Take Three: Randomness

Randomocity. Randomnity. Randomliciousness.
With the end of summer comes the harvest. That there is Father Albert on the tractor with Miss Bobo riding in the wagon. He's coming up the lawn where he'll park and summon me and a basket and have me take my pick of the pick of the gardens. His green thumb enables me to fill the freezer with stuff like Crazed Monk Zucchini Bread

and my as-yet-unnamed but superlative Eggplant Parmesan. It was a good year for green peppers and eggplant, but a bad year for zucchini and tomatoes.

I made those zucchini breads for the Old Home Day bake sale. How pretty are those?

I also made these bracelets. I called them "Hunger Awareness Bracelets" and sold them at the fair with all the profits going to the food pantry. Did I mention how well we did that day? To recap: between the bake sale, craft fair, penny raffle, food sales from the kitchen, used book sale, and cash donations, we made almost exactly $1100.00. The Altar and Rosary matched that number and donated $2200 to the food pantry.

Speaking of eating, right before school started, Bobo lost her bottom two front teeth. The first one fell out on Grandpa's watch. She was eating some "Chef" (Bobo-speak for Beefaroni), and bit down on the spoon. Voila, one tooth out! The new tooth was already coming through. She never mentioned that it was even loose.

To tell you what kind of kid she is, I checked her other teeth for looseness and the one next to it was pretty loose too, so I was keeping an eye on it. One day she comes in and stares at me for a moment with absolutely no expression on her face. I grinned at her, and she grinned back at me and I saw that her second tooth was gone! I said, "What happened to your tooth?"

She replied, "*insert spitting noise* I spit it out."

"Where?" I asked.

"On the lawn," she said.

Her sister went out to look for it in the grass but naturally it didn't turn up. Only my kid loses a tooth, spits it out like it's no big deal to have parts of your head falling out, and then fails to mention it even in passing. Bug wrote a note for the the tooth fairy explaining that it was on the lawn somewhere, which the fairy must have bought because she left a nice blank journal for the Musings of Bobo.

And then before we knew it, summer was over.

Yay! First day of school! Cool mornings and warm afternoons! Cold nights and warm blankets and pj's!

Oh, I love fall.

Two girls off to the elementary school. Bug to the fourth grade...last year at the elementary school. Next year: middle school!

And Bobo is a kindergartener. Despite her expression, We really do Like Kindergarten.

Me: "What did you learn today?"

Her: "Stuff."

What do you expect from a kid that spits her tooth out and keeps playing?

Now that fall is upon us, things are starting up again. I'd forgotten how homebound summer can be for me. But tonight I have a catechists' meeting down at the church in which I get my class list for the year and so marks the point that I start preparing for classes.

Class has always been on Tuesday night, but because money is so tight and heating the church so expensive, they've decided to move all the religious ed classes to Sunday. Grades 1-5 meet between masses from 9-10:15 as always, but the middle grades (6, 7, & 8) will meet in the early evening from 5 to 6:15, and finally the confirmation prep classes will meet from 6:30 to 7:45. I rather like the streamlined-ness of having all the classes on one night.

Choir practices resume on Monday night.

Girls' open house at school on Tuesday, Altar and Rosary on Wednesday.

Oh, how I love fall!

Take Two: Knitting

But not just knitting!

I haven't done much knitting, to be honest. My desert-dwelling cousin inquired as to whether I could make some beanie-type hats for her daughter since she outgrew the ones they bought last year. I made the first prototype:

but there were some problems. First, Bobo won't give it up. She's worn it everywhere but to bed since I finished it.

Second, it's a bit long since cotton stretches and doesn't spring back like my beloved wool. Unless you buy the cotton with the elastic in it and I don't have any of that hanging about. So the beanie kind of loses it's shape quickly and as such becomes a tad too long. But no worries...

Version Two is shorter and this yarn doesn't seem to stretch as much. It also has a tendency to slide off. *shrugs*

The first one was made with leftover bits of Knitpicks Shine Sport and the second was some odds and ends closeout balls of what I believe was a Louisa Harding cotton. I would have no idea since the ball bands went away a long time ago.

Version the Third so far is a cable rib, as yet on the needles and still unphotographed. I think the cables will help it hug the head better so that it will stay on in the shorter length. We shall see.

Once that last hat is done I will likely start a new sweater using up that lavender/pink homespun and a pink and blue homespun I finished last year. And Bezz, it is VERY sproingy and bouncy. And soft...reminds me of cotton balls for some reason.

After that, who knows? Right now there's a baby napping and nothing on the wheel. I have some pretty green to work on.

I need more green in the stash. I seldom have any when I need it. Yellow either. It's weird. I should buy some.

And I can! I've been selling off some of my old stamp sets on eBay and they've been moving really well. So we had some spare cash to have breakfast out this morning. I needed it. I did not look or feel my very best this morning.

This year has been a great one for birthdays! Me and all my friends it seems have turned 40 this year and it's been one great party after another. I haven't had this much fun at birthday parties since we all turned 18! Polly was the latest and we played at her house until 12:30 in the morning.

I have the best friends in the world.

I brought my camera but didn't take any pictures. What happens in Canterbury, stays in Canterbury.

Take One: Spinning

I can only get out the wheel when Dave's asleep. He's very grabby.

Lately, I haven't touched my spinning much at all. I had some lavender merino languishing half-spun for months and months and months. I seem to find other stuff to keep me busy whilst Dave naps.

But inspired by Zonda's recent success with her singles, I decided to devote my afternoons to the merino until it's done.

And now, it's done.
The last picture is the only one that makes it look at all lavender. It's quite pink in the other two, and honestly...I think it's more pink than purple.

It's uneven. I had a lot of trouble keeping it one thickness, and I couldn't remember how thick I was trying to make it to begin with. That's the trouble with letting it sit so long. Plus, I tend to "spin thin" and have a struggle getting it thicker so I think I went back and forth a bit despite myself.

But, if I wanted perfect yarn I wouldn't be spinning. I would buy it already made. I like the thick and thin and slubbiness of homespun. It has character.

And We're Walking, We're Walking...

Well, kinda.

Mostly we're still standing in one place and letting go for longer and longer stretches of time. Moving the feet is still a bit scary if I think about it too hard.

And crawling is way faster. I can go way more places and get into way more stuff if I crawl!

But then it's awfully fun being big!

What's in the Bag, Poops?

What's in that cute, green shopping bag, Poops? Sure does hold a lot of stuff! Shall we take a peek inside and see what's been flying off the needles at Chateau Poops?

First, we have more shopping bags! Perfect for hauling those groceries around and soooo much more comely than the ugly 99-cent things they import from China and sell at the checkout!For those occasions where you're not picking up a lot of groceries, we have the mini-market bag. Perfect for grabbing a few tomatoes at the farm stand or perhaps a handful of Snicker's bars at the local convenience store. I don't judge. You can save the planet and eat candy too, it's okay by me.
Having mastered the adult-sized Norwegian mittens in many different permutations, I've scaled it back and made a kid-sized version of two of my patterns. I cuffed these bad boys so that they'd stay on better in the snow. These are some truly odd looking fingerless mittens in their unblocked state. Gotta say I'm less than proud of these, but what the heck. I figure someone's bound to think they're totally awesome...Some of you may remember two things: first of all, this underlining and linking to a photo of the photo in question happens to me randomly and I can't seem to get it to stop. Which is what you're seeing now. Don't let it bother you like it does me, mmmmkay? Second, I have designed my own pattern for paper coffee cup sheaths and can cozies. I call them Coffee Cozees and Sudz Soakerz, respectively. Today I'm introducing the third part of the Beverage Trinity: Bottle Buddeez.
Here's a few of those Sudz Soakers I toldja about. They sell really well at the Christmas craft fairs...great stocking stuffers!Finally, some more baby booties...true Poops Originals! They really don't get any more one-of-a-kind than this! First, we have bottle green with red soles and an apple/worm motif.For the hippie-come-lately, we have homespun turquoise with black soles and a lava lamp/"groovy" flower theme.Brown is the new black, so the third pair is chocolate brown with brown soles and has wee flowers on the bottom in shades of pink.Last, but far from least because they are my favorite pair, is the sweet as honey pair in mustard wool with brown soles. One pied de sous has a beehive and the other has a sunflower. I love these. Might keep 'em to hang from the rearview or something.I bet your wondering what I'm going to do with all this stuff. Perhaps you've already clicked on over to my etsy shop to snatch something up before they're all gone. But you're back and now you're all like "What the heck, Poops?"

See, there's this store in Maine that contacted me through etsy asking if I would be interested in selling some of my stuff there on consignment. I'm a whore, so of course I said yes. It's an all-girl enterprise and they feature handmade goodies from all 'round New England. So I boxed up all my booties, Norske mittens, a few hats and all the fingerless mittens I had and sent them off. Now I have a hole in my inventory and the Fall/Winter craft fair season is coming soon. I believe the Canterbury Holiday fair by the Ladies' Benevolent Society is in October, and the St. Joseph Christmas fair is at the beginning of November.

If all goes well and the stuff I sent to Maine sells as well as they think it will, and provided I do as well at the Christmas fairs as I usually do, I should have some nice Christmas cash.

Oh, and money to spend at the Patternworks New Year's Day sale....