Going for the Gold

My Olympic knitting is off to a bit of a slow start. After the third time casting on for the lotus blossom tank, I'm finally making a little progress.



Not very impressive, huh? But to be fair, this was taken before today's knitting, so I've made a bit more progress. I've finished the first lace repeat for the bottom and have started on the second. The pattern calls for 5 lace repeats before going on to the stockinette stitch part, but I might add another, it seems to be a little shorter than I would like. Before I make that call though, I'd like to see how long the five repeats make it. The lace is also coming out a little looser than I thought it would, I'm definently going to have to wear another shirt under it (at least until I get a flatter tummy).

So, the progress for the Knitting Olympics is slow, but I am making good progress on my February socks.



As you can see, I've finished the first and am moving onto the second, which is good since we are more than halfway done with the month of February. The pattern is called Paul and Virginia by Jenna Swanson and the yarn is Stroll Handpaints by Knit Picks in the colorway Playtime. And, of course, the colors are not accurately represented on here.

What's this?

Lookie here! And you might ask what it is you are looking at...Well, since you asked, it is my first teaching paycheck. Yup, the first time I've received money from a school district in exchange for performing some sort of teaching duty. Yeah, it is only for subbing, and yeah, it is only for two days, but still it is a check for money in exchange for teaching. I'm pretty excited about that.

Subbing has been going good. Last week, I spent Wednesday and Thursday subbing for my former cooperating teacher. Essentially, I was getting paid to do an easier version of what I did for free (okay, actually, I paid a pretty hefty fee) while student teaching. I was actually surprised by how much I missed this place. And not just the lunch and the prep times.

I actually was greeted with hugs from a couple of my former students, which is an even rarer event in a middle school. Other students vocalized that they missed me. It made me feel that I might actually have actually made a teeny tiny difference to a student or two.

One of the highlights of the days was catching up on one fo the students, J's progress in the Harry Potter books. He is reading them for the first time, and has managed to avoid learning what happened in the series. When I started student teaching at the middle school, J. was just starting book two. Now, he is in the middle of book 5. Watching him read the books has been so much fun.

None of the students questioned my return to the school, we just feel back into our old routines. Almost all of them, in 2 days, I lost 3 pencils, due to the ever charming habit of middle schoolers to show up to class without a pen or pencil and need to borrow one. I would have to guess that at the end of the year, when everyone cleans out their locker, about 750,000 pencils must be discovered. I've had students lose the pencil I gave them and need another between 1st and 2nd hour. I'm not even sure how that is possible.

Pencil thievery aside, it was good to be back, and even better to get paid for it.

Knitting Olympics

First of all, let's get this out in the open, I'm an Olympic junkie. I absolutely love the Olympics, winter or summer, though I prefer the winter if given a choice. So the next 17 days will involve me intently watching whatever sport happens to be on the television at any particular time.

Naturally, this fascination with all things Olympic, along with my love of knitting, caused me to get pretty excited about the Yarn Harlot's Knitting Olympics. The premise is simple, you select a project that will be a challenge to complete in 17 days, cast on during the opening ceremonies and work to finish before the torch goes out.

For my challenge, I selected the Lotus Blossom tank, a project (and yarn) that has been on my to do list for some time. It is a top knit in sport weight yarn, which has been a challenge, as some of my past projects will attest (Lily Cardigan and Banded Peasant Blouse, I'm looking at you). I'm making it in a light green bamboo yarn, which could be interesting, as bamboo yarn tends to show every mistake.

I casted on last night, but have already had to tear the project out twice, which does not bode well for my ability to finish by the end of the Olympics. But I'll keep the faith and try my best to get it finished.

A Trip to the Frog Pond

As a knitter, once in awhile, a project comes along that just isn't going to happen. There are a number of reasons that this can happen, but eventually you end up with a partially knitted project sitting in a corner, in a basket, or in your knitting bag that is mocking you. Every time you look at the piece of knitting, you think about how you should finish it, or fix it, but somewhere deep inside, you know that it is never going to happen. It gets to the point where it is a relief when you allow yourself to toss the project aside, or frog it and repurpose the yarn.

That is the point I was at with my lily cardigan. I cast on for the simple, top down cardigan last March. My intent was to have it finished by Silas's baptism to wear over my dress. Then, I discovered the pattern for Shawl the Jazz, which made a lovely wrap that I decided to wear inside. Other projects came and went, and I found excuses not to work on the cardigan, all the while feeling guilty for not finishing the cardigan.

I also decided I wasn't crazy about the color. I love pink, but it was just too pink for such a large article of clothing. And the yarn was knitting up into a stiff fabric with no drape. And I didn't enjoy working on it, and I didn't really care if I ever got it done because I wasn't looking forward to wearing it. But still, I felt bad for not working on it.

Today I decided, this was a sweater that had been in progress for almost a year, and just about done for about 4 or 5 months. I wasn't going to get around to finishing it, and even if I did, I wouldn't wear it. I came to the inevitable conclusion that I needed to let this sweater go. Today I ripped the sweater out, and rewound the yarn into balls. I fully intend on reusing the yarn. I think with a bigger needle, it would make a nice tank top or other summer shirt, which would be alright with the very pink color. But for right now, I need to set the yarn aside and come back to it at a different point.

Better luck next time, yarn.

Namaste Love

I think it is important to post again about how much I love my Numaste bag. It allows me to take my kniiting places where I never would have thought about.

Such as...

Last week, I go to turn in my license application into the university. No big deal just a short jaunt into Brewer Hall, turn in a couple pieces of paper and head out on my merry way. Well, I arrive in the office only to find out that the lady that gets the applications is over at the registrar's office. Do I have time to wait? No problem, I sit down, pull out my sock and happily knit along.

Or today, when I went into the district office to complete my sub paperwork. The HR lady is at the bank, but no problem, that just means more knitting time for me!

These are both situations where I never would have brought my knitting and would have found myself irratated at having to wait, but thanks to my lovely purse/knitting bag, I was able to pass the time contentedly, stitch by stitch.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPod.

Subbing

After finishing my student teaching, it seemed the logical next step would be to get on some sub lists. After all, I'm pretty much a certified teacher. I've got my official completion of program note, saying that the university has recommended me to get my license, the dpi website shows my application as turned in and my payment received. (It really does, you can go and look it up if you're ever really, really bored. I figured the most logical districts to apply to would be the district where I live and the district where I student taught.

The district where I live turned out to be pretty easy. I turned in my information and they put me on the list. Easy peasy, especially in comparison to the district where I student taught, which took 3 weeks to decide that I was competent to work with their students. (never mind the fact that I have been working with these same students for the past 18 weeks) And this was especially frustrating because my cooperating teacher from second quarter had some dates that he wanted to sub for. Thankfully, after poking and prodding, and calling in favors, I was officially put on the sub list for the district, and within minutes I was officially subbing for my co-op for two days next week.

Thankfully, my home district had no such issues about making sure that I am safe to interact with students. Yesterday morning, bright and early (especially so after a sleepless night) I got called in to my first sub job. I was covering for an elementary LD teacher. The subbing went fine, a pretty easy day. I was a little tense when the aid warned me about one of the students. I was picturing an elementary school bugaboo similar to some of the students I worked with at my first placement (screaming, throwing, biting, spitting, hitting, etc.). Instead, it was a kid that wanted to get out of work. He came in right after lunch and saw me knitting and was extremely interested in my "sewing". He asked many, many questions trying to avoid math, but we ended up getting his work done and even had time for a couple of games of Uno. Good day all around.

Frustration also built up around my knitting this week. I worked in 18 rows of my owl cables for my sweater only to discover that I did the cables backwards. Being a left handed knitter with a right handed pattern means you have to make some adaptations to the pattern. I over thought it and doubly corrected it, which meant the cables twisted the wrong way. I ended up having to rip back 18 rows and start knitting it again. I'm now back to row 5 of the pattern.

Sock of the Month

Okay, it has been a long time since I've updated on here. I'd say that I've been busy, but that wouldn't be entirely truthful, lazy would probably be a better word for it. Anyways, so this is the first in a couple part updates on life. This update focuses on my knitting world.

I've finally finished the Dax Jacket for Silas, you know, the one that was supposed to be his Christmas present. I think that it turned out pretty well.

 
I can never get the colors of my knitting projects to come out correctly. The sweater is actually an emerald green and sapphire blue striped. Anyway, Silas seems to like it.
 And the sleeves look pretty long on there, and this is after they have been shortened.

I've also finished the purled ladder socks.

They also turned out pretty well.

One of my New Year's goals for 2010 is to complete a pair of socks per month. The purled ladder socks are January's and I've got February's on the needles. I considered joining a monthly sock club, where they send you the yarn and pattern each month, but last night I was inspired when reading the Yarn Harlot's blog. I decided to use my immense stash of sock yarn and patterns to create my own sock of the month club. I dug through my patterns, matched patterns to yarns that I thought would go well with them. I printed out the pdf patterns, and made copies of the book and magazine patters, but them in a plastic bag with the yarn and tossed into a storage box. Now, each month, I'll reach into the box, draw out a bag at random, and ta-da! My own sock of the month club.

I undertook the project today, and by this afternoon I had 14 different bags with patterns and yarns.





Hours and hours and hours of knitting fun. However, this project made me realize just how much sock yarn I have acquired in my knitting career. These baskets are all sock yarns that have yet to be assigned to a pattern.



I'm going to use the other half of the storage box (which is my childhood toy box) to store similar bags of other project yarns with the patterns. Usually what happens is I see a pattern, get inspired, find yarn for it, and then by the time I'm ready to cast on, I've forgotten which pattern I wanted to knit with which yarn. This way, I'll know, and I'll also have a better idea of what yarns I have in my stash that are not assigned to projects.

I've also cast on for a new sweater. The Owl pullover. It is a pretty plain crewneck pullover, but the yolk has little cables that look like owls. I'm knitting it in Malabrigo yarn, which is so soft and smooshy, I wish I could make a nest out of it.