Two socks are better than one

Pumpkin socks are in the books.

They turned out really nice. Love the pattern, so easy, and love the yarn, so pretty.

Grace was a witch this year. Emily reprised the pirate look and Alex apparently went as a teenager. Trick-or-treating was at Lori's house this year, a change of pace for us that was a fun twist to the evening. Note: Bella does not make a good trick or treat companion.

Now on to November's first major event: Emily turns 15 today! Happy birthday my eldest child. We are proud of you and we love you.

What to do with leftover sock yarn and lots of figs

Mom bought me this jar at IKEA a while back. She had seen it filled with yarn somewhere (Hmm... don't remember where) and said it was cute. I filled it with round skeins of green and purple yarn and it just looked squished. I set it aside, and for some reason it occurred to me the other day to make little balls of yarn and put in there. So I tried it with my leftover sock yarn, and I must say it is cute.

And on another domestic note, Nolamom, Emily, and I made fig jam. We have a fig tree in the back yard that is, after 10 years, giant and bursting with black mission figs.

We started by peeling the figs, and putting them on to boil with powdered pectin and some lemon juice.

Once that boiled, we added sugar and let it come back to a rolling boil. Then, after a minute, it was jam!

Here are our finished jars of jam. Tasty!

It's Still May!!

And the socks are done! Yay me!

But first, here is why the knitting/blogging is slow this month --

Two graduations. The first, my firstborn graduating from eighth grade--

Here she is with two classmates (one of whom is her BFF Karley) at the pre-graduation brunch. Each graduate was given a very nice silver cross and a cute cookie that looked just like themselves!

Cute!

After the ceremony we lunched and gifted the new highschool bound teenager-

That was Saturday. Today was Grace's turn. My kindergartener graduated. My little baby girl is almost 6 and in first grade. Yikes.

It is almost impossible not to tear up in the presence of all this cuteness--

Grace is the one in blue in the front row. When they sat down Grace flashed the entire congregation. I'm so proud.

Here she is with her teacher.

Grace and Brianna -- who happens to be Emily's BFF's sister.

In Knitting news, (you thought I forgot, didn't you?) the socks for May were finished after graduation today, but before dance class.

These were my Magic Loop socks. Love the loop. Used Tofutsies, the same kind of yarn tried once before, but abandoned after they pooled incredibly and horribly. I gave it another shot, and the first socks looks very nice, doesn't it?

The second sock started going all crazy like and looks more like tiger stripes or something. Not good. I have two more balls of this yarn and I'm not so excited about it. I would have to say they are the least exciting and satisfying socks I have knit. The yarn feels good, if that is any consolation.

This ball of yarn was originally meant for Project Spectrum several months ago. I get distracted easily.

Next month (three hours from now) the colors turn to black, red, and metallic. Not my colors, more Nolamom's cup o'tea. I will try to make a token project to show I can get with the program.

Tomorrow is also the last day of school. Hooray! Only "non-graduating" Alex has to go to school tomorrow. He's so excited.

Hooray for summer!

It was truly painful...

Emily signed up for a junior high elective at her school to make things using the "Nifty Knitter." While appalled that I may be associated with such "fake knitting," I am a supportive mom, and realize that the alternatives weren't all that great.

Then she told me what supplies she needed. Nifty Knitter loom, ok. Then she said the words that made me nearly swoon. Two skeins of yarn they sell by the pound. WHAT? Not that. Not only acrylic, but acrylic of the "pound o'yarn" variety. I told her she might need to find someone else to take her to the store, in case I was spotted. Worse than being caught at Kmart.

Anyway, we went, we sought yarn, we bought.

I am officially a Yarn Snob.

On other topics, the green bag is actually resembling a bag now. My dilemma now is I want to put Squiggle on the top. Do I do it before or after felting? Hmmm... I don't know. I think I have to do a swatch and wash it. Stay tuned.

I am working now on cupcakes for the Good Things cupcake extravaganza on Monday night. We will be decorating cupcakes in all sorts of cute ways and everyone will take home a cute knitted cupcake like I posted earlier. Nolamom is helping me in this endeavor (meaning she had made 5 and I have made parts of one). Stay tuned for more on that topic as well.

A Note From Emily

Dear Mom,
I am sorry to be the bearer of bad news. I have observed you in your knitting moments, and speaking to fellow knitters. It all seemed normal, but then after doing some studying I realized something. You have been diagnosed with craziae yarnoptia, a rare disease where you are too obessed with knitting. The symptoms are feeling yarn, constant need to visit knitting web sites, and babbling about patterns. In this unfortunate situation, we cannot do much. We can only wait for it to pass.

Yours truly,
Emily
Insane Knitter Observers Corporation