Obsession

I admit it, I am obsessed with basically no-brainer knitting. Once I started this left over sock yarn blanket I have become totally dedicated to making these bias squares and sewing them into the blanket. As you can see, the bias stripes formed by the self striping yarn create an optical illusion effect. I love it, as does the daughter for whom it is intended.

You can see that I have learned a bit in making and assembling the squares. I learned that one needs to create stripes if the leftover yarn is not self striping. Therefore, I have used two sock yarns in some squares to achieve a striped effect.
I have also learned that my patience is not as great as I thought it was. That is, I had intended this to be a long term project (read--over several years). But I have become obsessed. I am running out of sock yarn and I want to stand on the street corner, soliciting left over sock yarn so that I can finish the blanket this spring. I can't possibly generate enough left over sock yarn by knitting dozens of socks within the next two months!!! Hmm, maybe I could post an ad at the LYS!!!

Meanwhile, I have been teaching a class on making the Flower Basket Shawl. I hope to take photos at our last class in two weeks, so that I can post the beautiful shawls that have been made.

I haven't been knitting on any other projects mainly because I have been busy with school assignments. I am doing my student teaching at a local elementary school, in the school library. I spend lots of time reading books to kids and preparing for a big research project that will begin this week with the 5th graders. They will be researching famous people from the Civil War.

In addition, my dishwasher has refused to empty water. Since I don't have time to stay at home to wait for a repair person, I need to start doing dishes by hand. I know, this is not a big deal in terms of the world as a whole, but it does cut into knitting time!!

On a happier note, my 14 year old daughter is preparing for the coming of age ceremony at our church next week. We purchased a cute spagetti-strapped pink dress with a "tutu" underneath. When I was young, we called those "tutus" stick-out slips and my mother would starch them. Now, it is just gathered netting with no name; christened "tutus" by my daughter. She thinks this is a new style! Ha! What does she know??

How did she possibly get so old?? She is finishing her freshman year in high school and will be at home for only three more years before going off to college. Oh my, I don't know if I am prepared to be an empty-nester. My nest has been full for 30 years--my oldest is 29 years old now. I don't know what it will be like to have only my husband and myself at home. How lonely it will feel. Meanwhile, we are enjoying and getting the most out of every minute with the 14 year old. Because we each have had our older children leave our nests, we have come to cherish all moments with this daughter--even the hormone driven teenage "moments"--because we know that her life with us is so limited.