It's a comin...

Fall.
It's coming.
There's just something in the air. It's a bit cooler and the light is starting to change. It also seems like the knitting is beginning in earnest on the Blogs again. Who wants to have a ton of wool in their lap when it's 80, but when it's 60? It's a good thing!

I also saw this today.

If you can't see, those are YELLOW leaves. It's the house across the street from us. Their tree is always the first one to turn and drop it's leaves.

And then I've started seeing more and more of this

Squirrel activity. :)

As for my activity, I'm working on the Super Secret Baby Knitting (TM). Other than that, I move along on the clown version of the Monkey socks. This suckers are loud. LOUD.


Have to say I'm glad I'd earmarked this for my Mom, because...well I don't like them. :)

Last, but certainly not least, Abby is teaching friends to knit! How adorable is that? She's been knitting since she was 5 and we have 2 girls next door 6 and 9 who thought it'd be fun to learn. I had nothing at all to do with it, which makes it even cooler. :) She came and asked me for extra needles and yarn. Here's what I saw later. The blue is Abby's ...the other girls took theirs home, so we'll see if it goes anywhere.

Isn't that cute? I gave them each some Sugar and Cream because they liked the colors. I doubt it will go any further, but it just reaffirms to me that Abby is becoming a Knitter! She's trying to infect, I mean teach, others!

Blog on!

So no camera, but damn it I'll blog anyway! And share the last picts that I have from my camera. *sniff* I really liked it ..I can't believe I lost it. :PP Anyway, enjoy the pictures from the trip scattered through the post!

The start of the Texas Trek at 5 am

And thanks to KnitWit it looks like my picture problem might be resolved soon! Yay Knit bloggers, we are such a rockin community. :)

The infamous over the freeway McD's on the Will Rogers TurnPike in Oklahoma.

As mentioned I've finished the Solstice Slip and am on the foot of my second Sherbet Monkey. I'm not positive what I'm going to knit next. I wanted to make the enterlac socks by Eunny that are in the Spring 07 Knitty.



But I'm in doubt. She made them with Koigu KPM and I have some Lorna's Laces Shepard Sock earmarked for it. The gauges are different. The KPM gets 17 sts and 22 rnds in 2 in St St in the round on 1s (2.25). The Lorna's Laces gets 33 sts and 46 rnds in 4in St St in the rnd on 0s.

Translate to same measurement and you have
KPM is 8.5 st per inch, and 11 rnds on 1s
Lorna's is 8.25 per inch and 11.5 rnds on 0s

So I'll need to do some test swatches when I'm done with my last Monkey. Will let you know how it turns out. I'm not planning on doing knee highs, but they are made from the toe up, so it's easy to stop when you want.

The Arch!

I'm also working on my 'Homework' for my Stitches Midwest Classes. Simple 8 inch swatches and such for my Joy of Finishing class. My Russian Continental class doesn't have homework. Yay! That weekend is going to be so fun. I'm going with 5 other girlfriends. Wohoo! No kids, no SOs but mass amounts of yarn. It's heaven!

Play time, finally!

On other fronts I finished Deathly Hallows this past weekend. NO SPOILERS. I am not sure how I feel about it. I think in some ways I found it anticlimactic... I know I need to read it again to make sure I 'got' it all. It's so strange to read something like that. It's like you are on pins and needles the whole time, just wanting to get through it so you know what happens. Very odd.

Love the Sonic in Elk City, OK

Our Trip to Texas was really good. The girls and I made it down to Lubbock in two days. Two VERY exhausting days. I drove 550 miles on the 1st day and over 700 miles on the second. That was rough.

Back in the car....

The girls had fun with Grandma and going swimming and out to tea and things of that sort. I just enjoyed my mom's company, though it's always hard to be the 'only' parent when you are used to two. My mom raised my brother and me by herself from when I was 4. I can NOT imagine doing it. My hat goes off to single parents big time.

We are finally in Texas! And don't we look thrilled?

We stayed with her for a little over a week and headed home. We stopped on the second day (I was smart and took three days to get home) in St. Louis. I'd heard so much about their Zoo, I wasn't going to let that opportunity pass us by. We stayed an extra day and really enjoyed it. The place is beautiful and huge. Not a single day-er especially when it's 90+ degrees and humid as hell outside. Next time we go, I'm going in Fall or Spring. If you are in the area I highly recommend a stop. It's actually a free entry zoo. How cool is that?

An amazing rest stop near the Texas-Oklahoma border

I would have some good pictures of the zoo..but I'm 90% sure that's where my camera is. I believe I left it in the stroller we rented. I hope it's having a good time.....

And yes, everything really IS bigger in Texas.

Heat...

Ok..
Am I the only one who just can't knit in the heat? I have no urge to knit at all. I think part of it is because of the cyst/mass/thing .I'm also rereading all the Harry Potters to get boned up for the release of the last one in July.

I tried to cast on a simple SS sock in a great cotton yarn. Katia's mississippi 3. It's a pretty colorway and everything..but nope, I did my swatch, got my gauge, began to cast on and didn't even join it it the round. How pathetic!!




The gloves are languishing at the moment since the heat also seems to have sucked my attention span right out of me too. Fingers are next and I have a feeling I need to be alert for those.

Oh well! Summer is far far far too short in my neck of the woods (Wisconsin) so I guess I'm taking a bit of a knitting break.