Monday, September 10, 2018

The Leftovers


Yes, this is another amigurumi jellyfish post. (The pattern I use for these is from One Dog Woof, and you can find it here.) 

Pretty much for the month of August, I covered one computer aided drafting class at the continuation high school. (The teacher was on jury duty.)

After a while, I got into a rhythm with the class. I spent the beginning of each period giving announcements, getting them started, and taking roll. At the end of each period, I called for clean up (well, log off), and making sure things were neat for the next class.

However, in the middle of each period, as the kiddos were working (or, I should say "working"), there wasn't too much for me to do. (I had the occasional question. Or a call from the office. Or students asking for restroom passes.) Watching students "working" all period can get a bit tedious. I needed something to do with my hands.

It was an excellent time to have a crochet project.

There is a reason why handiwork projects have been taken along for centuries. It's really easy to focus on listening and watching while the hands are busy.

The first jellyfish I worked on was the one I already showed a couple weeks ago...


I bought the yarn months ago with the intention of making a jellyfish. But it got usurped by other more pressing projects. Once I found the yarn again, I knew it was as good a time as any to finish this guy off.

I finished it, and then I learned the teacher was going to be out for another week. What to do now?

Well, after making 30-something jellyfish, I had plenty of leftover yarn. From any one jellyfish there wasn't enough to make another, but after making four in the darker blue, I had enough leftover yarn to complete another blue jellyfish...


You should have seen the box of cotton yarn I have. It was a mess. I took an evening and detangled all sorts of odds and ends. And after weighing what I had, I found I had enough of a couple colors to crochet more jellyfish caps. As for tentacles, I had various odds and ends that would work.

I decided the next one to do would be in purple...


And the one after that would be pink...


I even have two more colors I could still do, but that's when the assignment was coming to a close. (When I heard that the jury was in deliberations, I focused on finishing up all the tentacles.)

For the record, the pink jellyfish is jellyfish number 37.


And there'll be more after this. There are plenty of days where all I'm doing is watching kiddos work. I have a great take-along project to keep my hands busy and my mind alert.

30 comments:

  1. The multi-colored ones are cool. At least you can be productive during down times.

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  2. Hi Liz - these have to be great sellers ... and I love looking at them ... great you've something worthwhile to create with, while you oversee the kiddos ... take care and have a good week - Hilary

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  3. Those are cute multicolored!! I think its good for the students too to see you working on something (at least I think they would consider that good).

    betty

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  4. Wow...looks like you have been busy. I would think that having the same class for that long would be nice. I seem to have become a creature of habit so I think moving from class to class would make me nuts.

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    1. It was nice due to how the class was structured. But most of the time I do not like the longer assignments. I start to feel trapped.

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  5. They are so cute. I might have to get another one.

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  6. It's already been mentioned, but those multi-colored jellies are excellent!

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  7. I love hearing about the jellyfish! I like that you can mix and match colors with them like that. Plus they're so cute.

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  8. That is a perfect project for substitute teaching. I like the multi-colored tentacles.

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  9. I love the multicoloured jellyfish. You're doing a great job with them. :-)

    Cait @ Click's Clan

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  10. Love the pink and orange jellyfish. I'm the same, except I take my writing wherever I go. Especially good for sitting around waiting for the Barbarians at sport etc.

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  11. A great way to use your time. I always love blue and would love to see blue, purple and green together:) the pink one is fun and I bet it will be a great seller. My best friend’s daughter loves to knit and crochet which she started when she was 15 or 16

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    1. I learned to knit when I was 16.

      Blue, purple, and green. I'll take it under advisement.

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  12. Those are really neat. They are definitely the friendliest jellyfish I've ever seen!

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    1. It's the face. The designer came up with the face. I'm just happy I can duplicate it.

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  13. They are all looking very nice! Good work!

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  14. I love these. That pink one is awesome!
    I'll break out my cross-stitch again when my hands are sweating all day just from the humidity.

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    1. This is why I crochet in the summer. Knitting is way too sweaty, but crochet isn't.

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  15. You're probably the only person who thinks of finishing up tentacles when you hear a jury is in deliberation. That made me laugh.

    So are yarn projects done by weight, not length? Sorry if that's a really dumb question, as you can probably guess, I know nothing about crocheting or knitting. That's awesome to have something like that that you can take with you and do like that. I need to find something like that!

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    1. It's a cheat. I have a hard time figuring out the yardage of a ball of yarn, so I use the "second mitten test" that I read about years ago.

      If you're not sure if you have enough yarn to complete a second mitten, weigh the first mitten, then weigh the yarn left. If the yarn weighs more than the first mitten, you're good to go. If not, you don't have enough yarn to complete the second mitten.

      So, I weighed a finished jellyfish cap. Now I know how much yarn I'll need to do another without having to guess if I have enough yardage.

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  16. I wouldn't be able to sit and watch the kiddies work. I'd fall asleep and that would be bad.

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    1. Yeah. This is why I have a few take along projects for days when the assignment is to sit and watch the kiddos work.

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