Wallaby & Clapotis oh my!

So sorry for the lack of blogging. There has been much working going on. There has been standards matching, grading, and even a fair amount of knitting!

I present my first Wonderful Wallaby! It was a pretty fast knit and I know that I will make more, in fact I already have the yarn to make one for Bunny. I will admit that the folksy style of the directions got to me a little, but I love that the pattern was named after a trip to the Henry Vilas Zoo, one of my favorite haunts from Madison days.

I knit it in Swish Superwash from KnitPicks and think I used a little more than four balls. Full details will appear in the FO section. I did make a few mistakes, but I’ll never tell! It will be on it’s way to baby Fiona who will turn a week old tomorrow. She’ll have a little time to grow into it.

I have also been knitting away on a Clapotis. I had bought two 3.5 oz skeins of sari silk a while ago and then got a 4 oz one from my SP9 so I thought I would make a small Clapotis. Let me say right now that there are problems with it, but I continue to knit blindly along in denial. The problems? Well, it’s going to be small, real small. I should have stopped the increases sooner. I may run out of yarn, this despite careful and extensive mathematics. The colors of the different skeins while looking similar in the balls look different knitted. It’s way itchy. I’m hoping that washing and blocking will help some with both the size and the itchyness. Any suggestions on what to use in washing this stuff to make it lovely and soft?

Tomorrow we leave for the Grade 6 retreat. Good side: lots of knitting time. Bad side: overnight with my students.

Thanks SP!

I have been very busy (even had to miss SLK again last night) with some work that I’m doing outside of school as well as the normal “school might end sometime soon and it would be nice if all the papers were graded” work so it was a great pick-me-up to get a package yesterday.

Everybody sing, “white paper packages tied up with yarn, these are a few of my favorite things!”

What fun a package, there were five different little packages. Each one was wrapped in white tissue paper and tied up with fun yarn.

The first package I opened had some cute notecards, all knitting themed! Since I’m moving into thank you note season #2 (season #1 is at Christmas) they will come in most handy.

The next three packages were all yarn! Three balls of Diakeito Diacosta (color 220). It’s not a yarn I know anything about, but it is totally cool! Anyone used it? I think it screams for lace so what can I make with 447 yards of this? I would love suggestions!

Finally there’s a great looking book Knit Fix. I’m sure it will be very handy!

Thanks so much SP! This was a great package!!

On another note I want to knit something little to send to the woman I have been working with on this outside project. It needs to be a quick knit and from my stash. I’m thinking about dishcloths, but do you think a non-knitter would think it was strange to get dishcloths as a gift?

Contest Winner!

Congratulations to Lacey!!  She got 7/10 correct on “name that colorway”. It will be fun to send to her since she sent to me for a Mason Dixon swap last summer! (Check out the great yarn that she will put up for sale on Saturday at her new Etsy Shop)

For those who are interested here’s the photo again with the colors listed below. (I just spent about an hour trying to make a photo with the names written on, but, well, never mind!)

Top row (L-R) Carbon Dating, Waterlilies, Pebbles, Fire on the Mountain

Bottom Row (L-R) Scottish Highlands, Hard Rock, Midsummer’s Night, Seastone, X-mas Rock, Lemongrass

Thanks to all who entered!

1000 kicks!

Bunny participated in his first fundraiser on Saturday. He was part of a Kick-a-Thon for his Tae Kwon Do school to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. The maximum anyone could kick was 1000 times and he did all 1000! I’m so proud of my little guy. Most of the “knee-high ninjas” got distracted by the ants or the Popsicles, but Bunny kept going till he had done all 1000.

In knitting news, Branching Out has been frogged, Wallaby is up to the placket, and the raglan is in a ribbing wasteland.

Last day for my contest! Come on folks… give it a try!

Blogiversary

One year ago today I started this blog! I have enjoyed having a way to share my thoughts and knitting with at least a few other people on a regular basis. To celebrate this event, and to get a chance to find out exactly who is reading here… I’m having a contest!

You see I went a little crazy at The Fold’s booth at MDSW. Here is my collection of newly acquired Socks That Rock.

Have you guessed the contest? Name the colorways. This is an open book test, do any research you want. Then email me at bethcole <at> world <dot> oberlin <dot> edu with the subject line “contest” with a list of the ten colorways shown. Most correct wins, in case of a tie I will use a random method to select the winner.

The prize? Sorry, not STR, I’ve got plans for this stuff people! But I did get something nice at MDSW with the prize in mind, and I have been known to throw in fun extras as well.

So, come one, come all try your luck! Enter by May 15th for your chance to win.

MDSW

I had a great time on Saturday! The event was everything I expected. There were cute animals, there were lots of people and cars, there was music, and there were purchases playing in the grass!

The girls had a great time. I hope they will send me their photos and I can share them with you. There were other purchases as well… more about those soon along with a blogiversery contest!

Keeping my Sanity and MDSW

If you’re only interested in my upcoming trip to MDSW and not my life, skip the next three paragraphs!

Life has gotten hectic. In addition to my regular, crazy life I agreed to do some outside consulting work. I admit I was dazzled by the amount of money involved and agreed before I thought through the amount of work and the time-line. Now I am struggling to stay afloat. Of course you might notice that I am spending my only break today without students working on a blog post rather than getting some of this work done, but it wouldn’t be nice to point that out!

It got so bad that this week-end I resorted to making a “to do” list. Something not normally part of my behavior. When I do resort to such radical measures I use my palm to keep the list. When I started this list I took a gander at the previous lists (still stored on the palm) and discovered that I almost always start a list in late April. So, I guess it’s not just the extra work… but that’s sure not helping.

I have been trying to knit about 10 minutes before I go to bed each night in hopes of calming my brain so I was interested to read about a character in The Friday Night Knitting Club who does the same. I’m not very far into the book yet, but am finding it a nice, light, entertaining read. Progress continues on Branching Out (see above) with a row or two here and there but mostly on the top-down raglan. I’m getting close the the end of the body I think, time to do some measuring.

I am planning a trip to MDSW on Saturday. I will arrive bright and early to do my shopping and then will be met at 11:00 by a group of four great 7th grade girls. Julie and I taught them to knit last year, and this year their parents bought a trip with me at the school auction.

So I need a little help! I think Julie is going to post about this in her blog because she gets thousands more hits than I do, but I’m putting together a scavenger hunt for the girls. I will put them in pairs and each pair will have a digital camera. Any thoughts on great things for them to find? I’m thinking some will involve photos, some will involve asking questions and getting information, and at least one will involve shopping! Some I already have in consideration are:

• cutest animal
• longest line
• prettiest color combination in one photo
• find out the differences between two different breeds of sheep
• most interesting knitting “accessory”
• what happens to turn wool on a sheep into yarn?
• best thing you can buy with this $10

Of course most will be subjective, and everyone will win. I would love your suggestions!