Just as I promised

Here are all the pics that I haven't been able to post until now. We'll start with the camping trip. Most of us found the camping trip fun. We couldn't get a spot at the any of the close camping grounds, as I didn't have the money to reserve ahead on the internet. But, we did camp. Where, you may ask? Why, in my mom's back yard, of course. Mom lives in the nearly-country. So, we pitched the tents in the back yard. The first night it was Shawn, me and the girls, Taylor did come to visit for dinner and marshmallows over the fire. So, let's start with the pics.

Here is Shawn, roasting a marshmallow.

Here is Taylor and Katie. And, yes, that is a marshmallow in Katie's mouth.

Even Bebe enjoyed the trip. (sorry, the pic's a little blurry.) Before I took Bebe, mom wasn't able to let her out in the back yard without being on a leash, she would try to run off. Both mom and dad commented on how calm she is since I inherited her, and how she just followed me around.

The camp fire.

Roasting marshmallows. I think if you click on it to enlarge it, you just might see the flame from the bottom marshmallow to the top one.

Shawn, with a handful of marshmallows.

Katie and Taylor, eating marshmallows.

Miss PJ joined us on Saturday with her oldest son, Brandon, and her nephew, Dale. We went canoeing Saturday afternoon at Trapper John's Canoe Livery, which is around the corner from mom's. Sorry, no pics of that, as I didn't want to risk getting my camera wet. Later, as PJ looked at all the tents we had set up, she said it looked like a traveling hippie commune. Here are pics of the tents.

A shot of most of the tents.

Here is the morning dew on top of PJ's brand new tent. If you click on the pic to enlarge it, you may see how sparkly it looks.

Here is PJ's big tent.

Here is her brand new tent.

Here is my tiny tent. We joked that even the dog had a tent. I forgot to take a pic of it, but the tent to the left is my medium tent that the girls slept in.

Here is my largest tent, which is very old, and I loaned it to a friend, who basically ruined it. Mom bought me a new tent to replace it, I just haven't had time to unpack it to take pics of it yet.

And here is Brandon peeking out of his mom's new tent. We joked that it ate him.

When we went back to PJ's, she brought out something and gave it me, saying, "Here. Take this, I'll never use it, and I know you will." It was a noodle extruder.

I haven't had a chance to try it out yet, but I plan to this weekend. I found a recipe for whole wheat pasta to try. And, it came with 5 different dies for 5 different styles of noodles. I can't wait to try it.

Now for knitting projects. First up is the Tudora that I made with a left over ball from my CPH.

This was the beginning of it. I had intended to take it as my knitting project for camping, but only got to knit 2 rows.

Here is Katie modeling it for me. I don't like the placement of the button, so I will be fixing it. I didn't modify the pattern in any way.

Here are pics that are a result of leaving my camera in the house with the girls while they are home alone.

Bebe, looking less than thrilled to have her pic taken.

Moonie, also looking less than thrilled.

And, alas, Vinny, trying to ignore the camera.

Here is some yarn that I recently acquired to make another Tudora and a pair of Fetching to go with my navy pea coat. Normally, I don't go for orange colors, but Miss Amy convinced me to break out of the box and pick from the opposite side of the color wheel.

It's Plymouth's Baby Alpaca worsted. And it's like buttah. It is so soft, that I can't even feel it move between my fingers.

And finally, my finished Wool Peddler's Shawl. I still need to block it.

SPECS

Yarn: Cascade 220
Color: # 8895 Red
Needles: US 9 circs
Mods: I added 2 extra reps to use up the yarn that I had.

I love this shawl, and can't wait to get it blocked.

Well, I'm going to go watch Haunted Lighthouses on the Travel Channel. I should have pics soon of the jellys, jam and pumpkin butter, as well as noodles, breads and homemade alfredo sauce from this weekend. Until then, Happy Knitting!

That time of year.....

It's time for school to start! Katie went back yesterday, her first day of 8th grade. Annie goes back tomorrow for her first day of 2nd grade. Today, I had my first day back to my normal, long commute. As much as I've hated that drive for the past 7 years, I actually enjoyed it today. Maybe it's because I got to spend more than 15 minutes alone. This past summer, I only had to drive to work, so I only spent 15 minutes in the car. Now that I'm back to the normal drive, which I spend 2 hours in the car each day, I have found it to be relaxing. And, maybe it's also the fact that I can feel fall in the air, and I have a powerful urge to start a cabled pullover. But, anywho!

I do have camping pics to share, I just haven't found the time to blog about them. I'll try to post them soon. And I have 2 FO's to share. But, I'm not at home. If you're on Ravelry, you can check them out before I blog about them. I whipped up a Tudora with a ball of left overs from my CPH, which was Wool of the Andes in Black Cherry Heather. And I finally finished my Wool Peddler's Shawl. I still need to wash and block the shawl, but it came out so lovely. So, now I am working on another Tudora in some Plymouth Baby Alpaca in a deep pumpkin orange. I'll be making a matching pair of Fetching to go with it. This will be my new winter set to go with my navy pea coat. I'll also be finishing the sleeves for my poor forgotten Rogue. I have also been trying to crank out squares for the afghans I'm working on for Christmas. I still need to finish Annie's bright green Irish Hiking Scarf. And I have a pair of socks on the needles that have been waiting patiently for me to finish them and mail them to Canada, to Miss Laura. Plus, this weekend I want to process about 5 lbs of blackberries for jam, make some apple and white grape jelly, and some pumpkin butter. Thank goodness it's a long weekend.

So, until I'm able to post pics, Happy Knitting!

A case of just my luck, and a busy week ahead

It never fails. Yesterday I visited the LYS to see if they had my ball of red, and it wasn't in. Well, this morning I was washing my hands after eating a doughnut, and my back pocket started singing. It was the LYS to tell me that my yarn arrived this morning. See? Just my luck. So, I'll be running back up there this afternoon for lunch, to fetch my ball of yarn. In the mean time, I re-started the sleeves for my poor, lingering Rogue. I didn't get too far last night, but I'm going to finish them before finishing my Wool Peddlar's Shawl.

The rest of my busy week will be in an impromptu trip to Dayton this evening, and then packing for camping this weekend, more on that in a minute. Why the trip to Dayton, you may ask? Well, it's because I have a chance to get my hot little hands on a very sought after book. My SIL has graciously found a copy of Alice Starmore's Aran Knitting that I can barrow. Therefore, I think a trip to Dayton is a small price to pay to get my hands on a book that is currently selling for more that $260. Then, Shawn will have his long awaited St. Enda pullover.

As for the camping trip, I can't wait. I love to go camping. I have taken Friday off so I can grocery shop in the morning, and go in the afternoon to set up camp. Shawn was surprised that he found a woman that comes complete with all of her own camping gear. I have been equipped for years. I have 3 different sizes of tents, coolers in abundance, old cook wear set aside just for camping, an air mattress (which I will be buying another this week), but I have to replace my sleeping bags, they were a little on the old side, like almost as old as Katie. We're not going far, we're just going to Deer Creek State Park, but, it's camping. Woo-Hoo! Miss PJ and the boys might going along as well. I'll try to remember my camera, so I can share pics.

Anywho! Lunch is quickly approaching, and I have to run. Happy Knitting!

Busy, busy month! (Warning: Picture Heavy Post)

I have been such a bad blogger. But, I have really been down this year. Maybe with moving, trying to settle in and Grandma dying has put me in this funk. For the longest time, I was unable to knit, and now it seems like I can't stop knitting. But, let me get to the pics I have today, then I'll tell about my mis-adventures in knitting.

I did get the costumes done for Great Lake Medieval Faire, and just in time to leave. I was literally driving gromits an hour before we were ready to leave on Friday. We had a lovely time, aside from the heat. Once got settled into the hotel, we found a resturant that we haven't tried before. Great little itlian place that was in an old bank. They served a great chicken Marsala, and had excellent margaritas, I had two. When we got back to the hotel, the kids wanted to go swimming in the indoor pool. So, I sat poolside with Cassi and watched Katie do cannon balls in the deep end (which was 5 ft deep). She had one really good one, the back splash hit the ceiling of the pool room. On Saturday, we all got started bright and early, got breakfast at the hotel, got dressed is costume and headed off to the fair. Let me just say now that it was hot. And I do mean hot. We got there at about 10:30 am, and didn't leave until around 6 pm. We had fun, but everyone scattered to the four winds once we got in there. We all did meet up several times, and we did get some pics. I don't have all of them here, but here's a few:

Here's the boys: (from left to right) Pat (Shawn's dad), Chris and Shawn (Mr. S).

Here is Annie and Cassi. This one was taken the 2nd day we were there.

Barrett the bagpiper. My favorite. The man walks around barefoot. I have never seen him in a pair of shoes, at any point, over the last 10 years.

Here is Shawn and Annie, on the first day.

After sweltering on Saturday, Katie and I decided not to dress on Sunday, even though everyone else did. But, we had a blast. It did rain on Sunday. We were trapped on the covered bridge to the mud show with about 20 other people. While we were trapped, Barrett played, a wandering minstrel couple played for us, and the mud show performers did a show on the bridge for us, and used Katie (much to her dislike) as part of the show. The only bad thing that happened was that I lost my favorite sunglasses off the side of the bridge, and didn't want to get down into the mud to retrieve them. I do have more pics. I'll upload them later when I'm on my laptop, which is where the pics are.


This past weekend, Katie had her year end softball party. It was held out at Buckeye Lake at one of the girls grandparents vacation house. And let me just say, I haven't been out there since I was a kid, and boy, have the summer houses changed. I'm talking around 300k and better for these places. Oh, how a long for a summer house. (Sorry. Eddie Izzard fans will understand that one.) Anywho. The girls had a blast. There weren't too many kids there, which was good. They swam in the lake, rode the pontoon boat and jet ski, and even went tubing. I forgot my camera, but others didn't, here are the pics that I swiped from them:

Here is Katie and I. They say the camera adds 10 pounds, I'm thinking more like 20. The girls talked me into the sun hat, I don't normally wear hats. But it was a cute hat, and for $5. We each got a different hat.

Here's Katie in her hat.

Another pic of Katie in her hat.

Here's Katie, swimming in the lake. All the kids had a blast. They were jumping in right off the bank. And since the currents can be strong, they all wore life jackets.

Here's Annie swimming. Not only did she wear a life jacket, but because she couldn't touch the bottom, she insisted on have an inflatable tube.

Here's Annie in her hat, blowing bubbles.

Here's Annie trying to get out of her life jacket.

I got creative and started a Wool Peddler's Shawl. I bought 4 hanks of Cascade 220, in a lovely red. I worked on it, mainly, after I finished the costumes. I even took it with me to the softball party. Yesterday, I brought it with me to work, I thought I'd work on it at lunch. When I pulled it out of my bag and saw how small my ball of yarn was (the 3rd ball), I pulled the last hank out to wind it up, and realized that it was the wrong colorway. I didn't know if I wanted to laugh or cry. And it was clearly the wrong colorway, not the wrong dye lot, the wrong colorway. I called the store where I got it, because they'll let me exchange it for the right one, just to find out that they are out of my colorway and have to order one for me. Now, I have to resort to working on something else until it comes in. I had thought about starting a baby blanket for Miss PJ, but then I thought about the projects that hanging around the house unfinished. If you are wondering which ones they are, they're on the side bar, to the right, if you want to take a peek. So, I went into my room and picked up the first yarn tote I saw. It just happened to be my poor CPH. But, in the mean time, here is a pic of my Wool Peddler's Shawl.

Not a very good pic, I know, I'll take a better one later. But, this is where she's at until the last ball of yarn arrives.


Happy Knitting!