Saturday, August 16, 2008

The Move

Last fall I had to return to home with the folks while I finished my degree in math education…just one class short. Since this was class that I had already taken a time or two before I didn’t want to hurt my chances of passing the one class I needed to graduate while working full-time. It was a good plan because I got the class passed and with a whole 2 letter grades better than my first time! Yay me!

Being at home this summer became more uncomfortable and I had to get out ASAP. I looked around for about a week and found a cute little Victorian house that’s been remodeled and turned into a 4-plex. For what I’m paying and the places I’ve been before, it’s not as clean or well taken care of, but it was the best I could find at the time. I’m just happy to say that I am on my own and alone! (Which is good (No parents) and bad (I’m alone alone). I don’t have to deal with anyone else’s bs, but my own.

It’s a 2 bedroom with a nice little sunroom in the back. Most of the floors are either wood or tile. My kitchen has black and white tiling with a pink counter! Yes, pink! I’ve made the extra bedroom into an office/craft room. Since it’s an older house the extra bedroom is kinda small. About half of my boxes were for my addictions: scrapbooking (3-4boxes), knitting (3 boxes & 2 large plastic containers), and spinning (1 box).

At my last place (before my return home) I didn’t really organize my things and most of the stuff stayed in boxes. My second bedroom became a storage room. About three years ago I worked at Hobby Lobby and bought so much yarn! The discounts and the sales were too good to pass up. So two years ago I took back a lot of it and was only able to get 50% back. Some of it I thought I needed to keep for some reason or another. Since then I started visiting the LYS. I found better yarns, yarns that were better to work with than the acrylic stuff I had been buying before. While unpacking my boxes recently I found the acrylic yarn that I had decided to keep from before and wondered why the hell I decided to keep them. I totaled everything that I didn’t want & could take back and it totaled to a little over $200. I was only able to get about $130 back. I figure that it was better than getting nothing back.

So even though I have gone through most of my yarn, knitting, and fiber boxes (one left) this is what I have. This does not include the unfinished faux suede afghan that I started for an person who is longer a friend of mine, yarn (bought more than 5 years ago) for a blanket I was going to make my sister, yarn (bought at least 3 years ago) for a wedding/anniversary gift for friends of mine, more yarn that I thought I could save for my next knit clubs at work, and about 3 unfinished afghans that were left from my late grandmother. Now I feel like I need to finish all of these projects, especially my grandmother’s afghans.

Right now I have about 5 projects going on at once. I’m working on my first sweater which is a neck-down pattern and I’m just below the bust. It’s been kinda warm here and it’s almost a little too heavy to be working on right now. The second project are my Monkey socks. I have one of them done right now and they’re just beautiful. Then I have 3 spinning projects; two on spindles and one on my wheel. The multi-colored wool (Navajo 3-ply) I misplaced some drafted roving and found it after I had already reconnected from the braid, so the colors are off a little. I was so mad at myself that I put it aside and started to work on my other spindle. When I got back into spinning a few months ago my friend Rosemary gave me about an ounce of some really nice Merino. It was one of those beginner’s fears. Nice fiber for my first spinning project!?! I should’ve faced that fear because Merino is sooooo nice to work with! (Along with alpaca…it’s a total dream to work with!!!) I got my wheel about a month ago and I love it! I’m currently working on some Cranberry Merino. I’m spinning it pretty thin and have about 2/3 of bobbin full. I plan on it being a 2-ply and I would love to knit a lace pattern…maybe a shawl.


I worked my last day at the LYS last weekend. I had enough hours to pay for my wheel and more (yarn, fiber, a Namaste bag, etc). I’ve got more Market Bags to make (finally some for myself) and a felted pinwheel rug for my new hardwood floors. I loved working at the shop, but just like any other friends who knit they give you new ideas for projects. Bad girls! Bad girls!!! ;)

Speaking of last weekend…I was bitten by a dog. As I was coming off the interstate I saw a red husky loose. The exit is a hill and I have been known to kinda “speed” and I was afraid that the dog would most definitely get hit. I’m the type that has Animal Control on speed dial. Since I too have a red husky at home, I couldn’t bare to see one that looks like my puppy get hit. I decided that I would try to get the dog out of harm’s way until Animal Control could make it. Scared, the dog of course did not come to me, but trotted closer to the interstate. Thank god a cop was coming down the hill to help me corner the dog so that I could grab the collar. Once I had the collar I tried to lead the dog down the hill, but it wouldn’t budge. I tried again and the dog jumped, twisted and bit me. I knew that if I let go of the collar the dog would probably run into traffic that was still coming down from the exit. From there I decided it would be best to stay where I was. While waiting I looked down at the hand that still had hold of the collar and blood was dripping down my wrist and hand. I knew he had bit me, but I didn't realize he broke the skin like he had. I looked at the collar and did not see a name tag, but thankfully a rabies tag (I’m up to date with my shots). Finally Animal Control showed up and collected the dog. My arms were wet and covered in black dirt and I smelled…gross like the dog. I’m glad to say that the truck was well stocked with antibacterial wipes, cream, and band aides. Since then, my arm has turned black, blue, and now yellow. My scar is healing very nicely and there is no sign of infection. I was very lucky in that sense, but so was the dog. I hope they find his owners or a new home.

Lastly (two pages later), Tuesday is my first day back to school. This year I’ll be teaching my first year of middle school at the 8th grade level. I have been at a high school level for 1.5 years and need to try a change. I had too many incoming freshmen that weren’t prepared for high school, so I think I need to step in to give them that. There is to be no babying. They need to know what deadlines are and that they will be responsible for their grade. My first two days were supposed to be full of meetings with my new colleagues, but instead I have to train for a one section of a math lab I’ll be teaching. I have one week to prepare for the kids. I know the material I’ll be teaching so I’m good there, but again it’ll be my first time teaching at this level so I’m a little nervous. I’ll be going in on Monday to set up my classroom. I’ll for sure being posting pictures of that soon.

Well I better end here. I always type out my stuff on Word first and I just started page 2. Til next time!