Crazy Knitting Week

I meant to post this on Monday, but last week kind of got away from me. Last week, I mentioned that I had set myself the task of knitting five hats by Christmas. I managed to succeed. At 8 PM on Christmas Eve, I finished sewing on the dinosaurs.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

I already showed you my progress from Friday the 18th through Sunday the 20th.

On Thursday night, I started with the first of the twins' hats. I finished that Friday and started on Archer Girl's hat, which I finished on Sunday. (Archer Girl is my niece. She's 14.)

Sneaky Snakes

Sunday night, I then started Rambo's hat. (Rambo is the middle nephew. He's 5.) There are two pictures because the hat is reversible. Rambo seemed to like it inside out. (Well, I consider this inside out.)

E-ola

I finished Rambo's hat on Monday the 21st. Tuesday I started HapkidoKid's. (This is the eldest nephew. He turned 10 on Saturday.)

Nottingham

It doesn't look it from the picture, but this hat is much smaller than the others. It stretches pretty well, but it still looked small to me. Yet, HapkidoKid still rolled it up. So, not too small.

After finishing HapkidoKid's hat on Wednesday, I started the last twin's hat late Wednesday night. I didn't get as far as I would have liked, but I did manage to get it finished Thursday afternoon. And I sewed the dinosaurs on in the evening.

They both have the "rarr!" on the back, but it was hard to show that in a picture.

Everything got wrapped Christmas day. And opened not an hour later.

So, a win. And a hope that I don't wait until the very last moment next year to do my Christmas knitting. Sigh.

(Apologies for the quality of the photos. It was after 9 PM Christmas Eve, and the lighting was poor. But it was either take the photos then or not at all.)

Equity

At the heart of much speculative fiction (and fiction in general) is a question. What if? On Tuesdays I like to throw one out there and see what you make of it. Do with it as you please. If a for-instance is not specified, feel free to interpret that instance as you wish. And if you find this becomes a novel-length answer, I'd appreciate a thank you in the acknowledgements ;)

What if there were no rich people?

The Perfect Christmas Quiz

 I was going to skip posting today, but then I found this perfect quiz. And I had to share:

Merry Quizmas

On my own I got 30/60. I recommend that you take this quiz with your family and/or friends. It's hard. Some of these icons are obscure. But on the bright side, the quiz is very forgiving. If you have a vague idea of what one of them is, type it in. It's probably enough to get you a right answer.

Edited 12/28: In case you want to know the answers to the ones you didn't know, check out the comments from the Mental Floss article where I found the quiz in the first place. 

Need a Ticket

And this is it. The last one of the posts from that 8th grade science class. Since no one is around the blogosphere this week, I considered holding off. But, I did promise to have these finished by Christmas. So here it is. The last one...

Last week I mentioned that In-n-Out was catering lunch on the second day of this assignment. To get a burger (and chips, not fries), the students had to purchase a ticket. I learned of this from the 1st period T.A. She was selling tickets, and several students hit her up for them.

Wednesday. 4th period. Right before lunch.

"Can I go and buy an In-n-Out ticket?"

As in, she wanted to leave class to do this. When she had days to go and get a ticket.

"But if I don't buy a ticket, I can't get In-n-Out. Ms. O. would let me go..."

Maybe. Unlikely, but maybe. Still, she'd had days, and...

 

She grumbled. "...Mom only gave me the money today..."

So, she waited until 4th period? When she could have gone before school. Or at snack. (Or asked any of her other teachers to let her go. Because I'm sure they would have let her *sarcasm*.) I had no sympathy.

But she was mad. She'd miss out. And it was my fault.

A Fourth Name

At the heart of much speculative fiction (and fiction in general) is a question. What if? On Tuesdays I like to throw one out there and see what you make of it. Do with it as you please. If a for-instance is not specified, feel free to interpret that instance as you wish. And if you find this becomes a novel-length answer, I'd appreciate a thank you in the acknowledgements ;)

Many of us have three names: first, middle, and last. Our last names are used in formal situations. Our first names are used among friends and peers. And our middle names...are hidden on our driver's licences. Usually.

What if was had more names? Other names? How might they be used?

This is the sort of fantasy world-building thought that'll flit through my brain from time to time. The original thought was, "What if we had four names?"

Bah Humbug

So. I, ah... Yeah, Christmas. I haven't really been thinking all that much about Christmas. Which hit me last week right about Thursday. I, uh, haven't started any Christmas knitting. And I've got a niece and four nephews.

Ahem.

I made a sort of plan. I have no idea if I'm going to be able to execute it. Five hats. In a week. Knitted. By me.

And now my nose is alternating between stuffy and runny.

Sunday night (as I write this), I have managed, since Thursday, to complete two hats.

So, maybe this is doable?

I'm in denial.

In other news, I noticed some of my Etsy traffic was coming from a new source. I traced it back and found this article on nerdy EOS lip balm holders. That last picture in the article is from my shop.

It gave my shop quite a few more views than normal. Kind of cool.

Right, so back to the knitting. I've got three more hats to finish by Christmas. I'm not sure which nephew I'm going to knit for next.

Dressing for the Weather

It was an easily distractible 7th grade math class. "Easily distractible" is code for "just as soon as the class gets settled, someone will sneeze, and a chorus of 'bless you' will erupt in a louder and louder spiral that soon becomes an entire class engaged in random conversation".

Seriously. It could be anything. Anything will set them off.

(The opposite of "easily distractible" is when the fire alarm will start blaring. We get a fast "all clear". And in seconds, the students are again working silently. I have seen both scenarios play out.)

This particular class did work silently. In fits and starts. But a dust mote would start the talking again. I couldn't move from my spot in the front center of the room, because the talking would start.

Deep sigh.

They had just settled to silence (again) when it started to rain. Loudly.

"Is it raining?" and the boy jumped up to go look out the window.

"P.E. will be cancelled," with the immediate response, "No, we'll have to run in the gym."

"I'm not going outside."

"I wore shorts today."

Yep, any little thing and they all have to chime in. But the boy complaining that he wore shorts? (He wasn't alone. At least 4 of the 17 in class were in shorts. But that's pretty normal around here.) I had something to say to that boy.

The forecasted high for the day was about 65°. With a 10% chance of rain. (According to my weather app.)

I explained to the boy that it was his responsibility to check the weather (and weather apps on their phones are ubiquitous) so he could dress appropriately.

"But that's my mother's job."

Me: "Does your mother pick out your clothes?"

"Yes."

Oh. Never mind, then. He's right. That would be her job...

Also, this is my week at Unicorn Bell. I'd love it if you'd stop by. I'm talking about social media marketing.