This would be burnt cranberry from the Sundara Seasons Club. Can I tell you I'm soooooo glad I selected winter as my season of choice??
This would be my second installment of the zen string club. It is january girl. At first glance, I didn't think it was really my color but after some time, I could totally see this yarn in a pair of mittens/gloves down the line. We'll see. Or maybe even some baby knitting.
Sarah, of Perfect Day Yarns, had mentioned Keegan Lane Yarns to me (and has blogged about them as well) so I thought I'd check them out. This is bittersweet. I really, really love this colorway. I think these are currently the colors I'm into.
Okay...try to breathe. I know this colorway is gorgeous beyond words (at least in my eyes!) but I didn't buy it for me. It's for my downstream hot cocoa swap partner. I really hope she loves this yarn as much as I loved looking at it and holding it. The colorway is Chuckanut Drive brought to you by HazelKnits. Wendee of HazelKnits is so super nice! She had another skein of this for awhile but someone snatched it up. You can pick some up over at woolgirl though. :o I know, I'm an enabler. I managed to snag a skein for myself. :O
When shopping for secret swaps, I find it inevitable that I'm going to do a bit of shopping for myself. So pretty much everything that I had in my favorites listing in my etsy, went into a shopping cart. Including this which is Warm By the Fire brought to you by Emily Parson of Sophie's Toes.
And finally, we have some maroon handspun from yummyyarn. Did I go a little crazy? ummmmmmmm, yeah! Yarn is beginning to take over the apartment but guess what! My sister has announced that she would like to move out and get a place of her own. My fiance and I are all for it. (Is that wrong??) He was staying in his own place for a bit but lovingly turned the rights over to his downtown loft to his beloved daddy (or else he was going to be moving away, rarely to be seen again!). No ETM (Estimated Time of Move) just yet. I think she said possibly March. When she moves, that'll free up an entire bedroom!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I've already been thinking in my mind what all is going to go in there. For sure it'll be turned into an office of sorts for my fiance. He also would like to put a futon in there for overnight guests. I might move my 'shelf' (which by the way looks very different from when I first showed you all!) to free up some space in the living room. All of his clothes will be moved into her closet freeing up my closet space for maybe more yarn. I know--like I need anymore excuses to get more yarn! Updates to come when the move finally happens.
I didn't only buy yarn. I found out that Knitting Lace Triangles had been realized and ordered one in a flash. It arrived in a flash too. It is a must have.
Now for some actual knitting content. I only have pictures of my shawl..and these pictures are 'old' as I am up to chart C. These are shots of the beginnings of chart B and a close-up of the design that was popping up. It's going okay. Although I have put it aside to finish up my thrifty critter (which is for my downstream hot cocoa swap partner). I haven't taken any pictures of anything else I've been working on but once it's done, I'll get some finished shots. I just ordered some blocking wires from joann's (half price--with a coupon!) and hopefully by the time those arrive, I'll be ready to block my first shawl!Let's see...on the work-front, today I was observed by our Curriculum Director and she said I was amazing and she can see that the kids have really learned a lot. She observed me during ABC Centers. She also told my partner that I was wonderful. We haven't gotten to sit down and go over what she saw, what I could work on, etc. yet but in a nutshell, she said I did great. Yay! I wasn't really too worried about that but I woke up with a sore throat this morning and thought that it was going to get worse as the day progressed but it didn't!
My school is going to be visited by an accreditation team early next week. This team is going to decide whether or not my school deserves to be an accredited independent school. My school went through the self-study last school year and the beginning part of this school year was spent working on the accreditation report which was submitted at the beginning of December. As a member of the staff, I had to read said report--which, mind you is nearly 300 pages long!! The first weekend I had it, I read 263 pages. I haven't looked @ it since but now I'll have to spend part of this weekend finishing up the last 36 pages. We will be getting observed and we might even be approached for questions--hence the reason behind having us all read that blasted report. I'm not worried about it. I just hope I remember enough from what I read!
We took the kids on our first 'real' field trip and I have to tell you, never have I experienced so much drama revolving around a field trip particularly to the La Brea Tar Pits. Out of a class of 18 students, I think at least 4 or 5 stayed home (I can't remember the exact number anymore!). There were two main reasons for keeping the kids at home--fear of what is actually @ the museum and fear of whose car the children would end up in! In the end, we had 6 drivers and some of them only had 2 kids in their car. They wanted to just combine kids into one car and they weren't allowed. A couple moms wanted to just drive their own kids to the museum. Ugh. We're now done with field trips for this class--excluding our hiking trips which are part of the Science Curriculum.
I got invited to another student birthday party. This one was so much fun. There was a pretzel cart, a snow-cone cart, a lady who had a spin-art table, a bouncy house, a lady who did airbrushed tattoos, and Barbie was there and she made balloon animals! Since there were so many different activities in the backyard, the kids could just go from one activity to the next while their parents just hung out and chilled. The parents in my class are so much more relaxed in a social setting. Let me tell you. Here's a picture of the tattoo I got. The woman didn't have anything yarn related. lol.
As for Masquerade, it is by far the biggest festival of all the festivals held @ my school. So big that they're splitting it up into two different sessions--K-3, and 4-6. Our theme for Kindergarten is the Stone Age so our kids have to take on the character of a particular Stone Age animal. Who knew there were monkeys, bluebirds, and ladybugs during the Stone Age. Teehee. Apparently they were all around at that time! The kids choose the character for their particular time period and the fabric for their costumes. They help come up with their lines as well. We also have a song. It's a big production. 1st grade does Gods & Goddesses. 2nd grade does Native Americans/Mayans/Aztecs. 3rd grade does Medieval Times. 4th grade does the Renaissance. 5th grade does Significant Americans, and 6th grade does Ancient Civilizations. It's going to be exciting. I can't wait to see everyone's performances. Are you tired yet?Okay, I am off to finish knitting up that little critter so it can get mailed off tomorrow. I know, I'm crazy..but it's the deadline!!!!!
Thank you to hakucho and Robyn for the You Make My Day award. I apologize for not making your days more often with my lack of blogging lately. I will post my nominations this weekend!
