yarn tootin'

You Make My Day

     Janna gave me a "You make my day" award which not surprisingly has made my day.  It is now my job to name 10 bloggers who make my day as the official rules state that one is to: Give the award to 10 people whose blogs bring you happiness and inspiration and make you feel happy about blogland.  Let them know by posting a comment on their blog so they can pass it on.   

     Janna had the brilliant idea of naming all of the San Antonio knit-bloggers.  I would definitely start with these ladies (and man) because they make my day every Sunday when I knit with them at Candlelight Cafe.  I've managed to make it to knitting group three weeks in a row now and I've finally stopped feeling shy and started having a really good time.  I've had such fun that I know that from now on I'll make Sunday Knitting a priority on weeks when I don't have a Sunday concert.  Since my post needn't be identical to Janna's, I'll name a few other bloggers whose work I enjoy, none of whom I've met in real life.  I enjoy close to 200 blogs, so this is in no way a comprehensive list, just a few of my favorites.

The A.D.D. Knitter 
Halfway Down the Stairs
Knit-Whit
biggeek
Criminy Jickets
good to be girl :: a knitting blog
Immer wieder Socken  (this one is in German which I do not speak, but the pictures of socks and yarn make it worthwhile)
Have You Any Wool?
MLE Knits
What Housework?

      If books and movies tend to make your day, I have a couple of suggestions in that department as well.  My birthday was Monday and I spent the part of the day that I didn't have to spend teaching on the couch knitting.  While I knit, I thoroughly enjoyed a little movie called Once.  It's mostly about music and it has an excellent soundtrack which I purchased from iTunes immediately after watching the movie.

     A couple of weeks ago, I finished one of the best books I've read in a long time.  It's by Ami McKay and it's called The Birth House.  If you like historical fiction with a sassy female protagonist, this is the book for you.  I am a painfully slow reader yet I managed to finish this book in just over a week because it's such a good story.

Happy Grandparent's Day!

    

Amy, a fellow Minnesotan living in Big Texas tagged me for this NaBloPoMo meme.   The funny thing about Minnesotans is we really like to talk about our home state.  Every single time I see Amy at S 'n B, we end up talking about Mankato or English Muffin Bread or frozen lakes or some other thing that doesn't exist in these parts.   In honor of my trip to the Motherland (I'm leaving on a jet plane later today) I've decided to play along.    

The rules:

• Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog.

• Share 7 random and or weird things about yourself.

• Tag 7 random people participating in NaBloPoMo at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.

• Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

1.  Almost every day, I do something that makes Bob say "Why are you so weird?" and yet I'm sitting here trying to come up with a single weird thing and I'm drawing a blank.

2.  I'm leaving for the Motherland later this afternoon and I haven't packed a stitch of clothing (I'm still doing laundry) and yet, I've put at least an hour of thought into what yarn to pack.  This reminds me that I need to finish this post so I have time to go upstairs and wind said yarn.

3.  The private school my brother Greg and I went to celebrated Grandparents Day on the day before Thanksgiving each year.  It was a half day of school and everyone brought their grandparents to shortened 20 minute versions of each class.  There was also a special chapel service and they brought out the good cookies.  Of course, the grandparents loved it (my mom is at Grandparents Day with my nephew right now and I'm know she's super psyched about it) and the school made a ton of money in donations.  For the last 7 years or so, my brother and I have made it a point to call each other on the day before Thanksgiving to say "Happy Grandparent's Day!"  I'm not sure why, but we find this very amusing.

4.  I don't like to leave town for even a couple of days without cleaning the house.  For some reason, I find it very distressing to come home to a messy house.  This quirk is particularly  difficult to manage when I travel by myself because Bob's standards of neatness and tidyness are a bit lower than mine.  I know he tries to clean up before I get home, but I inevitably end up setting my bags down and heading right for the Clorox Wipes.

5.  I love Clorox Wipes.  I bought a three pack of Clorox Wipes in festive holiday containers yesterday at Target and they were by far my favorite purchase. 

6.  I truly enjoy frozen entrees.  I like Lean Cuisine pizzas (added Parmesan is a must), Amy's Organic Burritos (a delicious salsa makes them a healthy meal) and most of all, the new Central Market Indian food entrees they've started carrying at HEB.  You don't have to add anything to the Indian food entrees; they do just fine on their own.

7.  I'm not going to tag anyone.  I know this isn't all that weird, but I'm out of ideas and I need to go clean, pack, and wind yarn.  If you're so inclined, consider yourself tagged.

D is for...

     D is for Doctor, as in Dr. Courtney.  Let me take a minute to explain.  It is possible for one to get a Doctoral Degree in Music.  It's most often called a D.M.A. (Doctor of Musical Arts), but many performing musicians jokingly say that the acronym really stands for "Doesn't Mean Anything."  I do not have a D.M.A.  When I finished my Master of Music and still had no job, I came precariously close to enrolling in the D.M.A. program at U.C.L.A., but as luck would have it, I got an orchestra job just in the nick of time and the D.M.A. wasn't meant to be.  I don't mean to suggest that everyone who gets a D.M.A. is simply biding time until they can get a job performing.  This just would have been the case had I attempted to get a Doctorate.  There are folks out there who really want to teach at the college level and even in music, it really helps if you have a D.M.A.  That being said, some of the very best (and highest paid) classical musicians out there never finished their undergraduate degrees, and many of those people are also held in the highest regard as teachers.

     I recently took a position at Texas Lutheran University teaching violin in their Community Music Academy.  My good friend, Dr. Stephanie, is the director of this program.  The woman who ran the program before Dr. Stephanie and the previous teacher of almost all of my students was also a Doctor.  Since several of my new students are only 6 or 7 years old, they don't know that a person can be a violin teacher without being a Doctor.  In Big Texas, most children do not address adults by their first names without some sort of prefix, so a couple of them have started calling me Dr. Courtney.  While I told their parents that I don't really have a D.M.A. and I'm not actually a Doctor, I don't see any harm in letting a little kid call me Dr. Courtney.  In fact, I kind of like it.

C is for...

     C is for Chevron.  I've decided to use the Socks that Rock Flower Power for another Chevron scarf.  I really liked knitting this pattern before and I thought it would be a good way to play along and use the Rockin' Sock Club yarn while it's current.  I saw on the RSC blog that someone else had decided to mix it up a bit and was combining Flower Power with Sherbet in order to knit some sort of two stranded sock.  I thought the result was pretty cool, so I went into my sizable STR lightweight stash to see what would compliment Flower Power.  It seemed to me that I had two options: Pebble Beach and Purple Rain.  I also briefly considered using Space Dust, but I thought the pink and orange/red combo would be too much.  In any case, I love Purple Rain and Space Dust by themselves too much to use them for a Chevron, so that decision was easy.

Socks that Rock Lightweight in Pebble Beach and Flower Power

Chevron Scarf from Last Minute Knitted Gifts and Pink Aluminum Needles

     I'm still not sure about the combination of these two colorways.  It might be a little to minty teal for me, but I like it more and more as I go so I think I'll keep going for awhile.  I also really love knitting on the cheap aluminum needles from Michael's (especially the pink ones).  What do you think, will this scarf be hideous or fabulous?  You can say you think it's hid, I really won't mind. 

A is for...

     I first saw this alphabet meme on Beverly's blog, though the creator seems to be Bella Dia.  I realize that I'm a little late to the party, but I'm joining in nonetheless.  Let's start with the letter A.

    A is for Amanda Anderson.  A can also be for Ashley because I met Amanda in Portland through my most excellent friend Ashley.  I don't think I've ever called Amanda by her Actual name.  Almost everyone I know calls her Pretty which is an Awesome (another A!) nickname.  In any case, Amanda is knitting the rug from One Skein for her mom and she needs yarn scraps.  If you're interested in helping her out, you can visit her blog for details.  Good luck with the rug.  So far, so good.