Shakespeare Yarn Club Skein One

For my birthday, I joined Custom Yarn Dyer Amy Lee's Shakespeare Yarn Club for three months--the three months covering the play Much Ado About Nothing, one of my favorites.

Right after my birthday the first skein arrived--Kill Claudio (name of colorway) in luscious Leo MCS (merino/cashmere/silk.) She had a lovely color theory behind the crazy colors--it begins with pink symbolizing Hero's innocence, moves into a darker pink of infatuation, to a purple and blue symbolizing love and fidelity, then green symbolizing Claudio's jealousy, and finally a deep red marking Beatrice's demand of Benedick that he "Kill Claudio."

You can really see the movement of the colors with the skein on my swift. Lovely--I am definitely going to use this when next I teach Shakespeare--students can create a description of the plot/emotion of a play using color!

Some people in the knitting world call yarn with this much variance of color "clown barf." Sometimes it applies, but not with this gorgeous skein--even wound in a ball I loved the colors.

As it had so much gorgeousness (and cashmere!) I decided to make a shawlette instead of socks with this skein. I chose Yvaine, a lovely pattern that uses garter, stockinette, and seed stitch. I love seed stitch, and it worked incredibly well with this pattern. I love this shawlette, and I know I will get tons of wear out of it this winter. Variegated colors go with everything!

I even had enough left to make some fantastic little mitts, that just keep my hands warm. I know I will wear these in the winter when my hands get a bit chilly. I love how the stripes pooled on these mitts.


I can't wait for my second skein--it should be arriving this week!

I Swear This Really Happened

This is one of the stories a teacher has, that they are fairly confident no one will believe. I swear to you, though, that this really happened in class yesterday.

Set-up: The class is reading Act 5 of Romeo and Juliet. Glen is reading the part of Romeo. Jacob is sitting next to him, listening.

Glen: . . . than empty Tigger-er, tigers. Tigers . ..

Jacob: (whispered) Dude, it's not spelled T-I-double Grr-err.

Teacher: (contains hysterical laughter, so that we finish reading) (flashes thumbs-up to Jacob)

I know that on some level, you had to be there, but it was just so funny, I had to share.

Why isn't Tybalt in more scenes?

Right now, in my Cool classroom, it is all Romeo and Juliet, all the time. I'm trying to restrain myself from writing thousands of R&J posts, but I thought this one might be okay.

We just finished reading Act 1, so we're watching film clips from a few different versions to compare. Of course, we always watch part of the Zefferelli classic, which I mainly enjoy because Michael York plays Tybalt. You might know him as Basil Exposition in the Austin Powers movies, but as a young Shakespearean actor, he was incredibly dishy. Even some of my 9th grade girls usually find him good-looking. I find him just plain ol' yummy, which helps me get through my 4,000th watching of this film. If only he didn't peg out in Act 3.

Thoughts About Teaching

1. If you need to vomit, please just run out of the room. Do not politely ask the teacher for a pass to the nurse, and then calmly puke into her trash can while she writes it. Just run to the nurse.

2. Giving a short quiz is a great way to distract students from the janitor cleaning the vomit off of the teacher's desk and floor.

3. As many times as I've read it, Mercutio's "Queen Mab" speech never ceases to delight me and confuse of my students. Of course, thanks to Shakespeare in Love, I can never start it without thinking of Ben Affleck saying the first line: "O, then I see Queen Mab hath been with you."

4. 9th grade students really love Mad Libs, especially when they can try and insert these words: balls, hairy, wiener, and chicken. Sadly for me, those words are always funny. Also sadly for me, they have learned what parts of speech they are (which I guess is good), so I always have to use them.

5. As you might have guessed from #3, we are reading Romeo and Juliet in class right now. I always do reader's theatre, and take any parts that are left open (due typically to small classes or absent kids.) My favorite parts to read, in no particular order: Capulet, the Nurse, Mercutio, and Tybalt.
6. It's the weekend! Have a superb one, and if you're working, may it go by quickly!

Fantasy Campaign Ad #4

Destined to be the leader . . .

Supported by a strong, intelligent wife . . .

Victorious in battle . . .

A gracious host to the previous rulers . . .

Seeks advice from different channels . . .

Doesn't this sound like a man you want in charge?

I'm Macbeth, and I supporteth this message, and I desperately wanteth to be King! Even tho', tis but a sound and fury, signifying nothing, this ad wast paid for by my dear Lady Macbeth, who almost more desperately wanteth me to thine King!

Queen Mab

In Romeo and Juliet, Mercutio's big, dramatic speech begins, "Oh, then I see Queen Mab hath been with thee," and then proceeds to unspool a dramatic yarn about Queen Mab, a fairy who brings specific dreams, all meant to taunt Romeo for his belief in dreams.

I had a bizarre dream last night, so I suppose Queen Mab visited. I dream a lot, and frequently remember my dreams, and that's been true most of my life. Mr. Cool rarely remembers his, although recently he had a great one that concerned arming battling Lillipution-types in our house with toothpicks and cocktail swords. It was pretty funny.

So, last night, I spent a good deal of the night knitting. I knitted for a while on Mr. Cool's Ravenclaw scarf, and then cast on a new project, a "My So-Called Scarf" from Imagiknits in Patons Soy Wool Stripes Natural Earth. It's going okay--it has a bit of a tricky pattern, but good practice, and it should be a nice scarf, if not for me, then as a gift.

I stayed up a bit late working on this new project (I had to cast on three times to get the first row right), and then finally went to bed. I immediately started one of my all-night dreams. These are dreams I fitfully have all night, despite waking up, or getting up. I dreamt that it was the end of the world, thanks to biochemical warfare, and everyone was preparing to die. Planes were passing overhead, there was a general apocalyptic feeling, and I was gathering together my bags of knitting WIPs (works in progress), because I was pretty sure I could take those with me. An interesting thought--somehow, I was confident that books and money would not be permitted in heaven, but the Lord would surely let me have my knitting.

Curious, no? I woke up this morning and completed a few quick rows on my scarf, just in case.

A Cool Shakespearean Line

Why hasn't this shown up in politics?

" . . . a wolvish-ravening lamb . . . " Romeo and Juliet, Act 3, Scene 2

Used to describe Romeo when Juliet is briefly angry at him for [spoiler deleted], and is listing the ways he looked good on the outside but was bad on the inside. Basically, we're talking about a fluffy lamb who eats like a wolf. My froshies had great fun with the idea of a cute lamb preying on another adorable critter. This counts as my yarn/knitting post of the day.