Chickenlips Knitting

This week's dye highlights, from top to bottom: New Wool Worsted in Milan, New Wool Worsted in Another Rainbow, Glam Sock in Hot Pink, and British Invasion BFL Sock in Plum Tree.

What, you thought there would be knitting!? Ha! Actually, I am close to finishing a sweater, because it's a "deadline" project. Michelle is about to graduate from high school (sniff, emotional, and hooray! because now I won't have to listen to her daily harangue about how much high school sucks) and she's been lucky enough to have had the guidance of a wonderful teacher/mentor. Someone like that is worth their weight in gold, as far as I'm concerned, because when my girl started freshman year, she was a pissed off kid who'd been homeschooled during 8th grade because middle school was so bloody awful. It really was; I remembered what I had to live through, and it's so much worse now that I wouldn't force my kid to go through it. So yeah, she was pissed off about being put back into public school, defiantly wore Motley Crue makeup every day despite warnings to knock it off, and generally projected an attitude of hate and discontent. I had more than one conversation with one of the (superfluous, if you ask me) assistant principals about my kid being a scofflaw.

Lucky for us, though, she had a wonderful English teacher in her sophomore year who was a positive role model, confidante, shoulder to cry on and beacon. Slowly but surely, Michelle began to transition from gothy makeup and hair metal T-shirts into a more feminine wardrobe. She is now a beautiful, college bound young woman, an A student, and will be featured in her class yearbook as "Most Original Student". I wonder if all these good things would be happening were it not for Ms. K's influence.

So that "deadline" project I mentioned, because I can't tell a story in a linear fashion, is a Bombshell sweater for Ms. K. When Michelle wore her red Bombshell to school and the teacher found out that I had made it, she said she'd love to have one in blue. For someone who's made such a difference in my child's life, I am all about making wishes come true! So that's what's OTN and I'm cranking on it, a blue Bombshell, which must and will be done by the end of the school year.

Although we had gorgeous senior portraits done last fall, I have yet to scan them. So here is a fond memory of my one and only, at her most original, at the beginning of high school.