i can't find the camera

seriously.
i have no idea where the camera is. I'm betting that it's somewhere in the middle of all of the chaos around here - trying to plan a wedding, trying to keep the dog from chewing everything, trying to have a summer holiday, trying to do some house repairs before people come to stay with us in September. so the camera is somewhere amidst it all and I can't get pictures off of it until i find it, and, I think that even if I do find it, I will have to charge the batteries to get it working.

and so, i remain unblogged and incomplete, simply because I can't find the camera.

i've also bought LOTS and LOTS of yarn, but haven't found the time to do any knitting (well, not any knitting that would actually count for anything). on top of this, it's impossible to knit while Titus the super puppy is around because he thinks that yarn is really fun to chew. so the only time I can knit is at night when he goes into his crate, but by that time, after wedding planning, house renovating and puppy training... i couldn't care less about knitting.

whaaaaaaaaaaaat?

yes, it's true. i still have the urge to knit, but no desire to pick up needles.

blasphemy, i know.

this is me procrastinating...

i hate the month of June. hate it. abhor it. wish that it didn't exist, like, ever. wish we could go straight from May to July. wish that I could go to sleep on June 1 and wake up July 1, just in time to enjoy summer holidays.

only other teachers could possibly understand why I hate the month of June. It's the month where everyone else is saying, "Oh my God, it's summer, let's go eat on a patio..." "Oh my God, it's nice out, I think I'll work on my garden...." "Oh my God, the evening's are getting longer, summer must be on its way!!!" "Wow, some nice out! I think I'll go swimming..."

if this sounds like you, I can assure you that your friendly neighbourhood teacher is saying to themselves, "Crap, it's nice out, I should really mow the lawn, but I have to finish my marking..." or "Wow, it's 9:30 pm and it's still light out? Really? That means I still have time to do report cards..."

June is no fun when you're a teacher! Yes, I know that summer holidays come after June, but it's the "getting through June" part that is the equivalent to those people who are stranded in the desert but keep walking because they keep seeing the mirage of a palm tree and some water... I'm not kidding you! By the time you get to the end of June, you're just happy it's over and then you're ready to join your friends in their Summer madness, but by this time, they're like, "Meh... summer... yeah, we did all of that patio and swimming stuff, like, weeks ago!"

So, the other side of June is finding a cajillion creative ways to procrastinate! For example, right now I should be downstairs marking Grade 11 tests on The Crucible- which I plan on marking while keeping one eye on the hockey game (subliminal procrastinating), however, I"m upstairs imagining all of the ways I can write about procrastinating on my blog.

And while I've been sidetracked by talking about procrastinating, I really wanted to post to talk about my Argosy baby blanket (Bernat Cottontots in lilac) which I am trying to finish before Bridesmaid #1 has baby #2. So what has got me motivated a little bit (and is only making me procrastinate a little bit) is the fabulous Argosy knitalong set up by Katie. Check it out, it's way fun...

so, not bad... 6 paragraphs written when I really could have written one. this one goes down as some good procrastinating!

and now I'm off to mark those tests. and watch the hockey game. Go Sens Go!

i so don't deserve to have a blog...

I had great aspirations when I decided to start a blog. I had planned to spend an hour a week on my blog - a realistic amount of time that allowed me some time to knit, to work, to enjoy life and then reflect on those things using the glory of the internet. I was clearly living in a delusional state of mind back in those early days. What I wouldn't give to be back in that place of blissful ignorance!


Because now, all that this freaking blog brings me is massive amounts of guilt for never being able to find the time to post, to upload photos, to think of witty and amusing things to say, let alone find time to knit. Every time I sit down at my computer, the knitting blogs that I read for entertainment appear to be mocking me - "My blog owner can write at least ONE post a day, what the hell is wrong with you?"

Well, this is what's wrong with me... and this is where all of my time is going:

There is nothing like going from having ALL the time in the world to do whatever you want, to having absolutely no time to do anything because you are now responsible for the cutest thing in the universe. This is the reason that I find milkbones in the pockets of my dress pants, that I've hidden tennis balls away so that I not longer have to dig them out from underneath a chair, that I no longer have time to mark tests, or even better, that I now return tests with bite marks and rips because I left the tests in an accessible location. This is the reason that I've signed up for puppy classes, that my house constantly looks like a bomb hit it, that my side of the bed gets pooped on, that D. has hardly any fingers left because he keeps getting bitten and, finally, why I can't knit because yarn is fantastically fascinating when you're twelve weeks old and you're a puppy.

And no, I don't consider this training for a child because I know that being a mom is probably a cajillion times harder, and, when I'm ready to go there, I will. But I'm at least waiting until I'm no longer pulling milkbones out of my pockets in the middle of teaching a lesson on Macbeth.

However, the first picture should at least indicate that once in a while, when the "Tiny Titan of Terror" needs a time-out in his crate, the knitting does emerge from its "safe place" and something actually gets done. This is the silk scarf I started long ago, but I love it more and more with each inch that I knit and I'm so pleased with myself for choosing such a beautiful stitch pattern. I can't wait until I finish it, but I can at least say that finishing is a lot more likely in the near future. Just a few more inches to go.

Other than the knitting, and the puppy... the only other thing taking up my time is hockey playoffs. This is the year that the Ottawa Senators will take the Stanley Cup - I'm not afraid to say it because I feel it deep in my bones. So, put on your red shirts, tune in to Hockey Night in Canada and join with me and my future nephew in the cry of the Sens Army:

GO SENS GO!

Meet Titus!

This is our newest and latest addition. Meet Titus!
We picked up Titus yesterday in Niagara Falls. This was a whirlwind round trip that meant we drove down Friday night, picked him up Saturday morning and then turned around and came home. What a rush!

Titus is a miniature schnauzer. Right now he's only about 6 or 7 pounds. Yesterday in the car, he was quiet all the way home. We really didn't hear anything from him until we put him in his crate last night. And then he let us know all about who he is! He eventually quieted down and his cries became fewer as the night passed.

Here he is with his first squeakie toy. He loves this little rabbit that Mom gave him.

And here he is with D. First time on the furniture!

So yesterday in the car, I was even able to do more work on my silk scarf - which is coming along quite nicely! Titus just sat and watched me while I knitted away. I would post a picture but the scarf is downstairs and right now I'm typing with one hand because Titus is half on my lap, half on my chest and needs to be held in place!

But don't worry... we've already given him the conditions of being in the family. I told him yesterday,
"Okay, dude, this is the way it is. First, you have to like hockey. Then you have to like golf. And then, ultimately, you have to like knitting."

If yesterday's car ride is any indication, we're in great shape so far.

Moms blog too!

Hi Everyone!

This is my Mom with my Nanny and two of my aunts.

My Mom is a madly talented quilter who wants to start her own blog. Check it out!

Here are two examples of her work; a quilt she made for my cousin Nicole when she got married, and a 9 patch quilt she made for my fiance last Christmas.

See? I'm not the only one who has to fight creative urges.

In fact, she's probably the reason that I have these creative urges in the first place!

knitballs returns

omigod hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!

this is how you greet your friends when you are a 14 year old girl. don't ask me how I know this, but it might have something to do with being trapped behind a group of grade 9 girls who absolutely, 100%, HAVE to walk, at a snail's pace, in a straight line (all 7 of them) across the width of a hallway so that no none else gets to their lunch and everyone is subjected to "omigod, hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii" and "omigod, you are so funnnnnneeeeee, like, LMAO" and "omigod, i love your paaaaaaaaaaaaaants, but i like mine a whole lot betterrrrrrrrrrr, heee heee." and, ultimately, so that, by the time you do get to your lunch, you'd rather, like, gaaaag.

with that off my chest, i'm pretty happy to finally find the time to get back to writing about some knitting. since i last wrote, i've had Parent/ Teacher Interviews (another rant for another day), The Grade 10 Literacy Test (I won't even go there), meetings about the School Improvement Plan (an interesting kind of boring), various lazy days with my sweetie and, last Tuesday night, a huge fire in a neighbour's house that scared the living daylights out of me (fire is merciless; pray that you never have to find that out).

despite all of the busy-ness, i've actually been doing a lot of knitting and what's kept me from posting is, of all things, having to take the bloody pictures!! i feel like i can no longer post without a pic!! holy stress!

First point of discussion: Bridesmaid #1 is having her second baby and I am knitting the cutest little baby bolero. If my computer wasn't so slow tonight, I'd take the time to create a link, but since it feels like a telegram would be faster, I will just leave it at this: Baby Bolero from Debbie Bliss' "Baby Cashmerino 2" in her cashmerino yarn, soft lilac. This yarn is D-I-V-I-N-E to knit with. Cue the picture:

Okay, the one on the right is supposed to be on the left, but who really cares? It's not finished; i still have to knit the sleeves and the edging. But I'm quite pleased at my progress, particularly since this is something I might previously have considered as difficult.

So, baby knitting aside, I also decided to change my focus with the Handmaiden silk and scrap the Argosy in its entirety. Besides, I really wanted to make a baby blanket with that pattern and so I've already got something else lined up with it. In any case, I really felt that the Handmaiden needed something a little finer, almost, shall I say, feminine...? I didn't feel that the Argosy really allowed the yarn to show what it was capable of, and, besides, since I spent 40 bucks on the freaking yarn, I really wanted something special.

I found the perfect stitch in a little book called "Knit Stitches and Easy Projects" and the pattern is called "Horseshoe Print" (on page 7 of this little gem). And so, despite the fact that it gives me headaches and neck pain, I will perservere because this is what it looks like with only a few inches complete:

TA DAHHHHHHHHHHH! I think the pattern is perfect for this yarn and I do believe it will look just gorgeous when it's finished.

Which, if you think about it, is exactly what a silk scarf wrapped around your neck is supposed to look like: Gorgeous!

54 in 3

I wish that "54 in 3" was a special knitting term, but unfortunately, the only way that it's linked to knitting is that it is exactly what KEPT me from really doing any knitting this week.




"54 in 3" refers to the fact that this here pile of papers was the 54 Grade 11 essays that I marked in 3 days.... 3 days where I still taught three classes a day, ran an English department and commuted a total of 100 kms per day to get to/ from my job. I'm not bragging, I'm just amazed that I managed to pull it off. It's not like I was facing an external deadline, it was more of an internal deadline that sounded something like, "I have to finish those essays this week because if I trip over this pile of papers one more time, I'm sure to break my neck." That, and the fact that if one more student implied I should have marked the essays over March Break because I "had the time" (unlike having a holiday like the rest of the damn province), I was sure to break their neck instead of my own.


And I wish I could say that the "muted lighting" and "interesting angles and shadows" of this picture were due to some artistic finagling (sp?) on my part, but the reality is, it's muted because it was 6:10 a.m. and I had been up since 5 to finish marking and it's an interesting angle because I was sitting on the floor getting organized and didn't have the energy to stand up and take the picture from another perspective. All the same, I'm happy that the general mood of what the picture turned out to be is exactly the way I was feeling - shadowy and crooked!




All the same, last night while I was trying to slog through those last few papers, I decided I would treat myself to some knitting along the way (mark 3 essays, knit 3 rows). Something simple, something mindless, yet something workable.... so out came the MDK Log Cabin baby blanket. Voila:


It really doesn't look any different than the last time I posted it because I'm still on the fourth block, but it was still a nice diversion from the somewhat mindless, yet endlessly frustrating, task of marking Grade 11 essays.

Besides, the Argosy scarf has been officially renamed "ARGHHHH-osy" because I had to frog it yet again. And as much as I love that scarf, I can't be bothered to knit something so frustrating at the same time that I'm trying to restrain myself from picking out my eyeballs because yet another student wrote a sentence like, "Homework is so retarded and teachers should stop assigning it because I have enough going on in my life, like, work and stuff."


You might think I'm joking about picking out my eyeballs, but when there are 2.5 mm double pointed needles within arm's reach and I've just read the 50th comma splice in a row on page 3 of a six page essay, the necessity of eyeballs really becomes a debatable point.

And as much as I will circle those errors and indicate how to fix them, it's not like any student is going to take my feedback seriously, or really make an effort to take my feedback and apply it to the next assignment. I'm sorry, they just won't, because today's students believe that if they do so much as put a freaking "x" in the top right hand corner of a blank sheet of paper, then it is my job to "give" them 100% because they "made an honest effort to do the work." News flash: poor quality work earns a poor mark, I don't care how much effort you put into that stupid "x" that's in the corner of the paper. If you didn't do what I asked you to do and you made up new rules for the assignment, well, you get what you deserve: a crappy ass mark.


Returning marked assignments is, by far, the most stressful part of my job. ON ANY GIVEN DAY, I will take the kid who tells me to f**k off over the kid who earned 65% but who thinks that everything he/she does is worth 90%. This sense of entitlement with which our students cloak themselves eats away at any kind of positivity you might attempt to instill in the classroom. Gone are the days when a bad mark meant that you had to work hard the next time, or just meant that it was time to work hard, period. Students want good marks for a minimal amount of poor quality work. How is this logical... or even fair?


ARGH... I think it's time to hide the 2.5 mm dpns.