Changing

I've always liked October. The air is crisper, the weather is nice, wool is in the air...

October's arrival does have a downside though; it brings with it the beginning of cold/flu season and we're working through our first case of sniffles but all is well otherwise.

It has been a little while since we went to the in-laws' lake house so we ventured down there for a bit of work and play before I start my new job. Yes, not only are the Seasons changing, my own little personal reality is going through an upheaval of sorts with my needing to go back to nursing. It's not that I am against nursing, it's more of the fact that I was perfectly happy staying home with the kids and all that and now I can't. In the grand scheme of things I can't complain too much though, so I wont. Well, maybe just a little... ;)

We enjoyed a nice Autumn walk and as usual, there were treasures to behold and critters to be found.

No idea what type of spider this is but it was crazy fast and about 2-3 inches long when measuring from the end of the front legs to the end of the back ones. Bleh.

The hubby caught some fish (and so did little man who took the opportunity to "teach" the hubby and my FIL the proper way to fish...)



And little man took care of a butterfly. I didn't have the heart to tell him that his new friend was probably nearing the end of its life cycle - he was too enamored with it.

Standing guard.

Since the weather was beautiful, I thought I would take the opportunity to snap some pictures of some of my latest handknits.... Remember not too long ago when I mentioned that I had an insatiable urge to knit sweaters for my minions? Well, I finished one and have the other on the needles now :)

I'm knitting them a bit on the large-side in the hopes that I can get at least 2 - maybe 3 - years worth of wear out of them assuming they are strong enough to live through the punishment only a growing child can dish out.

The pattern I used for little man's sweater was the Fisherlad Guernsey and I knit it out of Cascade 220 in the Atlantic colorway. Originally I had visions of a navy cabled sweater dancing through my head but when I heard that my LYS was going out of business I popped in and this is the color they had in a sweater-quantity. I couldn't envision this colorway working with my cabled sweater but doesn't it look divine in the Fisherman Sweater? I love how this turned out. I might be biased, but still. Then again I have always loved the Gansey/Guernsey style of sweaters so perhaps it's only natural that I made one.

I am almost through the yoke of little miss' top down cardigan so with any luck I will have that one finished soon. My productivity mojo has decided to take a vacation and I haven't been cranking things out like usual but that will change soon. I hope.

This next project has been finished for a little while now, but I haven't taken any pictures of it yet. This took way too long for me to complete and it would not have even happened had it not been for the generosity of one of my Knitting ladies who offered up 2 skeins (well almost 2, both were slightly used) of Noro to go along with my 2 blue skeins. They blended rather nicely, no?

I did not knit this next item - it was was knit by another one of my Knitting gals who was nice enough to test knit one of my upcoming Winter ebook patterns.

Yup, we're back with the ebook idea. I had the notion to send in a formal book proposal to a publisher because it was eating me that I hadn't given it the 'ol college try. After about a month I finally heard that they weren't going to accept it. Really though, I thought I would be more bummed about that but I still have the option/opportunity to publish them myself in an ebook format so that's what I'm doing. I will be releasing the Autumn ebook shortly - once I finish a sock. Mojo, dear mojo, where have you gone?

Want to see more change? I have this nightmare that I will wake up tomorrow and the minions will be out of my house with families of their own.

Here are a few more photos from out weekend. Little man's big score was the fact that he found a prize in his search for any and all things "John Deere". We're a big fan of tractors.