A Milestone

It's official, my baby has graduated from middle school and is now in high school!

He received two awards last night. The first was the Honor Roll Award for being on the honor roll all 4 marking periods this year. The second was the President's Award for which you need to be on the honor roll all year, score at the 90th percentile or higher on a standardized test and be recommended by your teachers. We're proud parents :-)


He's a pretty happy kid.

I love this picture of him sharing a laugh with his Grammy.

We enjoyed some ice cream afterward with the grandparents. Today he is off to a birthday party, then a school's out for summer party, then 2 friends are sleeping over tonight.

But first he decided he needed a summer haircut and let his friend Megan give him a buzz cut. I'm still in shock over the haircut. All I wanted was to see his eyes and ears!

Next challenge? Summer reading and math worksheets.

Happy Summer!

Making Progress

I've made some nice progress on the projects that I've been actively working on, but first I wanted to show you a bit of yarn that arrived in the mail recently.

My mom knows how much I love my Socks That Rock, so she gave me a gift certificate for my birthday. I used it when the vacationing colors were listed recently and got myself a skein of Apple Valley Road. It's really gorgeous in person ranging from a sweet pastel pink at one end to a deep, purpley pink at the other. Love it! Can't wait to see how it knits up!
I also ordered some Bugga for myself. I'm a sucker for "available for a limited time then gone" colors and the day I happened to pop onto The Sanguine Gryphon website there was Argae Moth, a retired color , back only for a couple days. And well..... I couldn't resist :-) It's the blue-green one on the bottom. Since I was paying for shipping I may as well get my money's worth on it, so I ordered Tomato Frog too. I didn't really have a great red in my stash and the description for this one still makes me giggle. I quote..." Red. Red red. Thigh high boot red. Transvestite lipstick red." And it is. It's a great color and not at all subtle. I'm really glad I ordered it!
On the knitting front, I finished my first Raven Swirl sock,
and my first Summer Sox. I'm ready to cast on sock 2 for both of these patterns, but The Summer of Socks starts Monday and my goal this year is to knit some second socks which will clean up my WIP's. I'm sure I'll cast on some new socks too. Ann Hanson is the featured designer for July for the Sock Knitters Anonymous group on Ravelry. I love her patterns. The question is really not "if" I will cast on but "how many"....... Stay tuned.
So until Monday, my CeCe will get all my knitting attention. I'm happy with the progress I made this week. I need to measure again, but I think I'm ready to start the neckline decreases and only about an inch from being able to start the sleeves!
What do you have lined up for summer knitting?

Some actual knitting!

It seems like I haven't finished much recently, but I actually have been doing a fair bit of knitting. I did finish a pair of socks a couple weeks ago. The pattern is Pomatomus by Cookie A and the yarn is Hazel Knits Artisan Sock in It's a Wrap from the December Sock Club shipment. It seemed like I was the only person in the knitting world who hadn't knit this pattern, and now I have. I like the socks and they fit well, but I doubt I will ever knit this pattern again. So much ribbing with the knit stitches knit through the back loop. A few are fine in a design, but a whole sock worth? But they do suit the design well.
One of my husband's close co-workers recently became a grandmother and he asked me to make something for her new grandson. So I made another Fred sweater from Louisa Harding's Natural Knits for Babies and Moms. I used Knit One Crochet Too's BabyBoo which is a bamboo/nylon blend. I really like it and will definitely use it again!
I have a few other projects getting some attention right now too. First is Raven Swirl Socks by Cookie A. This was the Rockin Sock Club kit from last November and I finally cast it on in April.
Although I find the pattern easy and quickly memorized it, I was having trouble while I was out and about if the light was not great. After having to rip back and fix mistakes that I had made because I couldn't see more than once, I decided I had better cast on something lighter that also had an easy to memorize pattern.

So I cast on Summer Sox, also by Cookie A in Skinny Bugga in Swift Long-Winged Skimmer that I got from a destash on Ravelry. I have to tell you, I love this yarn!!! It's so soft and squishy, it has great stitch definition and the fabric it makes is to die for! (I may have just ordered some Bugga as well last week)
See those nifty dpn's? Tom got me a set of Lantern Moon's sox sticks for my birthday a couple weeks ago. I don't often use dpn's for socks, but these are a pleasure to use!

The last thing getting my attention right now is CeCe by ChicKnits. I'm knitting this in Cotton Fleece. The fun part about this is that it has turned into an impromptu Knit-a-long with some of my smackdown buddies. I had cast on and was on my second repeat when Nathania tweeted that she had just cast it on. Also joining in are Knittinggolfer and Altygrae! It's always more fun to do something with friends!
So this is what I've been up to! What about you?

Wordless Wednesday