jogless stripes

Jogless Stripes: When knitting stripes in the round, one of the downfalls is the jump in color where one round transitions to the next. Knit one round in the new color. At the beginning of the next round, insert the right needle tip into the left leg of the stitch in the row below the first stitch of the round (old color stitch) and place this stitch on the left-hand needle (figure 1). it this stitch together with the first stitch of the next round to raise the color of the previous round to the height of the new round (figure 2). Do this at the beginning of every round that involves a color change.

Figure 1

Figure 2

At the beginning of the next round, insert the right needle tip into the left leg of the stitch in the row below the first stitch of the round (old color stitch) and place this stitch on the left-hand needle (figure 1). it this stitch together with the first stitch of the next round to raise the color of the previous round to the height of the new round (figure 2). Do this at the beginning of every round that involves a color change.

—from Weekend Hats

Is Shame Necessary?

Is Shame Necessary? | Conversation | Edge

found this amazing website. am gonna use it in the classroom for harkness/blog assignments. i like being able to read about current events without having to resort to usual news arenas. anymore, i think those have been corrupted and skew one way or the other. there are no more edward r. murrows anymore, are there?

why i had children

ME: (standing in front of the mirror in my underclothes, jiggling my belly)
ALY: That's your muffin top.
ME: (sighing mournfully) I know, right?
ALY: Don't be sad, Mom. You got that from us, right? So that's just where you keep all your love.

kids say the darndest things. :)

in preparation for going back to work

pinkberry is my new crack

as per usual, i get to jump on the bandwagon after everyone else has gotten off.  but that's okay; more room for me.

ahhhh, pinkberry!  where have you been all my life?  i love the simplicity of your original flavor...

but the mango flavor is such a burst of yummy swartness/tweetness (sweet/tart) in my mouth.

and let's not forget that most delectable, indescribable unity of salt and sweet that is salted caramel.

i have yet to partake of the other seasonal flavors (watermelon, chocolate and pomegranate) but you can be sure that i shall frequent your establishment at least once a week from now on and not one flavor will go untasted.

as starbucks is to most, so shall pinkberry be to me.  my pocketbook bemoans its fate but my taste buds will not be denied.

i wonder if i can strongly suggest pinkberry gift cards from my students for christmas and teacher appreciation day?

heartache comes cheaply

dylan lost his wallet today.  or perhaps it was yesterday.  regardless, we found out that he'd lost it today, so we mark the date as such.  he's currently sitting on the couch, drowning his sorrows in spongebob.  he told me that he "doesn't feel like talking right now because i'm sad.  maybe i'll feel better tomorrow and i'll talk then." 

this broke my heart just a little and i wanted so much to tell him that it was gonna be okay and that i'd replace his wallet and the money in it, but the teacher/lesson giver/miser in me rebelled against being his enabler and i stood firm.  i shook my head, said i was sorry, and left it at that.  i wonder if i did the right thing.

i don't want to fall into the habit of bailing my kids out.  i want them to learn - even if the hard way - that life isn't fair or easy, and that things won't be handed to them all the time.  but it's still tough for me to watch his sad, little face out of the corner of my eye. 

that's the mom in me, i guess.

sadly, i'm not just a mom.  i'm also a soriente.  and that means that i'm just as mad as i am sad.  i'm mad at dylan for being careless and irresponsible.  i'm furious at him for losing seven whole dollars.  i know, right?  seven bucks.  give the kid a break.  but seven dollars was half of the build-a-bear toy we were gonna buy tomorrow for our last "adventure thursday".  or it could've been seven toys from the dollar bin at target that i didn't need to buy the next time we went.  or it could've been candy or vending machine treats or slurpees or any of the other myriad things that tend to add up when i go out with the kids and which i've started making them pay me back for when i buy them. (that was a poorly-constructed sentence but i'm writing this on the sly - dylan keeps passing by now and looking over my shoulder - so forgive the lapse).

so, yeah.  i'm conflicted as hell and i feel like a terrible person.  but this, too, shall pass.  i know this.  and hopefully dylan'll learn to pay more attention and be more careful in the future.  and hopefully i'll be able to reassure myself that seven dollars now is a helluva lot cheaper than hundreds in the future.

covington part deux

as posted on the anthropologie group forum:

So I decided to add sleeves - not necessarily because of my “fat” arms; thanks for the vote of confidence, tricotgirl and lovetorun! - but so I can have more options with looks. I liked it, especially with JSSBO, then I soaked and lightly blocked it. And…AHAHAHAHAHAHA!

It ended up a dress!

I did like it that way, but I worried about its wearability (you know, sitting on it and such), so I threw it in the dryer on medium heat for 8 minutes and…

I know the picture doesn’t show the true contrast, but I swear it shrunk a good 5-6 inches. I know cotton is magic, but didn’t realize how magic.

So I guess in the end, it’s become my dual purpose FO - block it for a dress or dry it for a top.