Hello Folks!

Greetings from  Minneapolis, the Miami of the North, with temps not only above zero at the moment, but above 25!!!!!  Shortly after noon, I walked into school with my jacket open  and I followed it up by walking  in Uptown  later  without my jacket. I tell you, this heat wave has me  doing all sorts of daredeviltry.

I kind of like it.  It goes with my tattoo sleeves.

I know my teacher friends were appreciating the outdoor recess that the kids finally had today.  Imagine cabin fever with a whole classroom of students.  Makes me shiver with memories.

The kids need to be outside to breathe fresh air and to let off some steam.  When they can’t do that for an extended period of time, the tension builds exponentially.  Teachers start to see really odd behaviors —— and that’s just in other teachers!! Just kidding, teachers. You know  I love you.

Another problem, though, with indoor recess is that the teachers lose that time to work in their rooms. There’s no quiet break to get some work done,  phone calls made, emails answered, materials prepped for the afternoon’s lessons. I used to try to sit at my desk and still get things done, but inevitably the kids would come and want to ask a question about something. And if one asked successfully, others would follow. So, I used to respond, “I’m not here.”  At first they’d look confused, then, they’d get it. Then they’d stand at my desk and inform anyone else who came by that I wasn’t there!

*****************Nope.**********************************

These are my shoes with my special ribbon shoelaces tied by my four year old manicurist.  She’s multi-talented.  Not only does she do nails, she also beribbons shoes. Well, she tucked the ribbons around the straps, then I tied the actual bows. Then, she informed me just as seriously as can be,  ” These are shoelaces. They will help to keep your shoes on.” She was right.  Since having them, I haven’t lost them once.  I’ll be.

 

*************************Nope.  Not here either.***********************************

 

On Sunday I trekked to the yarn store to buy the yarn I would use to make my first knitted sweater.  I had found a  pattern I liked and I had copied down the type of yarn and the yards needed to make the sweater. I did not bring the book, thinking that I had all the info I needed. I also wanted my hands free to feel all the glorious skeins and hanks of yarn.

Once inside the store, I looked for the type of yarn the pattern suggested.  Imagine my surprise when I found that weight  of yarn tucked in its little cubby hole and discovered that it was as wide as kite string.

Oh.    My.    Goodness.

Making a sweater out of that stuff would take an eternity!!  Or eons, at best!!

Breathe!

Okay, that’s simply not going to work for me.  I monitored.  Now I needed to ADJUST!

I’m going to need another pattern. So, I looked for the pattern books, found them and also found binders full of single patterns.  These binders were BINDERS. (not quite Romney’s binders full of women, but still big) I  pulled the one off the fourth shelf and almost took out the young girl looking at other binders on the bottom shelf.

Half an hour later I had decided on a pattern. Now I needed to pick a yarn.

Breathe!

Another half an hour and I’m at the checkout.  For a trip that was supposed to be only about picking the color of the yarn, it turned into a longer afternoon with way more decisions than I thought I could manage on a Sunday afternoon.

So that was my harrowing visit to the yarn store.   I am now busy trying to make a swatch that will be the correct gauge, because, after all that, this sweater darn well better fit!!

Enjoy the warm temps tomorrow!

Love,

Janet