Crack (Me Up) Saturday

This one's for you, Sophanne. (Be sure to scroll down for the picture on her blog.)

Me, circa 1983. Yes, I was in high school ROTC. No, that's not a perm.

Whadda ya say? Can anyone top this?

How I Spent My Day

June is always my hardest month. The end of school is rough. There are so many activities to plan, coordinate, supervise, or attend, it seems like I'm at the kids' school every day. Add Father's Day and my son's birthday into the mix, and it makes for one busy and stressful month. (Especially when my son forgets to hand out the birthday party invitations and the party is less than a week away. I'm trying to remind myself that it's not the end of the world, while simultaneously picturing a lonely and forlorn little boy, all alone at his own party.)

Today was "College Field Day." Our school is called the "No Excuses University," meaning there is no excuse for not being ready for college, academically, financially, whatever. We are a low-income school with lots of recent immigrants, so for many kids, there is no family history of going to college, and little emphasis at home on education. Our philosophy is that every child can and will work and learn and take responsibility for his or her own future. Our school has been incredibly successful at teaching at-risk kids--so successful, in fact, that our test scores are among the highest in the state, and we regularly have visitors from all over the world to tour our school and learn about our program. We were recently featured in a book about turning around failing schools (sorry, the link is currently missing from the school website, which is under construction). There are even eight other schools that have instituted our program so far and re-named themselves "No Excuses Universities." Not bad for only a few years.

In that vein, almost every activity we have ties into the college readiness theme. Each of our classrooms adopts a particular college, wears that school's colors, has that school's banner on its door, cheers for its sports teams, etc. Today, the kids got to compete in several exciting events for their schools' honor, including:

Kiddie hurdles...

Potato dropping...uh, relays...

And my personal favorite, tricycle racing.

I logged laps for the Jog-A-Thon, handed out water, and supervised the injured. It was my fifth school event for the week. Next week should be easier. I only have to help pack up thirty years of PTA files, supplies, costumes, property, and junk for storage while the school is being remodeled over the summer. How hard could it be?

I Couldn't Stand It

Yes, I did order new yarns and patterns. But it will be at least a week before they arrive, and the only thing on the needles is Icarus. I lasted almost a day before I raided the stash for something new.

I bought this yarn from the DeStash website a couple of months ago, and I've been looking forward to doing something fun with it for summer. It's a lot different than my usual yarn choices, but I couldn't resist the colors and the gold thread running through it (oooo...sparkly!). No existing patterns jumped out at me, so I decided (with only five minutes to go before "So You Think You Can Dance?" started) to do a little drapey jacket. I'm thinking a slightly cutaway shape at the front, three-quarter sleeves, in plain stockinette, with a ribbed or garter stitch edging all the way around and a narrow shawl-like collar. I'm not sure exactly how much yarn there is--the yardage is less than usual in this gauge, so I think I'll work the body and then make final decisions on the edging, sleeves, and collar based on how much yarn I have left. This could, of course, be a recipe for disaster, but that's what ball-winders are for. One of my favorite things about knitting is, no matter how badly things go wrong, you can always rip it out and start over. Wouldn't it be great it life came with a ball-winder?

Yarn Over...and over and over and over...

Thank you all for your comments about Orange. I've decided to leave it the way it is, since that seems to be the weight of opinion, and I do love it. I have learned, in the most difficult possible ways, that if something is working and you're happy, it's best not to mess with it. Change is not always improvement, and more is not always better.

Sometimes, though, more is simply necessary. Case in point:

Icarus is coming along swimmingly. After ten thousand repetitions, I have finally stopped making mistakes (oh, I shouldn't have said that). I'm guessing after another ten thousand repetitions, I will probably be knitting this in my sleep. And you know what? I love it. Why did it never occur to me before that knitting a shawl means no button bands, no sewing, and maybe four ends to weave in? It's as portable as a sock (for now) but with only one circular needle, and this pattern is as mindlessly relaxing as plain stockinette, but less monotonous. How cool!

Unfortunately, it occurs to me that posting picture after picture of Icarus in progress ("Here it is at six inches; now it's seven inches; look, eight inches!") could get a little boring for you guys. So, just for you and with absolutely no selfish motives whatsoever, I ordered a new pattern yesterday. And two knitting books. And some handpainted blue faced leicester. And some Sea Silk. See the lengths I'll go to for you? But since none of it has arrived yet, I can't show you. Does that make me a yarn tease?

(And Maureen? Yeah, hubby cooks. Sometimes he even cleans. That might be because I told him that foreplay to me means he does the dishes. Works for both of us.)

Sweet Orange

Here it is: my sweet Orange. And I love it. I loved it when I chose the pattern, when I bought the yarn, and all through its miles and miles of dk weight stockinette, and more miles and miles of garter stitch on size 3 needles. I didn't love it quite as much while I was sewing up its many seams and weaving in its many ends, but the course of true love has its bumps in the road. And now? I love it all the more.

I am having significant trouble getting a decent picture of it, as you can see. The yarn has some silk in it, which keeps reflecting and turning it into an orange blob in pictures. And that weirdness on the right side of the collar? That's not the sweater. That's my twisted neck. I must have moved. The above picture is the best I could persuade my husband to take (but then, he was making dinner at the time). You should see the ones I rejected.

Here's a mirror shot, which doesn't add much, but does give a slightly more accurate image of the burnt orange shade. It is burnt orange, not pumpkin, as it looks above.

Pattern: "Plaza" from Rowan Classic Cafe book one

Yarn: Queensland Uruguay dk (merino, alpaca, silk) in color #06

Size: 36

For once, I made no changes to the pattern. (Well, except for the yarn.) But here's where I need your advice. I think the cardigan is beautiful as it is. It is classic, fitted, and quite elegant. The pattern, however, actually calls for a kind of funky edging. See?

Initially, I thought the pattern was really cute, except for the edging. But over time, those curlicues started to grow on me, and I was looking forward to doing them. Now that it's done, though, I really do like it the way it is. So what do you think: curlicues or no curlicues?

Lace Lessons

I'm not going to claim victory over the yarnover, because that would be just asking the knitting goddess to smack me down hard, and I have way too far to go to risk that at this stage of the game. But look!

There is noticeable progress, and as far as I can tell, there are no remaining mistakes. (Ripping and re-knitting six times will do that for you.) I just finished Chart One--for the first time. I now have to repeat it five more times. And then there are three more charts. But I am still proud.

I am also in denial about the eventual edging, which looks way more complicated than the simple yarnovers and decreases that have befuddled me thus far, but that is a discussion for another day. For now, I'm going to celebrate by petting the angora I have in mind for my next project.

Regrouping

I decided a little break from the lace knitting might be in order. Maybe knitting lace is one of those things you need to sleep on for a night or two to give it time to soak into your subconscious.

My faithful Orange is benefiting from this timeout. Here it is, blocking out nicely on the kitchen counter:

And here it is, getting its left button band/collar.

This design (scroll down to find it) calls for the stitches for the button band to be cast on with each front section, knitted for a few rows, then placed on a stitch holder while the rest of the front is knitted. Then you go back, slip the stitches onto a needle, and knit the rest of the button band, increasing into a shawl collar. Finally, you have to sew the whole thing onto the sweater. This is not how I would have done it, had I the patience and foresight to read the entire pattern in advance and figure out how the thing was to be finished. I'm sure there's a good reason for doing it this way, but wouldn't it have been a lot easier to just knit the button band as part of the front and work short rows for the collar? That's how I would have done it. But maybe the designer likes eight-stitch rows and forty eight inches of sewing to attach the collar. Any way you slice it, it's still a vacation compared to the lace.