Knocking off WIPs

Yes, this is the same sock from last week, but I am now nearing the toe! It does feel good to finish old projects -- though, it lacks the kick we knitters get from casting on! I also finished the Garland Shawlette started in 2013 and will try to get it blocked and photographed soon!

I found these two books at the library! Both are relatively new books that I've been wanting to read. Among the Ten Thousand Things by Julia Pierpont is a novel about the fallout in a family after the husband's affair is revealed. I'll read pretty much anything by Francine Prose, and art collector Peggy Guggenheim has always interested me. She lead quite the bohemian life in the mid-20th century.

I'm also reading the first issue of the making zine, thanks to Rose.

I think the only way to get your hands on this beauty is to order it from Carrie Bostick Hoge's web site. It is totally worth it. The sweater patterns are to die for! I've only perused it so far, but I'll report back when I've had the chance to soak it in.

I'll be joining Ginny for Yarn Along. Can you believe she's pulling this off with a brand new baby? That woman is amazing!

Life Is Good

Door County has become Keith and my little piece of paradise. We come up here every summer for a few days and unwind. We ride our bikes, poke around the art galleries, and hang out at the little cabin we always rent.

Yesterday we went to lunch at one of my favorite restaurants, The Cookery. I had a Cherry Sparkler, which matches my Trellis Socks pretty well.

Door County is cherry country, and we always have a few breakfasts at Julie's in Fish Creek, where the cherry crepes are amazing. Now I always think of Kathy, who likes to stay, as well as to eat at Julie's.

One of our favorite galleries is the Edgewood Orchard Gallery, which features a sculpture garden. This huge piece is called "Wooly".

Nicole, I so hope that you find your cat! In the meantime, I'll be at your link up.

FO Friday and Family

The second pair of  Trellis Socks is finished. The next step is to get some better photos and then write it up as a free pattern.

I just love the texture in this pattern:

Both pairs I've made have been from Trekking XXL and it's a good pattern-yarn match. These are incredibly squishy socks.

This is shaping up as a great weekend. My brother Michael is visiting from Washington, D.C.  Tonight our parents took us out for dinner at a very sweet French bistro, where we laughed a lot and talked politics.

It's hard not to talk politics in Wisconsin these days, at least for a teacher. Our governor's proposed budget includes a provision that would allow high school dropouts to be certified as special education teachers! Honestly. I am not making this up. I am not exaggerating. So much for all the time and money I spent getting my degree!

Some Things Just Take Time

I've been working on this sock forever. It's a Trellis, my own design, so you think I'd fly right through it, but that hasn't been the case. I love the way this pattern looks, but I find the stitches to be fairly slow.

I

I now have one green sock (destined to be a gift pair) and now a pink/red one for me. I think I'm going to knit the 2nd green one next, just for variety. The dark areas on the pink/red sock still bother me, but at least they aren't this dramatic in real life.

Just like these socks move along one stitch at a time, so go the days with my "loved one." Some are better than others, but most days are hard. I'm back to working contract hours at school, but I can't put in the extra hours I usually do so I'm worried about getting everything done on time!

I picked up this book because it sounded kind of fun, like it would be a good distraction. A couple bloggers mentioned that it was fun to pick out all the literary references -- and I'm a sucker for literary references. The story about a widowed bookstore owner and his daughter presents lots of opportunities to mention titles and characters -- and that is fun. However, the story is a bit formulaic for my taste, pretty predictable. If you like fun and frothy books, pick this one up. But if, like me, you like your books to have more substance, I'd say pass on this one.

I'm joining up with Nicole at Frontier Dreams.

More Socks; More Florida

Monogamous knitting doesn't make for very exciting blogging, but this is what I have.

I'm not thrilled with the dark stripes. Should I have seen that coming from the skein? I'm not very good at translating the color changes in a skein into how they'll look in a sock.  The trip home from Florida Sunday was long, so at least I made some progress on the sock.

On Saturday, Rachel and I went to South Beach, and it's even more beautiful than I expected. The Art Deco architecture is stunning:

And the beach is so beautiful. The water is a gorgeous turquoise.

The food in Miami in amazing. We ate Peruvian, Venezuelian, and, of course, Cuban. But it is SO hot -- and it's only April! I cannot imagine what it's like in July.

And best of all, I spent the day with my daughter!

Today I'll be back at work. It's going to be a tough transition so I'm going to make pancakes for our homeroom. It's the first day of fourth quarter, so I'm hoping that a surprise with help all of us get off to a good start!

Don't forget to see what everyone is up to at Frontier Dreams.

Busy, Busy, Busy!

 Have you read the book Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain? Even though the title says it all, the book is still worth reading -- especially for those of us who crave, even need, lots of time alone. I had no idea that there were so many other people out there who savored solitude.

Much of my mental real estate is devoted to balancing time alone with social time. I'm not a hermit, so I need both, but the right balance remains elusive. I get irritable when I don't have enough time alone, but I get depressed without enough contact with other people.

All of which is to say that I am enjoying a day of bad weather on the first weekend of my spring break. I'm trying to balance creative time with, well, cleaning. I wouldn't want unannounced company to show up today because the house just isn't presentable.

The birth of a pair of Trellis Socks

I've started a pair of Trellis Socks, the pattern than I designed, in reddish-pink. The yarn is Trekking XXL, which never fails me. I need a pair to use as models for the pattern. I hope to have rough directions drawn up this week so I'll be ready for any test knitters who might be interested. I'm going to release it as a free pattern, but I still think a test knit or two would be good.

As for being busy. Whew! Last weekend I was in Washington, D.C., for a training on Mindfulness in the Classroom. The training, put on by  Mindful Schools, was awesome. The instructors really know how to teach and have suggestions for working with the hardest kids (something many trainers like to skip over). And meeting 100 teachers from the eastern United States was fascinating.

Me at the National Gallery

The expense of the trip was worth it because in addition to the training, I got to spend time with my brother, his wife and their daughter; see my old friend Jeff; and spend a half day at the National Gallery.

I flew back on Sunday evening and had to be ready for an IEP meeting at 8 a.m. on Monday morning! The week was relentless. Early in the week, a student I don't know walked up to me in the hallway and pushed me; then, Friday before lunch, a student burst out of a room and smashed the door into my right hand, smack on my index finger. The entire finger is black/purple and swollen, but I can still knit and bead -- so it's not a tragedy!

But getting injured, even by accident, is emotionally exhausting, so spring break comes at a good time. I have four days to recuperate before heading off to Miami to visit my daughter.

Well, this seems like it's more than enough for one post. Now I can get caught up on your posts!

Introducing: Trellis Socks

Well, it's back to life outside the 1%. No one dropped off breakfast at our door this morning. :( But, I think we'll live, even though we are having Arctic temperatures today. Some hardy friends got me out for a walk this morning. There's nothing like strolling through air that feels like 1 degree F to wake you up.

I can finally blog about these, seeing as they have been gifted to my mom.

They are not any old socks. I actually designed them! I wish I could remember exactly where I got the lace pattern. I think it's from one of the Barbara Walker books. I would have documented it if I had known it was going to come out so well!

It's really a very basic, top-down sock. The lace pattern isn't complicated but I find it a bit slow-going. Still, I really love the socks. They are very textury (that probably isn't a word but you know what I mean) and squishy. I'm not sure how much of that comes from the pattern and how much from the yarn, Trekking XXL, one of my faves.

Anyway, I'd like to put it out as a free pattern. Do I need to have it test knitted before doing so?

I can't believe it's already the second Tuesday of winter break. How come vacations weeks go so much faster than work weeks?

I'm linking up with Nicole and crafting on.