Intergalactic

All week, I've been surrounded by pre-teens and teens: my cheerleading squad. I don't know these girls yet (save three from last year), and I don't have a good handle on them after four days. However, I do know that they can jump. Their jumps are so pretty that it is hard not to break into a smile at the sight of near perfect toe touches. Then they start to cheer and it all goes pear shaped. Imagine an octopus out of water and you get the picture. How have I kept my sanity? Why River Rapids, of course.

Monday morning I cast on for the second one, and I merrily knit all the way through their learning process. Every once and a while, I looked up and walked the lines. Sure, the high V's aren't always straight, but last year, I probably wouldn't have gotten my high V's right either. Today, the girls actually saw a sock that looked like, well, a sock. "Hey, you really are knitting a sock," said one of the girls, to which I neatly replied, "Well, duh!" Luckily she is one of the hold-overs from last year so she is used to me and my knitting. Too bad it is so stinking hot out today or these lovelies would get a work out. The ladies at Blue Moon outdid themselves with Silkie; the feeling of this yarn is lovelier than words and it has a sheen which isn't too showy and doesn't look pushy, either.

Veronica agreed to a photo-op of her hat. I think she did a fine job considering she didn't have a pattern. It's nice watching her knit and working out her own problems. With this pattern, she realized a bit too late that the ribbing on the band didn't match up to the pattern she established so you see the purl bumps at points where the transition is made between ribbing and pattern. Will she make this same mistake again? Maybe, but most likely she will think about it before she knits and write a pattern taking that into account.

My class is tomorrow night so any "real" knitting will have to wait. I want to get some more done on the melon shawl before school starts again, but I really need to concentrate on one thing right now: Grace. Grace, the bane of my knitsistance, must go away. Let's face it, Beaner isn't getting any smaller (she's three, by the way), and the weather in her galaxy (that would be Nebraska) should be cooler sometime in the not so distant future. So, Lola, while you fret about with Superman, Bats, and the Flash, Grace will be my arch-nemesis. Who will win in this epic battle of yarn versus the Bomb Queen? Place your bets now, my pretties . . . all bets are off after this weekend.