August and July Projects

I've been busily knitting - I know that's a big surprise to most of you! Here are some finished projects:

This is the luxury sock of the month club offering from The Knitter As always, Judy has such wonderful patterns and yarns. Judy designed this one herself - it's fairly simple (a cable each fourth row). The design lets the yarn do the talking. The yarn is Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in a colorway called Chocolate Raspberry - yummy, no? I was a little distressed - dweeb that I am - to have "fraternal" socks (aka socks that don't quite match) but others assured me that this is normal for this particular yarn. I love the way the socks feel when I wear them.


Speaking of Judy, this is the July SOTM club offering. The yarn is - I think - Sockotta (I've managed to lose the band from the yarn). It's a cotton blend and it was SO fun to knit! I knitted a bunch during the allstar games so these socks will remind me of then.


And here's the Knitter's June SOTM club offering - so patriotic! It's a design by Adrienne Fong called Betsy. It's knitted using Regia yarn.


I also finished the pieces for a cable sweater by Tahki Stacy Charles using Bunny Print yarn. I haven't sewed it together yet (that's for a cool, inside day) but I'm pleased with it


I have one sock finished with a really complicated pattern below called Fanning the Flames Socks. The pattern is a modular design - each triangle is knit either by itself or by picking up a row of stitches from the last triangles. It's pretty complicated but once I got started, I have the hang of it. The yarn is a new to me yarn - by Seacoast Handpaint My LYS (that's local yarn shop to you muggles) carries it. The woman who owns Seacoast Handpaint lives in NH and is a Dartmouth grad - what's not to like? The colorway for this yarn is Joyful. It's a lovely yarn to work with and I love the way it's working up with these socks.


(the heel looks better IRL = in real life - I need a pair of sock blockers!).

I'm working on the toe of the second sock of this pair. Oh - this pattern is a toe-up pattern which is new to me.

Based on Colin's suggestion (he's on a couple of knitting listserves I'm on), I got a skein of Online and LOVE it! It's another cotton blend and it working up nicely in this chevron pattern from the Sensational Knitted Socks book. I'm trying a different heel for this sock - each time I try to learn something different. The sock is showing off my new-to-me "walk around"knitting bag. It's perfect for socks!


I started the second sock just yesterday.

I'm so pleased that Adrienne asked me to be a test knitter! I was so thrilled that she asked me. As you know, Adrienne is my favorite sock designer so I feel like I've hit a new peak in sock knitting. I can't tell you more about it since I'm sworn to secrecy. Suffice to say it's just gorgeous. It's been a lot of fun for me to see how it all unfolds. Not unlike testing software!

I'm also tackling the infamous Kauni sweater. Take a look at the finished product here. Isn't it beautiful? It's not as difficult as it looks - you're only knitting with two colors at any given time. I'm about halfway up the body of the sweater. The biggest challenge so far has been unwinding the giant hanks. Oh, and sitting with all that wool on my lap when it's been so hot.

Off to knit!

I am here...

So I am here:


And Hugh is here (he manages the fitness center):


and our children are here!






tough, eh? And I ask you - is this fair?!

Packing for two kids to go to camp for two weeks is a big job. The cats were pretty psyched - they were sure they were going to get to go!


We managed to move the cats from the suitcases and are ready to go to camp!


Camp is only about 40 minutes away. When we arrived there, we helped get both guys settled in their cabins.

Sam's is B-6 (or B-Sick as they are calling themselves - gotta love camp life!). Sam has a buddy, Christian, from last year's camp - they asked to bunk together and are doing that.


Tom's in one close to him with 2 kids he knows from school (and likes a bunch).


The lake at the camp is just beautiful. The camp now owns all the land around the lake which is great for the campers.



An artist is painting a mural of the camp that will hand in the dining hall - isn't it gorgeous?


We had our annual picnic by the lake and then said our goodbyes


They are there for two weeks. We've had two letters from Sam, one, that was one sentence long, from Tom so we know they're happy and having a blast, which is what I really cared about. We told the guys we'd cry the whole time they were gone - right! We did forget chapstick. Poor Sam is so fair that he gets chapped really easily and really bad so Hugh ended up taking some down to him. We sure won't forget next year.

We miss the guys but are getting lots done - heh. I wonder if Tom will recognize his room?!

Blueberries

I read in our local paper that the berry crop this year was really good. So on Saturday, Hugh and I decided to see if that's the case. The boys are at camp for two weeks, so we gathered up some old clothes that they'd outgrown, dropped them off, then headed to the blueberry patch.

We were greeted with a sign that talked about "end of season picking" and we both thought "oh no, we've missed out!". But WOW - not to worry! There were loads and loads of berries.




We picked three buckets full - 9 pounds of berries!


Here's Hugh showing some of our spoils.




Where we pick is a family place - self service. I love what they do with their trees. They also have a treasure hunt for kids.


I already made cobbler - yum!