Brrrr! A quick post

First day of Term Two.

Windy like you wouldn't believe.

Cold as buggery!

Here is the sky, taken at Preschool. Not very indicative of the day, as the clouds were skidding across the sky so quickly, and the mood of the sky changes so often that you just don't see the rainstorm coming until you're drenched...

Who would have thought it?

Okay, so I've hit a major, major mental block.

I put it down to End of Term One. I'm packin' it, writing up children's dialogues, documenting project work and co-ordinating displays and generally sodding around. Plus, we're getting ready for the Department of Community Services Children's Services Regulations to come into effect at our Preschool, something which the school's never dealt with before and neither has our current director. So, my colleague and I are trying to help as much as we can, policy-writing and all that.

Meanwhile, my friend's baby was due yesterday and not only have I done merely three rows of stars and hearts out of the total five, I'm seriously thinking it'll look better with six rows total, leaving me halfway through.

Plus, the sock went to frogtown, express. Turns out the length of my feet cannot be measured accurately flat, and they are much longer than five inches. Aack!

Hello... paging Shortfeet? Mr Shortfeet? Hello?


Hello? No? Mr Shortfeet? No? Aw, damn...
Oh, man. Roll on school holidays. I'm itchin' to get the spinning wheel out.

You spin me right round baby, right round...

I enjoyed my very very first second spinning lesson today, and I have to say - I love it! I am really quite proud of myself.

This is partially the reason for not very many... I mean no posts at all for the last week. I've been practicing for my lesson today. The other reason is that we've just finished our second last week of Term Four, and so are nearing Zero Hour, (or break out the booze - the school year's over!) at which time we need to have every child organised so they are taking home all (not most, parents please - ALL) of their paintings, craft, lost property (we can't stress that one enough) and rest time sheets.

This also means that I have to have completed for each child a Portfolio, which entails creating a documented 'story' of the child's year at Preschool - including photos, paintings, drawings, descriptive text for each story the photos were taken of (from big group things, like 'Easter' down to small-group things like 'These three children built a block house'), as well as really individualised photos for each child with descriptions added. Plus I have to make sure each child has a similar amount in their book and did I mention the excruciating, mind-numbingness of painstakingly gluing it all into an art book? For twenty-six children? Kill me, kill me now. And this is all undertaken at the same time as we are trying to get them all organised for their Christmas concert, held next week.

Oh yeah - and then we as teachers have to clean all the toys, furniture and sleep mats, and we have to go through every cupboard and the storeroom to clean it all out. Roll on next week!

And back to the more interesting topic of my spinning lessons - for the people who held on through that strange and scary rant...

My first lesson (waaay back two Thursdays ago) was a big success. The only experience I've had with spinning was really only involves treadling. Why? Dunno - it was most likely a Girl Guides thing. As a start, Corrie went over my wheel with me to help me get acquainted with all the parts and understand how they all work together. Thankfully, she was also able to identify some of the trickier parts unique to my wheel (I'm sure all wheels have this issue, too) such as the very loose maiden (hehe... what a crack up... a 'loose maiden'?!) that kept opening too wide (this isn't getting any less funny here!) and causing the bobbin to fall off the flyer. Corrie's amazing. I was quietly wringing my hands, thinking "Oh, my goodness, I've been ripped of here" and she says "Oh, this is fine - we'll just plug a bit of fleece around the base here and make it tighter"... And it works! No questions asked! I love the adaptability of it all.

I got to have my first go at treadling, which impressed Corrie ('cause I was able to treadle, for starters - yay me!), and after she helped me prepare some cross-breed fleece for spinning worsted, while teaching me about identifying different parts of the fleece, I was able to have a crack at spinning.

It took me some time to get any sort of drawing motions going properly, but for the time being, I was actually making a thread - something Corrie reckoned didn't happen very often on someone's first go. I left feeling pretty chuffed with myself, actually... but didn't get around to practicing much straight away. I sort of put the wheel back in the sunroom after a halfhearted practice and started something like three new knitting projects. I did, however, fetch the book on spinning I'd bought from Dymocks as soon as I'd bought the wheel ("The Whole Craft of Spinning" by Carol Kroll) and leave it on the shelf in the bathroom where the Empire magazines seem to congregate. As I read it more thoroughly, I realised there was something missing from my drawing and thought I should have another crack at it...
...and then I had my Eureka! moment. It felt right this time, and I even had a go at woollen spinning from Alpaca rolags I had prepared when I was too much of a wuss to try spinning on my own. When I showed Corrie, she was very impressed and happy for me. Me? I felt like taking out ad space in the Sydney Morning Herald to tell everyone about it - but settled for putting it in my Facebook status line. For my second lesson, Corrie started me on plying. Again, I need to practice finding that balance between overspin and underspin, but I think I did okay. I only had one break in the thread, which is good (I think!), and have prepared...





Dum-da-dum-duuumm! My First Skein.
















After it's washed (next lesson), I even have plans for this scary and irregular creation... It will be a wee vest for my other scary and irregular creation... Wonderboy! Pictured here with his wonderful father, modelling their 'Pants Hats'...



















...Any thoughts on what THIS might be???



(Goodness knows, it's not Christmas or New Baby knitting... or anything I'm 'supposed' to be getting on with!)

Busted!

I've been working as an Early Childhood Teacher for around eight years, and in that time I've worked with babies right through to preschoolers.The common theme of 'rest time' runs pretty consistently right through all age ranges, and then starts to taper off as the preschoolers start to approach what they refer to as 'big school'.

One of the more pleasant tasks that befall people in my field of employ (I refuse to call us 'Child Care Workers'. I'm University-trained, damnit!) is that of sitting with children and stroking their foreheads or patting their backs to help them get to sleep, and the younger they are, the more likely it will be that they want and enjoy this experience. It's gorgeous. I've found that gently stroking your index finger down a wee baby's forehead and nose makes them relax almost instantly, and as this is continued, you can just watch their little eyes flutter closed; it's so beautiful watching a child fall asleep!

But I digress. Where I find myself working now, I am with an older age range of preschoolers who have mostly all decided that they 'don't need me' to pat them to sleep. I was feeling pretty rejected, (and let's face it, quite bored and sleepy during rest times with nothing to occupy me) until last week I jokingly said to my coworker (and director of the service), "Man, I should bring my knitting for rest time". She responded, in all seriousness, "Hey, that's a good idea!". I love that kind of talk, especially from a non-knitter.

So, this week, I have been bringing my latest project, knit in a cream 12-ply (the ultimate antidote to 4-ply baby yarn!) that I cast on last Sunday. The first instructions, after casting on sixty-two stitches, was 'knit straight for forty-eight centimetres from cast-on'. Hmm. Not terribly challenging, but something to 'get done', so I could keep on with the interesting parts of the project. Sorry I have to keep referring to it as 'the project' - it must remain a secret till this baby is born! Maybe I need to cast on something else to keep everyone here entertained. More on that to come...

And I set myself up in a good vantage point, unzipped my bag, and set off. Row after row of good, straight, sensible, plain garter stitch. How it made my heart glad to see the stitches fly and the length increase! 'Hooray - less to do later' I thought, as I ploughed on. And the children loved it too! Every time I cast my eye over the little 'uns, at least half of them were similarly transfixed my the movement and gentle sound of the needles doing their thing. Lovely stuff.

It wasn't till today that I found out I'd been BUSTED by the Powers That Be... I spoke to the principal of the school I work at this afternoon, who at the end of our 'work' conversation, said casually,

"I saw you knitting on Monday at Rest Time"

"Oh, really?" I said, trying not to sound too flustered. "Well, you know how it is when you get to the end of the year, the preschoolers don't want me patting them, and I thought I'd do something useful while supervising, and..." excuses came pouring out of my mouth, unchecked and unbidden (this happens a lot to me when I'm put on the spot by work, salespeople and telemarketers).

"Yes", she continued. "We were having a giggle, watching through the window, you sitting up there like a Nana, knitting while you were looking over the children"

And then I pull out a self-deprecating joke. Why? I dunno. It just happens. Maybe if they think I'm willing to take myself down then they don't have to do it for me?

"Oh", I said "Well, it's not like you want me to be, you know, actually connecting with the children, do you... heh heh heh...?" There was a slight pause, then the principal said,

"Nah, you can knit! It's good you're doing something useful while you've got to sit there, isn't it?"

SUCCESS!

It only took me a second to register that all was cool, and that no sarcasm resided in that sentence, when I came back with:

"Excellent! I'll bring in that afghan I've been working on next Monday!"

hehe... she nearly fell off her chair laughing.




And here's one I made earlier! THE baby hat that's been driving me nuts over the past couple of weeks... Being that I've been in such a rush to start my next project, this is a photo of the third one of these I've knit, because... I still haven't washed, blocked or sewn up the last one completed (!). Are you surprised? I had a serious case of startitis! Still do, actually...