Fall - that wonderful time!

The soybean harvest is well under way, and that means that fall is here. And Japanese Beetles, and Box Elder Bugs. So far, they're staying outside the house, but I don't expect that to last much longer. The beetles manage to get into the house somehow, and then spend their evenings dashing themselves against the lights.

Knitting is, as always, proceeding apace. Can it proceed any other way? Can something not proceed apace? I understand that it can be going nowhere, of course (albeit not in an experiential understanding, but rather a cognitive one).

This weekend seemed to have a cream theme. The Latvian mittens were finished and blocked, a hat was made from stash yarn, and a garter stitch mug cozy was made from some yarn that's sitting in my knitting box and waiting for a knitting class next Saturday. Does that count as stash? I'm not sure. It's pre-consumer recycling, I suppose.

In my quest for something small to take along on a long drive Sunday, I started Annemor #5. Surely 32g would be enough for a main color in a child's pair of mittens? No. Shirley was wrong. I have - to the row - the top decreases to do on one mitten, and two thumbs left. Ravelry to the rescue! One (and only one) person has the proper color in her stash, and we've arranged a small swap so the mittens can get finished.

While away, I bumped into my knitting student from camp this summer. She'd been having some problems with a pattern for short row booties, and I could understand why. The pattern isn't crystal clear about some things .. so I set about knitting a pair of booties to disentangle the pattern. And voila ... booties!

We're in our third week of school (not counting the 3 weeks of Intense History before school, nor the Preview Week between surgery and school) and although no one replaced my fallible children with perfect students, nor the multi-tasking teacher who under-explains with the ideal mentor, I think things are going well. I've promised we'll open up my chocolate Easter bunny (yes, from this Easter) as soon as we make it through a day of math without the words "Show your work" being spoken as an admonishment. Filius has given up on ever getting a taste of the bunny. (My bunny, let me say. He already ate his) Henle 2 Latin is going much better than I thought it might. Many errors of thought seem to have floated away over the summer. Will they stay adrift in a sea of vacation? Probably not. But we're off to a good start there. Diogenes: Maxim is coming along nicely as well - the first writing project is due tomorrow. Reading the models is bittersweet, as I remember vividly which sentences caused me such anguish in their diagramming. I think I'd rather diagram the apostle Paul than Benjamin Franklin. For one thing, Paul capitalizes and spells correctly. And I can but hope that it was clearer in Greek. Ben? No excuses there. Traditional Logic II is moving nicely, and thanks to Leslie's question I now have Uncle Asinebop as part of my logic arsenal. Science is, well, science (I can't wait for chemistry! Stoichiometry was such fun) and to my surprise Peter Saccio's Shakespeare lectures seem to be the highlight of the week. This week, and next, we'll be reading/watching A Midsummer Night's Dream.

And that's school. I'm keeping up with the Puritan Reading Challenge, and also the Plato Reading Group. And may have two knitting classes starting next week.

Filius and I are happily awaiting the first snow. Canis happily awaits Filius' arrival downstairs each morning. Filius brings blankets, and Canis jumps on the blankets and burrows before they get anywhere close to their intended resting place (on top of Filius, on the couch.) It can be dangerous to plop down on a heap of blankets in this house during the next several months. Something may be in there!