Panels are done

I Finished the 4th panel of the baby blanket tonight. Now all that is left is a ton of kitchener stitching and attaching a border around the whole thing. I think maybe 8 stitches wide will do the trick maybe in the ringwood pattern.

My dimly lit faux victorian coffee house

Why are high schools so ugly?

Works in progress

My time has been incredibly consumed with student teaching but seeing as I spend 2 1/2 hours o the bus every day I have been afforded allot of knitting time.

The big project lately has been the baby blanket for my sister expected baby in July. I really want to have this one done before the baby arrives.


Here are the colors I'm working with. It is Hempathy by Elizabeth Lavold (one of my favorite yarns) and I'll use maybe 11 balls of it knit up loosely on #8 needles. I'm using a modified entrelac technique for the gold and red quarters. I'm almost done the four quarters which means my bus knitting will shift to Dan's socks.

The first of which is coming along slowly but surely.

Refugee Stories

So my supervising teacher is Hmong and a refugee.

Apparantly when he was 1 his father was killed during the Secret War.

At 4 his mother carried him and his younger sister 30 miles through the jungle at night across a river during a monsoon to Thailand.

Now apparantly Hmong are often polgmous or at least they were in the old country. So his mom was the second wife and when it came time to get the visas there was only room for seven people on the visa. And the first wife took priority and so borrowed his mom's name and stole her visa. Not to be deterred the feisty mother of my supervising teacher applied for a visa using the name of a aunt who had recently died.

Refugee stories are always frightning and inspiring.

The Treaty of Tripoli

So the Treaty of Tripoli states regardin the United States Government being based on Christianity the following.

Art. 11. As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquillity, of Mussulmen; and, as the said States never entered into any war, or act of hostility against any Mahometan nation, it is declared by the parties, that no pretext arising from religious opinions, shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.
And anyone who disagrees can argue with John Adams:

the United States, and all other citizens or inhabitants thereof, faithfully to observNow be it known, That I John Adams, President of the United States of America, having seen and considered the said Treaty do, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, accept, ratify, and confirm the same, and every clause and article thereof. And to the End that the said Treaty may be observed, and performed with good Faith on the part of the United States, I have ordered the premises to be made public; And I do hereby enjoin and require all persons bearing office civil or military withine and fulfill the said Treaty and every clause and article thereof.

I love primary sources. And detest bad conservative historical arguments.

Domain Names and Socks

So at the behest of Flopper who just bought a domain name I decided that I could afford the twenty dollars to reserve www.pirohi.com and www.pirohi.net
I'm enlisting the abilities of Dan
to make a front page for me and have a pair of socks in the works.
Once again out of the Nancy Bush book "Knitting Vintage Socks" which I cannot recommend highly enough.
I just turned the heel at Knitting tonight and should have this one done by the weekend. I really like the pattern; the calf shaping is a nice edition and the knit purl pattern is as follows. She calls it a "Railway Stitch".

1 2 3 4 5
6 kkkkk
5 kpkpp
4 kpkpp
3 kkkkk
2 kppkp
1 kppkp

I'm sure they'll be fetching on Dan.

Happy Birthday to Me!

So I'm 25; it's an odd age. I am on the verge of near everything at this point which is an odd place to be.
(What is the expression Eli is making? Strange dog)
Flopper and Eli visited yesterday so I took the opportunity to get some cute Eli pictures.

My Noro Scarf

Ok the Noro Scarf is finally finished.

2 skeins of silk garden and 2 skeins of kureyon.

It is amazingly warm and I'm in love with the color changes.

A Noro Hat for Flopper

When Flopper was down to visiting last week we went to Bell Llana my LocalYarnStore and picked out some Noro for a new hat.

Noro Kureyon on #3 needles Just a basic rib with a 5 point reduction at the crown. I like the little swirl and people complained about the pointiness of the traditional four point reduction.

Now to finish that scarf.

Birthday Tea

My 25th birthday is fast approaching and so I decided to get myself a present and on Saturday went to the tea shop on Lyndale. This place is across the street from Bob's Java hut and is the sort of store that I can afford to go into twice a year.

I love tea. I've developed a love of coffee but tea is my first love. There is a remarkable subtlety to it that is lacking in anything else save perhaps wine and really good belgian beer.
So after much ( 50 minutes) of sniffing , sampling, and kibitzing I settled on these three teas.

First the Dragon Well. Real Dragon Well is from three estates in China and is very easy to tell from the fake stuff. It is a lovely green tea and one of my favourites.
Another of my favourites are Darjeeling first flushes. The first flush are the first leaves off a given estate for a season. They are always rather pricey and renowned estates sell out before the leaves are even picked. This is a very unforgiving tea with a steep time of 7 minutes at 212 and a secondary time of 4 minutes. This tea is from the Castleton Estate .
Finally there is the Goo Pao an oolong from Taiwan. It hovers on the edge between green tea and oolong and I am very happy with it. 3 minutes at 190 and a secondary time of 3 minutes. I thought I would cover the whole tea spectrum and bought a small French press at Ikea to make tea at school.