Catching up

I was sick all of last week.  Actually, the Boy, the Girl and I were all sick for the bulk of the week.  It was horrific...but add to that the injuries that accumulated and it was a banner week.  The Boy had woken up in the middle of the night one night asking to go to the bathroom and for water--why I am necessary for either of those events, I know not, but he comes in, wakes me up, asks to go to the bathroom and for water and then goes back to HIS bathroom to take care of business.  So there I was, awake, and now concerned that the Boy had woken me up because he himself was not quite awake.  So I went in to his bathroom to check on him.  He turned the light out before opening his bedroom door, and then said, "Mama.  I can't see."  I bit my tongue to keep from saying, "No kidding, dude, it's 4 in the morning!"  But I was good, I said, "I know, buddy, just open the door up."  And he opened the door and hopped back in to bed.  But since he closed the door behind him, I could no longer see, so I promptly walked right into the door jam and hit my head hard enough to see stars.  Man, it hurt. 

4 days later we were listening to our semi-annual conference and the Girl and Boy were playing with dinosaurs around their sick Mama, when the Girl and her T-rex got a little over-excited and clocked me in the mouth with a very large, very HARD dinosaur.  I just made it into the bathroom before I started to cry.  It really hurt.  I ended up with a bruise over my eye from the door jam and a fat lip.

Add to that the constant coughing that cost me my voice and it was an AWESOME week.

But conference was wonderful, and I got 12 pairs of pajama pants cut out for my Boy and a pair of socks finished for me.  And finally, I seem to be on the upswing from the Sick that wouldn't Quit, so Life is decidedly better.

The socks are my first pair that I've made for myself.  My sweet Sister out west sent me the yarn for my birthday and as soon as I saw it I said, "Oh my heck!  SOCKS!"

You all know of my love of a flamboyant sock, I just can't help myself.  I live in really sturdy, neutral clothes, but I have a sassy heart.  So to keep myself from feeling frumpy,  I wear really bright, fun socks.

Now, I generally buy socks in big batches every 4 or 5 years, consequently, they ALL wear out at the same time.  And whimsical, flamboyant socks for adults are rather expensive.  So last winter, when I noticed that all of my socks are starting to wear out again, I got the brilliant idea to just KNIT my own.

I bought up enough yarn to make 4 or 5 pairs of stockings (I prefer the traditional knee-high socks because I can wear them with my long skirts as well as my jeans), a book of patterns for knee-high socks, and then promptly put everything away while I worked on other stuff.

But this last July when I was in the planning stages of the Red Sweater, I needed something to work on while on a road trip to Savannah, so I got out this yarn and didn't do ANY planning, just cast on and worked away.  I made pencil notes to myself as I went along so that I could make a second sock to match the first and called it a pair!

You would think that a pair of stockings would be exhausting, but I must admit that they're more fun than plain socks.  Because just when you think you might die of boredom, the shaping changes and you get to do something fun!  So all told, they were really fun.  I'm trying to finish up several projects in the works (hence the socks), so I'm determined to resist the urge to immediately cast on my next pair.

Wish me luck...