Funny story

A few weeks ago I was coming down the hallway of upper school with an armful of handwork stuff, and as usual, the girls were crowding around the library entrance. I told them, "I'm glad you think I'm so skinny, but I can't fit through that gap." One little girl pipped up, "But Miss Burklin, you ARE skinny." Immediately the other girls all went, "EEEEeeee." Which means basically, "I can't believe you just said that/you liar/Nuh-uh!" Good thing I have no delusions on that score! Gotta love kids and their honesty...

Some knitting and Happy New Year

Well first of all, I finished my lovely blue cowl this week; too bad it's a little warm to wear it just yet!

I also finished a set of knitted luggage tags--these should help solve my frequent baggage carousel luggage freakouts! Or maybe I'm the only one who stands there and tries frantically to remember a) what luggage I brought and b) what distinctive thing I put on it so I WOULDN'T have to go through this routine again...

Last night I ripped out and restarted my "Bigger on the Inside" shawl/scarf because I was under the increasing and unshakble opinion that it was not going to be big enough even if I blocked the living daylights out of it. So, bigger needles it is, and I get to work the "time vortex" lace all over again. Maybe I'll make fewer mistakes this time...

Finally, I finished the first "Weeping Angel" sock, and am well on my way with the second one.

Finally, while I know it is really the year of the horse, here is a picture of what I'm wearing today in rebellious celebration:

Guess that's what you get for letting a fire tiger on your station! I'm debating how much effort I want to go to in putting up a decoration or two--depends on how the res of the day goes. After being down at the river yesterday I'm pretty tired still!

A little knitting was accomplished this week....just barely!

So, I started to get excited about a holiday next month and pulled these out to play around with an idea I have. Oh poor frustrated celebrator that I am! I have to say that doing this brought back memories of the Valentines supply box, and the annual process of trying to come up with something different. Some of the terrible things I have created in the past were truly scary…hopefully this one is better!

This week has been pretty busy on the school front, so not much on the knitting or crafting side has been going on in my little house in the bush. I am working on this Greenlycowl that I LOVE—the pattern is , and while I’m not sure it’s worth quite what the designer is charging, I love how mine is knitting up. I’m trying to use up every last bit of the beautiful laceweight I bought in St. Louis. Just in time for dry season! I might want to wear for a few minutes now and then! Oh! it can be so frustrating to be a knitting in a tropical climate…

I’ve also been working on some luggage tags. This mitten is the only one I have totally finished. What a good use for all those bits of sock yarn I have!

On the sock front, I’m doing the toe of this Doctor Who inspired sock. I’m making myself finish that before I swatch for the Bigger on the Insidethat I can hardly wait to cast on! I want to make another pair of these socks for myself, and I’m going to tweak the pattern a bit. There are a few things that I think I can do a bit better. Watch it end in disaster, but at least knitting rarely explodes in your face!

I’m off this weekend, and so far I plan to take a nap, swatch for Bigger on the Inside, and keep playing with my pink glittery mess. For now though, excuse me while I got deal with a mountain of marking that seems to have accumulated overnight!

MLK

Indeed.

Christmas almost a month late!

This Saturday I was thrilled and delighted to finally get my Christmas packages from my family. There were lots of wonderful goodies in those boxes, and I spent a very happy afternoon unpacking and exclaiming in delight over the gifts. Here are some of the things I found:

Mary and Jordan sent me a Star Trek calendar which is now hanging in my room safe from certain eyes—yay for some more nerd!

They also send me some pumpkin spice latte VIA—one of my most hoarded treats out here where I can’t make Starbucks runs. My mom also sent a lot of wonderful pumpkin spice mix; the one box and it’s contents smell rather strongly of it fact! Notice my cool nerdy coffee from Beth right beside it…

My younger siblings sent me some TARDIS blue yarn for the “Bigger on the Inside” wrap I have been wanting to make for quite some time. Now I just need to hold off from casting on right away…

My parents sent me the beautiful “Jane Austin Knits 2013” magazine, as well as the next season of “Once Upon a Time.” YES!

Flynn totally made my day by sending me the last two volumes of “Digger,” a webcomic about a wombat. Yes, I know what it sounds like, but it’s a GREAT story, and I love the art. Flynn, I miss you more than a stormtrooper too!

I feel so blessed to have such an awesome family who is willing to ship gifts across the ocean at great expense. Thanks so very much to each of you, and know that your gifts are being loved and used! Oh—my mom made me something else that is totally AWESOME, but I don’t have decent pictures of it yet, so you’re just going to have to wait to see what it is!

Not much to report...

I don't have much to say this week other than that I finished my Stary Cowl! I love this yarn; it was my souvenir from St Louis, and it was so lovely to knit with. The beading was tedious, but the result was well worth it. I don't like how it curls (stockinette, go figure!), but I'm happy enough with it to not do a re-knit. Here 'tis!

I've already found a lovely little cowl pattern to use up the last of this beautiful yarn; I'll be casting that on later today. I also want to start playing with some fingerless gloves this weekend, but as I'm on it might be a bit hard to do.

I was so tickled this week because after years of wanting to do it, I finally got to teach my first Latin lesson! I'm using it as part of my grammar program; the idea being that it's easier to understand English grammar in the context of another language. The kids seemed to enjoy it, and I'm so tickled to finally have this dream come true! Also, in grade 8 & 9 literature I started reading the kids The Giver, a book that I've wanted to have the right group to do it with for a long time. I might write a book review or two this week and post it; not sure how my time is going to pan out yet...

So, that's me for this week! Happy weekend!

Kitschy Knits

One of the side benifts of living on a mission station that has been here for decades is that you never know what you're going to come across next. I spent close to 5 hours this week sorting through the music stuff, and I found among other things a book of ABBA tunes for the recorder, some Bob Dylan, and an orchestral version of the Doctor Who theme. Who knew such goodies lurked here in this most conservative of places? That got me thinking about some of the pictures I've saved from the horrifying knitting patterns we have around here. Oddly enough, missionaries don't necessarily want all Aunt Eliza May's 1950's-1980's knitting patterns and yarn. Here are items that I just can't imagine ever burdening an innocent child with.

This poor child is trapped in a bonnet and mittens covered in loops. No parent worth their salt would ever put this on a child--the snag factor is far to high. I'm trying to imagine as a knitter wanting to waste that much yarn or feeling the urge to clap such a thing on a probably ungrateful child recipient.

This poor child’s mother apparently thought she’d kill two birds with one stone—the kid needs some kind of soaker cover/bloomers thing, and since she’s going to be scooting around on the floor anyway, she might as well be dust moping it!

There is no excuse for these hats. None whatsoever. "nuff said.

In which I find out some interesting things about dying with dahlias

So, before the 'hoards' descend on the school again tomorrow, I decided to try dying some yarn with dahlias as they are blooming right now. So, first I went out and harvested 28 flower heads (no particular reason--that's just how many red and pink ones I felt I could get away with cutting). Into a pot they went to start being simmered for their dye.

After about half an hour, the dahlias were all bleached of color, and the water was a nice Kool-aid colored orange.

After soaking my yarn mordanted (pre-treated) with alum, I got the bright idea to throw a little alum into the dye pot to see if it darkened the color. Oh, boy, did it ever!

Oops. Well, after all that I decided to put the yarn in anyway even though a quick paper towel test revealed a rather nasty yellow was actually the color the yarn would end up. Sure enough, despite the merlot colored dye, the yarn went a rather limp hay yellow. I think I'll over-dye it after it dries...

I was rather interested to see how unexahusted the dye in the pot was, and that it had returned to something close to the previous orange color. (The picture makes it look more red than it really was) Another paper towel test revealed that it would still be yellow, so I dumped it out rather than use it again.

So, now I know that alum creates shocking and drastic color changes when dying with dahlias, that dahlias look really gross when all their color has been extracted, and that I should have left well enough alone. Who knows what I'll find out next year?