It’s time to get back to my blog.  This was my longest stretch in awhile of not blogging.  It has been a busy year of student teaching, substitute teaching and then a thankfully relatively brief hunt for a job.  In the meantime, I have still been knitting and now I hope to spend some time on my blog documenting both knitting, family and some my first year of teaching.

In September I will start teaching 2nd grade, and a good portion of my summer has been and will continue to be spent preparing my classroom.  There is so much to do.  But it’s good work, and I am enjoying every minute of it.

I am also doing some knitting this summer.  I made a Gaptastic Cowl recently with just one skein of worsted Shepherd’s Wool yarn.  It’s not overly long, but I can wrap it around my neck twice.  I am almost looking forward to cold weather so that I can wear it.  (Emphasis is on the almost looking forward to cold weather.)

I also have a bunch of cotton that I wanted to knit so I’ve been working on a market bag.  The pattern is called Ilene Bag.  It’s been great fun to knit.  I liked knitting the rectangular bottom and then picking up stitches to knit the side.  I kinda had it in my mind though that it was going to be a quick knit, but it seems like it is taking forever.  I have been working on the strap for what seems like weeks, and I still don’t think it’s quite long enough.

The bag is a combination of about 4 skeins of leftover cotton, but I am liking the look of it.

Part of the fun of getting ready for school is the opportunity to make stuff.  For example last weekend, I made some name sticks.  I have a teacher friend who used these and I just really liked them and decided to make my own for my class.

Now I just need to add the student names.

Davey and I painted some READ letters yesterday.  I like getting him involved, and he likes being involved.

I think I am going to put these on alligator photo clips and put them in my reading nook that I am slowly trying to create.

Next on the list, I want to get David back to school with me.  I have some plans for my walls, and he’s agreed to help me make some big ole posters.  I will look forward to sharing those as well!