Playing catch-up, always

So, here we are again, behind on the ABCalong doodad. You can't see me rolling my eyes, but trust me, they're a-rollin. Am I the only one who has crazy fantasies about being ahead of everything for a change? Anyway, without further griping and/or whining, here it is...

E is for Educational Excess

So I went to a two day homeschool conference last weekend, a veritable bonanza of educational information. By the end of the second day, my brain had melted & leaked out my ear. There was just SO MUCH INFORMATION. Quite overwhelming, let me tell you. These photos are only a small fraction of the material I wound up taking home, and they don't include the books & things I bought, either (did you know there's an Elementary Algebra for seven year olds? Me neither, but The Boy is starting on it next week). Don't worry, I'm not overloading my kid by any stretch. He's extremely eager, and loves to "do school", especially math. As for me, I wasn't so hot in math, and I really don't look forward to higher studies in that field. As a result, I'm really hoping that I won't wind up moving too far away from my parents, so that I can lean on my dad to help when the time comes (he's a professional geek, and knows way more than I about such things).

Being the good little knittergeek I am, I of course brought my sock to the conference to work on in between seminars. The organizers wisely had a "knitting room" set aside during the lunch periods, so I spent a good portion of time in there, talking with other parents & slowly working on my stripey little sockie. It really was a nice bit of downtime in the middle of a really intellectual day, and I got to hear about some new (to me, anyway) yarn stores in the burbs. One woman sat down next to me, squealed over my sock, and pulled up her pant leg to show that she was, in fact, wearing the exact same sock that I was making. How cool is that?! She turned out to be an incredibly interesting person, too, so that's a bonus as well.

The sock in question is made from KnitPicks' Parade sock yarn, in the Blues colorway. I'm using a Lion Brand pattern, but I won't link to it, because it's irritating & wrong in places & I wouldn't recommend it, and besides, it makes me snarky, so there. There are a million other good sock patterns available out there anyway, if you're looking for one. Anyhow, I'm about 75% done with both socks. Yep, both socks--I'm not a stupid girl, generally speaking, and after getting halfway through the ribbing on the first cuff, I decided to pop for an extra set of size 3 dpns, because if I don't work both socks at the same time, I'll *never* get to the second one. I'd have a drawer full of dozens of single socks, and a raging case of Second Sock Syndrome. I just finished the gussett decreases on the second one last night, and am working through the endless stockinette of the arch of the foot now. I hope to get to the toe shaping by tonight on at least one of them--partly because I'm really looking forward to finishing my Very First Sock and wearing the darn thing, and partly because I really want my dpns so that I can start the fingerless mitts. Yeah, I know they're supposed to be worked on straights, but seaming sucks, so I'm gonna do 'em in the round. I hope, anyway. I've got a skein of KP Redwood & a skein of KP Fly Fishing for them, so I can have two different pairs of mitts. Have I mentioned lately how much I love KnitPicks?