So much to blog about...

Hey everyone, I am writing after a few weeks of hiatus, with a house guest, standardized testing, lesson planning and senior finals happening, I had to set the blogging aside for awhile. But I am back! With 80's hair and glasses! I took my students to the Long Beach Aquarium for a Marine Biology field trip and they talked me into dressing up like I did when in high school. Lucky me!

Here is the life-sized blue whale that hangs in the central room of the aquarium. This is the largest animal ever to live on earth. Wow! Speaking of the LB Aquarium, last Friday night was the senior prom at the aquarium. I was, as always, a chaperone, and had a blast taking people on tours of some of the exhibits. It was really cool when former students came up and told me they remember our field trip way back in 10th grade. Back when they were just "kids". Sigh.


In addition to the aquarium, we visited a Marine Bird Hospital in San Pedro, as well as the Marine Mammal Care Center at Ft. MacArthur. Very interesting stuff. I'll post more pics in the next entry.




I finished another Sheldon turtle (from the archives of knitty.com) and this one is a super-sheldon! I used chenille that I got at the 99cents store, so the entire turtle cost (besides my precious time, right?) about $6. I knit him on size 11 straight needles, and 10.5 dpns. If you have some chenille and don't know what to do with it, try a Sheldon! I doubled the yarn throughout. This one was sent up to Portland for Ellery and her mommy for Mother's Day.



A few weeks back I was at the Black Sheep Knittery (dangerously close to my house) and coveting all of the bags of yarn, dreaming of the fun things I will knit this summer, when a woman asked me if I was Karyn Newbill. Sure am, I replied. She said she reads the blog and wanted to give me a donation for yarn and stuff for the kids to use! I couldn't believe it! So, here is what I bought with the GENEROUS donation made by Therese from Pacific Palisades!!!!! She overheard me asking about DPNs and sock yarn, to teach 16 kids how to knit socks. I searched and searched online and finally found the best deal out there and purchased some sock yarn on clearance and 16 pair of DPNs. So awesome! Thank you so much Therese! The kids are well into their first sock, and three of them have turned the heel and are heading for the toes! Your fabulous donation is much appreciated! I'll post more pics when there are some finished socks. In the mean time, I will post my progress on my sock, as I knit along with them. We are all knitting the Jaywalker Sock, btw. Great first-sock pattern, and it has an easy pattern repeat! Go for it, everyone!