Nag, Nag, Nag

Kim has been trying her best to guilt me into posting something. I finally go around to it. Here is a picture of a hat that knit to test the pattern for her. I used Cascade 220. I need more practice at carrying the yarn in both hands, but I think it turned out ok. A shot of the crown is below.

























The pattern is easy to follow once you get past the cast on. That took me longer than the hat, and I don't think I actually did it like she intended, but I'm happy with it.

This hat will be sent with 4 pairs of socks (photos later, I promise! Don't look at me like that Kim) to Mittens for Akkol.

Big Blue Socks

Photo taken by the T-man using his new camera

These socks are for the Mittens for Akkol Christmas 2007 challenge. We are trying determined to give every child in the orphanage a pair of hand knit socks for Christmas. This pair is out of Cascade 220 (you got it, I lost the label and don't remember the color). I only have a little left of each hank, so they took a lot of yarn. They were knit toe up by the magic loop method on size 4 (3.5 mm) addi turbos.

I did not have a pattern -- just did the Queen Kahuna method. These are 11.25 inches long. They are a little big on my model (Pops), but at least I can tell that I got the right proportions. I did a slip stitch heel for extra durability.

Warning Label

I have been advised that the occasional extreme math content of my blog may be too much for some to handle -- especially when reading the blog before the morning cup of coffee. Since I am a responsible blogger, I will now preceed all math content with a warning label.

This is just a test. If this blog contained acutal math content, the following label would appear before the math so that the faint of heart may choose to exit the blog before being exposed to the dreaded math. Repeat, this is just a test. You are not currently in any actual danger.

This label was created at the Warning Label Generator.

Fuzzy Feet

Look Kim a post with a picture.

Niece A wanted some pink Fuzzy Feet . I finally managed to get her and yarn in the same place long enough to get it done. Doesn't she look cute even when all you can see is her feet? This girl is going to be a knitter. I just have to visit without taking the T-man so that we can have another knitting lesson. When the T-man is around, neither niece will have anything to do with anyone else. And even though he is almost a teenager (see sidebar for a countdown) he is so good about playing with younger children and helping take care of them.

These were knit and felted in one day. My right hand was pretty sore the next day, but I was determined to finish. I used the Fuzzy Feet pattern just for the idea. I used Lamb's Pride bulky (Color M-38 Lotus Pink) since that is what my LYS had. I used size 10.5 needles since that is what I had with me, but I probably could have used bigger. These were done toe up with an afterthought heel. I added Little Flowers (at least that is what I think it is called, label is missing) around the ankle. I should have used two strands of it. A friend of mine had used some in a felted purse and it looked great. I'm a little disappointed with these, but since niece A is a growing girl and she has never shown any indication of changing her favorite color, I'll probably get the opportunity to use the rest of the Little Flowers to try it out again.

I know that I have not been good about updating this blog, but I could not help but noticing that my average is 3 posts per month. Now, that is not really reflective of how many times I post each month. The word average can mean many things. (Humor me here, I'm suffering from math withdrawal.) Looking back over my posts I found:

January -- 11

February -- 5

March -- 1

April -- 2

May -- 1

June -- 1

July -- 1

August -- 1

A total of 23 posts divided by 8 months equals 2.9 posts per month which I rounded to 3. This type of average is called a mean, but if you look at the data 3 posts per month is not a very good description of a good start that greatly fizzled.

Another type of average is the median. To find the median, you list the data in order and report the middle value. So, my data in order is:

1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 5, 11

Since I have an even number of data items, I have to take the arithmetic mean (average) of the two middle values. 1 + 1 = 2 /2 = 1 So, my median is 1 post per month.

Another way of reporting the average is to use the mode which is the most frequent data value.

The mode for this data is 1.

Anyway you look at it, this blog has been neglected. I'll try to do better.

I know, most everyone who is reading this is shaking their head and wondering why I don't just go and knit instead of doing silly math calculations. Sometimes, I wonder about that myself. It is so strange to not be teaching. I'm enjoying to the new job, but I miss my math. Mr. T started back to school this week, but he refuses to discuss his math with me. I begged, but he would not share.

I hope to have pictures of some other recent knitting to post soon.

I'm still here.

I'm getting settled in the new job, but it has been a tough month. Learning a new job with lots more responsibility than I had before while also dealing with the transition of the old boss retiring and a completely unknown new boss coming in has been interesting.

I am finally coming home with some brain power left over for the evening and enough energy to knit. I finished up a magic loop demonstration and a sock-knitting class that I had committed to before I found out about the job change. I'm not going to schedule any more classes, at least for a while. Of course, soccer season will start again soon and that will also limit any knitting classes. Mr. T has agreed to only play for two teams this year -- one in the fall and one in the spring.

My current knitting project is socks for Mittens for Akkol. One of the current goals is to gather enough socks to give one to each child at Christmas when they get their bag of candy. When I think of how much I spoil my child at Christmas (who I am kidding, I spoil him year round) it makes me want to knit even more. I like knitting for this group, because I am sure that the kids are getting the items. I'm working on socks for the older boys. Pictures to come later.

Happy Birthday to Me! (almost)

OK, my birthday is really not until Thursday, but I will have a really busy day at work, so I am posting this now. My wonderful son came home today from a visit with his dad and brought me this:

The T-man helped his dad (who owns a bakery) bake the cake. Dad did the decorating.

The Post That I Did Not Want to Write

But first, Theresa, asked me to explain PEMDAS which stands for Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally, or the order of operations.

I'll use / to indicate division.

What is 5 + 30 /5?

If you answered 7, you are wrong. So that we always get the same answer for calculations, we have a certain order of operations to follow. Mathematicians like for things to be precise. We do not like gray areas.

According to the order of operations, division is done before addition, so

5 + 30/5 = 5 + 6 = 11

The order of operations is applied in this manner:

Please = parenthesis -- do everything in grouping symbols, following the order of operations, of course!

Excuse = exponents -- apply all exponents

My = multiplication
Dear = division
Start on the left and work towards the right, doing all multiplication and division

Aunt = addition
Sally = subtraction
Start on the left and work towards the right, doing all addition and subtraction

So, why did I not want to write this post. After all, I love teaching math. I am on a one-woman self-appointed crusade to improve the world's attitude about math.

After 20 years of teaching math, I am going over to the dark side and will become an administrator next month. I've been flirting with the dark side and administrative work for some time now by being a department chair. Our school is in transition right now with some key people retiring and I have been asked to take on the role of Associate Dean. I have been promised that I can return to teaching after a year, but right now, all I can think of is the knitting time that I am missing this summer since I will be at work instead of at home in my PJ's.