Knitting and CD coasters

Greetings, and Dear Cynthia,

Happy Saturday! I still have 7 tests and a presentation in the next two weeks, so I can't really celebrate just yet...but I can see the end of the semester...and I have a bottle of wine chilling in the refrigerator, just sayin'!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE all of the Silk Garden scarves I see you and many other knitters making these days! I've restrained myself from indulging so far, having rather large tuition bills looming every three or four months... Trying to strike a "balance," and I have enough in my stash to keep me going for a while, so I resist, but it *IS* an exercise in self control, I have to say.

I blocked the pieces I have completed of the Must Have Cardigan, because I was still having doubts about the size of the thing. Once dry, I sewed the one sleeve and the front/back together so that I could try it on so far to give myself peace of mind that the size is in the ball park. It seems okay, so I keep plugging away at the remaining front and sleeve. Not overwhelmingly exciting on the knitting front here these days...and even more boring for those of you who have been following this sweater now for months with inch by inch progress reports.

For one of my classes, a group of four of us are doing a presentation on CD-ROM's as an instructional tool. (There were ten topics available, and this is the one my group ended up with.) It's not exactly the most cutting edge technology, but we put something together and tried to include a little levity to keep the class awake for the fifteen minutes we'll have their attention next Tuesday. In a list of "pros and cons," we are going to mention that one "pro" is that when they are obsolete, they may be made into coasters...so I made some visual aids to share with the class for this:I found photos on the University's web site of the course instructor and her husband (who is also a professor there). I resized and printed the photos onto paper, and adhered them to the back of CDs with clear contact paper covering the whole surface of the back. On the front side of the CDs, I glued cork which I cut to size. Sort of dorky, but at the same time, actually nice coasters, and perhaps a project my kids could do to make presents for their grandparents. (It looks like this professor has a black and blue eye in the photo, but that is because when I glued the cork onto the CD, the extra glue ran through the center hole of the CD and damaged the photo. I would definitely recommend using card stock or photo paper or somehow blocking the hole from allowing the seepage of glue if I make these again.)

Anyway, it's really cold outside here, and I should go running this morning, and I have so much other stuff to do today (grocery shopping, laundry, gobs of studying for a huge practical exam on Monday, taking my six year old to a birthday party which is going to be *OUTSIDE* at the zoo -- brrrr, and perhaps even cleaning a bathroom), so I'd better start moving that direction. I know that all of you are extremely busy right now, too, and so I wish you all a productive weekend!

Warm regards,
Laura (YarnThrower)