Happy Halloween

Hard to believe that I can look outside my window and see foliage on the trees and snow on the ground! On Friday we went to a local orchard's pumpkin patch for a Halloween parade:

My little witch.


Prize-winning "cow" (he's really a horse, the outfit has a mane) - he won for best animal costume!

And then on Saturday we had to switch to a costume of a different sort:

Crazy. I'm in the middle of making the Lorax a new winter hat. She did well with the mittens, but this year she's big into picking up the snow, so I need to find some better "play in the snow" mitts.

Today we will be rocking the costumes to the grandparents and that is about it. Given the fickle nature of a pre-schooler, I did not bother to make any costumes this year, except for Jackson. He doesn't complain or change his mind and is properly motivated by cheese. Inspired by this, "My Pimp Paw is Strong, I made Jackson a new hat and chains. It was meant to be - I found exactly one feather when I went looking in the craft supplies!


May you have more treats than tricks!!

Yarn Along - Oct 26

From small things

~ Two of my favorite things are knitting and reading, and the evidence of this often shows up in my photographs. I love seeing what other people are knitting and reading as well. So, what are you knitting or crocheting right now? What are you reading? Take a photo and share it either on your blog or on Flickr. Leave a link below to share your photo with the rest of us! ~

It's been an exciting week around this blog. The Yarn Harlot, after meeting TheatreKnitter, gave a shout out / linked to my blog for the PatPat's Hats project! Oh my. My little blog got 3,000 views over 4 days!! Crazy in the best possible way and I am so happy to help PatPat's Hats. The response has been very positive - there is a facebook page and a Ravelry group. While the initial donation is going to be made in January, this is anticipated to be an annual event.

On to the Yarn Along - I finished "Tattoos on the Heart" - I really enjoyed reading about Homeboy-industries. I keep thinking of the Anne Frank quote too, about how despite all that happens, deep down you have to believe that people are good at heart. I've been considering Christmas knitting and have cast on a few projects, shown here, neither of which though are Christmas gifts. The purple thing I hope to show off soon as it was an impulse project. The red and brown striped item is going to be a sweater for Nate. I love the fall chill in the air, that also seems to be in my house - I don't love that as it is not good for being energy efficient, but I love the feeling of wanting a cup of tea throughout the day and snuggling under a blanket at night. I have also been able to work on a few rows of the neon nightmare without breaking out in a sweat.

I feel like I am starting to find a few more moments during the day for some knitting, thank goodness!! The evenings are more of a challenge, but I will take what I can get!

PatPats Hats

Just putting this out there again - I've gotten some lovely hats and seen several in progress! Thank you for your thoughts, prayers, fibers and time!!

Fellow Knitters, I'm putting out the knit-signal...

(credit for the logo goes to TheBookishGirl way back when!)

My good friend Betsy, aka Theatreknitter, and her family have had some major stresses to deal with. On Aug. 31st her nephew, Patrick, was brought into Yale New Haven Children's Hospital ER. On that day they found 3 brain tumors that were quickly removed . While he is meeting milestones and doing pretty well recovering from his surgery, there is still a long way to go. She would like to thank the nurses, doctors, and community of Yale Children's by donating "Pat Pat's hats" (PatPat is what Patrick calls himself) so that children undergoing treatment can get a warm hat while receiving treatments. We're looking for hats for preemies to teenagers, and everything in between. Can you make a hat or two (or more? Or maybe you would like to help in some other way?)? I am helping out as I can as a point person for collecting the hats. The hats will be donated after the new year.

You can message me on Ravelry (I'm nutmegknitter) or shoot me an email: nutmegknitter AT gmail DOT com
We have also set up a Facebook page and event as well - if you would like to "attend". I think it is set as a "public" event, but if you have trouble message me and we can figure it out!

Rhinebeck Rejuvenates

This weekend went by way too fast and it was a complete success! I loved being away for a bit with the girls on Friday and getting to see family on Saturday. Rhinebeck is such a fun time - inspiration abounds just seeing all of wonderful handknits and lovely yarns, and people! I was a terrible "bingo" player - my Ravelry username button was left in the trunk of my car! - and I was so distracted by all the other things to look at that my bingo card stayed in my bag! The hats were a huge hit - to the non-knitters (like, my husband) who question my taste level while I was knitting or showed the finished project to them, they just don't understand how well it worked at the festival. It was fun to be a part of the group with the sparkle hats too and even more fun to be walking about and hear, "Ooh, love the hats! Ooh, the baby has one! Oooh, so Mom, Baby & Aunt!"


My "loose list" strategy worked really well I think. I ended up with two thrummed mitten kits from Good Karma Farm - one is intended for a Christmas gift and the other is for me.

There were a lot of other lovely things that caught my eye, but I resisted - I have a lot more ideas going forward for sure!

Nate gave his aunt and uncle a real sample of what babies are like - he fussed quite a bit after dinner on Saturday, but they were really good sports about it - they stepped up and gave it a shot to walk with him / snuggle him / get him to calm down. Even the cats didn't mind too much, but I think they liked sharing Nate's play mat. Doesn't Arthur look happy?


And now, it's back to the grind leaving the wool fumes behind. Till next year Rhinebeck!

Two Months!

Babies change so fast - today is Nate's 2 month birthday and he is so different already. He's doing great at picking his head up, loves sleeping on his tummy, can usually find his thumb if he's on his stomach, and just yesterday started "talking" with a lot of cooing / oohing / aahing. He did great at his first fiber festival (more on that later). He is rather fussy in the car, but I think most of that can be chalked up to gas - he's a gassy baby. If you are patient and talk to him and make a variety of silly faces, you get some pretty great faces back:

Rhinebeck or Bust!

I am beyond excited that Rhinebeck is this coming weekend! I will be attending with the little Nutmeg, so it is not a complete vacation, but still, to be surrounded friends and family and knitters and fiber and yarns and have it all be NORMAL will be wonderful. Last year I made the effort to say Hello to people when I recognized them. This year I've signed up for Rhinebeck Bingo


Want a tip on how to find me? Well, like last year, all the members of SnB in attendance at Rhinebeck made the same hat. This year we are doing it again, only bigger / bolder and full of bling... well, some sparkle anyway.

I've made 3 of these hats - one for me, one for my SIL and one for Nate. Can't you just tell how much he loves it?! The pattern is Flirtatious by Cathy Carron - gosh I hope she's at Rhinebeck to see us!


Seriously. Didn't the Lorax tell him this is just the beginning of the knitting nonsense I will try to put on him?

Hope you say Hi! Even if I'm not on your bingo card!

Yarn Along - Oct 12

From small things:
~ Two of my favorite things are knitting and reading, and the evidence of this often shows up in my photographs. I love seeing what other people are knitting and reading as well. So, what are you knitting or crocheting right now? What are you reading? ~

I gave up on "I Think I Love You". It is an infrequent occurrence that I do not finish a book (I know I didn't make it through "Profiles in Courage" or "The Killer Angels"). As it was an e-book "borrowed" from the library, I had a time limit on the books availability and I just din't finish in time. I could "take out" the book again, but I was not that invested in it. I started a new book, Tattoos on the Heart - it is an easy read, mostly anecdotes and that makes it easy to pick up and put down. I do not want to put it down though as the stories are engaging and there is plenty of food for thought.

I am working on knitting a Wishy Washy Fishy Tawashi for my "downstream" swap pal. I was happy to see this in my pal's queue, as I have also had it queued for a while. And that's been it, along with the hexipuffs. My knitting seems to have slowed down a bit, though with the influx of minis for the hexipuffs that helps me to drool over new yarns. And Rhinebeck is this weekend, so I am setting a very loose shopping list for myself. I always find when I actually have a list I never find what I am looking for. Last year I went in without a list but good knowledge of my stash and still didn't find anything I adored. This year, with my loose list, I am hoping to find a few new to me items and maybe splurge on a treat for me.

One of those days

Yesterday seemed like it had such promise to be a good day. Nate slept well through the night - we only had to get up once at 2am. Then he slept until 5:30am - not too bad in my book... until at 5:45am I was covered in spit-up. Covered and drenched. Hm. That was followed by another loss of power, a missed school day for the Lorax, a broken garage door and a bunch of truly minor annoyances that seemed all the greater because they were all happening on the same day.

I was able to get a few stitches done, thank goodness for the hexipuffs:

Though I am craving a larger project. I am currently entertaining ideas for Christmas gifts and selfish projects for me.

And I think we're ready to laugh at whatever Tuesday brings:

That time of year

I love that New England is finally feeling like fall - the nights are cool, people are generally cheery and not bitter about the weather yet, and working with wool is nice again! I finished a test knit of a cowl that I look forward to wearing. We will ignore the portion of the weather forecast that says this weekend it will be in the 70s / 80s.

The "Tartan" cowl by Caryl Pierre is soon to be released. I used O-Wool Classic in blue and O-Wool Balance in grey. I love how this cowl is shaped - it will sit nicely on your neck under a jacket collar to keep you warm, no gaps! It is large enough to pull up to your nose, or fold over and set in place with a shawl pin (gotta get me one of those, maybe at Rhinebeck!).


Jackson was less than impressed, but the colors look nice on him.

The Funky Chicken is Nate's chair buddy - I think this photo is one of the best ones we have of him - his eyes are open, he's not crying, and there is the hint of a smile.


Most of the other photos he looks like this:

At least Lorelai seems a bit more game to take photos again.