Don't worry your children are in good hands...

When I'm not knitting in class. An unexpected bonus from substitute teaching is the ample knitting time I keep finding. It's pretty rare for a teacher to leave me actual teaching work, usually I'm just a glorified babysitter. This works only for middle school and high school--lots of knitting time in those grades.
I was going to have a funny post about how interesting substitute teaching is and how great things have been going...until today's assignment. Fourth grade. Children not listening...to anything. Me crying. Then hyperventilating. Then taking a 4o minute break to calm myself down. I hated having to call the assistant principal into the class, but it could not be avoided. This is the first time I have every cried over a class--not even the horrendous teenagers. I hate not having self control in front of students or other faculty.
You'll laugh when you hear how I calmed myself down. Emergency sock knitting. It helped regulate my breathing. Now I'm off to take a bath. Tomorrow I'm going to teach some lovely, wide-eyed and innocent first graders...for half a day.

Friday

So on Friday, guess who I got to see?

The Yarn Harlot herself, Stephanie Pearl-Mcphee. She's on her book tour and Ann Arbor was one of the stops. I went last year when she came to Ann Arbor for her last tour and it was a blast (even with the 3 hour wait and delayed flight mishap). She's a very entertaining speaker and super funny. Once again we kinda freaked out the muggles, though the main guy heading it knew what to expect from last year. Over 300 knitters. Knitting. Talking. Listening. Laughing. If she comes anywhere near where you live definitely go, it's much more fun than going to my younger sister's powderpuff football game (yeah....like it was such a hard choice).

I met some very nice people. The two ladies sitting next to me where from Ohio and the two sisters that I stood next to in line where from Indiana. I guess a 45 min drive doesn't quite compare to a 2-3 hour ride. Right behind us stood a guy wearing a kilt wearing his first knitted sweater--crazy cables and his knitted socks--the long ones that go up to knee. I felt like an underachiever, but he was so nice and gave one of the girls in line with me advice on knitting the socks.

One of the funnest things I've gotten in the habit of doing is playing a game of 'see if you can spot a knitter's car'. I park in the lot right next to the library and I always find 2 or 3 right away that are awash with yarn/patterns/knitted pieces.

Bonus piece of advice: If you, like me, have a habit of loosing count when listening/watching something funny...put the knitting down when she starts talking. For the second year in a row, I lost a stitch and threw off my knitting. But no worries, I fixed it all the next day and I even finished. Pictures later.

Whit's Knits

Apparently Whitney and I knew each other in a past life or something. Every time I'm looking for a pattern for myself, I go over to the purlbee.com and behold I find the answer under Whit's Knits.
First came the Daisy Stitch Hand Warmers. Then the Circular Needle Organizer (I love this idea, and I didn't have to spend any money). Now there is the April Showers Scarf.
It's just the most random thing.
FYI I finished the Chevron Scarf from Last Minute Knit Gifts.