Devastation in our part of the world

When we watched the tsunami victims last December, our eyes were opened to the power and destruction that water has. The destruction was halfway around the world in places that many of us have never been, in a culture that is foreign to us.

This week the destruction happened in our part of the world. Water and wind were the culprits to destroying lives and structure, in towns built along a part of the country we love - for its inviting beauty and recreation. A week ago, people's lives were routine with no thoughts of a hurricane destroying lives, property, and livelihood. Our television screen is covered with heartbreaking stories of what happened to them because of Katrina.

There are people who will not have a home when they return to what WAS home. People have no jobs to go to to make a living. Children were uprooted from schools. One teacher who had a new job in New Orleans got in contact with her principal. Her principal told her that she didn't know when school would open again and not to worry about coming back. Some children and teachers will be absorbed by school systems. Some will never return back because there is nothing for them to return to - no home, no school, no job.....

Churches, businesses, schools and homes will need to be rebuilt.

Some people evacuated and are here at our doorsteps in the motels in this area. Many of the car tags are from Mississippi and Louisiana. They are fortunate they have the resources (and they may be minimal at best now) to be here. Others had no place to go with no means of getting there. They are the ones in the streets, in the superdome that was ill prepared for taking that many people at short notice, and with the many needs of the people. Though it was set up as a special needs shelter, little did they know of the MANY needs that people brought. Now it is unfit for them to stay and thousands must be moved to other locations.

We have much to be thankful for today. We have much to share to those less fortunate. There are ways we can help. The American Red Cross is familiar to us all. Another is Episcopal Relief and Development. On their web site "ERD provides assistance in times of disaster; rebuilds devastated communities and offers long-term program development solutions to fight poverty." These two are one of many agencies that can provide resources to those during times of crisis, of times that many of us have never experienced.

Last Friday, Katrina was headed in our direction. It could have been us. However, it IS us - our brothers and sisters in this part of the world, at our doorstep.

Which Saint are you?

In blogland, there are blogs I keep going back to because of their meaningfulness to me in their writings. Irenic Thoughts is one of my favorites. Daily postings are usually up and posted by early morning. Well worth the visit. Today's posting (August 30) piqued my interest enough to take the quiz.


You are Julian of Norwich! It's all about God, to
you. You're convinced that the world has a
happy ending. Everyone else is convinced that
you're a closet hippie, but you love them
anyway.
Which Saint Are You?
Which saint are you? I am curious as to the different ones that one could be! Julian of Norwich has always been one of my favorites. I am honored to even have her image show up after taking this quiz. Please share your findings as to which Saint you are most like.

Goober Peas

In a recent posting, I had a picture of a feastful delight - several replies came in and hit it right on - yes, those are peanuts - and for those of you not from the south, one of the delicacies of the south is boiled peanuts - you can find them canned in the store, but nothing beats the earthy smell of peanuts in the summer time(ok I am overexaggerating about the smell). After you boil and boil and boil them with a generous amount of salt added to the water, you end up with those "goober peas". It brought back memories of the song we learned as a child "Goober Peas" - I put a search into from Google and voila - a government site National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences - had it under their web site. I am not sure of the connection between Goober Peas and this official sounding site, but lo and behold, in the children's section, the lyrics to this song were provided along with a midi file. So if you want to feel a bit of nostalgia, go right ahead and click on Goober Peas to, for some of you, relive an old folk tune that you learned in childhood. My guess is few children know this tune today. Makes the heart a little sad that some of these tunes are going by the way side for more "sophisticated" music.
For those of you less inclined to go and listen to the music, I will at least introduce you to the first verse and the refrain just to say I did my part to continue traditional music down through the ages:

Sitting by the roadside on a summer's day
Chatting with my mess-mates, passing time away
Lying in the shadows underneath the trees
Goodness, how delicious, eating goober peas.

Peas, peas, peas, peas
Eating goober peas
Goodness, how delicious,
Eating goober peas.

How many of you remember that song?
Cathy

Knitting to Music

On Sunday afternoons, I watch "In Concert" - on EWTN - a Roman Catholic Channel on our channel. It's an oasis of time for lovers of choral music and today was no exception when they featured choral sacred music of the 20th century, with Leonard Bernstein, John Rutter, and Poulenc as the featured composers.(Thanks Mom for calling me to remind me that this was on - I was glued to the progress of Katrina and had forgotten). When I turned it to the music, it took it all of one measure on the organ to know what was being performed (I love when that happens - thanks to my good training at FSU!) - Leonard Bernstein's Chichester Psalms was being performed and my guess is they performed all of it, but I only heard the second movement, its most lyrical of the three movements. I got to wondering why it was called that so did some research and found it was commissioned by Chichester Cathedral, hence its name.

It brought back fond memories of performing this challenging piece - as a highschooler at FSU's music camp, we learned and performed it - no easy feat to do in a short period of time - and learned it in Hebrew, in which its lyrics were written. (In looking at those lyrics, I can't believe we learned that and some of it even comes back to me!)

I like finding and listening to music during knitting and this one I thought how hauntingly beautiful it is. In reading on the history of the piece, I found it was once in West Side Story, but didn't make it in the final cut, but there are snippets here and there in the musical that ring true of Chichester Psalms.

Listen to excerpts on one of the CDs on Amazon - for some reason it made me want to pick up my knitting needles, especially that 2nd movement.

I also like listening to Anonymous 4 cds while knitting - what do you listen to while knitting?

Don't be a goob!

I walked outside my front door and found this:

Now if you know what they are, you know what a gold mine they are - they are a main food item in many many homes.
We are going to boil 'em and salt them!
I was going to knit this afternoon until these appeared - that was "all she wrote" plans changed and to work we went for our upcoming feast!
Know what they are? ? ? Come on and join us! Enter your comment if you know what they are! Don't be a "goob" - tell us what they are!

Oh the blue spot of Texas - so lonely

My friend Trilla, shared with me her Texas washcloth - and the blue dot on it signifies the Amarillo, the city she and her friend were born in - a nice idea and one that I just might steal use (however, it most likely will be in a different state!).

Her question is, and I, too, am curious - is there an easy way to add just 1 stitch of one color easily? She is being tempted by a Sharpie pen, and since she wrote that I won't divulge her address or phone number to protect her.
Please let us know of a solution in the comments or recommendations. Inquiring minds want to know!
Addendum: For more state dishcloth patterns, go to Free Knitted Dishcloths - special thanks goes to Rhonda, the creator of these state patterns!

The HEAT is on

It has been unbearably hot. Sunday in church, the A/C didn't come on in time to properly cool the church. I knew we were in trouble when Kate started fanning herself with the order of worship. SHE NEVER does that - she is my litmus test as to when the temperature goes over the edge. At communion, the priest had beads of sweat all over his face. Two people left church in the middle of the service because of the heat. My mother said she could barely sing it was so hot. I saw folks inching to the vents on the floor to get a piece of cool air.

The gnats in South Georgia are in their glory days - they love this stinkin' heat. The air is so still that it looks as though time has stopped.
Last night, the wind started blowing - ahhhhhh relief is here. I heard huge "thunks" on the deck's top to indicate large drops of rain. And a picture was captured
Huge claps of thunder occurred, the dogs were under me and in my lap. Did it cool it off? Not really - it just added an added thickness to the air that makes the air feel that much heavier. It's unbearable and relentless.

At school I talked to someone who had a tree that was struck by lightening - and it zapped the cable and tv. She has black streaks on her walls to show where the lightening came through the wires.
And now, as the day has transpired and I have sat down more than once to try to complete this, and have totally lost my direction in this blog and can't remember where I was going with this. But.... it is raining this minute much like it did when it started raining yesterday. The dogs are underneath me. Tillie wants in my lap....and the thunder is creeping up on us again. Like the movie Groundhog Day.

The Thingy is now a whatchamacallit

In a previous posting, I had a missing 'thingy" on my wool winder. I don't know if it fell off while I was moving it to Sooz's house so it could hang out there for awhile or if it was already gone. ANYWAY, since the thingy was no longer there, I had no way of remember what it looked like. Jess, who was gracious enough to understand my language and knew exactly what a thingy was, but she had a different term for it - it's a whatchamacallit. Since those seem to be universal terms that transcend hobbies, crafts, and various other subjects, Jess made a BINGO and sent these pictures with and without the whatchamacallit/thingy.
To thank her, her link to her blog is in my links section - Jessalu Knits - visit her site.

Tonight was book club night at St. John's - we finished up Purple Hibiscus : A Novel- by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. We have quite the group that loves to tie in their food with the book. Mona made Akara (black-eyed pea fritters) - and they were delicious!! We had fried sweet potato strips also, compliments of Sharon. The rest was a variety of other dishes more loosely related (or not at all) to the book. Needless to say, no one went home hungry!

I am currently working on the border for the baby afghan - and finally getting the rhythm to the pattern. Pictures forthcoming.

Part I Baby blanket complete

I have worked the majority of the evening on finishing Part I of the baby blanket for a friend's grandchild. It comes from this book - Knit Along with Debbie Macomber - the next section is a border around the edge of the blanket - it is a cast on of 11 stitches and will be at least 10 feet long before completing to go completely around the blanket.
About the time I got finished with this was when I was just getting comfortable with the flow of the pattern. I have already found some "mistakes" which will verify that a real live person made it and not some machine.
It's a nice acrylic yarn (nice and acrylic are not oxymorons) - from Walmart - Bernat. Used size 7 needles (I think - will have to check again to be really sure) on a sport baby yarn.
The border is feeling a bit like a monkey on my back. I am hoping it will work up quickly since it is so narrow.
Laura is home for the evening and off to a wedding in Apalachicola tomorrow. I again will be carless since her car is getting fixed, again, and she needs to borrow the gas car. She bought a stunning black dress that she got for 75% off - she is her mother's daughter.

Sunshine

I was "playing" in the kitchen center in my classroom today with the kids and looked out of the window and saw in the schoolyard the sunflower on the left. I took the camera out to capture this image - it personifies "sunshine" to me. It must have been a gift a bird left by as there is only one plant. ( I sure can't think of the term of when birds "drop" their seed after it has been all the way through them and then they POOP it out, but I bet my friend Naomi knows - my own special friend that is a Master Gardener - she is also the one that had the old old yarn from her grandmother from another previous blog).

This evening found me with Sharon - we went to get a bite to eat and then we came back to the house - she is working on a quilt that she is finishing up and WHY DIDN'T I PULL THE CAMERA OUT TO TAKE A PICTURE? It's such a neat quilt and has special meaning to Sharon. I worked a little on a prayer shawl and then puttered around with some new yarn.
I am in the midst of reading Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. It's for our church book club and is an interesting novel that is set in Africa in a Roman Catholic household gone askew with religion. The overzealousness of the devout father wreaks havoc with faith itself as he is consumed with the rules and discipline of religion. The children experience a different perspective on faith in their aunt's home when they go to visit and learn the joys of Christianity filled with song, laughter, and a different care and love of each other. An interesting read, well written, by this young African author.

I am missing a thingy on my wool winder

How many of you have a wool winder? I am so proud of mine - so proud, that I excitedly will take it anywhere that anyone that MIGHT need their yarn wound into a ball. I am fascinated by how it works, and will wind a ball for no other reason but to watch how neatly it makes the thread pattern itself around the ball. So, Sooz calls me to join in an old fashioned yarn winding - and, as I walked out of the car, in my haste, the wing nut fall off the bottom, along with the missing thingy. That wouldn't be so bad except it was already dark and it fell on the driveway at Sooz's. So I hunted and found the blue plastic thingy - and knew I was missing the wing nut - found that as I was leaving. However, NOW there is the black "thingy" that goes on the blue "thingy" that is made of a rubber/cushion substance that offers the grip to the grip that the wing nut tightens onto a table to hold the wool winder. Now, this is getting a bit discombobulated if you have never seen a wool winder, since "thingys" is a generic term for any thing we don't have a name for - I don't even have a picture of it because..... it is the part that is missing. So..... if anyone can supply this blog with the "thingy" part image that is missing, I will post the image on my blog and give you full credit for it. Along with that I will add your blog to my links on the side for going the extra mile.

Music Personality Test

Emily from hazelnut Reflections took a music personality test. My music personality test. Being the musician that I am, I had to go look - it takes into account not only your musical preferences, but also your emotional and other personality types. It doesn't really tell you much that you don't already know about yourself, but it did state something that I KNOW definitely - and quoted:

"People with low scores on the energetic and aggressive music-preference dimension don't get their kicks on skydiving or rock climbing." uh....YEAH... right about that - you won't see me doing either. No rocket scientist to figure that one out.

Having my druthers, I listen to classical and sacred, and I love choral music. I love music from the Big Band era and enjoy some music from the 60s and 70s, when I listened to the radio on my transistor radio - Channel Master I think was the name of it and it was encased in a leather jacket. I remember turning the dial and listening to different stations and putting it under the pillow at night so I could listen to it - many times getting Spanish speaking stations. I am assuming those were from either south Florida or Cuba, since living in the panhandle in Florida that the radio waves would carry over the water. (I looked for an image of that radio on Google and never found the exact replica of it but the Channel Masters did have a leather holder).

One of my favorite radio programs is Sound of Majesty since they have a pretty good selection of sacred music that they play, interspersed with other classical music, not always "sacred" but might be sacred to the ears. It comes on our local Christian station. Other than that, I listen to the local NPR talk radio or classical station.
What musical personality are you?
To take this test go here.

For those of you into extreme knitting, I found an entry here. Good one!

Off to college

Today began early - the bed and washer and dryer were all loaded to make its way to college. Laura's Jeep stayed here for her dad to use it for work since his was at the shop. So she drove with us, to come back and pick up her car later. Probably best that it stayed here since it broke down. Moving to college with your car breaking down on our way to college would be more than we could handle, so it worked for the best. Thank goodness two young men were hanging around the newly built apartment complex - we needed the brawn to help us with the washer and dryer (not to mention we had to take the doors off the hinges in the kitchen to get them through the narrow space). Those fellows had the right idea to hang around for the parents and students that needed extra muscle to help along and pick up a buck or two for the day.

After eating lunch, we came back to the apartment and I schnookered my daughter graciously agreed, unknown she was a victim of the knitter's newest fad, to carry "the sock" to document their blogs - so Laura, you are the first one to become a part of this and to debut my first attempt at "sockdom":


I started the sock on the way over to take her to school - I will be frank - when I started, I thought I would never get through the first couple of rows. I felt like I had all thumbs and folks were loopy for even attempting socks. Then a transformation occurred and lo and behold, it became easier, and the rhythm of knitting using 5 needles became easier. And then....while sitting and talking to Laura and Cierra, (as Jim was putting a new plug on the dryer since the outlet and the plug did not fit), we hear music. I thought at first it was one of the girl's cell phones, with a catchy familiar tune -- my ears do not always locate the sound like it used to. I realized the music was coming from outside and the music drifting through the air was then clearing out the cobwebs of my brain...... and this is what we saw outside

Now, I have a confession to make - I have probably warped my first born child (not the child in this picture) and will be accused of abuse, but the ice cream truck, at our house when my eldest child was little, was not the ice cream man, but the music man. I told him that his truck had music on it and he drove around playing music. Well, when Angus went to school, at about the age of 6 or 7, my son came home tell me, "Mom, you know the music man?" He sells ice cream too. I had to act surprised since I did not want my son know that I had deprived him for years on that one. Anyway, the ice cream man drives through the apartment complexes for all the students who missed out on the opportunity and are living the last vestiges of their childhood as they go to college. I spared Laura today from too much embarrassment. I did NOT make the ice cream man hold the sock (as I know the HARLOT would), and will wait for a more opportune time to pull out that stunt.
Laura and Cierra came back home and got a few more things, took my van (I know she loved going in my van without a radio, since mine has died) and returned. Here they both are in front of their important - they make a cute pair:

Laura and Cierra, have fun in your new abode, and next time I will buy you an ice cream off the truck.

For real

After a jam packed day at school testing children and having IEP meetings in the afternoon, I stopped by Susan's house to look at her new acquisition of yarn for us to determine that the gauge was off for the cute, adorable sweater dress she is making from Adorable Knits for Tots: 25 Stylish Designs for Babies and Toddlers by Zoe Mellor - the yarn made the gauge too big and it is already on size 3 needles - I hate it, but she now has great stash acquisition.

I knit two pattern repeats on the baby afghan from Debbie Macomber's book - I am looking at the pattern fewer and fewer times, but it is getting a bit boring - it's nice to be able to not look at your knitting and can focus on other things, such as one of my few favorite tv programs Rachel Ray's $40 Dollars a Day - she is just so perky you can't help but like it. Interestingly she went to her hometown the other day and she showed some pictures of her while she was in her teens. I should have known she was a cheerleader by the sound of her voice - she has the timbre of one who has belted out the cheers - and the voice tells it all.

The evening was topped off by Laura's bed being taken apart for her big trip to college - tomorrow, very early, we will travel with bed, washer, and dryer on the back of the truck to her new abode. Let's pray that the trip is relatively uneventful and that all remains on the truck and her room is not condemned here for all we found underneath the bed. How come my kids pick out places that they cannot take their pets with them? Anyone want two cats???

I will miss Shawl Ministry meeting and the monthly meeting of St. Sophia's Chapter of Daughters of the King - I know they will pray for our safe travel and guidance for being to get the washer and dryer off of the back of the truck without any damage to our bodies.

A few postings back, I mentioned that someone offered me size 3 dpns - well Ellen, my friend who I sing with in our group Voces Angelorum, was the one - she also knits, but I believe she has the potential to work in the fine art of smuggling. I get this piece of mail from her (and in my excitement, I forgot the camera that could have given you a play by play of opening her dpns coming incognito - cleverly hidden between the ridges of corrugated cardboard - I opened it and had a devil of a time - only an Xray machine would have picked up its identity. Thanks, Ellen, for taking the time to share some of your extra stash so I can become a sock knitter.

It seems there is a cult about knitting socks and blogs. A knitter's blog rarely goes by without a sock who has accompanied some knitter to some place to document "I WAS THERE" -- is it just me or are there a bunch of closet sock knitters in this world that just come out to blog and have their unfinished sock photographed?
Now that I have enough double pointed needles to actually KNIT a sock, I am making excuses as to why I shouldn't start. The needles aren't the same color - oh that's a good excuse in my anal retentive mind (and I know those that truly know me KNOW I am not THAT). Then I start getting a bit nervous, like I am going to fail, that I can't possibly handle that many needles at one time and keep up with it. I have even casted on and tried a row to see if I can figure out what I am doing and I put them down. Then I begin to think - look at all of the other folks that are knitting socks - it can't be that hard. Then you know that place - the not so LYS - that had the sale signs up but wouldn't give me the discount - their sock class was 75 bucks - now that makes for a pretty expensive pair of socks - and surely I can figure it out if I really tried. Geez, what would my children have done prior ot the Industrial Revolution? Been sockless??? Is 75 bucks too much to charge for a beginning sock knitting class?
Well, I have 8 skeins of various types of sock yarn, so I should get started - they are even self patterning or striping to make them cute without me doing anything fancy.
So, I will set myself a goal. I will HAVE the beginning of some socks OTN before September 1.

Yesterday passed without a needle being picked up to knit - just had too much going. School does put a bit of a dent in time, but I did get home and knit a bit on the baby blanket I am working on for a dear friend's soon to be born grandchild. Here it is:

This blanket comes from Knit Along with Debbie Macomber - she wrote the book The Shop On Blossom Street, which is a story about a woman who opens a yarn shop and has a knitting class of three women who become a part of the class and develop friendships, but not without a few bumps in the road along the way. However, she has 11 very nice and different baby afghans, some traditional, some a little offbeat, mostly easy with yarn that is found in Walmart and other discount craft stores. It has an edge and thought I would show a little bit of the picture in the book to see the finished edge that I haven't gotten to yet (the only reason why I ordered this is I saw the book in a bookstore and really liked the patterns. I didn't get it then, but later ordered it. GREAT pictures.

The edging will really make a difference and it is added on to the center of the afghan. This will be my first attempt at doing something like this, so will be a little challenge.
My life has been rather mundane, and I would like to keep it at a low roar. However, I must say Yarn Harlot's August 9th entry wins the prize for one of the funniest stories I have read in quite some time. Leave it to the Harlot to continue to keep us laughing at her life's stories. It's a must read. Thanks, Stephanie.

A casualty and thoughts on a book

Dearest Annie,

Contrary to your popular belief, the item you decided to use as a toothpick or a chew toy is not that at all, but a size 3 needle. My size 3 knitting needles are now deemed useless, thanks to you, unless someone knows how to knit with one needle (I think that is termed crocheting, but this lacks a hook). What I don't understand it how you got it since it was on the table when I left for the church's book club meeting this evening (more on that later). Don't even try to look innocent. You were caught red handed - YOU ARE GUILTY AS CHARGED.
(Mom, don't try to get your dog out of the dog house - she was caught with it in her mouth and then she tried to HIDE).

Tonight at St. John's Episcopal Church Book Club, we discussed this book - Purple Hibiscus : A Novel by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - a story about a Nigerian girl and family raised in a Roman Catholic family headed by a father who is an oblate of a religious order and has taken his religion to an extreme that is abusive and oppressive. The story turns when she goes to her aunt's home and life is very different. Certainly lots to discuss in terms of our faith and when and how it can be skewed and distorted to the point of it no longer being the faith that it was intended to be. The book was on the long list for the Orange Prize for literature and very well written.
Our book group is small and always has a lively discussion, not limited to the members of our congregation. We also made some decisions on upcoming books so we have September through November decided on now. Here is the upcoming list:

• September Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner
• October - A Thread of Grace : A Novel by Maria Doria Russell
• November - Losing Moses on the Freeway : The 10 Commandments in America by Chris Hedges

December we are researching - know any good books for Advent or Christmas that has some meat to it and might be good for discussion? We are open to recommendations!

Ignoring it won't make it go away

I have been ignoring it for awhile as though it might go away, but it's not. And time is ticking where it will become real. Laura will soon be going away to college. She has finished two years at the local college and we were on borrowed time - but even though today we had delay in the move due to the fact that the rain continues to tease and soak us, the time is coming when she will soon be moving to finish college. So right now, I am pretending this is a temporary thing and as soon as she finishes, she will be right back, but of course that is a pipe dream (well maybe it isn't, there are those children that continue to remain at home into their twenties).

This is the little girl who spent over a month at ballet in the corner watching everyone else, but not participating until she felt like it. This is the little girl who got an "Needs Improvement" in kindergarten, because at PE, she would not participate the first 6 weeks (need I say she is a cautious, careful child who thinks everything out before acting upon it?). She is the one that clung to my leg and attached herself to me as though she was a permanent attachment to my body. Unlike her older sister, who would go off with the gypsies, she preferred staying close to my side. Now she is taking her wings and going to test them out, majoring in Chemistry (I must brag she made an A in Organic Chemistry I and a B in Organic Chemistry II, but cannot take any genetic credit in that particular subject. ( I DO hear her sing in her bedroom with a clear pure singing voice that I WILL take credit for, but she continues to hide under a bushel).
She and her sister will be living together, as Allison finishes up her degree this semester, lest we cut off the apron strings.
After I finish writing this, I will resume pretending it's not going to happen until I have a reality check (how much do I write that one for?) -- I will keep you posted when it all crashes in and I realize what has happened. If it keeps on raining we are transporting the rest of the good by ark UHAUL so she can get situated by the beginning of classes. (She doesn't know it now, but I can hear her singing as I type - I hope she will come out from under that bushel.)

Folk Shawl finished

It's been almost 5 days since I have finished the Folk shawl Sampler from Folk Shawls: 25 Knitting Patterns and Tales from Around the World by Cheryl Oberle. I promised to myself to finish it before school began and 1 hour and 10 minutes before the stroke of midnight before teacher planning I finished knitting it. Now, after taking it off the needle and finally stretching it out to take a picture, I measured it's length - it's nine (yep 9) feet long - now I have to figure out where/how to block it? No bed will handle it - I don't think I have 9 feet of open space that will work. Can I fold it in half and block it?

This shawl was one of the most challenging works I have done and completed (completed being the KEY word here). I did learn how to fix some mistakes without tinking a row or two back. When you cast on 401 stitches, the very thought of tinking will make one sick and want to throw the whole piece in the corner.
I chose this one for two reasons: I liked the pattern and shawl and it was a KAL for the yahoo group Folk Shawls - they have a quarterly KAL from Cheryl Oberle's book. I used extra fine merino wool (superwash) and size 7 needles. If I did it over again, I think I would have used the 6 needles and a fingerling weight yarn. However, this will be wonderful to wrap in during the winter.
It feels strange not to be working on this - I worked on it most of the summer and I am missing working on the challenge. All good things must come to an end I guess to allow for another!

School and a new baby blanket OTN

Eight hours of my day (and I use eight loosely) is spent in my classroom. I spend it with 2 other adults (and sometimes more), and a roomful of children (starting with about eight this year). They are 3-4 year old children with some sort of developmental delay. There is NEVER a dull moment in my room and most of the time I can outsmart them, though some of you may question that. The withdrawal of not knitting during the day has not been too bad, but I have noticed that I am not accomplishing the same amount of work that I had been during the summer!
Anyway, here is one part of my classroom. It is where we have circle time, which is a time we dance and sing and talk and read stories. Right now it looks bare without the most important components -- the cherubs!!!!
I wonder if I can cram more hours into my days - there is more to do than I can fit in - I am now working on a baby's blanket, hopefully the mother will use it when the baby is baptized. I got the pattern from this book:Knit Along with Debbie Macomber - if you have read the book The Shop On Blossom Street you will remember this author writes about opening up a yarn shop - the Knit along book has 11 blankets for babies and young children, some traditional, some very different, but not too difficult. and for those of you that prefer the more plebian yarns, this may be for you. You can get a lot of the recommended yarns at Michael's, Walmart, and other places which have yarn for those who go into shock at their local yarn shop. I chose a nice acrylic yarn by Bernat that can be washed and dried without too much worry. I sit on the fence when it comes to yarn. I like the diversity of the yarns at yarn shops and I support them, but I am an "all inclusive knitter" that uses the yarn of commoners as well as those of the yarn snobs connoisseurs. Here is the beginning of the blanket (this one is labeled for knitters between beginner and intermediate and this is the center of the blanket - there is an edging to do):

Happy Birthday Davis

"Fear not, it's only a butterfly", is what Pirate Mary G is telling the boys as a swallowtail has just come out of its chrysalis at Davis's 3rd birthday party - (notice Mary G's moustache??).
With all the celebration it was only appropriate that one of the butterflies in the caterpillar/butterfly nursery would hatch out to be a part of the birthday. The pirate action stopped just briefly enough to see the release of the butterfly and then the party continued. For those of you that read my blog, Davis has been my project manager for caterpillars this summer as the swallowtail and fritillary caterpillars are held in protection in the screened nursery.
Though I didn't make it to the birthday party, I hear the parents survived and everyone had an "ahoy mate" good time! Happy Birthday Davis!

Elephant dishcloth tickling the ivories

Well, interestingly enough the KAL on the dishcloth email list I am on knitted an elephant dishcloth. It traveled with me to practice the organ - since I was playing for our congregation as a sub. Here it is:

Interestingly, the keys on this organ are actually ivory, which is one of the last set that the organ company had prior to changing to synthetic keys. I thought it apropro for the elephant to visit the organ and a bit ironic of this being the KAL for the week I was playing.

Sampler shawl update - I have finished all but the blocking and sewing in the yarn ends into the shawl - it is very long and I am guessing that I will need at least a king sized bed to block it. Pictures forthcoming!

Today was also the return of teachers to the school system. Since I am one of them, I, too, was back at school. A long faculty meeting this morning - tomorrow will be more meetings. More than likely knitting would be a frowned upon activity, mixing work with pleasure. Oh well. . . any teacher knitters out there?? I am welcoming myself back to the real world!