Check out this yarn!

It's called PolarKnit, which I purchased at The Loopy Ewe. Such a fun place to shop - they have an incredible, unusual selection of all things yarny.


It's such a cool yarn - very thick and knits up super fast. Here's the start of Sam's hat:


I started it this morning using size 10 needles (I cast-on with size 11s) and knitted for maybe 1/2 hour to get to this point.


The colorway is Mermaid; each ball is about 55 yards or so and it's made of 100% polyester fleece. I'm guessing I'll use three balls for this project. It's so much fun to work with and best of all, will be wonderfully warm this winter for Sam.

I'm adding onto this post this evening to say the hat is FINISHED! Talk about a fast knit. Here's Sam modeling his new hat:


Cute, isn't he *cough cough*.

Family Conference

We were lucky enough to get to attend a conference this week at Clarke School for the Deaf. They do a yearly mainstreaming conference - this year was the first year that the whole family got to attend. The boys went off to "Making Connections" which is a track designed for teens with hearing loss in the mainstream. They had a blast meeting new friends and seeing old ones (which includes the conference organizers). The height of their day and ours was getting to see comedienne Kathy Buckley. Wow - what an amazing woman. And did I say how funny she is? Kathy is hard of hearing but wasn't diagnosed with her hearing loss until she was 8 years old. I listened to her alternating between laughing so hard I cried and crying because parts of her story just about break your heart. It's safe to say she ruined my make-up that day. You should check her out. She's so inspirational.

Here's a picture of the boys with Kathy - I won't tell you what she told them all to say when smiling for the camera! Aren't all three of them just gorgeous?


John Anderson is one of our favorite people. He grew up hard of hearing then lost the rest of his hearing as an adult and was one of the first to receive a cochlear implant. John is Clarke's adjustment counselor - such a great guy!


Hugh and I got to volunteer with the conference which was a lot of fun - I haven't done that before. It was fun catching up with old friends at Clarke as well as moms of other teens who now are buddies. It was wonderful being there for all of us - as usual!

The Pioneer Valley, where Clarke is located, is one of our favorite areas. It's located in western Mass and is home of Webs which I didn't get to visit. *sniff* I really need more yarn too. We went to the Holyoke Mall on the way home - I swear our whole town could fit in that mall! It's a little overwhelming.

I did knit all along the way - no new projects but making progress on several which is good. The holidays are approaching!

Go Sox!

This is what the morning looks like after a late Sox game...

Fall!

You can tell it's really fall - the leaves are just gorgeous this year. Last night we had our first hard freeze. It's funny the way the leaves all fall off of this tree in our backyard all at once. I don't know what the tree is, but here's what greeted us this morning:


Another way is that the cats get really snuggly. Nothing like a warm cat on a chilly morning!


I've been busy with projects, as usual. I started this week another Debbie O'Neill pattern called Autumn Leaves in Classic Elite Alpaca Sock - very soft yarn!


I'm also making a hat for my nephew, Joshua that I started this week. The yarn is Malabrigo worsted weight - it's the softest yarn I think I've ever used!


The pattern is Mighty Mitts and Flap Caps by Cottage Creations. I also made this pattern for my boys, both using Malabrigo worsted.

I also made a flap cap for our newest nephew, Jonah using Green Mountain Spinnery's Mountain Mohair yarn. It's way too fun (and tempting) to have GMS down the road a ways!


I'll be making Jonah and Joshua's brother (Justin) a flap cap too. Flap cap central!

We're off to a football game today - perfect weather for it.

I figured since I was updating Ravelry, I should share a couple of my latest projects. This is the latest offering from theknitter.com's luxury sock of the month club. The pattern is Licorice Twist by Debbie O'Neill - isn't it gorgeous? I particularly love the cuff - very fun to knit and kind of different.


The yarn is Dream in Color - Smooshy. It's a little thicker fingering weight but will be so warm and lovely! I think the fall colors are great and go well with our burning bush in the front yard.

Every year a group of us Sox Knitters on Ravelry knit "good juju" socks to cheer the Red Sox on. Here's this year's offering - so far, so good. We believe the formula this year is (1) me knitting the socks; (2) my colleague Peter going to the game; and (3) my other colleague Holly's cat (Shebu). Oh - we're NOT superstitious!


This is my plain vanilla sock knit in Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock stripes in the Loopy colorway. I got the yarn from The Loopy Ewe What a fun shop! These socks are for my younger son.

I've been making hats! My friend Beth (Ms. Baseball Knitter) told me about Malabrigo yarn - heaven! It's SO soft and the colors are gorgeous. Here are flap caps I knit for Tom and for Sam. Both in Malabrigo worsted weight. The pattern is a Cottage Creations design - Mighty Mitts and Flap Caps.




Happy fall!

Resurrecting the blog - if only for brownie points

My buddy, Adrienne is having a 100th post contest on her blog

She'll be giving away Socks that Rock Yarn - which is heavenly. If you join her contest, let her know the Bionic Knitter sent you! Another friend, Debi, told me about the contest.