Saturday, June 28, 2008

The closet tells all...


Knitting closet
Originally uploaded by ckknitter
For the past 10 months, ever since DH began traveling so much for work, I've kind of given up on home-based organization. The photographic evidence appears on this page. My yarn stash closet is virtually bursting out all over! Next week, when I'm NOT finishing grad. school projects, I'm going to haul all the yarn out, play with it a little, then store it with its like kind - it will feel good to get that yarn closet back under control, let me tell you! (not to mention the bathrooms, kitchen floor, & laundry...remember? I'm not doing laundry until Tuesday) Oh, and I'll get to knit, too! Hot dog.

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Baby Birds 2 & Tinking


baby birds 2
Originally uploaded by ckknitter



Here's a baby bird update - they're still there and at least one is h-u-n-g-r-y! I think they're almost always hungry, except when they're sleeping. I haven't heard a lot of cheeping from the nest, but then I haven't been standing on the porch waiting for feeding time. Too busy here right now - for the past two days I've been alternately writing papers, completing a final exam, working on two power point presentations, and rewarding myself with little bouts of knitting...had to tink back on the nanner sock. That was hard b/c the yarn is a little splitty. I also had to tink back on the cable shawl - but now it's all done and I'll just have to focus more while knitting!
There's also been some plurking involved....I know - I'm trying to stop or at least plurk in moderation!
The next five days are going to be crazy as all of the above mentioned papers, power points, and exam are due on the 30th. I'm going to keep doing what I've been doing and look forward to Tuesday, July 1!

Here's an update Nanner Sock photo too! Nanners 3

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Nanners 2


Nanners 2
Originally uploaded by ckknitter
Here's the little bit of progress I've made on the Nanner socks by Wendy Johnson for us plurkers. These are my first toe-up socks and I LOVE JUDY'S MAGIC CAST ON! I'm only knitting when my brain is too fried to think about exams or projects or powerpoints. Today will be a BIG writing day, as I do not have to go to the high school - WOOT! I just have to keep saying - almost done - almost done - almost done - and then after next Monday, I will be.....then I can knit all I want!

Monday, June 23, 2008

Plurking

Friend Janice introduced me to plurk - it's a pretty cool & fun way to communicate with folks with similiar interests - in this case, knitting/crafting. At first, I didn't really like it. I'd ask questions or make comments, no one would respond. Poor little ole me! But eventually, things began to plurk up and now I have lots of friends and my Karma has grown - whew.....for a little while I thought I might be, you know - boring......oh well.

Now I think I might be plurking too much. For the past two days, I've actually caught myself thinking in Plurkese. You know: cinki says don't take the last chocolate dough-nut or cinki is updating her blog or cinki feels like running out of the building. This kind of scares me - what if I start talking in third person. I hope those of you I see regularly in person, instead of in plurkson, will tell me if I start speaking Plurkese aloud and not just in my head. Another side effect is that I've semi-abandoned Ravelry - I run to plurk first instead of the Rav. boards.


Here are some plurking vs. Ravelrying thoughts:


  • I wish the Ravelry threads were in plurk format - woah, that could be WAY-FUN!

  • I wish Ravelry had more emoticons for their posts - it feels weird to post there with no way to show emotion ( I've been typing 'cake' at the end of some posts!)

  • I wish we could put the plurk widget on our Ravelry page for easier plurking updates.
  • I wish we could mesh the two....WHOA - more way-fun!

I'm posting from the high school - not really work 'cause it's summer and this is part of my Practicum experience and the kids are gone....and I do not have any way to post photos from here. I'll add those when I get home! Until then - plurk ya later!


Sunday, June 22, 2008

Nanners!

Last night, after working on school stuff pretty much all day, I decided that I should knit a bit. If I were thinking logically and rationally, I would have spent some time on a project that's already underway, but I just wasn't in the mood or thinking logically or rationally after a day of reflecting on my grad papers. So here's what I did -

Nanner sock 1


Nanner socks - using Judy's Magic cast on. I had to pry one of the 16 y.o. off the computer so I could print out instructions. As you can see, I'm using DPNs because I've never done Magic Loop and I do not have size 2 circulars. But it worked well with DPNs & I have Nanner Sock #1 underway. I can't wait to get to the pattern part!

Sunday plans: go to church, buy groceries, & then write some more. During my breaks, I'll help my Nanners keep growing - round by round! I can't wait to see the lacy little nanner pattern appear!

Saturday, June 21, 2008

Birds do not knit - see?

See Cindy's flower basket?

P6210017_edited

See the bird's nest in Cindy's flower basket?

P6210016_edited

See the baby birds in Cindy' s flower basket?


Awwwww......aren't they......cute? No, actually, they are not cute - right now they are pretty awful looking. One day, if the cats stay away from them, they'll grow into cute little opinionated Jenny Wrens....cheep-cheep.

No knitting yet for me today as I've been writing up everything that's due on June 30. I picked up my skein of Prism Lace yarn from Janice this afternoon - she wound it for me - all 1400 yards of it - bless her! I think I'll play with it for awhile after dinner: Anniversary Shawl by Renee Leverington or play with the toe-up cast on for my Nanner Socks by Wendy Johnson - the ones for us plurkers! There'll be more time to knit after June 30!

Friday, June 20, 2008

Nanner sock yarn


Nanner sock yarn
Originally uploaded by ckknitter
This is the "nanner sock" yarn I bought today with Janice at The Needle Lady in Charlottesville. It's Heritage hand painted yarn by Cascade. I think it looks like very unripened nanners - bananas. I can't wait to start knitting them - but not until after I finish all my final graduate projects - June 30 - YIKES - that's getting close!

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Prism Lace-Orchard


P6060001_edited
Originally uploaded by ckknitter
I love this yarn. It's the Prism Lace in Orchard - I bought it not long ago. It's a little heavier than lace-weight and I hope will be easier to knit with than the super-thin stuff I've been fighting with. Friend Janice is winding it with her ballwinder. I'm hoping it will become the Goddess Knits Anniversary shawl - mandala-like! Y-U-M-M-Y!

Sunday, June 15, 2008

I've got a plan! WOOT!

OK - Here it is - Today - starting at 11:30, I will:

  1. Complete my graduate project brief
  2. Knit one pattern on Pam's scarf (see - "P" for Pam!) "P" for Pam
  3. Align my PowerPoint to the Research Brief
  4. Email my project & brief to Pam for approval (removing the web link to my blog b/c I don't want her to know about her scarf)
  5. Knit one pattern section on the Cable Shawl Cable shawl progress
  6. Practice my oral presentation once in front of the mirror
  7. Practice how I will greet the high school students tomorrow morning at Summer School
  8. Maybe knit another pattern on the Cable Shawl or fiddle around with the Anniversary shawl (this is not "official", so it's not on Ravelry yet... ) Anniversary shawl fiddling
  9. Somewhere in there, I'll help with dinner & Father's Day celebrations AND fret a little bit more about summer school
  10. Oh yeah - I have to write up two reflections for my Practicum assignment and total my hours - I'll probably roll that over to tomorrow. (thank you, Stacey, for the editing alert)

Ten things, OK maybe nine - to do today and the day's already half over. I've made another pot of coffee, plugged in the laptop & am ready to go......on your mark.....get ready....get set......ARGAHGRAHGR!

Saturday, June 14, 2008

Lazy & Hazy Saturday

Well - it is...hazy...well, actually, it's smoky! According to the news, there was a big brush fire way down near the Outer Banks. Somehow the smoke from the fire has managed to drift up into Central Virginia. It's very hazy & smoky outside - looks like it should be very humid..well it kind of is, but not as bad as it looks. When I look outside, I feel lazy already and I haven't exerted any energy at all today - sigh.
Anyway, I've been up for awhile...knitting a little....cruising the web a little. Through Ravelry, I stumbled onto C*EYE*BER Fiber Yarns. They have yarns for the cause - the Barak Obama cause - so, being a good "knitocrat" I ordered some! Here are some photos from their website.

One is called "Yes We Can". Looks like socks to me!



The other is called "Fired Up" - I think it will be a lacy inauguration scarf!


Well at least I've done my bit to stimulate the economy!

Today is Knit in Public day. I don't know where I'll knit. Some of us thought we'd go to the local Ben Franklin, but no one had time to organize it. After I go and workout (ugh) I'll call Janice & see where we're going...probably On the Lamb in Staunton.

Speaking of Janice, she suggested I go down a needle size on the Anniversary Shawl using the Alpaca Cloud from Knit Picks. I think I'll give it a try.

KIP Day photos to come - Knit On!

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

A little knitting & a lot of work

I'm up to my ears organizing-or trying to organize the summer school session at our high school. This is one of my practicum projects for my administrative endorsement. I asked if I could get a little experience in another school because I've only ever worked and taught in our elementary school. Here's what I had in mind - I go to the high school - shuffle through some papers....MAYBE dig into some SOL-related information...MAYBE help code discipline stuff for the state reports - but I ended up organizing summer school. Not only organizing it, but serving as the administrator during the two week session. I feel a little weird about that. I welcome the challenge, but feel sort of like I've been taken off my tricycle and put on a motorcycle...without a helmet -YIKES!

Anyway, between this project - which I thought would be small, but is H-U-G-E - and my two class projects - which I'm working on...I promise - I've had just a little time to knit. Last night for example....I got home from class about 8:30 & was too tired to start working on literature stuff, so I knitted this little swatch instead. (almost poked my eye out a couple of times)




This is for Renee Leverington's Anniversary shawl. I might start it after June 30....you know - when everything is due & will be done. Here it is June 10th....20 more days & I might actually finish - Keep your fingers crossed & say some prayers, please!

Friday, June 6, 2008

Yarn - yarn - everywhere!

Whoa - what a haul! I kind of went on a yarn splurge recently and ordered yarn from all over the place and guess what? It all came TODAY! Yep - the yarn Gods smiled and the planets all lined up and the post office hung onto everything and shoved it all into our mailbox on the very same day! What a great Friday surprise! So with further delay - here's what I'm adding to my stash as of right now:

From The Yarn and Fiber Company in Windham, New Hampshire here's Lace Wool in Orchard:


From Penny Rose Yarns at her etsy.com store, here are two sock yarns -

Mountain Mama

...and Sylvia



From Astrid's Dutch Obsessions in the Netherlands, here's some Evilla lace that I've been coveting for a few months...yummy long color-ways! (she also included a yummy little cookie!)


.
...and finally, here are two skeins of hand-spun given to me by Stephanie (the spinner!) and Wanda and the wonderful Head Start kids at my school. I'm not going to teach them music next year, so to wish me well, they gave me this very special gift (along with some cute little knitty-knacks!) I'm so touched! I think I'll make some fingerless gloves with it...they will be lovely! Just as soon as I'm done with this darned project, maybe I'll find a little more time to sit and knit a bit.
Here's hoping!


Thursday, June 5, 2008

Action research project room

Oh - one last thing - I've been disturbed by all the unsettled weather going on around the States recently. In fact, DH called last night from near his sister's house and said that there had been tornado nearby - in Virginia! We're not really used to such goings on around here. I can relate to all of this however - with temperatures heating up and severe tornado-producing storms rolling through - I think that describes my life EXACTLY right now. For example, this photo of all the debris surrounding my AR project - due in less than a month & also another project due in less than a month & also high school summer session to figure out...I need a LOW PRESSURE system to move in and stay! PLEASE!

I know it will all work out, I just haven't figured out how yet. Could someone please tell me? Please?

Jojoland Harmony


Jojoland Harmony
Originally uploaded by ckknitter
Here's some gorgeous new yarn - Jojoland Harmony. I wonder what it will become? Maybe the Spring Garden Shawl from Goddess Knits? Maybe one of the Evelyn Clark shawls in my Ravelry queue? Only time will tell - and guess what? There's more lace yarn on the way! I also ordered some beautiful Evila Lace - It has really l-o-n-g color changes, so knits up into really beautiful stripes shawls. I have to work on getting my tension right with the lace-weight. That will give me a reason to do a practice swatch soon, I guess! Stay tuned for more new yarn updates.

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Pam's Clapotis scarf


P6020009_edited
Originally uploaded by ckknitter
Here's the scarf I'm making for my grad advisor, Pam. It's a modified clapotis made from Regia Bamboo. Love ripping out those stitches!

Too scarey to start to finish

Here sits my action research project.

IMG_1179_edited

I have to actually sit down and open my files and begin. If I begin, I will finish. I know I will. I also have to finish organizing summer school at my school and at the high school and moving my stuff from one room to my new room...and complete another small project for another class, also due on June 30....and then there are the reflections from my last three classes which are due by the 30th, also....and boy, would it be nice to sit and knit a little, too...or go to visit m-i-l or spend the day on the river or sitting by a lake somewhere. I know it will all get done...can someone please tell me how?