Is it really a New Year?

I've been really busy the past couple of weeks, but I haven't at the same time. My school went virtual for two weeks because 40% of my division and 30% or so of others were in quarantine. I'm talking teachers, not students. We were allowed to work from home, so I did. I appreciated the opportunity to ease back in. However, let me just say: teaching is HARD. Teaching 3 year olds is HARD. If we are virtual, it's a little physically easier, but it's emotionally exhausting. In person, it's both. We go back in person on Monday. It's Saturday now. I do love my job, though. Early Childhood education is a joy.

Okay, so it doesn't really feel like a New Year, because the past several months bleed together. COVID life is wild. I always make resolutions to grow as a person each year, and this year I thought of them, but I never did anything about it. I like to draw out something that represents them, so I have a visual to motivate me. This year its: Remember who you are, focus on joy, and continue to be kind. Illustrating them would really make me feel like it's a New Year. I need to get that done.

On a separate note, I felted a butterfly, my last thing before I gave up on the Waldorf training. It's got some good ideas (only a few, I think), but I am really tired of white men telling me how to teach. Also, I went blonde! Or I began the process so my hair doesn't fall out.

Lastly, I have a new goal to share what's on my needles every month. Look for that in a couple weeks!

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THE blanket

There was this blanket I heard about ages and ages back, near to when I started in 2018. I don't remember exactly when I found it, but it came up repeatedly. As a novice knitter, I was intimidated by a large blanket, so I pushed it out of my mind. By the time I was ready, I had started selling things. I had to get ready for a convention, so no time. On and on the excuses came: art show, Christmas gifts, quarantine. Sure, quarantine in 2020 was probably the best time to make a blanket, but this one was never really high on my list of things to do. I had a list of sweaters I wanted to make, a couple half started projects to finish, and techniques I wanted to learn. Quarantine eased, and I was hired in Guatemala. Cue the list of projects that will use up yarn AND I could bring with me. This project uses up yarn, but I never would have been able to get it here. And since moving here, I fell in love with blankets, even though it never really gets that cold in Guatemala. But hey, it...

What's (been) on the needles? June 2022

My oh my, has it really been a whole month? I guess so! In the past month I finished the school year, tracked down paperwork to bring my dog to the US, flew back to Virginia, got a hair cut, and visited many of my old haunts. I love it here, at least I do for the time being. Once the weather heats up I will NOT like it so much. I fly back to Guatemala the end of next month. So, what are my plans for the summer? Well, I'm going on a roadtrip with my sisters, stopping in Ohio to visit my brother and his children, teaching a knitting class July 9, and selling at a sci-fi mini-con July 23-24. That brings me to what's on the needles: SO. MANY. THINGS. I found out I was going to be a vendor with only two months to plan. I gave away my entire inventory before I left, so I had to start from scratch. I have a goal of 5 scarves ✓ 10 cowls (halfway) 20 hats (5 to go) Bookmarks once I meet those quotas As a part of this, I needed to make example projects for my knitting class. I am hap...

I had a dream...

I have had this post as a draft for ages because the life of a preschool teacher can never be predicted. I was in the doldrums for a long time, but I'm back! Hopefully that means more blog posts... Anyway Back in late January (just after my birthday) a friend of mine from Ireland came back to the US. She'd been stuck at home because of COVID, so she only just got back from Christmas. As a birthday/Christmas gift she gave me some beautiful Irish wool in dark speckled green and a grey-white. The quality is amazing and I absolutely LOVED working with it. Well, a few days after she gave me the yarn I had a dream...a song to sing...No. No going off with Abba lyrics. Okay, so I had a dream of the sweater I would make with it. There were a few variations in the dream, boat neck, long sleeves, no sleeves, mock turtleneck...but there was a deep green ribbing and a thick white, thin green stripe on each one. I thought about the weather here and decided to go with a sleeveless mock turtle...

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