Here’s what happened during the week:
Knitting
- Comfy Socks
After finishing the Sierra Socks last week I immediately cast on for a new pair. It wasn’t so much that I needed new knitting as I needed new knitting to be ready ‘on hold’ in my purse in case I ever needed it in the future. Except for very few exceptions, I knit all my socks toe-up, with a short-row heel and toe, from a pattern I’ve long-since memorized. I’ll refer to past project notes to know how many stitches to work up to depending on if it’s a sock for Yannick or for myself, but otherwise the rest of it is pretty much pick-up-and-go. I knit without looking so the only parts of the sock that require my attention are the toe and heel. For that reason, I like to knit the toe before I stash it away in my project bag, so it’s ready at the ‘just knit’ part.
(I’m still loving the personalized travel knitting bag Maaike made for me!)
This sock is going to be an experiment. I’m using Regia Softy Color yarn that I got at a guild stash exchange a year or so ago, and I’m going to be knitting a heel-less sock. I get cold at night so I sleep with socks on, usually fuzzy ones from the dollar store. But then I get hot so I kick them off… and then my toes get cold again so I put them back on. A happy middle ground has been to push my socks off down to the pads of my feet, so my heels are exposed to the cool sheets but my toes are still kept warm. Therefore I’m going to see if a heel-less sock gives me the same effect. If it does, it’ll be a fun way to work through my fun-fur stash.
Coloring
- Creative Coloring Throughout the Year page-a-day calendar
Some mornings after getting the kids off for school I got a chance to do some coloring. I don’t have any need to get the calendar pages ‘right’ in any way, so it was fun to pull out a bunch of coloring supplies and just apply color to the pages. I’m usually a lot more strict on myself when it comes to color placement… or adding highlights or shadow… whereas with these pages I’m not giving myself any restrictions to match any preconceived notions of what the resulting pages ‘should’ look like.
I showed the first page in my last Crafty Compilation, and these are the next few I’ve completed using a mix of Inktense, gel pens, colored pencils and Stabilo 88 and Staedtler fineliners, plus some occasional applications of Wink of Stella or Spectrum Noir glitter brushes.
While I was at it I finished swatching my latest batch of gel pens – a 60-count set by Top Quality that I got on Amazon. There were a few duplicate colors to ones I already had, but also a lot of new shades. For the price I’m quite happy with the set.
I did want to differentiate between these colors and my Lolliz and other ones, so I used a Sharpie to mark an “L” on the caps of the Lolliz ones and “TQ” on the Top Quality ones (the other brands showed their brand names on the caps or pens). Then I followed that up with a layer of a clear nail polish topcoat to help prevent the writing from rubbing off too quickly as I used the pens.
Other Stuff
- Teaching the boys Rummikub
I grew up playing Rummikub (we called it ‘Rummy-Q’), and I have fond memories of being my kids’ ages and playing with my Bubbie, so on Saturday afternoon after the kids had finished homework and had lunch I taught them how to play. We did one open game where I gave them a few pointers but then played two full games with our tiles hidden, and they’d picked it up perfectly! In fact- Jakob won the open round as well as one of the closed ones! It was awesome to see them playing the game that had given me so many good memories with my grandparents, and to spend technology-free time with my kids.
jeloca.com 