I'm Baaaaaack!

I've been in a blogging funk. I'm not sure why. Perhaps I've gotten sucked into the national sour mood. I'm fortunate to be employed in a job I love, but unless you've been under a rock, you know that education has been a hot topic in the news these days. The message is that public schools are bad, public school teachers are lazy and don't give a shit about kids, charter schools are good and the Teach for America volunteers who agree to teach for 2 years with only 5 weeks training will save America's schools. I read that I my job performance should be evaluated by the gains in test scores of elementary kids who have no incentive to do well on said tests or who face no consequences for not doing well. There are those who feel that my salary should be determined by those same test scores. Given that I teach in a school that is 92% minority, 65% free and reduced lunch, and at least a third who don't speak English, I find the rhetoric to be depressing. Those of us who do what I do understand that this is all about political spin, saving money and ultimately privatizing public education. Hopefully no major changes will occur in my district until I retire in 2016. Our state superintendent, however, has other ideas. Keep in mind that this is a woman who probably hasn't been in a classroom in 40 years. The legislature is keeping her in check however and some major decisions now rely on the governor to make some choices. Hopefully he will use basic common sense and read some research pertaining to the issues he has to decide on.

Enough of my rant! I've been busier than ever at school as I lost a planning period and gained another class which is a new prep. However I have this to look forward to:

Mmmmmm. . . . MadelineTosh!

The green merino light is currently being used for a sweater. The brown on the left will be another sweater. The two singles--blue merino light and red sock will be shawlettes.

Speaking of shawlettes--Here are the two I recently finished:

 The first one is called Fan Dance and it is knit in Sanguine Gryphon Kypria which is a merino/bamboo blend.  It's simply delicious to knit with!  The second one is called Ruffle My Feathers and it is knit in Wollenstudio Sock yarn in Blue Bijou.

Here's another silly little project:

 

I loved the little iron on transfer so I decided to add it to a basic black tee!  

Other news--the kids have moved in together in the first floor apartment in Ems' building.  Her building is a gorgeous large house built around 1900.  They have the whole first floor and they enjoy some neat architectural details like oak paneled walls, ornate fireplaces, stained glass windows, 12 foot ceilings etc.

Kitty news--Samantha was diagnosed with cancer.  She had a little growth between 2 toes which we had removed.  The biopsy revealed it to be a slow growing cancer in the skin so in order to remove enough clean margin, she had to go back in to have half of her hind foot amputated.  She seems completely back to normal and hopefully we've seen the last of that!

Holiday time is fast approaching and I decided that my furry friends outside needed some help so I hung our squirrel feeder on the tree in the front yard.  The squirrels are rather comical to watch.  Sometimes there are 4 or 5 of them out there but only one at a time can get to the feeder.  They sit on a perch and open the top lid to get the food.  When the food gets low, some of them will go inside the feeder and when they hear a noise, the lid pops up as they poke their head out to investigate.  Well, apparently word has gotten out because the other night, a new friend was visiting:

 

DH was bothered by our new visitor and thought we should take the feeder down.  You know me--I thought he was cute and I welcomed him.  He cleaned out the feeder but he hasn't returned.  Perhaps he's found a better feast elsewhere.

This will be the first Thanksgiving without Jeremy.  He has to work Wed. night and Friday morning so he can't make it from the Burgh.  Ems is in the same situation so she may not make it either.  We're still waiting to find out.  I do have a good friend coming.  We hope to go see the new Harry Potter movie after dinner Thursday.

I plan on staying in on Black Friday.  I can think of no sale that would be worth putting myself through that madness.  That's what Ebay and Overstock.com are for!

I hope to be better about keeping up here.  I have a new blog project, however.  I was so depressed after the midterm election that I decided to try my hand at political humor.  You can find my alter ego at The Fake American.   Enjoy and be sure to leave comments!

Kitty Cam: The boys have been throwing hints with the weather getting colder.  They love the fireplace.

 

New projects!

I've been really lazy. I should be finishing up my 2 lace sweaters for the SKC KAL. I have one sleeve to do on the red mohair Birgitte and I'm ready to divide the sleeves and body on my top down Sylvar. I need to get them done in time to wear them before the weather gets hot! I have a couple of spring sweaters to make and my nephew's wife is pregnant with a girl so I have to plan that project! I think I will knit wool stuff in the summer. I have several sweaters I wanted to make for the winter that I didn't get to. I really don't wear summer sweaters so I'm thinking that I will work on them in the summer to have them ready. I will also try to tackle the Gail shawl which will be nice for summer.

Right now, I am focused on sewing. I've made a wool skirt but I need to line it before it can be modeled. I received the lining in the mail 2 days ago and I'll work on finishing that up after I make my new project which has a deadline. I had shown this pattern before:

I ordered the fire engine red silk crepe and from Golden Silks. It is simply gorgeous! I also ordered matching Bemberg rayon lining and sew in interfacing from Vogue Fabrics. I had ordered a color card for Ambiance lining from them a while back and it has been a real time saver. I have swatches of all 35 colors which I can use to match my garment fabric so now I just go online and order the lining. It sure beats driving to Rockville! I am now waiting for the stainless steel boning as this gown has a boned foundation.

I have to say that these more recent gown patterns by Belville Sassoon are crazy. I've always been good at reading the directions and knowing what to do but I had to literally study the instructions for this pattern 3 times in order to digest how it is constructed. The other thing is that there are 20 pattern pieces! Each piece is cut on a single layer of fabric as the gown in asymmetrical so there are separate side pieces for each side of the bodice front and back as well as bodice center front and back pieces. The skirt is the same way. The drape pieces are bizarrely shaped. Anyway I cut out the basic bodice and skirt pieces in muslin after carefully taking my measurements and redrafting some of the pieces. I will be fitting the muslin today.

Once that is done, I figure it will take me two nights to cut out the fabric. I have to cut it out on the floor since the fabric is opened to the full width. I dug out my gardening knee pads in order to do that comfortably. I don't know why I hadn't thought of that years ago!

I love evening gowns and I'm tickled that now I have occasions to wear them. It was with that knowledge that I picked up another pattern at the Vogue sale:



This is another tricky one! My problem with this is the way the pattern is sized. Sizes 4-6-8 or sizes 10-12-14 were my choices. I bought the larger size but a 10 is too big at the bodice and will need to be sized down. This dress has no side seams and the zipper runs diagonally. It is going to be a tricky one to alter. I love it though. I like the color shown and think a muted olive green would be gorgeous!

I also picked up another Vogue dress pattern and a McCall's pattern:




I included the line drawing of the Vogue dress to show the details which are quite interesting. I love the McCall's dress. It is the type of style that is really flattering on my body type. I have stash fabric that will work for that one!

That's it for now. I have to do my Sunday facial and get sewing!

Kitty Cam: Harley is in his favorite morning sunny spot!

The things we Caps fans will do to get to a game!

DH spent about 10 hours shoveling. Our driveway is 140 feet long and he shoveled a crapload of snow! There is no place to put it. Since the Caps-Pens game was the NBC game of the week, they weren't going to change it and it went on at noon as originally scheduled. We carefully went through the neighborhood, to Rt. 32, Rt. 95 and the Capital beltway to Bethesda. I was amazed at how bad Wisconsin Avenue in Bethesda was! The metro was swamped and I think everyone on there was going to the game. It was quite a party atmosphere. We were packed on like Sardines and we got to Verizon Center a few minutes after the puck drop. I was bummed during the game because the Caps were down 2 - 0 then Ovie scored 1. Then were were down 3 - 1. They must have decided that they weren't ready to break their winning streak and they came back third period to tie it up 4 - 4. So on to sudden death overtime and we won! It would've sucked royally to go to such effort to get there only to lose! We now have a 14 game winning streak. If we can win the next three games (right up to the Olympic break) we will tie the NHL record of a 17 game winning streak--held by (who else) the Pens!

Here's what the wall of snow looks like in our driveway:



Dug out just in time for the next storm coming on Tuesday! They are now saying 6 - 12 inches! I'm so glad that I have a sense of humor!

Kitty cam: Meanwhile, the boys enjoyed a spot of sun while hinting for a fire!

Busy weekend!

I've had a busy weekend! Friday, my friend Cat and I headed to the Burgh to see the kids. I had to bring Jeremy's car that we got him and pick up our station wagon so we decided to make a weekend of it. Friday morning we stopped at Joann's before heading out where I picked up some patterns on sale:



I figured I can make these from stash. I also got a vintage apron pattern and a purse pattern.

Then we headed out. We got to the burgh around 2:00 and ate at the Square Cafe where Ems is now working. It's a really nice place and the food was good! We headed off to check in to our hotel and picked up Ems when she got home. After stopping by Right by Nature to see Ems' roomate, we headed to the Warhol Museum to see the Shepard Fairey exhibit which was wonderful. Saturday, we went to Squirrel Hill and to Little's Shoes to look around. I was perfectly controlled and didn't buy anything there for a change. I did get some nice loose teas at the little tea shop on Forbes. We then went to the Carnegie museum to see the dinosaurs! It was a great exhibit! I'm sorry we didn't have more time to see more of the museum. We quickly went through the Polar Life exhibit and the Egyptian exhibit. News of the weather at home was making us a bit nervous as we were originally expecting about 2 inches of snow. When I checked the weather, they had increased the warning to 5 - 7 inches! We had a quick dinner at Mad Mex then headed out around 6:30.

The trip home was uneventful but we could see that snow had fallen once we got to Hagerstown. It was clearly worse in Howard County so we just took it slow. I was surprised that a couple of the bigger roads had not been plowed! We got home about 11:30 and Cat headed to her place. I was wound up from the trip so I ended up staying up quite late then sleeping in today.

I spent part of the day finding fabric online for my next big sewing project. It turns out that I have a formal to go to in March so I decided to make another gown. I wanted something elegant and I had a pattern on hand that met my needs.

This pattern is now out of print and I don't think that Vogue carried it for a long time. It took me a while to digest the instructions as they are really involved and hard to visualize. There are also a lot of pieces because it is assymetrical so most of the pieces are cut out in a single thickness of fabric. I only found one review on Pattern Review and it looked alright except that it had been made out of polyester which I don't think really works with this type of design. The folds in the drape don't lie flat with a synthetic and this type of garment really needs to be made of silk. I found a 30mm weight heavy silk crepe in bright red at Thai Silks and on Ebay and I've requested swatches. I will also have to order boning and figure out how I will bustle the train. I really love this gown.

Other news--I ordered some Icon Shoes! Those who know me know that I LOOOOVE Icon Shoes! They had a 50% off sale which included 50% off of sale items. I ended up with a make up bag and 2 pairs of sandals!



I'm thinking that I might get the purse to go with the "Yes We Can" shoes!

That's about all that's been going on. I'm plugging away at my red sweater and I've reached the end of the body up to the armholes. I now have to do the sleeves then join them and knit the yoke. I haven't gotten much done on that the last week because I had my winter concert and grades to do!

That's about it for now! Have a great week!

Kitty Cam: The tuxedo twins, Samantha and Harley, are spending some quality time together.

The Aftermath . . .

Looks like about 2 feet of snow! If we don't get at least 2 snow days out of this, I'll be most disappointed!

Kitty Cam: Bar has taken to the new Christmas Sweater Tree Skirt!

Goings on!

I've been busy at school and trying to get some things made. That's pretty much what's been going on around here. I did decide to go back to decorating for Halloween. In fact I did this the last weekend in September!

That's a sample from the dining room!

I knocked off some little projects. I love knitting hats, so I knit 2 baby hats--both exactly the same. Here's a photo of one of them:
I love this little pattern. It's a free pattern from Spud & Chloe yarns and fortunately I had some stash yarn which fit the bill! I also made a beret for myself. I had seen it in the Knit One magazine and I had the yarn the pattern called for, courtesy of my secret pal! I'm not thrilled with the result, however. I looked at the projects on Ravelry and many of the people said that the hat was really large. I knit a swatch and got gauge but I decided to knit the ribbing on size 2 needles instead of the size 3 called for in the pattern. I switched to the 3 for the body of the hat. I probably should not have done that. The hat turned out much larger and drapier than the photo. It's a little loose so I am going to weave some clear elastic thread through the ribbing to give it some support.


Once I fit the ribbing, I'll model the hat!

I'm putting aside my summer knitting and starting on my winter projects. I'm about one third of the way through the Vine Yoke Cardigan. I'm really enjoying this pattern. It has a rather unusual construction. It was one of the selections of the Sexy Knitters' Club KAL. I would like to do two more of their selections:


The sweater is called Vivian and I love it. I've decided to pass on knitting it for now because I know that I wouldn't get it finished. I'm looking for faster projects. I did buy the pattern and I will make it at some point. The shrug is a real quick knit and I ordered some Tilli Tomas black beaded kid mohair/silk and a black wool/alpaca blend from KnitPicks. I want to make this to wear with my gown to the SAR ball in Dec.

I haven't done much sewing lately and I have to finish a sun dress I was working on. I'm going to finish the dress except for the zipper. I'm losing a little weight and the dress is fitted so I figure that I can take it in before putting in the zipper next spring if I need to. I did participate in a Christmas apron swap so I made an apron from a vintage pattern reissue:
I love the fabric! It's got kitties and yarn balls! My swap partner has 5 cats and she loves to knit so this was perfect! I may have to make one of these for myself!

I moved into a new purse a few weeks ago! I'm not one of those people who changes purses with outfits. I get a really good bag and I use it for literally years until it is worn out. My old icon bag with the Klimt painting of Adele on it was looking a little worn and I found a great Icon bag on clearance on their website: The trick for me is to not load it up and make it heavy. I'm able to stick a water bottle and a small knitting project in it which is nice.

So that's about it for me! Ems was in her first public scrimmage Tuesday night. Here she is as Crushin' Dior with the Steel City Derby Demons:

Kitty Cam: It's Super Harley!

Water water everywhere!

It poured today so I stayed in. The weather has been lovely otherwise. I love Boston. It feels like home to me. It represents everything that I love about the northeast. I will take some photos tomorrow. Yesterday I went to Providence RI. I love that city too and in reality, I can see us retiring there as it is so much more affordable than Boston and less than an hour away. Rhode Island, known as the Ocean State, is beautiful in the summer. There is water everywhere and there are hydrangeas all over the place! I'm partial to blue flowers so seeing hedges of hydrangeas makes me very happy. Providence is easy to get around and in most places you can just pull up to the curb and park for free--unlike Boston where you will pay $8 per hour in a lot. Even more surprising were some of the housing prices in the East Side which is near Brown Univ which is a lovely neighborhood. First I saw this house:
This one is out of my price range. It is going for a little over a million dollars. Compared to the DC market, that's not bad given that this house has 10 bedrooms and 6 baths. It is huge and gorgeous!
The next two are well within our price range. If I could afford to retire, I'd work on talking DH into the first house which is being sold as a short sale at $349K. That's less than our house is worth and this one has 9 bedrooms and 5 baths. It is divided up into 3 three bedroom units with the one on the first floor having central air. I figure you could live on the first floor and rent out the other two.
The third house is also in the $300,000's. It has a unit on the first floor with 2 bedrooms and then the 2nd and 3rd floors make up a townhome unit with 4 bedrooms. Again--you would live in one and rent the other.
I think purchasing a multifamily unit will be the way to go! We'll see how we feel when the time comes.

I have spent most of my time here buried in microfilm. After a while, your eyes go nuts with this! I'm always amazed that there is still more to discover about my ever expanding family tree! Being in Boston means that there is a lot of walking involved. Fortunately my foot is a lot better though I've had to stick to ugly shoes for the time being.

I would not be seen in public in those shoes at home! I'm hoping to be in my heels when school starts as I have 4 pretty sun dresses to make and ugly shoes just won't do!

I visited two yarn shops. The first, Windsor Button, is in downtown Boston a block away from the Commons. It's been there since 1936 and has every type of button imaginable. They have started carrying yarn and have a nice selection. In fact they have the best section of Malabrigo that I've seen in one place. I bought two very large and fancy mother of pearl buttons by Lantern Moon and 2 skeins of silky Malabrigo in a beautiful teal. The color is lighter than in the photo. I think the yarn will be a scarf. I also got a gift for my secret pal which cannot be divulged here!

The other shop I visited was in Providence. It is called Fresh Purls and it is an absolutely lovely little shop. They have an incredible selection of nonwool yarns and I got to see and feel some yarns that I'd seen online and wondered about. I bought a skein of Malabrigo worsted to make myself a Struan hat. I had been looking for the right color and this color will go with my Shalimar fingering yarn that I'm using to make my Entagled Stitches gloves.

The colors look gray in the photo but they are a lovely medium spring green! I'm itching to start those gloves but I will have to swatch. The pattern is only for a size large and the gauge is 30 st. to 4 in. on size 2.5 mm needles. I figured that I need to get a gauge of 36 st. to 4 inches so I will swatch on a 2.0 mm needle to see how it goes.

My other project before I left home was to put together a package for my Cuppa Tea swap pal. We did a tea towel swap. I love linen tea towels so I decided to make a vintage style one using the colors of her kitchen. I bought Irish linen and made a scalloped hem on the bottom and a hanging loop on the top. I used a vintage embroidery design from the 1940's and hand embroidered it using her colors. It turned out quite well! I may have to make some of these for myself as I love them!



I have to go work on my homework!

Kitty Cam: Harley looks so regal when the other kitties aren't around!