Happy New Year

So it is New Year's Eve. I have no plans other than watching movies, probably a "Lord of the Rings" marathon, and knitting. I don't like to go out on this night because of all the drunks out there; I don't want to be a statistic. So, we will stay home and watch movies.


I decided to list what I made this year. Most of it went to the reservation and the others went to Grandmas who were expecting a new grandchild. Anyway, here is my list.

round crocheted ripple baby blanket - 2
crocheted afghans - 3
children's hats - 7
children's mittens - 5 pairs
quilted child's blankets - 3
baby sweater - 1
baby booties - 6 pairs
dishcloth baby blanket - 1
knitted baby blanket - 2
infant mittens - 3 pairs
infant hats - 5
toddler mittens - 2 pairs
child's slippers - 3
knitted dish cloths - 7
crocheted dish cloth - 1

I know there is more but I forgot to write it down, but this is pretty close. I hope to do better in 2008 than I did in 2007. Especially for the reservation, they need sooooo much more.

Now here is my New Year's Resolutions, well most of them anyway, some are too personal to post on the net.


Lose Weight - I don't care how much so long as I lose some. This is a "have to" one because of the high blood pressure and diabetes. I will use the DASH diet and walk during my breaks at work. I even bought a pouch which hangs from the belt loops of my pants so I can knit while I am walking. The yarn is in the pouch and the knitting is in my hands. I figure I will walk farther if I am knitting.


Keep House Clean - This is another "have to" because I am much happier when the house is cleaner. I feel better physically and mentally, so I need to keep up with it. I cleaned it pretty good while I have been on this break from work, now I need to come up with a plan to keep it that way after I go back to work.


Finish all my UFOs - I am making myself a promise to finish one UFO before I start a new one. There are several here and I really want to get them out of my house. So, before I can start a new project I have to finish an old one. This will be a hard one to do because there is always one more I want to start.


Don't buy any more books, use the library - This is a hard one because I love buying books almost as much as I love buying yarn.


And now for the hardest one of all:

DO NOT BUY ANYMORE YARN UNTIL YOU USE WHAT YOU HAVE HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The exception will be wool yarn for hats for a4A because I do not have much wool, most of it is acrylic. The other exception is if I need to buy yarn for a special project, but I am going to try to stop doing so much of that and concentrate on making stuff for the reservation.


Well, that is it. I am hoping that because I have written it down and sent it out to cyber space I will be able to keep most of them. Periodically, I will be posting here about them, just to keep myself honest.

I am wishing everyone a wonderful New Year! Take care and be nice to each other.

My trip to the LYS

I went to my LYS to buy some short dpns to make socks with and came home with this. I couldn't resist! It is soft and cuddly and I wanted it, nothing was going to stop me. I bought it yesterday morning, so had the rest of the day to figure out what I was going to say to Stephen before he came home from work. What did I do, you ask? I started out by telling him about the cashmere they had there for around $40.00 for a 25 g skein, after I got done telling him about that this didn't seem so bad. Don't you just love the color? I am not sure what I am going to make with it yet, probably the stole that is on the Meg Swansen DVD. Or I will just keep petting it until there is nothing left. I got the dpns, by the way.

The NAS group I am with is having a sock/slipper challenge for February and I am trying to make some socks for it. I tried the heel last night and had to rip it out. I had it on 3 needles and am going to try 4 to see if it is any easier. I was tired and trying to watch "The Odd Couple" while I was doing it. Maybe I will have better luck this morning. I am determined to do it because I would like to be able to send socks up there besides the slippers I intend to make.

I don't know what happens to this blog when I post it. I have it all typed nice and neat with spaces between the paragraphs and such, but when I post it they disappear and it does whatever it wants. Maybe someday I will figure this thing out.

I only have 3 days left of my vacation. I am seriously thinking about transferring over to part day at work because they get their summers off. I guess I should explain what "part day" means. Right now I am in full day, which means we have the kids all day long. Some of them from 7 in the morning until 6 at night (which upsets me to no end, but that is a different subject). If I worked part day it is more like Kindergarten. There is a morning teacher and an afternoon teacher. They each have their own class of 20 with a TA to help. If I were the morning teacher I would have my class until around 12, then I would spend the rest of the day doing paperwork and helping out in the afternoon class. (There is a lot of paperwork when you work for Head Start. The government expects everything to be documented). There are no kids on Fridays, so that gives the teachers an extra day to get to all of that paperwork. In full day you are responsible for only around 6 or 7 kid's observations and assessments, in part day you have 20. But, every summer you get laid off and can collect unemployment and stay home and knit. So, I am thinking about going that route this next year. It's something to think about anyway.

I have been posting a lot of stuff to my Ravelry account. I posted some yarn and some needles yesterday. I just need to go back and take pictures of the yarn so I can post that. I have posted a few projects and even joined a group, although I haven't really done anything much with them yet. But, I am having fun and my favorite part is the library. I like the way the pictures of the books I post come up. Pretty cool stuff!

I guess that is about it. Need to do some cleaning and take a shower. We are talking about getting a female canary for my male one. I feel sorry for him. He looks so lonely. I just hope he doesn't stop singing when we get her. I love to listen to him in the morning.

Oh yea, we went to the movies last night. We saw "National Treasure". What did I think of it? I would suggest you wait until it comes out on DVD before you watch it and then think about it before you do that. It really wasn't all that great, infact some of it was pretty silly. They sure didn't have much trouble getting into the Queen's office, the President's office and kidnapping the President, and driving through London at break neck speeds crashing into everything and everyone. Then when it was over all was forgiven. Like I said it was pretty silly.

Take care everyone and be nice to each other.

Christmas Happenings

Here is Stephen when we attended the Moscow Ballet's "Nutcracker" We went to the Flint Center this year. I saw them one time before at Chabot and really liked them. This year they weren't as good. I think next year we will go watch Oakland Ballet"s "Nutcracker", when I saw them a few years ago they were great.

I had a quiet Christmas this year. My oldest DD and her family we not able to make it up here from Southern California so it was just us and my younger DD and her family. They didn't come over until around 4:00 so we really had a quiet day. It was nice, though, I was able to relax and enjoy myself.

I recieved the first ever yarn related gift from my youngest DD. She gave me this

Amazon.com: Elizabeth Zimmermann's Knitting Workshop DVD: DVD: Elizabeth Zimme

and this

Amazon.com: Knitting Lace with Meg Swansen: DVD: Meg Swansen,Cully Swansen

and I have been happily watching them and learning from them. Yesterday I was able to knit in the round with 5 needles using two different colors of yarn to make a pattern in a little hat I am making for afghans for Afghans - Campaign. It was great fun! I showed Stephen when he got home from work, but he didn't seem to be too impressed. Of course I need to RIP it because I but the design too close to the ribbing, but at least I was doing it. I am also going to finally make a Pi shawl. I have had the yarn and have wanted to make one for years, but could never make the beginning cast on. Now that I have seen Elizabeth make Emily Ocker's crocheted cast on I think I can do it. I just need to get all my supplies together.

I am off until the 2nd and have been busy getting caught up with cleaning and knitting. I want to sew a couple of aprons for my classroom. I want to turn the dramatic play area into a restaurant for the kids and the cooks will need aprons. I also have to make some menus and a sign for it. It is just a matter of getting started and then I will get it done. Maybe today.

I did a little shopping yesterday. I am always amazed at how uncrowded the stores are during the week. I usually don't get the chance to shop then because I am at work. It seemed funny to be there on a Thursday morning. I bought some things for the house a dirty clothes basket for Patrick and a chest for Stephen's games I also saw what I am going to get my youngest DD for her birthday, now I just need to go back and get it. I usually send flowers, but I think she will like this instead. I hope so at least.

That's about all. Take care and be nice to each other.

Christmas Tree

Here is a picture of the tree which is finally finished. It has only taken me since Monday to finish it. I have been too tired when I got home from work to do it. But, today we got off at 11:30 after we had first aid training and I do not have to be back to work until the 2nd. Yea! I really am looking forward to this break. I hope to get some sewing done, some major knitting done and some cleaning done. Should keep me busy until it is time to go back.

Speaking of work, there are some changes that will happen when we go back. The major one is that Tawana will no longer be in the same room with me. She was transfered to room 1, and one of the co-teachers from that room will be in our room. The reason being they do not want two strong (me and Tawana) teachers in one room and two teachers who can barely control the kids in another. So Anu (my other co-teacher) and I will get Laura in exchange for Tawana. I am actually upset about it because she is not much of a teacher. She is "tired" all the time, will sit with just one child and let the other teacher take care of the other 19 children and not do her share of the paper work. So, we will see how it goes. Oh yea, did I mention that this teacher is only 25 years old? Should be interesting.

Well, back to wrapping and watching Christmas movies. I think I am going to watch Scrooge tonight. The one with Albert Finney. It is my favorite version. Have a great evening everyone and be nice to each other.

FOs and Wips

This is a hat and booties I knitted for Tawana's soon to be born 7th grandchild. The yarn is Caron's Simply Soft and the pattern is from this book:Amazon.com: Morehouse Farm Merino Knits: More than 40 Farm-Fresh Designs: Book. It is a great book, I have made several items from it and would recommend it to anyone.

This is a scarf I made yesterday for the reservation. It is made out of one skein of Homespun on size 19 needles. Worked up very fast. I made the whole thing while watching "Lord of the Rings". I have another one lined up to do because I have a lonely skein of Homespun I want to use.

And lastly a Wip. The baby blanket I am making for Tawana's grandbaby. It is made out of Red Heart in the patten I posted a couple of blogs ago. I am hoping to finish it this week and get on with some other things I have in line for the reservation.

We are cleaning today, shampooing the carpet then we can put up the tree. Stephen is on his way to get Zoe who will spend the day with us. She called and wanted to come over, so of course Da is on is way. LOL! Take care everyone and be nice to each other.

Depression

I spent this weekend knitting. I know that I have a million things which need to be done around here, but I did none of them. I just sat, listened to a book on tape, watched the same movie as the book and knitted. I don't understand why I do this. I just get very depressed and want to not even move. I also spent a lot of time sleeping. If I had my choice that is what I would do all the time. Unfortunately, my body won't let me sleep that much, although I sure can sleep a lot. So, I knit. It is the only thing other than sleeping that makes it all better. Right now I am sitting here trying to think of a reason to stay home so I can knit. I won't though, I will go to work and hate every minute of it. When I get like this I don't care about anything and the only reason I knit is because I can't sleep.

So, what have I been knitting. A baby blanket for Tawana's soon to be grand daughter. A baby poncho with hood for the same baby. I had that one almost done and had to rip back to a couple of inches from the beginning because of a mistake. I did finish a wool baby hat which will be sent to Afghanistan to a children's hospital there. I am also working on a shawl for the elders and a dishcloth baby blanket for the rez.

I found some very large (3 gals) Zip Lock bags this weekend and have been using them to put projects in that I will be working on later. I got this idea from the Yarn Harlot http://www.yarnharlot.ca who says she does this all the time. I didn't know they made them this big. She says they even make them big enough to put an 8 year old in but I wouldn't recommend it. The 3 gal size is big enough to hold all the yarn, needles and pattern and whatever else might be needed for that project. For instance I put all of the wool into a bag because it will all make up into hats and a baby blanket to be sent to Afghanistan instead of the acrylic that I use for the rez. I was thinking that when I use up all of the yarn I have (in about 40 years LOL) I will only use wool for the rez. They know how to handle it and most of them have to do their laundry by hand anyway. But that is in the future and I need to get all of this used up before that happens.

I was supposed to go to breakfast at IHop with the people from PITC. This was our last time to be together and the class is all done so we were going to meet there to have a little get together and the agency was paying for breakfast. I decided not to go. Why? Well, I have not heard from any of them since I transfered from up there. Not even Terri, she never even called me to say if the baby has been born yet. So, why should I go? I am tired of being used by people, from now on I will help IF I can and if I either can't or don't feel like it I won't. I have a baby blanket and a blanket for her older grandson sitting here and they will both go out in the next box to the rez.

Well, now that I have depressed you I will go get ready for work and maybe get a little knitting done before I leave. Here's a little information about me which will let you know how weird I am. I will leave here an hour or more before I have to be to work so I can sit in the car, listen to a book on tape and knit before I have to go in. Now, is that strange or what? I wish I could find a job where all I have to do is knit. Unfortunately, I am not really good enough to do it professionally, just good enough for me. But, then again I guess that is all that counts.

Have a great day and be nice to each other.

Sewing room

I have finally finish cleaning up the sewing room. Here is a shelf that holds a few of my favorite things.

A place to sit quietly and knit. The shelf next to the chair holds my knitting books.

A few more of my favorite things.

The yarn closet before I put the curtain up. I have more yarn stashed all over the house, but the is the bulk of it.

And my sewing machine. The one that I can now use because I can finally get to it. I probably should have taken before pictures just so you could see how bad it really was. Now that I am into cleaning I am going to tackle the computer room because it is where we put our tree and I want to get it up this weekend. But, first I am going to do a little knitting just to be able to use my new clean room. Happy, happy, happy!

Take care everyone and be nice to each other.