new socks for Daniel

This morning was the last swim lesson of the summer. Actually, tomorrow is the last official day of swim lessons, but we're leaving for vacation in the morning, so I asked my kids' instructors to give me their evaluation forms a day early. Daniel's teacher wrote in the comments: "Daniel is an awesome kid..." and then went on to describe his enthusiasm and detail the aspects of swimming he is already doing well and what he needs to practice more.

I know I'm his mama and therefore totally biased, but Daniel is an awesome kid, so charming and lovable and sincere. Also, this afternoon he was willing to model his new wool socks in the stifling heat  (97 degrees felt like 104). You can see the remains of a fudgesicle on his sweet face; perhaps the snack of cold, sweet chocolate on a stick made him extra agreeable.

There's really nothing too special about these socks, other than the fact that they are for Daniel. The yarn I dyed myself with food dyes a few years ago, so I've had it around for a while.

Much like many pairs of socks I've made recently, I didn't use a pattern for these. They are vanilla-vanilla: top-down 2x2 rib, heel flap, wedge toe. Nothing to it, really.

They fit! But not too well, I hope. He won't really need them for a few months, by which time his feet will surely grow a little bit (or a lot). I cast on 64 stitches, the norm for socks for me, and I wouldn't want them any smaller. I swear, my kids' feet are always bigger than I think.

Anya couldn't stand to be left out of the picture-taking, so here's her sweet face. The summer sun has adorned her with a few more freckles, despite our best efforts with hats and sunscreen. Ah, well. Such is the life for redheads!

Tomorrow we leave for vacation. We're going to the mountains and I'm very excited about it. Also, I'm assuming we won't have an internet connection, so I probably won't post again before next week. I'm bringing knitting, though, and if all goes well, by the time I blog again I'll have summited Pike's Peak and finished another pair of socks!

summer slump

I don't know if it's the heat, or fretting about the terrible drought, or spending absolutely every minute of every day with my kids except for the 25 minutes they are in swim lessons every morning (during which I swim laps = lifesaver!), or what, but I'm in a bit of a summer slump. I finished Daniel's green socks, save the kitchnering of one toe and hiding ends, and I'm coming to the end of a test knit, but otherwise I just can't get too inspired. Who wants to even think about wearing wool when it's 100 degrees in Wisconsin? It's not just knitting, either. I had all these plans to knit and sew and create and clean and do fun educational things with Daniel and Anya, but it's taken everything I've got just to get through the day.

So I will leave you with this random picture of Anya. Daniel took it a few weeks ago with his own camera.

Y'all, this could be me 28 years ago, (only I had fewer freckles; she got those from Stuart!)

hints of green

The title of this post refers to knitting and not, alas, to the lawn. We are having a long, very hot, very dry spell up here. The grass is brown and brittle, farmers are having a rough time with crops...and we're certainly taking full advantage of our pool membership! We could even top 100 degrees on Thursday. We're lucky, I know, not to be getting the violent storms and power outages that have ravaged the eastern part of the country, so I'll try to complain too much.

I know it's been a couple of weeks since I last posted. Being with my kids every waking minute (and some of the sleeping ones, too!) during their summer break has a way of cutting into my knitting time. I'm not even sure why, since I felt like I didn't do much knitting while they were at school/preschool. Those hours were mainly consumed with practicing, rehearsals, laundry, grocery shopping - you get the picture. Still, the intensity of my time with Daniel and Anya this summer combined with the heat sucks my energy to the point where I just don't get as much done as before.

Not that I've stopped knitting, oh no! For a while now I've been working diligently on a pair of socks for Daniel. I'm pretty far along on the second one, finally:

Another reason the blog got quiet is that I'm working on another babycocktails test knit. This one is kind of tricky, and I can't show you much, but I can tell you unequivocally that ROW GAUGE MATTERS, PEOPLE!! I learned this the hard way, by knitting most of the project twice. I think I'm on track now, though.

Lastly, look who's learning to knit:

You can't see it too well, but Daniel is using green yarn, too. He only sits down to knit for a few minutes at a time, but he's picking it up pretty well.