Solstice

Today is my first day off from work and I've gotten a lot accomplished.  The cupboards are stocked with food, the gifts are wrapped, and most of the laundry is done.  I even gathered a large bag of items to take to the thrift store.  Stephanie and I ate lunch out at my favorite coffee shop and we've been sitting in the sunroom doing a little knitting and chatting while listening to Christmas music.  Meredith and Ryan are about three hours away, and Melissa will be over later too.  There will be baking and more knitting and chatting. 

Life is so good.  I hope your life is sweet too.

The Last Day Before Break

Today was the last day of school before winter break. Every year, no matter what activity I plan for my students, the one that works best is coloring. Yes, 8th grade students still love to color. Despite the media often portraying this age group as jaded and difficult, they are often still quite young. Not exactly innocent, but somehow still young, especially when given a chance to just be themselves. So today, despite starting out with an interesting and educational experience involving the picture book, Snowflake Bentley, and some complicated snowflake patterns for them to cut out, by the last bell I had given up and passed out the holiday coloring sheets. And peace and joy reigned at last.

What is Going On Here?

Whoo-boy, the technology changes around here are keeping me absent from this blog.  I've already told you about the iPad, which is sucking a lot of my attention these days.  I've been trying to figure out how to blog from it, but am not having much luck.  Then, when I get on my "old" laptop, I find Blogger has changed some things around; when everything looks different, I tend to back away slowly or charge ahead blindly.  And to round things out, my trusty camera gave up the ghost and I had to rush out and buy another one yesterday, because as I told my husband, "I can't have Christmas without a camera!"  So now I have another variable to work with, which means very little blogging is going on.

Oh, and then there's the whole Christmas scene barrelling at me like a freight train, which is exactly the opposite way I'd like to describe the way I feel about Christmas.  I want to be Amanda, and instead, I'm me, snapping at my family and freaking out at little things.  I mean, I walked into my pharmacist's on Saturday and she knew exactly what medication I needed to refill (hint:  it's rhymes with Manax). 

The good news is that I had my ladies' only party here yesterday and it was lovely, despite the headache I had behind my eyes (stress?  it's possible).  The tree is lit and decorated, and many packages are wrapped under it.  I've made many of my gifts and bought locally for most of the others, so I really don't know why I'm feeling stressed, but I am. 

But I've only two more days to work this week, my stepdaughter arrived on Saturday and my oldest daughter should be here on Thursday, so I'm just going to relax (if it kills me) and enjoy the season.  And one of these days, I should have some photos back up on this blog.  And my next post will definitely be more positive, I promise.  Thanks for letting me vent, for I know I have a wonderful life. 

I May Need a Little Help. . . .

I have fallen down the rabbit hole into iPad world. I just spent 50 minutes on the phone with apple to tell them either I received a defective keyboard or a foreign language keyboard. At any rate, I am sending it back and I'm going to wait until after Christmas to decide if I really need one. Meanwhile, I'm trying to navigate blogging from my new toy. Which means the pile of gifts aren't wrapping themselves. But I am doing a little knitting, thank goodness. I started a Gaptastic cowl using some stashed baby grande alpaca. The Jared Flood cap is on hold for now, but I do plan on returning to it, just as soon as I have some time to focus on it. For now, it's back to Words with Friends!

Crafting & Community

The Quince & Co. yarn arrived Friday and I cast on immediately for the Wanderer Cap, using a skein of Lark. I love this yarn so much, I'm not sure why I ever use anything else.I had to use a tubular cast on for the first time, and it only took me two tries to achieve success. I'm not sure the extra work is worth it, although it is a very squishy feeling edge. Anyone else have any opinions on this cast on? Anyway, now I'm following a chart, which is a rarity for me. But I am determined to increase my skill set, so instead of reaching for an old favorite pattern, I chose this one. Plus, it's in the book I just bought, it's by Jared Flood, and it's a cool looking design. Win, win, win.

Yesterday I hosted my 2nd Craft-OV-Rama and it was so relaxing. Ten lovely women were there, including my youngest daughter, and the age range was from 22 to 55, single, married, new mamas, empty nest mamas, and some without children. When I came into work this morning, one of the young mamas thanked me again for hosting these get-togethers. She said they are the only times she really gets to have "me" time and she realizes how important it is to her mental health. Which is actually one of the reasons I'm doing these. Being a part of a community of women has always been important to me, and this is a way for me to pay it forward and include some of these young, harried women in my life. La Leche League was where I really learned how vital these types of relationships are and ever since, they have been a part of my life in some form or other. I am so glad my daughter participates too, as she will need this type of support someday soon, and meanwhile, it's good for her to see the interaction between a somewhat diverse group of women. Although as I write this, I realize she grew up seeing this, so she already knows.

So, what crafting was done? One woman made a fleece blanket, I taught another friend to knit, and I did some knitting myself. I also tried making a potholder on the old metal loom my daughters used when they were young, but I couldn't remember how to bind it off. So in other words, there wasn't a lot of crafting, but there was a lot of talking, which is just as nice.

Knitting update: I am on my fourth Wanderer Cap cast on. The first time I didn't get it at all, the second time I got it, but messed up on the chart, the third time I messed up on the cast on, and now I'm beginning again. Although I know I could give up, I also know that I can do this. It's not that hard of a pattern. It is challenging for me (obviously) but it isn't really that hard, so I'm going to persevere. Stay tuned.

TGIF

Gosh, this week has flown by. Today was a testing today at school, so it was pretty boring, but that's the way it goes sometimes. I've really been happy with the modifications I'm doing for my honors class this year. The gifted class I took really gave me a lot of cool ideas, plus kind of a paradigm shift that has really had an impact on my teaching. I think it's really lucky that I'm still excited about what I do after fifteen years of doing it. Not sure too many people can say that, but it's one of the really cool things about teaching for me; the chance to create my working environment that isn't available in every career.

That said, I'm really happy it's the weekend. I have crafting in my plans. And a chicken dinner in the oven. I used a new recipe from this month's Everyday Foods (love that magazine) and cooked it in the crock pot last night so we could heat it up for dinner tonight. Couscous on the side, white wine gravy, and a glass of wine with the meal. What's not to love?


I've finished the Mustard Scarf and started another one, this time using a silk and wool blend. And I'm making a personal promise to pull out some WIPs. Whoops, I just got the Quince & Co. yarn delivery, so the personal promise just went out the window. Wow, they were quick! I ordered it just a couple of days ago and wasn't expecting it until next week!! Now I'm definitely knitting on some new yarn.

Happy Friday!

December? Already?

I was perusing my Ravelry page this morning and I noticed that I have two scarves at the halfway point and one handwarmer done. Despite my desire to cast on for new projects, I think it would be a good idea to finish these three projects to add to my Christmas gifting basket (really, it's a gift pile, but basket sounds so much nicer, don't you think?) I hibernated at least four projects because I'm tired of seeing them at the top of my project page; it's like they're taunting me or something.




I also noticed the PurlBee's newest project, the Eleventh Hour Blanket. I love PurlBee's projects, and they are so generous with sharing their patterns, but I also love to calculate the cost of their projects sometimes, just to amaze myself. This project uses eight skeins of Cascade's Magnum, at a cost of $22.60 per skein. Pricey. Of course, as I type this I realize I have so much money already tied up in this knitting habit of mine, that the cost of this project would be a drop in the proverbial bucket, but still. I guess as long as I don't drop that much money knowingly, I can continue to delude myself that I'm really not spending too much. Hmm. I may need to rethink my strategy. Especially since I just placed an order with Quince & Co. I love their yarn, don't you?

I'm just about done with the Mustard Scarf/Cowl that I started on Sunday. It's an easy knit, but I kept making mistakes at first because I was knitting it whilst watching MI-5, (it's called Spooks in the UK) which is a pretty suspenseful show. Steve and I have been on an MI-5 binge for about three months now; we are totally addicted. I think we have three or four more seasons left, and then who knows what we'll do for entertainment. (Just joking, my Netflix queue is loaded with more British television. I'll be fine.)

So far the strategy of gift wrapping as I go seems to be working. The gift wrapping station is in Melissa's bedroom and the wrapped gifts are being stored in Stephanie's bedroom until we buy and put up our tree. I'd like to get it soon so we can let it soak up water for a couple of weeks.

I'm hitting another craft show this Saturday with my sister and mom, and then I'm hosting my 2nd Craft-OV-Rama on Sunday. Should be a whirlwind weekend. Hope you have some fun stuff planned too!