spring fashion show

I really, really, really love clothes.  I like especially new clothes.  They are always more exciting.  I also like finding clothes in the back of my closet that I haven't worn in a long time.  They are kind of like new clothes since I forgot about them.  I marvel how I can go on vacation for 3 weeks with 9 articles of clothing but somehow feel that is not enough clothing for my everyday life.  

This love of clothes can be expensive.  That on top of my love of knitting and sewing makes it even more so.  Kitchens are also expensive and we really need a new one (the dishwasher and table are dying and replacing those starts a dangerous domino effect of remodeling).  My solution?  Make my clothes myself.  Not only am I a big fan of the clothes since the style and fabric are perfect, it has the added benefit of slowing down my consumeristic desires since it takes 8-50 hours to actually make something.  Since finishing my sewing closet and being on break again I have been so inspired to sew and knit of late.  Maybe it is the turn in the weather.

Without further ado, my new spring wardrobe:

A knit top made of cotton and angora (warm and cool at the same time!).  I like the lace stripe.  It was the most expensive part of everything I've made but still 36.00 for a top is the same if not cheaper than buying it in the store (and it is custom fit).

Pants!  The first time I have ever made trouser like pants with a fly.  I love them.  I am so excited that they fit well because now I never ever have to go pants shopping again.  I want to make a pair that are jeans (though for that I have to learn pockets) and a pair that are capri pants.  $15.00 for perfectly fitting pants is way cheaper than, well, any pants.

A halter top made from an old sheet someone gave me..  It needs some more layers for work but will be soooo great in the hot summer.  Free is also cheaper than buying things.  Well 10.00 including the pattern and zipper.  Still cheap.

A tunic-y dress.  I found this fabric at the fabric store for 5.00.  It made a great dress to wear over leggings and also to wear over pants.  I'm not the biggest fan of the way the elastic makes the neck gather, maybe I'll fix it.   Unfortunately the fabric was cheap because it is polyester and has some major static problems.  I need to buy some static guard.

Now I am obsessed.  I want to sew everything, (not just because I have 4 new pieces of clothing for 65 dollars and a really beautiful great sewing closet, though both of those things help).    I wonder if I could make enough stuff that I could only wear homemade stuff for a week?

arrgghhhh matey!

So, yesterday James decided it would be good to go to the Gowanus Yacht Club today to celebrate being back in the US. "Let's get there at 2 when it opens so we can get a table he said." I personally love the Gowanus Yacht Club and thought it sounded like a perfect afternoon. I was a bit surprised at his specificity and insistence but it is true that the seats at the Yacht club fill up fast and no one wants to drink a pitcher of beer without a table.

Since I always like to have a bit of knitting with my beer I brought along my elbow length fingerless gloves which the fall leaves have inspired me to begin working on. (Shhh, I know it isn't fall but I like to pretend). We arrived at 2 and James picked a table in the back. As I sat down I thought, hmmmm this is where we sat for my birthday last year, I do like this spot!

We sat down and began drinking a pitcher of Duff and I began knitting.

After a while my friend Sarah from work showed up. I was shocked and pleased, what are the chances we would be in the same place over summer vacation? Then she handed me a present. I was even more shocked and turned to James and said, "Oh! Are you surprising me?"

I was not only surprised at the surprise but also because usually he is not so good at being secretly crafty and I am much better at being sneakily picking up on clues to surprises.

But then, just as I thought I couldn't be any luckier than to have a safari birthday and a Yacht club birthday Julia walked in with this


A Pirate Birthday! I can't think of a better partner to a Safari birthday really. Did I mention that the cake came with an eyepatch and skull and crossbones bandana?

Then more people came, including Kathleen, Rob, and Robert all the way from Philly! Then we had to start giving cake away to everyone at the yacht club because well, the cake was essentially made out of 4 or 5 cakes and we can't eat that much. That is when everything became crazy. We met all kinds of new people including Alex who won the award by eating a bunch of cake with her hands and then giving me delicious mango salsa. yum!

I also recieved good advice. One guy said that when he turned 30 he said, "oh I can't believe I'm 30!" and his friend said, "shut up, one day you will WISH you were 30." Good Point.

And then there was the guy who (knowing it was my 30th birthday) came over and said, "Ah 21, what a great birthday you can finally drink legally!"

I would show pictures but the batteries died just as we were taking a picture of the cake and me with the bandana and eyepatch.

I also knit this much glove:


Happy Birthday to ME! (part 2)

journey of a sock

I took along James' honeymoon socks as my trip knitting. I had plans to do his socks AND some christmas socks but I grossly underestimated how long it takes to knit socks. Since I was knitting James' socks the entire trip they had some wonderful adventures. Besides doing most of the things we did there were some special highlights for the sock.

It got to sit on a termite mound (to give a sense of scale).


It did such a good job at this that its hard to find--look on the left just above and to the side of the little arch.

Some sock knitting got sadly interrupted because of the bad condition of the roads, so it just got to gaze out the window for a little while:


Maybe the roads don't look so bad to you but imagine a really really bumpy roller coaster and it was sort of like that.

By the time the first sock was finished it was famous. Women (who were trying to sell us things off of platters balanced on their heads while we were stopped in traffic) stared in through the windows and had extensive conversations about what I was doing and how I was doing it. It got to meet a crocheted purse made by the Nigerian women sitting in front of us at a Durbar (ceremony thing where chiefs and important people meet).

It was officially finished at lunch after we me met the chief of the Gunja (he was not introduced to the sock, some things don't translate well). James was appropriately pleased....


My mother thought perhaps it felt like expressing its inner thoughts as a hand puppet.....


And Emmaunel (our driver who thought it was really hilarious that I spent all my time knitting socks) thought perhaps it might make a good necktie...............


The second sock felt a little jealous as it had little of the glory of the first sock. It was all business and work work work with that one. But the night after we returned from Ghana it was finished and James officially has honeymoon socks (two years too late)

what to knit at the opera

We did it! We survived 17 hours of opera AND enjoyed it. For the past 4 days we have been spending every evening at the Met watching successive installments of the Ring Cycle.

Somehow James and I spend a lot of time in dark theaters mostly watching movies or operas. This affords a lot of knitting time but adds the complication of darkness. At the movies this is usually OK, the seats are large and deep. If you need to see what you are doing you can wait for a light part of the movie and hunch your head over to see your knitting without bothering other people (unless of course you are knitting an octopus near an asshole).

The opera however affords less space than one get on an airplane and it is often full (definitely sold out full in the case of the Ring Cycle). There is little elbow room, little leg room, AND if you are sitting in the cheap seats way at the top, the slope is such that anything above chest level gets in the way of the people behind you seeing the stage.

Things you CAN NOT knit at the opera:
1. Large things like sweaters
2. Things on double pointed needles, it makes the people next to you nervous that they will get poked
3. Things that require you to look at your knitting
4. Things that require you to move your arms a lot (to move stitches)
5. Things that are not very wide and require you to turn your knitting a lot (this often leads you to bring your knitting up too high or over to the side to far.

This rules out a lot of things. Unfortunately I have the problem of quickly falling asleep in dark theaters unless I am moving. Therefore, to get through 17 hours of opera I HAVE to knit.

The first night I decided that perhaps dishcloth knitting was the best choice, Even though it requires color changes and slipped stitches I thought I could probably feel the stitches instead of looking. I think perhaps I was not being careful and lifted the knitting to far to the side prompting the man next to me to lean over and say, "I'm sorry, but that is really distracting." This was so sad for me. I thought, "how will I go through 17 hours of opera with no knitting?" So, I started practicing very discrete knitting on my lap. It was brilliant, James didn't even realize I was knitting. It took a long time though and hurt my arms a little.

The next night James and I switched places and I ended up next to a French lady who began talking to me about knitting and how much she loves to knit. Score! The sum total of nights one and two (with my lovely parrot assisting):


Night 3:


Night 4 was the trickiest. I ended up sitting next to the French ladies husband who perhaps did not appreciate knitting as much because he switched with her after the second act. Then in the third act I realized I had a fever and did not want to knit anymore. But then I started falling asleep. So Night 4 produced:


Lessons I learned about knitting at the opera:

1. It helps you stay awake
2. It might annoy the people around you, apparantly more so if they are male.
3. I can fix dropped stitches in the dark.
4. Maybe when the opera is sold out I should only knit during intermissions so as not to annoy people around me.

The opera was great but I never would have made it without the knitting (so it is a good thing I was sitting next to a nice french knitting lady). The most hysterical part of the entire experience is that we were by far the youngest people there (by decades almost). In fact many people kept asking James, "are you a musician?" Because they couldn't figure out any other reason that such young people would be there. When surrounded by so many old and older ladies I was the only one knitting. Perhaps this has something to do with one's sense of propriety, or the women's movement which makes many older women not knit or definitely not knit in public. And it is probably true that One Does Not Knit At The Opera. But I still found it amusing.

Gris-Gris burps.

the all-encompassing mystery stole 3

I think this shawl is going to be Epic. As in an Epic undertaking, an Epic pain in the ass, an Epic obsession, and an Epic achievement.

Here is how I know:

Clue #1--I signed up to do it at midnight the day before I had an 8:00 class which I would have to leave early to dash off to a wedding two hours away. I really should have been sleeping.

Clue #2--Rather than sleep, I began thinking about what yarn I would use. I found some online, but it would have taken 10 days to deliver so I cancelled the order. Then I pulled out yarn I found at a thrift store and spent some time googleing to find out if it would be enough. It wasn't. So I went to bed disappointed and dreamed about mystery stoles all night.

Clue #3--The instant I got home from the wedding I ran to the yarn store. They closed in 60 minutes and it was at least a 45 minute trip on the subway. I was going to go to a different yarn store but they were not open. After a quick survey of all my options I decided that Downtown Yarns was the only store open that was close enough to get to before they closed.

Clue #4--I stayed up till midnight swatching. I dreamt about yarn overs.



Clue #5--The next day I got home and was suddenly seized with a deep desire to do the bead option on the stole. I ran to the Pratt store to see if they might have beads. They did. Upon getting back home again I realized I needed the tiniest crochet hook in the entire universe. I ran to the Pratt store again. They did not have one. Instead I decided that I must be able to fashion a tiny crochet hook out of a Serger needle threader. It worked.

Clue #6--By midnight I had this:


The first half of the first clue (to the mystery stole) finished. Look at the pretty lace. It is very, very, very, very soft. Look at the pretty beads, they are a little stone colored and a little purpley. They sparkle a little in the sun. I dreamt about them.


Do you see how I am smitten?

Clue #7--At noon today I came home and started knitting and by 4PM had this--


Clue one, aka the first part of the stole, finished. Now I am totally in love. I think it loves me back. Despite the fact that every other time I have knitted lace I have had to rip out everything 10 times or had the pattern get all woppy-jawed, none of this has happened yet. I say yet because, well, fate is not kind to people who make definitive statements.

The third part comes out on Friday, I better slow down or I will be forced to begin working on other projects (socks...?)

so many choices

Done. Well, done-ish. I think Kathleen psychically understood how hard this knitting was becoming and thus scheduled her wedding on Friday--enabling a two hour road trip to Philly which greatly facilitated the Great Tentacle Knit Out of 2007. I still have to go through the frightening and unpredictible process of felting it, which due to a last minute yarn shortage, may or may not work out. I ended up using alpaca to finish it and as soon as I finished I heard this faint memory in my head telling me that alpaca does not felt well. Hmmmm..... More importantly, while it is waiting to be felted, the octopus has a second calling in life.....


...as a bright orange wig. It was even better before I knit the bottom and the "stuffing portal" because it really looked more like a hat. But I didn't have a camera. Too bad.

More importantly I never have to knit another tentacle in my life (unless, ahem, the felting doesn't work, but I refuse to consider that possibility) and am now freed up to work on other enticing projects. I went through my whole stash and pulled out all the things I am "working" on. It is like a little museum of yarn, or an obstacle course of yarn, depending on your perspective. I pick museum. As I have an expensive degree in professional tour guide-ing I will put all that education to work. On your right you will notice........


... the honeymoon sock(s). Note it's small and portable size and not so woolly wool. For these reasons it shall be reserved for the upcoming African adventure.

Up ahead we have some yarn from the "early sock" era.


Otherwise known as when Sarah finished her pair of honeymoon socks and, though she had yet another pair to knit, went to the yarn store and was seduced by a whole stack of yarn. Its hard to say no when something is so cheap and so intriguing (will it stripe? checker? varigate? ahhhhh the suspense).

Down the hall you will encounter the "mirage tank top"


This tank is lovely in every way, the yarn is soft, the colors float enticingly across the surface, the fabric drapes with an elegant ease. Alas, it is all a lie to trick me into loving it. Unfortunately, it looks so indescribably awful on me that I can't bring myself to finish it. I have learned the lesson for the 23rd time that chunky ribbed knits look beautiful on hangers and very small people, perhaps even bony people. I am now contemplating whether I should rip apart something so pretty, or finish it and give it away. The dillema lies in the fact that A) I have no idea what else I would use the yarn for and B) I don't think I know anyone who would look very good in it.

Next up on our obstacle course, ummm tour.......



The shape shifting yarn. It started life as a sweater, then became shawl number 1, and now is shawl number 2. It insists every time on being much smaller than it should be. To keep it from becoming socks I have purchased the yellow balls of yarn to make a lace trim around the edge. Lace + mohair does not equal fun. It can't be ripped out and I hate lace because I always have to rip it out.

As I was dodging, umm, contemplating my options I began to feel the pull of the socks. As I sat down to peruse the internet for sock patterns, I came across this. It is not a sock, it is The Mystery Stole 3. It is secret agent knitting. You learn the pattern on a "need to know" basis. Basically, every week you get a new part of the pattern, knit, and see what happens. I love this idea. So I signed up and ran to the yarn store as soon as I could. Because everyone else in new york has evidently done the same thing I had the choice of knitting it in red or red. I chose red. Though now that I have it at home I realize it is more of a rust orange.


Then I sat down to look at the first clue (I'm a little late so there are already 2 clues out). Hmmmmmmm........remember how I hate lace? It is the most insanely complicated lace I have ever seen. OK not really but it IS the most insanely complicated lace I have ever thought about knitting. We'll see how this goes, I will try to ignore the socks.............

one tentacle, two tentacle, three tentacle, four...

....five tentacle, six tentacle, seven tentacle, MORE?

I am a little sick of knitting tentacles.

Here is a little list of Good Places to Knit Tentacles.

On the way to and from a friend's wedding feeling a little sad that there was not more traffic so that there would be more knitting time.--1 tentacle

In the movie theater while watching "Symbiopsychotaxiplasm Take One" (and apparantly annoying the pants off of someone sitting two seats away. So annoying that during the Director's Q & A he says, "well, throughout the whole movie there was someone in the theater who was doing something that I found extremely irritating and I kept think to myself, 'do I say something or not?' I ultimately decided NOT to say anything because I realized that this what your whole movie is about, irritation and the things in the world that intrude on what you yourself are doing." I love that he managed to make a passive aggressive statement about the annoyance and do it in a way that makes him think he looks soooo smart. Except I think he really looked more like a pretentious ass. For what it is worth, James says that octopus knitting is not in fact distracting while watching a movie, even when you are sitting right by it)--1 tentacle

Sitting in the Ghanaian embassy for 2.5 hours waiting to get a visa and finding out at the last minute that, though the website says you can, you cannot download visa forms and fill them out. You must use the Form. There was not much knitting time as we scrambled to fill out the Form before 3:00 (it was 2:50) when they stop accepting Visa applications.--1 tentacle

On the subway to and from my new class, "Play as a Tool of Early Intervention" with Lesley Koplow. And during breaks. I refrained from actually knitting in class, though I was tempted.--.5 tentacles.

Only 2.5 more to go. Perhaps "knitting while at a 4th of July party and watching fireworks?" Hmmm. Maybe not.

build it and they will come

Our passports were supposed to come on Wednesday by Priority Mail, "Oh, Yes, yes, don't worry they will be there." Despite the fact that I waited at the door all day long they did not come.

On Thursday, thinking that a watched pot never boils, I decided to go out and perform a little good old american capitalist voodoo. In other words, alter my future through consumption. I bought this lovely lovely passport case that, not only holds a passport but also my driver's license, credit cards, plane ticket, and space to stash extra american cash that I don't want to flash to the world. How could this not work? Surely upon returning home, the passports would be there.

They were not. Maybe Field of Dreams is not the best source of information for american capitalist voodoo. Maybe I needed something else.

So, Friday morning we got up bright and early to brave the big bad passport office. Our appointment was at 8:00 we decided to arrive at 7:15. What we saw upon arriving really merits a picture. I in fact took several to document our little oddessy through the passport office, unfortunately my phone is dumb and will not send me the photos. Alas, a written account will have to suffice.

There were really at least 500 people standing outside. Bad Omen #1. As they were all going about the business of orderly queueing up we joined them as quickly as possible. There was a 7:30 appointment line and an 8:00 or later appointment line. Some people were not so orderly and had a less highly developled queueing instinct. They just fit in wherever they saw a spot. Some people got very mad and started yelling. Luckily there was no fighting. This was clearly not an Organized Event.

We waited and we waited and we waited in our "8:00 and later" line, making friends with everyone near us in line. Everyone was desperate for their passports and had their own little hilarious story of bureaucratic ineptiude.

At 8:00 they started taking people from the 7:30 line. I pulled out my knitting and began to knit an octopus. This is hard for other people to believe. "A what?" "An octopus." "A what?" "An octopus." "A What?" "An Octopus." "Ummm, we're just trying to figure out if you are kidding."

At 9:00 they were still taking people from the 7:30 line. At 10:00 they were still taking people from the 7:30 line. We began to be very thankful we didn't have an appointment that was any later than 8:00.

At 10:45 we got to go inside to Line #2. This is where we tell the people we have an appointment and get a number for Line #3 upstairs. On our way upstairs, we met someone in the elevator who told us she had spent 12 hours here the day before. Bad Omen #232.

Our number was A3428. When we got upstairs they were on number A3319. Bad Omen #346. We plopped ourselves down on the floor (all the chairs being taken) and got ready for a long wait. I pulled out my knitting and we were quickly befriended by some Tibetan, I mean Chinese, girls ages 4,6, and 9. "What are you knitting?" "An octopus." "A what?" "An octopus." "A what?" "An octopus?" "Really! Will it have eyes and everything?!" They were hilarious and made the time pass quickly. It is lucky that I work with kids this age all day long and have been in a little withdrawal period for the past few weeks because otherwise they may not have been so hilarious. I taught them how to knit, how to make a paper airplane (I'm not sure other people were happy with me for this distraction), we sang some songs, and they decided we were their new best friends. They tried to give me their phone number. I replied by saying, "you really need to ask your mom before you can give your phone number to people." They asked her and she said yes (I'm not sure she really understood what they were asking).

Did I mention that our breakfast was chocolate donuts and coffee and that absolutely NO food or drink were allowed inside, we were a bit dizzy.

At 2:25 our number was up, we tiptoed past the people sleeping on the floor as they waited, and we applied for our passports. The suprisingly nice passport man told us our passports would be ready at 3:45, or "maybe a few minutes later due to the volume of people who were waiting today." As opposed to another day? I get the impression every day is like this. Of course they close the doors at 3:45 so we would have to wait inside for the passports. Bad Omen # 511? The office stays open INSIDE until 8:00PM.

Oh yes, James had class on Friday, from 9 until 5. We were going to pop into the passport office for our appointment and then he would run off to class and I would run off to the yarn store. So at 2:50 we run to NYU to tell his professor that, no, he will not be coming to this last day of class, and then run back to the passport office.

At 3:45, the time we are to pick up our passports, they begin calling people whose passports were supposed to be ready at 3:00. By this point there were no more bad omens left, we just sort of expected it. So, we hunkered down, by this point I was on the first tentancle, and got comfortable.

At 4:50 they called our names and we were liberated. Literally. We could leave the passport prison and now we can also leave the countnry.

9 hours and 35 minutes to passport freedom.

I had a lot of octopus knit.



And we got out of there in less than 12 hours, which seems to be a little miracle.



I think it was thanks to the american capitalist voodoo.

sock it to me

When I was little I was very afraid of monsters. They could be lurking anywhere, the backyard, the basement, the top of the monkey bars, the bottom of the slide, or the closet.














Thanks to my father I had a lovely homemade loft bed so I KNEW there were none under the bed. Well, maybe there were some under the bed while it was being constructed in the basement. Those basement monsters were forces to be reckoned with. My father must have performed an exorcism when he brought it upstairs.

When I got a little older we had a cedar closet which instead of monsters, housed vampires. This was particularly disturbing because it was right next to my bedroom. Sometimes I would run quickly out into the hall and down the stairs so that the vampires would not notice me.

For the past few days I've been feeling this way about one of my current closets. Inside lurks a grownup monster.......Unfinished Knitting. Not just any Unfinished Knitting, the Unfinished Sock.

Two years ago James and I got married and took our honeymoon in France. I got a little obsessed with the idea of knitting socks on the trip because they don't take up a lot of room and I had never knitted socks before. Even better, I was going to knit us both purple socks, matching honeymoon socks. My friend Paige and I went to the yarn store to buy all the materials I woudl need. She generously financed one set of socks as a wedding present. I was off. I made it most of the way down the leg on the plane trip over and had grand hopes. Then I got distracted by France. And driving since James doesn't drive stick (and to be fair, hadn't lived in France and done plenty of driving there before). On the way home I did a little more, turned the heel and began the gusset.

As soon as I got home it went into the closet. And it stayed there. It even moved closets last summer. Some of the yarn became a hat. I took out the needles to use on another project.

As I read more about knitting I read more about knitters who are obsessed with socks. As I see more pictures of hand knit socks I find they look more and more enticing. The Yarn Harlot who loves socks, knits socks, writes (hilariously) about socks. and takes socks sightseeing is pulling me down the rabbit hole with her blog.

As my upcoming trip to Africa looms and I again need something portable that will take a while I have begun to think about knitting socks again. And about how maybe I should knit James' honeymoon socks. And, if I am going to do that, maybe I should try to finish MY honeymoon socks. So I have been tiptoeing past the closet, wondering how much of a mess my socks are, wondering if I can possibly figure out where I am in the pattern.

Yesterday evening I cracked open the closet to have a look. Here is what I found:



OK, what I found after I put the needles back in. A sock! One that had no dropped stitches! One that I could figure out where I left off! But one that might not have enough yarn to finish. I decided to try. One Park Slope Food Co-op General Meeting (You have to work to shop, you can get credit for going to meetings twice a year, I can knit through meetings. A perfect solution), some TV watching, and a call to the State Department to check on passports later...


...a sock and a half! The toe is a different color so I don't run out of yarn. I have plans to make it look more intentional. Maybe if both socks look the same it will look more intentional. But it is still a sock! My first sock! I think I might love knitting socks. Almost as much as dishclothes.



In other exciting news Gris-Gris now says, "OK, Gris-Gris, see you later, goodbye! heh, heh, heh, heh!" In fact "see you later" seems to be her favorite word of the day. She just started saying it last night. At a phrase a week what is her vocabulary going to be like when she's 25? I think we are in big trouble.

five good things about today

Today is a Very Good Day. Here's why:

Good Thing #1


ahhh...it just really started getting hot and humid and for the first time in my adult life I now have air conditioning in my ENTIRE house.

Growing up in Tennessee everything is ridiculously air conditioned to about 60 degrees and it is unquestioned that you WILL have air conditioning (except for the year we moved there and my parents thought we could forego it-- I spent the summer playing christmas carols on the piano thinking it might make my 8 year old body cooler if I could pretend it was winter.) Though now it makes me chilly when I go home to visit, it is so lovely to go in and out of those arctic blasts into the simmering hell of humidity outdoors (and vice-versa).

Up here in yankee-land, air-conditioning really IS an option (this was shocking to me when I first went to college, how could you NOT have air conditioning?!?). For 2 weeks of the year it is an absolute miserable hell without it, but you survive. Until last year I had struggled through Minnesota and NY summers with no air conditioning at all. Those 2 weeks never seemed worth the few hundred dollars the air conditioning would cost. But thanks to
A) last summer's string of heat waves that forced me to camp out in my bedroom for 4 days, emerging only for food.
and
B) a generous air conditioning grant provided by the in-laws
...we now have air conditioning. In every room (we live in a small apartment, it isn't as excessive as it sounds).
This means I can knit. All summer. Even with wool. yipeeee!

It also means that I can have Good Thing #2


mmmm coffeee. I love it. I HATE iced coffee. I HATE drinking hot things in the heat. Therefore, today is partly a Good Day because Good Thing #1 and Good Thing #2 go so well together.

Good Thing #3


This picture doesn't do her justice. In the past week or so this bird has become the most entertaining thing in the whole world. She has just started talking and comes out with new words every day. She likes to have little sessions where she puts together everything she knows into various groupings. So far "everything she knows" consists of:
singing the Simpsons theme song
clucking
saying "gris-gris" (but it sounds like a frog ribbiting
"hello"
"good-morning"
"hi"
slidey whistles a la "Groove is in the Heart"
"step up"
wolf whistles
"Guess what?"
"stop"
"no"
"how are you?"
The queen of the night aria from _The Magic Flute_
"oh boy"
laughing
"bye bye"
Shave and a Haircut (two bits!)

She combines all of these words together into hilarious strings. My favorite so far is the, "Good Morning Gris-Gris, How are you? Guess what? step up. Stop Gris Gris, No." Then of course it is interspersed with Simpsons music and unique variations on that theme. It makes me laugh. Then she laughs back. I laugh some more. And it is off for another round of hilarity. She also is doing a lot of funny upside down tricks but whenever I point the camera at her to get a picture she stops and tries to chew the camera. Oh well.

While watching and listening to the birdy show I have finished Good Thing #4


My favorite so far.

Which naturally leads me to Good Thing #5:


So much more dishcloth yarn left to play with. I love looking at all of it in this little basket. I love making predictions about how many dishclothes I will be able to make with so much yarn. I love thinking that weeks worth of entertaining knitting (not to mention a pile of pretty dishclothes) only cost $15.00. I may never stop.................

welcome to my recent knitting craziness

So it is summer vacation for me. When I tell most people this I am met with a look of longing desire mixed with deep hatred. i understand this look, really. Because I think that look is sort of how I feel in February when I think, "how will I ever make it to summer vacation and there is no way that it is ever ever going to happen." Except the difference is that when I have that thought I know it will eventually come wheras when people look at me with that special blend of desire and hatred I know it is because they know it will not.

Yes, I am blessed with 2 months off every summer, but it is a mixed blessing. There are many stages of summer vacation excitement. In talking to other teachers I have come to believe this is indeed wide spread and can be termed "summer vacation syndrome" It begins with the the dreamy thought of ahhhhhh two months where I can do WHATEVER I WANT! Then there is the terrifying thought of eeekkkkk I can do WHATEVER I WANT! No structure, no appointments, just a blank void of time. A terryfying void. The first responsse is to begin filling it with fantasy projects. Here are some of mine:

oh! I can stay at work a few extra days trying to get a few things done that I never seem to have time to do!
mmmm! I can knit every morning!
oooo! I can redo the sewing closet!
ahhhh! I will knit lots of dishclothes!
eeek! I can read lots of books!
sigh! I will knit an octopus for my classroom next year (the kids picked the animal)
hey! I can take a few education classes!
hmmmm....I COULD go see a 4 evening opera with James since he really really wants to go.
yipeee! I'll go to Africa!
yes! I will knit socks on the way to Africa!
ohhh! I have lots of friends getting married, I'll be able to go to 3 of the weddings!
hmmmm...maybe I can finish that shawl on the way to those weddings!
yeah! I will work out a little every day.

This continues throughout the spring as you list one dream after another.

At the beginning of summer you begin to plot the reality of the relaxing summer you have planned for yourself and then begin to get very very stressed. "How will I do all of this?" you think.

Finally you decide that your goals were "guidelines" rather than actual things to accomplish.

Most of those things on my list WILL happen but I might have to let go of the sewing closet in order to make enough time to knit, though that thought makes me hold back a few tears. We will see. THERE IS NO RUSH (as I keep telling myself to no avail).

The best part of summer has been the ridiculous amount of time I can spend knitting. I've finished up several old projects and begun the "March of the Dishclothes." I might be addicted.