My son had his “back to school” orientation yesterday. When he got back, being the typical teenager, he shrugged his shoulders when I asked how it went. So I said, “Come, sit! Bond with your mama!” So, my 6’4 son came and crouched down beside me.. He told me it was the same ol same ol.. and I said how are you classes, and he told me he got into every class he wanted to, like Honors English etc. I then asked does he have a lot of friends in his classes.. and he said yeah, so and so in this class and so and so in this class.. and so and so grr in World History. “Grr?” I said.. “Yes, Grrr, so and so in World History.” I asked him why Grrr.. I was completely baffled… and he said “Cause he is the smartest one in the entire county.” And I said what is wrong with that.. and he said, “I wanted to be the smartest one in the class.” (Incidentally, History is one of his favorite subjects).

I told him.. you may be book smart, but you are still extremely smart.. All As and Bs… (Bs from not turning in work, silly kid)… And I reminded him of his ISAC scores.. Those by the way, are the Illinois and Iowa standarized tests and they give % of how he did against kids in the school and kids his same level across the county. The ones across the country he always scores in the 90 plus, and English he scored like 98%! So, I also told him in addition to that, he is also smart in other ways.. very people smart, socially smart, etc..

I do not know if my talk did any good.. it wasn’t like he was depressed or anything, but I know how much he loves history and could imagine how he would feel, that little “grrr” kind of feeling.. but he was happy his girlfriend was in a lot of his classes..

I am so blessed and so lucky, that “these” are his types of problems.. He is such a well rounded, laid back, easy going kid… He is smart, is in choir, has good friends.. is the kind of kids that all the kids like. I do not know what I would ever do if I had the problems that many other parents have… drugs, truancy, back talking etc… I am so very very lucky and am so happy and relieved my son is turning out so well.. I always worried that I would have to endure the nightmare that so many other parents have to go through and my heart goes out to them.

Now if only my son would ask me to learn to crochet???

So I spent the last couple days swatching.. and oh my.. just yesterday when I figured out a pattern stitch for a baby afghan, I realized after about 20 rows, it was doing that slanting thing! You know, where your work begins to slant into a slight trapezoid? Oh how annoying.. so I spent the evening trying to figure out why it was doing it.. something with the stitches.. on one side I always doing a certain sequence of sts, and then on the other size I was doing a different type of sequencing..

Sometimes crochet is like detective work… must look at the “clues” at what is going on that could be contributing to the problem.

Another interesting thing I thought about, which I think is really neat by the way.. to make a pattern shorter.. I noticed often times when working certain patterns, I would come to certain points where the instructions for one row or rnd would need to broken down for each size, or a row will need to be adjusted, which I refer to as a “prep row” for a new pattern sequence (which can sometimes lengthen a pattern). After thinking about that… I figured out that if I worked backwards, I could somewhat alleviate some of this..

I tried out my theory. After sketching out an idea the other day and figuring out my gauge.. I worked on the schematics. Say, for example (in a top to bottom pattern), an edging needs a certain multiple of sts. Instead of working the body based off the chest, and thus then the body not turning out to be the correct multiple of sts, when beginning the body, why not make it the correct multiple so that when the edging comes, the pattern will flow? One may say, well what is the difference between making the adjustment at the beginning of the body rather than at the edging. Well, for me, it makes a huge difference. Since the body usually consists of some sort of design, and usually the top is much more simple. Of course, this idea will not work in all situations, but in some, it would save a lot of written word. I am sure working “backwards” per se would also have other positive effects and this idea could be used for other things..

When I begin to design, sometimes I already have a picture in my mind. Sometimes I do not and it comes to me when swatching. But I really think ALL of my patterns, the written word will only prosper by being more cohesive and smooth if, before I begin writing, work little snippets of all parts of the garment in word form… then I can sort of mold certain instructions so that they will positively impact the next portion.

Anyway.. that was just another one of my thoughts- of when I think too much :P)

Ok.. so now off to swatching on that baby afghan and other things! I will write back later after I figure it out