Knit and Weed A Row

I’ve started a friend’s baby sweater. It’s called a seamless raglan baby cardigan. It looks like a simple pattern. I found it on Ravelry. It is almost the same pattern as the sweater I made for Adam when he was a newborn.

It’s going to be in navy blue and orange. Stripes. I’ve got the collar band done last night. It’s time to change yarn from blue to orange.

However, it is snowing outside now. Seeing that I didn’t get enough sleep the past couple of nights and the kids have been up bright and early, it seems like a perfect opportunity for a nap. Huddle down in a comforter with a good book and a cup of hot tea. I might just doze off.

Knitting can wait for a bit.

Sarah has been going to ballet lessons in P Township every Saturday morning. I usually bring my knitting projects with me. I’d sit out in the lounge area and knit while waiting for her.

About 3 weeks ago, a pregnant mother was waiting for her daughter with me. She was very interested in finding out about my project; I was knitting Chirin’s tank top then. She went on saying that her 10 year old daughter joined a knitting group at her school to learn to knit.

The week after that, she brought her 10 year old along. Sure enough, she told her about me and the daughter brought along her knitting project. She’s knitting a baby blanket for her future baby sister. That was really sweet of her. She asked me how to do this and that, and I showed her how to bind off on her first project.

I have a protegee! Hehe…. me! She came again last week and showed me that she had binded off the rest of the first project. She did a really nice job on that, and on her blanket.

We sat there together in the lounge and just knitted and chat. I guess another mom sitting out there is interested in joining us knitting next week, too. Bring it on!

Speaking of baby projects, I have a couple of friends pregnant; one due in December and the other in May. My cousin was pregnant but she lost the baby at 5 months this summer. Maybe next time.

Lots of baby stuff to knit.

Brian made another batch of apple crisp tonight. It smells so good!

He also cut down all the basil plant and hung them in the spare room upstairs to dry. We opened the room door and it smelled strongly of basil. Another good smell in the house.

Tomorrow, we’ll do the same with rosemary. We’re going to check the attic area and see if we can hang them up there instead.

In Ypsi township, where we live, residents get 3 yrs of compost and 1 yd of mulch for free every year. We can also buy them for dirt cheap. I think that’s what we’re doing this weekend; picking up mulch for the roses and the herb beds.

It’s time to winterize the beds.

We’ll pick up compost in spring.

Anyhow.

Another thing that I did after dinner tonight, while Bri was making the crisp, was cutting Adam’s hair. This is his second haircut. I trimmed the back and the sides. A little bit off the top of his head.

His hair looks nice and neat now.

I am waiting for Sarah’s hair to grow longer so I can make it all the same length. The last time I cut it, I layered it. Now that it’s longer, it looks a bit choppy.

I probably will need to cut Bri’s hair soon, too. Who’s going to cut my hair?

We do save a lot of money by cutting hair at home. Imagine spending a minimum of $14 (most likely $18-$22) per head every month for the boys and every 2-3 months for Sarah and myself.

I could put those money away for something else…. like tons of yarn. ;P

I took the kids to the Flying Sheep Yarns store yesterday. Yeah….. Couldn’t resist.

They don’t have the needles I needed in stock but they put in the order yesterday.

While we were there, Sarah picked out a couple of yarn for her bag. Purple and fuschia. They’re kinda cute together. The yarns are Plymouth Encore DK weight. I started the bag last night and it’s been an easy knit. It’s going pretty fast.

I will only post the photo when it is at least 1/2 done.

I am tired. Work stress, the weather, the kids, the house… hell… just about everything. I am not stressing about petty stuff though. Just the big ones. I am glad I don’t have to go to Baltimore, MD tomorrow for Walter Reed project. Boss was going to send me, but we changed plans and are sending the foremen, instead.

It’d be nice if I could go and do a quick run outside but it’s freaking cold! Might end up going to the gym tonight.

Well… it’s fall. This year has gone by so fast. It’s already approaching the end of October. Sigh….

We still have a couple of things going on in the garden; tomatoes, lettuce, spinach and peas. We’ve cleaned out the row of beans, cucumbers and a couple of flower pots. The veggies that are still there seem to be doing just fine for now.

We did get frost over the weekend. We’ll see how far these plants will go.

Moving on.

I made another batch of apple butter yesterday afternoon. It’s still simmering in the crock pot as I am typing this blog. It’s almost done. I’ll get about 2.5 pints from this batch. I am thinking of making apple pie filling and can them with the other apples we have. Not much energy though.

I hope we’re not coming down with something. The adults in this house have been feeling icky and achy.

Next.

Knitting.

I’ve almost gotten one sleeve of Bri’s sweater done. I want to go to the yarn store and pick up another Addi Turbo needles size 3. The needles I am using current for Chirin’s sweater keeps snagging the yarn. So, the Addi might do the trick. We’ll see.

Now, I have to go and get my son off of the side table.

We woke up to frost a couple of mornings ago. I think our garden is done for the season, even if there are still things growing out there. We’re not going to pull everything out and clean the garden, not yet. We’ll let it be.

Last year, we didn’t pull most of the plants out. We let the plants died where they were planted. We only pulled them out in spring this year. I don’t know what it does to the soil. Seeing that they would decomposed on site, it might help the soil when we till it.

We are looking into planting for fall season techniques. Maybe if we get it right, we could continue our garden instead of stop the gardening for the season.

We did go to the orchard and picked a bushel of golden delicious and a peck of empire apple. The kids had a blast; Sarah was more interested in climbing the trees, and Adam was having fun picking apples off the low branches.

I finally managed to make apple butter this afternoon. I used the empire apples. Half a peck gave us a lot of applesauce. The sauce is in the slow cooker now with the spices.

The house smells like apples and cinnamon. Imagine that. :-D

We’ve all been sick. So.. we haven’t been able to fast the past few days.

Tomato soup sounds good when your throat feel scratchy. Just imagine the warm, thick tomatoey goodness slide down your throat. Mmmmm…..

Thinking about that, I made 2 batches of tomato soup today. They’re cooking on the stove now. We used the tomatoes and parsley from the garden. It smells so good!

I am famished.

Let’s see where I am on knitting projects.

1) I am making good progress on the tank top.
2) I am starting on one sleeve for Bri’s sweater. Yay!
3) Attempting to finish Sarah’s afghan.
4) Itching to start on Sarah and Adam’s bags.

Let’s move on.

I think we’re going apple picking (donuts!) and to a fall festival. We’re taking the kids to see and pet the animals, and go on a hay ride. That should be interesting with Adam!