Hands

I have been thinking a lot about hands over the past 4 weeks--how important they are to most everything we do.  Hands are important to everyone...they wash our faces as well as our dishes.  They pull on our socks and tie our shoes.  They brush our hair.  They make meals.  They caress loved ones. And if you know anything about FACS, you know that hands are extremely important in almost everything we do in the Family & Consumer Sciences classroom.

Five weeks ago, my little dachshund puppy, Sasha, got under my feet.  I lost my balance trying to avoid stepping on her, fell through the metal dog gate and cracked my left wrist.  Painful,,,yes!  Inconvenient...yes!  Manageable...yes!

After missing a couple of days at school, I returned, wrist in brace, ready to get on with whatever came my way, knowing that I would have to adapt how I did things for several weeks.

Eight days later, I was walking across my classroom, lost my footing and went down hard on my right wrist.  Fortunately, no bad words were spoken, but I did break my wrist.  Let me amend that...I shattered the top of my radius into 10+ pieces.  The orthopedist said the bone looked like "gravel" in the x-ray.

One month into my recovery, I can gingerly hold a pen/pencil and I realize I will need to learn to write all over again. I can now type with my left hand and the thumb and first two fingers of my right, but my hand and arm tire easily.  I can't eat with a fork or spoon in my right hand--no strength and can't the correct angle.  The list is endless.

I can't drive so I am stuck at home dependent on friends and family to free me from "exile."

I have two months before I can return to work and so many of the things I love to do...sew, quilt, crochet, embroider...need the use of the fine motor skills of both hands.  Fortunate, I can walk

I keep thinking about how important our hands are. And I won't ever take the use of my hands for granted again!

First Day of School!

Well, we made it through the first day of school with a totally different time schedule. We changed from a 7:25 am starting time ending at 2:15 to 8:15 am ending at 3:10.  I don't think I have been on that kind of schedule since I was a student in the 70's.  I will have more time in the morning because I plan to continue arriving at the earlier time to avoid traffic.  It will make the day seem longer since the student activity period won't end until 4:15.

It's a bit of an adjustment, but we will persevere.

I am starting a mobius shawl for my sister.  The pattern calls for "superfine" yarn with a 2 on the little yarn code.  The only size 2 I found listed itself as "fine," not superfine.  So, I looked at the yardage per ounce and ended up getting one ball of superfine with size of 1 because it was closest.  The pattern calls for a size "L" Tunisian crochet hook, which seems to be REALLY big for the yarn 'cause it is really skinny.  I guess the only way I will know for sure is to do a gauge swatch.

I'm on a Roll!

Trying to get some of those pesky projects done before back to school next week.  Would you believe the kids start on the 16th?  What happened to summer vacation?

I remember why I never really got into needlepoint--other than something we did as a 6th grade class project a few years ago.  Too much work!  I bet I spent an hour misting, pulling and tugging to get this formerly diamond-shaped thing into something resembling a square.

I like counted cross-stitch so much better.  You only have to do the design--not the whole background...and no pesky blocking when you get done.

This is a beautiful piece I promised to block and sew into a pillow months ago.  I've had all the stuff, just put off the blocking part.  As I had not done this in a very long time, I got out my copy of The Encyclopedia of Needlecrafts for a quick review.  Do you know I could not find a YouTube video on this?  What's the world coming to?   If I did it more often, maybe I would make one?

Anyway, this pillow top is called "Klimt Chocolate," by Candace Bahouth.  The vibrant colors have been enhanced with gold metallic thread.  It was stitched by a dear, recently retired colleague, Helen, who I have thoroughly enjoyed working with for many years.  I miss our Critical Friends group.

When it's finally dried and sewn, I'll post the finished project.

TTFN,
Vickie

New Artist Blog I Love!

Two posts in one day?  You're kidding!
I just wanted to pass on the link to an artist/blogger I just found out about--Nina Paley.  Check out her cartoons and her quilting.  Both are amazing!
http://blog.ninapaley.com/

Thank you,  Leah Day for turning me on to this great artist.

They're finished!

Finally!  I finished a cute sweater/hat set for my sweet little grand-niece miss Sophie.  The goal was to get it done before she outgrew it--LOL. And I think I've just made it.


The pattern is Shell Stitch Baby Set from Red Heart Yarns, Crochet Made Easy.  The pattern suggested Mint and White baby yarn.  I tried a variegated baby yarn at first and had quite a bit done;  and though, I usually love variegated yarns, I hated this one.  Way too much white and then a teeny bit of color.  White for a baby?  Not always the best choice.

Instead, I used Caron Simply Soft in "Watermelon" for the main color.  I love bright pinks, and so does Sophie (well, Andi, her mom does most of the color choices at this point).  I also found some really cute La Mode flower-shaped buttons.  The pattern called for 5 buttons, but I like the look of only 3 for this particular sweater.


Don't you love the buttons?

The hat was a quick one to make.  It's crocheted flat.  I was wondering how it was ever going to all scrunch up at the top, but I learned a new stitch, 2 single crochets stitched together (sc2tog).  Actually, I think I did that kind of stitch in my former crocheting days eons ago. Imagine going from 60 stitches to 8 in just 3 rows.  Amazing, but it worked.

TTFN,

Vickie

Last Gasp of Summer Vacation!

Well, with less than a week before I have to be back to beginning of the year teacher meetings, I am working like crazy to finish the crocheted sweater and hat I started in the spring for my grand-niece, little miss Sophie.  I just have to block the sweater and sew on the cute little flower-shaped buttons.  The hat is about one-quarter done, but it is a much small project, so it shouldn't take as long.


Pictures to follow!

I don't remember this being a part of teacher training!

Okay, so it has been a reallllly long time since my last blog.  And who knows, maybe no one but me has really ever looked at it, but while at school today, I was thinking, "I should really blog about this."


So here goes...


I was lying on the floor under a sewing machine cabinet at school today...yeah that's right...on the carpet amid the hundreds of straight pins that somehow magically fall on the floor, but no one seems to have dropped.  And I was thinking, "I don't remember this being a part of teacher training."


One of the sewing machine cabinets is broken and it's a real pain for the student who gets assigned to sit there, so I finally made myself switch that cabinet for the one that used to hold the "teacher machine."  So after retrieving my metric wrenches from the trunk of my car (we have Bernina machines at my school), I was on the floor trying to reattach this sewing machine.


You know, there is no light under a sewing machine cabinet, and it was really hard to see while I was trying to line up a hole in the cabinet with the hole machine.  I know it must have taken at least 10 attempts to get the thing lined up so the bolt would go through.  And once they were lined up, maybe 10 seconds to actually attach the bolt.  


And I kept thinking...I learned how to write lesson plans (I think I am on at least the 5th or 6th way to do that by this time in my teaching career).  I have studied about how to help students who are visual learners, auditory learners, etc.  I have learned to use 5 different computerized grading programs (I used an adding machine my first year of teaching).  Just 14 years ago, I had an ancient Mac that took a full minute to switch from one page to another on the internet, to an e-Mac, to a refurbished PC (yay!!!!), a newer PC and finally to a laptop 3 years ago...


But no one ever told me in any of the classes I took at Mizzou, UMSL or Fontbonne, that part of teaching included things like this!