Wednesday evening

Still alternating rain and sun. Now there's a large, bright rainbow. This is the view from my backyard overlooking the park. I love the way the light and shade alternate over the trees.

jeesh!

Can we all say "c-r-o-a-k" again? This is my first sock. I foolishly did not count my heel flap rows thinking that I could just count down the sides and that would tell me how many there were. Turns out that those lovely slip stitches only show up once for every two rows knitted. So I made a really long heel flap that was more a rectangle instead of a square. Yes, I read all the books about how the heel flap should be a square yet still I continued to knit. It wasn't until after I worked the heel turn and started picking up the side stitches that I realized something did not compute. I also learned that frogging back to the k2, p2 ribbing was easy but that picking up those itty bitty twisty stitches wasn't. This yarn is Sock It To Me! Collection, Puzzle from Elann.

Wednesday afternoon

I've been home from work all week with a sinus infection. Because of the diabetes, when I get an infection, I'm sick and don't get better until I get on antibiotics. Other than feeling like crap I rather enjoyed this afternoon. It's one of those sunny, warm days except for when heavy black clouds roll in and it pours. Then it's sunny again, usually while the rain continues to come down in sheets. The smell in the air is better than any perfume. Only a little lightning and thunder could make this better. I love storms as long as they're just show and don't do any damage.

They don't call Saskatchewan the "Land of Living Skies" for nothing! This picture is from my sunroom as the clouds roll in for the latest outburst.

Here is the Black Water Abbey wool (bluestack) washed, dried and ready to be wound. Just looking at it makes me happy.

I am now doing the FLAK sleeves in the round on two circulars. It's so much easier than doing it on one short circular and I won't have to seam it.

two parcels

I got two parcels yesterday - the Black Water Abbey wool from the States and the ball winder and swift from Camilla Valley Farms in Canada. Having never played with a winder and a swift, I think that these tools are fascinating! The wool is Bluestack and it is absolutely beautiful! I have the sample card for the Black Water Abbey wool but the small sample doesn't do it justice. There are so many subtle colors and shadings that I can now see in the skeins. I'm going to wash all of it before knitting it. That way I can play with my new toys (swift and winder) as well as eliminate shrinkage and soften it up before I try for gauge. The buttons are also from Black Water Abbey and they are lovely. The silver Celtic patterned ones are for the FLAK cardigan and the dragonfly ones will be for the Black Water Abbey cardigan. I haven't decided what pattern I will use for the Black Water Abbey yet.

I also, like a lemming, saw that Blue Moon Fiber Arts opened up some more memberships in their Sock Club so I joined. As if I need more yarn now! But the Socks That Rock yarn looks so beautiful that I couldn't resist.

Croak! again

I suddenly realized why I've been avoiding working on the FLAK cardigan lately. Since I switched to shorter circulars and joined the sleeve to work in the round my hands have been hurting. I think that it's because I'm holding the needles differently (fibromyalgia could be responsible for this phenomenon). Subconsciously, I've been avoiding that discomfort and couldn't face knitting the sleeves in the round for as long as it would take me to finish both sleeves. So I frogged several rows back to where the join is and will knit them flat instead.

Knitters' Club

So far, I've taught about a dozen kids to knit. It gets easier as the first students to learn help the rest of them (kind of like big families where the older kids help look after the little ones, I guess). I've learned that if you want to improve your own knitting skills, especially fixing mistakes and untangling yarn, teach a group of kids to knit. Just kidding! It's been a lot of fun. When other people come into the classroom these days they are amazed and impressed that so many students are knitting. It's nice to watch the children encouraging and helping each other too.

Aren't they cute? This group of girls happened to be in for recess with me when I took the camera to school yesterday. They're the really eager ones who would rather knit than go outside! From left, meet Dawn, Vanessa, Danielle, Kenda, and Kevina. I have several nice pictures of these children so parents, if you email me privately (there's a link on this blog when you click 'View my complete profile'), I'll be happy to send you the ones with your child in them; and I apologize in advance if I have created fibre monsters in your families who are addicted to knitting and buying yarn. I promise that I won't introduce them to silk and cashmere yet....