Ah, much better...

Things started looking better right after I posted on Monday. E finished off her lessons writing a great page all about herself. At first, she found the task a bit too open ended, but I did give her some suggestions. Soon after that, she had finished writing the whole page.

To answer Nancy/Iowa's question, yes we are homeschooling. This is my third year homeschooling E and D is just starting. Yesterday and today's lessons went really smoothly. D is still enthusiastic about his lessons. He doesn't want to stop when I do. E was like that when we started kindergarten. From my experiences with her, I know to cut him off before he gets burnt out or tired.

Back to knitting news...the shawl is moving along. The designer got back to me and things sped along after that. Now, I'm waiting for the next section from her. While waiting, I've gone back to knitting socks. I started and completed a pair of socks for D using leftovers. I used around 40gms for his socks. Now, I'm knitting a pair for E. Her socks have gotten to the size where I can no longer use the leftovers from my socks. They're just not enough. For the sock that I'm knitting for her right now, I've added in toes and heels in a solid color to stretch other yarn. After this pair, I'll have to dive into the new yarns to make socks for her.

The kids need more socks for this winter. Just about all of their other socks fit perfectly or are too small. I should be able to easily complete my 52 pairs in a year goal while knitting socks for them. I need to knit each of them more pairs to rotate through for this winter too. Some of last winter's socks have died and gone to sock heaven. ;-) All of the socks that D and E have worn through were 100% wool. I'm going to stick with wool/nylon blends for them in the future. Sure they're not as soft, but the kids don't notice or comment about it. They just like having the colorful socks.

Both of my test knitters have gotten in touch with me this week. It's so encouraging to hear from them. They did have a few questions about the same area in the pattern. I've added some clarification to my pattern that will hopefully help when it's released as a mystery sock.

No pictures today. It's nice and cool in the house and hot outside. Okay, it's warm. But 80 degrees does feel hot if it's only around 70 degrees indoors. I love the cool evening and night temperatures. It keeps me motivated to knit because it feels like fall is already here. I have a few other things that I want to knit for the kids for this fall and winter. I need to get moving if they're going to be done in time to be useful.

Back to school time and...

I'm feeling drained already. It's only 1pm and what a morning! D started his kindergarten lessons and did great. He wasn't very enthusiastic about starting, but he didn't want to stop once we started. That was encouraging for me. E started the the day off great, but hit a bump in the road. It was pretty much down hill after that. sigh.

In the knitting area, I'm testing knitting a shawl and I hit a bump with that too. I can't get my next row to line up properly. That's frustrating. I've checked to see if I made any mistakes and everything looks good up until this line. I'll have to wait to hear from the designer.

I'm also having my mystery sock test knitted by two people. So far, so good. I did have an error about the way I referred to the multiple charts. oops. I did it one way in the file with the complete pattern, but had to change it to accommodate the pattern being separated into four clues. I'm happy that the charts do seem to be correct.

Beyond that, I'm still working on writing up other sock patterns. I think that I have most of the pattern portion written for a few of them. Now, I'm trying to figure out the best way to get the big charts into the pdf without making the file size huge or the charts looking blurry. I'll probably have those test knitted too before I let them out.

I have no socks on the needles. Yikes! I think that I'll start a plain stockinette sock to work on while the kids are doing lessons. That's all that I can manage right now. ;-)

Details for the sock above:
Pair #15 for the 52 Pair Plunge II
Yarn: Lovesticks in Count Sockula
Needle: size 0 (2mm) Knit Picks Classic Circular
Method: magic loop, 2 at once, toe-up with Turkish cast-on, short row heel
Start: August 7, 2008
Finish: August 10, 2008

Weaving socks and some mystery

This is my latest sock. Every now and then, I need a simpler pattern. This one was perfect. It was simple enough to not need a chart, but it wasn't boring. This pattern could probably be done in a more variegated yarn too.

Details:
Pair # 14 for the 52 Pair Plunge II
Pair #9 for Summer of Socks 08
Yarn: Dream in Color Smooshy in Nightwatch
Needle: size 0 (2mm) Knit Picks Classic Circular
Method: magic loop, 2 at once, toe-up with Turkish cast-on, gusset heel with patterning
Pattern: Weaving (pattern to be written later)
Start: July 30, 2008
Finish: August 1, 2008

I've been asked to design the September mystery sock for Sock Knitter's Anonymous (ravelry group). This pattern will be released in four parts, once each week during September. I've been digging through stitch dictionaries and working up a few different ideas. I think that I've finally gotten down what I want. Something interesting, but not too complex since there is a wide range of skill levels on the SKA group. The only requirement was that I use orange yarn. Pretty cool to have such an open ended range of what I could do. By the end of this week, I should have a good rough draft of the pattern.

I can't really say much about the pattern. I've been asked about using variegated yarns. I think a slightly variegated yarn would work. A yarn that stripes subtly might work too. I really don't think that yarn with bold stripes would work.