These are the baby mitts I worked on on Sunday.  I did it by holding two strands of fingering yarn together to get an approximate worsted.  I find it interesting that the orangish color is the same in both pairs but looks so different depending on what the other color is.  I'll make more of these on Sunday in different colors.  I started on the teapot cosy.  It seems to be going well but I feel like it will be small.  I'm going to measure it later.  The cosy is made in two parts then sewn together, I'm doing them at the same time with one end from the middle and one from the outside.  So the plan is: finish the cosy, make some flowers (possibly lots) and finish the cupcake.

Today I actually caught a girl, who usually isn't at the bus stop, throw a rock at someone else. Those rocks are just too tempting. I took a short walk and made sure to stretch afterwards.  I didn't stretch on Wednesday and that was part of the reason it hurt.  To add to today's excitement Mooky feel asleep on the bus and didn't get off at his stop.  I wasn't worried because I figured he was on the bus and just forgot to get off.  If Transportation had told me he wasn't on the bus then I would have worried.

I wanted to talk about the two walks I took on purpose this week.  When I used to walk all the time, and did about a mile a day, I loved it.  I liked looking at the birds and seeing if I could find the white squirrel that day.  It got cold and I stopped walking.  When the weather warmed up again and I started walking again I had dog problems so I stopped again.  I have been keeping an eye out all summer to see if that dog was there and I didn't see it so I decided to try again.  The first walk I took on Monday wasn't actually fun and that was sad. I felt like I had to keep looking over my shoulder to see if a dog was going to jump out at me.  The walk I took today was better.  I was a little fired up from having to break up the "fight" so I was walking quicker.  I didn't feel so stressed but I wasn't enjoying it as much as I did before.  I hope this bodes well and the next time I walk it will be even better.

I caught up on all my podcasts for the week.  I don't remember anything especially memorable just the felling of crafting with someone.  I like Yarnivore but I'm not getting into it as much as I was expecting.  I think it may be that I have so many already I'm a little burnt out by the time I get to it.  Time for a little kdrama break.

Other than our adventure today things seem to be going well.  Tomorrow we are going to my husband's home town for a parade and a carnival, assuming it doesn't rain.   Because of this I really don't think I'll blog tomorrow so I'll see you on Monday.

Oh my goodness yesterday turned out not the greatest that is why I skipped.  It started out o.k. but the kids at the bus stop were very energetic.  There were three or four moms at the bus stop and they were letting the kids play "tag" really roughly on a rock/gravel driveway (none of them were the parents of the kids being rough).  Because last year's issues I yelled at them to stop.  I could just see someone falling and getting bloody.  Maybe it's not my business but if it appears to me to be unsafe i'm going to say something.  They stopped but then picked up rocks so I said not to throw them. I jokingly said it was my job to be mean and one kid said, "No your job is to parent your child."  I said , "Yes but I choose to be mean about it, just ask my son."  Oh course Mooky agreed. The kid then said "You aren't my mom."  I said, "You're right but, if you do something dangerous I'm sure she would LOVE to hear about it."  I understand, kind of, parents not getting involved because some parents won't appreciate it but if something is dangerous I feel like you have to say something.  

That wasn't the bad part of the day, what happened next set that up.  After I dropped my husband off at work I ran to the school to drop something off.  I accidentally locked the keys in the car.  I walked home to get the other set, got the key to the apartment from the office, got some water and rested a little then walked back.  It only took an hour all told but there are no side walks, little shade and the lights are not timed for pedestrian traffic (speed limit is 45-55 mph).  Because I wasn't planning on waling in the first place I wasn't dressed right or had water at first.  I got so dehydrated.  I felt a little bad emotionally because the round trip was only about a mile and I could really feel it.  The dehydration was the bigger problem though.  It knocked me out for the rest of the day. I was so tired, I had a headache, I didn't want to eat, I was cranky, and I felt like I couldn't concentrate. I got nothing done.  No cleaning or laundry, no crafting and I barely made supper.  So of course no blogging. I feel better today so today I have to get everything from yesterday done and today's work.  bla.  It will be o.k. but it was not pleasant yesterday.  O.k. enough complaining back to the crafting.

The hat at the top of the page is the toddler hat that took me about 2.5 hours.  All the hats for my sister are done and she picked a pattern for the tea cozy so I'll start on that.  I'm still looking for flower patterns.  After that I need to finish the cup cake then the totoros.  I did work a little bit on my sock yarn blanket square and a little on my sock.  The sock just gets dragged out for waiting room knitting. 

I've been listening to my podcasts. I didn't get them all listened to so I plan to catch up on them today.  I was planning to listen yesterday but I got distracted by a Youtube show called Off The Great Wall.  It had some funny parodies of anime and drama so I got sucked into some of their other topic relating to China and other Asian things.  

I think that is about it.  Today's goal it to drink lots of water so if I have surprise exercise again I won't dehydrate and fix today what I couldn't get to yesterday.  Not the most fun thing in the world but it must be done.  I hope you have a better day today than I hade yesterday.   

Oh my goodness I'm skipping days!  I don't mean to and nothing weird is going on so I don't know what's wrong.  I plan to write and I plan it out in my head then never sit to write it.  Here is the finished niece hat.  I finished the toddler one too and feel kind of stuck now.  The plan was to make some flowers and other things that can be pinned to the hat and switched between the two hats.  The problem is I'm having trouble finding patterns I want to do.  The last thing I am supposed to do for my sister is a tea cosy (is that one word or two?). We are still trying to figure out what pattern so I can't start on that either.  The other thing I need to do is finish the totoros.   I grabbed the one I'm mostly finished with and was disappointed to find that I lost the eyes.  Not that they are hard to redo but it is frustrating.  I think I just kind of needed a break so I'm working on the sock yarn blanket square.  On Sunday, for charity knitting, I made some more baby mitts. All the experiments haven't been working so I was getting tired of working on things.  Wile the baby mitts may be boring I'm o.k. at it and it's better than nothing.  The mitts kind of energized me for more charity knitting.

Mostly on Saturday we sat around and watched TV shows. It was a little bit of everything, Jdrama, anime, and "reality" shows. Sunday I watched Yarnivore.  It was fun to see her soundtrack suggestions.  I'm up to November 2011.  Yesterday I played a little bit of WOW. I feel like I'm not making much progress but I guess I just have to pick at it a little at a time.

I took a short walk on Monday and was kind of sad that I couldn't do it better.  Hopefully it will get easier as I keep working on it.  The only other problem is that Mooky is not doing well in school.  We are going to have some meetings about it and see what we can do to help.  It's been such a cool, mild summer but now it's turning hot when the kids are in school and the buildings around here don't have air. The kids got out a little early on Monday and are now allowed to bring water bottles to school.  Nothing crazy but a bunch of inconvenient things.  I think that's it.  It seems a little short for skipping so many days.  Sorry.  See you next time.

Here is the August picture.  I know it's late but July really threw us off.  If I do this again next year I'll have to pick a spot that is not dependent on the golf property.  It was really overcast and humid.  A little wile after this picture we had a thunderstorm.  I should have waited till now to do it because it's bright out now.  I'm getting tired of weather.com.  Not only do they have a lot of fear mongering "adds" on the side of the page, they don't seem very accurate right now.

For knitting I finished both my nieces hats but there was a problem.  On the little one, once I was done and all the ends were tucked in I found a hole.  It's as if I somehow did an accidental yarn over.  I'm not going to rip back, it was such a little hat I'll just make another one.  The small adult one I made took about 5.5 hours and the toddler one took about 2.5. When I make the little one again I will make sure to time it more accurately.

I watched a few episodes of Yarnivore yesterday.  She likes to recommend music and I had forgotten how much I liked Concrete Blond.  I had trouble with some of Yarnivore's episodes. I'm not sure if was Blip or Worpress or my computer.  I didn't worry about it though because they were from 2011 and I want to get the newer ones.  Today is a kdrama day.

The kids seemed to have a pretty good day on their fist day of school.  At the bus stop, when Amey goes out, there are kids from 5th grade through high school. That seemed like a lot of kids so I have been walking with her to the bus stop but I may not need to do that.  There are only about five high schoolers and they, of course, don't talk to the middle schoolers. I'm still trying to decide if I should go and get my exercise done at that time.  When she came home she said she got her locker open by her self most of the time and had a good day.  She said her classes were boring because it was just a lecture on expectations not actually doing anything.  They sent her home with home work for the weekend too which I think is good.

When Mooky left at the same time as Amey he seemed to follow her lead, maybe stuck in her shadow, but without her he seemed more confident.  I'm not sure if his personality is emerging because she isn't there to bug him or if I'm just not distracted and noticing.  When he came home he threw his backpack on the floor said "leave me alone" and went to bed.  I think he was just tired because nothing bad happened at school.     He is a little harder to talk to but I got the information out of him in bits and pieces.  I think they are both looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow.

I think that's about it.  I wanted to go Letter Boxing tomorrow but Weather.com says it will rain so we'll see.  See you next time.  

Here are the orange socks I made my son.  They are long but he will grow.  The down side is he says there are itchy.  I'm done knitting socks for a wile (unless I'm in a waiting room or something) because I have commission knitting and then any Christmas presents I want to make. There is a quilted thing you put in a picture frame to hold your jewelry and it looks easy.  I also wanted to make some knit Christmas ornaments. Those of course are on the bottom of the list but you know I have tons of plans.  I have started working on my niece's hat again after a couple of days of not knitting.  I have about 5 hours done on it.  There are 36 stitches on the needles and when I decrease to 6 I will be done so no more than an hour.

I didn't do much watching or playing yesterday.  I did listen to a couple of Dramabeans podcasts.  There were a bit hard to follow for me because I am so bad with names and they say it so fast.  It was interesting to learn some behind the things about recapping.  Today I think I'll try to listen to Yarnivore.

Yesterday we went to Amey's school for backpack nigh.  We were there for about an hour which is way longer than it should have been.  For middle school it's not so much about finding you class and meeting your teacher but about finding your locker and being able to open it.  For the fifth graders they have those short double row lockers and Amey's is on the top so it's hard for her to see the numbers.  She had a hard time opening it so I tried.  It took me five times.  It was so stiff and hard to open it.  Amey had trouble, I had trouble, one of her little friends and his mom had trouble and even a school employee had trouble.  They put some WD40 on it and it was a little better but not a lot.  She finally did get it open on her own but she was almost crying at one point. I reminded her over and over it wasn't her and I think it helped that adults couldn't do it either.  I told her to tell her homeroom teacher because she is going to need help for a wile.  I was a little irritated that people seemed to think she didn't know how or that she was doing it wrong.  She'll be o.k. just a learning curve.  Poor Mooky was so bored but he did o.k.

Today is rainy and it's my first day by myself.  We'll see how it goes.  I'll talk more about the first day of school tomorrow once I see how their day went.  Have a good day.  

These are the blue socks.  Looking down from above they didn't look so slouchy.  They still fit better than the first pair that were kind of tight and the second that was three sizes too big and fell apart.  It gives me numbers for the next pair.  I haven't been knitting much because I was trying to do the charity knitting and it just wasn't turning out well at all.  I think I finally decided what I will do, I'll just make more baby mitts in the pattern I know and stop experimenting for now.  Well I do have one more experiment but it doesn't have stripes so it should be o.k. Today I think I'll go back to working on my niece's hat.

Mostly my daughter and I have been playing WOW.  Our toons are level 15 now.  We won't get as much time to play once school starts.  I watched all my podcasts between Monday and yesterday.  There are so many I can't do them all in one day now.  I got invited to another podcast but I think it will be a  while before I get to it, I'm still in July 2011 of Yarnivore and I want to listen to Knittin' On the Fly.

Yesterday we took Mooky to school for backpack night.  His first grade teacher moved to another state, so when they reassigned the classrooms his second grade teacher is in the same room as the first grade.  He isn't really excited to start school. He just wants to watch TV all day every day.  We are doing well doing waking up at 6 a.m. so far. We'll see how it goes.  I always feel like I'm forgetting something but that's o.k.  I'll see you next time.

This is the hat I'm making for my niece.  It's the same patter I used for my solar flair hat.  When I made that one it was really big so I knew I wanted to make this one a little smaller.  On the solar flair hat I think I made a mistake in the decreases so doing them right will help.  The other thing I noticed is that the "front" (in the picture) is an inch shorter than the "back" which is all stockinette.  My niece is a little smaller than my daughter so I just kept trying it on Amey and that's how I decided when to start the decreases.  I think it will turn out well. The only other thing I've been working on is my charity knitting.  I'm not really happy with them.  I've been trying a lot of experiments and they aren't really working.  I made a baby bootie with dpns.  It was o.k. but I kind of feel a little bad giving it away because I don't think it was done very well.  I want to donate quality products.  I don't want to throw it away but I'm kind of scared to give it to anyone else because it is wool and I was giving it where it could be specifically given to people who had wash. Most of the people I know use a machine.  I'm not sure if I should rip it out and try again or what.  I think I'll make another bootie wile I think about it.

I think I did a lot of fun things this weekend.  We did finish Techuu-Yami no Shiokinin.  I thought I talked about it but I don't see that I did.  I thought it was based on the game with a similar name because they are both about female ninja but the plots seem different.  The show is an eight episode Japanese drama.  It feels really short and I feel like they could have added many more episodes. The story is about a feisty 60 something year old who brings home and befriends a 20 something year old woman who looks homeless and seems to have some ninja skills. They join together with a few other people and solve problem that the police either can't or won't help with.  They tackle things like domestic violence, scam artists, burglary, child abuse, and even sexual assault/rape.  They bring divine justice which is what "tenchuu" means. There is of course a lot of violence since the subjects are dark and it involves a ninja.  One of the things I think they do well is cut the darkness with cheesy humor.  There is also a lot of posing and parkour.  I liked it and would recommend it as long as the dark subject matter is not a trigger.  The jdrama we are watching now is called ST about a science division of a police department.

The other thing I finished was the kdrama High School King of Savvy.  This is the story of an eighteen year old high school student who is the star of the hockey team.  He has an older brother who has been working and studying in Germany.  The older brother is due home but doesn't show.  In the middle of the night our hero gets a call from his brother saying "I can't explain now but you have to go to the office and pretend to be me."   He's confused but out of love for his brother he does it.  He leads a double live of a high school student and a company director. He meets a woman who is twenty-eight and falls in love.  The kdrama revolves around their relationship (and what happens when she finds out how young he is), what the "bad guy" is doing, what is going on with the family (missing brother and grandpa with dementia), and of course high school issues including hockey.  The ending was not what I expected but it wasn't bad.  There was some complaining in the comments on the recap site about the extreme difference in their age and how "wrong" it was.  I'll let you make up your own mind on that issue (I'm still undecided) but someone pointed out that the point of the drama was to bring the issue to light and talk about it.  That makes sense, why would you complain about a plot you knew about ahead of time and the point is to talk about it?  If you don't like it don't watch.  I'm still watching It's Okay, That's Love and a new one called Surplus Princess.

I finished up Kitchen Nightmares but the thing that I had the most fun I had was playing WOW with my daughter. She and I started some new characters and have been leveling together.  We are up to level 13 now.  I did check my character that has a mouse issue and it is really only that character.  I tried to open a ticket but I can't tell if it went through.  

O.k. I think that's enough talking.  I feel like there was something else I was going to say but I can't remember what it was.  I'm sure I'll think of it later if it's important.   The weather is nice and school starts on Thursday.  Have a good day.

Here is the finished hat. I think it looks better on this side than it does the other.  It's weird that there seems to be a seam down the middle, it doesn't show on real life.  It's the Graham pattern by Jennifer Adams (free on Ravelry).  The yarn is Knit Picks Brava in the grass colorway.  I used US size 5 and 7 needles and it took less than one ball of yarn. The trickiest part of the pattern was the decreases.  Because I was magic looping sometimes the decreases fell right there and it was complicated to do that when the stitches where on different needles.  I'm still working on the hat for my niece.  It's going much faster.  I think I'm half way through and I have 3.5 hours done.  I did take the sock to a waiting room but nothing else is getting much attention.

Nothing interesting in the TV watching department or podcasts.  I do plan to play WOW today.  I'm on the last season of Kitchen Nightmares so after that I should be back to my regular schedule.  I did watch the "live" chat from Eat Your Kimchi.  I never watch it live, I'm not that dedicated.  Simon made a comment about Guardians of the Galaxy that was almost word for word the same complaint as my husband.  I posted that an Simon actually responded back.  It was kind of cool.  

My husband is planning to take vacation time for the WOW expansion pack and my daughter got new glasses. That's about it around here.  Quiet is probably a good thing.  I'm a bad mom because we are going to have corn on the cob for supper even though Amey isn't supposed to have some because of her braces.  I'll just have her brush her teeth really well after that.  That's it for now.  Have a good day.

Here is the green hat for my nephew.  It's finished now and took about ten hours.  It looks kind of weird in this picture because it's worked on the wrong side.  When it's turned the right side out it has an interesting bumpy pattern.  Right now I'm working on my niece's hat.  I'm nervous it will be to small but I'm sure it will be fine.

With all the running around I have been doing I haven't really been watching anything.  I did finish my podcasts but that's about it.  I just haven't been feeling like being on the computer.  I've been watching old episodes of Kitchen Nightmares.  Eventually I will be out of those and go back to my kdramas.  Also the date was released for the next WOW expansion pack. My husband is a little disappointed because it's not till November.  I have to get back to WOW and see if I can get that character to work.

Today Amey went to the school for about three hours so she could meet her teachers and get used to the new school.  Other than that we haven't been doing much, just kind of in a holding pattern before school.  The weather is nice and we are just relaxing.  That's it, see you next time.

Here is a peak in the bag of yarn my sister sent.  I didn't try to arrange it, I just shook the bag and stuck the camera in.  The big balls are acrylic that are for the projects my sister wants.  The smaller balls were a birthday present.  My sister is not a knitter so she just guessed at what I would like/want.  They weren't bad choices just not something I could make a big project form.  I decided to use it for my charity knitting that is why I had to go to the yarn store and get new needles.  I got some dpns for a baby bootie pattern I found that is supposed to be good.  I was going to buy the bamboo needles but I have broken two sets of size 4 and one each of 5 and 6 so size 2 dpns might not be a good idea.  I decided on the Karbonz (by Knitter's Pride in the US) and I think paying more but not having them break is a good idea.  Working with dpns is interesting.  I don't mind knitting but purling is not fun.  I may get a better technique at some point but for now it's a bit fiddly. I also decided to work on the hats because the monster along goes for a long time so I can catch it later.  

After all the running around yesterday I didn't have a lot of time to listen to or watch much of anything.  I did watch a few podcasts but I didn't get caught up on all of them.  I'll try to finish them up today.  I did finally get A Homespun House to work so I had two of those to catch up on.   Nothing new on that front.

I ran around yesterday and today and will a little tomorrow so I am really tired.  I think I may actually be getting to that point where I need the kids to go back to school so I can have some time to myself.  I didn't think I'd ever be like that.  I grew up in a large noisy family so I enjoyed the energy and the life of having people around.  The first month that both kids went to school felt so weird.  The house felt so quiet and spooky.  I guess I've grown used to it.  I think that is all I have to say today.  I'm not feeling terribly creative.  I'll see you next time.

Here is the stripy sock.  It's probably going to be stuck at this level for a wile since I have commission knitting.  The problem is that my only US size 2 is now stuck in the project.  I finished the orange socks.  I'll wash them with the blue socks and take a picture of them later.  I finished my nephew's hat.  I don't have a picture of that but later on this week I'll show you an "in progress" picture.  I do feel bad that I have so much left over but I think I will use that for a scarf to match the hat. It means I'll have a bunch of the other colors left too.  It took me about ten hours.  I'm a little disappointed because I was sure it would take me something more like three.  The decision now is if I should work on the next hat or the Totoro.  Joeli of Joeli's Kitchen is having a monster knit/crochet along.

I just listened to most of my podcasts yesterday.  I didn't get them all taken care of but over half.  Amy Beth (The Fat Squirrel Speaks) was funny as usual.  She had a terrible bug incident with her yarn.  If you aren't bothered by bugs you should listen to it.  She know how to tell a funny story.  When Joeli said she was having a knit along I asked if she meant crochet too.  I figured she did but I wanted to be specific.  I feel bad because she is so careful to say crochet now and I feel like she is afraid to be accused of being knitting biased. I din't mean to make her feel bad I was just trying to be clear.  If I have a chance I'll catch up on the rest of the podcasts today and tomorrow.

Today was so busy.  We were gone from 8:30 am till about 3 pm and then at 5:30 I had to go pick my husband up from work.  We got the rest of the school supplies (including the cleaning supplies), hair cuts for the kids, eye appointments for the kids, lunch, found a messenger bag for Amey for school ( those are harder to find than you would think), and went to the yarn store so I could get some dpns.  I'm tired now so I'm not sure I'll get much more done today. I'm not trying to complain or sound ungrateful, I'm just done for the day.  I think I'm going to go watch TV and knit so I'll see you next time.  Have a good day.

These are my sons socks so far.  I just need to do the ribbing and they will be done.  I just need to buckle down and finish them.  I'm going to have just enough of the yarn.  I don't have a picture of the blue socks because they are in the bin waiting to be washed.  Once the orange socks are finished I will wash both pairs at the same time because washing one pair at a time seems silly.  My sister sent the yarn so I have been working on my nephew's hat.  I feel bad that it's taking me so long.  It looks like it will take me about 9-10 hours and at $6/hour I feel bad.  I want to be paid for my time but I don't want to price gouge my sister. With the commission projects everything else will probably go on the back burner.  I'm having a bit of trouble with the charity knitting because I only have one needle in every size so if the size I need is in another project I'm kind of stuck.  Yes, many of them are interchangeable but that is still a bit of a pain.  I'll see what I can do.

On Saturday Amey came home from her aunt's house.  They took Mooky out for a bit but he had some behavior issues so they brought him back.  It was nice to visit with my in-laws.  On Sunday we went out to eat and went to see a movie.  We very rarely go to see movies at the theater but the one movie we wanted to see this summer was Guardians of the Galaxy.  Since my husband is a comic book nerd he really enjoyed it.  I liked it too but it was a little bit hard with Mooky wanting jump around and talk every five minutes. I'm sure we will buy it when it comes out on video.   The only thing I was disappointed with was the after credit clip.  All the Marvel movies have a little clip after the credits and this one was dumb.

I did get caught up on It's Okay, That's Love.  There are a couple of weird plot points but overall it was good.  My husband and I also watched three episodes of Tenchuu-Yami no Shiokinin.  It's based off the video game as far as I know.  I like it but it's a bit heavy on the parkour.  Since it is about ninja it is violent so it could be trigry.  Outside of that I've just been watching a lot of Kitchen Nightmares because I don't have to read subtitles for it.  

The weather is so beautiful right now.  Tomorrow the kids have eye doctor appointments for school.  I got Mooky's school supplies but I forgot the paper for Amey's so we'll do that tomorrow.  We may get at least Mooky a haircut tomorrow also.  That's it I think.  See you next time. 

And here's the last sock.  It's bigger than that now, it has a heel and I'm about to start the leg.  I like the size of the green, pink and blue (it's the next color in the picture) stripes but the brown is kind of chunky for my taste.  As for the blue socks I finished them and even wove in all the ends.  The fit pretty well and now I have numbers to base all other socks on.  I have so much yarn let over.  I add the left overs to my sock blanket square.  For the orange socks I'm almost finished with the second heel.  I think I will have enough yarn but it's going to be close.  I didn't do any spinning.  Maybe I will tomorrow.

I really wanted to play WOW but I'm having trouble with one of my characters.  For some reason on that server my mouse won't work so I can't turn in any quests.  I'm going to start another toon on that server and see if it's the character or the server then I'll probably have to open a ticket.  I did watch Running Man and caught up on High School King of Savvy.  It only has two episodes left so it should be interesting.  It's the first show I've watched as it's come out so that was a different experience.  I did start Let's Eat that way but stopped halfway through.

Amey comes home from her aunt's house tomorrow, Monday we plan to buy the school supplies and Tuesday they have an eye doctor appointment.  Looks like it will be busy next week.  I guess that's it, have a good day.

 

This is the orange sock for my son.  Well it's mostly orange. I actually finished one and he likes it with the short cuff.  I started on the second one so I hope I have enough yarn.  I worked on my blue socks yesterday.  I'm about half way up the leg on the second sock. Maybe I can finish that pair this week.  I've also been spinning a little.  I finished another hankie.  I have two spindles I am spinning the hankies on (every other one) so hopefully they will be close to even when I ply them.  I'm not a big fan so I will be taking a break from them for a day or so.  I think I got that pearl color dirty a little on accident.  I had some lotion on my hands and even though the lotion was white I think it made a color on the silk a little.  We'll see later and if there is color it may wash out.  If I get the yarn for my sister's hats I'll move that to the top of the list.  

I caught up on the rest of the podcasts that I could.  Last week I couldn't get A Homespun House to work so I had two of those.  I also couldn't get Knitting Butterflies to work again this week.  I think I'm about twenty episodes into Yarnivore.  I don't think there was anything that stood out particularly.  It's just fun to feel like you have company when you are working on thing. 

Tomorrow is two weeks till school.  After my daughter comes home on Saturday the kids will have one last "stay up as late as you want night" then get going on the school sleep schedule.  I'm going to get going and see if I can get to the heel on my son's second sock before bed.  See you next time.

Blue socks.  You can see that because of the design/pattern it really doesn't matter if it's right side up or upside down.  I'm about an inch into the leg of the second sock and I did a total of six inches on the other one, five of the leg and one of ribbing.  Since I seem to be on a sock kick I really want some shoes that show them off. I even have another skein of stripy yarn caked up.  The sleep sack I was trying to make I had to keep ripping out.  I just couldn't get the right size.  I'll try again next week.

In other news I really want a job where I can help the house with the money end of things but still have hours where I can be home for the kids.  My dream job would be to work in the school helping the teachers and doing fun things like putting up a map of the world and putting clues for the students to guess a country (or research).  Since I don't know how to propose that to the school district or get it started.  My second would be to make things to sell.  This is what my husband and I are discussing.  Can I do it? Yes, but is it worth it?  I feel like, in this community heirloom things or hand made are not valued unless the they are the same price as you can get at Walmart.  I made a pair of mittens and it took me about four hours and it was cheap acrylic.  Someone asked what I would charge and I said $25, $5/hour (way below minimum wage) plus materials.  This was deemed too high since you can buy a cheap but functional pair for $10 at Walmart.  I did find a fair trade/handmade shop.  I was just looking around as a customer and found a crochet baby blanket.  Since I crochet and had used that yarn recently I knew the price. They were selling the blanket $15.  I knew the yarn was at least $6 and if the owner takes a commission how much was the person actually making?  It made me not really want to try and sell there.  There are places like Etsy to think about as well.  You can get out of your community and maybe reach a bigger audience but there are also tons of sellers there so you could get lost in the shuffle.  So we are thinking of pros and cons and seeing if it's even worth it to try. My biggest fear is that I sped hundreds of dollars making things and sell $25 worth and that's it.   My sister, B, is so sweet and wants to support this so she actually bought some yarn on Knit Picks so I can make some hats for her children and she would pay me.  We'll see how it goes and I'll keep you updated.

Yesterday I tried to catch up on my podcasts.  I got a bunch of them done but not all.  I know it may make me a bad person but I kind of enjoy it when a podcaster says they can't go to Stitches Midwest because I can't go either.   Knitabulls finally put out a new episode.  It's been months, I was about to give up.  Amy Beth (The Fat Squirrel Speaks) was hillarous as usual.  I'll work on catching up on the rest of the podcasts today as I spin or knit on socks.

Now you are up to date on my life.  I don't have anything else to say.  It's been a nice mild summer and that's it.  Oh I forgot we need to go take out August picture.  I'l see if I can get that done soon.  I'll see you next time.

O.k. these are silk hankies.  The ones in the bag look really crumpled but they are just folded.  The one that is unfolded is what I'm working on.  You can see why it's called a "hankie."   It's actually a pile of really thin (really thin) layers of silk fibers.  The second picture shows the pile of fiber and the third picture shows some of it spun up. I should have put something in the picture for scale but I didn't think of it.  Basically you start in the middle and pull it farther and farther out so you can draft.  I'm kind of not "drafting" much it's more of a lot of pre-drafting.  I don't know how much of that is normal and how much is just me.  The fibers are really long so you can pull it far apart but it feels so weird and sounds like it's ripping.  I'm not enjoying it a ton so it may take me a wile.  I'll finish it eventually.

On Saturday we took my daughter half way to my sister-in-law's house.  She will be staying there this week and going to a day camp.  She loves going to her aunt's house every year.  It was fun to sit at IHOP and catch up with them.  It's not that my sister-in-law won't take Mooky for a week it's that he has some behavior issues that I think would make it hard for them to deal with him.  He is getting better so maybe in a year or so but not this one.    

For crafting, besides the spinning I have a lot of socks on the needles.  I have been working on my blue socks and actually finished one and am just past the heel on the other one. It fits better than any other sock I have made.  I made them parallel to to each other (toe, toe, foot, foot, heel, heel etc.).  One sock from the outside of the cake and one from the inside.  The coloring will be opposite but I was more concerned with making sure the numbers were the same from sock to sock.  After the heel I added stitches and went from a US size 1 to a size 2.  I am using the numbers to adjust the next socks I make so they fit even better.  I started another pair of socks for my son.  He has small feet so I thought I could get him a pair out of one small ball but now I'm not so sure.  I will make him a short cuff and maybe that will make me able to get two socks out of the ball.  I have one sock just past the heel.  For some reason I even started another pair.  This one is a stripy pair for me.  I'm only a few inches past the toe on the first sock.  I have heard people say they enjoy stripy socks because they just want to get to the next stripe.  I would like that, but in this yarn some of the stripes are a little thick.  I took pictures of all these projects and show you them over the next few days. The last thing is that I am working on is another sleep sack for donation.  I did finish the last one but I'm not sure I really like it. I may get around to showing you that eventually.

As far as watching goes I haven't done anything new.  I tried to show It's Okay. That's Love to my husband. He didn't seem to enjoy it as much as I do. It was late so that played a part but I guess I'll just watch it by myself.  We have been keeping up on most of our anime.  We are watching Baby Steps (tennis), Haikyu! (volleyball) and Free! Eternal Summer (swimming).   I generally don't like sports anime but I like these.  We saw the first episode of Sailor Moon Crystal but we have fallen behind.  I really enjoy Haikyu!  I also recently finished Sword Art Online.  I had started it when it came out but got distracted and stopped watching.  It was o.k. in the first half but I kind of liked the plot better in the second half till right at the end (half is the wrong word but I'm not sure how to explain it without spoiling).  The last few episodes get really creepy and "triggery." I was surprised when the rest of the anime was kind of fighting with some romance but that was really adult.  The only other thing I have been watching is old episodes of Kitchen Nightmares.

I guess that's it for the weekend recap.  Lots of crafts and some TV.  It's kind of weird having my daughter gone.  It feels like we are off balance.  Right after she gets back we have to get ready for school.  Nothing else is going on.  Have a great day.

Wow I'm sorry for not posting for a wile.  I was feeling a little bla and on top of that I was writing to my sister so I kind of felt like I was blogging.  I would go through the day feeling like I was forgetting something then around 10 p.m. I'd remember and think "Oh crap I'll do it tomorrow" and then I would forget again.  I'll try and be more consistent.

Here is the beaded shawl.  It's really hard to see but I don't have a better picture. I have a better picture of the beads on my Ravelry page.  I've been working on a bunch of things. I'm mostly working on my socks.  I added some stitches and changed needle sizes.  It seems to be fitting well except right at the ankle crease there is some stretching.  I'll have to adjust the numbers some if when I do it again.  I started a sock for my son which seems to be turning out well. They are orange of course.  In The Painted Tiger Group for Tour de Fleece I won a prize.  I won an old club offering of silk hankies.  Silk hankies are thin squares of silk that you are meant to spin from.  I've tried them before and not had good luck but I figure I'll try again.  They were dyed in the "mineral ore" color that is the same as the yarn I made into the Trillian. Maybe I'll take a picture of those next time because it's kind of hard to explain.  I tried to spin one and it kind of felt like I was trying to spin a spider web.  It of course doesn't draft like wool so it feels like I'm ripping or breaking the fiber.

I listened/watched all of the updated podcasts and some old ones of Yarnavore.  I also watched my kdrama.  Running Man was o.k. but I really miss the name tag ripping.  They are doing weird things with the "Monday Couple" too.    I watched one episode of Roommate.  It was kind of interesting but I'm not falling all over it like some of the other girls.  I am all caught up on High School King of Savvy and It's Okay, That's Love.  It's Okay... is a really interesting drama.  I really want to make my husband watch it just to have someone talk about it with. It's going to be an interesting ride.

The other thing that is going on is that Nerd Wars is kind of shutting down.  Originally it was supposed to be a fun game, and for me it still was, but for some people the competition and scoring was getting stressful.  There is a new game/chat/hang out that has formed and Nerd Wars will still be around, I think., but with a non competition aspect. Some people are really upset and I think we will lose a bunch of people but it should be o.k. in the end.  Our Shady Cels group will stay together, as far as I know, so I think we will still have fun.

For the family we went swimming on Monday and to the park on Tuesday.  The pool was a little disappointing because my son got really cold so we had to leave after an hour. The disappointing part was to spend so much money for only an hour. The park was o.k. I waked around a one court tennis court ten times and was disappointed to really feel it.  I need to get back to exercising.  Right now we are gearing up for driving my daughter half way to Minnesota so we can drop her off with my sister-in-law.  I guess that 's about it.  Everything else seems to be going well so I'll see you next time.