Yet another new sample, lol

I don't know how I get myself into these situations, but I have a third sample to knit.  Third as in I have two other current sample projects on the needles and now I'll be adding a third.  This one is another sock in Trekking Hand Art color 511, Trinidad.  Think dark green into turquoise blue into grape.  Oh...I just realized that you don't know anything about sample 2, which happens to be a custom designed hand warmer in J. Knits alpaca.  I'm working this one around my idea for the Bones season 1 sweater, and I started it yesterday.  I didn't get very far on it, but I have my sketch and I'll be writing up a Word document to help me remember exactly what I'm doing.  My only concern is that I totally know what I'm doing but I may not be able to write out directions in a way that others will be able to follow me.  We'll have to see.

So, back to the sock.  I'm thinking that I'll search my books for a pattern that won't bore me to tears as I knit this sock, but won't be completely lost in the color variations of hand-painted yarn.  It's always a challenge for me to combine yarn and pattern in a way that shows both in their best light...and comes from a book that we have in the shop.  The good news is that I have a brand new book to add to my arsenal of potential patterns, and I'm eager to look them over.

I have yet another project on deck, this one has some priority over my others.  I'll be knitting eight dishcloths for Heather's mom as part of her birthday present.  I picked up the yarn today...eight beautiful shades of Berrocco Touche, which I have all wound up and took a picture of (waiting for a chance to upload it...Xbox live...)  I'm thinking I can knit one a night and have them done in plenty of time.  This set come from Kris Knits, and I'm knitting the Beach Cloth collection.  I chose colors as close to the original version as possible, but I did sub a beautiful teal blue for the sea green fish cloth.  We didn't have a green that color, and to be honest, fish swim in water and when I think of water I think of blue.  I'm actually looking forward to knitting these.  Usually I hate dishcloths, but these things are so darn cute that I want to try them out.  I also love her Creepy Cloths and Holiday Cloths.  I might just end up with a whole set of different dish cloths for every darned occasion at this rate, lol.

In school news, I have to say that I'm really getting a lot out of the classes I'm taking this term.  I'm completely fascinated by my abnormal psych class, and I've already learned a few things that have come in handy from my 'development of school aged' children class.  As a matter of fact, between that class and tips from my friend Heather, I actually pulled together a fun lesson for the Sunbeams this week.  I held their attention the full 40 minutes, and their eyes didn't glaze over one time, lol.  We talked about how we're "Thankful for birds and bugs", which I wasn't sure I would be able to sell (the bugs at least).  I found a picture in the Gospel Art Kit for the miracle of the Sea Gulls (which I'd never heard of before), I had Dante get a book from his room with photos of different birds and bugs for me, and I photo copied color pages in the library from one of Alex's books with butterflies, ladybugs, and ducks for them to color after.  I brought some stickers I inherited that say "good job" in a million different ways to put on their pages after they colored them (stickers work like cash for Alex).

We talked about the Gulls, and the lesson suggested a guessing game where I give the children hints and they guess what I am.  They guessed so fast that I decided to have them tell me what the other features of each creature were.  Then I quizzed them to see if I could trip them up, lol.  They all decided that you could tell a bird apart from other animals because they have beaks, wings, feathers, and can fly.  When we talked about butterflies, I asked if they were birds because they have wings like birds.  They all said no, because they don't have feathers or beaks.  Smart kids!  Then they all told me about different birds they knew, and we made the bird calls for each.  Really fun!  They really enjoyed that part, and the Gull story where we pretended to be tall like growing wheat, and to be big clouds of buzzing insects coming to eat the wheat (especially Alex).  It just worked, and I never realized how simple I needed to get, and how much fun I could have with them.