Shameless Begging

As you know, I recently started at a new (to me) school. This is a school with a whole lot of potential and ... no knitting club.

A few of the girls are knitting -- one of the nearby after school programs is teaching it -- which has set the stage. More want to learn. One of our teachers approached me about starting up a knitting club and I'm all ready to jump right in. Except ...

When I left my old school, I donated all of the supplies to the middle school in the same building. I had no place to store them over the summer and it was the only solution at the time. And it was a good one since I had no way to know where I would wind up and, if I would be able to start another club. The school that receive the supplies had an active knitting club and will use the materials well.

Well, here I am in a new place and the need for this kind of club is acute. The kids want a creative outlet and we can provide it -- it a little bit of help.

I plan on doing some shopping this weekend -- inexpensive needles and the cheapest yarn I can find. The teacher who approached me is doing some corporate level begging while I am doing it the "old fashioned" way. Reaching out to you, my readers.

If you have yarn that is looking for a new home or needles that you have set aside in favor of flashier ones ... we can provide a good place for them.

If you can help, please contact me via the email address in the sidebar and I will provide mailing information.

For all of your help in the past, and for anything that comes in now, I thank you!

***

As a general rule, I try to keep work out of the blog. Since this is not an anonymous endeavor, I have to be careful. My identity is out there -- as is the identity of my new school and the old one. There will be no stories of the kids -- I can't go there -- except to share things that make the news anyway (and only in a positive way).

Teens Knitting: A Snapshot

Yesterday was all about purling and trouble shooting mistakes. About a dozen young people came out, grabbed stash and left, leaving me with three young ladies sitting and quietly knitting. Once we got the mistakes sorted out, I also sat and knit quietly. It was first frantic, with questions flying from all directions at once, and then calm as only a few stayed behind.

Earlier in the day I had come close to canceling the club because I was not feeling well but as the day dragged on and approached 3:00, I decided that I'd made it that far and could keep going for another hour. I'm so glad I did. The pleasure that I get from these young people is truly indescribable and works better to soothe me then any drug.

Our first blankie for the year is still on my balcony in pieces. I'll leave myself a reminder to wash them this weekend -- I refuse to let them into my place unless I have washed them and dried them on HOT first. I will do this. I promise!

Teens MEN Knitting

Yes, we have MEN. Young men, but men all the same. The number of male knitters at my school jumped from one to three in the span of half an hour. Yea! Both of the newbies caught on to the cast on and knit stitch incredibly quickly.

I had more to write about this but since I started it this morning and it is now 12 hours later, I've lost the train of thought.

In other news, at 3:00 tomorrow we will shut up the school until January 2. Woo Hoo! Yes, I desperately need this break and am really looking forward to lots of slow mornings, a couple of operas, some days spent with friends and family and lots of other quiet amusements.

Teens Knittng: Blanket Number 3

While I was inculcating 3 more newbies, and teaching cabling, purling and sock knitting to some "older" knitters, a few young ladies were organizing this:
There are actually enough blocks for 1.5 blankets so we are well on our way to number 4.

The blocks are now neatly stacked and bagged in my office, waiting for me to attach them all. I put two big ones together earlier and hope to do a few each day before I leave work. Whatever is left on the 21st will come home for finishing over the break. Yes, I will wash the blanket before we donate it. Promise!

Teens Knitting: Preparing for the Holiday

Theoretically there should not be an edition of "Teens Knitting" this week since I plan on shoving all of the teens in the building, knitting or not, out the door at 3:00 tomorrow. I take my long weekends VERY seriously! Also, for some strange reason, teens in a mostly deserted building, the night before a long weekend, tend to get up to some really odd stuff. So, we shove them out and make sure they are GONE. O.k., we strongly encourage them to leave -- no physical force is employed. Promise.

Before we strongly encourage them to leave, however, they must fill up on yarn. And some of them, knowing that I am not always in my office, stocked up early. Every lunch period today saw a multiple young people digging through the newest arrivals from Elizabeth and Knits With Cats. Thank you so very much, ladies!

One young lady brought in her half finished scarf and moaned about not having enough yarn to finish it. While I was pretty sure that we no longer had any matching yarn, I helped her dig through the stash and, voila!, we found one more ball of the same colorway! I think that it was this deed which earned me my good parking karma for the afternoon. (I have a strong belief that good deeds towards young people earn me good parking spots. The deed has to happen in the same day as the spot is needed or it doesn't work. And no fair intentionally doing a "good deed" to earn the needed parking karma. It has to be unplanned. That said, 6 out of the last seven street parking spots that I have found have been at failed meters. Including today.)

The afghan "squares" are piling up and I may bring them home this weekend to wash and hide ends on. After a disaster with the synagogue project blanket -- where 1/4 of the squares turned out to be wool and felted when I washed the completed blanket -- I now wash first. Good thing, too, the last batch of synagogue squares had almost a blanket's worth of now felted squares. They will not go to waste, however, we will put together a felted-square blanket.

Finally, a picture of the package I received last week from Felecia (no blog that I can find) -- it was kind of freaky to find the needles poking up through the yarn as I emptied the envelope.

Sounds Worse?

I have been fighting a cold for a week now and as colds go, it has not been too bad, makes me sound much worse then I actually feel. Got that sexy, hoarse thing going on. Today, however, that hoarseness gave me a good excuse to go home a little (only 15 minutes or so) early.

I had to make an announcement over the p.a. and in doing so, realized just how rotten I sounded. Hmm ... I thought ... the entire building just heard my hoarse, cracking voice. No one will think less of me if I go home right now.

And I did. Hung up the p.a., grabbed my purse and jacket and came home.

To do many loads of laundry and make dinner. A mother's work is never done.

(Dinner, by the way, was tasteless but the kids humored me and ate it anyway. I am seriously out of practice in the kitchen.)

***

Mucho thanks to Felica who found me via Sprite and sent yarn and needles for my kids. Thank you!

And one more aside, my knitting guy came in during lunch today and I got him going on dpns, making his first sock! Woo Hoo!

Teens Knitting: Where are the Guys?

My current principal is a guy. Like the rest of my principals, he supports the knitting club and thinks the whole thing is a bit odd but cool. Yesterday he wandered in while I was getting one young lady going, two more were in a corner working on their first pieces and the core group was digging through the stash. He looked around and asked "where are the boys." My answer? "He wanted to sit down, so he's on the couch near your office."

Yeah, we still only have one young man this year -- that's what tends to happen so I don't bemoan it. Frankly, male participation is a problem in the other program that I run -- and that one is geared toward future doctors!

The reason for the lack of males in the knitting club is, unfortunately simple. Guys don't want to be found knitting. Some will have their friends teach them on the side and knit at home or on the sly but unfortunately, knitting is still not macho. And in a school with a 58% Hispanic population, macho has real meaning.

Yesterday's stats? 3 newbies off and running, 1 (female) basketball player grabbing some yarn before practice, 1 core member working on a free Glampyre pattern, our guy making a crocheted hat and lots of squares for the blankie, and lots of stash diving by the other core members -- who swear they want to clean up my desk.

Bits and Bobs

My day was dragging. People were peppering me with requests -- mostly reasonable, but all while I was trying to count to 34. Over and over again. And then a package was delivered. From Paul! More yarn, needles and candy for my students. Woo Hoo!

Then, I managed to find a parking spot only 2 blocks from my appointment and when I got out to feed the meter, discovered that it was "failed." (Meter-speak for "don't have to feed, you lucky duck!") This is the third day in a row that I have accidentally parked at a failed meter.

My prize wool from Blogger Bingo was just mailed!

My daughter looks far too grown up in her turtle neck sweater which contains practically no ease.

My son loses sleep because his teacher said to staple the work into his notebook and he had to use tape because we could not find the stapler.

I am now addicted to EB Robb's (aka Nora Roberts) books thanks to Cookie. One is now being read and two more are sitting on my shelf. And it looks like the library has plenty more.

I misread our concert tickets and now have one fewer obligation on the 19th. Phew!

Oh, and right now my job is "all toxic waste, all the time" right now thanks to this news report. We are the second school mentioned. Please note, the report is GROSSLY exaggerated and one of the most irresponsible pieces of "journalism" I have seen in a long time.

Yup -- I'm just all over the place and thought I'd share my scatter thoughts with you, my faithful readers (who probably abandoned me after "Woo Hoo!") Time to leave the computer and knit a bit.

Teens Knitting: On a Roll

Last week my assistant decided that I needed some fun, and made a big push to recruit knitters. She made up colorful posters and had them put up all over the school. The result? My office overflowed this afternoon. Four brand new knitters learned to cast on and knit, my lone young man dug out what had to be my only crochet hook and started making something. A couple of basketball players came by to get yarn to knit before practice, my freshmen girls continued to work on scarves in some of the wonderful yarn that Paul sent a few weeks ago and a senior sat in my desk chair knitting something white and fluffy. Paul's candy came out and, while it did not quite disappear, it came close.

All in all, a solid, fun hour. Our collection of blankie blocks may now be full enough for me to put together the third blanket. I'll assess it after next week and decide if they will come home with me for Thanksgiving weekend. I had about 2/3 of a blankie going into this semester.

My assistant was right, I needed something to look forward to in my day.

Teens Knitting: Juggling the Academics

Yesterday was report card day. As soon as one of "my" kids (be it scholar or knitter) walks into my office on report card day, I ask to see the report.

Traditionally, the knitting club spans the academic ranges with honor students and those needing lots of support knitting together. It gets a little weird as the high achievers bemoan their 95s and the kids who struggle cheer about their 80s -- and I cheer with them. Ultimately, the answer is to bring the topic around to something else -- or else talk about gym. All of our kids have gym with the same set of instructors and all of the instructors follow the same grading guidelines so it is a safe subject.

Then I broke out the candy that Paul sent! Everyone was happy and the girls laughed at me as I tried to be politically correct about the India/Pakistan/Bangladesh mix up that I always have with them. Then we tease the boy -- who is from the Bronx. Yesterday one girl learned how to bind off, increase and decrease, three girls cast on chenille scarves using stash from Paul's box and our boy learned how to purl. All in all, a lovely hour.

Tonight, parent-teacher conferences. I'm the teacher.

Teens Knitting: Let There be Men Man

Yes, the first boy joined us this week and took off like a shot! He already knew how to crochet so knitting came quickly. I got him casting on and then one of the young ladies got him knitting while I dealt with other school matters. He, in turn, got the young lady crocheting. Love it!

Our young man was the only newbie this week but one of my seniors stopped by earlier in the day to drop off some squares for the school blankie and also dropped off two triangles. She showed where she had accidentally learned how to make a ruffle -- and quite a nice ruffle it is. I suggested that she make a matching piece and sew them together for a Barbie dress. Another student stopped by and moaned when she saw the new squares. She was hoping to be the first to give in squares this year!

And there you have it. This week's edition of Teens Knitting. There may not be an edition next week as I have to cancel club in order to be at a function for the other group I run.

Teens Knitting: Starting Fresh

Kids have been asking about the knitting club for a couple of weeks but, as always, I was a little slow getting things going. Still, all said, getting it rolling before the end of September is pretty good and is probably the earliest I have ever managed to start it.

This afternoon found four young ladies wielding yarn and needles for the first time. All caught on pretty quickly and three of the four were purling by the end of the afternoon. Two "older" knitters came by for a refresher course and immediately remembered what to do. They quickly knocked out a couple of inches on the first blanket blocks of the year and promised to bring in the finished blocks by the end of the week.

For those of you new to this feature of Squid Knits, a quick summary of the "Teens Knitting" subplot. Everyone else can tune out now as I have nothing interesting to say on my own life other then I managed to get my Treo sync'd with my new computer with absolutely no trouble! And Audible is working too!

***

Teens Knitting is a heading I started back in the days when I actively participated in the Socknitters Yahoo group. Back then, I posted looking for sources of inexpensive suppliers in NYC and found, instead, a wealth of wonderful people who wanted to support my students' newly acquired knitting habit. For a few years I would post the "adventures" of my teens on the mail list and received encouragement and supplies from the interested readers.

For a few years the club was in hiatus while life got in the way but it was resurrected last year to great acclaim. In fact, the club was so popular that we rapidly ran out of supplies with needles going first. In return for learning how to knit and getting to use the school supplies, the kids knit block for Warm Up America blankets, last year completing two full blankets and most of a third.

The kids who knit span ethnic lines with Banglas learning how to purl from Dominicans and native Harlemites showing recent immigrants from China how to bind off. Seniors interact with Freshmen and Sophomores and Juniors are tolerated with a grin. For the most part, they do not span gender lines though one or two boys do learn how to knit each year. It is my girls, however, who keep things going. They take it home, show mom and grandma and get the older generations knitting again. Sometimes I wonder if I am responsible for a knitting renaissance among the families of my students.

As for me, what do I get out of it? I get the nicest hour of my week. I get a chance to eavesdrop on their conversations and learn about their likes and dislikes and crushes and ... oh, all sorts of stuff. I get the trust of a group of kids who might only know me as "the lady in the hallway." I get so much, all of it intangible, all of it so very fulfilling.

That said ... if you have some orphan needles (preferably in sizes 6 - 9) looking for a good home, let me know. The school address is here -- just don't address the packages to "Mama Squid." They think I'm weird enough already.

Tired but Happy

My feet hurt. Has something to do with last days at school and constant patrols / events. Yes, even at 6 a.m., my feet and legs are still aching. And today is *really* the last day.

What makes a school administrator happy on the first of two *last* days of school? Rain at dismissal!!! Yea!!! No chance for last minute, well intentioned, hijinx when you are dodging raindrops the size of tea cups. Now if it will only do that again today at about 11:44 when we finally dismiss for the year. (Exams start this afternoon.)

I discovered that I have power in my gaze. Just a glance will get a kid to: take off a hat, cover a too skimpy top and put away a forbidden device. Makes me smile to be able to do that -- then they get confused as to why I am smiling at them.

You know what else makes me smile? My two most loyal knitters showing up for one last gabfest yesterday afternoon. Love those kids!

All this smiling makes half my face ache. Just the real, full face smiles. The fake smiles just invoke stiffness -- stiff smiles, stiff face, makes sense.

You know what else makes me smile? The fact that I have two great kids of my own -- who will never have to be told to put away their cell phones and who will hopefully never get so drunk that they pass out in the park on the last day of school. That just makes me cry.

Cold Squid

Earlier today a teacher noticed a drip in his classroom. The leak was traced to ... wait for it ... my radiator. When given a choice of no heat or heat and a classroom that has to be evacuated due to "rain" (and the brand new floor being ruined) I always opt for no heat. (Yes, I have had to make the decision before with other people's offices.)

I think wool socks and long underwear are in order for the rest of the week. Correction ... the rest of the winter.

It took over 3 hours for the custodians to disconnect my radiator. It is probably an original and did not want to be retired. The guys started with a normal sized wrench and some WD-40 and progressed to the extra-large wrench and then finally, the saw. The problem preventing the disconnection? A bent nipple. (The link is to hardware and is not obscene.)

This, of course, sent my knitters into fits of uncontrollable giggles.

In other news, the teens in question asked me if the knitting club was the best part of my week and I had to confess that yes, it is. Tomorrow we will have two more muppet hats and today a kid learned to cable. Yes I love these kids!!!

Skirting the Issue

On Monday and Tuesday I work a suit. A "proper" suit with a skirt, hosiery and heels. The theory was that this is more professional than a pants suit and when your school is being reviewed, you want to look professional.

My question now is: why is a "skirt-suit" considered more professional than a pants-suit? What is it about a tailored skirt that makes people take a woman more seriously? And, should a person reviewing said people in skirts actually think less of them when the weather is below freezing?

Please, I am dying to know the answers. Both my boss and I wore skirts on days when the outside temperatures ranged from 10° to 25° . Today, we both wore pants.

*****
The Second School Blanket

Another stack of blocks came in from my most prolific knitter and others are still working on them. The third blanket will have several crocheted pieces as well as knit blocks. A couple of my staff have donated abandoned crochet projects for our effort. Hey, it works for me.

Thanks to Anne for her recent donation of fun fur for the chemo cap project!

Murphy's Law

The last two days have been beset by Murphy's Law. Nothing horrible happened, just annoying stuff that, when added to the Quality Review, made life that much more stressful.

New York City has instituted an annual Quality Review for all public schools. I will not go in to the details but it made for a stressful two days. To add to this ... the boiler froze on Monday. The other school in the building could not go out for recess due to the extreme temps and were a tad louder then usual. Our own kids were obviously under the effect of the full moon from the other day. On Tuesday it seemed that a migraine epidemic was underway. Little Squid woke up with one at 5 a.m. and kept us guessing as to whether it would be gone enough by departure time. When we finally decided that Papa would stay home with him -- and Papa had called in to work -- the worst faded and Little decided he could go to school. Papa rescinded his sick call and, as he mounted his bike ... got a migraine.

Little Squid's migraine through me off my usual morning routine so that I forgot to take the new "school" blanket and Sis's hat to work. The blanket was finished in time for yesterday's club meeting which was partly postponed because of the club fair, which, due to circumstances beyond my control, I did not manage to get to. As for the hat ... I was supposed to mail it yesterday. Um ... I'll try to get it in the mail tomorrow.

Meanwhile, for the Teen Knitting fans ...

Scarf made from yarn donated by KnittyOtter.

Tune in later for pictures of the second school blanket. I plan on using it to warm my legs in the car on the way to work this morning.

Proof!

For those of you who still think that my squirrel stories are tall tales, I present proof in form of photographic evidence. Here you see two well gnawed window frames and one that was left alone -- that is the one near the window that they use as the main access to my desk.









My understanding is that these windows are not long for this world and should be history by the end of the month. Then the poor squirrels (not!) will have to sharpen their teeth elsewhere. Perhaps, just maybe, in the park?

In other news, a package of fun fur and needles arrived today from Susan! Included in the package was this:a glossy magazine all about Oklahoma. This is my next reading project. Red Dirt country, here I come! Thank you!

Knitting-wise we have this:a partially completed Boogaj bag

and Sis's hat.

Beware that visiting this blog on Sunday may result in an overdose of proud Mama. Just warning you.

Missing Them

I miss my students. Mid-year Regents exams began last Tuesday and the kids only came in to take the few exams they had to take. I saw a few of my juniors on the days of the English Regents (nope, not a typo, days as in two) but that was it. Classes resume on Thursday and I hope that my kids, both Knitters and Scholars, come to visit. Knitting club will not resume until the 13th due to the club fair next Tuesday. I may just have to run an abbreviated club on the 8th just to get my one-on-one kid fix in. The building is so empty this week that we could actually hear the squirrels making more squirrels on top of my air conditioner. Kind of freaky, actually.

On the personal knitting front, I am booking on Sis's hat and am still on target to finish it by the weekend. The sock has been ripped and restarted twice and will be ripped and restarted again once I get the book I ordered today. The yarn is screaming to be made in to Mermaid socks but I first had to buy the book with the pattern in it. In the meantime I have started a Booga Bag with the Noro Kureyon that my Sock-ret pal gave me.

So much for my pledge of keeping new projects to a minimum.

Goals Achieved

The mittens are in the mail in packaging guaranteed to embarrass little sis (she is using her sorority house as a mail drop).

The Muppet Fur hat is finished.Squidette's scarf is ready for wearing. (My own handspun done in Mistake Rib, one of my fave scarf stitches even before Cookie made it hip.)
and the school blanket is now in 5 panels instead of lots of little blocks.

Little Sis's hat is now on the needles and a new pair of socks has also been started using my lone skein of Cabin Cove for the Dave-along.

And, my nails are once again pink. Last week I went for prudent over pretty and left them au natural. Exam week wrecks havoc on my hands. Broken nails abound as do paper cuts. My poor hands get washed every hour or so since the tests and the vault are just dirty! With the tests, I think it is partially ink rubbing off as I repackage them right before test time.

My crafting goals this week include finishing Sis's hat and finishing the blanket assembly. I have no delusions regarding the socks.

Thanks to Anne K. for this link. It is way cool and if I used Mike's I-Pod I might have to make it. Hmmm ... maybe for Squidette's Zire?

Time to knit on that hat ... have a great week!

More Thanks and Bits and Pieces

Thank you, KnittyOtter! See all this stuff? It came yesterday, courtesy of our favorite Otter. See that box full of yarn? It was only half full by the time the day ended.
And the needles? Half gone by the end of the day. The Boss and I were trying to figure out the tremendous interest in it this year and the best I can come up with is the two-year almost hiatus and the "Breck" factor. Remember the old commercial? "I told two friends, and they told two friends, and so on and so on and so on ..." That's what it is like! Thank you so much, KnittyOtter!!!

In other news, I have joined the Cabin Cove Knit along and will finally knit the lone skein that I have. Come join us and show off how nicely your Cabin Cove yarn knits up.
While I am plugging bloggers who sell things ... my cousin is now blogging as well as selling vintage sewing patterns. Go say hi and tell her Mama Squid sent you. (Yes, I have a lot of family members who blog. Cousin Elana does a business blog, Cousin Robert does a medical blog, kid brother Josh blogs for the NCAA and now this. It is only a matter of time before my wonderfully wordy father gets in to the business.)

And to prove that this is still a knitting blog ...for my kid sister. They are actually almost done, just the thumb is left on the left mitten. If I stop blogging I should be able to finish it tonight, block them tomorrow (to get rid of the horrid squishyness) and pop them in the mail this weekend. The hat will follow a week or so later. First I have to finish Squidette's scarf now that winter is actually here.