Wednesday, January 30, 2008

More Bunny!


Well, yesterday it was 43 f, and rainy. Lovely weather for January in Michigan. The snow was gone, and I was happy!! This morning it is negative 1 f, lots of ice and snow, and it's a snow day. Even Hubby stayed home from work because the roads were so bad. I don't even want to know what the wind chill factor is. It's cold!!
I have been knitting, though. I finished the second pinwheel blanket, booties, and hat, I just have to finish the last icord tie for the booties, and maybe embroider some flowers on the blankie.
I also started a bunny from Last Minute Knitted Gifts. It is going to be for the baby I knitted the purple striped pinwheel blanket for. Her first birthday is coming up. The inner ears are going to be knit out of real bunny wool. I still have to spin it, though. lol. The roving is in the picture by the bunny's head. Carrie gave it to me, and I will return whatever I don't use, because it is some special stuff!!Nope it's all gone. :)
And I made a garterlac dishcloth with the striping cotton from Lily's Sugar and Cream. I love the way the stripes went into the little squares. I got some more of the cotton just to knit some more of these.
Ok, LD has to use the computer to go here. Fun site. Time sucker, though. :) Then she also has a school project to research on the computer, so I guess I'll get out of the way!
Be back soon with my 200th post! It'll be a contest, so stay tuned!!
p.s. if you want to see some pics from the fun spinning class Carrie and I did, she has some posted here.

Friday, January 25, 2008

Just add a little bunny!

(Yes, I am tired of thinking of titles ~ lol)

Well, we did it. We (Carrie and I) tried to hook another generation on spinning. I think it's working. *Mwah-ha-ha* It must be, because when I went into the school the next morning moms, and kids were coming up to tell me how cool spinning is, and asking wonderful questions.

I do have some tips, if anyone is crazy enough to show spinning to about 20 kids at once. Number one is predraft the heck out of the wool. I did a little, but next time, there will be pencil rovings, all ready to spin, because some kids (the little perfectionists) didn't like the thick yarn they were ending up with. I had a hard time 'getting' drafting when I started, too.

Another tip is having a lot of grown up helpers, even if they don't know how to spin. We had the teacher, and another mom, and LD. She was a great helper, and she loved that she was allowed to go to the other third grade classroom, while all of her friends had to do a writing assignment. Her teacher said that she's such a good student, she could catch up later. Bless her heart.

On Wednesdays, the third graders have the option to stay in for lunch recess, and knit. I go in for about 1/2 an hour and help. The other day, though, after our knitting time, Carrie and I went over to Mr. D's class, and just jumped right into the spinning thing. Carrie saved my bacon with a little speech about wool, and how old spindles are. I didn't even think about how to start, so here's a great big "Thank You!" to her!

LD's teacher is Mrs. D, and the other third grade teacher is her husband. They are both so great, but I love that Mrs. D is so crafty. She's the super nice teacher that gave me two sweater kits. See, nice lady!

After we stayed in Mr. D's class for about an hour, running around helping kids, we went next door, and did the same thing for Mrs. D's class. Carrie had to run, so I asked her to give her little intro first. Sweetie, sweetie ~ what a great friend.

This morning, I said something like "If I ever do that again...." and Carrie said "You'll be doing it next year, because my daughter will be in that class." Then, Melanie, our other knitting buddy, said the same thing. hehe

I was so tired Wednesday night, though. Whew! I don't know how teachers do it. At bedtime, I realized that I must have been tired when I got up that morning, since I had on two different socks! I've never done that before. At least they were knit out of the same yarn, just two different patterns. Trying to be a good blogger, I snapped a pic.

Carrie, Melanie, Riki, and I decided to have a quick little knit meet this morning, and I was spinning some of my Christmas wool when Carrie pulled out a baggy of bunny softness. I was petting it, when she said I could keep it! "Really?" I said "Sure, he'll make more." said Carrie. Hehe ~ so I started adding it to what I was already spinning, and wow! It is so soft, and warm, and pretty. I love it. It's the white fluff there by the spindle, and added on to the other wool. It is indescribably soft. Is that a word? It should be, if it's not.

Ok, laundry's calling. The dishes are done, though. At least I can knit or spin while the washer's going. Be back soon! Contest on the way, too ~ Don't forget. :)

edit: here's a post of Carrie's with a pic of the softest bunny in the world. (scroll down a little)



Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Too Busy To Think Of A Title

Busy, busy, busy. That's me lately. I keep thinking things will slow down, and I'll have more time to do stuff, but when I finally get time, I'm too tired to do anything, but knit or laze around.

Tomorrow, the third graders are going to have a spinning lesson. The teacher is so excited, and so am I, but now I'm starting to get a bit nervous. They made their cd spindles yesterday, and the kids all had to show me when I went to get LD from school. On Wednesdays the kids can stay in from recess, and the teacher, her friend, and I help them knit, then after that, when the rest of the kids come in, the teacher reads out loud and they can keep knitting, if they listen to the story. Tomorrow, when we're done with the knitting, it's time to spin. They each have a baggie of wool, (from Boogie's shop) and we'll see how it goes. Luckily, I won't be the only grown up there!

I finally finished the picot bind off on the pinwheel blankie for LD's friend's new baby sister. She'll be here in a few weeks. I have one bootie done, and the hat almost done. They are so cute, and soft. I knit the hat a little bigger this time, since babies heads only seem small. Hubby saw the bootie, and said "That wouldn't have fit any of our babies" Yeah, they were big, but the bootie is stretchy, so I think it'll be ok.

Of course, I thought my mom's Christmas slippers were big enough, too, and I ended up giving them to our 4 yr. old niece. Mom's new slippers are done now. I just have to let them dry, and give them to her. I shrunk 'em yesterday, but now I'm afraid they might be a little too big. I guess we'll see about that, too!

I finished the socks for Hubby's Aunt, and gifted them to her. She loved them, and I got a big hug, but I forgot to take a picture of the finished socks, and the cute little label I printed out for them. Sheeze! Good thing I got a new camera for Christmas, huh?

I am almost on my 200th post. If I was ever on here, I'd be past already, but you know; busy! I have a little contest planned. LD and I went to the yarn shop, after her first ever basketball practice to pick out a little prize. :) LD does not like running, and I thought she'd hate b-ball for all of the running, but she loves it! She's been waiting forever to be old enough to start. Poor kid, spending years watching her brother (MM) play ball, and watching her dad on the 'old guys league'. Finally, it's her turn, and although they don't play against other schools yet, she's loving it. The only bad thing is practice is Saturday mornings at 8!

I have been awful about answering my comments. I apologize. Busy, or lazy, whatever....I promise to do better, and to find time to stop being a lurker, and become a comment leaving addict on everyone else's blogs again soon.

Gotta run. Things to do ~ Stuff to knit!

See ya soon, with a fun little contest to celebrate my 200th post.




Sunday, January 06, 2008

What you been up to?

Well, tomorrow is the day. The kids go back to school, and I am not ready. We've been staying up way too late, and sleeping in, and doing pretty much nothing for two weeks!

I've been doing a lot of kakuro, and sudoku puzzles. When I was a kid, my mom would get tired of my noise, and sit me down with a puzzle book. Kakuro and sudoku were called cross sums, and to the nines in those books, but they are the same puzzles, and I still love 'em! I was going to put some links, but if you search those names, there are a billion to choose from. I guess if I run out of books, I can do them online. Then, my Brain Age game for the DS has sudoku built in, so I guess I'm all set.

I've been knitting, too. My mom's Christmas slippers, the second pair (the ones that'll fit - oops) are almost done. I just have to do the second sole, and felt them. I'm finally binding off on the baby blanket. I think I'll redo the pink hat and booties with the border yarn. It's white with little bits of blue, green, purple, pink, green, and yellow. Then, I can gift the matching set. I also got yarn for Hubby's Aunt's birthday socks. I have to start them soon. Her birthday was December 30th. Oops. There are the nephew's clogs. Huge footed boys! I forgot to take an after-felted picture, though! Oops again! hehe

The Christmas decorations are packed away, and just need to be stuck back up into the rafters in the garage. That's Hubby's job. I just stand in the way saying "Don't fall!" and "Do you need help?".

Today is the SP's girlfriend's birthday. I just realized a bit ago, that she is older than I was when I got married. Wow! I feel old! She knitted SP the cutest blanket for Christmas. I should see if they'll mind if I post a pic.

I haven't been reading blogs. Oh man, I haven't even wanted to be on the computer, after the really smart (sarcasm) thing I did. I wanted to get all the songs on my mp3 player in the order I wanted them, so I moved them to the computer, changed names, and numbered them, and a bunch of stuff. Then, I put them back on my player, and they were still playing alphabetically, but not the way I wanted them to. So, Hubby says did you hit apply after changing the info? Ugh! 168 songs. Yep, I did it again! I made it work. Pretty much. It's good enough, anyway!!

So, that's what I've been up to. How about all of you? I'll be around to the blogs soon to see!


Knit on!!
p.s. I almost forgot it 48 degrees. In Michigan. In January!