Wow it’s been a long time.  We went to Ohio for 3 weeks and I just got out of the habit of blogging.  I figured maybe if I had The Webmaster give the old bloggy an update it would inspire me to post more.  I’ve finished several knits and I’ll try to slowly post them.  The first of which are JO’s fingerless mitts that he bugged and bugged me to make.  I used some leftover Socks That Rock lightweight in thraven.  I kinda just winged these with the help of The Knitters Handy Book of Patterns.

I’d say he likes them.

The chickens are doing well and JO has his “favorite” which he calls his pet.

That silly bird let JO carry her around forever.

I’ll be back next week with another finished object and some highlights from our Ohio trip.

Nonny was giving haircuts last weekend and JO decided he wanted a mohawk. If I remember correctly it was The Webmaster’s idea, and I just went along with it. He does have a nice shaped head, albeit quite large, but nice an round. Here is the best view of the haircut, and you can see JY climbing the rock behind JO.

For some reason JY was in the mood to have his picture taken so I got some cute ones. I think it had more to do with the fact JO was getting his picture taken and JY didn’t want to be left out. I can’t decide which I like better. I like this one because JO looks like such an adult little man.

I like this one because JO and JY look like happy brothers who always love each other.

I finish my mosaic mystery socks designed by Star Athena. It’s a great pattern and I love the way it turned out. I used Hazel Knits Artisan sock in Plum Glace and Beachglass. The lace part of the sock is really stretchy so I had to decrease more stitches so the foot would fit, and I don’t love the placement of my decreases. I would also probably omit the lace if I knit this again and just do the foot in plain stockinette stitch.  The Webmaster said he like these socks so maybe if he’s good I will make him some without the lace.

The Webmaster took JO and JY to the park to drive their RC cars a couple weeks ago. It wasn’t supposed to rain, but of course it did as soon as we got there. JY’s truck had battery issues so he didn’t get to drive much, but JO had a blast with his truck.

JY had fun watching big brother drive so disaster was averted.

The Webmaster had to have a turn driving, and couldn’t resist the playground toys. JO kept a close eye on The Webmaster’s playing….I’m sure he was taking notes so he could try it next time.

For the final maneuver the truck went down the slide.

Since this post seems to be all about boys I finished  The Webmaster’s socks. The pattern I used was Xanthophyll by Hunter Hammersen.  I knit these socks two at a time magic loop for the first time.  The yarn was Cascade Yarns Heritage which is great for boy socks since it’s one of those workhorse type yarns.

The Webmaster was a great sock model, and the pattern looks sophisticated.

Not a super hard pattern to memorize and I definitely recommend it.

Next time I’ll have some chicken pictures and my in progress mosaic socks.

I finished another pair of socks by Nancy Bush knit in DIC Smooshy purple rain.  I don’t know what it is about smooshy, but every time I knit a pair of socks out of it they fit perfectly.  A friend on Ravelry informed me that it’s because smooshy is magic.  As good of an explanation as any.  The pattern was Child’s First Sock in Shell Pattern from the Knitting Vintage Socks book.  More details can be found here.

All the leaves have been falling around here, and the boys helped rake them up. JO took a turn with the leaf blower.

JO and JY sat in a pile of freshly raked leaves. I guess the leaves made JY’s nose itchy.

JY enjoyed digging through the leaves to see what he could find.

Look this one is as big as my head.

That’s all for now, but I finished a pair of socks for The Webmaster so I’ll be back next week with those.

We had a pumpkin carving party on Friday.  Five of the pumpkins we grew survived, and JO got a pumpkin from his pumpkin patch field trip.  We had one of those pumpkin carving kits from Walmart and JO insisted on wearing the skeleton gloves.

Some of the not quite ripe pumpkins were difficult to scrape, but never fear we conquered them in the end. JY was very meticulous with his scraping. That’s his “I’m working leave me alone face”

JO, and JY both wanted the Bat signal carved into their pumpkins. JY didn’t want to get his picture taken so JO squeezed him tight until he smiled.

I got some lovely mail a week or so ago. The October shipment of the Hazel Knits Sock club arrived. The green was Cascade Canopy, and the reddish brown was Path to the Peaks.

Next time I’ll have a finished pair of socks for you.

Jer came over last week and JO and JY made her play Hungry Hungry Hippos, Hide-n-seek, and Fish. They love the undivided attention she gives them. There might have been some booty shakin going on too, but I didn’t get a picture of that.

JY decided to play with a pink wallet that the boys got from Great Grandma Cowan. He kept trying to put it in his pocket, but he had on pajama pants. He just kept shoving it down the elastic waistband and it would stay for a minute, and then fall all the way down his leg. I could not stop laughing it was quite hilarious.

The Webmaster surprised me with a gift from my favorite yarn store, Renaissance Yarns. He stopped on his way home from a Dr’s appointment in Seattle. I didn’t even realize he knew where to find the store, but apparently he remembered from one of the times I made him make a quick stop. He bought me 2 skeins of Cascade Heritage, and Cat Bordhi’s new book. I decided to make him a pair of socks with one skein of yarn, and try out Magic Loop two at a time. It’s working out so far, but I’ll let you know if I run into trouble when I get to the heels. The pattern is Xanthophyll by Hunter Hammersen.

I finished my first mystery socks which are aptly named fox faces.  Nancy Bush was the designer of these lovely socks, and the requirement for SKA was to knit them in yellow.  I knit mine out of none other than Hazel Knits Artisan Sock in Stick ‘O’ Butter.  I really love these socks, and the only thing I would change if I knit them again would be to switch to stockinette after the 12 lace repeats.  I knit 15 lace repeats and I just think there isn’t enough separation of  the lace to the toe.  More details here.

In this picture you can see how the lace continues right onto the toe. Here is an example of a sock knit with a stockinette toe.

While I was taking pictures of the socks JY insisted on making faces for the camera.

I guess he’s grown out of his aversion to having his picture taken.

A couple of weeks ago The Webmaster and I went to Mt Vineyards leadership retreat. It was hosted at a ski lodge on Crystal Mountain. We had a great time, and the focus of the weekend was community and holding each other accountable. The boys stayed home with Nonny and Papa so we could focus on the weekend. It was kind of rainy, but I did manage to take this picture of a walkway leading up from one of the parking lots.

I haven’t had any experience with canning, but I helped Nonny with some stewed tomatoes. I cut and peeled the tomatoes while Nonny took care of the boiling. Here I am spooning some tomatoes into the canning jar. After spooning the tomatoes into the jar I poured in 3/4 tsp of salt and lemon juice. The blue thing that looks kind of like a ruler is used to press the air out of the tomatoes. I just thought it was fun to smoosh the crap out of tomatoes.

Then before putting the lid on you have to wipe down the outside of the jars and the seal on the bottom of the lids. If there are any food particles on the lid or jar it won’t seal properly.

The final step was to put the jars into the boiling water bath, and cooking them for 45 minutes. Only one of jars didn’t seal, but we used it to make soup so disaster was avoided. No it wasn’t one of the jars I did, you can blame Nonny for that one.

I did finish my Nancy Bush Mystery sock, but don’t have any pictures taken yet. You’ll have to settle for a picture of last months shipment of The Loopy Ewe sock club. That, my friends is Wollmeise sockenwolle 100% superwash merino.

JY turned Three on Monday so we had a little party for him. We had Transformers party stuff, and the Birthday boy wanted chicken with a bone, and rice-a-roni. Of course there was also chocolate cake. Here JY is getting sung to and blowing out the candles.

The boys  are really into monster trucks so we got JY a few for his collection.

He also wanted a track to drive them on, but I couldn’t find it so I got him a crash cage instead.

The Webmaster wanted to get a pinata for the boys to beat on, but unfortunately they only sell the ones with strings to pull.   I guess they think kids hyped up on sugar, and baseball bats are a bad combination. Here is JY pulling a string.

The string broke before the trap door opened so the webmaster brought out the bat to finish it off. The boys had a blast although they didn’t sleep well that night which I’m thinking had to do with the huge amounts of sugar they consumed.

In knitting news I’ve been working on my Nancy Bush mystery sock. I’m using Hazel Knits artisan sock in Stick o Butter. This picture was taken after I finished clue number 3. Clue number 4 has been released so I’m slightly farther along.

I also started the Mondo Cable Cardigan by Bonnie Marie Burns. I’m not very far along, but I’m loving it so far.

JO started Kindergarten last week. The week before there was a 2hr long orientation with his teacher, Mr. Smerer. I think I was more nervous than he was, but he might have just been trying to be brave. This is a picture I snapped on our way to the orientation. He doesn’t look scared at all does he?

The kids got a tour of the classroom and the school while Mr. Smerer chatted with the parents. JO didn’t really say one word except his name when asked. I think the class is looking at the clothes that are available to play dress up with. This is only part of his class, because they did several different orientations.

Last Wednesday was his first full day of class. He has class Monday, Wednesday, and every other Friday from 9:30 to 3:30. On Wednesday he rode the bus, but I had to take him up and put him in the front seat. He sat next to 2 other little kindergarten boys, and they all looked scared to death. He had fun though, and after he adjusts I’m sure he’ll be fine. On Friday he got right on the bus with the help of the neighbor girl, Hailey, who gets on with him at his bus stop. I got a quick picture of him getting off the bus, but it’s a bit blurry.

I finished my Starry Night shawl that I knit with DIC starry in absolute magenta. The yarn is 98% merino with 2% silver fiber. It’s so soft and sparkly.

I also managed to score some of the very coveted Wollmeise yarn from The Loopy Ewe.   Here are my pretties.

I’ll be back next time with a pair of socks and a couple new projects.