Thursday, April 26, 2007

Teaching moments

So I taught all week in the same inner-city school that I often work in. All the same things went on, I was pinched, kicked, hit and shouted at by angry, unhappy small people who really deserve better than there lives are giving them at this point. It was a long week and I am exhausted but as I supervised recess today I had to laugh, a small waif of a kid came running toward at full speed and behind her was a much larger child from her class (grade 1) not running nearly as fast screaming across the school yard "Come here so I can kick your ass!" Luckily the smaller kid ran a lot faster than the big one and she ran straight into my arms. Once I regained my composure (stopped laughing my face off) I dealt with the situation and took the class inside. As soon as the final bell rang I happily ran through the school sharing the brillant line with all the other staff, it was a much need laugh after a very long day.

Since some of you come here looking for knitting content, there is some but I am to tired to share it today... it will come soon.

Friday, April 20, 2007

It's all here now

It's my Mom's birthday, Happy Birthday to a fabulous woman who loves me even though after 30 years I still mix up the actual day of her birthday, I blame in on the fact that I had lots of friends who have April birthdays as a kid... I did get most of her present in the mail in time this year though if that counts for anything.

I have finished P's felted clogs from the Fibre Trends pattern, yes they are that big his feet are size 13. He is never, ever getting socks from me.
I got treats in the mail from Ms. Stitch-dom as she is celebrating her blogiversary, I got this great fleece artist roving and this scarf book.
I finished Clapotis, it is not the same size as the pattern but I am really happy with it. It is knit with some handspun silk from Blue Mountain Spinnery (no website). I have also begun knitting a baby kimono as well as a few other baby gifts but their parents read my blog so there are not going to be any photos until they have been gifted.
Winter has finally left and now the all the flowers in my front garden have a chance to actually survive, unless we get some more random snow but I think we are finally safe.


And the best part of spring is sheets on the line, yippee for sun and wind.

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

funny

Happy Belated Easter - We were in a restaurant on Sunday morning for brunch and the family at the table across from us was just finishing when mom mentioned that she needed to visit the washroom, Dad asks Mom to go quickly as he would like to get home for something and the young son shouts out as she walks away, "run like your a pregnant woman" to which the whole restaurant responds to by laughing hysterically. It was a good moment especially since the restaurant was packed since it was Easter.

P and I spent the majority of the weekend trying to get some of our many reno projects finished. We are getting close to finally being finished and aside from needing tons of paint, varnish and refinished floors we are almost there. I am excited to be in the home stretch. I also finally tiled our kitchen backsplash with tiles that our friends painted at our wedding reception, photos will follow another post.

I finished Clapotis and am happy with the end result, it is more square than the original pattern asked for but I was running out of silk, I actually only had about 2 inches left as I cast off the last stitch. It's soft and lovely to wear. I also finished P's Fiber Trends felted clogs, they are huge as he has huge feet but they look good. You will have to trust me one the knitting as there are no photos of those things either.

I am off to paint closets, the fun never ends around here.

PS 3 year blogversery contest coming soon... with some good treats to be had

Wednesday, April 4, 2007

really....

Yes really, the best and most original search term that has ever lead someone to my blog is "she taped her mouth shut" it leads you to this page. I think what is the most humorous about the whole thing is that the person actually clicked through to the page and has been back since, so whoever you are, welcome to my world. It is for the search engines stats that I love Statcounter, I also like to follow the referring links sometimes because I find out about people who have linked to me that I didn't even know about.

It's another rainy day here in Ontario, sadly the rain is supposed to turn to snow tomorrow, I have my fingers crossed that it won't happen because I just uncovered all the lovely green shoots from my bulbs thinking that it was safe, nothing like snow for Easter.

Now as promised here are the very overdue photos leftover from my trip to CA . Here is R's Rainbow sweater, it's knit with Lang Tissa (dk weight cotton that I can't find for sale online but I didn't look very hard) and the pattern was sort of made up as I went along. I used a pattern to get the sizing and measurements and thought that I would us it for more but since I didn't get gauge, wanted to knit is the round (the pattern was flat and seamed) and stripped the whole thing the pattern became a very, very general guideline. I am going to knit it again and tweak the sleeves a bit,

you can't see it here but there are some issues with the reductions on the sleeves as I picked up stitches and knit the sleeves in the round. The decreases haunted me as I tried to make the 2nd sleeve match the first which had funky decreases to begin with. Overall I am thrilled with how it turned out and the fact that I got the wool on clearance and have enough to make 2 more is a bonus.

Hopefully I will write up the pattern and share it with the world but I can't promise anything soon as I have a few million things on the go.

And because every now and then the photo gods smile upon me and I get a fabulous picture or 2 here are some more. These were both taken at from the Gondola at Heavenly, Lake Tahoe. When I was in CA we went up for the weekend, Tahoe was interesting, I didn't find any fibre but the warm weather and the snow was an interesting pair.

and I got to play with these 2, (always fun) while their folks ran away to ski for the morning. We went up the mountain in the gondola and the kids thought it was great but G was not interested in having his picture taken, peek a boo is much more fun.

Alright I am off to knit, I am working on a Clapotis in some fabulous silk that I got at Stiches West, I am about 4 decreases from being finished and I want to get it finished before it is to warm to wear it.

Sunday, April 1, 2007

sad, sad

I was trying to some pics of R's rainbow sweater but my dial up connection dislikes blogger and for some reason Hello seems to not work with the new blogger... I guess the actual post will ahve to wait until I am near high speed, tragic I know.