Went to the LYS on Saturday with DD and the imposssible happened Val the very sweet woman who owns Knitting on the Lamb got DD knitting! I've tried over the years to teach her but never had success. DD either was too young to grasp it or professed no interest in learning. Well she did a fair amount of knitting while I sat and worked on a gauge swatch for the February Lady Sweater. We were both quite happy and DD has been practicing on some stash yarn I gave her. She's making the occaisional beginners mistake but for the most part has a handle on it. I'm proud of her!

Thanks to all who wished her luck on her exams. They are all finished now but we will not know the results for a bit yet. I'll be sure to clue you in when we get her marks in the mail.

Finally put the fringe on DD's Slytherin House Scarf (from Charmed Knits). The process reminded me why I never put fringe on scarfs; it's a pain in the neck. Here's a picture of DD wearing the scarf:

Can't see the fringes on this picture, but DD insisted on choosing the one I post and this is the one she picked :)

















We went to visit DD's best friend at the hospital this evening. Poor kid has a bad case of Mono and has been unable to hold down food so they have her on an IV drip to keep her hydrated. She missed all their end of year testing and will have to take the statewide Regents tests at another school in August. I really feel for the kid, having once had a case of Mono myself. It's not a fun thing to be sick with. They hope she will be well enough to come home by Friday.

Can't believe I haven't posted since June 1! Things have been busy. I got some wonderful Spud and Chole yarn from a contest I won on Knit One School Two. It's gorgeous stuff here's a picture of it:
















Got another Traveling Tea Box from the Cuppa Tea group on Ravelry. This is the second box I have gotten; DD and I had a grand time going through it to pick out our goodies. Great fun deciding what to put in too.

Here's a picture of what I took out of the box:


Lots of lovely tea (to which I am as addicted as I am to knitting), a cool pack of note cards and some spoon rests that had been made by hand by a previous participant.

The box gets sent on to the next person this afternoon so I get a Hot Potato award from the coordinator of the box. Not sure what it will be but I am excited to see it.


I am well on the way with the Double Moss stitch socks and should be done by the end of the week if not sooner. Didn't do the best job of Kitchnering the toe of sock one. Pulled the yarn too tight. I must remember to be looser on the next toe. I have to order the blocking wires from Knit Picks to block out the shawl and the scarf I made. I've been waiting to do it because I also want to get the blocking mat from KP and they are out of stock on it till June 24. I hate to order from Knit Picks unless I can put together $50 so I save the postage hence the long wait to block things. Hope I find out that it was worth it. I will also be hitting my LYS this week to buy yarn with the Gift Certificate I got for Mother's Day. Most likely will buy for the February Lady Sweater, as DD said the other day "All the cool kids are doing it" :)

Speaking of DD she starts her Regents exams this week (if you are not in New York State these are like statewide finals). Today is Geometry which she is quite concerned about. Math is not DD's forte and she is worried about her grade. Here's hoping she does well enough so that she doesn't have to retake the test. She also has Regents exams in Global Studies (her best subject), Spanish, and Biology.

We had a wee bit of excitement with DS. Some one who lives in his house at school got the flu that's going around so they quarantined the whole house for a week. They let them out for walks and to play the odd game of basketball and kept a close eye on them. No one else got sick, thankfully. Sadly, not long after they went back to school DS's Vocational teacher passed away (no idea what he died of). DS seemed to take it well, they had the kids make up sympathy cards and he went to the funeral. The psychologist also talked to him to be sure he was OK. He comes home for an extended visit on the 26th of this month. I am looking forward to having him!

Thanks to Just April who offered to help me decipher Wendy Johnson's sock book. I don't own it right now I just took it from the library for a look see and have already returned it. But I may take you up on the offer in future. Thanks!

I've been doing a lot of reading lately. Mostly from a mystery series called the Tea Shop Mysteries by Laura Childs. Set in and around Charleston South Carolina, they are great fun and also mix in some interesting information about tea as well as giving recipes in the back of the books. Found out about them on Ravelry and was immediately hooked. Got a whole pile of them from the Library the other day. I go through cycles with my reading. Most of the time I don't read many mystery novels. Then I go on a tear reading piles of them. The library runs a summer reading program for adults where you can win prizes depending on how many books you read (the more you read the more raffle tickets you get). It's a lot of fun and I've been doing it for the last few years.

Tomorrow is Meals on Wheels and I will be taking DD with me as my regular partner is away this week. DD has done it before with me, she enjoys it and I think that its a good experience for her. After that, I have a progress meeting about DS's schooling. Don't expect to hear anything I don't already know but it's nice to get the official update from them, must remember to call his Program Specialist and remind her to call me for the meeting. I usually do these things by phone as it's such a long drive to DS's school. They put me on speaker phone and everyone chimes in with what they know about DS and his progress. I'd love to do it in person but I get very sleepy on long drives and I am afraid to drive there alone as a result. I once got into a small accident once when I fell asleep at the wheel after one of these meetings. Very scary and I don't want a repeat of it. DH handles all long distance driving ever since the incident.

Spent most of today in bed and all of yesterday. I've been laid low by a virus (or at least it feels like one) Was feeling so crappy that I couldn't even take advantage of the time by knitting. I'm a bit better now, still feeling weak and a little light headed but that could be because I've not eaten all that much for the last two days.

Went to the Supermarket with DD and DH on Saturday and stopped to look at the tea section with DD, while we two talked about the relative merits of what was on the shelf DH walked over and asked "Don't you have enough tea already?" We both looked at him like he was crazy. That's like asking me if I have enough wool, there's never enough :) At least DD understood.

Got the gift tags I won from Knitterella today. She has recently had a baby (yeah!) and so was late in sending them off and to make up for it she included an extra pack. Not something she had to do at all but it was nice to get them. Here's a picture:


Aren't they cute? And there's room on the back to write care instructions (well that's what I'm doing with them YMMV) She also sells wonderful note cards.

Got the new Wendy's new toe up sock book, from the library. It's got some nice patterns in it but the problem is that she does them with two circular needles and I've not been able to wrap my mind around doing socks that way. I'm not especially good at changing around directions (yes I'm one of those people who actually knits like the designer intended one of these days I will break out of the box ) so I don't know if the book is going to work for me. Saw Cookie A's book in Barnes and Noble and loved it she does her socks on dpn's like I do so I won't have any trouble following the directions. As soon as I can get my LYS to order it for me, I'll get the book. I like to get my knitting books from her it's worth it to me to pay the extra money to help support a store I love.