The second conference of the day was with J's teacher. He is doing well academically and reading is his favourite subject. He takes after his mother in that he often has to be told to put the book away and do his work. A part of me can't be mad at him for that because I used to do the same thing. But the other part of me knows the challenges he will face if he can't master being able to stay focused on school work. It's an ongoing process for him and we'll continue to support him as much as possible as he tries to teach himself to be more focused.
After the two conferences it was book fair time. I came home and got the kids and took them back over to the book fair at S's school. J tried to talk me into a $40 book but I said no. Sorry kid, but I don't even buy $40 books for myself...unless...no, not even my knitting books cost that much! It had a bunch of extra stuff with it like toys and you built stuff with it but nope. He ended up choosing a book on secret tunnels and hideouts (non-fiction) and an Adventure Time choose-your-own-adventure type of book. S chose a fiction book about bunnies and a non-fiction book about frogs. She seemed happy with her choices. My kids are smart - they know I will say no to toys but yes to books because I love to read and I like to encourage them to read too. And I like to get books from the book fair because I know it goes to help the school.
After we got back I finally got a chance to download my newest clue for my Snow Queen mystery shawl. I was a little disappointed at first because the clue has only 14 rounds in the pattern. Then I started working the clue. It isn't hard but egad, each row takes a LONG time. Right now I'm up to around 350 stitches per round and that number will keep going up. I was cooling some banana bread I baked today and set the timer for 10 minutes then started working on the round. I hadn't even finished it when the timer went off. Now, I'm not a super fast knitter but I'm not slow either. 14 rounds is going to take me a few days to get done. What have I gotten myself into?
In addition to getting my pattern today, my yarn arrived for the Hobbit scarf I am going to make. The yarn is awesome - a blend of alpaca and silk. It is so soft and snuggily. I had planned to make the scarf for C but it may end up being mine when it is done. It's a cool pattern that tells the story of The Hobbit in pictures. It will be my first time trying double-knitting, which is where both sides of the knitted item look the same, just in opposite colours. I read through the pattern directions and the designer did a good job explaining potential problem areas so I think I should be good to go for it. I'll probably start working on the Hobbit scarf as soon as I finish the current clue for the Snow Queen shawl.
I still have two short-term projects going on, One is a shawl/cowl combination that I'm making with some luscious merino/alpaca/musk ox yarn that I got for Christmas. The other is an infinity scarf that can be worn as a cowl or a scarf. I'm making that with some superwash wool. Both yarns came from a local yarn mill that is one of my favourite place to go look at yarn. It's probably a good thing that it's around 35 minutes away and they aren't open much in the winter. They are open every day between May and October, so I'll make sure I make a few trips out there and stock up for next winter. By then I should have knitted down my stash enough to justify buying some new stash yarn.
I am in a bit of project overload right now but I need something to distract me from all the snow that is piled up outside! So far is seems to be working...until I actually have to go outside. :-)
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