, but they are all too little to be of much use to me. Also, I wish the bottom was a little more sturdier. I feel like the bottom sags a bit when I carry it and a firmer material in the lining of the bag would help that.

Otherwise I would recommend this, or other Namaste bags for knitters looking for a good, stylish, knitting bag. The Zuma is the smallest of the purse/knitting bags collections. I also have the Namaste Buddy Case to hold different notions, which I love. Come to think about it, the Zuma would probably also make a great bag for the non-knitter who hauls a lot in their purse.

Thanks again to my in-laws!

The Sleeve Fiasco.

The Christmas deadline for Silas's cardigan has now passed. Before Christmas, I was plugging away at the sweater, and became concerned that the sleeve (the one I had completed) was too long.  Because I was under a deadline, I just continued plugging away on the sweater, trusting the pattern.

Showing the partial sweater at Christmas gave me an opportunity to try the sweater on Silas and confirm that the sleeve was way too long. I ripped off the completed sleeve and modified the pattern to make a shorter sleeve.

See the difference? The sleeve on the left is a better baby size (I made note of the length when I tried the sweater on Silas). 

Now I just have to finish the damn sweater...

Graduation!

Okay, so it has been over a week since graduation, but a really busy week. I'm on Christmas break this week, so I'm only working at the store (as opposed to working at the store while student teaching). Hopefully, I'll get caught up on some stuff, including writing.

Anyways, Saturday, December 19 was my graduation day from UWEC. So now I've graduated, but I'm not done, as I'm student teaching until the 22 of January.

So I managed to make it through the graduation ceremony without falling asleep, saying anything too inappropriate, or tripping.

After the ceremony with Jeff. Doesn't he look proud? Or excited that some day I might get a real job with a real paycheck? Or maybe just tired, and glad the long boring ceremony is over. Or perhaps he's a little concerned that one of the first things I said to him after the ceremony was, "I'm thinking nursing school would be fun for degree number 3."

And with my diploma, well actually my diploma holder, I have to finish all the student teaching stuff before they give me my actual diploma.

And my attempt at being artistic,

Now, I just need to survive until the end of January...

Snow Day!

One great thing about going into the field of education, you never outgrow the fun of snow days. Last night a storm came through and dumped a ton of snow (about 12 inches or more) on us. This succeeded in shutting down pretty much all of the local area schools, including mine.

This gave me the opportunity to finally sleep in (and it is a sad, sad world when I consider getting up at 7:30 as sleeping in). Then I settled in and got some wrapping done, so basically all my Christmas gifts are ready to go.

See? My Christmas tree has all kinds of gifts under it, plus the Seattle Christmas box is all packed and ready to be mailed. The gifts under the tree also have the added bonus of keeping the cats out from under there.

I also made sure to take some time to take Pippin out to play in the snow. First he took a moment to take in all the snow (I also think he was looking for his doggie friends that live behind us).

Pippin loves the snow.

After that, I came back inside to get some more stuff, like laundry, done. And as luck would have it, one of the hoses on the washing machine came loose and my bathroom floor ended up covered with water. But we've got that all fixed. To end the day, I made a big pot of Chili Chicken Couscous, which is a delicious, hearty meal that's perfect for a cold, snowy day (and has the added benefit of producing lots of left overs for me to eat for lunch the next couple of days).

Love it or hate it, (and I for the most part love it) winter in Wisconsin is here!

Things They Forgot to Tell You in the School of Ed (or they did and I wasn't listening)

Don't get me wrong, I'm very pleased with the quality of the education I recieced while at UWEC, but the more time I spend student teaching the more things I learn.

Here are a few of the highlights:

1. You will always get excited for snow days.

2. Thank your parents for the little things, like clean clothes, meals, and enforcing your bedtime.

3. If you have a spare moment, use it to go to the bathroom. Trust me, when a student has a blow up during your prep time, you'll be glad you did.

4. Despite what everyone says, middle schoolers are pretty much the same as when I was in middle school (they just have cell phones and iPods now).

5. The teacher's lounge can be great, but it also can be a breeding ground for negitivity. It sometimes is best to avoid it when having a bad day.

6. While your students will take out bad moods on you, it doesn't work the other way around.

7. Field trips are no longer fun.

8. Never EVER mess with a general ed teacher's prep time ( which is in stark contrast to most special ed teachers who are just excited when they have a spare 5 minutes to pee.

9. Even when you're in the worst mood ever, one of your students will say something that makes you laugh.

10. No matter how much you fight it and deny it, the world of education will make you a morning person.

11. Between students, their parents, and coworkers, you can count on having good stories to share.

12. Take the rubber band away from the student right away, nothing good will come from letting the student hang onto it.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPod.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

It has been awhile since I posted an update on my knitting (or actually an update of any kind for that matter). I've been slacking on the sock knitting front, putting the sock on the back burner, for what I consider to be a more immediate need.

First there is this...

Can't tell what it is? It is a scarf, a long, thin scarf that can be wrapped around my neck several times. The yarn is a sock yarn dyed in shades of black, gray, and white. There are also threads of silver spun into the yarn. It gives it a little sparkle without being too much.

After the scarf, I needed some mittens, enter these...

And up closer...

They are from the book, Knitting New Mittens and Gloves, and called Sheltie Mittens (there is the first sign that I would have to make them). The mittens, roughly inspired by the dual layer coats of Shetland ponies and Shetland sheepdogs, have an outer layer of regular wool (I used Knit Picks Wool of the Anders) knit in an open design so that the inner layer of soft, fluffy alpaca shows through. My inner layer is made using Knit Picks Suri Dream. The inner yarn hasn't fluffed out quite like I had hoped, but they are on the blocking mat right now, so I hope that helps a little bit.

Lastly, I've been doing a little Christmas knitting,

A cardigan sweater for my nephew. The design is called Dax's Jacket published in the Weekend Knits edition from Interweave Knits. The body of the sweater is done in ten row stripes with the mistake rib stitch pattern. Here it is up close.

Of course the colors never photograph too well, it is actually deep jewel tones of blue and green. I've got the front left done, and am working on the decreases for the back. The sleeves, when I get to them, will be done in plain old stockinette stitch with two row stripes. I'd like to find some fun buttons for the front, but I'm waiting until I get to that point before I make a decision on them. I'm hoping to get it done in time for Christmas, but we will see.