A Rambling Sort of Day

Morning post:

It's a gorgeous day today and I'm off work due to Veteran's Day! I'm planning to use some of the free time to work on my UVA course work. Plus some laundry. Plus knitting. Plus finish Mockingjay, the last book in the Hunger Games trilogy. Another one of my professional goals this year was to get back into reading young adult fiction, so as to promote reading amongst my students. When my daughters were little, and when I taught English, I read young adult lit constantly, but since I've been teaching science for so long, I've really drifted away from it. Anyway, I've thoroughly enjoyed the series and have done a couple of booktalks with my students about it, which is always fun.

I'm also getting myself together to head out on another trip, this time to visit Melissa for the weekend, and a quick visit with Stef on my way back home. Looking forward to seeing both of them for some girls-only time!

**Later in the day

I'm not surprised I managed to procrastinate enough that I didn't do any of my course work today after all, and unfortunately, not much knitting, unless you count the hour from 1:30 a.m. to 2:30 a.m. before I officially got up for the day. I did however do a lot of laundry, read some, did the daily crossword puzzle, cleaned some floors, met a friend for lunch, met my husband for a mini-shopping run, did some grocery shopping of my own, talked to my mother, sister, and two of the four girls, and fixed dinner. So not too bad of a day, right?

Oh, and don't forget the blog cruising, where I found these little snippets:

I love Sufjan Stevens, and it turns out he's a knitter too! (You have to read through the second page for it.)

Free knitting patterns are always nice, especially as the holidays approach. I'm doing it differently this year in that I'm knitting my mom a sweater and therefore, I'm probably not going to make lots of other gift knits. Although Steve does get a new hat; I've already decided on the yarn, Rowan felted tweed in a lovely charcoal grey/blue color. Still mulling over which pattern to use though.

Tomorrow is Friday! Have a happy one!

Happy Anniversary To Us!

Steve and I celebrated our fourth anniversary today on the beach in the windy, cold, and gorgeous sunshine. You can't see all of the handknits I had on, but there are two scarves and a hat in that photo. I also had on a pair of fingerless mitts and my Mondo Cable sweater. I need to make a hat for myself now. I don't love hats, but if I plan to spend anytime on the beach this winter, I need one.

We lasted about thirty minutes before I caved and headed back home. I did get a little knitting done on mom's sweater.

And here's the box of yarn for the sweater. It was really a new experience buying a sweater's worth at one time.

Happy day to you too!

Sweater Yarn!

Let the games begin! The yarn for my mom's sweater arrived Tuesday night and I cast on. I wasn't sure I loved the yarn or color, but it's looking better to me now. I stopped by KnitWits Thursday on the way home from work to buy a longer circular, but rechecked my gauge (with a little help) and found out I needed to go up a needle size. Knitting at work makes my knitting a little tighter for some reason.

This has been a tiring week. As much as I'm enjoying this school year, I feel like I'm working really hard just to keep up right now. Add the course work for the gifted class I'm taking, and I'm looking at a one day weekend. Tonight after having four bells of science lab, I worked at school until 6 p.m., then came home and spent two hours going over material for tomorrow's class. I'm ready to do a little knitting, but I'll probably fall asleep soon after I begin.

Hope you have a fun weekend planned. (Wow, what a whiny blogger I am.)

Where Did October Go?

These candles were burning while the trick-or-treaters came and went last night. The gleam on the far right is a cute little witch with a Nightmare Before Christmas look, but I couldn't get a good photo of it.

I finally decided on a pattern and yarn for my mother's Christmas gift. I am making the Basic Chic Pulli with the lacy ribbed border option and I ordered Andean Silk Yarn in the Blue Ribbon colorway from Knitpicks. It should arrive this week so I can get started on it. I've even joined NaKniSweMo, despite being unable to cast on today and despite the unlikely event of me finishing a sweater in a month while I'm taking a graduate level course and working full time, BUT, reach for the stars is my motto. I must say, I'm looking forward to the project. I knew I wanted to use another ChicKnits pattern and I think my mom will like this one. Meanwhile I'll continue working on some of the projects I've already got on the needles and try to resist casting on for anything new!

Random link:

What a great idea this is! And this one too! I hope I do this one soon to help declutter my earring and jewelry bowls.

All Hallow's Eve

What a gorgeous Sunday it is here. The weather is clear and crisp enough to put on socks and sweaters; just the kind of weather I love. I'm feeling broody today, in the sense that I'm doing all kinds of nesting things, like clearing out clutter and dust, making soup, washing the flannel sheets and blanket, putting the fall tablecloth on the table, and knitting socks.



I'm also a little broody in the melancholy sense, but not really sure why, so just working around it. The soup I'm making is a Bob's Red Mill mix from Trader Joe's that I've had awhile. It should help me out with dinner a night or two this week too.




Steve and I went to one of our favorite coffee shops this morning where I had my usual Florentine panini and I treated myself to a rare cappuccino. Since I had my stomach ulcers last spring, I have really cut coffee out of my diet, but I decided that one a week will probably be okay, and oh, it was delicious.




While we were there, I finished my Noro sock.




It's been on the needles a long time but I've only knit on it when I'm between projects or needed airplane knitting. Now that I've finished one and the weather is turning cool, I may finish the second sock fairly quickly, despite the very small gauge. I'm at a tricky point in the Tulip sweater, which is why I worked on the sock at all, but I'm glad I did.







I spent all day yesterday in a graduate class, and while I wasn't looking forward to spending my Saturday that way, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I really do love the learning environment and I love learning more about teaching and how to improve on what I do in the classroom. It's also so good for me to remember how easy it is to procrastinate course work, which is why I spent three hours Friday night preparing for Saturday's class, despite having had three weeks when I could have done the work and not stressed myself out so much. Oh well, all's well that ends well.



Looking forward to the little trick-or-treaters showing up this evening. Happy Halloween!

A Great Day

Gratuitous cupcake shot, from Linds' birthday in September. Photo credit: Stef!

I had a fabulous day today, but unfortunately I don't have any photos of it to share. Another science teacher at my school brought in some dry ice and I was able to do a couple of really cool demos for my students with it. So much fun! I can't believe how much fun I'm having this year!!

Steve is out of town for a Muse concert and won't be back until the wee hours, so it was just me for dinner. Normally I would eat out, but I went to the grocery store and got motivated to roast some zucchini, onion, and mushrooms, then add the leftover sauted spinach to it at the end, and then mixed it all with some orzo. A glass of red wine on the side, and I had a delicious dinner. No pictures of it either, cause I ate it all up! Wished for some parmesan cheese, but really, it was good without it.

Going to go sit on the couch and watch some mindless but fun television and work on the Tulip cardigan cause I love it so much! Wow, since this photo on Sunday, I've already added the two blue sections and the purple one and I'm on the edging! Turns out I get to try my hand at applied I-cord on this, something I want/need to learn. I've also been browsing the KnitPicks website for yarn to make my mother a sweater. It'll be for Christmas, and even if I don't finish it by then, I can wrap it up for Christmas as is, then finish it by her birthday in February. But I can't make up my mind which yarn to buy!! And I can't believe the paradigm shift I've undergone about the way I view my knitting skills! Thinking an adult sweater is doable!

Thanks to a link at A Caffeinated Yarn, I read this article and want to share it with you.

This looks like a fabulous costume! Not sure I'll have time to make it, but who knows? I didn't think I'd have time to make those cookie mixes either, but I did.

Hope your fall days are filled with joy. (Even though it was over 80 degrees today, it's still autumn, right?) I want some sweater weather!

Autumn Goodness

Wow, what a gorgeous fall weekend it was around here. We had Stef home on fall break, so we had Linds & Jon over for dinner last night. We bought two roast chickens and I made baked macaroni and cheese, sauteed spinach and garlic, yeast rolls, and pumpkin cupcakes for dessert. I think I ate too much, but it was so yummy.

Today, in between getting a LOT of school work done, I was able to put together five jars of cookie mix, from a tutorial over at The Crafty Nest. They look so pretty.

I didn't make it to the beach, which was a shame, but I did spend a little time knitting on the deck. I am loving this sweater! I'm on the fifth color already! So much fun, this one is.

This week is shaping up to be another crazy, meeting-filled week, with the added bonus of completing my presentation for Saturday's class. Oh well, what doesn't kill us, makes us stronger. Or so I've heard.