Actual Knitting Content

But first, a small diversion. This is what I saw when I woke up this morning.



It is after 9am now and the snow is still coming down in large flakes. Nothing is accumulating though. I could even appreciate the snow a bit since Andrew doesn't have school and I don't need to go outside if I don't want too.

I mentioned I was working on a Lace Ribbon Scarf with some handspun merino/angora yarn. I finished it pretty quickly. I was hoping that by making a scarf I could keep knitting until the yarn was gone. About halfway through the yarn I decided that wasn't going to happen. So, I still have about 40 grams left to find something to do with it. Maybe I'll make a lacy hat or some wrist warmers, or keep it for lining the wrists of mittens or the brim of a hat.



I cast on 35 stitches for the scarf instead of what was written since I was using thicker yarn and bigger needles.



I also finished a pair of socks.



Yep, they are Monkeys. I wanted to see if they were really as fun amazing as everyone says. The pattern was pretty easy and I like how the socks look. The yarn is Mississippi 3 print. It is a cotton/acrylic blend. My hands were starting to hurt during the first cuff, but they must have adjusted because there weren't anymore problems after that.

There is spinning too. This is 6 of the 8 ounces of BFL in Rise of the Pheonix from Crown Mountain Farm. The yarn is dk to worsted weight and very soft.

Andrew's Blog

Andrew has a blog now. I am going to try to use it to keep track of his reading. Check it out here

Taking Advantage of the Weather

The weather this weekend was wonderful. Starting Thursday, Andrew had a wonderful sunny day for his field trip to the apple orchard. Afterward, I took the kids to a park near Andrew's school. Nick didn't want to leave.



Friday was another beautiful day with weather in the 50s for trick or treating.


Tim's Jeep Pumpkin

Saturday was nice, but the kids were crazy so we didn't do much. On Sunday we decided to do something fun outside since we aren't likely to have another weekend with weather in the 70s.

We loaded up the kids and the dog and went to Crosby Farm Park. There are wooded trails by the Mississippi River and Crosby Lake with bluffs along the trail in places. We walked to the river and let the kids play at the edge for a bit and then explored the trails a bit more.




Andrew in a tree


Nick in a tree


Andrew and Nicholas sitting under a tree amongst the roots


We found a fun boardwalk too.

Tim didn't grab the gentle leader when we left, and I was tired of Kapik trying to pull my arm off so I made him a halter.



The weather is beautiful again today (we didn't even wear coats when taking Andrew to school this morning!). I know I will be trying to spend as much time outside as I can.

Happy Halloween...just watch out for the morning after

We had a great Halloween. Andrew had a party at school and everyone dressed up. There were three knights watching over AM Kindergarten yesterday so everyone could feel very safe. Nicholas talked about his cos-room the whole way home from bringing Andrew to school and I told him he could wear his costume after sleepies. Once we were home Nick helped me make cupcakes for a post-trick or treating snack. He put the cupcake liners in and helped stir the eggs and sugar. He may have also had a taste of cake batter.

In the afternoon, while the little ones were sleeping, Andrew painted his pumpkin from his Thursday field trip to the apple orchard while I hemmed his cloak. I also made the boot/spats Thursday night and they really helped complete his costume.

We went trick or treating with a friend from church and her two kids. We have gone to a near by mall the last few years, stopping at our Pastor's house (within walking distance from the mall) afterward. Because the weather was so nice (and our kids are a little older), we decided to just go to houses this year. We stayed out for almost two hours and the kids bags were loaded with candy. We dumped Nick's in the car once because it was getting too heavy for him.

Once everyone was getting tired, we came home for cupcakes. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of them and they are pretty much gone. There were six regular cupcakes and six from a molded cake pan in the shapes of ghosts and pumpkins. After our guests went home we were all ready to crash into bed.

The kids are definitely feeling the effects of the late night. Thankfully, Nick is napping for now and Tim took Andrew to Menards so I have a few minutes of quiet, probably the first all day.

Pumpkin Time

Last night we carved the kids' pumpkins. Andrew took the sharpie and drew a face on the pumpkin and then directed me to make something bigger or smaller or a little different while I carved. Andrew's pumpkin is the one with the really big mouth. Tim carved Nick's pumpkin. Tim drew three choices for noses, mouths, and eyes and let Nicholas pick one of each to make the face. It worked out really well for letting a 2 year old help in some way. Andrew thought scraping the pumpkins out was really fun and was squishing his hands through the bowl of pumpkin guts any chance he had. Nick didn't like getting his hands messy at first, but when he saw how much fun Andrew was having he decided it wasn't so bad. I have some eyeball votive candles I picked up on clearance last year at Target that look pretty cool in the pumpkins, especially Andrew's.





My week has been more normal, thankfully. We now have new tires on the Subaru, which we needed anyway. While we were waiting to get the new tires on the Subaru, I noticed some cracking in one of the Jeep tires. Tim has located a tire for that too and will pick it up this weekend. Hopefully, that should be the end of our tire issues for a while.

I did do a bit of spinning this week. I have five very pretty skeins of yarn I have spun this spring and summer, besides the yarn I spun before, and I have only knit one thing with handspun. I decided that I needed to change that and cast on for a Lace Ribbon Scarf with some white Merino/Angora blend yarn. Spinning this yarn was slow because I could only spin it while Tim wasn't around. Turns out he must be allergic to Angora. There goes my plan for getting bunnies some day.

October Luck

I was planning to blog some happier weekend events, but I was about 5 blocks away from our house this morning, taking Andrew to school when I heard strange noises coming from the car. I pulled over to find a large hole in the side of a very flat tire. Thankfully I was able to park it safely, find a neighbor to get Andrew to school only a little late (thank you Sarah!), and another Kindergarten parent to bring him home (thank you to other helpful stay-at-home parents!). I am hoping this is the end of our bad luck for a while, but it seems bad luck comes in threes, especially in October for us. Cross your fingers!

We did have a good time Saturday on Grand Ave's Boo Bash. The weather was warm (right around 60 degrees) and the kids loved wearing their costumes and visiting the stores handing out treats. Nick work the lion costume I made when Andrew was two. He was very excited to be a Ly-lee (his version of lion) and even liked wearing the hood. Andrew is a knight this year, inspired by our visit to the Renaissance Festival at the beginning of September. I still have a couple things to do to his costume, but I did get most of it made in time for Saturday. I really was planning to have an extra week to finish his costume, but I'm glad I could get it together for the Boo Bash.


My knight and lion


I love the chain mail hood!

We visited many stores, including the new Wonderment store (which I had been meaning to visit in Mpls, but just hadn't gotten over there), and participated in the costume contest. Nicholas even won a prize for his costume, which happened to be a small collection of things from Wonderment (thank you Wonderment). It was a nice prize because, although Andrew didn't win a prize for his costume, there were things in Nick's prize they could share.


The lion and the lamb (sheep?)


Nick with his prize


Andrew in the bouncy fire truck/slide thing


Now I think I will take some time to spin and try to settle down a little after the rush around this morning. Hopefully, the rest of the day will be a bit calmer.


The clown fish I made for Andrew using instructions from my new Wool Pets book purchased at Wonderment.

The main reason we need to move...

Last night our garage was broken into, again. We are vigilant about keeping our service door locked, keeping the garage door closed (even unplugging it on the weekends when the Jeep usually stays in the garage). Yet, someone knew that there were tools there and managed to open our service door and take our table saw, miter saw and reciprocating saw sometime between 6pm and 9am last night. We have tried to keep tools out of the garage, but we truly don't have space for them in our partial basement and need them for the work we have been doing on our house. Tim called the police to report the break in and was told that he needed to call back Monday because they only handle break-ins to out-buildings Monday through Saturday. This afternoon was spend installing a deadbolt on our service door for the garage. Next, we will be installing motion sensitive lights above both doors. I know we don't live in a very nice neighborhood, but I am truly tired of having things go missing constantly.