How about some books?

I try to read a lot in the summer because reading time is so limited during the school year.  These are some of the books I've been reading this summer.

The Genevieve Lenard novels by Estelle Ryan (4 so far) are speedy, interesting reads.   They are mysteries set in the art world and the main character is, by her own description, high functioning autistic.  

I very much enjoyed Dragon's Triangle by Christine Kling.   It switches been World War II and present day telling the story of a woman and her grandfather and how their stories intersect.   I was engaged for the entire book.

Long Knives by Charles Rosenberg was my most recent read.  I stayed up late on reading binges a couple times enjoying this one.   It's the story of a law school professor who ends up framed for murder.   

The Barkeep by William Lashner was another quick mystery that kept my attention with twists, turns, and character development.

Seems I'm on a mystery and crime solving trail this summer.  I just started The Secret of Monument Valley by Mark Stephen Taylor.

If you're looking for a book to read I can recommend these!

Already planning for the 2015 Temperature Scarf

This one will be in blues.  I want to go somewhat monochromatic so I found a yarn with a lot of color choices (Knit Picks Palette) on the suggestion of a knitting friend.

I played around with the blues, blue-greens, and blue-purples and decided on this as my color range.  Twelve colors gives me room to play with the arrangement before deciding on the final 10. 

for a different project: 

February on the Temperature Scarf

I love the first two months of this scarf and March is more purple and green.  Pink is cooler and the blue is the coolest temp so far that I'll see probably until November, if not December. 

Temperature Scarf, January

January is knit!  Here is the first month of my 2014 Temperature Scarf.  Pink is the color for the coldest weather of the month for high temperatures between 54-60F.  There is a little row of eyelets at the top near the pegs in light green.  That's the color for the average temperature for the month, 67F. 

Impulse purchase

I've been wanting a loom from Cottage Looms for quite a while.  I recently did some swatching on my KB Sock Loom which has similar pegs and it didn't go so badly.   The sock loom is a little hard for me to hold.   So I ordered wanting a loom easier to hold.  It came in under a week!  I'm so impressed with their speediness.

The loom is made of walnut or oak and is somewhat heftier in feel than my favorite Cindwoods.    The cotter pin pegs are tall and nicely placed.   The wood is beautifully cut, sanded, and polished.  The gauge is "small gauge" which is 3/8th inch peg spacing.   Cottage seems to be following the peg spacing labels of the now defunct Decor Accent Knitting Looms.  

I'm looking forward to using this but it will have to wait until I finish a couple other projects.  I'm not one to keep a lot of unfinished projects or have several going at once.

This is their Infinity Loop/Cowl Loom.  

The loom measures 18"x9" and has 108 pegs/pins.

The pick has the look and feel of a dental instrument. 

It's sturdy and sharp.  I'll need to pad it or make a sculpy

type handle.

Changed my mind...stitch patterns for the Temperature Scarf

I swatched the stitch pattern I thought I wanted and changed my mind.  Then I swatched 8-10 more stitch patterns and didn't like them.   I was about to go back to garter stitch when I decided to try seed stitch.  It's like garter stitch but roomier with little more interest. 

I finally cast on yesterday and have knit about half of January's days.

• Every two rows=1day.
• I'm still working on neat color changes.
• The scarf should end up around 72 inches long.  
• Each color represents a range of 7 degrees in Fahrenheit.

Somewhere along the way I revised my temperature ranges and the order of my colors.  Pink was supposed to be magenta.   Instead of re-ordering yarn I rearranged the order of the colors.

In Fahrenheit:

1. 40-46 Light Blue
2. 47-53 Dark Blue
3. 54-60 Pink
4. 61-67 Light Green
5. 68-75 Light Purple
6. 75-81 Dark Green
7. 82-88 Dark Purple
8. 89-95 Yellow
9. 96-102 Orange
10. 103+ Red

This is about half of January's temperatures, quite moderate.

Ready to start the temperature scarf.

I "caked" all my yarns, reviewed my temperature ranges, and decided on the order of the colors.

I also found a knitting loom to work with and decided on a stitch pattern.  I'm going to use a two row garter stitch eyelet so that there some texture interest to go with the color.

I'm using Weather Underground's temperature archive and have the first three months written out with temperature/day and color to use.   January was so balmy that I'll be starting right in with a spring green instead of the blue colors I chose for winter temperatures.  I hope in December to see a little cold weather show up.   There is one day in early February that uses the darker of the blue colors for a high of 53F.  

Ready to start!

Temperature Scarf

This will be a July and months going forward project.  I'll need to catch up with Jan-July!  The idea is to assign a color for a range of temperatures and then knit a couple rows each day with the color for the high that day. 

More summer adventures

Last week my younger niece graduated from high school.   We are all so proud of her!  I'll have to borrow a photo as I managed not to take any that day.

The next day Sis and I took our niece and nephew cherry picking.  Delicious fun! 

Yesterday I met up with a friend I've known on Ravelry for years.  It was delightful to meet up with her.  We visited a yarn shop, had a lovely lunch in Avila Beach, and did more shopping after lunch.  I'm not such we stopped talking for a minute of our time together.

The yarns:

Some of my treasures:

Summer!

And today begins the first heat wave of the summer with temperatures expected to be 109F on Monday.  Wow.   It's early for that kind of heat.

This last weekend was my nephew's wedding.  It was a gorgeous wedding with a handsome groom, a beautiful bride, and a marvelous celebration.

For the last month or so I've been knitting little hats with Lion Brand Keppi and Keppi Sparkle yarns.   Quick to knit and satisfyingly easy.   Now that school is out I'll get to working on projects that take a little more thinking.

The hats:

One more, the purple.

The Work in Progress:

Brand New Refrigerator!

Here it is:

Work, work, work, work........

It's mainly been a paperwork week since direct services ended last Friday except for a couple preschoolers.   I've written 3 IEPs and held 2 and written and gotten signed 3 addendum. One more IEP in the a.m.  Just praying there are no more missing jots and tittles to have to do amendments for.  Bleh.

We've buttoned up our preschool office and moved the contents of two big cupboards from our main office to the new office/classroom.   My assistant has been a packing machine as we're also packing me out of the classroom.   We will be at a new school next year.

My two big accomplishments were getting the progress reports written and neating every single one of about 80-85 student files.  I like to make sure things are all back in order as the school year ends and it's always good to find and relocate bits and pieces that manage to travel from one students file to another's. 

My third big job is to get all the therapy notes neatened up and put those into the student files.  After that it's finish packing and haul home the little bits that I don't trust the maintenance crews to move.  These are people who can damage file cabinets with their carelessness.  I'm not entrusting them with a number of things.  

4 more days.  :*)

Around the yard

Not around the yard but needed to host a photo for a test post elsewhere.  :D

California Channel Island: Santa Cruz

Garden Collage March to May

Possible Temperature Scarf Ranges and Colors

33-39            

40-46

47-54

54-60

61-67

68-74

75-81

 82-88

89-95

96-102

103-109

110+