Ravelry, Socks, and School

It's been a busy week since I last posted. But a lot has happened. I finally got my Ravelry invite, I got my yarn in the mail for my Hogwarts sock swap and started on the socks, and the kids have started back to school. Oh, and I also made my stitch markers for my pal. I've also been pretty sick, but I'm feeling better this week. Plus on top of all that, Steve ended up working about 70 hours last week and I was pretty lonely. I know, I know, cry me a river.

First off, Ravelry rocks! It's so cool to be able to network with other knitters, organize your stash, among many other neat things that Ravelry can do. I haven't been able to really start using it much, but I have looked around and at least started my sign-on. I'm hoping this week will be a better one for getting up and running with it.

Warning-if your name is Lily and you're my sock pal-STOP READING!

I decided to use Lorna's Laces yarn in the color Pioneer for the HW's swap. Since my pal's in Ravenclaw, this yarn has all the colors (according to the book, the colors are blue and brown, and the movie shows it blue and silver). It's a variegated with blue, brown, bronze, and silver all together. I'm using the Waving Lace pattern from Interweave's Favorite Socks book and it's turning out really beautiful.

I absolutely love that book (Favorite Socks). The Uptown Boot socks from the book are turning out great-I wanted to have them finished last week, but with the health issues I had, it just wasn't happening. I have to say that the Artyarn's Ultramerino I'm using for them is the best sock yarn I've used so far. It is so easy to knit with and it feels so luxurious, too. The Raglan Baby Sweater is almost done as well, I just need to finish the second sleeve and sew it up. With the kids in school this week, I really hope to wrap up the sweater and the uptown socks. I want to start working on my pal's socks and nothing else so I can have them done early. The deadline is October 31st, but I don't want Lily to have to wait until the end and wonder if she's ever getting her goodies.

I absolutely can't stand to post without pictures, so here's the kids leaving for the 1st day of school this morning. Can you tell Nick's absolutely thrilled (sarcasm!)? He seemed fine none the less, when I left him and Mak. Makenzie, however, couldn't wait.

Here's a picture of the sunrise this morning. The haze is horrible and it's a code red smog alert day- I'm so glad I don't have respiratory problems!

The sun looked really pretty coming in the windows, though. I guess that's the silver lining for that smog cloud!

Better get busy, then I'm off to have me a cafe mocha, so-Ciao! Have a great knitting week!