Ahh, Summer!

Please forgive my absence. Things got so busy the last couple of weeks that I a) didn't have much to post about, and b) didn't have much time to worry about it. Now, though, Summer! I have a day to do whatever I please and I think I'm going to dye some wool. I stocked up on squeeze bottles, Kool Aid, and Wilton's food coloring. I'll post the pics when I'm done.

For now, I can show you my Mom's Fast Florida Footies. I used Cascade Fixation as the pattern suggested. I really like the yarn but I would knit them at a much tighter gauge next time because my big toe likes to peek at me through the sock. The pattern is quite ingenious in the way the sole is purled. I will use this technique again! The only other change I will make next time is to make a standard toe instead of this one that is threaded through the remaining stitches in a loop at the end. Fixation does shrink a bit so I made a swatch and washed it in the machine then let it air dry. On 3.0mm needles my swatch was 6.25 sts./in. before washing and 6.5 sts./in. after washing.

And here is Robbie trying to get my attention while I try to take a picture of the socks.

June!

June is a crazy busy month around here what with both Dan and I being teachers. I haven't had time to do much knitting so nothing to update on that front.

We had company last week when my cousin Terry came from B.C. with her mom and my uncle, who are my grandmother's siblings. My uncle and aunt from Manitoba also came for the visit.

My grandmother Elsie, my Uncle Steve, and Aunt Marion.

Junior Handling and an "Awe..." moment

Sunday at the dog show was my niece Katie's first time in the ring handling a dog and she did a great job! Junior Handling is to encourage the kids to learn to handle dogs and become the future of our sport. Katie was handling Kai in the Pee Wee class. It's for the youngest kids and it is non-competitive; everyone gets a prize. Pee Wee class is vastly entertaining to watch. Check out the non-customary presentation of the Golden Retriever just behind Katie and Kai.

I just couldn't resist showing this next picture. It is also from an unofficial dog show class but not junior handling. Here is Bentley's breeder, Daphne Bowering, showing Savannah in Veterans Sweepstakes. Savannah is almost 14 years old and you can see that she hasn't forgotten how much fun she had in the show ring when she was younger!

another good show weekend

Although I'm pretty wiped from our busy weekend at the dog show I'm happy too. Bentley earned 4 more points toward his championship bringing him to a grand total of 7 (70% of the way there!) and won his class in Puppy Sweepstakes. Bentley's sister Chloe also did well; she now has 6 points. And Kai, Darcie's sheltie puppy, earned his first 3 points. All in all, a very satisfying weekend!

another knitting kid...

Meet Eve, another of my knitting grade twos.

Thanks so much to those of you who have left comments for the kids. They are absolutely tickled pink and very proud of themselves! I am very proud of them too!

Bentley is entered in another dog show this weekend. Wish us luck!

Happy Birthday Geoff!

Friday was Geoff's 21st birthday. We celebrated today with family. Here is the official birthday photo of him with Carmen.

We adopted Geoff when he was five days old. This past winter, he was reunited with his birth-father, Glenn. It has been a wonderful experience for everyone! Glenn and his family, Leanne and kids Oliver, Eugenie, and Sabine, have become a big part of Geoff's life. I'm so happy that he has more family now. It's always bothered me that he has no siblings and now he has three! I couldn't have found him a nicer family if I'd made them up.
Sabine is helping Geoff blow out his candles.

Yesterday was Eugenie's sixth birthday so she had a cake too!
(left to right: Carmen, Geoff, Glenn, Eugenie, Oliver, and Dan)

Leanne with her camera.

My sister Darcie and her family came for supper too. Katie and Sabine were playing in the elm seeds, which blew down all at once in a mini-storm this afternoon. It looked like it was snowing. Frankly, I've gotten to despise elm seeds since they're incredibly messy and they'll sprout everywhere. But the girls only saw their potential for fun.

And some more.....

Keigan

Cohen

and Evan

The reason that the knitting kids' photos are being posted a few at a time is because I need to have written permission from the parents before publishing the pics on the internet. As the permission slips have been returning to school, I have been adding the pictures.

The children are so excited about having their pictures on my blog and knowing that people from all over the world are seeing them! They've been checking Google Analytics to see the map of all of the cities where you are viewing the blog (as we've been working on map skills, this has been great timing). Please leave your comments too. The kids have been looking for them and would be thrilled if they receive more of them!

More knitting kids....

Jaiden

Dylan

and Madison (who has finished this scarf and started a hat to match)

Knitting Club

My grade twos have been knitting up a storm! Allow me to introduce.....

Bennett

Skyla

Nicola (notice her completed scarf around her neck!)

Dreiden

Meagan (who is almost finished her scarf and it's made of 100% cotton which is not easy on the hands!)

and Britlyn.

There are a few more knitters in our club and I hope to have pictures of them soon. I'm so proud of these kids! They've been staying in at recess and using every spare minute in class to knit. They've even been learning to spin on my drop spindle!

The Kool-Aid Experiment

I decided to try Kool-Aid dyeing today. I used the above four flavors of Kool-Aid and a skein of Briggs and Little Durasport natural wool. I soaked the wool in hot water and a little Orvus paste for about half an hour and then rinsed it and squeezed most of the water out, leaving it damp.

I put the damp skein on some sheets of plastic wrap then diluted the Kool-Aid with a bit of water.

Here's the skein after I used a baster to put the colors on in a sequence (sort of, it was a pretty loose sequence). I then wrapped the wool with more plastic wrap and microwaved it for three minutes. It didn't seem to have absorbed all of the color yet so it got zapped a couple of more minutes. Then I dropped the hot wool into a sinkful of cold water and rinsed it well.

After a good squeeze to get out most of the water, here is the skein drying in the sunroom. The cheap knock-off Crocs are hanging there to keep out of the mouth of a little Dachshund who finds them quite irresistible.

My initial impression of Kool-Aid dyeing can be summed up thusly - Tie Dye circa 1968. I wasn't all that impressed by the result but admit that it's growing on me every time I look at it. I'll reserve judgment until it gets knitted.

Overall, this was not difficult to do although the kitchen had an interesting wet-sheep-mixed-with-fruit smell for a while. I'll probably try dyeing wool again in the summer but I think that I'll use professional acid dyes so that I have more control over the shade and intensity of the colors.

Whew!

Bentley and I are tired! Bentley had his first dog show this weekend in Moose Jaw. He and Chloe are 6 months and 2 days old today and Bentley has 3 points toward his Canadian championship (they need 10 altogether) and Chloe has 2 - not bad at all. Darcie handled Chloe in the ring for her owner Daphne Bowering, who bred the litter. Bentley and Kai showed very nicely. As for Chloe, let's just say that she is a character who kept many people entertained! She certainly has attitude! Darcie also had her 8 month old sheltie Kai entered. The Dachshunds and Shelties were judged at opposite ends of each of the three days so we were up very early and stayed until late afternoon. I'm a night person by nature and there are very few things in life that will prompt me to voluntarily get up early in the morning but I will for dog shows. I need to get back to the work week to recover from the weekend.

Two Too Cute

Sorta like that Doublemint gum commercial with the twins, we have twice the pleasure, twice the fun - at least for a couple of days. Meet Bentley's sister Chloe. She is staying with us to be shown at the puppies' very first real dog show this weekend. They will be six months old on Saturday, the first day of the show. Notice that both puppies' ears look rather chewed. That's because they are. They have been having a wonderful time together. Daxie play is different than Sheltie play. The Shelties love to chase each other and, while that is fun to a point for a Daxie, it is much better fun to have another Daxie to wrestle with and bite ears.

Speaking of cute, I made this sock for my niece Katie using some stash yarn in Knit Picks Parade. It didn't look nearly this cute in the skein. The bright stripes were a fun surprise.

odds and ends

I've got several knitting things on the go and seem to be spinning my wheels a bit lately about working on them. It doesn't seem as if I'm getting much done.

I frogged the Monkey sock (Lisa Souza Sock! in Delft) and redid the heel flap in a slip stitch heel instead of the stockinette heel in the pattern. I have skinny ankles and I think that this will fit better. I'm also purling the sole for my big-baby feet that get irritated by every little bump. I have done this before by purling all of the gusset as well as the sole but got tired of all the SSP decreases. It occurred to me that I could still do the purled sole but leave the gusset in stockinette so I'm trying it.

Close-up of the start of the foot.

Just a few more rows done on the not-much-loved (by me, anyway) Inside Out! sock from the Socks That Rock Club for Geoff.

I've decided that I like plain vanilla socks. I'm not saying that I'm never going to knit patterned socks again but it's comforting to have a plain sock to work on. This is Regia Cotton Surf and I love the subtle blue stripes. I haven't made any socks with a cotton blend yarn before and it seems that you either love it or hate it. We'll see.

I had some Sea Silk in the Nova Scotia colorway in my stash and cast on for the Tuscany Shawl in No Sheep For You by Amy Singer, an excellent book by the way.

I still don't have a voice and sometimes feel like the congestion is choking me. Maybe it's loosening up. About time. I missed four days of school this week.

A Knitting Glossary

I've been home sick the last couple of days. It started with a sore throat and has now become laryngitis. I started watching "A Knitting Glossary" with Elizabeth Zimmermann and Meg Swanson on DVD. As strange as this may sound, my favorite part is their hands. They are women after my own heart. In spite of being filmed close-up doing various knitting techniques, their fingernails are not manicured and look like mine. I respect their honesty and unpretentiousness. Of course, there is a lot of great information on the DVD too and I'm sure that I'll be referring to it for years.

Does this puppy look stressed, or what?

yarny goodness

A western Canadian product, yarn from Wild Geese Fibres. If you haven't had a peek at this website yet you should. I like the philosophy and the yarn is lovely - quite raw but still soft, it smells of all things sheepy and has lots of lanolin to soften my hands while I knit. The one on the left is rare-breed blend of Rideau Arcott, Lincoln, and Alpaca. On the right is Alpaca and Merino. I haven't decided yet whether I will try my hand at dying it or knit it in its natural color.

The dogs were quite interested in it, of course, as it smells of the pasture.

I have found that I get the best yarn pics on my Lazy Boy under the Ott lamp. The colors are more true than even in the sunlight. Bentley has decided that he must accompany the pictures. Honestly, how many puppies do you know that would lie quietly and leave the yarn alone? What a good boy!

This is the Silkie Socks That Rock that came in the latest sock club shipment. Note the cute mini-skein key chain that always is part of the package. This is a new yarn for Blue Moon Fiber Arts, a merino/silk blend, in the colorway Walking On The Wild Tide. It's very soft.

I saw the Hand Maiden Lady Godiva silk/wool blend at Golden Willow, local yarn store extraordinaire, and it called to me. I don't yet know what it will become but it will tell me when it's ready. I also got the Sea Wool in the same colorway (Glacier) to make matching socks to whatever the Lady Godiva becomes. Beautiful, sensual, luscious... yes, I'm the crazy yarn lady in love with wool.

Geoff's Inside Out! sock from the last Rockin' Sock shipment. I just can't get excited about knitting this. I think it's because of the color.

Survivor

A friend and colleague sent me the following. It will probably only entertain you if you are a teacher. Most non-teachers think that we have a cushy job so if you are a non-teacher read it even though it won't likely entertain you - you need the education. Unfortunately, this is not much of an exaggeration in today's schools.


Have you heard about the next planned "Survivor" show?

Three businessmen and three businesswomen will be dropped into 3
Elementary school classrooms for 6 weeks.

Each business person will be provided with a copy of his/her school
district's curriculum, and a class of 28 students.

Each class will have five learning-disabled children, three with A.D.D.,
one gifted child, and two who speak limited English.

Three will be labeled with severe behavior problems.
Each business person must complete lesson plans at least 3 days in advance with
annotations for curriculum objectives and modify, organize, or create
materials accordingly.

They will be required to teach students, handle misconduct, Implement
technology, document attendance, write referrals, correct homework make
bulletin boards, compute grades, complete report cards, document
benchmarks, communicate with parents, and arrange parent conferences.

They must also supervise recess and monitor the hallways. In addition,
they will complete drills for fire, tornadoes, terrorists and shooting
attacks.

They must attend 100 hours of workshops, faculty meetings, union
meetings, and curriculum development meetings.

They must also tutor those students who are behind and strive to get
their 2 non-English speaking children proficient enough to take the EQAO
tests.

If they are sick or having a bad day, they must not let it show. Each
day they must incorporate reading, writing, math, science, and social
studies into their program.

They must maintain discipline and provide an educationally stimulating
environment at all times.

The business people will only have access to the golf course on the
weekends, but on their new salary they will not be able to afford it
anyway.

There will be no access to vendors who want to take them out to lunch,
and lunch will be limited to 30 minutes.
On days when they do not have recess duty, the business people will be
permitted to use the staff restroom as long as another survival
candidate is supervising their class.

They will be provided with two, 40-minute planning periods per week
while their students are at activity classes. If the copier is operable,
they may make copies of necessary materials at this time.

The business people must continually advance their own education on
their own time, and pay for this advanced training themselves.

This can be accomplished by moonlighting at a second job or marrying
someone with money.

The winner will be allowed to return to his or her former job.

puppy antics and FOs

Robbie surveys the damage done by Bentley. I have yet to meet a puppy that isn't totally entertained by this trick. I think that they are surprised and delighted that the paper just keeps unrolling. Too much fun!

I've found time to finish a couple pairs of socks. It feels good to get them off the needles.

I love these socks! It was so worth knitting the foot on toothpicky 1.75mm DPNs. Very comfy and pretty.

Socks for my sister, before washing and blocking. I was amazed at how impressed people were when I was knitting these socks in public and I told them that the yarn was doing all of the fancy work.

I have started teaching my grade 2's to knit. They're enthusiastic and each needs my two hands at the same time. It's wonderful!

Sunday afternoon

My sister Darcie and my niece Katie brought their two shelties over this afternoon to meet Bentley. Darcie had her camera in the back yard and was snapping pictures of Katie and the dogs playing. As you can see, Katie thought Bentley was very cuddly.

Katie after running around being "herded". She makes an adequate sheep when there aren't any real ones around.

This is what happened when I made kissy noises and said, "Puppy, puppy!" Darcie says that my descendents will remember me from this picture as "that crazy dog lady" in our family history. I can think of worse ways of being remembered.

Harrison is the grand master of teaching puppies their manners around other dogs. He's had a lot of experience. Puppy Kai is a cheeky boy and isn't learning his doggy etiquette very well.