Crocheting away...

With the holidays fast approaching, my crochet hook has been working overtime completing presents. I finished my mom's prayer shawl, and I also completed a cascade scarf for my sister, Shauna'h. I will post pictures tomorrow :) They turned out good.

I bought a skein of sock yarn that I've been dying to try, and finally I commenced. Unfortunately, it's not going as successfully as my other projects. I was crocheting at our regular knitting lunch here in the library (a wonderful group of ladies that I hooked up with earlier this fall) and my friend Karen asked after my project; a baby hat? :) Yes, my sock indeed looks like a baby (perhaps a preemie, granted, but still) could squeeze his/her cute little cone head into it. They just feel sort of...loose. Slippers maybe? Probably wishful thinking. Sock for someone with a cast over a broken leg? More likely. And the person will have to be a female, because the socks are pink. So we'll see. They're definitely "training socks;" I've never made socks before, and the learning curve is obviously very high for me here.

I may abandon them, we'll see. I'm just getting a bad vibe from them. They're taking on a bit of a life of their own. At least I got some practice with learning the sock lingo; on another pattern maybe they'll turn out better. And really, I should learn to knit socks. That'll definitely tighten them up.

Anyway, tonight I'm going to start some mittens and a hat for Hank. I hope they turn out good for my little pumpkin. As always, I can insert a cute Henry anecdote here. Yesterday evening, Mike was teaching, so I was trying to entertain Hank between dinner and bedtime. Given that it's my favorite time of year, we headed outside to play in the leaves and look at some Halloween decorations. His favorite is the "spooky cat" and Halloween train blow-up balloon-like things that someone a few blocks down has on their front lawn. I sort of hate those, but they sure are kid pleasers. Anyway, we went outside, and Hank went immediately over to inspect the grass. He announced "Mommy, there are no little flowers for me to pick for you." (He means dandelions and other vile little weeds, but who cares; isn't that sweet?!?!) I told him the flowers would be back in the spring. And then Henry, in his infinite sweetness, picked up a beautiful yellow maple tree leaf and handed it to me, saying "Here Mommy, this is for you. I'll get one for Daddy too." Oh. It just made me tear right up. Little dumpling. I hope the mittens that I make him don't look as though they're designed for a grizzly bear.