My Smiley Lion

When I was a kid, about Bunny’s age, one of my favorite books was The Smiley Lion Book. I loved it so much I can still recite much of it by heart. Best line, “How many friends has a smiley lion? More, many more, than a grouchy one.”

Bunny’s grandma came through with a lion costume from a thrift shop! So much easier than the Hippo he had declared he would be.

He did well in this morning’s parade, i.e. he stayed on the parade route and didn’t cry. He also sang with gusto at the post-parade concert (although the photo is poor).

The pumpkin is carved so we’re set for tonight. I just hope he gets lots of Reeses!

Thoughts on Friday

Yes, I realize it’s Tuesday but this is about Friday.

Friday was a great day. Bunny had school and I had parent-teacher conferences. But to gods of sign-ups had smiled on me and I only had three conferences on Friday! I did the conferences, was the “parent reader” in Bunny’s class and then got in my car and left school!

First stop, chez Frick to check out the Fricklet who was sleeping peacefully. I took my Cicada Mary* socks with me to knit on while we chatted. After a nice chat I realized I had stopped knitting part way through the visit… Next, lunch, all by myself!

Brief diversion alert: When I was a graduate student I craved time with other people. Despite being in education there was a whole lot of time spent alone. I used to look forward to meetings! Now that I am a teacher and mother I find I crave time alone. Time when I make all the decisions just for me!

While eating I thought a lot about knitting and why I seemed to not be enjoying it. I decided I would spend the rest of the afternoon knitting on my Secret of the Stole thinking that if I made significant progress I would feel good about my knitting. Home I went, popped in the Grey’s Anatomy Season Two DVD that had been delivered from Blockbuster quite a while ago, and started knitting.

Three episodes later there was slightly more stole, but I realized again I had stopped knitting part way through… The drive to school to get Bunny gave me time to think. What was my problem? Why did I not enjoy knitting? I realized the answer, one word, stress… ok two words, stress and prizes.

See, when I started Secret of the Stole I set a goal for myself to keep up with the clues. By Friday I was behind and it was clear I would not be in the running for the first progress prize. Do I need the prize? Of course not, but just the same I felt like I was not living up to expectations. They were my expecations, but all the same they weren’t being met and I was stressing about it.

Friday evening I cast on and knit an entire mini sock. Cousin Mel and I are thinking about making them for holiday gifts. I will knit the tiny socks and she will bead tops to make ornaments. The last of the Grey’s episodes on the DVD and I had a tiny sock. And I had enjoyed it!

The stole is resting, I will come back to it when there are no personal expectations about it. I spent the week-end working on my Cicada Mary* socks and even taught myself Norwegian purl! You know what, knitting is cool!

I guess this was a story of mojo, lost and found. If you have one, head over to HollYarns, enter, and let her know I sent you!

*The Cicada Mary socks are the Bloody Mary socks knit in the Cicada colorway from the Yarn Pirate.

Thanks Mama Sutra! Something for Ms. Frick & a cool link

Have you ever been to Mama Sutra’s blog? I have. I enjoy it. I leave comments. She sent me a present! What a deal!!

A real Canadian package. There is a fun looking magazine, some Canadian flag stickers, a cute orange bag, some yummy candies that we can’t get here (or at least not easily), and two hand knit dishcloths! I’m so excited cause I always give away the dishcloths I knit and now I have some. And the candy… well see how it isn’t it the photo? Just saying… Thanks so much Mama S. And see people, it pays to comment!

I know Ms. Frick is just home twiddling her thumbs… (cause you know, home with a newborn is so easy with all the extra sleep and all) so I thought she might enjoy seeing what she missed today at school! The rest of you can look too!

One more thing, check out Nina’s super cool videocast!

Stash

Stash…

all that potential…

all that guilt of things that could be…

the fun of the hunt, the memory of the “find”…

Dream in Color

Smooshy Sock Yarn

Chinatown Apple

The Loopy Ewe (my first purchase, but certainly not my last)

.

.

.
.
Ironstone Yarns

Infinity Ribbon

Purple Vineyard

Nature’s Yarns (My new local yarn store! Purchased on the first day they were even marginally open.)

Secret of the Stole continues, I’m behind…

What was I thinking?

A while ago I signed up for the Secret of the Stole, mostly because I felt left out during the whole Mystery Stole process… I was excited, got the yarn, the beads, and the impossibly small crochet hook. Back from camping on Friday I rushed to print the chart and was all excited. I remain excited, but golly, don’t I have enough other projects going? Ah well, some things will have to move the the back burner! I try not to have more than three projects going at a time, lets see where were are:

1. Bunny’s Raglan (it would be nice to get that done for picture day, but that’s October 16th, perhaps not)
2. Chevron Scarf (good car knitting and good for other non-thinking times)
3. Shetland Triangle (yeah, it’s in a bag somewhere)
4. Demo Washcloth (for knitting class, but since a number of my students have passed me I think I may need to swap this for the Demo Hat, which really needs to get started…)
5. Cicada Mary socks (Bloody Mary socks knit in Yarn Pirate Cicada, started while camping, toes done)
6. Secret of the Stole (33 out 0f 83 rows done on clue one)

Clearly I have to do some prioritizing or start knitting faster or both!

On the good side, all of Bunny’s birthday celebrations have (finally) come to an end. Gifts opened, cake eaten, and bears built. (Note unbuilt bear in bad photo on right.) My parents left this afternoon and he’s fried, and hence wild. He and B just left for the playground, we’re going for physical exhaustion! The upside? My house is more cleaned up than it has been in years,  now I just have to keep it this way.

Oh, and Bunny wants to be a hippo for Halloween… any ideas how I can pull that one off?

Into the Woods

Off I go, camping with 43 6th graders… At least there will be knitting time!