What does a teacher do when her students are gone?

Well, in this particular case, she
a) Naps,
b) Knits and cross stitches,
c) Watches Star Trek Voyager,
d) cleans her floors,
e) reads a lot,
f) cooks and washes the umpteen dishes that result, and
g) and sews adorable bags with greater and lesser degrees of skill.

Beth ‘second-party Pintrested’ me with this bag pattern, and I’ve been having fun with different fabric types and color combinations. I figured out how to make them fully reversible (thus making the sewing satisfaction far greater than it was even to start with!), and I eventually figured out how to get the colors to do as I willed. Here are a few pictures of my efforts:

Since I’m heading to Kenya for VACATION later this week, I’ve been enjoying dreaming about vacation knitting, knitting for my vacation, knitting possible vacation dreams, and knitting as I dream about vacation. I knit a potential beach bag (now known forever more as the ‘Tabernacle Bag,’—thanks Alan P…)

I crocheted the yoke for this top that I’m not sure I’m brave enough to wear, even in Kenya where almost no one know me,

And I also got some totally instant gratification with these cute little cuffs from Knock Out Knits.

Also, to celebrate surviving the 90th, I tried out this little cowl pattern, *, that I have had lurking in my queue for a few months. I’ll block it a little differently next time, but I think this will be coming with me to Kenya as a classy accessory.

I have also ripped out significant portions of with much gritting of teeth put in some work on the gift socks that I both love and hate; love how the pattern looks, hate man-handling it to do what I want, and I am finishing off a tea cozy as a gift for a dear lady who made me the ultimate knitting bag.

Finally, I finished two cross stitch projects! This charming cottage had relatively little left to do on it,

And this little thing that was supposed to be a part of my sister’s wedding present…two years ago. Better late than never?

That’s all for now; you won’t hear from me till I get back from my VACATION that is AWAY FROM HERE and with a BEACH involved. Don’t worry—I already have travel reading and knitting sorted out; now I just need to figure out what I’m going to wear…

Parting shot: I finished this at some point during the term, and forgot to share it!