Other Pursuits

When not working on their school work or attending various classes, the kids have been busy:

Babysitting.  They have a weekly job at a church during a Bible study, and also babysit for the neighbors.

Singing in choirs.

Taking voice lessons.  Thalia was in a recital her voice teacher had a couple of weeks ago.  She started with the teacher back in September.  Annabeth started lessons after the recital.

(I love the acoustics in this recital hall, by the way.)

Girl Scouts, shown here at the skating rink.

Taking ballet. They take 2 different places, by the way, one of which uses Vaganova, and the other  seems to use more of a  Cecchetti style.  And, of course, they argue about why each has chosen the superior style.

Taking tap.  They are with the same teacher in the same class, so theoretically fewer arguments.

Thalia is in rehearsals for Scarlet Pimpernell.

Annabeth will be the Cat in Seussical.

Thalia is production assistant for Seussical.

******

In the meantime, I've been crocheting a boatload of collars (19 total) for the Irish Dance studio:

 A wad of 8 collars.  Someone asked me if I was making basketball nets.

 Eight MORE collars, but pressed and folded.

 Three school collars.  

 Closeup of a school collar.  These are highly annoying to make.  At least one of the old collars disappeared when someone decided to clean it in straight bleach.  DON'T DO THAT!  Straight bleach will destroy the fibers, as they discovered when the entire thing sort of disintegrated.   Use water with a little bleach added.  Or use peroxide.  Otherwise I will stab you in the hand with one of those pointy metal crochet hooks 

I finished all of the crocheting last Thursday afternoon.  It's Monday afternoon, and my hands are still sore.

And now it's time to start some serious sewing for  Pimpernell.  I'm so glad I have quality help for this:

Work in Progress Wednesday

I keep thinking that I'm going to start blogging on a more regular basis, but then I get caught up in the transient pleasures of having clean dishes or clean laundry or a balanced checkbook or all the math homework graded.  Silly me.

Most of my free time -- also known as "time I'm sitting around waiting for someone who is currently in a class to which I drove them" has been spent crocheting:

Yes, the world competition of Irish Dance is in Boston this year, and our former school would like to send lots of teams, which means they're making new ceili team dresses, which means they need 16 new collars.  They're using the same pattern as they used for the choreography team a couple of years ago.

I've posted the pattern online on Ravelry for all the world to see and use, but they called me to make them.  We didn't discuss price beyond "we'll pay you for this."  Last time I donated my time and materials; I'm not planning to do so this time, but I'm pondering what to set as a fair price.

I've also been amassing fabric.  Annabeth is playing the Cat in Seussical later this spring, and we thought it would be fun to make a skirt from this fabric.  The blue will be the main fabric, and the white-on-red will be insets.  We found it at Fabric.com.

Fabric.com had a big sale at the time, and I bought some other stuff to make tshirts and tops.  I also threw out an equivalent amount of fabric odds and ends from the closet where I store all of this stuff -- I took the Fabric.com box and filled it to overflowing with scraps, then pitched it all in the trash.  Yay me for not accumulating more than I'm using up, right?

Except JoAnn had a sale on character cottons, flannels, and fleece, PLUS had an extra 25% off if you showed your educator discount card.  Well, who could resist this stuff:

I would've bought more of that stuff on top, but someone else beat me to it.  I have no clue what I'm going to do with any of this except the red, which is flannel -- that is going to be jammy pants for Thalia.  Assuming I ever get around to sewing anything, that is, given that I' spending even less time sewing than I am blogging.  We'll see.

Christmas Finale

We finished up Christmas this past weekend.  This year we had 2 weekends of relatives coming to our house, followed by Christmas Day, followed by a quick trip to Indiana to see more relatives.

Saturday we went to a hotel in Indianapolis, met Rick's parents for supper, and had Christmas with them at the hotel.

Then Sunday we headed to my sister's house for a brunch.  We toted along yet another Christmas craft project, an amigurumi Sneetch.

The star is attached with velcro, of course.

My parents love the story of the Sneetches, and occasionally do a reading of it.  Now they have a prop! Dad was quite amused when he opened the box.

After all, who really expects a Sneetch?

We had also made granola for gifts, although I've already lost track of the recipe.  This is highly annoying, since we'd planned to make more for ourselves.  Oh well.

Games were played, 

food was consumed, and then we zipped back home.  

Merry Christmas

Long time no blog!  While we were in silent mode, 

we have:

 Visited Santa

Saw Wicked at the Fox.  It was excellent.

Also, made lots of Christmas presents, like

this little bag that Annabeth sewed for me, and

this scarf I made for Thalia (uber-cool Tardis voile from Spoonflower), and

an amigurumi Dr. Who, 10th doctor (found the pattern on Ravelry), and

this little knitted fairy-rat I made for Annabeth (again, found the pattern on Ravelry), and

this bottle cap necklace featuring Sherlock that Thalia made Annabeth, and

these Dr. Who ornaments Annabeth made for Thalia (Spoonflower fabric, again -- a fat quarter was supposed to be used for finger puppets, but she stuffed them and attached Tardis-blue ribbons for hanging).

Plus, of course,

cookie making time!

Which had more of a Hobbit theme this year (yeah, the kids went to see the movie in IMAX that first Friday morning -- cheaper prices, but still able to see the Star Trek preview).

Then we were pretty much ready for Santa!

Happy Valentine's Day From the Gang

Annabeth's Girl Scout troop had a Secret Sis Valentine's swap.  They were to send anonymous cards/notes to their Secret Sis, and then present them with a small gift (under $5) at the Valentine's party.  Annabeth opted to make a Yoda from the set of Lucy Ravenscar's amigurumi patterns we have.  The recipient is quite the Star Wars fan, and has been taking photos of Yoda in various scenes.  He's shown here at our house propped against salt and pepper shakers.

Work in Progress Wednesday

CROCHET

Collars for Choreography team.

CUBE

The rats need some new cage furniture.

CAKE

Boston Favorite Cake from The Fanny Farmer Cookbook.  It involves separating eggs, whipping the whites, then folding them into the batter (action shot above).

Then frosted with the butter frosting we use for the Christmas cookies.  Other decorations and candles still to come.

Knitting and Crochet Class Finale

Our co-op had its Spring Open House, and is Officially Over. Our class once again had a display table at the Open House, this time highlighting crochet:



from which you can see the fascination with the amigurumi bunny egg cozies (free pattern on the Lion Brand site, but you must sign up for a password to access it). Some of the kids made DOZENS of these, putting them over plastic Easter eggs with little treats in them, then distributing them for Easter. Then, one of the girls (the one with the largest army of bunnies) developed a sudden fascination with the crocheted roses at PlanetJune, and suddenly EVERYONE was crocheting roses.

Many items had been given away in the course of the year, and some of the kids opted to not display their stuff for whatever reason (given that Annabeth's amigurumi hamster wandered off in the course of the evening, probably in the clutches of some little kid, you can understand the reluctance to display some of the really cool stuff)(we eventually found the hamster in the lost-and-found).

The one suggestion I'd make if you're teaching middle-to-high school kids crochet or knitting -- besides bringing in magazines and books for project inspiration, take along a laptop or tablet and connect them with Ravelry or somesuch so they can browse free patterns. Given some of the content on Ravelry, you might want to browse with them to steer them away from some of the weirder stuff (for example, don't type in "american girl" and expect to only get innocuous pictures of stuff for dolls -- the phrase is used for other things, too). That's how the student ended up on PlanetJune -- she'd been looking through the author's book, saw the site address, looked it up online to see if the author had a pattern for a llama (she does, but it isn't free), and ended up finding the free pattern for roses.

By the way, the Totoros in the pictures were mine. I'd taken them along in case we didn't have much to put on the table -- I never know what the kids will think to bring, or if several will forget to bring anything at all. Another tip: lots of times they forgot their projects when they came to class, so it was good to have extra yarn and hooks so they could make some little something (roses! bunnies!) during the class time.

So, I'm glad that's over. Really, I've always thought I would loathe being a middle school teacher, and although I liked the kids in the class, I still feel that way. Too much drama.

We thought this would be the end of our co-op experience, but we've decided to sign up for a couple of classes next year. Thalia will be taking Kinetic Physics there -- the teacher is a mom who was a mechanical engineer and is an excellent instructor. Annabeth wants to take the Shepherd's Life Science -- I've no clue about the program, but she thinks it will be grand. And when I asked what they wanted me to do, get this -- they want me to teach 3rd-5th grade science! YES -- the same grades as the Junior Girl Scout badge book! AND they have no preconceived notions of curriculum, so I have carte blanche, sort of.

Seriously, talking to the other moms, I think we're going to do Physical Science and maybe a little Botany. And the emphasis will be on things that are too messy, too smelly, too BIG to do at home. In other words, we're going to be throwing Mentos in diet coke, making Ooblek, cooking red cabbage for a pH indicator, and generally having a weekly science camp. If you have any gotta-try-it ideas, let me know.

Crochetville

I had decided to teach crochet in the spring to our co-op knitting and crochet class because I like crochet better than knitting when the weather warms up.

By random chance it happened that some of the kids were ready to start learning right before Christmas break. So I got them started. This worked well from the standpoint of working one-on-one with them. I just whipped out crochet hooks and yarn, did a brief demo of finger crochet, showed them how to use a hook to accomplish the same thing, then worked on single crochet into that foundation chain. Much discussion ensued about WHERE TO PUT THE HOOK -- under both loops? Does it matter? Interesting to discover that one of the girls who already crochets was under the impression that it really doesn't matter.

Also, much discussion about HOW TO HOLD THE YARN. I was pretty low key about how they held their yarn for knitting, but for crochet it's nearly impossible if it isn't in the left hand (if you're crocheting with your right hand) and it REALLY REALLY NEEDS TO come around the index finger or some other designated spot ("But, see, my index finger is crooked, so I can't do it that way." "First of all, it's gliding around the finger, so whether or not your finger is crooked doesn't make a difference. Second of all, if you don't want to use your index finger you can use your middle finger, but you're going to have it coming around SOMETHING."). I'd say those 2 things are a MUST (left hand, coming around a finger) but someone somewhere probably does an awesome job crocheting one handed or somesuch -- never say never -- but for these kids in this situation, left hand and yarn around a finger is their best bet.

After Christmas I made little foundation chains for everyone to practice on so they didn't have to mess with that first row, which is the toughest row (just like knitting).

The last time I taught someone to crochet was a couple of years ago when Thalia was working on a Scout project. I showed her how its done, she did it ... the whole lesson took less than 5 minutes. This time, though, I discovered a whole slew of things people could get wrong or be confused about. I've now analyzed every single movement I make with the hook in an effort to explain it to others. Gah. I can see why crochet is taught after knitting in Waldorf schools -- the thought process is different, and some people don't make the leap.

I've told them several times that I want them to learn the basics of crochet, then they can go back to knitting, if desired. Or they can decide to never knit again in their lives, and just crochet. (Or they can ditch both, but only after the class is done for the year.)

Anyway, after our rocky start, observing that people needed a sense of direction like the dishcloths we did in our knitting segment, I decided to show them how to make granny squares. This was taught to those who were interested -- those who'd already selected a project and wanted to work on that were welcome to (one girl who already knows how to crochet extremely well is working on knitting a hat, although she sometimes pauses to help other students with the crochet). I used written directions with a photo (link is pdf). One girl instantly zipped one out, just looking at the photo. Others ... struggled. It was really a range of abilities. So the next week I took ina chart. This really helped a couple of people. Plus it's a good idea to teach how to crochet from a chart, and I wish I'd thought of it before.

Annabeth really took off with the granny squares after this, making up an idea for mitts





and a matching headband.



Next up I plan to teach how to crochet amigurumi. I've had Annabeth giving it a try. We started out using patterns from Amigurumi World because I thought it was nice that you could make so many different animals from the same basic shape. Annabeth made a pink cat to try out the directions for me, since she's a beginner.



She did okay with it, but it occurred to me that some people in the class are going to really struggle -- they question each time they have to put the hook in a different stitch, they are somewhat unable to count rows and stitches, they question everything. I'm more the sort to say, "give it a whirl and see what happens, and if it isn't right rip it out and try again," but some people are so intense you'd think we're building nuclear reactors out of crochet; they're so wound up about whether they about doing everything EXACTLY RIGHT whilst concurrently unwilling to take responsibility for putting their crochet hook in the wrong stitch. Ack. It's exhausting to think about.

So I decided to do the Lion Brand egg cozy, which has less shaping and doesn't use safety eyes (a whole 'nuther potential for heartache, since once you put safety eyes in they're STUCK and can't be moved). This guy is festooning a plastic Easter egg, so he's tilty. Plus I sewed his ears on crooked, which I thought was sort of jaunty.




I used part of a cotton ball for the tail.



In the meantime, Annabeth pondered what she now knew about crochet ovoid shapes, and pondered one of her classmate's desire to crochet baby booties, and made up a pattern:



We need to take them next door to see how they work on baby feet.

She also made up a pattern for slippers for herself (another classmate wanted to find a pattern for slippers):



See, this is what is fun about crochet -- early in the game you can just mess around and make up your own stuff, assuming you're willing to accept the risk of make a total mess. I hope others in the class try designing their own stuff, too. I decided to take in some swatches so they could see the difference between, say, single crochet (on top) and double crochet (on bottom) and start to think about how they drape differently, how they curl, how would they work -- all handy things to know when designing, or, for that matter, deciding whether or not to crochet a particular pattern.



In the meantime, Thalia was inspired to use the Amigurumi World pattern for a pear




which she named George. I thought it should be named Malcolm (after Malcolm Reed on Star Trek Enterprise, of course).


And I've been working on more crochet collars for the Choreography Team dresses



which I've also taken in to class to show the kids. Again, perhaps it will inspire someone to try something new. Crochet is such a HUGE subject, and there are so many things to try. Too bad we don't have time to try them all.

Work in Progress Wednesday

Vogue 8379 -- wrap dress -- is finished, but everyone's gone and I'm not sure how to work the timer on the camera, nor am I inclined to find the instructions for the camera. So, a hanger shot:


Very simple to make, although I need to alter the bodice a bit next time -- it's sort of baggy-saggy, but the busy print camouflages that.


And, in crocheting news, a couple of Soot Sprites:



And working on another keychain-size Totoro. I'm using a 3.5mm crochet hook on this one (it's supposed to be a 3mm) and it has little holes in between the stitches. This has potential to look dorky with white stuffing in it. We'll see.


In the meantime, Thaia and Annabeth are at a musical theater camp this week, working on Razzle Dazzle (from Chicago) and Rock Island (from The Music Man). Thalia is also working on Good Morning Baltimore (Hairspray) and Shall We Dance (The King and I) plus a monologue from The Princess Bride in which Buttercup declares her love for Wesley. Annabeth is learning Maybe (Annie), doing a monologue from Anne of Green Gables (one of the teachers pointed out that she sort of has the Orphans Named Ann theme going on), and doing a bit from PIrates of Penzance in A Paradox. I think they present some sort of recital on Friday, but I'm really vague on this at the moment. I do know that they're having a great time and learning some stuff about the world of theater.

Summer 2010

Rick left for Mexico early Monday morning, and Thalia left for Oklahoma City (middle school youth group mission trip) Tuesday, which left Annabeth and I, along with the cats and the rats.

We went to the pool a lot. Annabeth claims we've been to the pool more this week than we were all of Summer 2009. I think she's close to being right.



We ate a lot of Doritos and sorbet. And those frozen miniature eclairs from Trader Joe's that you eat straight out of the box because they're better frozen.

But we made occasional forays into nourishing food. We tried to make hard boiled eggs into chibi Totoros, using black sesame seeds for the eyes. I think some sort of round white thing under the seed would help, but I'm not sure what to use insofar as something I'd want to eat with a hard boiled egg.



Chibi Totoro salad!



I did some more crocheting. This is a pattern for a keychain, but I think it would be a great Christmas tree ornament.



It also works for American Girl dolls.



We threw parties for the rats, decorating the playhouse with old newspapers, crepe paper streamers, and strings of popcorn.



They had a lovely snack bar of Cheerios (which they hid in the newspapers) and bread crusts (most of which they hid under the couch).



They also played Bobbing for Peas.



We also managed to get a little school work done, mostly Writing With Ease. Every summer we have visions of getting all sorts of school work done, but it tends to get set aside for more urgent matters like stringing popcorn for rats.

Now Rick is home from Mexico, and Thalia should be home from Oklahoma City later today.

Next week: more of the same.