Wednesday, August 29, 2007

I'll Huffle, and I'll Puff

The yarn for Morgana Too's socks arrived today from WEBS. It's Dale Baby Ull in the classic Hufflepuff colors of black and yellow. The stitch markers I ordered also arrived, and they are lovely. I wish I had a Ravenclaw set of my own, but I'll just have to wait until the end of the swap! I got a notice that the needles I ordered will be delayed for a few days, but that's okay since it's a while before we ship our packages. Now I just have to go get started on the socks. I'm using a pattern from More Sensational Socks, but that's all I have to say about that!

Saturday, August 25, 2007

Bemoaning My Fate

Summer is drawing to a close. I return to work on Monday for our week of classroom prep before the students return after Labor Day. I don't want to go back. I like living in my jammies. I don't want to lose all my knitting time. Rant over.

I am looking forward to teaching math again and to having only 3 or 4 lessons per day in my two sections instead of the 8 or 9 I had in last year's two sections. It will seem like cake in many ways. It's also better knowing we have our own pastor again for our chapel so we can be separated out from the younger kids. The older kids have different issues and deserve to have some special time on their own.

On the knitting front, I finished Mom's chevron scarf (but it needs to be blocked), the DCA's sailor rib socks, and the Rockin' Sock Club Solstice Slip socks, and Maude (it needs to be blocked too). I've started the Roo's seeded ribbing socks, and they'll be my traveling knitting for a while. I am also hooked on the idea of making Aran stitch pattern squares (inspired by an episode of Knitty Gritty) and sewing them together for a lap blanket for the DCA. The Aran squares are much more entertaining than the mitered squares I had started and quickly tired of. I'm using up some Wintuk acrylic someone donated to the stash, because it will be just perfect for a small afghan that will see lots of love and abuse. I have six skeins each of crimson and cream, so it will be just perfect for my favorite OU alum.

In Sock Swap news, I have ordered Morgana Too's yarn, needles, and stitch markers. The pattern is already selected, so I just have to wait for the yarn to arrive so I can get started. I'll be throwing Roo's socks aside as soon as everything is here because I need to concentrate on the sock swap until I'm finished with my Hufflepuff creation. Even my new Rockin' Sock Club shipment will be ignored!

The boys are out of town camping, soI'm headed back to the couch for my final movie and knitting marathon of the summer. Maybe the Roo will join me with her knitting too before we go out to a girly-girl tea this afternoon. Bring on those Aran squares!

Monday, August 20, 2007

Hogwarts Sock Swap Contest #2

It's the Six Degrees of Draco Malfoy! Go see the Swap blog for details of the contest.

Here is my chain relating the Dursleys to Draco:
  1. The Dursleys let Harry live with them when his parents died.
  2. Harry is the son of James Potter.
  3. James was the best friend of Sirius Black.
  4. Sirius hated and regularly teased Severus Snape.
  5. Snape is the head of Slytherin house and, as such, is responsible for Draco Malfoy.
Someone noted in the comments on the Swap blog that the example there was only 5 degrees instead of six. So, to cover my bases, here's the same list with an extra step just in case!
  1. The Dursleys let Harry live with them when his parents died.
  2. Harry is the son of Lily Evans Potter (the sister of Petunia Evans Dursley).
  3. Lily was married to James Potter.
  4. James was the best friend of Sirius Black.
  5. Sirius hated and regularly teased Severus Snape.
  6. Snape is the head of Slytherin house and, as such, is responsible for Draco Malfoy.

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Traveling Objects

We went to visit the DCA's grandmother in Delaware yesterday. When we first started out, it reminded us of a National Lampoon's Vacation movie--it could have been called "The Griswolds Go to Delaware". It's quite a challenge to get 7 people into a mini-van by 6:30 a.m.! We had the DCA's parents, the four of us, and our niece, TM, from NC. (The DCA's sister brought her up to visit until we head home tomorrow.) We were expecting to have whiny, fussy kids with us, but they were troopers and didn't give us any trouble all day.

I finished my mom's chevron scarf in the car on the way over. I still need to weave in the ends and block it to death, but the majority of the work is done. I had the DCA's red sock with me to work on during the rest of the day, and I finished it in the car on the way home just as the last vestiges of sunlight faded from the sky. I started working on the Roo's bubble gum sock last night after we got home.

The sock got to see many cool places like Thrasher's fries, Fisher's popcorn, the Atlantic Ocean in Ocean City, and three states along the way during the trip. It is by far the most-traveled sock I have ever knit.

Tomorrow we head home, so the next post will be from there. Maybe I'll have another sock done!

Thursday, August 09, 2007

Hot, Hot, Hot!

We had a great time in Florida. Disney World was great as always, and it wasn't too crowded until we went to the Magic Kingdom on Friday. Lots of people must start their weekends early, and it must be the most popular of the parks, because it was the most crowded of all the parks we went to. Seeing my brother and his family made up for it though. Pictures of our escapades will have to wait until we're home--I don't want to try to download pictures anywhere but there. The DCA might try from his parents' home this weekend, but that's his bag not mine.

We've spent most of the last weekend in NC with my parents, and it is super hot here. We get temperatures in the 90s and 100s at home in CA, but the humidity is giving us heat indexes in the 110s, and that's a little more than we want to deal with. Yesterday, we just stayed in the house and relaxed after a bit of traveling around on Tuesday. Today we have some things we want to do, but the heat might just keep us home.

The knitting front is slow and unproductive. I ripped back the Nagini sock completely. I just don't like toe-up socks, and I felt like I was slogging along. I am going to attempt Nagini again, but I'm going to change it to a cuff-down sock and work it on US size 2 needles with fewer stitches or on US size 0 or US size 1 needles according to the pattern instructions. My US size 1 Addi circs are really more like a 1.5 and the sock was just too loose.

I finished the first Red Rover sock and left it in NoVA at the DCA's parents' house on Sunday morning before we left to drive down here. I just haven't been able to get into knitting the second one because I want the first one to look at. It's a good thing we're headed back to NoVA tomorrow so I can find my inspiration! (It also doesn't help that every time I walk by my suitcase the Rockin' Sock Club kit screams my name and begs to be started. I'm having a hard time ignoring it.)

I've been trying to devote my time to knitting my mom's Chevron Scarf. It helps with the desire to play with Socks That Rock, and I like to see how much it's growing. I think I'm a little over halfway done at this point, so she should have it in plenty of time for the cooler weather this winter. I wish I could have gotten it done so I could leave it here, but it will have to be shipped back later. She likes the colors she chose now that's she's seen them in person, and she also likes how the scarf is turning out.

I think I may have found some stitch markers for my Hogwarts swap partner, and I also have found my yarn. Now I just need to place orders for them so I can start her socks! Needles are proving a bit more problematic since she likes wooden ones. I don't want to send plain old bamboo, but I don't know much about wooden needles since I prefer aluminum. I have a few good leads though--I'm just looking for some reviews or some blogs to see what people think about a few of the brands that are out there.

The next post will be from the road in NoVA!