Catching Up

Such lovely weather we are experiencing lately here in Central Iowa. The in-laws are having a little get-together this upcoming weekend, so the hubby, minions, and I headed down to their lake house to help get some of the last minute projects get finished up. Little miss loves helping in the garden and little man is all to eager to help the big boys as long as it involves his wheelbarrow.
Can't work all the time though, there's knitting to be done! I turn 30 next month and while I don't have any problems with the actual age or easing myself into another decade, I do have this strange need to get rid of my WIP's before the big day happens. Don't ask, I can't explain it even to myself. Perhaps I'm just tired of looking at them on my Ravelry Projects Page and I'm using the birthday as an excuse. Whatever the reason, I made a bit of progress this weekend. (And I finished up 2 more sooper sekret projects last week that I can't post about just yet, but soon!).

First up, I finished my Deadliest Socks. The first sock took forever for me to finish.... probably because I kept putting it aside for other projects, but the Season Finale is Tuesday so I needed to have a finished pair for optimal crab-viewing. Put a deadline in front of me and look at me go. I started the second sock last Thursday afternoon and finished it up Saturday.
I also finished the first sock of one of my more recent sock patterns. This is my Snape's Stockings and this particular sock was knit with Sunshine Yarn's Twist Sock Yarn in the Snape Colorway. Fitting, no?
Though the pattern was written with a French heel, I was overcome with an odd desire to knit it up with a Dutch heel instead. I'll probably have to add the Dutch heel option to the pattern one of these days... It was my first Dutch heel and it is really comfortable! This sock has a higher stitch count than I normally use for my socks so the abbreviated gusset really kept the sock fitting nice and snug.

I have 2 more sock patterns written up and waiting to be knit - one honoring Neville and one honoring Dumbledore, both are characters from J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter Series (as if you needed me to tell you that!). So keep an eye open for those. I have the second Strut sock on the needles right now which will be followed by the second Hermione sock and then the second Snape sock and then a few others.... If I'm lucky, I might even reach my goal of getting rid of the majority of my WIP's.

What Did You Do This Week?

All in all, not a bad week. I managed to get a little bit of knitting done. I finally finished my first Deadliest Sock - I hope to CO for its mate in the near future. I love the show Deadliest Catch and thought I would dye up a skein of sock yarn for the show. That was last year. I thought I should probably at least get the pair done this year! I'm also just about finished with a stocking hat for little miss. I've noticed that some of the leaves are actually starting to change colors a bit and I know Fall is right around the corner despite the fact that it is still the middle of July. Last year I was knitting away and ended up knitting up a hat for little miss after the cooler temperatures had arrived and I wanted to make sure that little miss' melon stays nice and warm :) Little man has a few hats to choose from so I'm not too worried about him just yet though he's already asking for another. I tried casting on for a particular pattern but decided early on that that wasn't working for me. So, I thought I would wing it and it got a little out of hand... It's a bit longer than I had in mind originally, but it will still work out okay and there should be pictures of said stocking hat next post.

I did enjoy a knitting first this week, well 2 actually. I was knitting while driving..... while watching buffalo in their natural prairie! Okay, so I was going 5mph or less on a dirt road with no other cars to deal with and the herd was way off yonder, but still.

These aren't the best photos in the world but you get the idea. The zoom on my little point and shoot is what it is. I had no idea that these little beasties were hanging out so close to my house! Live somewhere all your life and you're still surprised on a regular basis. I am very glad that I found out about this place because it has become one of my new favorite places to visit. There's just something about sitting in the middle of nowhere listening to the wind blow the plants and flowers around you while the birds chirp away. It's rather grounding. We also saw an Elk off in the distance during our jaunt but those photos didn't turn out to my liking (i.e., they were worse than these).

Today I took the minions to the zoo along with my Parents, Brother, and Nephew. I didn't really get the camera out today though. In the middle of our zoo is a large playground that I don't normally let the minions play on. I know, bad Mom, but the way it's constructed you really can't see the kids at all which, knowing me... Little man was pretty good about making sure little miss was right next to him while climbing about and I did get this photo of little miss post slide.She also wanted me to get a picture of the rather friendly giraffe that was munching on some leaves beneath our feet.
Since it was a beautiful day, we went back to see if we could get lucky and see the buffalo a little closer. No buffalo to be seen today though it was a nice little trip. We were all alone watching this Elk chomp on some leaves. Again, mind the zoom/fuzziness.Then the other cars showed up flying down the dirt road and missing everything including the Elk. Their loss. If you're not there to really enjoy your surroundings why go at all? Anyway, I'm off to enjoy this beautiful day and finish a hat. Happy Knitting!

Keeping Up

This will be a quick little post. Little miss was a bit under the weather yesterday and seems to be improving a bit today, but still not 100%. I wanted to get a few photos up while they were watching a movie on TV since I've been talking about posting again for a week or more now!

The Knit In a few weeks ago was fabulous! Those individuals involved with the set up did a phenomenal job and I was able to meet so many lovely and talented ladies. Of course, being surrounded by fiber isn't a bad way to spend a weekend :) I did get a bit of knitting done while I was there, I finished the first sock of the pair in one of my own hand dyes...
I whipped out a little cowl with some stash yarn... (this is the first time I made something without an intended recipient in a long time. It feels rather weird really!)
And I started in on the Devil's Snare sock from the previous post. The other knitting I have been completing is still rather hush hush, though I can show a picture of another sock that I dyed up in honor of the upcoming St. Patrick's Day.
About a week ago now, Iowa was blessed with another snowfall. The minions, Grandpa H, and I all went out for a little shoveling and a little fun. Little man wields a mean shovel!
Little miss wanted to help too :)

There were snow angels and snowballs... wee snowmen and catching snow flakes on their tongues.







After a bit, we all went inside for some hot chocolate and a little rest. Alrighty then, off to check on my littlest minion!

Wasn't worried, not one bit!

There is something about October... It's probably my favorite of all the months and seems to go by much faster than all of the others. The leaves are glorious; the temperatures are lovely and brisk; the leaf piles are heaping. Our yard plays host to 3 full-sized trees and has a leaf/yard relationship with 3 other full-sized trees belonging to our neighbors (the human kind). Numerous trees means that we usually have plenty of leaves to go around and then some. The trees in back (one of which was claimed by Gnomes) have leaves that turn a lovely yellow and within 3 days of that color change, proceed to fall to the ground. Perfect for a lovely leaf pile. Or so I thought. As soon as the said leaves fell, the weather turned cold, wet, and for some reason, insanely windy last week. I was actually a bit worried that a leaf pile would not happen this Autumn and believe you me, the minions would have been heartbroken. But fear not, we here in Central Iowa are currently experiencing a wee warm up that helped dry out the leaves a bit and the minions and I took advantage of a beautiful Autumn afternoon. Little man started out with the minion-sized rake but little miss soon remedied that.
She was still a little unsure of the whole pile-thing.
Little man dove right in from the start. Come to think of it, he was pouring leaves over his head before I had even set the camera down and started to work on the pile!


Not everyone was as enthusiastic as little man.
She warmed up soon enough though...
It's always best to start in at a bit of a run isn't it?


It also didn't take long for the battles to begin.
Right back at ya! Where there are battles there are casualties. We lost little miss' hat somewhere in the pile.
Fortunately, the hat was saved. I don't think I've blogged about this hat. When my favorite LYS went out of business a while back, they had a sale where I happened to pick up 3 skeins of some rather random cigar-colored worsted weight yarn. It sat in the stash for a while because I had no particular project in mind. I knew I was going to make a few felted bowls this year so I thought I would use one of the skeins as a guinea pig of sorts. A pre-felted bowl makes a pretty good minion hat and they were a bit upset that I "ruined" their latest acquisition by felting it. The yarn looks better un-felted. After a spin in the washing machine the brown splotches fused together to resemble... well, vomit actually... sorry to be so graphic! The vomit-colored bowl is currently in use holding some mini leftover balls of yarn and I used the second of the 3 skeins to create another minion hat which fits little man a bit better than little miss but we can't have little man wearing our hat now can we little miss? This means that I have one more skein left over... anyone want a vomit-colored felted bowl? Let me know :P
She had decided that she was tired and that it was ready to go inside for "a little rest". I think the weather should hold out until the weekend anyway so there will be more time for fun in the leaves I'm sure :)

I've been working on my stealth/Holiday projects for a while now, one being a tad large and I decided in a fit of Startitis that I needed something new, small, and colorful. I had recently received a package from a friend of mine, J, from Florida containing a Hagrid's Pumpkin Patch colorway. I don't know that I will finish this pair of socks before October 31st or not and I'm sure I'll be kicking myself for knitting something that doesn't have a self-imposed deadline... but what are you going to do? Startitis is Startitis and is no laughing matter!
I'm a little bit further than this now and hope to finish it up shortly. I haven't worked with this particular base before and I am curious to see how it feels after a good soaking. I'll also be interested to see how the second knits up -- I had some crazy pooling action happening during my decreases in the leg where the colors spiraled one way and then the other. I'll have better pictures when the sock is finished.

Next post, pictures taken by my SIL K during her recent visit with her hubby M which should be sometime this week!

Changing Seasons

Once again, it has been a while since I posted so I thought I would give a minion update as well as show some of the knitting that hasn't been of the stealth/Holiday variety. Normally I am not a "Summer person" as I tend to prefer the cooler temperatures but for whatever reason, it is hard for me this year to imagine days like this are all but over. I looked out into the yard one day and saw that our leaves had already started to fall and I hadn't even made the minions' hats yet! That was quickly remedied. I decided to make one more of the Baby Norge Hats for little miss and found a fun hat pattern for little man, the Jacques Cousteau Hat. For little miss' hat, I used Mountain Colors 4/8 in the Gray Wolf colorway and I used Fearless Fibers Sportweight in the Alaska Colorway (held doubled) for little man's. After I blocked little man's hat I found that it fit me perfectly. Perhaps one for me in Fearless Fibers' Brick House colorway that I have sitting in my stash. I have also finished the mates to some of my single socks. This is one of the patterns that I designed for my friend J's Autumn sock kits called Shelves Upon Shelves. And I finally got around to finishing the 3rd of 4 pairs of socks for my Aunt M. This was just a simple 3x1 rib in Sunshine Yarn's Earth Day colorway. The rest of my current WIP's and recently finished projects will be revealed at a later date.

This past September 13th, my parents, the hubby, and I took the minions to see Thomas the Train at the Boone Scenic Railway again. They both had a fun time. They got to see Thomas and Sir Topham Hat... little miss was very excited! And, we even got to go for a little ride on Thomas! Little man enjoyed looking out the window as we passed snow plows, retired passenger (?) cars, and the other scenery. Those snow plows look rather menacing in person! Little miss was rather sleepy at this point and was able to snuggle a bit with Grandma S. All of the kids who rode the train received a special certificate. I think the hubby was a little too excited about it! Actually, the only reason that I am including this rather ridiculous photo is because he was joking about me putting it on the blog so... there you go hon! Little miss' rest time during the ride certainly did the trick; she was quite the ham right after the train ride was over.


They had a small car that the kids could climb on and "steer" the train.

I suppose I should report on our new neighbors. The Gnomes are making themselves quite at home in our tree and have since added a mail box and a little broom right outside their door. I will have to get a better photo of it to show you. BUT, the real big news is we have 2 MORE neighbors. Little man and I happened across the Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy on television and he seemed to enjoy "Sci-fi". Shortly there after, we noticed that two travelers had crashed in our yard.
The male looks rather perplexed while the woman just looks annoyed. The minions were extremely excited about their discovery and were worried that they might get cold at night as we found them around dusk. They wanted to put a towel or a blanket over them so they would be nice and cozy. Since then, the minions have become rather attached to the new "people" and enjoy relaying the story about "how they were flying across the sky when their ship broke down and they crashed into our yard" to anyone and everyone including my SIL K when she and her hubby M traveled here from Oregon for a little visit last week.
My SIL is sending me some photos of their trip so I will post those shortly. It was a nice week and a lovely visit. I think everyone was a bit sleepy by time it came to an end.Here's one last photo for you!