Summer is Here

Summer means extra time for all the things I didn't get to while I was busy working.  So, I've been reading a lot, sleeping a lot, cleaning a little, and knitting.

I'm doing stash dash again this year as I mentioned before.  My current total is 555 yards.

These socks brought me up to 454 yards this morning.

The firefly sock I just finished brings me to 555 yards.

Today I cast on another Kroy sock and tomorrow I'm casting on my Lollipop yarns socks.  I know I won't reach my goal, but I'm putting a serious dent in my sock yarn and my sock bin is FULL.  I'm up to sock number 25 for the year and 15 pairs total for all time.  Can't wait to get through this stash so I can buy more!!

A few nights ago I attended graduation for my seniors.  As I was leaving a Public Auditorium I looked up and realized that Cleveland is truly beautiful up close.  Gonna try to get downtown more often this Summer and take advantage of the open spaces to knit and read!

I Smell Summer

One of the best parts of teaching is (obviously) summer vacation. On Friday, I will be released into the wild for 9 weeks.  I usually have a plan in place, but this year I'm in limbo.  I am not doing camp loopy this year because it was aggravating last year.  And expensive.  So this year, I'm only doing the Stash Dash 5K. 5468 yards knitted in 10 weeks.  That works out to 22 pairs of socks.  I better get moving!!

Here's my Yarnbox yarn for May. It is from Cherry Tree Hill and it is called Cider House.  820 yards of loveliness.  I may need a shawl out of this....

Here's my latest pair of socks half finished.  These came together pretty quick.  Probably because I love rainbows and skinny stripes.

And here is my first pair of cabled socks coming along quite nicely.  They are called Firefly and the pattern is from the book Knitters Book of Socks. I originally used a pair of needles that were sharp.  I thought that would be good for this pattern. But I found I hated working on them because my fingertips hurt.  Friday, I got a new pair of Addi Turbos and since then these socks have been flying!  I turned the heel tonight and have a good portion of the foot going.  These are going to look awesome!!

And as an added bonus, Netflix released season 2 of Longmire yesterday so I've been enjoying some one on one time with Walt.  😍

May Madness

In the past, May has always been the month I feel I lose control of everything and just hang on until the last day of school.  This year, it's been crazy, but in a much better way.  First of all, I'm not freaking out trying to finish a million reports and get tons of signatures on paperwork.  

So, here's a little of how the past week shaped up.

I found this awesome series on netflix called "Longmire."  Man is he a hunk.

I taught Imari and Danejah how to knit today.

I watched my student who is on house arrest completely freak out over rubber band bracelets.

I've continued to knit socks

I am doing cabled socks that are a pain in the butt.

And I'm getting ready to enter the Stash Dash 5K.  5468 yards of yarn knit in 10 weeks.  These socks will be my first entry at 207 yards when I sew the toe closed in the morning.  Technically, not cheating, but still cheating.  Stash Dash runs from May 23rd to some day in August.  You knit entirely from your stash.  If I wanted to just knit socks, I will have to make 22 pairs of socks.  Crazy, right?  I'm still going to give it a go.  I failed last year when that damn Color Affection ruined my life.  (LOL)

And luckily, these four beauties arrived on Tuesday so they count for Stash Dash!!

Birthdays and Reflections

I turned 42 on Friday...  Here's a couple of the awesome gifts I got from mom!  Can't wait to knit these both up into awesome socks!!  ( Thanks mom!!! )

And like some of us do with birthdays, we reflect on the year we just "survived." I sat on the porch today and did a mental inventory of things I'm thankful for--my parents, husband, and pups, of course.  My awesome new job at a new school. The lovely view from my front porch and the quiet of the neighborhood.  And I also looked back on some failures and I realized that my only real failures are my friendships.  I broke off a friendship in November with a friend I had had for years.  It was time.  She drained me of my positive energy whenever she was around.  But I miss the things we used to do together and the cool things I would have never done had it not been for her.  The most recent failure is with my best friend.  She means the world to me. I love her so much that I think it may be too much.  She has noticeably drifted away from me and I don't feel as important as I used to feel.  Sure she lives 4 states away and her life is tough being so far away from her family, but I wonder if I expect too much.  A phone call once a month, a birthday card, a visit longer than an hour and a half when she's home for a week.  

And naturally, I assume I'm the problem.  I'm not usually needy and insecure.  Why can't I maintain a best friend?  Are my standards too high?  Am I too difficult?  Am I the annoying one?  Am I too vocal and stubborn?  So, I'm now alone.  Not a big deal--I was alone when she dubbed me her best friend.  So, I maintain my solitary existence in friendville.  But, I don't like it.  And I have a tough time making friends because I don't like to put myself out there.  Catch 22, indeed.

Birthday

So, this year we have cut back our spending voluntarily and now out of necessity.  As a result, my birthday week is pretty tame.  I usually plan the whole week out and buy myself gifts I know no one else will buy me.  Dinner out a couple of times to collect my free birthday meals or desserts.  This year, nada.  No big deal, actually, because as a result of our decision we've realized that so much of what we bought was wasteful and unneeded. His unemployment is at times worrisome. (I find that I tend to sacrifice things for myself so that he can have things because I know how hard it is for him to be out of work.  He'll says to me, "Get it if you want it". But I always talk myself out of it.) I still buy yarn occasionally, but only with money I make off the stuff I sell on eBay.  As for everything else....

So, Baldwin and I are coping.  LOL.  Ok, Baldwin's not very happy, but that's just how he is.  He's a man.

I may, however, buy myself a new pair of Converse because I NEED them.  I may even bling them out and call them my "happy chucks" and I'll only wear them on special days!  Rhinestones, studs, or sequins?

11 Days

11 school days left.  Eleven. 11. E-LEVEN.  I'm pretty happy.😜

So on May 31, I'll be free to do whatever I want--within reason.

As for now, I'm working on 2 more pairs of socks.  The ones below are another pair of Paton's Kroy Socks in Mean Green Stripes.  Compared to the last pair I did, this yarn is so soft.  I'm loving working on them.

This pair is out of Madelinetosh Sock in Kelp.  The pattern is Firefly in the Knitter's Book of Socks.  Some cable action going on in these.  I'm wondering if I should have picked a lighter color yarn so the cables would show more.  Perhaps the farther I get, the better they'll look.

And most importantly it was 91 degrees today and I had no air conditioning in my classroom.  And no windows to open.  And kids with coats on complaining about how hot they were. (Eye roll) And I have a painful rash under each eye 😳 from the heat and humidity that I can't get any relief from for the 8 hours I'm working. Let's just say I'm glad to be home with the air on and my clothes off (not completely, but I sure couldn't wear this outfit to work).  

And I turn 42 Friday.  (Sigh)

Sock Love

Just finished pair #10!  Yay!!  This is Opal sock yarn in "Smokey Eyes and Colored Lips".  

And I decided you might want to see my sock progress in ascending order.  

And here's the socks that will soon be...  (13 and counting!). Imagine the damage I'll do once school is out!!??

Mail Day Monday, Tiresome Tuesday and Whack Wednesday.

Monday, these two wonderful boxes landed on my doorstep....snacks and calligraphy.  And then I went to bed.  

Tuesday, this picture shows up on my phone. This is Malik.  Apparently, I shouldn't leave my phone lying around.  Came home and went to bed.

And today, I wasn't allowed to have my instrumentalists play their horns because of ACT testing in the next classroom so I spent my day sitting around with high school kids planning next school year, teaching a couple kids to knit, and unlocking about 100 padlocks I found in a cabinet. I'm so tired.  I forgot,how tiring the end of the school year is.  Probably because it's so boring.

BUT, the sock is almost finished, a lot of instruments got inventoried and I have a working plan for the summer.  And now I'm going to sleep.  😴

Crafty Goodness

So, the spools I bought yesterday are going to be used for this:

I got the idea from Craftgawker and I love it very much!  The idea comes from http://www.thewonderforest.com and you search for tiny spool necklace.

My whimseybox subxpscription expired in March.  I had a tough time keeping up with the craft each month because I was so focused on my knitting.  Well, they sent me a coupon for $15 off and I couldn't resist taking a look.  What was April's whimseybox?  Calligraphy.  (Sigh). Something I really would like to learn so I ordered it using my credit and only paid $5 for the kit.  So.  Excited. 😳🙌

Solutions

So, I can't find my 9" circular needle I use to cast on my socks.  I've looked everywhere (except work).  I'm a little bit upset because that sucker wasn't cheap.  Anyway, I wanted to cast on another sock today and tried a stretchy cast on.  Well, it wasn't stretchy enough, so I tried something I heard one of the YouTube people say and I cast on using two needles.  Oh yes!  It works great!  Once all the stitches are cast on, pull out the extra needle and off you go!

I was able to get started on my Mean Green Stripes socks today and now I have 2 pairs going at the same time which seems to be good for me.

Here's the Opal socks I started last week.  The kids say this yarn is ugly.  What. Ever. Haters. 

And for the record, I'm not all that hip with knitting with beads.  I cast on the Twilight necklace 3 times today and messed it up each time.  Even when I thought it was looking great, it wasn't. So, I frogged it leaving the beads on the thread for a summer day when I have nothing to do but concentrate on bead placement and tension and and that mess....  And I probably needed a smaller needle. 🌷

Love my Monster!

So, Baldwin is complete.  He was pretty sassy while he waited for me to cut out and attach his mouth, but now that he has a mouth, I wish I'd passed on it....

He looks so mean😁😠.  Ok, not really.  I wish he were bigger so I could hug and squish him!!

In other news, I found a cool book at the library with nifty sock patterns.

I found teeny tiny spools at Hobby Lobby for a craft I saw on Craftgawker.

I stayed up late to finish my Regia Clown Rings socks.

And tomorrow, I'm casting on my beaded necklace "Twilight" from the Betsy Beads book I got for Christmas.  I strung 550 beads and now I need to figure out how to work through their awkwardness of weighing down the thread and the mechanics of moving around hundreds of beads while I knit.  It'll be cool.  When I told Andrew I was getting ready to knit jewelry he put his finger to head and shot himself.  Rude. 😜. Now that he's being mean, I'm going to throw away the note with his foot measurements on them and he gets no socks.  (He didn't want any anyways, I was going to surprise him and his size 13 feet. Now I can save the yarn for me!!!)