Not Much

So I didn't hear a peep back from the oldest's teacher. I spent the morning on edge waiting for a response and then nothing. I did notice that perhaps my request for more announcements might have hit home though so I'm going to assume I'm not getting a response.

The rest of the day I caught up with the DVR and knotted a bit on the newest doily. I'm still working on the basket stitch sections and I haven't yet decided what's next on the piece. This is all that's on the agenda today, though I need to set aside some time to finish the last bits for the kids' Halloween costumes soon. There's not much to be done, but I don't want to stall all the way to the last minute, maybe I'll just use some time to at least plan them out today. I guess we'll just have to see how the day goes.

Weekend Recap

Well, it was quite a busy weekend, but it started with schooling frustrations. My oldest's new teacher has, in my opinion, communication problems. We were sent an email about something that implied that we knew about something previously and that this was just a clarification, which we did not and it was not. Luckily, I had someone else to ask for actual clarity, but it's still increasingly frustrating. I sent a message late Friday asking for more and clearer communication from the teacher going forward and have been stressed about the response I might receive today. The rest of the weekend was busy with family events and dinners. Those were nice and relaxing, mostly.

In other, more thread related news, I did work on the latest doily. I didn't have too much in the way of uninterrupted sitting time except when we were trying to catch up with the DVR. The pineapple round took forever and made me not want to do anymore of those on this piece. I'm sticking with the basket stitch for a bit and then I'll reevaluate after a few of those I think.

This week is wrought with assignment deadlines for the kids so I'm just hoping I survive it completely sane. Maybe the knotting can keep me focused or maybe this is the week I'll be discovered curled in a ball on the floor somewhere muttering to myself. It's really a toss up at this point.

The Plan

Well, it was a fairly low key day yesterday. The oldest child had to interact with her new teacher for the first time and it appears there is definitely going to be an adjustment period. Though I don't sense it being too bad in the end, just more change to get used to. He is just really, really new to this and there is a lot to learn.

I really didn't do anything after schooling was wrapped except knot the Armenian lace doily. I actually stopped and measured it as well. It's at about 7 inches across right now, so there's about three inches to go. Id like to say it'll be done this week, but I just downloaded the new book from Alan Moore, Jerusalem, and I'm pretty sure it's going to take up a whole lot of my time and energy. The last book I read by him was definitely not an easy read and this one is 1,280 pages, so I'm anticipating a long relationship with it. So today the plan is knotting lace and reading a book.

To Hope

Well, let's see, the aloe cuts are all healing nicely and the sore muscles have almost completely abated. I have had weird cold symptom recurrences all weekend including the mother of all headaches last night, but this morning I'll risk saying I'm feeling pretty good. Oh, and the television died a silent death on Friday afternoon, going to black and staying there.

So as you might've guessed we spent Saturday shopping for and then setting up a new television. Thankfully they are much cheaper than they were we when bought the one that died, but it was still a pretty painful purchase. Of course it's one of those new smart TV's because that's what they all are now, so we spent the rest of the day figuring out how to use it.

Sunday I got to sit and knit and knot. I haven't been measuring the latest doily, but it seems to be coming along nicely. Since I don't know how big it is, I'm not sure how much longer I have before it's done.

This week we're also breaking in a new teacher for the oldest child. I'm definitely a 'roll with the changes' sort of person, but I am disappointed that we're going from a teacher with over a decade of experience with this program to a fellow who was just hired and who has never taught this grade before either. To say I'm feeling a little apprehensive is a bit of an understatement. Hopefully the transition will be smooth and my worries will be unwarranted. I'm also hoping for some sort of huge surprise purchases in my shop to take the edge off of our weekends unexpected purchase. Here's to hope.

Beginning

Schooling is starting to get into a bit of a rhythm, but we're still missing materials, and the oldest child is getting a different teacher this week, so I'm not certain how many tempo changes may still be in store for us. For the moment though I've got some semblance of a routine, so I managed to get some things done.

This is theoretically the last gift doily I'm making this season, though we all know that could change. I've tried to make each one at least a little unique, but I tried a little harder on the beginning of this one. If I mange to keep it up, this one should look pretty different, well as different as a doily using the same technique can look anyway.

I also managed to get laundry done and to put a cap on the day, the youngest child has come down with some plague or other. It's likely just a matter of time before I, or the other child get it as well. She's basically a ticking time-bomb of illness, but she was still able to get her school work done before the worst of it hit. I'm crossing my fingers for heath, class materials, and yes, sales in my dead etsy shop today.

One Down

You'll never guess what happened late yesterday afternoon. Yep, the biggest schooling issue was resolved, leaving a couple of other issues in its wake, not least of all is the need to now catch up on all the classes we missed the last 4 days. Now the real stress starts as we just now get to use the new online system and find all the questions we didn't know we needed the answers to before. So, yay.

Now I'm not certain if I'll finish the doily this week, maybe over the weekend, but my focus has definitely shifted and from what little I've already gleaned from the new schooling system tells me we're going to be much busier this year. Man, I really wish we'd had access to the system even before school began to get used to it. I hate being under-prepared. Here's hoping things smooth out quickly and I'm in a better mood next week.

So Slow

Nope, school issues are not yet fixed. I am assured that people are working on it, but I fail to understand why it's so difficult to fix. Perhaps it's because no one has yet explained what the actual issue is, but really I don't care what or how, I just need taken care of and I am beginning to lose my very carefully cultivated sense of patience. The oldest child currently has no classes, nor materials. Oh, and I'm sure you're already sick of hearing me whine about it as well, so let's cross our fingers that it's resolved soon for all our sakes.

Onto doily news. Well, there's really no actual news. I'm at about 21cm across right now. I still think I should get it done by weeks end. Though to tell you the truth, this week is the longest one I've experienced in some time. I suppose it's true that vacation flies by, but work crawls and work riddled with problems that have to be fixed by someone else is downright sloth-like. So, here's to school problems miraculously fixed, many surprise sales in my etsy shop, and time moving at a more acceptable pace.

Growing Doily

Still no resolution on the homeschooling issues, though at this point we're just rolling with it and hoping that it gets fixed sooner rather than later. My biggest concern right now is starting to be the catch up we'll need to do once it's all been fixed. It's going to be rough.

On the plus side the stress continues to fuel pretty much nonstop knotting. When my fingers are busy I can keep focused on just that and getting our work done, but not all the setbacks. The piece is at about 18cm across now. If things keep going at this pace, I should have this one finished by weeks end. I still have at least one more on my gift list to make, though that may turn into more as I got started early enough to do more if I need to. I'd love to be shifting gears to some tatting, but my shop is still pretty much a ghost town with only the occasional visitor. Everything has to start looking up sometime, right?

Argh

So I wrote the blog yesterday before I found out that the homeschooling glitch I referred to was much more robust than previously imagined. The day was a pain in the arse, at least for the oldest child. Unfortunately none of it has yet been resolved, thus today will likely be the same kind of pain, if not worse.

On the plus side my need for stress relief was so high that I knotted even during schooling. That resulted in quite a lot of progress for the most recent doily. Something about the stress is also pushing me to make more interesting choices with the design and I'm quite pleased with the way it's turning out. Too bad I can't fix everything with a nice piece of lace.

I imagine that I'll get more done today as well, since there's bound to be no resolution to our issues. Yes, I'm aware that I'm being super pessimistic. It's a gift. I'll still cross my fingers for things to work themselves out, but I have no illusions that it's likely.

Radial Symmetry

Well, here we are at the start of the homeschooling year. My free time will shrink to what I can accomplish outside of that much more important responsibility. This year is starting in somewhat of a rough patch as there's been some sort of glitch with the older daughter's account. The issue is supposedly being worked on, but in the meantime we have no class materials and I can tell you it's going to be a frustrating week as we try to work around that huge handicap. So I fear I shall be whining more than usual this week, my apologies in advance.

I did mange to start another gift doily. I've sorted out all the colors for each of the recipients and managed to actually find some proper thread in stock somewhere local. Of course I'm still playing the 'use a filter to obscure the color' game just to keep something a mystery. Good thing I have so many photo editing apps on my phone, huh?

I am still also working on the shawl, but I didn't get a picture of that. I'm also pretty distracted with all that stuff from the first paragraph, so here's hoping I manage some creative work this week at all. I'll likely really need the stress relief it brings. Pleasing radial symmetry bring me peace.

Fit For A Cat

If anything, my stress levels went up yesterday as the oldest child's teacher attempted and failed to resolve some of our issues. It's not really her fault, it's just time is short and I'm losing my ability to be patient with things like busy help lines. So instead I focused on knotting. I got the shawl experiment to about 14 inches. It's now big enough to be a cat shawl. No, the cat did not enjoy the modeling gig. I was starting to lose patience with the yarn about this point as well, so I switched back to the doily.

I cannot begin to explain how much nicer the thin thread is to work with especially after the stretchy yarn that snags on itself. The smaller piece also has the advantage of perfect density which allows no sliding of the knots. It was actually relaxing to go back to the doily for awhile, so I think switching back and forth between them is definitely the way to get them both done faster.

Today will likely bring more school stresses and hopefully more knots will be tied. I'm just hoping that I survive the next couple of weeks without day drinking, because it feels like that's a distinct possibility right now.

Stressed

So the homeschooling year starts on Monday, but we've been fielding all sorts of setbacks as the day gets closer. The youngest child is all set and ready to go, but the oldest child still hasn't gotten her class materials and we've had various account issues. The teacher is working on it all, but we've had no progress on resolutions thus far. All of this has led to me being way more stressed out than I like to be. Stressed out also equals distracted and distracted equals unproductive. I guess what I'm trying to say is, it's a miracle I managed to spend any time make lace yesterday at all.

I got a few more rows created in what I'm now calling the Armenian lace shawl experiment. It's about 9 inches across right now. I've no set end length, but I think it's a long way off. The biggest challenge now is trying to keep the top edge straight as I'm really making up the rules of reversing work right now. I'll likely end off by working a row along the top edge anyway. Of course I have no idea how long from now that will be, but I suppose this project will work well as a, between other pieces, time killer, so it could be months.

Almost

As expected I didn't have any time for thread yesterday.  As soon as schooling was over it was straight to the park for the Year End Celebration for the kids. Three of the kids' cousins were there along with their grandparents. We expected the grandparents, but the cousins were a surprise. The awards ceremony was followed by a pot luck picnic in the park for all the families. Those are my two girls in the center there getting an award.

Right after the picnic and fun with cousins, we went straight to the dentist for all of our appointments. We were there for a really long time. By the time we got home it was nearly time for dinner, so nope, no lace time for me.

Last night I got two orders. One before bed and the second overnight. Interestingly, they were both for Armenian lace pieces. So after schooling wraps today, I've got crochet cords to make so I can remake the necklaces. As those cords take forever to make, this should keep my busy for the rest of the week easily. Only two more days of schooling.

Lessons

Yesterday started out just fine. I was happy to be starting the very last week of school. I found out that my oldest child has been promoted an extra grade for next year. The temperatures have even been nice. Then I got to learn some things I was fine not knowing. I got to learn how much I take a working appliance for granted. I got to learn how quickly and thoroughly one can break, and that lesson came with a little extra physical pain and a greasy mess. Finally I learned how exactly expensive that appliance, a new garage door opener, can be with installation costs. Next up I get to learn how long I have to wait for the store people to call and schedule the installation. This week took a bad turn very quickly.

After all that homeowner drama, I did get some time to sit down and work on the custom order I got Sunday. Of course I didn't have as much time as I hoped, so I only managed to finish one of the two bracelets I need to make. I also found myself wishing the order was for a drastically higher amount to undo the painful credit card transaction that we underwent.

I should be able to finish the other awareness bracelet today, barring anymore teaching moments from the the Universe. Then I'll get back to the Armenian lace and tatting experiment. Here's hoping the week turns back to good sooner rather than later.

Almost Done

Two more papers done for the child and turned in just in time. This morning she has to present one of them and her science project in an interactive online session. So today should still be a high stress one. When that's over though, we can all relax a bit and coast through nest week, the last week of the school year.







I'm looking forward to future creative bursts of energy as well as time to do things like catch up on the dozens of hours of TV that have been piling up unwatched on my DVR. There is also a generous pile of comic books that I'd like to actually read. So one more week and my time is mostly mine again for awhile. And since I have nothing creative to show you, you get pictures of Chi Sai, our three footed cat, being forced to sit in my lap. She has personal space issues and has to be caught unawares to put up with any physical contact beyond scratching her back from a distance. You can see her plotting her escape in her eyes.

So Long

I had the longest day ever yesterday. Well, it felt like the longest day. As assignment deadlines creep nearer we had to buckle down and get things truly completed. Yesterday that included the child typing up a fictional narrative she wrote that stretched over 30 pages and a science experiment complete with a power point slide presentation. I figured I had to take some pictures of the science project, so here are the ingredients. It involved darkness and crushing mints to make sparks. It was a weird day too.

After that was done I started in on the editing of the afore mentioned fictional narrative. I only made it halfway through last night, so it's also the first thing on my agenda today. I couldn't even get to sleep after that though, my brain kept sleep editing imaginary pages. While I do that there's still one more paper the child needs to write. I anticipate another long and tiring day today. The silver lining is that Friday is presentation day for all her work and then it's a quiet last week of school next week. Then maybe I can make some lace again.

Habit

Well, nothing new and interesting, again. We're at that deadline point in the kids' school year. There are papers due and the oldest child is very skilled at procrastination. This means I get to sit with her and pester...er, I mean encourage her to keep writing until the papers are all done. The hardest part for me is to just not write them myself, because I actually enjoy writing, but I know better and I just sit there poking at her with questions until she finally gets moving. All that extra time schooling means much less time for me to worry about tatting, or knotting anything.

I'm going to wait until tomorrow morning to pick a winner for my 1,000,000 page view giveaway, so if you missed that post yesterday, head there and add a comment to enter. I'll do two winners if many more people comment. So far, it's too few to justify more than one. Thank you to everyone who has commented with congratulations so far. Truly, this is just a bad habit I got into and can't stop. I fear I will be writing here long after anyone stills cares, purely out of habit.

Yesterday

Well, some days you don't get to do anything you wanted to do. Yesterday was one of those days. Sure I had few solid plans for the day to begin with, but I always like to be able to sit down and get some tatting done. Yesterday was having none of it however. Yesterday, I was reminded of how much of a time commitment homeschooling can take when it wants to. The oldest daughter had to finish her research paper. While she did all of the research herself and most of the writing before yesterday, the final bits of typing, and editing required my direct supervision and input. It basically sucked most of the day away. We still managed to go out and jog, walk, and do some yoga after schooling, but we weren't done until almost 4 and I still had laundry to finish and then make dinner. No time for tatting.

I haven't even thought about what I might get up to today should I get some time to do anything. I suppose all of those things I wrote I would try to get up to yesterday. Man, I really do hope that the Universe surprises me with something good soon. I need an upswing and some solid sitting, tatting time.

Well That's Done

It was definitely a jam packed Tuesday. We weren't even finished with schooling until well after lunch. I know that doesn't sound like a long time especially given that traditional school is always that long, but we usually wrap it up much quicker. After that and several other related tasks were finally done, I had time to sit down and tat.

I actually managed to not only finish the gift project, but I also remade the piece I needed to for the shop. I even started working on making another backup piece since it was my cat ear headband that sold and it seems to always sell in small clusters. Having more made at a time is just wise. The picture is just the centers of the pair still in progress. I'll try to remember to get a photo of the gift to share after the holidays.

I still have more things to do for the kids promotion. We've managed to gather most of the work samples save for the composition ones. They are the ones I am personally most worried about. Neither of the kids enjoy writing much and that is definitely reflected in those pieces. I'm sure we'll come up with something good by Friday though and then hopefully I can collapse for a while. Other than that, I'll work on the cat ears and keep crossing my fingers for more sales.

Yikes

Whew, yesterday went off the rails quickly. Not tatting wise, no that's coming along just fine. I didn't have much spare time to work on my gift project, but I did manage some progress on it. There's still been no major uptick in sales from my shop, but I have gotten a couple in the last few days. Enough that I finally have something else that I should remake for the shop. Of course all that supposes that I get any free time the rest of the week, which brings us back to that 'off the rails' comment earlier.

As you probably know, I homeschool both my children. Over the last few years they have accelerated in classes that they found easy and eventually they were both working a full grade level above what they are. There has been talk of promoting them to the grade they are working in for some time, but I just got word that we need to provide a bunch of work sample before the end of next week to make the request this year. So, my week and by extension, their week is now devoted to assembling work packets. This is only a drama because they do much of their work online and orally that there really is little actually on paper to choose from. I'm sure we'll get it done, but I probably won't get much else done with the week.

If by some miracle I do get some spare, sitting time I've got this mystery gift to finish, a piece to make for the shop and there's still that cleaning of the house I should get to. Personally I'm hoping for just enough time for the tatting and not quite enough for the cleaning. Really I'm just hoping we all survive the extra work we just got for the week.