This is the first of the socks I'm making my mom for Christmas. (There is supposed to be a second pair, in Socka Disco; I hope I will have time to do it.). I decided I wasn't up to starting any big projects right now. I think I want to keep Hiawatha as my sole big "requires attention" project for now, and concentrate on finishing up the smaller, more portable projects. After I run through a few of those, I'll start either Samus or Cozy. Or both, if I get startitis again...

That said, I did cast on and do a couple of the ribbing rows of the gloves. It's Regia 6-ply Crazy, I think it's the color combination they call "Vesuv" (Vesuvius?). It's reds and pinks and sort of a teal and some purple.

Youth group went REMARKABLY better last night. I do not know for sure whether it was the fact that I had them do a *craft* rather than play a *competitive game* or if it was simply that the previous week was spoiled by a slop-over of bad feelings from the school day.

What I had them do, was this: I had seen a lesson where you teach about the "On this 'rock' I build my church" scripture, and then expand it to make the point that anyone can be a sort of a rock of the church. And then you take those little polished river rocks (like they sell to use to decorate potted plants) and some copper wire, and you wind the wire around the rock to hold it, and then run a piece of nice cord or rawhide thong through the wire, so you have a little necklace to wear.

I was a bit apprehensive as most of the group is male, and most of them are over-10 males, and I was afraid someone would deride it as girly, but no, they all thought it was "cool." Several asked if they could make a second necklace, either for a mom or a girlfriend. And they all worked happily together, and no one conked anyone with their finished necklace, and it all worked out.

I think I will have to do more crafts. I'm thinking of having them do thanksgiving cards to give to people they're thankful for - I've already got some foam "autumn leaf" stickers they can use, & can get glitter and other good stuff. And I'm thinking maybe doing the marble magnets around Christmas time - I could prep the magnets ahead of time by gluing white cardstock onto one side, and then we could either get little stickers to stick on it (to make it easy) or use Christmas wrapping paper with small designs, or something. I'm thinking that will be a two-week project - make the magnets one week, let them dry, and then the second week maybe have those little pasteboard boxes the kids could decorate to keep the magnets in. (I'm thinking, they could be Christmas presents for friends or relations).

I need to find some good (=non-tacky, useful or beautiful or preferably both) other crafts to use. So many of the "church crafts" I've found on websites are either REALLY young (like making paper plate angels) or are kind of treacly-icky (I do not know what it is about religious faith that brings out the uber-sentimentality in some, but it kind of bothers me. I guess I'm too much of a C. S. Lewis Christian). They don't have to necessarily have a scriptural tie, but if I can sneak the lesson in there with the craft, all the better.

I do not think teaching knitting or crochet would work terribly well, as much as I'd like to do it; there's a very wide range of motor skills in this group ranging from "practically MacGuyver" to "needs help bending wire" and I don't want to set the less-skilled folks up for frustration. (And there's also the Y-chromosome factor; they may think necklaces made with rocks are "cool" but I'm not sure they'd feel the same about making scarves. Or even the Waldorf-school-style "knit a square, make it into an animal" activity.)