Crocheted Socks

I am so happy with how these socks turned out! They feel great on, and they really worked out well. I followed Allycol's pattern, from Ravelry, (I'll see if I can find the link), and just altered one or two things to make them fit my foot better.

I used Patons sock yarn with elastic in it, and I think that helps with the way crochet socks don't stretch as much as knitted ones. Now I'm dying to buy some more yarn so I can try some toe-up crocheted socks! And for a time to wear the socks, too. But I'm not going to wish for colder weather, because our June has been cold and wet enough already!!

Field Trips

Danielle and I have been on two field trips (if you want to call them that) so far this summer. On Friday we went to Squam Lakes Natural Science Center. It's a wild animal park, and the animals have all been rescues and rehabilitated. The kids had a great time. Maggie took a bunch pictures there, and this is the best one, of the bald eagles.

Truthfully, I've been having a great time with the camera my parents got for Maggie for Christmas. I think I've taken more pictures than Maggie has!

Today we went to Vermont to the Montshire Museum of Science. Here are all the little goobers. (good thing Kaylyn's not a ham or anything, huh?!).

It rained all the way there, pouring for a good part of it, but stopped raining just in time for us to do some of the activities outside. Then it rained off and on all the way home. I have to say, it was an exhausting drive there and back, but it was a good day over all!

So now, where do we go on our next field trip?!

Yarn Ball

It is so silly, but I am inordinately proud of this little ball of yarn!

I was knitting a pair of socks for my hubby, and it wasn't going all that well. For one thing, I was trying a toe-up sock for the first time (which really wasn't that hard, until I got to the heel) and the heel turned out kind of lousy. I didn't like the wrapping method the book I was using suggested, so if I decide to do a toe-up sock again I'll have to do some research and find a better way. For another thing, I was doing a ribbing pattern, and it was sucking up the yarn like there was no tomorrow. I have another ball of yarn, but I wouldn't have had enough to make two socks that had more than a couple inches of cuff on them. Definitely not something the husband would want to wear. So I ripped back the sock and wound up the yarn.

Here's where the ball of yarn comes in: I have always just wound yarn into balls that you pull from the outside. It's easy enough, you just wind the yarn around your fingers for a bit, then keep going. The problem is that when you're working with the yarn, the ball rolls away from you! This time I tried something I have wanted to do for awhile, a center-pull ball of yarn. It's stupid, I know. I'm sure there are many, many craftspeople out there who have done this all their lives. And truly, now that I've done it, it truly is easy.

I used my trusty Readers Digest Complete Guide to Needlework for the directions, and it was as easy as pie! It turned out so well that it even has a flat bottom, so it sits just right, and the yarn comes right out the top middle! I just love it.

So there. I am easily pleased and amused. This little center-pull ball of yarn cracks me up. I'm going to be a bit sad when it becomes a sock. :-)

Gold Belts!

The kids had their first belt promotion tonight! They moved from white to gold belts. Very exciting. Paul was a bit nervous, but he gets nervous about everything. Maggie seemed to be taking everything in stride, as is typical. If she was nervous she didn't show it. I think it helped that we had been to DJ's last belt promotion so they knew what it was going to be like.



Sensai Linda does such a nice job, with a quiet comment or two to each student. You can tell by the time she spends with each student that she doesn't just say the same thing to each child. She says something of particular importance to that student. Danielle says DJ never remembers what Sensai says to him, and of course Paul was of no help whatsoever, but Maggie said it was something about how she worked hard, and also a comment about how she did a great job answering a question during the 'ceremony' and that most white belts wouldn't even try to answer one of the questions. Maggie just jumped right in and raised her hand. Smart girl.



Danielle actually forgot her camera tonight, so unusual for her! So she shall have to make do with my poor pictures, dark though they are! We all went for pizza afterward, which was fun. Might make a nice tradition.

A Fathers' Day Photo

A couple of months ago my husband said something about how he'd wear a shirt with a picture of the kids on it if he had one, so I thought I'd get him one for Fathers' Day. I hadn't done anything like that before because I didn't think he'd be crazy about something like that, but hey! I'll try it!

So a couple weeks ago (I was so proud for getting this done early and in time to order the item so it would be here in time for Fathers' Day! I've not been good about that kind of thing in the last several months!), I took the kids outside and had a quick photo shoot before J got home from work. I got a few pictures that were worth keeping, but this one was the best.



It was so nice how everything in the yard was so green and beautiful! Great backgrounds. Now, I'm not as good a photographer as Danielle, but once in awhile I do ok!

Picture....

I was trying to post a picture of our troop from Camporee, but can't quite figure it how. It is most annoying.

Camporee

Danielle took our troop to another Camporee! Well, I went too, but she did all the work. I did a lot of standing around and wondering if there was something I should be doing!

The girls had a great time, and they were exhausted by the time Saturday night came around! I think it is a good thing it's only a one night deal! Two of our town Ambassador girls organized the whole weekend, and they did a great job. They even got the perfect weather! There was a Brownie troop of 16 girls and several adults there, as well as the girls from our town, so it was the perfect number of girls to split up into groups, etc. The older girls from our town led the activities.

I was lucky this year and got to come home and sleep in my own comfy bed! Danielle and another mom stayed over, so I figured they didn't really need another adult there. I never sleep when I'm at those things and end up feeling lousy the next day, so I think I was better off.

It was fun to see how much the girls have grown up since the first time we took them to a camporee when they were Daisies. They are so much more independent now, and were great about helping the younger girls from the other town figure how what to do on some of the activities. There was a time when Maggie and Delaney wouldn't have spoken to the girls from another town, but there they were, showing them how to do things, in such a great way!

Now I have to go clean my house, which is all my hubby really wants for Fathers' Day!

An exhausting week

This is the last week of school for my kids (and hence for me, too!), so it's a busy week anyway. Add in a wake and a funeral and you've got a crazy week.

My aunt passed away early Saturday morning. She was 70. She had been sick, but only for a short time. It doesn't really seem real, somehow. I feel so badly for my cousins, and for my mom and her other siblings. Just seeing my cousins and uncle at the back of the church with the casket was what got me crying. We were all grown up when our grandmother died, but my cousins' children are so young! I know there are a couple of them that probably won't remember her.

And of course this all makes me think of losing my own mother, which fills me with dread. She takes very good care of herself (much better than my aunt did, truth be told), but still, we are only mortal. I know I need to just enjoy whatever time we have, because we don't know when it will be our turn. I was watching some of the older people at communion, and I wonder how they bear it, losing their friends one by one as they age. It is one of those difficult things about life, I supposed.

The kids at school are getting a bit nutty, and really, who can blame them? At their ages, summer vacation seems to stretch on infinitely in front of them. There is a little nervousness for some of them, too, as they think about next year and wonder what will be expected of them. A couple of weeks ago my Little Bug was getting really clingy. It took me a few days to realize that it is probably because they are talking about moving up to fourth grade and she is, quite naturally, a bit nervous about that.

But these things, life, death, change, are all part of life, and as long as we can hang on to the important things then we should all be ok. I hope my cousins and uncle will be ok, and that they will find strength in their faith.

A Movie and Dinner

We did the dinner and a movie thing in the opposite order. Today is my hubby's birthday, but we also still needed to celebrate the little guy's birthday with his friends. So we decided to go to the movies with our friends the J-Zs.

I'm trying to get away from the big party with a bunch of kids. It's expensive, for one thing, and I always end up running around trying to find things for good bags and art projects. Plus, a large group and lots of kids isn't really P's speed. So we decided to try a movie. He's never been to the movies before (have we been lax? Or have we just gone with what we think is right for his attention span and auditory issues? Who knows), so we thought we'd go see 'Up' and bring the J-Zs kids.

What was great was that it turned into both families all going together to the movies, the girls all sat together, the two boys sat together, and the grown ups sat together. Then we all went to Applebee's for dinner afterward. It worked out very well, and even though the movie wasn't the best and P was kind of scared during most of it, I think he did have a good time.

Plus, we got the servers to sing to the hubby when they brought dessert! Aren't the kids adorable?



One thing that is funny is that I got J a radio/iPod dock/alarm clock that he had told me about seeing a few weeks ago, and when he opened it he didn't even remember that he had told me about it! I thought for sure he would see the wrapped gift and know what it was before he even opened it, but he didn't, so that was nice. He was pleased, and I think he will really enjoy being able to choose what he wakes up to each day. Plus it will be handy to charge his iPod there and not have to hook it up to his computer to do it. I must say, I'm rather pleased with myself!

Growing up, birthdays and all.

My Little Guy lost his first tooth yesterday, just two days after his 7th birthday. That was followed closely by loosing his second tooth today! He lost it at some point during the school day and had it in his little box his teacher gave him to bring the tooth home in, but the poor guy, he then lost the actual tooth while he was waiting for me to come back to 'my' classroom at the end of the day. As I was coming up from the lower level, all I could see over the railing above was the top half of his face, red and wet with tears. It took several minutes for me to convince him that it would be ok, that the tooth fairy would understand that he didn't have the actual tooth. Tonight he wrote a little note for the tooth fairy to leave under his pillow. :-)

My sweet husband has a birthday tomorrow! I need to wrap his present. I hope he won't mind that he's getting one kind of big present and that's about it. It is something I know he talked about having, so I'm pretty sure he'll like it. There were a couple things he bought for himself in the last couple months that he told me to put away for his birthday, but I'm going to save them for Father's Day.

I guess I better go get wrapping! I'm not even sure if I have a card for him! How awful of me!

Sock It To Me

I love my knitted socks, and I've even started a pair for my husband. But they do take a fair bit of time to make. Crochet would be so much faster, though it would take more yarn. The thing is, the only pair I have crocheted weren't a big success. I think it was partly the pattern and partly the yarn. They are close to being two different sizes, and the heels just didn't fit right.

I just found another pattern for free on Ravelry for crocheted socks, so I'm giving that a shot. The yarn has a bit of stretch to it, so I'm hoping that might give it a different feel (less tight, for one thing). We shall see how it comes out. I'm not sure that the way crochet stitches are made will ever feel quite the way knit stitches do once the sock is on the foot, but I'm willing to give it another try.

Maybe this is why I need so many bags:

Or at least part of it.