Multiply some crazy

SO I spent 2.5 hours standing on a football field with 2000 students yesterday after we were evacuated because someone let off some undetermined gaseous irritant in one of the hallways. Bloody Freaking Hell.
I even had fairy wings on. More on the halloween costume another day....

I came home today to find This:


In my Living room!

Yep, its an antenna.
Yep, we do have cable.

K got a digital receiver thing, and he's testing the random selection of channels we can get, so now I get to watch all the weird alternative pbs channels.....








SO I started knitting some samplers of the future sweater for K. I finally found yarn I like, its New England Highland (or shetland, I haven't yet decided on the weight, scroll down for all the colors...).












So far so good. He seems to like it (or at least to think it looks like his old sweaters) I was amused by the ladies at the yarn shop. It went like this....

Me: I'm looking for yarn to knit my boyfriend a sweater, Do you have a knitted swatch of this fingering weight wool?
Yarn Store Lady: You would have to knit that yarn on no larger than size 2's and you would have to cast on something like 400 stitches. Maybe you should look at thicker yarn for this.
Me: But we live in California and he layers under his sweaters, and this looks just like the wool in his other sweaters....
YSL: But that is a lot of work for a boyfriend...
Me: (finally understanding) Well, We've been together over 12 years, so I think he can have a nice sweater now....
YSL: Oh! That's different!

Oddly enough I'm leaning towards using the thicker wool, but I bought both weights to knit sample of though. I'm still going to be knitting on 3's and 4's. At least he is not a big man!

Cuties for the footies...

I'm going to a baby shower this weekend. And while I finished the Mitered baby blanket a couple months ago I felt like knitting some little things for her too... So I made a little hat and I found an adorable pattern for little baby booties. I'll put a picture of mine up soon (I'm still finishing) but check out the pattern here (links to a .pdf file!). They are SOOO cute! And they only take a little over an hour for me to knit one (I know this because I made one during a meeting yesterday!) I finished the scarf and I'll have the pattern up as soon as I can get some pictures taken. We really need a new camera...

I'm knitting a scarf the I don't hate

Scarves are not my thing. I have knitted only a few and I usually hate every minute of it and it takes me f....o...r....e...v...e...r to finish them. My last one was almost a year to finish and it was yarn I loved in a not too annoying pattern, but apparently it was not interesting enough on both accounts to keep me knitting on it. But... I may have found the secret to getting over my scarf block!
1. Noro.
2. A 'not garter' yet all Knit stitch pattern!

I have a funky old knitting dictionary (1963) with some interesting yet sometimes undecipherable stitches in it. I had resisted trying the "K1B" patterns for no other reason than I wasn't really sure how one properly does a "K1B" and their lame ass description just said you "Knit one through loop below next stitch" WTF?!? Well I finally tackle it, it IS really a "Knit one into the stitch below the next stitch".

So it was a small step from there to the 'Contrary Brioche Stitch" and this....















2 balls, same color Noro silk garden lite (my first noro...) worked alternating balls every 4 rows.
Nuf said. I WILL be making this scarf again. Full pattern to come soon.

Stealth Knitting

I'm in stealth knitting mode. I'm trying not to do too much knitting while I have the extra class to teach. Too much to do... but I'm getting little knitting highs secretly late at night. I've started Kier's socks out of the Socks-that-Rock Black Onyx that I bought at Purlescence on the Peninsula. I'm actually using Size 0 needles! Crazy. I also have inherited another project, a scarf started by a new knitter for her daughter but never destined to be finished (knitting is not her thing...) This is the second time I've finished a garter stitch scarf for someone. Oh well, I don't really mind since I'd never start one on my own so finishing someone else's never seems as bad as doing a whole one on my own.
We'll have company this week so we've been cleaning house, including a yarn containment plan and a big bag of odd ball ends to donate at article pract. I've hidden the large project extra balls and the loose fibers in the bedroom but I've actually fit everything else (that I've found so far) into my knitting basket in the living room. So far so good, but I have to tackle the bedroom tomorrow, there should be some rule against having to clean on your birthday. Oh, and I still have to clean my car too.... bleah.

Just a quick word to those of you who plan on creating babies.... BREED NOW! I have been around too many people lately who have miscarried or have had genetic problems with their children. It isn't always an age factor, but it sucks to see someone have such difficulties. SO, Breed early and often... and I'll knit baby blankets....

Now.... to those of you who can't raise respectful children... DON'T BREED! I currently have no telephone in my classroom... why? Because someone stole it while I had a substitute yesterday. They also removed stuff from my cupboard, stole my good overhead pens (that I purchased myself), threw away homework papers, made a roll of paper towels disappear... among other things. Little shits. The sub will not be working at our school again. I haven't gotten the whole story yet but apparently she has a habit of LEAVING the classroom, so my little darlings (read: shits) may have been unattended for some time. I feel violated.

On the upside, apparently I'm the 'good' calculus teacher, because I'm actually keeping the correct pacing and assignments while the Junior College teacher fill-in for the other calculus class is 2 days behind, isn't giving the correct assignments and is a bit scatterbrained. I've had a couple of his students come in to ask about being behind and what they might be missing... much fun.

I finished my homework.

Strange day. I taught two algebra 2 classes back to back, which is an awesome schedule, it went well, didn't loose anyone (I don't think, but I always talk/teach on the fast side) then left my Algebra 1 to a substitute so I could go to a dentist appointment (with K too!). I brought home the Algebra 2 homework which was to write a 2 page "Math-ography" I read 70 of them tonight, then did 30 problems of calculus homework (the assignment the students will get tomorrow). I'm tired, and I really hope my Algebra 1 class didn't abuse the sub.

The strangest part of this calculus thing is the feeling that I'm back in high school, not when I'm at school, but when I'm at home working on planning or homework. K and I started dating when I was a senior in high school (taking Calculus). So, "Go AWAY, I'm doing my Calculus homework!" Is really a flashback phrase for us 12 years later. Granted, the big difference is that I get to drink beer while I do my homework, and I don't have to be home by 10pm...

In minor knitting news: I got half a baby hat done while getting my teeth cleaned (K2P2 is harder to do w/o looking than just plain knit, I would have finished if it was just knit...)

I bought a stitch counter.

Well, I thought I bought a TI-89, very powerful, extra complicated, calculator (so I wouldn't look silly still using my TI-85 from 12 years ago) but it turns out that the first feature I have used on it is the Sum notation and it was to calculate when I'll be halfway done with the Bunny Hop baby blanket I've started knitting.

Now, normal rectangular knitting is EASY to calculate, Rows/2 gets you haw many rows in order to be halfway done, if you do rows/2*stitches per row you get the # of stitches you'll have knitted. No fancy calculator needed, but I have yet again started a giant mitered square. This time I have cast on 484 stitches and I'll be decreasing 2 stitches on each corner every other row (this time I allowed for a corner stitch in each corner), meaning my stitches per row are constantly changing and I'll be halfway done with the total stitches long before I am halfway done with the rows. Enter new calculator:

60
E (8x-8)*2 = 28272
x=2

(sorry, blogger won't deal with a Sigma symbol for some reason...)
I'll have 120 rows, but since each row is repeated (the *2) I'm just looking at 60 (which is also the starting # of stitches between each marker) for this count. Remember, I'll still have 4 stitches left in the end because I added those corners.
So 28272 stitches for the whole thing... with some playing around I found I'll be halfway done when I'm down to 43 stitches in each part, or
about 34 rows in.

Nerd out.
I need to get back to the calculus now....