the color purple

is fortunately one of my favorites. There's nothing wrong with my hand... just the remnants of tie-dying 85 shirts and cleaning up after removing my gloves. That is really the worst of it.


But tomorrow, my hair will be purple. I challenged my kids 10 weeks ago to raise money in a penny war against the other elementary school to be donated to Relay for Life (their colors are purple and white) in the town I teach. They didn't meet the outrageous goal i originally set, but with one day to go and only $60 to break $1000, I told them if they broke the thousand mark, I'd dye at least a portion of my hair purple. Well the teachers in my school were more than willing to kick in their fair share.... $75 to be exact... but I didn't let the kids know... if each kid brought in 10 pennies, we would break the $60 that they thought they needed. That's the announcement I made Thursday just before dismissal. The local grocery store donated $100.... but my students brought in, IN ONE DAY, $214 and change.... and almost all of that was in pennies!!!!

This is to kick off the joint elementary chorus concert that will take place next Tuesday and the them is We Can Make A Difference.
The repertoire:

• Get On Your Feet
  
• With My Own Two Hands - from the Curious George movie
  
• Turn The World Around
  
• Child of the Universe
  
• Under the Same Sun
  
• Bridges
  
• We Are the World
  
• Ripple - my principal's request
  
• One Small Step
  
• Gonna Build High Hopes - my arrangement of High Hopes and Gonna Build a Mountain
  
• Cantare Cantaras
  
• Give A Little Love
  
• I am but a Small Voice
  
• Power of One by Bomshel

Most of these songs are taken directly from the music text we use by Silver Burdett
Making Music series but there are a few we stuck in that aren't that fit the bill as well.

The kids are so psyched. I'm a bit nervous but hope they'll sing well... this is our first joint effort. I have to play guitar on With my own 2 hands and piano on We are the World. I don't mind either... but am taking my own guitar so my fingers aren't bloody stubs when I finish... because the piano at the school we're going will certainly finish them off... the action is unbearably poor, way to stiff for my taste.

OK... off to knit a newsboy hat for DS1's music concert. I have to put their costumes together in 2 days... He's to dress like the 1920s and DD like the 1900s... I'll put pictures up of how I accomplish that... I'm a bit excited. Just wish I had started earlier... but that sums me up!!!!!

happy crafting

color me

blue and purple. Ice blue raspberry lemonade and blue berry kool aid with medium and dark blue Wilton gels from the Blues Clues set and grape kool aid and purple Wilton gel from the same set make all this yummy colored wool.

After the second batch of purple, you can see that the 2 purples don't match. What's a girl to do? Card them together and make a mesh of the two....



But there was still uncarded roving left that had blue earmarks on it. I thought... hmmm let's try dying before carding. The results were great colors, but once carded, too light for my tastes so back in the kettle those rolags went.











At last, the final combination. I thought about carding the two colors together and just spinning single ply, but I want to see how it looks with the 2 different colors plyed together.. just hope I don't hate it!

I had thought I lost one of my size 2 bamboo DPNs that I need to work on DH's tie but I found it this morning. I was home with the kiddos... DS2 with his 2 ear infections and sporadic fevers, DD with a sporadic earache, low grade fever and general malaise and DS1 with his sweet infectious good humor... At least I got to take a nap!


it really smells great!!!!!!!!!!

FO and redyed

Here's the blue overdyed with Wilton's icing gel in medium blue with a hint of dark blue (which made the purple) I really love how this turned out and can't wait to spin it!


This is the cloth I finished a few days ago. I have to look to get the info on the pattern. It's cute enough for V-day. I have another shot of it which showcases the hearts better but the color is way off. As promised yesterday the details follow :-)


Pattern: Love Day Cloth
Yarn: Lily's Sugar 'n Cream
Color: Red
Needle: Size 7 Knitpicks Options (have I said I love these needles??)


Happy Crafting

My addition to the KA Dye-along

from the get Stitchy forums.


Last night DS1 and I took a few rolags of Fuzzy and turned it purple. I only had 1 and about 1/2 packets of grape KA so I decided to cheat a bit and add some Wilton's purple from the Blues Clues set. I love how it turned out! There are bits of pink too. Now I have to run out tmrw and buy some more grape so I can finish the purple part of the top.








Today while cooking dinner, I opted for the blue. I put 4 rolags in the bottom of the pot and added 2 packs of Ice Blue Raspberry Lemonade.... then put another 5 or 6 rolags on top and added 4 packs of berry blue. This isn't precisely the color I was after... A bit too much yellow for me. I think I'll be cheating and overdying with some Wilton's medium blue from the same Blues Clues gel set. I'll post a picture tmrw of how it turned out!

My idea was to spin them each a sport weight and then ply them together for more of a heavier DK or something... but I want more of a blue to mix with that purple.... so I'll keep working on it!

I have another cloth to post but no picture. I'll get on that later.

I'm going to give a demonstration at DDs school about spinning. Their next unit of inquiry is historical, called 'then and now' about how things have changed... I'm so excited. I have a few weeks to get it all together to plan, but I think it could be a great lesson. (and one to put in my repertoire... although it will only be partly musical, but hey you never know.....)

Late start tmrw at school :-) For severe cold weather. This time I'm sure it's for the kids who are walking. I'll take it. We had a late start last Friday as well. DS2 had a rx to his amoxicillin... at first we thought it was the flu, but the hives are now on his belly. poor kid!