Dog? Pig??

Well, Vanilla Dog is done, but he must have eaten too much ice-cream because now he looks like a spotted pig! He was definately a good learning experience so we will keep the poor guy and not send him to the Land of Misfit Toys!
Sorry I haven't posted much this week but I taught on Tuesday and spent all weekend and Monday preparing for it. Craig says I go overboard, trying to make it perfect... it did turn out fun: twisters in a bottle, cloud finders, anenometers and a booklet on interpreting weather maps and predicting the weather. And we ended up getting some snow this week too!
We are getting lots of Semester testing done this week and also practicing for the PSSA's which are coming in March.
We went to Science Kids this morning at the Lancaster County Environmental Center and the kids learned about optical illusions in their study of vision. They ended by tie-dying t-shirts (which I have to go rinse out after I'm through writing this.) I am thinking I will have to do another summer Art Camp and try out some of the things we've been doing with homeschooling. I plan on teaching my old art lesson on M.C. Escher and tesselations in a few weeks to my class at the Blended program and that got me thinking about how fun some of my old lessons were. Next Blended session we are focusing on being "Heart Healthy" along with Valentine's Day. (I have an idea for a cute craft that I might post for V-day later!) . Kids all over the country are participating in Jump for the Heart in February, to raise money for the American Heart Association. We are going to learn some exercises that can be done anywhere, how our circulatory system works, some healthy eating ideas, and then learn some new jump rope moves!! After Disney Channel's "Jump In" movie that just aired, the kids are excited about jumping and double-dutch (excellent exercise!)...so I'll keep encouraging that. I'm looking for a Valentine's Day Readers Theater that is funny to do with my class. I think I found a take-off of Cyrano De Bergerac, so we'll probably do that.
So that is where my creativity is lying this week: lots of curriculum planning! Nathaniel picked out some yarn today for me to use to knit a funny bird pattern. I might give that a try and actually follow the pattern exactly in the book. Then I plan on trying a sweater for Caroline-- I have a great idea for an intarsia design for the front (a rider doing a jump in silhouette).
OH>....and we have a settlement date on the house!!!: February 12th (Monday) and a move date of February 16th (Friday) for the movers (though we will begin moving things ourselves during that week. Yipppeee!!! So this will be a VERY busy next 3 weeks!
~love, Beth

Ice Skating!

Caroline and Nathaniel had their first experience ice skating today at our local rink. Agora (our school) set it up and everything was free! After two hours of going around and around the walls, they decided they loved skating and actually let go of the wall! (I opted out because I didn't want to risk being on crutches again.) We had some well-deserved hot cocoa when we got home...brrrrrr. It was only 31 degrees out today too -- finally it feels like winter!

Blue Dog

Blue Dog is so much cuter than Vanilla Dog...

Vanilla Dog

I decided to try a small knitting project yesterday with scrap yarn I had... one we fondly named "Vanilla Dog with Chocolate Spots". Let me just say that despite what the lady said on Saturday at our class, it is not that easy to knit things that aren't straight like a scarf!! I thought this pattern looked easy enough, but I found myself knitting on three needles at once and increasing and decreasing... And to make matters worse, I didn't have enough yarn to do it full size so I decreased the pattern 50% and had to figure out the chart above. Now I have to make the other side match and figure out the bottom and the ears. Both kids are claiming it as theirs, but Vanilla Dog should be renamed Miracle Dog if he actually turns out! I think my next knitting project will be a blanket or something with straight edges!!!

You might have noticed my new illustration for the website (at the bottom of the page). I wanted to put it at the top, but alas, it can't be done...

Eloise!

I found these old pictures of children's clothing patterns from the 1950's on the Eloise website: http://www.eloisewebsite.com/ Being a HUGE fan and collector of the old Eloise books (and sharing a birthday with her), it was fun to look through all the info. I love these outfits and want to either sew something or use it in illustrations!

Welcome to my new blog!

I came up with the idea of "Red Yarn" after spending an afternoon at a knitting class with my daughter Caroline. My favorite color is red (the color of my handknit scarf Mom made me when I was a child) and yarn refers to a story, as well as fiber to make something wonderful out of!
I am hoping this blog will be a place where I put pieces of inspiration, show projects I'm working on, and a place to "talk" about things going on in my house (that way my friends and family can log on here and I won't be crowding their email boxes with my perpetual photos :)

The photo above is me and my sister Jane playing dress ups... I am the older one. Please note the cool shoes! Sorry Jane... I know you hate this picture, but it reminds me of a time when being creative happened naturally and daily! So here it goes...

The picture below is a drawing I did for Caroline's riding instructor Phyllis, for her 60th birthday. She brings her Corgis to the stables and Nathaniel is always playing with them. In fact, he took the photos and I composed the picture from them! It is a rough start but it was fun to draw again.

THE CORGIS: BUGSY, TIPPY AND ANNIE

A Drawing of Phyllis Frankhouser's dogs