Now that Spurg is back to work, I’ve a few more things to juggle. But if you’ve been reading, you know that I keep a full plate and somehow always manage to add more to my never ending list of things to do.

At Spurg’s old job, he worked a whole four blocks from our home. It was easy then for him to swing by Sydney’s school and pick her up on his way home for lunch so that I could be home for when Nick’s bus when it would arrive to drop him off after school. An adult needs to be home or the bus company won’t release Nick from the bus and that’s a whole other headache. Spurg now works a little over fourteen miles away and with the price of gas, it’s up to me to get both the kids home at the end of the school day. Thankfully Nick’s school and Sydney’s school are nearby each other, however they get out at different times. Nick gets out a full forty-five minutes before Sydney unless Sydney has a minimum day. Then just to make it even a bit more of a confusing mess, they don’t always go to school on the same days.

On the average day, when both of them are in school, I leave the house in time to pick up Nick. It’s a little over a mile of walking each way. I make sure to bring several bottles of frozen water on the hot days (you wouldn’t believe how fast they do melt) and some snacks as I know that Nick will need something to nibble on. Then I make sure I have my trusty Knitting bag filled with whatever project I am knitting, notions, pattern, and any other little bits that might be needed. Nick and I walk to Sydney’s school, and by this time we still have about a half hour before she is let out for the day. Just outside of her class, there are a couple of picnic tables where Nick and I will make ourselves comfortable while we wait. Nick listens to his ipod, and I get busy with the clicking of needles.

Last Thursday, I was working on the final chart of Kiri (she’s already off the needles, and I will be blocking her and showing a finished photo in the days to come) and Sydney’s teacher notices my knitting while she is getting the kids in from recess. Shortly thereafter, the school day ends and I walk up to the classroom door. Sydney’s teacher begins asking me all sorts of questions about my knitting. Yes, you guessed it. The woman is a knitter.

She confesses to me that she has only knit a couple of sweaters as she touches Kiri. She notices the yarn overs and the decreases and asks questions on how to do those.. do you see where this is going? Yeah, but you’re only half right. Eventually the conversation turns to asking me to teach her how to knit a shawl like that (she wants to make one for her mother), where to buy decent yarn because all the shops where we live sell crap yarn. I promise to send her some links to some good online shops and some tutorials and of course I will help her learn how to knit lace.

Then it happens. Nick proudly tells Sydney’s teacher that his mom has her own Spinning Wheel. Her eyes light up and I promise that the following day I will bring her some samples of things that I have knit from my own hand spun. The following day, I do. I show her the Billie Holiday Silk Scarf that I had just completed a few days before. She asks me where I got the yarn and looks genuinely shocked when I explain that I spun the yarn. I show her the North Star Tam and Scarf and she comments on how tiny the stitches are and again is truly surprised when I mention that too, is my own hand spun yarn. Then I pull out Maelstrom. I tell her that I bought the yarn, but I designed the shawl. I can’t even describe the look on her face at that point, except to say that I know once upon a time, I had the same look on my face when I saw what other knitters were designing and I was sure I would never be able to do something like that. 

Sydney goes to school year round and last Friday was the day she tracked off for a month. I mentioned to her teacher that maybe, if she were interested and I could arrange transportation for my wheel and supplies, that maybe when class was back in session that I could maybe give a little demo for a classroom full of first graders.. and at this point I just had to dig my hole a little bit deeper….

I also mentioned to her that I got the note about them needing to raise money so that the kids could take the field trips that they were hoping to take this year. Seven field trips in all. With the budget cutbacks and the expensive price of gas, it seems that the field trips may not even happen. The kids are doing a fundraiser with pledges and a spelling bee when they return to school in the hopes that they may be able to raise enough to pay for the field trips. Then I did it. I offered to knit something and donate it for a fundraiser, auction or raffle. Something lace. Something like a shawl. She jumped on it like a starving cat preying on the unsuspecting mouse nibbling away at a few little crumbs on the floor. Sometime in the spring the school will have a Carnival to raise money for all the little extras they need for the kids. Truth be told, I am only too glad to do something like this. I cannot tell you how many times this school district helped me in a million little ways when it was just Nick and I. But now I am beginning to think that I really need to start looking at available patterns or possibly design something special just for the occasion.

Yep. When I get myself into something, I get into it REALLY good.