Trick or treat

We went trick or treating last night with friends. Here are my two scary pirates. Okay, maybe not so scary.

Trick or treating was great. We went with friends and all of the kids had fun. No one was cranky or tired this year. All of them got a lot of candy.

D has been a pirate for three years now. I changed his costume with a few added pieces. E was a pirate king (queen according to D). D thought it was great that he got a mustache and some eye make-up. E was thrilled with wearing make-up for the first time. They were both not so happy when it was time to scrub it off.

D did get a new pirate hat. He wanted the front to have the pirate symbol from the Pirates That Don't Do Anything movie. He also got to carry the wooden sword this year. I made that last year, but felt it might be too dangerous for him to carry it. This year, he knew not to swing it around anyone. hahaha! I made him a bag for his candy that looks like a treasure map. There's a boat on one side with a trail that goes to an "X" on the other side with jewels.

E got a pirate crown that sort of matches the one from the movie. A lot of hot glue was used to hold that together. I also made her a bag to match her outfit. I haven't sewn in a long time and it was fun! I do need to make a new bag for my new camera.

It was cool and the kids had to wear a few layers underneath their costume. No one complained of the cold. It helped that they ran from house to house.

I keep meaning to blog more, but get distracted. I bought a new camera. My old Canon Pro1 started acting up on our train trip. I looked around and it wasn't worth it to get it fixed. I tried out a Canon sx10 IS and didn't like it. It didn't feel sturdy and it was much bigger than the Pro1. If I wanted a big camera, I might as well get a dslr. And that's what I got. I ended up with the Canon rebel XSI/450D. So far, I'm pretty happy with it. I've been learning a lot more about what settings are appropriate for certain light conditions. I've also had to mess with a lot of other settings to get the pictures how I like them. I'm still using the basic lens that comes in the kit, but time will tell what other lenses I'll want. ;-)

In knitting, I just finished my Fiore de Melanzana stole. I need to photograph it, but was too busy with Halloween costumes. I'm trying to finish up other projects that have been sitting around. I started a pair of modified Monkey socks for E a long time ago. I realized that I need to finish them soon before she out grows them. I also have a shawl and a scarf already on the needles. I'm not sure if I'll work on those or start thinking about gift knitting. I probably should start the gift knitting, but I need to make a list first.

To end this, here are a few more Halloween pictures...

Autumn fun!

Here is my Autumn Arbor Stole. I like this picture with the sun and leaves showing through the stole. This is the stole that I took on our trip. I did take a separate needle for each side. This pattern was very easy to follow and knit. The big plus is that it only had one chart and that made it really portable. I say it every time I knit one of Anne's patterns -- she's some kind of lace knitting genius. Not only does she create this beautiful patterns, but she comes up with so many different patterns in different shapes too.

The yarn is Dream in color Baby in the Black Parade color. I'm a big fan of Dream in Color yarn. It's very soft and just has a nice squishy feel to it. The two shawls/stoles that I have out of Baby yarn are some of my favorites. The subtle color variations are perfect for lace and the finished items are so cozy.

Details:
Pattern: Autumn Arbor Stole by Knitspot
Yarn: Dream in Color Baby in Black Parade (185 gms)
Needle: size 3 Knit Picks Classic Circular
Size made: tall width and petite length
Blocked size: 23 inches wide and 84 inches long
Start: September 26, 2008
Finish: October 11, 2008

I'm working on my Fiore de Melanzana stole now. I'm not very far into it, but I am getting faster at doing the lace on both sides.

We had some autumn fun this past weekend. On Saturday, we went to a mountain biking event that was held for kids. It was great and E had fun riding her bike on the trails. They had snacks, drinks, pizza, and prizes for all of the kids. They had three different teeter-totters set up for the kids to try. E tried the widest one. She was pretty nervous the first time, but soon got comfortable on it. That picture was taken at the moment the ramp was moving to lean the other way for her to ride down. I was told a few times that she did great on the trails. She gets some practice on the hills around our house, so mountain biking isn't a new thing for her.

On Sunday, we went to Sweetapple Farm. It was a very warm day for fall. It was hot when we went through the corn maze. The maze had a bee theme this year with bees, honeycombs, and flowers. When you enter the maze, you get a sheet of paper with 33 questions that you can answer. The answers are found on signs throughout the maze. The kids had fun trying to find the signs that told us bee facts. After the maze, we visited the animal barn. The kids got to feed some of the animals. There was a pretty herb garden with a puzzle that runs through it. If you find all of the letters, you can decode the message. E had a lot of fun with that. At the end of our day there, we bought some pumpkins to carve.

A lot of catching up...

It's been a busy September. The September mystery sock has ended. There are quite a few finished socks already and it's been so much fun seeing each one completed. I knew that the rolled edge might not be popular, but I like it. I wanted something nice and horizontal to cap off the top of the sock. I don't like adding ribbing to the top of the sock if it doesn't flow from the rest of the stitch pattern. Here are the two socks that I knit while testing the pattern. The left sock was knit first with Opal 6ply yarn. The right sock was knit with Wollmeise in Campari Orange.

After all of the mystery clues were out and the questions have slowed, I got a severe case of the lace bug. With our vacation coming up, I knew that I wanted to take a lace project. That resulted in casting on for 4 different shawls and scarves trying to figure out which one to take. I cast on for the Slow Bee #2, Fiore di Melanzana, Autumn Arbor Stole, and the swiss cheese scarf. The Autumn Arbor stole won and it came on the trip. I was able to finish about 2/3 of the stole during that week away. Not bad. I have finished it this week and it just needs to be blocked. I'm hoping that I'll have it blocked and photographed for my next post.

Where did we go? We went to Cass Railroad and stayed in the caboose on the top of the mountain for two nights. This was a different adventure from our usual camping trips. The train ride up the mountain was fun. The falls colors were beautiful! We did get rain the one whole day that we were there, but that was worth it to see the double rainbow! Dwight and E saw it first and then came to get me. I was staying in the warm caboose. There's a coal stove in there and can really heat up the place if you can manage to keep it going. That was difficult at night, but not too bad.

For this trip, I made a few hand knit items to keep us warm. I made a cowl for E, D, and myself. D got a new hat out of Knit Pick's new Imagination yarn in the woodsmen color. I knit a bucket hat for myself. And I was sure to pack a few hand knit socks for everyone too. I can see why there's a cowl craze right now. Those things are very useful and I like multi-use items. E likes to wear hers as a hat most of the time. I used mine with my hat to cover nearly all of my face for the cold train ride back down the mountain.

Isn't this just beautiful! I'd take any rainy day to see this.

After the two nights at Cass, we drove over to Watoga State Park and spent three nights in a cabin. This cabin was heated by a fireplace in the living room. That was another challenge to keep warm at night, but we survived. It wasn't that bad and it was fun having the fire to watch and listen to all day and night. This park was beautiful too! There are a lot of hiking trails that start near the cabins. There's a pretty lake there too that would be fun for the kids in the summer. The roads within the park look like something out of a postcard. The roads were black and smooth with the trees forming a canopy overhead. At this time of year, the leaves were pretty and rained down whenever a breeze came.

From Watoga, we drove over to the Beartown boardwalk. The rocks looked cool to me, but the kids were bored quickly. They just wanted to race down the walkway. They did have fun sticking their hands into the holes in the rocks while pretending some evil monster was getting them. We visited so many other things on the trip, but I won't be too wordy about those. All in all, it was a very fun trip. It was different from any other camping trip or vacation that we've taken. I would love to go visit that section of West Virginia again. We did pick a great time of year to go since the leaves were so pretty already, but it wasn't too cold.

That's enough catching up for now. Back to knitting. I'm working on my Fiore di Melanzana stole in Knit Picks shadow in the grape color. It's pretty, but the patterned lace on both sides is slowing me down.