This may actually work

Hello my fabulous people,
First: Happy turkey day, a few days late, to all of my fellow Americans. I am currently visiting my family in the mid-west. I come from a large family, I am the seventh of eight children. Five of my siblings and their families (this includes all 19 of my nieces and nephews) rained down on my parents' house on Thursday. They still live in the house I grew up in, this means plenty of space for grand kids to run around.

I can not tell how happy this makes me. I love my family!

Second: I have calmed down and taken things into perspective since my last post. I have come to terms with the fact that I may need to take the math and science section over. Of course, it helped that I found out my score on the literature and history section. Which I PASSED!! And I didn't just pass, I passed with flying colors! Which makes me feel more confident about the whole thing.

Third: I have moved my next exam back two weeks in order to have time to focus on my personal statement and my statement of purpose. Both need to be done by Tuesday so that I will be able to submit my application on Wednesday. They only need to be about two pages single space. I have them both written up and, after a couple more revisions, should be ready to go. I have a really good feeling about both essays, and I am starting to feel like this whole plan may actually work :D.

Finally, I have come to the conclusion that mostly what my little boy needs is some help understanding that preschool and home have some very different rules. I am hoping that coming to class to help keep him in-line, will go a long way in his understand appropriate behavior in a school setting.

Of course I cannot leave off with out updating you on my UFOs. The quilt is still waiting to be tied, so no pictures of that. I have most of one sleeve done on the sweater:

I have added a couple of feet to the scarf, it is now longer than I am tall.

And I made my self a little something for the cold weather. I love fingerless mits! And I will give you the pattern as soon as I get home.

That is all for now.

Thanks for checking in,

XO Lue Lue Ellabee

Where things get a little personal.

Hello all my loving sympathetic people,
I must admit that this week has been exceptionally difficult for me. Starting with Tuesday's exam which did not go nearly as well as I had hoped. First of all I did not feel as prepared as I should have been. Despite the 30+ hours I spent studding over the last 2 1/2 weeks, I felt like I kept getting stuck on questions that should have been easy (read: boiling and freezing points of water in Fahrenheit and Celsius, multiple choice--and I think I got it wrong). I also made the mistake of leaving the constructed response questions until the end and was cut off mid sentence on the last one, which was both frustrating and disappointing. All in all, I think there is about a 50% chance I passed.
On top of that my son's pre-school teacher has asked me to come into class and help contain him. Little man is an exuberant, precocious, sensitive 4 year old who disrupts class all day, every day. After 3 months of trying to figure out how to get him to stop throwing things, or climbing things, or wrestling everyone, or terrorizing the littler kids by pretending to be a monster; teacher is down to two final strategies: have me come in and help and not letting him come to school the day after he has been particularly difficult. All of this is extremely distressing to me -- as it is and would be for any parent. It lends itself to a plethora of unanswerable questions like: who is to blame? me? him? them?; What if nothing works? I want him to do well in school, but how can he if he can't follow group instruction and is continually disruptive?; Do I really want to force him fit a mold that doesn't fit him?; Is this whole thing going to scar him for life?
It only gets crazier from there and I need to remind myself that we need to take it one day at a time. He is, after all, only a 4 year old boy who will happily give you a hug and kiss if you just ask.

Thanks for checking in,
XO Lue Lue Ellabee

Pythagorean Theorem, quilts, and a never ending scarf

Hello all my brilliant people,

I would like to show you my "new" sewing desk (a neighbor is moving and gave it to me for free :D). 

Unfortunately, it has been usurped by my study materials. For the last couple of weeks I have been re-acquainting myself with algebra, geometry, statistics, biology, ecology, meteorology, pretty much all of the ologys that are taught from kindergarten through eighth grade here in the US. There is something uniquely disheartening about believing you have a pretty good grasp of a subject, only to review it and realize that about 99% of it is no where in your brain. I mean not even a shadow of a memory of learning this stuff. Fortunately, I was smart enough to order a some 6-8th grade workbooks that cover most of this stuff (they are designed for kids that are home schooled). If nothing else I have the math and most of biology down. The exam is Tuesday. Wish me luck.

Back to the desk, although it is not currently being used for sewing, I can tell you it is way better than the old folding table I had my machine on. For one, it doesn't shake when I try to sew really fast. Second, it is a little wider and about half as deep, making my work space more effective. And before my study materials took over I was able to finish putting the binding on my quilt:

I think it turned out perfect. Now to find the time to tie it. 

On the knitting front, here is the scarf. I have not worked on it as much as I would like. And, to be honest, I am already getting tired of it. I think it is because there is a deadline and that always puts me off of projects.

Finally, I have my next quilt all lined up:

  That's right! A Christmas quilt! Originally, I was going to do my usual turning 20 style (it is my go to quilt pattern for fat quarters) but then I found a bunch of (make that 72) pre-cut 2 1/2" Christmas themed squares I bought last year. I have decided to use them and make a full size quilt instead of a twin. I am still figuring out the exact pattern, but just looking at the fabric makes me happy.

Thanks for checking in,
XO Lue Lue Ellabee

p.s. As far as the spinning wheel, it has been hard but I have managed to stay strong and only taken it out of the box twice to look at it. And, maybe push on the peddles.

In which I am a dirty, dirty, cheat...

Good morning my wonderfully non-judgmental people,

How are you? I hope everything is going well. I have a confession to make. I am a dirty, dirty, cheat. I made promises and plans, and I meant every word. But, then in a moment of extreme temptation, I caved. You may be wondering what I am talking about. I am talking about this:

Do you see this? This is mine. It is sitting in my house, in it's box (yes, I made myself put it back after taking the picture). It is an Ashford Joy. I saw it the other day (still in its box) at one of my LYSes. This particular LYS is closing its doors at the end of next month. So everything is on sale, and this puppy was right in my price range. I know, I was supposed to wait. I have projects that need to not only be completed, but started and completed. I had a list and everything. But, the temptation was too strong.
      I had only run in for a longer set of size 7 circular needles (the double points on the sweater sleeves is just not doing it for me), and maybe some yarn. When I saw it sitting there, high on the shelf, still in its box, where it had been waiting for years (Ashford has a newer version of this model, the Joy 2, so this one is kind of discontinued). It was fate, it fit all my spinning wheel criteria; small, folding, used(ish), good condition, and on the less expensive end (those of you who know spinning wheels, know they are not cheap).
So, now I must practice real self-control. I am still going to make myself finish all of those projects before putting it together. In addition to all of that I must pass all of my exams. Well, I must get back to studding, this one is math and science (algebra and periodic table of elements, here I come).

Wish me luck and thanks for checking in,
XO Lue Lue Ellabee

The thing about persimmons...

Good morning all,
Before I update you on the progress of my projects, I would like to say a few words about persimmons.

 You see these? These are persimmons, not tomatoes. To be more specific, these are fuyu persimmons (the best kind!). And they came from our tree.
Our super happy, very well established tree.

When love and I moved to this house 6 years ago, we had no idea what a persimmon was, let alone what to do with them. Our first fall I received a lovely surprise when all of the fruit ripened, I literally had buckets of persimmons, and I was scrambling trying to figure out what to do with them. Now, for the most part, we give them away; to friends, family, random people on the street. Most years we have given away around 4 grocery bags full. This year we have already given away 5 and the tree does not look any different.

 The small percentage that we keep usually ends up being canned for use in recipes  later on. Yesterday I took 20 persimmons cored them; peeled them; chopped them; added some lemon juice, water, and cinnamon;

cooked it until everything was nice and mushy; then pureed and canned them. It made 11 cups of persimmon mash. I have plans to do another batch today.
 Here is hoping we can find enough people to share these with.

On the UFO front. I am almost done binding the quilt, today is the third day of trying to get together enough time to work on it.
 
 And, the scarf for my dad is coming along okay. I have figured out that if I knit between 20 and 40 rows a day (that is 40-80 minutes of knitting time) I can finish it before Thanksgiving (Nov. 27th). Then I can start on the stuff for my sister and her family (I might just give the kids gift cards).

 I wanted to show you what the scarf looks like in person and on paper. I have done a few more rows since I took this picture.

Well, thanks for checking in. I hope your holiday projects are doing better than mine
XO Lue Lue Ellabee

just keep swimming

Good morning my sweets,
And happy Halloween yesterday to all of my American and Canadian friends (and anyone else who celebrates this holiday). Our kiddos had super fun trick-or-treating last night. Little man was a jack-o-lantern, lady was a witch, I was a widow, and love decided last minute to be a ninja turtle. When I say last minute I mean yesterday morning he asked me to keep my eyes out for something that could work as a ninja turtle costume while I ran errands. Of course there was nothing, so I decide to do this:

It is really amazing what a couple pieces of felt, a sewing machine, some stuffing, and a sharpy can do. It took maybe 40 minutes, and now we have a turtle shell pillow.

In other news, I took the first sub-test of the CSET last Tuesday. For those that don't know, the CSET is a type of entrance exam for a masters or credential program-- think LSAT (lawyers) or MCAT (medical). In this case it is an exam that must be passed before you can be accepted to a teacher credentialing program here in California. Any way, I took the first of 3 sub-tests last Tuesday, and I did better than I thought I would. There is a distinct possibility that I passed, and this makes me very happy. My next exam is in 2 1/2 weeks, then I have the last one 3 weeks after that. So my posts will continue to be spotty at least until the end of the year.

And finally, this is what I have been doing to stay sane:

 why, yes that is the sweater for the lady. I have only been working on it for a bit in the evenings before bed and on Wednesdays when I hang out with my knitting buddy (and very good friend). Even with this limited amount of time, I feel like it is flying off my needles.





Another project I have started working on is the Doctor Who scarf.

My father grew-up watching Doctor Who, and is a big fan. I thought this would be a perfect Christmas present, but it is very long so I thought I should start early. I started it last week and it is proving trickier than predicted, because you need to keep track of how many rows you do in each color and I changed it a little by using chunky yarn and size 10.5 (6.5mm) needles, so I could do fewer rows in each color and be finished sooner.

 Of course I can't leave without giving you an update on the quilt:

 
As you can see I am in the home stretch: the top is done and it is pinned to the batting and backing. The second picture is to give you an idea of how it will look with the binding.

Well I must get back to studding (math and science up to 8th grade...I can handle it)

Thanks for checking in,
XO Lue Lue Ellabee