I hope everyone had a good Halloween. We certainly did. We went to trick or treat up at Natasha's mom's house up in Haverstraw, NY. I think we terrorized the neighborhood:



Would you run screaming from that crew? Avery was Harry Potter in his Quidditch uniform, his little brother Ian was Thomas the Tank Engine. Natasha was an escaped convict, her sister Cheyenne is a little devil, her baby sister Zeyda was Blue from Blue's Clues.

I also managed to finish Mya:



I didn't wash it or block it yet but it looks pretty good. I took Devan with me to fix the sleeves but I never really had a chance to work on it and tonight I'm too tired from pounding the pavement extorting candy from suburbanites.

As soon as I finish watching Desperate Housewives it's off to bed for me...

Happy Birthday Baby

Ian is 3 years old today. My baby isn't really a baby anymore. He's even going to be starting school soon. Where does the time go?



As promised here is my haul from the Sheep and Wool Festival:



It wasn't as much as I thought I would come home with but I think it was a bit of sensory overload for me. I touched anything I could lay my hands on but when it came to making purchases I was just frozen with indecision. It was all so beautiful.

As mentioned previously most of my money was dropped at the Brooks Farm booth:



The purple is the Four Play (50% wool/50% silk). The blue is 500 yards of kid mohair that I am just itching to make into a shawl for myself.

I also bought this on Avery's orders:



We had just left the tent with the Alpacas and he decided he needed a hat or something made from Alpaca yarn.

So of course I had to get something for Ian:



I am hoping to get a hat and mittens out of these. They match his winter coat perfectly.

With everything going on of course I have barely worked on anything. I am actually just about done with Mya. I am finished with the knitting I just have to put it together. Then I want to get back to fixing Devan's sleeves and put that together. I am on vacation this week but I have a full plate with cleaning my mother's apartment out, but yesterday I fell and badly sprained my ankle so maybe I can take advantage and really get some work done!

I want to thank everyone for their kind words on the loss of my mother. I was overwhelmed by all the e-mails and so I didn't thank you each individually but each and every comment meant a great deal to my family and me. Thank you.

We had been preparing for her death for many months but of course it was still a blow. I did decide Saturday morning that we should go to the Sheep and Wool Festival anyway. The kids needed something fun and distracting and frankly so did I.

Here is the lovely foliage we encountered on the fair grounds:



The kids loved the animals. Ian's favorites were the llamas but Avery loved the alpacas, he especially loved that they would put their heads right outside the fence to greet you:



Ian's favorite part after the llamas was the hay maze (and the giant slide and the angora rabbits etc. etc. etc.) I lost track of how many times he went through it:



I took pictures of many animals but I am only posting the Icelandic sheep in tribute to my cousin Ingileif who is Icelandic (though definitely not a sheep!):



My digital camera has been MIA so I haven't yet taken pictures of what I bought. It wasn't as much as I would have thought but my heart wasn't truly in it. Next year watch out. Here's a sneak preview of some of the yarn.

I bought this for Maribel:


I spent way too much time at the Brooks Farm Fiber area and most of my acquisitions came from them. They had the most amazing colors and blends. The yarn above is called Four Play and it is 50% wool and 50% silk. It feels wonderful.

My mom finally passed away today...I'm glad she's not suffering anymore.


My mom and her sister giving an award to Helen Keller, my mom is on the left:



My mom and me:

Barbara J. Wetmore
1941-2004

The Knitting Group at B & N last night was rather small. Of course Maribel was there (it's her store) Sonia and Chaymie (I hope I spelled that right) and a new woman who's name I forget. She had attended last month's group which I missed. We also had the funniest little elderly woman who sat in with us. She thought it was a group to learn to knit. She kept asking questions about our projects and how it all worked. She also didn't quite get the difference between knit and crochet, no matter how many different ways Maribel explained it to her.

Sonia showed off the sweater she was working on at the August meeting:



It's her first adult project. It came out beautifully. The picture doesn't really do justice to the colors. It's such a deep shade of red with different shades swirling in it. Really a great Fall jacket.

Maribel wasn't crazy about the Suss Knit Kit Poncho so she is using the yarn for a scarf:



I again had to rip out part of one of the sleeves of Mya so I didn't get much done. The sleeves are in the lower right hand corner (the rest is the body of the sweater):



It's the same sleeve everytime. I think it's cursed...

She Stole My Post!

It's funny, I've been around the blogs lately and every once in awhile someone mentions that another blogger has written about the exact subject the first blogger was planning on talking about. Now it has happened to me.

I was going to blather on today about how I need to stop documenting my knitting goals for the weekend because once I do, invariably, I don't accomplish them. I wanted to finish Mya this past weekend, but I barely picked up my needles. Luckily for me I got a reprieve in that my friend Christina, mom of Joshua the recipient of the sweater, will not be attending tonight's B& N Knitting Group. She will however be visiting Thursday so I have a few more days to get it done. I'm working the sleeves at the same time but I have had to rip out one of them 3 or 4 times. I think they're both fine now and should go quickly.

Back to the point, this morning I was Blog surfing and there was Liz talking about how she is going to have to keep her plans to herself because when she talks about them she always ends up doing something completely different! Weird huh? Maybe it's just cosmic convergence, or two Bronx girls (Liz is formerly but it still counts)being insynch but it is a little weird reading someone else talking about what you've been thinking.

Tonight is Knitting Group at Barnes and Noble. I am very excited. I missed it last month because it was so damn busy here at work, so I'm really looking forward to it tonight. If you're on the upper east side tonight come hang with us, it's at 86th St. and Second Ave. We meet in the children's department at 7PM.

I've been RAOKed:



Thank you to Lynne for my lovely gifts. I am carrying the adorable Autumnal tissues with me to help deal with this horrible cold. I brought the hot chocolate with me to save for a bad work day when I may need the comfort. I left the candle home but I can't wait to light it. The gifts really brightened up my week.

Here is a picture of the completed multidirectional scarf:



I wasn't sure how I was feeling about the colors but I really love it. It will look really good on Ian's speech therapist. The colors are very complimentary to her.

Finally, I've been trying to let go of my quiz addiction but I had to fall off the wagon for this one (thanks Ann for enabling):


You're in touch with the world, and you have a very
strong opinion on things like politics and war.
Even if you do end up changing your image in
the future, most of us will still like you.


What band from the 80s are you?
brought to you by Quizilla


Happy Thanksgiving to all the Canadians Knitters (and non-knitters)!

The illness that has been attacking my family one by one finally caught up with me. I was deathly ill on my trip to Ohio but I just kept popping Tylenol to get me through. When I got back on Tuesday night I had dreams of spending Wednesday morning in bed, but I found out my mother in law (my son's week day caregiver) had taken the day off since she knew I would be home. Of course my early rising son, Ian, gets up at 6 in the morning. Thankfully my husband got up with him so I didn't have to get up until 7 when everybody starts getting ready for work and school.

I finished the scarf on the plane home. I was able to weave in the ends when I was home Wednesday so that's one holiday gift done. It's for Ian's Speech Therapist, she's a real sweetheart and he's made so much progress in the two months that she's been working with him.

I started seaming up Devan over the weekend but I discovered that although the sweater ran big (not too badly, he looks awfully cute in the vest part of it), the sleeves did not. I am going to have to undo the cast off and add a few increases to make them fit the armholes.

I am currently working on the sleeves to Mya so I can finish that up this weekend, hopefully. The knitting group at Barnes and Noble will be on Tuesday so I am hoping the mom of the recipient will be there and I can give it too her before he is much too big for it!

Have a great weekend...

Just a quick post from Ohio where I am on a business trip (not because I have much to report but simply because I feel cool because I am posting from "the road"). The only knitting I brought with me was the scarf and it is nearly done. In fact I stopped working on it in the airport yesterday because I thought I would finish it right there and then. If that happened I'd have nothing for today's flights.

I tried to make it to the Knit Out in Union Square on Sunday but we got caught at Book Country which was going on in Washington Square Park. Much fun was had. Avery got two books autographed. Cornelia Funke who wrote Inkheart which he loved, was signing her new book Dragon Rider. Also the illustrator for the Series of Unfortunate Events, Brett Helquist was there so we go number 5 signed (it was the volume we had in the car).

I was ok with missing the Knit Out until I visited Mindy's blog this morning. Sounds like it was a blast.

Forgive my lack of links, I seem to be missing a few of the tools in Blogger, I assume because I am on a MAC.

Block Party

Yesterday my youngest was sick so I decided to stay home from work. Interestingly enough he was fine by mid-morning but my mother-in-law and cousin were both sick as dogs. So what did I do. I blocked Devan.

Sleeves:

Sides:

Back:


It is definitely blocking larger than I expected but I figure that's ok, I mean children grow all the time right? I might throw it in the dryer for a few minutes after I sew it up to remove some of the stretch that wetting it caused.

I decided I needed a quick satisfying project so I cast on for the Multidirectional Scarf in Silk Garden:



I am sure it will go quickly especially considering my husband keeps asking how the scarf has anything to do with his sweater. Speaking of his sweater. I have joined the MANALONG over at Drew's. Yes, another knit along, but I have already finished part of the sweater so I figure it's ok. Having started the scarf that also means I have cast on for 2 holiday gifts already, whoo hoo.

I am also proud to say we carved our first pumpkin here at the Mathews household (this does not count the year my dear friend Leslie came over and carved one for us, miss you Les).

Here he is after he's been carved:



and here is a great creepy shot with his candle in:



Happy October everyone...