Pumpkins, and Museums, and Hikes

Sorry for my absence; I didn't mean to leave everyone hanging. Mostly, I have been trying to get life back to normal. So, Mon. we went to a friend's house and carved pumpkins and played. Yesterday, we tried to go to a museum, got there (an hour drive) and it was closed, had been vandalized (a science museum - nice), so ended up going to a nature center for a hike. I know, air quality. But, it was our bodies or our souls, and I picked soothing the souls. We needed it. Jamie collected treasures, all of which, except the plastic, we left behind, we listened to the sounds of nature, smelled the smells, saw some lizards, the kids played with some puppets and a tree for a long time in the center and we left feeling more human.

Last night, I went out with some friends, won a costume contest, as a clown vampire. Don't you wish I had pictures. Seeing me dressed up was all Jamie needed to get excited for Halloween. And now that I have won first place with the clown vampire costume, he thinks it's the best ever (it's not, BTW, only 2 of us actually came dressed and I was the only one who went so far as to put on face make-up. You only live once people.). He normally counts down to a holiday, but with everything going on, he had lost his focus on Halloween. It's baaack.

Pictures will be coming. I needed the hike to get myself more relaxed, more focused, more human. Carrying around my camera and recording life seemed too much. Now it seems fun again.

In the meantime, here's some knitting news, which did carry me through:


Darren's socks - done. I will NEVER do two socks at once My friend Marina only does two socks at once, so don't think this means it's too hard. To each their own. I hated untangling the yarn. I hated the stopping. I hated that each sock grew more slowly. I would rather knit once sock fast then two socks slowly. Perhaps it's that Marina knits at the speed of light and so she knits two socks fast. In fact, once my first ball of yarn was done, I separated the socks and knit them separately. I loved magic loop for socks, but my cable was too short. So when I picked up stitched for my gusset, I had too many stitches, concentrated too hard, and messed up my pattern. The socks are still serviceable.

My sweater - Maybe halfway done. I love, love, love it. I stopped for a while when it said, "Slip 370 some odd stitches onto scrap yarn and try it on." When I finally did that, it fit! Yeah. And I loved it, and was inspired to keep knitting until I finished the ball. Now I have to wind more yarn. I've stopped again. But, I love it. I love knitting sweaters from the top down; this is my first time. The construction makes sense to me. I love that it's seamless. I love that the pattern is telling me how to fit it to my body. I love it.

Jamie's socks - Started going to be awesome. Already ripped all the way out once part way out once and I just started them 2 days ago. But they are going to be great. Really.