Spinning with a baby on my lap...

Well not a baby, but a four-year-old and not so much my lap as on the couch between my legs. Yup, the four-year-old told me he knows how to spin, so he should do it. We compromised, he pressed on the pedals and I would handle the roving. So that's what we did. It worked pretty well. Except for when he got distracted by the TV. Should you wish to try this at home with your own preschooler: try spinning while playing 'red light/green light', it seemed to work the best.
I, or I should say, we spun this:


It's from my first attempts at dyeing roving. It's really pretty and really, really soft. I'm thinking of turning it into a three-ply with the white that I had spun earlier. Or alternating two colors for a 2-ply, but we'll see.

I have to ask: people who sell roving--how do you keep the roving looking so neat? Mine was looking a bit mangled---it didn't felt, but the presentation is sorely sloppy. Maybe I need a drumcarder? Ha, like I can pay for that now---have you seen the prices of those lately?

Later, tomorrow I get to sub in an art class. Yay. At a sucky school. Blech.

Yeah I have a pessimistic attitude. What's it to ya?

It's a Dear John Letter, but you know for Knits instead

Dear Henry,

I don’t want you to think this has anything to do with you. It’s me. No, really it’s all wrapped up with me. You see, I though I could do it: Just spend time in one relationship. I thought we could both enjoy our time together and live on happily ever after (or until my sister wanted to spend time with you---I am nothing, if not a generous sister).

Then the 'accident' happened. It was such a shock, I was sure we were almost done for--but you pulled through it. We both survived, thanks in large part to some blue yarn and a large needle.

One day passes after surgery--you're resting and so am I.

Two days pass. Nothing happens.

The third day comes and goes and I start avoiding your gaze as I go to work.

By the end of the week, I walk quickly by with my bag in my hand, not looking your way.

I suspect you knew where this was going, but maybe we were both in denial. I tried not to flaunt it, but I can't deny that I found a new friend.

It's all so wonderful and new. You must admit, our relationship was getting a bit stale. I was annoyed by you, and I'm sure you felt the same way too.

I know this is hard for you. Maybe if it was a hat or gloves, this would make it easier for you. But another scarf on size 3 needles is a lot to take. I understand. I'll give you time. Maybe we can still be friends?

With lots of love,

Your Guilt Ridden Knitter.

P.S. The new scarf is a she. Does that help?

It's the Chevron Scarf from Last Minute Knitted Gifts.

Realization

In case you did not know:
Substitute teaching loud, obnoxious fifth graders leaves one contemplating the meaning of life and existence. It also makes someone who was severely depressed for a couple of years wonder if this is the beginning of a very slippery slope you've just finished climbing out of.

Moving on (I need a couple of hours and some rest to get over this class. Distance is a wonderful buffer).

I spent some time dyeing yarn and roving yesterday. I figure if I like spinning and I know others like spinning, then they -- like me-- need some lovely roving to spin. I dyed a reds and then a blues-y merino/tencel blend. It was interesting. I really need some more practice.
Then I dyed some more sock yarn in my Fawkes colorway. It's pretty. Although I think they mis-shipped me the type of yarn--I'll wait until it dries to make sure that it's not the right blend.

First day of ...

Spring. Yay! Easter is this weekend...candy and chocolate eggs for me.

Having gotten that out of the way, I would like to continue my attempts at turning my blog about knitting into a blog about weather. Lovely weather today: sunny and 40s. Not so lovely weather tomorrow: snow.
This should be of no surprise to me, seeing as a few years ago (actually its probably more than a few by now) we had a snow day on the first day of spring. None of us missed the irony of this.

Sigh.

Nearly there...or not

Hey there.

Remember Henry?

That scarf I’ve been working on with size 3 needles—that Henry?

I finally passed the half way point. The stitch pattern seems to be working out in my favor. It looked about right to my eyes anyway. Then something goes wrong.

Look at this picture:

Can you spot the problem? I’ll give you a hint: it has nothing to do with my stitch count and everything to do with my circular needle coming apart! See?!!

What makes this especially painful--these are new needles. I bought these just for this scarf. What can I say--I don't normally use 40" size 3 needles. I wonder is Skacel (Addi) needles have a warranty? I'll have to look it up.

Now I need to figure out how to salvage this. I don't have the right size needles to complete the project and I don't want to buy new needles to finish this. I wonder if I can use a little bit of gorilla glue (or as my brother calls it, "monkey glue') to fix them. But what am I going to do with all of those live stitches?

Socks and Jocks

I'm going to be posting a couple of new yarns on etsy this weekend. One is a green/yellow-green mix. It's quite lovely and spring-y. Something sorely missing in Michigan this week. We've been inundated with snow. Again. I love snow, but I really miss spring and green stuff and flowers.


My second yarn is complementary to my Twilight tencel/merino. It's a superwash merino but what I like about it is that with the addition of a little orange, this yarn is warm rather than cool.


Moving on to the Jocks. I've been subbing, mainly elementary schools. For the most part, really positive and interesting teaching posts. Until Thursday, I decided to try high school classes to see if this age group worked for me, so I accepted a 2-day assignment for a Spanish/speech class.

Strike 1: I forgot how much I dislike waking up at 6 am.
Strike 2: To be teaching and dealing with people at 7 am is just wrong.
Strike 3: Teenagers.

Now not all teenagers are horrid little monsters who should be locked away until the time that the amazingly annoying attitude of theirs goes away, just the 4 boys I had the pleasure of dealing with during my 5th hour. Everybody else was manageable (usual mix of good and not so good), but this group was just not interested in anything.
I just don't know how to deal with anarchist personalities. You know the ones: don't want to learn, don't respect others enough to appreciate that they may want to learn something, and don't understand simple logic.
Four year-old alert. Must go.

Guess what I'm doing now?

So, in case you've missed it, I have mildly---err loudly---complained about my difficulty in finding a job. After watching several annoying videos and filling out lots and lots of forms, I finally got entered into the local system for substitute teaching. I signed up for 3 districts to help ensure I get a job. I've been thinking about getting certified as a teacher, but that involves going back to school. Since I've spent so much money going to school for something that didn't quite work out, I figure: spend time substituting, get some money, feel out how I feel about working with kids in the under-18 category.

On the knitting front, I'm still working on Henry. I've been saying I'm half way done for a while now--but I think that has more to do with wishful thinking than an aesthetic reality.

Also, I cut my bangs today. Nobody has noticed. I'm guessing my family thinks I look different because I am actually wearing makeup and in decent clothes.