Kid Socks! (6)

I'm dating these posts by the date the photo was taken. 6's orange socks. Orange, Grape, and Lemonade KA. This was the only yarn where I was more careful about placement of color. I just didn't want a muddy mess.

These socks are great for running around the house sockfooted. I did catch 6 wearing these in tennis shoes too though, so I guess he likes them a lot.

I only wish I'd made these for the kids at Christmas time. They were quick enough that I'll make a few pair for next years stockings.

Kid Socks! (7)

These are the only socks I knit as the pattern was written. They came out a bit loose, so 7 actually has a sock on under these. He loves that these make warm slippers. He'd been wearing these a few days already when I took the photo, and they're starting to pill. Anyone else notice that with Paton's wool? I've only ever knit felted items with that before.

These are Lemon-Lime, Lemonade, and Blue Raspberry KA.

Kool-Aid is COOL!

We dyed yarn for the first time today. It was so fun. I did limit the color choices, and I'm glad I did. My first attempt is a pretty mottled purple, but imagine what it would have been if we didn't use colors that mix. In the first batch we have Strawberry Lemonade, Blue Raspberry, and Grape. I added too much water to the Kool Aid, so the dye wasn't as strong. It still worked, but the colors ran together more. I used the Knitty tutorial, and this one I boiled in a pan on the stove.

For the green here we used Lemonade, Lime, and some Blue Raspberry. I set this one in a Pyrex with a lid in the microwave.

When the first 2 yarns were finished, 7 and 3 claimed the green and purple as their favorite. I needed a yarn for 6. He wanted Orange; I added a little Grape and Lemonade. This one I ended up pouring the dye...just because the kids were already out riding Razors and didn't want to come back in. I had soaked the yarn in water before putting the dye on so I skipped the step where you add more water to the yarn before you heat it. I just put it in for a minute to maybe set the color a bit before it all muddled together. It worked.

I've actually already finished 3 pair of kid sized slipper socks. I'll save those for the next post.

Spring Forward

Not so much springing here. Whoever invented the time change must not have had children. We're s.l.o.w.l.y adjusting to the new time. I LOVE that it's light later. I just wish we wouldn't have to 'fall back' in the fall.

I haven't done a post like this in awhile.

Momwise: I haven't used an alarm clock regularly in years. The kid alarm clock is much more dependable. 2 of my kids are early risers. 7:30 is considered sleeping in. They're usually up between 6:30 and 7. But this year, the kid alarm clock wasn't so effective on Sunday, first day at the new time, so we missed church. And today (you'd think I would have learned after the first day, but I didn't) we woke up at 9am and had to be at our field trip (that I was in charge of) at 9:45. I was able to get the kids fed, pack a picnic, dress myself, help 3 with her shoes, and get out the door within 30 minutes. That was some kind of miracle since it usually takes at least an hour for my coffee to kick in. ;0) I'm thrilled to have 3 potty trained kids, and ones that can dress themselves, and also buckle themselves in the car. A year ago, with one kid still in diapers, and needing help getting dressed, and a 5pt harness in the car...we would have totally missed the fieldtrip.

Kidwise: 6 had a wonderful birthday! Thanks for the happy wishes. 7 told 3 that it's her birthday next so she's been asking every morning if it's her birthday yet. Her birthday is at the end of April. 6 said we can just tell people that she's turning 5 instead of 4 since she's so tall.

Knitwise: I finished my Bird-of-Paradise socks. (I'll get photos up as soon as the new computer is running. Hopefully this week.) I had to finish those socks to CO for the Spring Forward socks. Perfect pattern for this week! I'm using my Scout's Swag February Sock Club Yarn. Scout got her inspiration here. I hope it's ok for me to use that link. I knew that this was the pattern for this yarn, but when I first CO the ribbing came out perfect, then I must have held the yarn too loosely because it was worse than pooling. I was able to rip back to the ribbing, and just by holding the yarn tighter get perfect pink and green/yellow stripes. Yeah! I'm loving this yarn/pattern combination. I just need to decide how many repeats to do before I start the heel.

Catwise: My BIL got some amazing shots of the Rex while he was here for 6's party. I'll share them when he sends a link. Rex is getting a little fat. I'm not sure if this is closer to a normal weight for him as he was so scrawny when we got him from the rescue. Anybody know about how many pounds an average cat weighs? Is there such a thing as average?

Blogwise: I need to find a new rhythm. I really miss getting my thoughts out. I miss taking photos and posting them. It was a "me" thing. I didn't do it for M, or for the kids, or even because I had to. I did it for me. It was FUN. It still is FUN. But it seems that the FUN is what's been sucked out of my life as I started working evenings and began homeschooling the 2nd kid. Life is busy. I don't want it to be so busy that I can't blog.

Schoolwise: I really, really miss recording my homeschool stuff. It was so easy to print samples last year when I had photographed our adventures. Now, I'm lucky if I remember what week we did what. I started a blog just for our States study. I am determined to go back and post stuff from this fall. We're having so much fun, we'll be continuing with the states next year and I'll want a record of our 2 year "Journey across America."

Happy Birthday #6!

The party never ends...A family dinner on his actual birthday with a blueberry trifle.

Friends over for lunch and Root Beer Floats!

A family party with a fantastic cake (if I do say so myself) This chocolate frosting rocked. Someday I'll post it with my recipes.