Yarn-Along #2: More Shirt & Two Books!

(Forgive the late post--long week)

Well, this week has proven to be just as crazy as other weeks, with a bit more spice added in for good measure.  My father had a hip replaced yesterday, and I'm second tier on-call for my paternal grandmother's medical alert necklace.  (For those who are unfamiliar with that technology, Grandma wears a necklace around her neck that she can push to reach on-call nurses.  If it's pushed and it's deemed not on accident, a family member is also called.  Dad is first on that line, followed by me [as I, out of the three local grandkids, can get away from work the easiest to help Grandma.])  Long story short, I'm bebopping between home, work, and the hospital where Dad's recovering and praying Grandma (who has dementia and is freaking out over Dad's surgery) doesn't have a spell of some kind.

My dad also had some complications yesterday involving his blood pressure, so I literally forgot to post this at all.  Dad's stable now and improving, which helps, but I hadn't slept worth beans for two solid days.  Last night became "Cherish crashed after dinner and never woke up again until her alarm went off."  Today also has me bearing a killer headache, so please forgive any crazy grammar errors.  I will re-proof this at a later date.

Ended up a bit blurry as I was working out lighting issues in our computer room; this is the best shot I got.

THE CRAFT:  I'm still on the same Playground Shirt for AB, though I've completely finished the body of the shirt and moved to a sleeve!  Behold, dear readers: my first attempt at the Magic Loop technique!  I didn't have DPNs of the right size for the sleeves, but I did have interchangeable circular needles and a tutorial on Magic Loop, so that's what we're doing.  I'm working the first decrease row tonight, so let's see how this works out.

One Sleeve done; blocked to test out borders' rolling issues.

**Later Edit**  Sleeve worked out, clearly: on to sleeve two!

I hate that scrap of yarn's color...at least it's great for scraps!

THE BOOK(S): I'm actually working through two separate books right now.  My current audio book is The Tsarina's Daughter by Carolly Erickson.  It follows a woman named Tanya as she goes through life as a Grand Duchess (aka: princess) of Russia yet becomes a modest, Russian immigrant in her later years.  The elderly Tania (now going by Daria) tells her tale.  And, let me tell you, this is no innocent Russian grandmother telling this tale!  She's got fire in her, this Tania, and the story is hinting towards her doing greater things than just her birth-determined role of marrying a man of noble blood chosen by her father.  I was obsessed with Anastasia briefly as a girl, so this story of her sister is really catching my interest.

The other book I'm reading right now is The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff.  This story is weaving together the tales of a gay son of a convicted-of-murder 19th wife in 21st century Utah and Ann Eliza Young, a 19th wife who broke away from her polygamist cult and her husband.  A friend of mine recommended this book (and lent it to me), and I'm finally getting into the story.  It's a much slower read than some of the other books I've picked up, mostly as I can't exactly knit my shirt and read at the same time...and I've been determined to finish the shirt the past few days.

Wee!

As I mentioned yesterday, my day started with a bit of a tumble.  (Or, as I started referring to it today, "Cherish's Attempt to Determine Why Humans Themselves Cannot Fly Down Driveways.")  I am not-so-pleased to say that I am officially feeling my flight attempt.  I am also less-than-pleased to say that my flight attempt bears no cool images.

Yes, another terrible camera phone shot.  You're welcome.

THAT, dear readers, is yesterday's battle wound.  That little patch of red on my leg.  THAT IS IT.  For something that feels like the result of a demented troll with a hot iron launching a holy war against my leg every single time it touches something (re: all the time), this little 3 inch by 3 inch wound is a pathetic attempt at a battle scar.  It almost makes me ashamed to admit how bad it hurts.

...almost...

But on the advice of my sister (...also, if you found my blog, M: HI SISSY!), I am recapping my adventure here in more detail.

...nope...we beat no dead horses in this blog... *shifty eyes*

Anyways, our landlord notified all of us tenants on Tuesday that he was having our building's driveway sealed during the day on Thursday.  We tenants had to move all the cars to the street.  Neither Hubster or I minded doing this, but it was a little complicated in our case.  Y'see, my husband had a jeep he drove up until a few months ago, when it was given a nice little death sentence by the DMV in the form of failing inspection for a total of repairs worth more than it was.  It's been sitting in our driveway ever since, staring longingly at the functional cars we have while we attempt to figure out its fate.  We can't put it on the road, even to park overnight, without risk of ticket as it's unregistered and uninsured.  Landlord told us to put it in the yard, so no sweat.

Yesterday morning, though, found me in a rush as I couldn't find my sunglasses.  Readers, I have (mostly latent) strabismus and drive East in the morning and West in the evening on my daily work commute.  We call this, "Cherish cannot see the road well because her left eye doesn't get that turning away from the sun is kind of important" in Cher-Land.  My sunglasses are a requirement as far as I am concerned, and after three days of rain finally breaking, I wanted to be able to see to drive.  (Because, y'know, it's the important things.)  Hubster confirmed my suspicions: I left them in his car after the weekend's adventures.  He needed me to move Tony the Super Impala, though, so he could move the Jeep before he went to work.  I did indeed move one Tony, then decided to just go get my sunglasses from his Focus while he was moving the Jeep.  Cherish, being Cherish, decided running there was a good idea.

Never mind that I was wearing pretty wedge heels.

Never mind that our driveway is a bit uneven, with cracks here and there, and on a subtle downward slope.

Never mind that I have the grace of a drunken animal walking on a boat in the middle of an angry sea.

Nope, one Cherish decided she was running.  Her right heeled shoe, however, had other ideas.  Specifically, it wanted nothing to do with this endeavor and, instead, wanted to hang out on the asphalt.  Alone.  Cherish, as a result, was somehow catapulted through the air to skid to a not-so-pretty landing in the driveway.  Hence the aforementioned pathetic scrape of evilness.

Angry that I biffed it, I stomped back for my shoe, put it firmly in its place, and stomped its sorry sole the entire way down the driveway and back, sunglasses in tow on the return trip.  Hubster realized when I came back that "fell," this time, meant "Cherish decided to make an airborne attempt at spanning the driveway and, as a result, has permanently embedded some genetic material into the asphalt's surface."  (Aside: you know you're an accident prone person when you have to stress to your husband that this was a different kind of fall, as in it involved blood and pain and a blatant loss of even more dignity.)  Realizing I was probably late to work, I just rinsed the scrape, determined to clean it out when I got to work with my first aid kit.

And now, the new part of the story.  When I opened my first aid kit at work, I found a surprise:

Look--an even blurrier picture!

Ladies and gentlemen, I lost my prescription of Patanol when I moved last November.  Patanol, for those who don't know me in person, is a prescription eye-drop I use for exactly two months in the spring when my allergies raise a righteous fury upon my body: in layman's terms, it keeps me from clawing my eyes out.  My insurance (which changed from the last time I filled it--YAY health insurance reform) absolutely refused to fill the prescription as they deemed it "not medically necessary" though my doctor had been ordering this exact same script for me for TEN SOLID YEARS and the insurance company knew me for, oh, 4 months.  (Another aside: I am told my phone call with that particular company was especially epic as I went all debate champion all over them...I don't take being screwed over well).

That picture?  The one right up there?  My lost prescription.  Good until next year.  And about three months too late to help me.

Apparently, I keep my medicine in a first aid kit now.  >_<

So, yeah, yesterday can take a flying leap off a tall cliff for all I care.  I'm kind of done with it.

...or, y'know a flying tumble down a driveway...I have it on good authority that those hurt terribly when you're over the age of seven.

A Fortnight Passes

So, two weeks have passed since I posted last...at least this time, I have a good reason:

Sunday, Monday, Tuesday: Last week, I had three birthday parties, three days in a row, for two guys born on the same day (my baby brother and my husband's good friend).

Wednesday: I crashed the second I got home and slept until Thursday.  No knitting or reading done = no Knit-Along.

Thursday & Friday: I spent the entire night and all of Friday cleaning for company as a dear friend of mine from college was coming to stay with us until Sunday morning.  I was VERY glad to have her, but that ate the part of my weekend not taken up by...

Saturday: Two friends of mine from college got married on Saturday, August 2nd, in a town over an hour from where my husband and I live.  We spent the majority of that day at the festivities or traveling, and we and Dear Friend got home around midnight that night.  We had an absolute blast at their wedding and reception, even though the sky decided we all needed a demonstration of Noah's Flood done in five minutes flat on city streets.  (Also, take note: this Protestant was very confused in the full Roman Catholic wedding mass...and thought it was very long but beautiful...but long...so long...)

Sunday: Woke up feeling sick.  After our company left, I slept and/or rested most of that day.

Monday: Found myself in that wonderful "I am not unwell enough to classify as sick, but I have no desire to do anything not involving a flop onto something soft" land, but I made an appearance at a bridal shower for one of my sisters-in-law's friends and at the weekly game night Hubster and I attend.

Tuesday: Day #3 of "Okay, body, pick a mode, any mode, but for the love of all things cute and fuzzy stick with either sick or well" land had me still not so great.  We ate leftovers from the bridal shower for dinner.  I felt none of the shame...and I was glad I didn't leave the food my mother-in-law tried to pawn off on me on her counter like I so desperately wanted to do.

Wednesday: Cherish threatens to send her body to counseling to make it choose a mode as she's sick of being neither sick nor well.  (Anyone detecting a pattern yet?  Anyone?  Anyone?)  It was the first day of a new volunteer tutoring job I had agreed to take, so I pulled myself together long enough to make an appearance and something more useful than a talking corpse in a library chair.  When I got home, I knitted maybe two rows tops and read all of three pages of another book but forgot to take pictures of either endeavor.  Honestly, I'd probably have not taken any pictures even if I had remembered as, as sorry as I am to say this, I liked my couch better than any blog readers by that time last night.  Again, no shame shalt be felt this day.

That brings us to today.  Though I finally--FINALLY--feel like a human with an immune system worth more than a peanut at a carnival, I am less-than-pleased to state that I am out of "spoons" for the day.  Yep, I'm done.  Y'see, I flew down our driveway today.

Without a car.

In a knee-length skirt.

And landed on my side...as in I skidded down the driveway on said side.

I learned today that 26-year-olds don't bounce like they're six years old anymore.  I also relearned just how bad a bruise under a brush burn can hurt.  I feel like I'm 80 today after brush-burning my left leg from the knee to the middle of my shin, bruising (I think--haven't looked yet) my left hip, and just overall aching everywhere from both the fall and being sick all week.  I am a SORE lady.  It's time to go home and sleep.

But, yeah, haven't forgotten about here yet.  Should have some type of post up in a day or two.  I'm also finally--yes, after TEN YEARS, FINALLY--making progress on my Sailor Moon fanfiction, so I may share it here as time goes on.  We'll see!

For now, though, I want ice.  And a gauze pad.  And maybe a hamster ball to protect myself from, well, myself.

My First Yarn-Along! Or, A First Glimpse at Cherish's First Shirt

People who first meet me learn two things in (often) quick succession:

1. I obsessively read.
2. I obsessively knit and crochet.

As a result, it was only a matter of time until my blog drew in some of this side to me.  I learned to crochet when I was 17 (...which I just realized was NINE years ago...oy...), and I finally got the hang of knitting about two years ago.  Everywhere I go, I have a knitting or crocheting project on me, my Kindle fire, or a paperback.  I pull one of those out regardless of location, using them to calm my stressed out mind, to pass the time, or just for a change of pace.  I even combine these two loves of mine: I read while crocheting projects that I can do by feel, and I listen to audiobooks for all the others.



In an attempt to capture some of my personality--and to keep my easily distracted crafter-brain focused--I am joining up with Ginny's Yarn-Along!  Due to my inability to look away from my knitting, as well as my scatter-brained personality, you'll see me alternate between ebooks, audiobooks, and physical books, as well as between my projects.  I'm hoping this helps me focus on finishing projects, but we'll just have to wait and see!

(Forgive the terrible camera phone picture--it was the only option I had available today)

THE CRAFT: I am working on Elena Nodel's Playground Shirt for my oldest niece, AB.  I picked this pattern to stretch myself as a knitter.  I figured the challenge of shaping a simple child's garment combined with the ease and comfort of the good ol' stockinette stitch would keep me from growing too frustrated.  So far, it's going well.

My only complaint is that the pattern for the 5T-6T size was off by at least 18 stitches when it came time to transfer the armholes to scrap yarn.  A few glances at other knitters' finished projects and a frantic picture message to a knitter friend cured the problem, after some frightening tearing back.  (And to place over 200 stitches back on my needles and only dropped 6--I call that a success!)

Lessons learned? 1) ALWAYS question the patterns when you think it seems off, and 2) Never knit a row involving stitch transfers or pattern changes when you're exhausted.  I transferred those stitches at 3 am; if I had used my head and waited until the next day, I'd never have had to tear back in the first place. Ah well!  I'm a little bit wiser and more confident for it!

THE BOOK: I'm listening to I See You Everywhere by Julia Glass.  The story follows two sisters, Louisa and Clement, who are so different that (at least to me) they start to seem alike in their entertaining "fumbles" through adulthood and responsibility.  Louisa is an artist bound by her own judgement and strong sense (...most of the time...) of what is sensible.  Clem, on the other hand, is a wildlife enthusiast driven by passion but stuck in her own wildness.  Their adult stories unfold through each woman's stream of consciousness, forcing the story to focus on the the next time each saw their sister and alternating narrators with each part.

I'm finding this tale very engrossing.  Though I want to shake both of these women for doing things I would deem foolish, I love how Glass's characterization of each woman makes them deeply flawed but deeply real, driving you as a reader to continue learning about them so you can discover just what drives both of these women.  Though I would never label either woman as a role model, you can definitely emphasize with their struggles, both the ones forced upon them and the ones that their foolishness forces upon them.

In Which One Adult Educator Lesson Plans...slowly...

I've been desperately trying to write lesson plans for literally 3 weeks now.

...okay...more like 11 weeks... *hangs head in shame*

With my classes, I tend to write down brief plans a week before I do them in my planner.  They're usually something like "X class: pp ##-## (skill) Monday; pp ##-## Tuesday...", etc.  I'm to the point with my curriculum that I can look at the skill with the book and page number and know what we'll be doing that day and how to prepare for it.  My supervisor, in turn, knows that if he asks me what the plan is that week, I can rattle it off or show him.  The result, though, is that I rarely find a need for the detailed plans we like to keep on file here.

Now, in my first few sessions of classes, I needed that detailed plan like I need my planner or my Bible.  Those detailed plans helped me think more along the lines of what a learner needs than what a teacher thinks will work.  These days, however, I know my learners and what works, so I can go off of prior experiences moreso than the detailed, formal plans.  I still keep those detailed lesson plans, but I (somewhat ashamedly) write them at the end of a week more as reflection from those smaller ones written into my planner ahead of time.  This, for me, lets me chronicle what worked, what materials helped, which were a flop, etc.  In turn, those pieces of information are on hand for reflection when planning other lessons: I can look back when I have new students to see what worked or didn't in the past and, in turn, can then turn those around to try again or to rule out old methods.

The big problem this session has been keeping up with those lesson plans.  The problem, actually, was two-fold:

1. Time crunches: This past session, my co-teacher and I were covering jail classes until an incarceration teacher could be found.  Though I loved those classes, it sapped a LOT of time from my schedule that I was accustomed to having for planning.  I instead had to plan out lessons for a substitute to administer, plan jail classes, implement the jail classes, then catch up on what I missed.  Again, I loved those classes in a strange way, but I still missed my usual planning time.
2. Computer Issues: I have no idea why, but my work laptop picked the past 2 months to pitch an ever-lasting fit.  A fan died in the laptop (or at least has begun the process of dying; either way, the machine overheats if you look at it wrong), and a fan in my cooling pad also died without warning--on the same day that the other fan became very loud.  After weeks of my computer just randomly shutting itself off or running slower than the DOS machines of my childhood, I finally figured out the issue was overheating and purchased a new cooling pad.  The computer runs just fine now, but the constant shut downs and lags slowed me way down.

Now that I've resolved both, I'm finally cranking out plans.  Problem is that I also have to crank out some plans for the new session starting two weeks from today.  I think I've finally come up with a system that will compensate for all kinds of issues.  We'll just have to see what works.

Ah well: such is the name of the game in education!  Try, try, and try again, then reflect on it all and try some more!

(Anyone else find they lesson plan like this?  What works for you?)