Autumn Break

Today is the first day of my autumn break. After two months of teaching, I now have five days of holiday. Technically, the autumn break is only two days long, but together with a weekend and one day of bank holiday it’s a nice long break. My plan is to read, relax, eat well and sleep well and - as many other teachers - just be quiet. The all-day-long talking is a litle bit exhausting.

The day turned out to be a very warm one and after doing some random housekeeping, I set up a nice temporary “office” in the garden against the trunk of a Ginkgo biloba tree. As I drank my cup of Yorkshire Gold Tea (I had to take out a fallen leaf out of it now and then), unintentionally disturbed some ladybirds and marked biology tests of my year 6 students, I think I must have been the happiest and most satisfied teacher in the country.

I even felt warm enough to take my shoes off for a while and walk around barefoot. I came home energised and fresh like a happy hippie :)

Wednesday Night Sock Yarn

Making a yarn out of old used clothing is something I always wanted to try, especially after I saw wonderful rugs made by EsteraP and found the easy how-to tutorial on MollieMakes. As you can see, it worked out perfectly, so ignore the silly comment below the tutorial (the person must have done some mistake). I didn't have to "waste" any clothing, after all, the whole point of making this type of yarn is to use clothes that would get thrown out otherwise. I used two socks with holes on their heels that I really wouldn't even bother to throw into the charity bin.

The yarn that came out is not wonderfully regular or beautiful, but it is mine! I got more than five meters of thick yarn from each sock. From now on, we are not throwing any socks away! And when we move, I will dye all the yarn  and make a bathroom rug from it. It's a dream! And so romantic - having a shared rug made of our worn socks!!! Romantically creepy? A bit too much? Should I have said it will be my socks only? Oh well... Being a bit of a geek has never hurt anyone...

The good news is that you do not have to undergo the whole "looking for the bad sock" process and can simply buy the yarn if you want to. Etsy shops such as TheRecyclery, OfUsualtees, Chennapenna,  meangreenmachine, EclecticNotions, TShirtYarnBoutique, GreenTeeYarns, pinkamigo and downtherabbitholeSH sell lovely t-shirt yarns.