This Commercial Bugs Me!

Watch this and see if you can spot what drives me up the wall.

Do you think she will remember how to find the area of a triangle? Do you think this is really tutoring? How about telling her WHY the area of a triangle is 1/2 bh? HMMM??? This is how I explain to my kids:

How do we find the area of a square? Base times height, right (we already went over how to do this and why it works)? Please draw a line from one corner to the other corner of the square. What shapes do you see? 2 Triangles!!! So, the area of one of those triangles will be 1/2 of what the area of the square was, right? Right. If they are confused about other types of triangles have them take 2 of the triangles and cut one in half and arrange it on either side of the whole triangle to make a rectangle. Still it is 1/2 the area of the rectangle. Now they will remember. If I just tell them the formulas, how will they learn? How will they figure out how to explore problems on their own? Hmmmm? I hate that commercial.

The 3 Day Baby Shrug

Whirligig (12-18months) was made using Cascade Ultra Pima cotton yarn in tangerine (my son picked out the color). It was a very fast knit with easy instructions. The photos are of the back side.
Shoulder. A lot of times I do not use stitch markers, they can be a pain, but this time I had to use them because I got lost where I was supposed to increase and I had to rip it out.

Bottom ruffle detail:

I really like the Cascade yarns. They are reasonably priced and come with great yardage. This yarn was comfortable to knit with, but very slippery. I have no idea how they got the cotton to shine like that, but it is very pretty.

The 4 Day Baby Sweater

I quick finished this sweater. I wanted it done by Sunday for a new addition to Church. Sorry the picture is not the greatest.

8 Year Old Son's 1st Crochet Project

My son has been working on a pink scarf for his cousin, he decided to add long strips as a neat design feature. I almost died laughing when I saw it. It is a thong! I told him we can not give it to his cousin, but I will save it for his future bride’s wedding shower.

I want one of these

We plan on getting this in April. My old piano is in very bad shape and not really fixable because it has plastic pieces inside that have degraded. I have not seriously played in over 10 years. Everytime I sat down to play I had little fingers messing with the keyboard. Now my kids are old enough and I should be able to play some. My middle child wants to learn as well.

Planting time

I received a package from Johnny's. This weekend the little man and I will clean out the back of the garage, chop wood (for the wood stove to keep the seedlings warm), and pot up flowers and vegies.

That large 5lb bag in the back is snap peas. We have a lot of shelling to do. Last year we tried a sweet shelling pea because they have more peas per pod, but they were not anywhere near as sweet as the snap peas we have grown in the past, so back to the snap peas. 5 lbs will plant about 400', but not all at once. I will stagger the planting by about 2 weeks 3-4 different times so I can get the shelling done. I will have help this year which should be lots of fun.

Friends of Knitters

When you are a friend of a knitter you can ask the friend to make a scarf to match the new coat you just bought. You may even get them to finish it in a week and with the pattern of your choice. If you are a particularly good friend you may get your friend to do this for the cost of the yarn.
My dear friend, I will have this with me for you at Pilates tonight. I hope you like it.

The home

This is an aerial view of the lake I live on.
And here is an older picture of the main farmsite.

Fiona

Fiona had her first night in the barn last night. Dear fixed her a pen and put Princess and Mary, our two gentlest merinos, in with her so she would not be lonely. She is a little confused and wants to hang out with her "real" flock but this is better for her. She needs to learn how to be a sheep. Mary and Princess are being pretty nice to her. Mary is the ewe who let any lamb nurse from her, a great ewe to have.

Knitting

Wisteria is reworking nicely and it looks plenty roomy. I am using hand spun from my sheep.
After making one of these for a niece, Amanda said she wanted one. I am doing hers on larger needles so I will get a larger shawl. I may also do another few repeats in the pattern so it is large enough.
This yarn is a hand spun that I made from Ashland Bay 100% merino top in cranberry.
I had a load of Moda Dea Tweedle Dee Acrylic and wool yarn. I do not really like using acrylic, it hurts my hands, but I wanted to use this up. I decided to turn it all into scarves. I learned how to block acrylic in the process which was very cool. I have a few more to go. I am making one fat and one skinny version of each color. I like the way the scarves turned out and I may sell them on etsy, not sure. I would probably list them for $18-$25.


This one is my favorite.
A niece is having a birthday soon, so I decide to make her a sleeveless, mini dress version in Blue Sky Alpaca's organic cotton. This is very soft stuff and has a lovely sheen, but I think cotton is a lot more tender of a yarn than wool.
I may have to knit up a little purse to match, I'm not sure yet, though. I got a pale pink in the same yarn in case I wanted to make an accessory.

Gossip

Mildred, the church gossip and self-appointed monitor of the church's morals, kept sticking her nose into other people's business. Several members did not approve of her extracurricular activities, but feared her enough to maintain their silence.

She made a mistake, however, when she accused Elmer, a new member, of being an alcoholic after she saw his old pickup parked in front of the town's only bar one afternoon. She emphatically told Elmer (and several others) that everyone seeing it there would know exactly what he was doing!

Elmer, a man of few words, stared at her for a moment and just turned and walked away. He didn't explain, defend, or deny... he said nothing.

Later that evening, Elmer quietly parked his pickup in front of Mildred's house... walked home... and left it there all night.

Fiona

Fiona is still in the house. We tried bringing her outside, but #27 wantedher dead, so, in the kitchen she will stay, for a little bit longer.

She has graduated to doing barn chores every day. She goes out with us while we water, grain, and feed the sheep hay. She seems to enjoy it, but, when she is done, she knows exactly where she is supposed to be and follow us back to the house, bouncing along. By the time she gets back inside, she is a little hungry and a lot tuckered out.