Farewell, October!

Leaves are falling steadily, here and in the Midwest as well. When we were visiting last month, David was anxious to play in the leaves but only acorns were raining down. Times have changed!

Here the sidewalks and gutters are covered with leaves thanks to recent wind and rain. Our area has a variety of maple appropriately called the Big-leaf Maple. Can you see why? Some are even larger! What we can't figure out is why we get these leaves in our yard since no trees of this type are in it!

Not too many projects to show at the moment although I did complete this scarf. It's made of Bee Sweet Magic Ball, just one of an African brand that returns part of the price to the women who make it. The original project, a shawlette, was driving me crazy because I didn't like the fishnet look from the size 36 (!) needles which were awkward to use. So I switched to this simple garter stitch pattern on 112 stitches which was in the Webs Winter Catalogue. It shows off the yarn changes much better although frogging mohair is NOT FUN!

This past Friday my quilt group had a work party. We ended up with 72 partially finished stockings, just 8 short of the number our local Ronald McDonald House requested. Here are my most recent contributions. (The green is the backing for both Felix and Bugs.) Next time we are adding a white fleece cuff, and they'll be finished.

Another indication that the holidays are sneaking up on us is provided every year by our mixed up Christmas cactus plants. This one is a combination of two colors, and it's the first time both parts have bloomed at once since Janet sent it to us. None of them bloom at Christmas anymore, and this year they're out for Halloween!

Speaking of Halloween, no post on this day would be complete without photos of the GK in costume. Even Daniel is participating this year, and Sophia may be living in her outfit which just happens to be her favorite color. Remember the tractor? This girl loves anything PINK!

Happily, Jill and Michael keep us well supplied with photos since we can't be there in person. David's class had a grand celebration. He's the NASA guy, waiting for Mom who arrived wearing her old chicken costume. Wish I could have seen that!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Fall!

Not too much going on here except lots of walking since the weather has been so nice. The days are noticably shorter at both ends, and we know the winter rains are coming soon. Apparently the Midewest is having a wonderful fall as well. Doesn't Daniel look as if he's enjoying being outside?

This morning's paper had a surprise. President Obama visited the home of the UW hospital volunteer coordinator for one of his "backyard chats"! Not a word was mentioned when we volunteered there this week, but recently one of the patients in the antepartum unit wanted to make thumbless mittens, so I had to find a pattern that would work. First I made a plain one using fingering yarn on a regular 2-needle mitten pattern and omitted the thumb. Then I searched for another patter online and found something prettier. Unfortunately the woman had gone home before my next visit, but at least I have a couple of new samples in my stash of projects.

SueR recently showed a photo of a Halloween dishcloth that she made and included the link to her pattern. I decided to see whether I could change it from a lacy pumpkin into something slightly different. Remembering the huge ball of orange yarn left from Daniel's hat, I decided to make a hotpad. Don't know if this thick enough to be a good hotpad, but Dick immediately recognized it as a pumpkin! Hurrah!

Sidetracked~~~Again!

How could I forget about Socktober? Last year I knit Kirsten Kapur's very fun Mystery Sock, so when I realized she was doing another one this year, all my good plans of finishing a couple of sweaters got derailed in favor of following along with the socks. (This year's pattern is just as pretty but can't be shown till they're finished.) And then along came my quilt group's latest project:


The local Ronald McDonald House requested 80 Christmas stockings, and guess whose group jumped on board? Our last meeting was spent cutting out lots of stockings from some prequilted fabric one member brought, and then I took home some different fabric to quilt and made 4 more. The next step is to sew the pairs together and add a white fleece cuff....probably at tomorrow's meeting.

And then there was this cute project that I stumbled on at the Spin a Yarn website. It looked like a perfect bootie for the antepartum moms, so I had to give it a try. The way the ears are made is quite clever, and the pattern is free!


And then there's these three little gremlins. Time to get a Halloween box in the mail. Oh my, when will I ever get back to those sweaters?

Ladybugs and Pumpkins

Dishcloths are a relatively quick knitting project and a good way to practice stitch patterns, following a chart or written instructions. Interestingly enough I've been told many times that these cloths are too pretty to use. Why do we think dishes should be washed with something ugly? This time I knit the bug in a more realistic color, but DH asked me if it was a pumpkin. Oh well. (Details and pattern link on Ravelry)

Speaking of pumpkins, this pattern was on the Lionbrand website and included booties which I didn't make. This ought to keep Daniel's ears warm, don't you think?

Speaking of Daniel, here's the latest photo from Jill. He's a big boy now!

We've been seeing lots of gold and red leaves on our walks lately. Just the other day we were very excited to see SIX quail, the first ever in our neighborhood. They are so cute, but unfortunately we didn't have our camera. Happy Fall!

One Dishcloth, Some Stitching, and Something PINK!

The month of September got away from me. We were gone for ten days, and I didn't do a whole lot of knitting or stitching. I did work on a couple of sweaters but need to make a button run for both, and a sleeve and front for one. I did finish this little dishcloth though, summer's last butterfly.

The backstitching on the letter "V" is finally finished on the Christmas SAL, and it's done except for the beads. I've been saving that part for last but have been wondering if I should do them as I go. I'm afraid they'll be in the way of the hoop. As you can see, I've started a couple of new letters. Wonder how long they'll take? It's certain that this project won't be done this year!

Did you know that tractors come in pink? That just happens to be Sophia's favorite color for the moment. Doesn't she look happy? (I know this has nothing to do with either sewing or knitting, but hey, what's a gramma to do?)