The Break is Over

Going back to work was hard on Friday. I had been sick before Christmas so I left a mess on my desk, which was waiting for me to deal with. I'll be very busy this next week trying to clean up and get the kids going again in the classroom. January is a great time to be a teacher. All the children come down from their holiday high and I always feel like we really learn a lot during the winter months.


I finished the quilt before the baby was born. It's in the mail now. My niece will come into this world by next Wednesday because medicine has set a drop born date. I told my sister-in-law the baby was just waiting for her quilt. The quilting is not my best, but acceptable for something that will probably spend as much time in the washer as out. I quilted a flower in each block and then made little swirls all around to look like a bee or butterfly flitting around.

Now to figure out the next quilting project. I have a hand quilted throw in process so I may finish that. It hasn't seen the light of day in months, but I think it's almost done. It seems like it is really bright and colorful so it could be something nice for cold nights. I only hand quilt in the deepest, darkest winter (not much here) because it is sooo hot the rest of the year.



The hat and scarf set are also finished. I like the scarf. It was a free pattern I got when buying some Noro yarn. It is acrylic, but not too bad. I was in the yarn store this week and the owner and I were discussing how acrylic and things like it seem to breed. Now that I am knitting, people bring me yarn. It's never the alpaca that makes me drool, but 3 yarn saver 1 pound skeins in pumpkin and harvest gold. Where does this stuff come from? I have probably 10 pounds of yarn like this now, but no matter how much I knit it never goes down.

Socks are my luxury knitting for now. It takes me a couple weeks to a month to knit a pair of socks and 2 days to make a scarf so I can afford to knit socks. I bought 2 new yarns this week. One is called TOFUtsies. It is wool, soysilk, cotton and chitin. My daughter feels bad for the crabs and shrimp used to make the chitin. Don't worry, someone was going to eat them anyway. It is a summer weight yarn, so it should be perfect for the end of January when spring comes to call here. The other yarn is called On Your Toes. It is a wool, nylon blend. I bought a blue, green, black varagated colorway. One sock is on the needles now in very pink TOFUtsies. It has a little roll down cuff before the ribbing. The yarn flows like bamboo it is so soft. They are my reward for using some of my lesser quality yarns.

Children will come see me tomorrow so my crafting time will be greatly decreased. It is time to get back to work though. I miss my class and the order they bring. The cycles of school fit my personality. It would be perfect if they didn't bring in so many nasty respiratory infections that I seem to catch. We also have an exchange student arriving Monday afternoon so she will need a lot of attention for a bit. I'll be working this week on the socks and scarf and figuring out what to quilt next.