Monday, January 15, 2007

Marble Hat Pictures



I forgot to show you my marble hats! It may be hard to see but the top is the pink/lavendar colorway and the bottom is the blue colorway.

Saturday, January 13, 2007

My Son Raided My Stash! Random Thoughts!

DS#2 learned how to weave on 4 straws in his art class. He loves doing it and has discovered one of my stashes which contains lots of worsted yarn, leftovers from projects and rejects. He was so cute the other day. He came into the kitchen with his arms full of yarn and asked me one by one if he could use it for his weaving. The only one I nixed was this pink merino I was saving for a scarf. I don't even know where I got them from, I think someone gave them to me after a knit-out. This yarn is so soft! His creation is over 3 feet long and I keep thinking to myself, "That IS my boy!"

I made this poor child come to the mall with me while I exchanged a gift someone got me from Bath and Body Works. She bought me bubble bath and body lotion in Cherry Blossom. It smelled like Pez to me. Also, when's the last time I took a bath? When's the last time I used bubble bath? (Not good for the female anatomy!) I found 2 different scents of shower gel but I got this weird memory while sniffing! Do you remember Love's Fresh Lemon? They also made Love's Baby Soft but I was a Lemon girl. I got this flashback of the yellow bottle with the white domed top. (or was it silver). I think that was my first perfume. Was it 7th or 8th grade? Such simpler times! Maybe that's why I'm attracted to citrusy scents. (one of the scents was Coconut Lime Verbena) Just had to share.

I haven't done any knitting this whole week. Well, my knitting was MIA but I found it. I was too tired to sit and figure out where I should be with my square holes sweater. I feel naked without it. Don't look!

Saturday, January 06, 2007

Random Thoughts, No Knitting

Saturday...I made it through the 4 day work week without a problem. The weird thing was that on Tuesday, when I went back to work, I was woken up by DS#1 20 minutes before my alarm clock was due to go off. He wasn't feeling good. So after taking his temperature and giving him some Advil, he crawled into my bed and I dozed for about 15 minutes. Then I popped up, showered, dressed, etc and had so much time I was able to actually drink my tea from a glass mug, read the paper sitting down and catch some news. As the week went on, it was harder and harder to get out of bed. But I made it through the week.

Which brings us to today. Today my parents threw themselves a party down in Florida to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary which was on December 29th. We were suppose to all go on a cruise last July but since my father had a heart attack, those plans were cancelled. The party was for their friends but my sister and her family decided to attend. I chose not to because I decided that it would be very inconvenient my family to go. I would have to pull my kids out of school right after they returned from a vacation. I would miss a day and would get in trouble for it (even though I really don't care but it would be considered very unprofessional.) Then it was the cost. Way too much money for 2 days in Florida. I have a bar mitzvah in May, DH may need a new car and we just redid 2 bathrooms. If the party was planned for 3 weeks later, the airfare would have been a fraction of what it was for this weekend.

Did I feel bad? A little but more annoyed that another date wasn't even considered. My sister had the gall to call me up on Thursday and ask, "What are you doing on Saturday?" I told her, "Basketball and more basketball." J
DS: Tell me, are you planning to surprise Mom and Dad?
Me: No, I told you we weren't going.
DS: Tell me the truth, I don't want to be surprised. You're coming, right?
Me: What don't you understand? We're not coming. I can't afford it.
DS: You're coming, right? I don't want to be surprised.
Me: You are annoying me. I'm hanging up. "CLICK"

That got me mad. What the hell is wrong with her? Was she trying to rub it into me that she was going and I wasn't? I dwelled on it for a bit and then let it go until DH talked to me. He kept pushing me to go by myself. Honestly, if my whole family couldn't go, I didn't want to go. I felt it would have been better if we were all there but I'm not going to put myself in financial straits for this. My family comes first.

I spoke to my mother about the party and she seemed reluctant to talk about it. She said that we were missed but she wasn't giving me any details unless I asked her. She did sound tired. She was more concerned about her garbage disposal. Whatever...

Basketball and more basketball and no knitting! I finished 6 "Marble" Hats. That's what I named them because the yarn looks like marble. I made 2 newborn sized hats and 4 hats in size 12 -18 months. I really liked the way they came out. I'll post a picture tomorrow. This was the first time in a long time that I didnt' bring my knitting with me to a sporting event. I paid attention like I have never done. DS#1's game was very exciting. DS#2's was okay. They are only 8 and 9 years old so it's a different game than the 12 and 13 year old boys!

We went out to eat and I came home to sew name tags into the hats. I made labels for them using my new heart-shaped paper cutter. I use fun foam. I write the name of the hat, the size, and the washing instructions. Then I stuffed the hats with tissue paper. I have to call the owner of the store that sells my stuff to tell her about them. I made her a "spec" sheet telling the selling points of these hats and my prices. I put a range on the newborn size showing the minimum I would accept. The larger size is set at $20. I figured since this woman is not a knitter, she wouldn't know the beautiful features of these hats such as the lace ribbing and seamless knitting to guarantee a comfortable fit. I thought this was a great idea, if I do say so myself! I still feel funny calling her, don't ask me why. Once she was a little gruff on the phone and maybe that's the reason but the other time I spoke to her she was very sweet. A bad day? Perhaps.

Until my next post...Peace.

Wednesday, January 03, 2007

I'd Rather Be Knitting...

Today my friend at work walked into my classroom to show off her new tangerine cardigan with beautiful wooden buttons. It was a rough mohair knitted in Stockinette stitch. It looked gorgeous on her! My students were pretty impressed especially one girl who knits! I told her that she could make something like that. She said she only knows how to make blankets. I told her that she could learn to increase and decrease. I just realized that I forgot to give her a bunch of websites she can look up on her computer. Anyway, my friend Marina was very proud and tangerine today.

When she left, an awkward silence came over my class. (Note: I teach resource room so I usually have 4 or 5 kids at a time.) I looked at each of them and blurted out, "I love to knit. If I didn't have to work, I'd be knitting!" They just looked at me and gave me one of their "Okay-Miss-We-Understand" smiles. Sometimes I'd rather be knitting. Tonight I have a sisterhood meeting...prime knitting time! Uh oh...I better get my stuff together to get to this meeting.