How to get lost

on Ravelry! You click on your friends, then on their activities to see what they have been queuing, then you click on one of their friends and see what they've been queuing, etc, etc, and all this time you are 'adding to my queue' everything you see that you would like to knit if you live to be 200 years old! I'm on Ravely as Grammieknits (in case you haven't figured that out!)

How Time Flies

When you are on vacation! Wednesday already. I've been spending my 'vacation' doing things around the house that never get done when I'm working. We bought a hot tub a couple of months ago, thinking it would be just the thing for those aches and pains you get when you are as 'young' as we are - but it spent the winter on the deck while we got the back porch ready for it. One thing led to another of course, but it is finally almost finished and the hot tub is in (it takes up half the porch). Now to get it hooked up and running!


I've been knitting more felted bags. Great knitting for watching baseball games because I don't have to look at what I'm doing, or count stitches, just knit around and around like Jacoby and Dustin running bases!


I'm also stash knitting - trying to use up all of the leftover wool from other projects (and yes, I'm making sure they really are wool.) I'm thinking of playing a baseball game with my next bag - like knit in one color until the inning ends and then switch to another color - doesn't take much to amuse me!


This one is a donation for a Chinese Auction
(Also called Tricky Trays, and Silent Auctions in other parts of the country)
to benefit the 8th grade trip to Boston in June.
I'm not buying yarn right now - but couldn't resist Knitpicks Sampler offer - you get one skein each of 6 different yarns for and patterns to make a one-skein project from each one of them. Now - that doesn't count as buying yarn, does it?


And for my fellow Sox fans - Some great memories.

Spring Vacation

It's our spring break - yay!!! And it even feels like spring outside. And...the Red Sox are in first place - Sweet Caroline!!!!!

I finished another felted bag. This time I used the random stripe maker at Kissyyourshadow.com instead of playing the Vegas game, and .....I made sure I was using 100% wool! I also made a cell phone pocket on the inside of this one.

Happy Birthday Mom

I still miss you every day!

Groundbreaking

Four years ago the school that I had worked in for over 20 years - the school my children had gone to, and my grandchildren were now attending - closed down because mold was found in some of the walls. It was a small community school, less than 200 students in grades k-8. On our last day we waved a tearful goodbye to the students on the busses leaving our schoolyard for the last time and then began packing for the move to a neighboring school 7 miles down the road. Since then we have taught in crowded conditions, held parent conferences in the janitors closet, held classes in the hallway, and tried above all to keep our sense of humor.

Today, we broke ground for our new school, scheduled to open in September 2009.

It's being built on an absolutely beautiful piece of land (thank you Roni!!!)

And a reward for a job well done!

Losing at Vegas

I gambled and lost in the Vegas knitting game! I keep my leftover partial balls of yarn in large zip-lock bags and I'm always careful to keep all of the 100% wool in a seperate bag from the super-wash - well almost always careful. The felted bag was not a pretty sight! Half felted and half not. But along the lines of making lemonade out of lemons - I'm going to cut off the felted part and cut it into embelishments for another bag.

Our visitors are back......

It's brown, muddy and dreary in my back yard, but there must be something coming to life under all that because our visitors keep coming back to feed- and who can complain when you are greeted with this sight in the evening. (the audio in the background on the video is the Red Sox/ Yankees game which is now in a rain delay - it is pouring in Boston! Be fine with me if they call the game - it's the 8th inning and the Sox are ahead!)

Contests!

Pheelya is going to be a "Zia" (aunt in Italian) again and wants to know what to knit for for the baby that is due in November. Post a comment with your idea and tell her I sent you!

Then go over to the Cloverhill Yarn Shop Countdown to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival and leave a comment to be elegible to win a hand dyed skein of yarn.

And a ton more contests here.

The Vegas Knitting Game Bag

Thanks for all of your suggestions for beating cabin fever and for sending some sunshine our way. Today was sunny and the temp. actually reached 50! Here is the black/gray bag I knit for Annie. I like it, but if it had been up to me there would have been a couple of red stripes in there.

So to amuse myself this weekend I started on this bag. You have heard of the "Vegas Knitting Game Scarf"? (Knitting Pattern a Day Calendar, March 21, 2006)

Well, here is my Vegas Knitting Game Bag!

I grabbed:

6 partial skeins of leftover 100% wool yarn from my stash and labeled them 1-6.

One Die

5 playing cards - I used the 4, 6, 8, 10, and queen of hearts. The queen = 12.

Then I rolled the die, found the yarn with that number on it and CO 40 stitches on size 10 1/2 26" circs. I knit 40 rows in garter stitch (20 ridges) and then picked up 20 stitches along the side of the rectangle, the 40 CO stitches, 20 stitches along the other side of the rectangle and joined into a round. Then I rolled the die again - found the color (if I rolled the same number twice, I rolled again), shuffled the 5 cards and drew one. That's how many rows I knit with the first color. roll the die again - tied on the yarn with that number, drew another card, and knit that many rows. This is what I have so far. I'll keep going until it is about 14 inches tall, then roll the die for the color of the i-cord handles - two - probably about 36" long, then felt them along with the bag, shape and dry over a plastic cereal box. When it is dry, the handles will go on pretty much like the Black Sheep Booga Bag.

Here's what I have so far - hey, it's the next best thing to going to Vegas LOL. The dark color is actually purple and not black - no black for this bag!!!

Cabin Fever

I haven't been blogging much lately - Cabin Fever has set in big time! It's time for spring but mother nature doesn't know it here in Maine. Temps are still in the 30's and although the ground is pretty much bare - these huge white flakes come down everyone day or so. The kids at school are feeling it too. It's time to be out riding bikes, fishing, playing baseball - and it's freezing! Even my knitting is in a slump! I did finish a felted bag that a friend asked me to make for her - but she wanted black and grey stripes - and knitting it just added to the doldrums. I need something much more colorful to bring me out of my knitting slump! Got any suggestions?