As usual...

So this once agian has been a long post in my abcence. I have been busy crafting and not posting.
I was busy with the shop hop in the twin cities and other things afterwards.

Th shop hop is a simple idea. For yarn shops you are getting people in your shops that you otherwise would not get in and they buy things. For the hoppers they get to explore shops they would not otherwise see or know about.
 Each shop offers a charm to the first five hundred people who give a food shelf donation of food or money in that shop. They also collect names and offer three door prizes per day as well as a first prize for anyone during the shop hop.
Each frist prize is given out of a large pot of prizes from yarn companies. The grand prize is also picked out of the prizes from the companies.

Because the Twin Cites has a vibrant and active yarn community such a thing is possible. In other cities a rival yarn store may mean certain death, but up here in the "great white north" yarn is shared by all and we know that no one shop can carry it all.
The Shop Hop lasts for four days, and usually has a few thousand people do at least two shops. As a knitter I love it because I can go somewhere in my city and know not only where the shop is, but have an idea of what they carry. Some are spinning shops, some are cross stitching, some are good on independant dyers, some are all name brand. I lov having a pulse on my city and knowing what I am getting into with each one, or at least what they carry if I am looking for a project.

That said I have a great nephew that will be born in September and he needs another blanket! (His grandma is knitting him one!) With him in florida and grandma knitting a lace blanket in green I opted for a striped blanket in green, blue, red, and yellow with a main grey. We will see who wins this war!! (Pics to follow)

AlsoI have been working on a project caddy for the outside work that my job needs. I knit a cotton bag and strap for Peaches and Creme "Magic at Midnight". This lead to a nice bag that needs a lining. Once doon it will let me carry my knitting everywhere with minimum fuss. It will not hold a wallet/cell/keys/yarny project but it will let me hold a knitting project close to hand while doing the outdoors thing.
Pics to follow with finished product.

I am also working on spinning some yarn that will be beautiful once I get it done. Its Color Mountain "Firestorm". I love it, and will go to buy the second half on the 4oz skein on Monday.
The first half looks good and I hope to have a pic or two ready on monday.

While you were away

Sorry for the picless post. My camera is awol thanks to a little someone who wanted to photograph the chipmunks outside. I promise some pics as soon as it shows up!

So spring has officially come early. The grass is growing and the leaves are out on the trees. Knowing where I lie it will start snowing in a week, but for now we all live in hope that this might be a wonderfully early spring. Sadly March has passed in a blur.
My knitting class has ended with many new hopeful knitters created. Some are eagerly awaiting the next round of classes in two weeks, but others I wont see agian till next winter. Planning the next round of classes for both Knitting levels One and Two plus adding on some Friendship Bracelet classes at the local Elementary school has kept me busy.

On the other hand I am busy knitting demo pieces for both classes. Sadly I am having to create many of the patterns myself. What I want for the class just does not exist.
In the mean time my spinning wheel sits idle with wool next to it. Considering the wool festival is coming up agian I need to spin some so that I can get more fiber.

And to top it off I found two new yarns at Joanns over the weekend. Both Joanns brands, and I am egar to try them out in the time I dont have. I bought Caribbean and Breeze. Both are giving about 400-600 yards a ball which for the price of almost $8 each I would hope so.
Breeze was released last summer but I guess it was pulled from shelves for winter. At least thats what the people on Ravelry are saying. It is a wrapped yarn so it looks like a big spiral.
Caribbean looks to be new, and while it is listed at worsted weight I think it is more of a sport/DK. It is dense so i will have to limit it to smaller things and smaller needles.

Hibernation

Alright. Lets review quick.

The first big snow of the season is finally here. School is in, but the crafter has today off from work. Its 9:00 am.

Outside looks like this.

Inside it looks like this

One more time. Outside looks like this...

Inside looks like this...

OK, pop quiz. Where is the crafter today?

A. Outside

B. Inside

Remember that your whole grade rests on this test. No makeups!

So far behind

Ever get that feeling you are running as fast as you can but still falling behind? Yeah, thats where I am. Getting so much done and yet only falling farther and farther behind.

Knit class at school is going great, the kids are loving it and chomping at the bit to learn faster than I will teach. I think its cute they are threatening to look up Purling and teach themselves. I actually encourage it because I do want them to be independant.

Setting up and getting materials proved to be a challenge. Two extra kids were added to my class and it added to my stress greatly. I did manage to get two extra needle and yarn sets as well as procure a wonderful parent to help out. In return her daughter can join the class for free even though the deadline for registration was passed.

When the kids finally showed up it turned out that five of them already knew how to knit. That helped out alot and it went smoothly from there.
We started out purling project and will finish up with our last one in the remaining three weeks.

We got stuck in the old Home Ec. room, but that actualy turned out great. Treats will abound and of course this kind of thing used to be common in here.

See that? A kid reading a chart and marking her rows! All by her self. She is even smiling!! Yup I taught her that.
 I think the bright yarn colors are helping.

 And with Valentines day just past my daughter had a lovely time making all the cards for her classmates.

She got to pick the paper and design the cards with a little help from grandma.

The hardest part was the writting as her fine motor skills need some work.

 She the pride in her work? I love that given the option of buying or making cards she choose to make them.

Of course being she is five she lost intrest after about a half an hour. I took over and carried on with her design plan.


Moving on... I am testing out some yarns to see if they will work for the summer Kids Knits classes.
Oh yeah didnt I tell you about that? Summer classes. Got the paperwork in late but the director is a sweet heart and very eager to have me teaching. Kids knits. Oh yeah and a Crochet 101 class. (And perhaps a Knitting 101 and Knitting 102 but we wont mention those.)

On the other hand I will be teaching another Knitting 101 and a brand new Knitting 102 this spring. Expect more pics as April hits us up.

Also a friendship bracelet class for the 4th and 5th graders at my daughters school.
(Did I not mention that one either? See what happens when I get swamped. I forget/deny things.)  This one might get out of hand. Bracelets tend to be very popular, and with the ease of the project and the short turn around for this class I worry that high demand for this might be the death of me. I limited it to ten students so they cant tear me apart but I have a feeling that this could get out of control with demand quite quickly. There are 100-150 kids per grade in that school. With two grades worth of kids that means about 100-150 kids will possibly be interested. With only ten per class and a $10 price for the class I might be in trouble. Good thing embroidery floss is dirt cheap so this class might actually pay me something.

On another note I am setting up for a Cross Stitch Class as well. We might try a few small kits and see how one goes. I think this one might also have to wait till next fall. So while I waited I test stitched the kiddie kit. Pic later when I find my camera. (See I told you I was busy!)

Promised Update

So I have news on my knitting class, it is on for next monday. I set the limit at 15 thinking I might get as many as 12 kids signed up. Well the director called me and said that the class was filled and that she was holding two more registartions in her hand. She wanted to know if she had to tell the parents sorry or if I could handle two more. Yeah... so I have a class of 17 ready for me! I may or may not have a few other adults ready to help out with this. If not I fear teh men with white coats might be paying me a visit afterwards.
In other news the cross stitch projects are coming along nicely. I hope to have a pic up soon. Please forgive the boringness of the picless blog.
On the wheel side of the room I am starting up a whole slew of smaller spinning projects to get them out of the way. I have a nice brown/electric blue/lime green/purple project that will be fun. I also have a few solid colros I need to spin for a striping project I hope to knit up one day.
As always the batts are calling and the angelica is sparkeling invitingly so I am afriad this will be brief. Check in next week to hear how this class will go and for some much needed pics!

A New Year

So after an awful start to a crafting blog I have decided to start agian.
I hearby vow to blog at least once a week and to keep crafting for a whole year. We will see what happens then.
For todays blog I am going to talk about what will be happening soon as I am very excited about it.
I work in a school. A middle school to be exact.
I have voluntered to teach a knitting class. I have set the Minimum as seven but I know that I can get more than that.
There was a knitting club two years ago, but they were disbanded. I hope to get it going agian, but they would have to become self sustaining.
Because the local Community Education is having a hard time beliving that there could be so much intrest knittign they have said that they want to see how a class does before starting a year round club. I get this, and understand the support that such a club takes.
So I have started with an after school knitting class first.
My hope is that we can eventually offer a "Playing with Yarn", "More Playing with Yarn", and perhaps a "Still Playing with Yarn" to help kids learn differnt knit/crochet skills.
Next year I would love to offer a "In the Loop" Club for those who want to hang out and knit.
We will see how this goes. I have ordered 15 sets of needles just in case, and I hope to find out what is going on by the 23rd.

On the flip side I am also doing 12 cross stitch projects in 2012. One for each month. I hope to have a full and working calender by the end of the year. Perhpas for Jenny V as well as me considering she is the one who has cursed me with this infernal project. I will bring you pics just as soon as I can.