Make like a tree

Kind of loving this song...

 

I am about 25% done with the five feet of i-cord required for the cardigan. I am so ready to start something else!

I won't cry for yesterday...

Because it's always a good time for Duran Duran.

Even if it’s Nineties Duran Duran.  At least there’s no weird African/women-as-animals fetishism in this video. 

Last week was Rosina’s first week of school, and other than some minor interpersonal things (Mean Girl hogs sparkly red pencil, drama ensues) she loves it and is doing great.  She even likes phys ed! (If I didn’t know any better, I’d say we brought the wrong baby home…) Her school offers free breakfast every morning, and she’s been walking to the cafeteria, picking out her food, and finding her way to her classroom by herself.   (I didn’t even know any of this until I asked her.)  We may even try school lunch one of these days!  ($2.25.  What in the world…) Because she’s going to a magnet and not her neighborhood school, we were planning to use an express bus stop.  Turns out that the bus stop was more than twenty minutes from our house, in the wrong direction for the school and our jobs, and took about forty minutes to get to the school.  We would have to leave the house before seven, and she wouldn’t get home in the afternoon until after four.  So not only was it more than two hours round-trip, it would have been a nine-plus hour school day, for a five-year-old.  Suffice to say I have swallowed my pride, and am driving her to and from school (about twelve minutes).  I hate doing this – it goes against my principles – but now I understand why so many people have to do it.  The bus situation in this county is just terrible.  Her school is fairly small, and it’s in right in a neighborhood with lots of walkers, but there are only TWO BUSES for a whole elementary school.  That would transport about 1/3 of the students.  How many kids are being left out?? Anyway, morning drop-off is a piece of cake, but pickup sucks big time.  I guess I’ll have to get used to it…

In crafting news, I am getting close to finishing my cardigan.  The body is done, and I only have about two inches of the first sleeve left.  I’m not super impressed with the fit – the yoke is too big in front (I KNOW – how is this possible?!), and the sleeve shaping is triangular and fits a bit oddly – but I think blocking will really help. (Famous last words…) My stripes are a bit different due to the yardage on hand, and I’ve had to fudge a bit on the sleeves to accommodate what I had left over, but it’s going to work.  Once the knitting is completed, I have to sew in a zipper – and may have to order one online, since I need a long one – so I’m not nearly as close as it seems, but it will be done by the time I need a densely-knit, light-worsted weight handspun wool cardigan.  (GO HOME SUMMER, YOU’RE DRUNK.) I am already thinking of my next projects:  a hat for Rosina, a baby sweater for a coworker’s pregnant daughter, bears for new-baby gifts for my SIL and cousin, stranded slippers for me?  Oh, and Rosina wants this Tunisian-crocheted ammonite.  That may wait until Christmas.