Calculus

Calculus.
Yep.
Calculus.
No, I'm not kidding.
Calculus.
Stop laughing.
Calculus.
Please stop laughing?
Calculus.
Its only for 7 weeks....
Calculus.
Shit.
Calculus.


My department chair severely broke her ankle last month and is out until October 22nd. I somehow got hornswaggled into taking her calculus class until she gets back. I'm going to go read the Calculus book now. If any of you people who are infinitely more qualified to teach this than I am have any suggestions...

On a knitting note, I gave my department chair the 'Barbi camouflage' socks, but because of her cast she could only wear one, so I made her a little toe cover for the cast foot out of the leftover yarn.

Ambition and Distraction

The Mock Turtle went on. “We had the best of educations . . . Reeling and Writhing, of course, to begin with, and then the different branches of Arithmetic—Ambition, Distraction, Uglification, and Derision.”

Here is my view for the day:
Lesson planning for Algebra 2. My teachers edition, my old lesson plan book, and my new (bigger and better) lesson plan book.













But look...
I've just finished a panda cotton sock in "Barbi camouflage" for my department chair, and I've started the 2nd one, I should work on that so its done for her next week....















Ooooh, and here's some Maizy that I think I'll use for Peg's socks. I need to start these so they're finished next week too....














And I started a baby blanket in Bunny Hop, I got some green to soften all the crazy rainbow, but I'm not thrilled with the pattern. I'm going to go back and rethink it...













And I can't forget 'bout all this... This was all purchased with the incredible enabling skills of my friend Ms. Loopy. Well... I think I may have enabled myself with that fiber... Its Camel and Silk! Must borrow spinning wheel soon....









Wait. Wasn't there something else I was supposed to be doing today?

Somewhere there is a picture...

I didn't want to post until I had a picture.
So I took one.
Then the battery on the camera died.
Then I proceeded to not replace the battery.
So here is a picture-less post.
The picture was of all the yarn I bought when K's car needed a new transmission. Now, it wouldn't normally be that a dead car = yarn but somehow thats what ended up happening. I took K to work and then met up with Ms. Loopy (who I met at the yarnharlot signing in June...) and proceeded to do an impromptu 5 shop yarn crawl of the peninsula. Granted, all I bought was sock yarn, but it was definitely a case of fumes twisting my perception of reality... actually I think it was bamboo fumes, not wool fumes this time. I will post the picture as soon as I get off my lazy summer ass and replace the batteries in the camera.

Other than that my knitting hasn't been doing much. I got a little discouraged after the mystery stole, which I was feeling so happy about, turned out to be an asymmetrical pattern. I can't deal with that. Its hard enough to find an occasion to wear a stole, but to wear an asymmetrical one? Nope. No can do. So I'm waiting for an acceptable symmetrical alternative to crop up, or I'll just figure it out myself. Or I just have a really nice pointy doily. Bleah.

Summertime, and the knittin' is easy....

1 pair of socks done! And somehow I only have 2 pairs unfinished (unless I've blocked some out of my mind...) So I'm starting on these....














I'll be making 2 pairs of socks, these are 2 balls made with 2 skeins each of Lorna's Lace Sock in Bee Stripe, wound so that I can knit them with a double strand (thicker, but faster). The colors of the high school I teach at are Black and Gold so these will be for my department chair and my mentor teacher. The yarn is designed to make a really clear stripe but since our mascot is a Panther not a Bee I think holding the two together will soften or eliminate the striping... we'll see.

I also finished this














Its a wrist rest made out of the left over bamboo yarn. I stuffed it with wool and so far it seems to be holding up well, we tend to abuse our wrist rests....

I need to do laundry again, I'm debating whether to take the easy way out and just knit socks our whether to take the Mystery Stole and try to catch up. I'm already behind and I'll have to do an extra 80 rows to lengthen it since I'm knitting it on small needles. Hmmm... since I have a history of making knitting mistakes while doing laundry, I think I'll just take the socks :)

Oh wait.. now I remember I do have 3 pairs already on the needles. Damn. I thought I might have finished some while sleeping. Apparently not. Oh well. I'm still plugging along...

Overload or Underload?

I have just one more day of my summer job! Yeah! But my knitting is kinda scatter brained right now. I have a bunch of things in progress but not much progress is being made. Currently I have 4 pairs of socks on the needles, 1 lace skirt ( I actually made a bit of progress on that, but since it just increased to 640 stitches around, I think its going to slow down a bit) , and the Mystery Stole (I'm 1.5 weeks behind on that one). 1 month of straight vacation should mean lots of good knitting time, I hope.

Yarn of the moment:
Crystal Palace - Panda Cotton - 55% bamboo - 24% cotton - 21% elastic nylon
in Fern.

Mitered Baby Blanket

I've finished the first of my summer projects, the mitered baby blanket. I love the optical illusion of the miters and ridges, it is the same front and back, and its easy to make! The whole thing is knitted in the round without any seams too!




Mitered Baby Blanket

Makes a 30"x30" square blanket
Yarn: Worsted Weight, 4 Colors, 600 yards total
I used: Blue Sky Cotton in Color 1: Nut (100yds) , Color 2: Bone (200yds), Color 3: Sky (150 yds) , Color 4: Circus Peanut (150 yds)
Needles: US 8, 36 inch circular, 24 inch circular, double points (Or size needed to obtain gauge)
Gauge: 3.5 stitches per inch
8 Stitch Markers
Note: The stitch markers will constantly be moved due to the shrinking nature of the blanket.


Move Marker (MM): Slip stitch, remove marker, slip stitch back to left and place marker again (Marker moved 1 stitch to the right)
SSKP (Left Slanted Double Decrease): Slip 2 stitches, Knit 1, Pass 2 Slipped stitches over.


Cast on 400 stitches in Color 1, Placing a marker every 50 stitches. (see note below)
Join, being VERY careful not to twist. (There are a lot of stitches so double check!)
Markers 1,3,5 and 7 are your corners, they are where all the decreases will occur, these markers keep moving. Markers 2,4,6, and 8 are in the middle of the sides (Marker 8 ends the round) They are stationary and indicate where to switch from knit to purl.

Round 1:
K1P1 to 1 stitch before 1st marker, MM, SSKP
K1P1 past next Marker (this is a side Marker)
K1P1 to 1 stitch before 3rd Marker, MM, SSKP
Continue to MM and SSKP at 5th and 7th Markers.


Round 2: K1P1 around
Round 3: Same as round 1
Round 4: K1P1 around

Switch to Color 2, work 8 rounds as follows:
Round 1,3,5,7: Knit to 1 stitch before 1st Marker, MM, SSKP, Knit to 2nd Marker, Purl to 3rd Marker, MM, SSKP, Purl to 4th Marker, Knit to 5th Marker, MM, SSKP, Knit to 6th Marker, Purl to 7th Marker, MM SSKP, Purl to last Marker.
Rounds 2,4,6,8: K to 2nd Marker, P to 4th Marker, K to 6th marker, P to 8th Marker.
8 Rounds of Color 2 completed.

Switch to Color 3, Work 8 rounds as follows: (Knits and Purls are switched)
Round 1,3,5,7: Purl to 1st Marker, MM, SSKP, Purl to 2nd Marker, Knit to 3rd Marker, MM, SSKP, Knit to 4th Marker, Purl to 5th Marker, MM, SSKP, Purl to 6th Marker, Knit to 7th Marker, MM SSKP, Knit to last Marker.
Rounds 2,4,6,8: P to 2nd Marker, K to 4th Marker, P to 6th marker, K to 8th Marker.
8 Rounds of Color 3 completed.

Switch to Color 4, work 8 rounds as for Color 2
Switch to Color 1 Work 4 rounds as for Color 3.
32 rows completed.

Repeat the Color 2,3,4,1 pattern again.
60 rows Completed. Now is a good time to switch to the 24" Circular.

Continue in the same knit/purl patterns but do 12 rows each of colors 2, 3, and 4 switching to double points after color 3. Finish with rows of Color 1 until you have 16 stitches remaining. K2tog every stitch around. Cut your yarn leaving an long tail and use a yarn needle to thread it through the remaining stitches to finish. Sew in any ends and block!



1/8/08 Note on Cast-on: This MAY make more sense with 404 stitches. Using 1 stitch in each corner as the 'turning' stitch. You would then place the markers alternating between 50 and 51 stitches. This will add 4 extra stitches every round as you go.
Note of finish: The original pattern called for decreasing to 4 stitches, this makes a bit of a puckered point in the center. I have changed it to do a big decrease at the end instead. This should make a smoother center.

Edited: 1/25/09 Switch last 4 words on odd sections for color 2 and 3. Its fixed now, and fixed on the Ravelry PDF too!

BUNNY!!!! Bunny... Bunny... Bunny...

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