What I've Learned This Week

• I've learned that felting is kind of fun, but it's also probably a huge waste of water and energy in a front load washer because I had to put this hot pad, which I discovered on Purl Bee's blog though an "express" cycle at least three times to get it to felt, and even then you can still see some of the stitches.
  
• I learned that it's also probably not a good idea to use really fuzzy red yarn with not-so-fuzzy cream yarn if you're going to felt. It didn't exactly bleed, but it sure did "fuzz" onto the cream.
  
• I learned that you can make mistakes in your knitting when you plan to felt, and it doesn't matter because you can't see that much stitch definition even when you do use a front load washer.

• I like knitting hearts. I found this pattern on ravelry, and it's fun and pretty easy, just a ittle fiddly at the beginning and end.
• I've learned that it's fun to prepare to celebrate little holdiays like Valentine's Day if you ignore the sappy, materialistic corporate barrage of commercials. I knit these little hearts, and I'm going to knit more of them and just give them to people I like...and keep some for myself too!

• I've learend that bugging Russ to build stuff for me doesn't work and that I should just let him know what I'd like him to do and patiently wait because it's always worth it. He started this "built-in" bookcase a couple of days ago, and I'm going to love it. Mmmm what knitting-related items can I display on the top?

• Finally, I learned that even though I live in a dusty, oil town that can be the most misterable place in the world during the summer and is pretty much lacking in any culture whatsoever, I'm happy and proud to call it home. I've never hated it here; My husband and I make a good living, which gives us a lot of freedom, and we've always known that we were lucky to live in a nice neighborhood with good friends all around. In these two weeks since Shaye's funeral though, I realized just how deep that "friend" pool is here. The night I wrote my post about Shaye, over two hundred people (mostly kids) showed up in front of her parents' house and laid hundreds of roses around a tree in their front yard, then they quietly left to go to one of two homes of fellow teachers who had opened their doors so that the kids would have a place to grieve and be comforted together. The principal of our high school let school out an hour early so that our students could more easily attend the funeral, and he drove a van full of kids home from school early that day so that the regular bus drivers could attend the funeral. Over 1200 people attended the funeral--that's in a town with a populaiton of just over 20,000. There are all kinds of other "good" things that I could write about, but I think I'm finished. It's still a horrific thing, as Paige says, "It's so terrible, I don't want to go there most of the time." But, life is going on. My friends have returned to work.. at the same high school their daughter attended, and, as I said earlier, I've learned that I live in a place surrounded with wonderful, caring people.
  
• Oh! And I didn't need to "learn" this because I already knew it, but it was also reinforced for me, just how kind the people I've gotten to "know" through blogging are. Thank you for all of your kind and supportive words.