Needle Tart

If I'm not knitting or sewing something, I must be cooking something!

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Drive-by Blogging

Hi! Well, the last time I posted I gave a few reasons why I might be a little busy. Have you heard that Mercury is in retrograde? Since the last post the art teacher at my school has become gravely ill (nice thoughts should be directed to Ann in Tyrone) and, as I am the one sub who gets along with her and can follow her (somewhat wandering) lesson plans, I am in charge of art for the rest of the year (which means I write the lesson plans for myself and my sub because the regular teacher is too sick, and I prepare all the supplies for classes, I organize the end of the year return of projects and get as much as possible ready for the art show). Naturally, just before this I volunteered to bake dessert for the entire congregation at the Rabbi's last service before she goes off to do her summer thing, and I signed up and paid for Annie Modisett's classes in Stroudsburg, Pa. Now, the wonderful secretary will not let me give up these two events. I stayed at school until 5pm last night to get some things ready for the annual art show. The head of the arts department went to the principal, who asked the Superintendent if I could get some over-time pay to cover all the work that needed to be done for the end of the year. Wanna guess what he said? Go on, but remember he's a member of the administration and I'm a lowly sub. Yup, no pay beyond my measly $75 a day. Therefore and hence, the other subs, the secretary and the teachers will not let me stay past three o'clock. The Husband keeps trying to get me to switch school districts (which would mean new clearances and learning all new names). The pay is just a tad higher but I like it where I am as long as I stay away from admin.
In knitting, I am working away on the shawl, I'm on row 291 out of 483 of the garter stitch center. That's all good, I'm too fried to knit complicated. That said, I finished the right sock of Cookie A's kai-mei socks and I'm at the heel of the second. Thank G-d we have a three-day weekend. I'm planning a movie, a picnic, and a whole lot of knitting. And you?

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Saturday, May 09, 2009

Random Saturday

Ohh!! This morning as I was painting a large beige swatch on Elder Son's wall (he moved out, I need a bedroom with a ceiling that stays on the ceiling) and The Husband called up the stairs as he was leaving to pick up his newspapers, "Yarny Goodness had arrived!"
Reader, I stretched out the anticipation through cleaning the paint brush, showering, dressing and styling my hair. Then I opened the box. Whee! Yarn enough for four shawls, two pairs of socks and the accents for a felted snowman, and a book, Sally Melville's Mother-Daughter Knits. Then we went to State College to shop a bit (no yarn shop for some reason but we did go to a grocery store). When we got home I made the copy of the shawl instructions ("Warm Shawl" from Knitting Classic Style ((look at the "more images" and it is on the second page at the bottom left) and swatched until I got close to the gauge (Hey it's a shawl, how close do I have to be?) and was all set to do just a few rows (I promise..honest...) and I couldn't find any crochet cotton, whose only purpose in life is to use for provisional cast ons (Wait! I think I know where it might be!!) Found it! Guess what I'll be doing this evening? Ironing. Yeah....

Elder Son was home last weekend to celebrate his 24th birthday. Favorite part of the weekend? "Son, I need your help. I tried to join a social network and they wouldn't accept my e-mail address. (So far he is kind and attentive to the old lady and the computer) Just how do you sign up for Facebook?" If only I had had my camera. Oddly enough Younger Son had the same look on his face. Heh. But, still not on Facebook.

I finished a pair of Mock Wave Cable socks for The Husband (it was our anniversary). I can't remember which book I copied the pattern from, but I think it was a Nancy Bush (and yes, I own the book). I knit them from Knitpicks essential kettle dyed sock yarn. They are the gold color. It looked a lot yellower on the site but he likes them so it's all good.

Last week we were sitting in the teacher's lounge having lunch. Does anyone remember the days when the kids took the drugs? We spent most of our measley half hour discussing the merits of Atavain versus Prosac. It must be spring.

Wednesday the secretary who schedules subs called and The Husband answered. "Your mistress wants to talk to you," said he.
"That had better be the one with the whip........Wait, that's not right........" I replied.

We are slowly clearing Elder Son's room and working on a design aesthetic The Husband and I can agree on. There's an old "oriental" rug in the attic and he wants the walls to be blue. That's as far as we've gotten. Oh yeah, and I'm not allowed to paint the furniture white. YSS had offered to take the dresser (huge with a lovely mirror, but not big enough for all The Husband's clothes), and we may have to rent a storage space for ES's stuff that will not fit in his one-bedroom apartment. If you don't hear from me for a while it's because we are scraping, sanding or re-glazing (the windows are huge, I'm a little nervous about using the heat gun to strip off all the old gunk). And then there's that new ceiling to arrange for the craft room (we've always called it the sewing room but I will have space for a desk to do all that rubber stamping that's spread over the house, and the sculpy clay projects, and .....).

Next weekend YSS will graduate from college. Next fall she heads off to graduate school. Wishing her luck and happiness and that we will get to see her once in a while.

Now, where's that crochet hook?

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