Summer Dreams

So summer is really here now, even though the weather is not really cooperating. How do I know? Both kids are off from school now, and bored already. Well, not exactly. But Catgirl needs to have someone to play with AT ALL TIMES, it seems, and when she doesn't, things can get ugly.

I have me some Grand Plans for this summer. First, the kids are going to work on a subject everyday. Mathboy made out his schedule, which has Logic, Algebra, Latin, Vocab and Grammar, one subject per day. I am requiring only about 30 minutes per day. So far, though, it's been all Algebra all the time for him, and, so far, I've been letting him go.

He'll get bored of the all-algebra diet sooner or later, right? Meanwhile, I am waiting for the math books I ordered for Catgirl to come in the mail. Catgirl ended up getting First Honors, which means she had an "A" average for the whole year. I hear that 5th Grade at Good Counsel is a lot of work, however, so next year should be tougher.

Both of them all already reading like crazy, so that's a good start to the summer vacation. We've got the "To be read" and "Finished" piles of library books going.
Both kids will be able to participate in the Battle of the Books this year--Catgirl will be eligible because she will be in 5th Grade, Mathboy will be eligible because he will be going to a school that actually participates in contests--and we have the booklists posted on the fridge door. Mathboy enjoyed the first book he read off the list, Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer, that he persuaded me to read it too. It was very good. I seem to be knee-deep in Young Adult fiction these days, as I also am halfway through The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak. I have to admit that this one is rather weird but also good. We all enjoyed Nation by Terry Pratchett and The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman this spring, as well. There are some good books out there for kids and teens!

Both kids are going to start doing a regular chore schedule as well. I know we have been bad about that in the past. Mathboy is very good about doing a job when he is asked to, Catgirl...not so much. But I think we need to make them take responsibility for some things--let them be the ones checking to see if something needs doing and then just DO IT.

Second, I need to find a gainful employment, and the goal is to have that in place for the fall. Can I get a job lined up for the week after we get back from Disney? Oh, by the way, sir, I would love to work for you, but you will have to wait until after we come back from our vacation. 'Kay?

I do have some CLE courses I have to do over the summer, but if I want to move into teaching I need to make some strides to make that desire look serious. I did submit some online applications for some positions, but perhaps volunteering in some teaching positions in the meantime would be a good thing to have on my resume. I also want to write an article over the summer. I thought seriously about writing a legal-scholarly article about the Mount Laurel decisions, but they probably have already been done. Right now, I am reading a book written by some California law school folks about the decision. Although it does seem well-researched--which is surprising, since the preface implies the guys never even came to New Jersey to research the thing--it is about as biased a book as I have ever read, and the writing style is terrible. I keep thinking that I could do better, but what a job that would be. Probably more than one summer's worth of research.

So maybe I would be better off finding some timely issues and whip off a few articles for the NJ lawyer's paper. Or the Burlington County Times? Would a publisher buy a murder mystery set in the catty PTA of a catholic elementary school? So many ideas, not all of them good ones...

Meanwhile, Mom has had a great idea for a book, which she wants my help to do. More about that another time.

Third, I have serious knitting goals. Meghan, of the Stitch It! podcast, has challenged all her listeners to knit something in laceweight yarn. Coincidentally, I had just cast on the Leda's Dream shawl by Pink Lemon Twist, completely forgetting how much the Adamas Shawl of last summer had cured me of any hankering for lace. Oh well. I guess the cure was only temporary. So I am knitting my shalw along with a whole bunch of other listeners who likewise are trying out laceweight. We can commisserate on the poscast bulletin board at Ravelry.

This what I have so far. It is tough going: I can't seem to get the patterns memorized, and I have had to get used to a very different way of holding the yarn as I knit because it is so fine. It makes my hands tired.

Also, I want to finish my Great American Afghan before it gets cold. I have had a new idea about how I am going to finish it up, and hope it works.

I have 15 squares done. Although the pattern calls for 25 squares, I always knew I was not going to do all of them. There are several in the book that I just have no interest in doing (ahem, socks square, ahem). Besides, 15 squares took me over a year, and I want to have this finished This Year. 2009. Done. So I am going to do 16 squares. That means one more.


I recently laid out all my finished squares and had to face a harsh truth: they are not all the same size. Sigh.

About half of them are the requisite 12 x 12 inches. About half are 11 x 11. One square is a generous 12.5 x 12.5. It may be 13 x 13, I am not sure. I was so annoyed with myself, my measurement may not have been right. It definitely looks a lot bigger than the others. So.... what to do? I could trash the lonely biggest square, but the small ones really do seem a lot smaller than the regulation-size squares. Plus I was concerned about how the yarn I used (Swish Superwash Worsted, from Knitpicks) could stretch out a lot and distort the shape of the squares when the blanket was in use.

I thought about crocheting strips betwen the squares to add size and bolster their shape. But today I had another idea, which I like even more: Log Cabin border strips. I have five colors I am working in. Each square will have border strips of garter stitch knitted on to it in four colors, not including the color the square was knitting in. I can even up the shapes by adjusting how many rows I knit on for the strips.


I've only done this much, but I think this might be a great idea. Indeed, it may be genius. Or it could be totally crazy. Catgirl has already said she thinks it looks weird. We shall see. Whatever it is, I know it's better than crocheting strips between 16 squares, and better than stretching half of these squares to fit right with the other half. And again I say: we shall see.

Summertime!

It's officially summer! Mathboy finished school this week, both kids' teams lost in the playoffs so their sports were over, the pool is open, and it is finally getting hot outside.

It was kind of a bittersweet goodbye to Mathboy's school. We are all ready for him to move on, but he did have 3 good years there. Lots of kids are leaving, so there were several kids feeling the same as he was.

I forgot to bring a camera to any of Mathboy's games, unfortunately. He pitched a lot of innings this year, and hit great--I think with an over 500 average. He got on base in every game. His pitching was pretty good too, but inconsistent. He either struck everyone out (he throws really hard) or walked everyone.

I finally remembered to bring a camera to Catgirl's last regular season game. Here is the pitcher in action:

Catgirl was quite a slugger this season, but Mathboy did not really notice. He did find the only shade at the softball field though:


Mathboy got to do another piano recital, and Mom and Bill were able to come:



I made a couple more squares for the Great American Afghan:

That last square turned out to be very cool. It was really fiddly at the beginning, but the result is awesome.

Then I received the Stitch It! Podcast charity blanket in the mail for me to add a contribution. The folks in this group make baby blankets and lapghans, sending the blankets around for knitters to add a section. I ended up doing three sections and a crocheted border to finish off this blanket:

Here's my part:


Well, Catgirl wants to go down for breakfast and is bugging me to finish this post. We want to get to the Farmer's Market to day, and then either the pool or to the famr for some strawberry picking. Our choice depends on the heat!

Whoosh!

You know what that sound represents? The month of May, which just flew by me at the speed of sound. There it goes! All gone.

What did I spend the month doing? Well, not cleaning my house, apparently. I have been to a lot of softball and baseball games for the kids. Neither team is doing very well, but the kids are progressing and that's the important thing. Rich and I have been shocked anew by the small-town politics and the killer competition that seem so prevalent in the kids' sports. Get a life, people. Go root for professionals--the Phillies would appreciate your support, and get paid well to deal with the emotions of fans. Can we try NOT to crush the hopes out of our 10 to 12 year olds?

OK, my soapbox is put away now.

I read The Woman in White, by Wilkie Collins. I loved it, and highly recommend it. Imagine Charles Dicken writing a detective novel, and that's really what this was. It could have bee a little tighter with the plot, and it was a little wordy, but the characterizations were terrific.

I planted the vegetable garden and the planters, and built a new fence around the garden to keep the plants fro becoming the Daily Buffet for the bunnies and the deer. The fence is just poultry mesh staple-gunned to stakes--not nearly as attractive as last year's little picket number, but hopefully it do the job a little better. Oh well. I was willing to sacrifice beauty for practicality. I don't want anyone chewing my chard and beans down to the grounds this year, thank you.

I've knit a couple and a half squares for the Great American Afghan.



I made a cotton veggie/shopping bag for Mom's birthday--forget I said that Mom, if, by chance, you should actually read this.


And I'm having some worries about this summer--specifically with regard to my job and my need for childcare. A change may be called for. I am not sure that my current position is the best for me, or that I am providing what my employer really would prefer, anyway. I think she'd rather have someone cheaper who would be available at her beck and call all day. I'm not going to do that. So ... I've applied for a couple positions on line just to see what happens. I would love to find something that did not requre commuting to Philadelphia.

Well, that's really all I've got today. I'll try to post more often than once a month!

Spring is here

It's been so long since I last posted. I had to get a post in today because it's the last day of April and I did not want to skip a whole month between postings. So this post may be a bit sloppy, but at least it is still April, right?

April has been rather weird as far as the weather goes. It's probably been weird in other ways, but the weather is on my mind these days. We had some wintry days, some ridiculously summery days, and some spring days. Rain has plagued the kids' sports schedules, and our vacation to Harper's Ferry WV.

Harper's Ferry was neat, but it would probably be a lot more fun in the summer, when you can take advantage of the river rafting. We did manage to have a good time, despite the rain and the chilly temperatures. We biked one day, hiked to the top of Maryland Heights one day to get a great view of the little town below, got in a little letterboxing one day, and hung out with Leslie and Frank at our, um, interesting lodgings.

Here is Catgirl at Jefferson Rock (with raincoat over her Easter dress):

We had an interesting moment up there by Jefferson Rock. You may notice that the Rock is perched on pillars to hold it steady. This is because the wind and weather have eroded it so significnantly that the Army Corps of Engineers decided it was unsafe without some kind of support. Hence the table legs, and the large sign nearby (not in my photo) explaining the situation and asking people to refrain form climbing up there on or by the rock.

Well. After we took our sedate, rule-following photo of Catgirl in front of the rock, another family climbed up and blatantly ignoring the sign not to mention good sense and let their flip-flop clad young-uns climb up ON TOP of this precariously perched rock for a photo op. We all stared and muttered, not quite sure what to do. Is it our place to tell such people that they are idiots?

Here are both kids running up the stone steps to the church. These steps were carved over 100 years ago into the rock that makes up the mountain the town is built on--very cool:


Mathboy resting at the top of Maryland Heights, overlooking the town;


We had some good news regarding Mathboy's school prospects for next year: he got in to Doane Academy, and they are OK with him going into 8th grade. Mathboy should definitely have a challenging year with the 8th grade work and the adjustment to a traditional school envieronment (e.g., homework, uniforms, moving around from class to class, and did I mention homework?).

I also got a lot of knitting done this month. It was chilly enough Easter morning for Mathboy to wear his new wool vest:


And I worked on this little sweater for Catgirl while we were in Harper's Ferry. It was a quick knit, my first top-down creation.

I basically improvised this by building off a shrug I am making for myself (the Lemongrass Bolero by Stephanie Japel) and a little girl's shrug from the new Mason-Dixon Knitting book. Based on my experience making this little thing and the Lemongrass Bolero--which is now done as well, but I do not have a good photo--I am not sure I like the top-down thing. And let's be honest: it's the circular needle thing. I do hate working on circs. I'd rather do seams. Really.

Black Belt in the House!

At the karate studio, everyone has to bow when a black belt walks in the door. We bowed for Mathboy we he came in tonight after his test, but we warned him not to get used to it at home.

Do I feel safer now that I know that there is a Black Belt in the house? Maybe not. But I am impressed. He really worked hard today.

The test started today at 1 pm. Perhaps foolishly, we had made dinner reservations at the restaurant of Mathboy's choice for 6:30 pm. There wer 8 kids testing, and there was no way, I thought, the test could go past 4 pm--or 4:30 at the latest. I mean, what can they have to do for more than 3 and a half hours?

Well... let me tell you what they did. This was like the Final Exam for karate. The Bar Exam. The Medical Boards. These kids had to show everything they learned in karate class over the past 4+ years of classes. And, as you may expect by now, it went past 4:30. Way past. These kids were finally presented with their new belts and sparkly new uniforms at 6:30 pm. Then there were pictures, and a lecture about how with great power comes great responsibility. So ...we are going to the fancy Japanese restaurant tomorrow night. It gives Catgirl one more day to get ready (when she first saw the menu for Fuji, I think she cried. She gets pickier everyday.)

These kids did 100 push ups, 100 sit ups, 100 jumping jacks, then they did technique drills for about an hour and a half, then they did laps of kick drills, then forms, then sparring. Then they did the breaking drills.


Mathboy broke this slab of concrete with the heel of his hand. And it is real concrete--I had suspected the karate school of using some kind of soft quasi-concrete, but thi is real. Then Mathboy elbowed and kicked his way through a slew of boards. At one point, Catgirl turned to me and whispered, "We should have brought a bag for all the boards, Mom." She was right. Mathboy had quite a pile to carry to the car at the end of the day.



The final task of the day was that they had to do push up position, on their knuckles, on the concrete pieces that they had previously broken, for FIVE minutes. There were some tears by the end, but they all made it. During the last minute, the teacher walked around and put each candidate's specially embroidered black belt in front of them so that they could focus on what they were working for.


This is Mathboy's name and the karate school name in Korean. The other side is embroidered in English: Mr. MathBoy, if you please. All the lower belts at karate will have to refer to him by Mr. from now on.

In other news, I finished the vest for Mathboy. I don't have a shot of him modeling it, but here it is in repose:

This turned out great. I used the Dr. G's Memory Vest from Through the Loops,and Cascade 220 Heather yarn. I did go down to size 6 needles to get gauge, and I liked the way the knitted fabric looked on 6s anyway. It fits him very well, but there is sufficient length and stretchiness from the dense spingy fabric that it should fit him next year as well.

The Delegate from the U.S.

Our excellent adventure in New York was last week. It's hard to believe, but I really think that Mathboy had an even better experience this year at the Montessori Model United Nations than he did last year. We stayed with my friend Elyse and her family, and were very grateful for the chance to stay with them.

We actually went up to NY a day or so early, and were glad that we did because we beat the 8-12 inches of snow! On Sunday, we met Elyse and her family at the New Victory Theater in NY and saw an amazing production of Henry V. The kids seemed to understand enough of it that they claimed to enjoy it as much as we did. Mathboy saw Times Square for the first time, and was pretty impressed ("such enormous TV screens!").

On Monday, when our schools were closed and everyone was scrambling to figure out how to get to NY, we were already there! Mathboy got to play in the snow with Elyse's son, who also had a snow day, and then we took the train in and spent several hours at the Museum of Natural History.

He finally got to see the Primate family tree that we had told him about last year. His favorite thing was the cladogram and the dinosaurs and mammal evolutionary display on the 4th floor. We were there for hours. Then we had to buy ourselves a transit map so that Mathboy could plan our way home to Elyse's house, as well as our travel for the rest of our visit.

On Tuesday, we went to the hotel in Brooklyn and met up with the group from school. A couple of the kids could not make it at the last minute, one being Mathboy's best friend at school and the other being his partner on the Security Council. Without a partner, Mathboy ended up being the sole delegate from the U.S. on that committee. That also meant that he would have to "wing it" on the topic for which his partner had been responsible: the situation in Sudan. Mathboy's first motion, once the committee really got started, was that they do the topic of Nuclear Weapons (his topic) first. His motion passed, and they spent the entire first day debating his topic. This was a great start for him, and he ended up being closely involved in the debate all day.

He wrote much of one draft resolution, and got to read it to the committee a couple of times. He had to field questions from the committee. He also had to deal with the fact that, personally, he was not entirely in agreement with the position of the country he was representing. This is good experience. Interestingly, the model seemed to imitate life, in that this delegate from the U.S. never seemed to get along with the delegates from France.

On the last night, after a full day of caucusing, the kids got to vote on their draft resolutions in an actual meeting room in the United Nations building. We were told that there were over 600 students and more than 300 parents and teachers in attendance--and I can believe it, judging by how long it took to find everyone a seat. Here is how it looked from the heights of the gallery, where the parents were:

You can't see the delegation from the United States among the throng; they scrounged up some seats at the back of the room.

During the voting, the president of Mathboy's committee asked if anyone would like to say a few words about their draft resolution--yes, would anyone like to stand up, without any notes or preparation, find a working microphone and explain in a few words to this group of 900+ people what the resolution was about?

So ... can anyone guess whose hand shot up? The Delegate from the United States, of course. The delegate who did not care that his mother was having a heart attack up in the gallery. He ended up doing a fine job. In fact, he did very well throughout the entire MMUN. The president of his committee praised him to the group at large as "an articulate young man," which was very nice to hear. He also took Mathboy aside at the end of the day on Tuesday and complimented him for his hard work and for doing such a good job handling the tough questions from the committee.

All in all, Mathboy had a wonderful time. He did not mind that he was not staying in the hotel with the group--it may have helped that his good friend at school wasn't there, so he did not have anyone at the hotel that he truly missed being with. We had the group eating lunch together both days, so he got to see them at that time, and they went to the United Nations together on the last day. He also enjoyed playing with Elyse's son and he liked riding the train and the subway.

As for knitting, I actually did not get that much done. I had been working on a pair of Garter Stitch mitts that I had planned to give as a thank you to Elyse, but since my grafting looks like garbage, I put them aside and instead gave her the lovely Lace Ribbon Scarf that I finished after Christmas. I did finish the Garter Stitch Mitts when I got home, but with such lousy finishing I am keeping them for myself.

Not my best work. In addition to the crummy grafting, they are a little loose because I made the larger size. If I were to do this pattern again, I would use a bulkier, smoother yarn--both to give them a bit more heft and spring, and to make the grafting easier! I also would adapt the pattern somewhat to come up with a medium size to fit my hands, I'd have to adapt it with the bigger yarn, anyway, so what the heck.

My knitting time in NY was limited because I spent a lot of the time walking around between the various meeting rooms in which our school's kids were caucusing. I got to see a couple kids give their speeches. One boy spent a lot of time with his head down, apparently sleeping! Adorable as it was, we were a little worried about him, and there usually was at least one parent in his room trying to keep an eye on him. So I turned the heel on a sock, but that's about it.

Since our return, however, I did get started on the "Dr. G Memory Vest," which I am making for Mathboy:

The yarn is actually a lot grayer than it is in this picture. It is a really cool steel blue color of Cascade 220 Heather, and it is showing the cable pattern very nicely. I had to start this project. I was having cable and twisted stitch withdrawal after finishing Inishmore. So far, this pattern is really pleasant to knit: the stitch patterns were ridiculously easy to memorize, and the yarn is very nice to work with. It's a vest, too, and in size XS, so it should be a relatively quick-knit.

In other news, Rich and Catgirl did fine while Mathboy and I were away. Rich took her to the Big Hill to sled on the snow day, because he is so much more fun than Mommy. (This is the truth. Mommy would have persuaded her that she would have as much fun making snowmen with the neighbors, because Mommy does not really like going to the Big Hill.)

Adventures with Inishmore, etc.

I've been telling myself for at least two weeks that I need to blog, I need to blog. But it's hard to blog--or cook, or clean, or read--when you are spending nearly every free moment also telling yourself, I've gotta knit, I've gotta knit. Know why? 'Cause I was almost done with Inishmore, the Epic Sweater (and I mean Epic, as in Magnum Opus, as in Neverending, as in what in God's name was I thinking?) that I started last February or March.

Well, guess what?



It's done. It's not perfect, but it's still gorgeous. It's tremendously warm. And I love it. (Forgive my sloppiness in not doing the bottom button. I was grabbing a kid to be my photographer, and she rushed me so she could get back to enjoying our backyard on this pleasantly warm evening.)


As you can see, I did manage to turn it into a cardigan without screwing it up too much. I used one repeat of the twisted cable ribbing for the button and buttonhole bands. In order to keep the cable panels that I really liked, I altered the one of which I really was not too fond. Essentially I cut the large braid-like cable in half, as it was done on the sleeves, and thus did away with enough stitches to account for the buttonband in the center. I then took the gorgeous center panel and divided it in half, one half on each front piece, and added a twisted border stitch to the edge, to give the button band something to hold on to. In these pictures, the cable panels unfortunately look like they don't match up perfectly, but I have not noticed it IRL. Don't look too closely, Okay?!

It buttons like a man's sweater, because I forgot to put a buttonhole in what I did the right front of the sweater. When I discovered the error, I decided I did not care. In a very conforting coincidence, my hero, the Yarn Harlot, recently did an entire blog post defending her practice of putting buttons on the "man's side" for everyone--men, women, children and babies. Rock on, Harlot! And thanks for making me realize it's not that I wasn't paying attention to what I was doing, but that I was actually making an unconscious choice to rebel against gender stereotying in buttons. Um, yeah, that's what I was doing.

So the sweater is done, and I am very proud. It was warm enough to wear it yesterday like a coat, which is exactly how I envisioned wearing it. This was why I wanted to make it into a cardigan. On its first day out, where could the sweater go but ... to Woolbearers! My excuse was tha I wanted to get some Cascade 220 for a vest I wanted to make for Rich, but we all know I really just wanted to show off my sweater to people who would appreciate it. The saleswomen there yesterday were very attentive and kind, and I got all the sweater complimenting I craved. Thanks, ladies!

Meanwhile, here are just a few lessons I learned from Inishmore:

• Purling through the back of the loop is a special torture created for knitters by other knitters. What did I ever do to Alice Starmore to deserve this kind of treatment?!
• Alice Starmore patterns need to be knitted with a lighter yarn than that called for. Bulky pattern + small gauge = sore hands. Again.
• Always pay attention to the needles you are using. If you use #6's by mistake when you want to use #4s, and then knit a whole sweater piece, you know you are not going to frog it. So pay attention from the get go.

I have no other knitting to show here, because I have worked on nothing but Inishmore. Frankly, Inishmore became an obsession with me for the past month. It was the only thing I wanted to knit. If I couldn't knit Inishmore, I did not want to knit. So my socks, Mathboy's sweater, and the afghan all fell by the wayside. Knitting time was Inishmore-Time. Once it was done, I did not know what to do with myself at first. My old projects don't call to me like they once did, until Inishmore interrupted the call. And I find myself experiencing Cable Withdrawal. So, I have picked up Mathboy's sweater , my socks, and even the Murky Muir, but my progress is rather half-hearted. (They have no cables, she whines, no twisted stitches....)

But I have got to come up with a good travel knitting project for next week. I am going to be spending 2 solid days sitting and observing in the conference rooms of the Brooklyn Bridge Marriott for the Montessori Model United Nations program. This year, Mathboy is on the Security Council for the Model UN, and his position deals with weapons of mass destruction. (In case anyone is wondering: he is opposed to them.) Last year's topic (Sweden's position on how to eliminate poverty in the world) was a lot more difficult, and required considerably more research. I feel like Mathboy is coasting this year with such an easy topic, but I know he will enjoy the program nonetheless.

We are staying with my friend Elyse for the NYC trip, and, although the commute from her house will be more onerous than for the kids who are staying at the hotel, the money we will save will more than pay for the extras we will get to do. Elyse scored us tickets to Henry V at the New Victory Theater in NY this Sunday, and I am very excited! Then, Monday morning we are going to the American Natural History Museum. Ever since last year, when Catgirl and Rich and I got to go to this museum without Mathboy (while he was in his UN sessions), he has been slightly peeved. This visit will fix that. No more peeve.

After lunch on Monday, we will meet the other school kids at the hotel, register for the UN, and then the excitement begins for him, and the knitting begins for me. But what shall I bring??! I have Friday and Saturday to decide. Oh, and do laundry and clean the house and plan meals for Catgirl and Rich for while we are away. But the knititng?!

Other Stuff: Schools, schools, schools. God help us on this one. Mathboy has his "shadow day" at Moorestown Friends tomorrow, but I think I have become a convert for Doane Academy. It's a very long story, but I think this place might be a better fit for him. From what I have seen, the administrators seem much more willing to be flexible about grade levels, which is extremely important in finding the right place for Mathboy. Plus, to have a headmaster say to me, "You son needs a creative program to fit his needs for advanced materials, and I would excited to address that challenge," or something very similar but just as amazing, was so mind-boggling that I think I almost fainted. I know I teared up (I don't think he saw!).

In case you missed the significance of this, let me repeat: A school administrator acknowledged that Mathboy needs Something More than a regular school curriculum and said that he was "excited" to try to come up with what he needs. I'm getting light-headed again right now, just writing about it. Excuse me while I go get a paper-bag to breathe into.

I'm back. Well, I can't think of anything else to report. I will have MMUN pictures next time I write, and probably more knitting. :o) Maybe I'll have school information. Who knows?

Brrrr!

It's pretty cold and icy here in New Jersey these days. Good days to have a fire going and some knitting on your lap. We've been trying to keep the heat set low, but we find ourselves using the gas fireplace quite a lot, s I don't think we are really saving anything on heat. I know the monthly utility bill is a heckuva lot higher than last year, but am not sure if that is due to gas fireplace use or higher gas prices. Making full use of our wool sweaters, wool socks and various blankets is free, however, so I keep encouraging that.

Bizarrely enough, my daughter has NO SWEATERS. She's the daughter of a knitter and she has no sweaters. Of course, she hates sweaters, and won't wear them, which is why I have refused to knit her any for several years, but it still is the weirdest thing. She likes handknit hats and socks and scarves, though, so she has plenty of those. But no sweaters.

Inspired by the weather, I have been cranking along on my Inishmore.

I finished the back (huge, isn't it? but that's what the pattern calls for). I also did one of the saddle shoulders for a sleeve, before finally getting down and dirty with the math so I could figure out how to convert this pattern into a cardigan. I have gone back and forth on this question for a long time. Sheer laziness was leading me to just go with the pattern as written, making a regular pullover sweater. But the fabric is so incredibly dense and warm, and the pattern is so big, that I am positive I will get so much more use out of it as a cardigan. I think I have figured out a good way to do it, and cast on for the left front. It's a lot more fun to knit than the back--just because I get done a row twice as quickly, I guess--so I am working on it almost exclusively. I would love to see if I could finish this in the next few weeks, because I think this sweater would be perfect for March weather.

While I was procrastinating on the Inishmore calculations, I did a couple more hats. Have I mentioned how much I love hats? Man, they are so much fun. I made another Amanda hat, this time for me, but it has actually gone to Catgirl:

It's a little snug and too short for my comfort. Long boring story.

I then made this one for me, a Turn A Square hat, and it is perfect...

...even if the stripes are a tad wonky. The yarn for both of these is Malabrigo Worsted (mmmmm-malabrigo!).

I started a sweater for Mathboy using Cascade 220 heather yarn. Boy is that yarn terrific, especially in light of the price tag. I am going to be able to make this sweater for less than $30. What a deal! And the number of color choices available just blew us away. How did I not know about this yarn before?

This is Orange Twist, although clearly not orange. I think it's a very cool pattern for a teen boy sweater. I actually now have about 15 inches up the back, so I am making progress. It would be nice if I could get this done soon, so he could wear it in this cold weather, but I think I may have my hands full with Inishmore. There are only so many hours in the day for knitting, ya know?

In other news: The kids and I have also made up our first letterboxes, and have a pretty good idea of where to plant them. We just need some good weather so we can get them placed and write up the clues. Very exciting! We completed Mathboy's application to Moorestown Friends School, and have officially started walking around with crossed fingers. My boss came back from her Caribbean vacation, which means that the nice and quiet period for all her employees is over, as well. February is looking pretty busy already!

Meanwhile, we are waiting for Mathboy's teacher to hold the promised parent meeting about the Montessori Model U.N., which is rapidly approaching. It's only 4 weeks away, and we still don't know who he will choose for chaperones, and he has not had the kids doing any writing or preparing. They finished the initial set of questions, but that's it. In fact, he still has not given us the right dates for this thing. I found the right dates myself by going to the MMUN website. So, it looks like the organizational aspect of this event is just as messed up as it was last year. Fabulous. The saving grace, however, is that one of the moms has organized so many fund raisers that she may have the whole cost covered. That is tremedous, and the rest of the parents owe her huge thanks!

Ringing in the New Year!

So I am playing hooky from work today, and the fact that I am home, by myself, without feeling too much stress about what I need to be doing, had me so happy that I thought it was time to blog. Best to blog in a good mood, don't you think?

It has been so long since I posted, but I can't really give a synopsis of everything we did since my last update. Well, I'll try a quick "sum up:" Mathboy had his birthday, and is now 12. We went to Thanksgiving at my brother's house. Rich and I both worked our tails off in early December--Rich harder than me, but then after his arbitration he was pretty much able to take the last 2 weeks of the year off. I was helping my boss prepare for our de novo divocre hearing on December 19th ... which ended up being postponed at the last minute, after we had worked so hard on it for weeks. Very frustrating.

We ended up getting our Christmas tree very late, so now, on January 7th, we still have it up and lit and decorated. We will probably take it down this weekend. It was not our best tree, all things considered. Probably the best thing we can say about it is that it's healthy. It's rather crooked and very puffy, and the angel keeps falling off, and we had to tie it to the railing that divides the family room from the breakfast nook in order to keep it from falling over. When Cat Crazy Girl hosted her book club over Christmas break, one of her friends told me that she liked our tree: "It's so outgoing," she said. I laughed so hard. Is that a nice way of telling me the tree takes up the entire room?

I was able to make knitted gifts for almost everyone this year, because I went small. Hats rock. You can knit them on the train, and (depending on the pattern) you can make one in a few days. I ended up making 4 Amanda hats, 2 Zeebees, 1 Hat Fit for a Boyfriend, 2 Winter Warmers. I also made some hanging towels from the new Mason-Dixon Knitting book, a scarf, some socks, and some fingerless gloves. Everyone was amazed at how much I did, but some of the stuff I had completed very early in the year and saved for Christmas giving, and the hats were so quick and easy, that I really don't think it was that big a deal. I appreciate that everyone lets me pass off to them the end-results of my hobby.

My favorite patterns, as is obvious from my stats, were the Amanda and Zeebee hats. I want to make more of these--they are so much fun to make and they FOs looks great.

Here is the Amanda I gave to Jill, made with Malabrigo Worsted:

WOW! Now I understand why everyone goes crazy over Malabrigo. This was a joy to knit, and the finished hat is soooooo soft and squooshy. I want one.

Here is one of the Zeebees, made with Knitpicks Cadena:

Very manly, eh? I want one for myself, in a heathery teal. What do you think?

Christmas was great. I got the breadmaker I asked for, and it works wonderfully. I bought Rich the Xbox game he wanted and a golf bag. We bought Mathboy the complete set of The Far Side (making good use of all the coupons we kept getting through the Christmas season), a sand wedge, and a bunch of other stuff. Cat Girl got ...

... an iPod Shuffle. Not the Nano that all the girls at school were probably going to get, but we figured a 10 year old did not need a Nano. Let's see how she does with the Shuffle. Already, she left it at her cousins' house over Christmas, and is waiting to have it mailed home. Hmm. Not the best of starts.

Other popular gifts included the PJs to match the ones belonging to Nellie ...

(see our out-going tree in the background), and various other doll accessories, and the gift that is causing me to hear the High School Musical Soundtrack in my sleep: HSM dance pad game for XBox.

Wait: We should backtrack again. With the many gifts that were requested for the Xbox this year, you'll never believe what happened the week before Christmas. We got the Red Ring of Death on our XBox. Of ALL things...! Rich had to disconnect it and have it shipped to Texas for repair, which, although free, would take 3 weeks. What a drag. We knew that this was going to take some of the fun out of Christmas: here's the Xbox game you wanted so much, sorry you can't play it until the stupid console gets fixed, but Merry Christmas anyway! In the end, we decided to buy a used console at Gamestop. It did not cost that much, and we heard that the Red Ring of Death can recur, so it will be nice to have an Xbox unit in reserve if that happens again.

We stayed home on Christmas Day, had a slug fest and played with all our new toys. Then on Dec. 26th, we packed up and went to my parents' house to see my side of the family. We exchanged more gifts, and had a nice visit. BUT I forgot to take pictures!

Then, bright and early on Dec. 27th, we jumped back in the Rav4 and drove to Charlotte to see Rich's side of the family. We exchanged more gifts! Had some great visits with grandparents, aunt, uncle and cousins. I did remember to take some pictures:

How'd everyone get so Grown Up??!!

Ages, left to right: 10, 10, 12, 16, 14 (almost) ... WOW!

We got in some letterboxing:

Here is Cat Girl refusing to give up looking in this hollow tree for the box that was supposed to be there. And guess what? She was right. It WAS there. She found it.

With all that car time, I got in some serious knitting, and I am proud to say I got some UFOs finished so I could start the new year without them hanging over me. I finished these socks, which, I actually first started when I was sitting in Barnes and Noble waiting for the last Harry Potter to be released (July 2007, right?):

These are made in the Knittery old cashmere blend. I hated this yarn, I hated this stitch pattern, and put these socks down for months and months. 18 months, to be exact. Now they are done, and they are comfortable to wear, as I thought they would be. Actually, that was the only thing that kept me from throwing these away ages ago. Anyway, I am very glad to have these done.

I also finished the Lace Ribbon Scarf, although not in time to give to anyone for Christmas:

It turned out a little short, but otherwise is simply beautiful. I just knitted until I ran out of yarn, and since these skeins are hand dyed at Woolbearers, I would not have been able to get another skein to match, so this length will have to do.

I also finished a couple dishcloths, and got several inches in on my Inishmore. I did another square for the Great American Afghan, which means I now have 7 squares out of 25 done. And I started a new pair of socks:

This is Fleece Artist Merino 2/6 in an unknown colorway. I traded for it with someone on Ravelry. It is very pretty.

Finally, we are doing our best to get Mathboy into Moorestown Friends School for next year. He definitely needs to move. Unfortunately, he got into some trouble at school in December, so Rich and I did not feel the time was good to ask his teachers to write recommendations for him. What would we say? "Yes, we know he drives you and the other kids crazy by calling out answers, but would you mind writing us a recommendation? Thanks so much." Maybe we should remind them that if they write a good rec they will be able to get rid of him for next year? Maybe not.

Mathboy is very frustrated because he says he is not learning very much. He gets classes with the middle school teachers now, but they are not doing much that he doesn't already know, so he is bored. Meanwhile, I really don't like his main teacher for this year. I really don't want to deal with him, but I have to. I already had to meet him about Mathboy's misbehaviour before Christmas and now we have our regular academic conference next week. I don't think this guy knows how to handle Mathboy. He has decided that Mathboy needs to learn humility. Well, he could have a point here. But I can see that Mathboy may be having trouble with that when his teachers don't teach him anything he doesn't already know.

On an essay that Mathboy wrote for the English teacher back in November, he got a great deal of helpful contructive criticism from the English teacher, and there were also a few comments from the main teacher.

Here is an example of one of the main teacher's comments. Mathboy had typed "Thank You" at the end of his essay, which we, as adults, know is not really appropriate at the end of an essay. That is what a teacher should teach him, right? He is only 12 and has not had a lot of writing experience at this school. So, first, the teacher wrote that there was no need to put "thank you" here, and then he added:

"Are you expecting a prize, or some appreciation of your sharing of your intelligence? Are you thanking me for reading it? Has *humility* [underlined] not sunk in yet?"

HOW is this appropriate criticism? HOW is this contructive?

I do not like this guy.

Well, that's enough for this update, I think! Back to my laundry.