Mittens in June?

So I know it is the middle of summer and about 80 degrees and humid lately but I have been knitting mittens for KD. I got a big stash of Cascade 220 when a local shop went out of business recently and these colors just spoke to KD.
I apologize for the bad picture I took it with the phone because the hubby is out of town again. With the camera.
I am not a lover of mitten knitting but I think I found the cure, 2 color knitting! These Matrix Mitts fly off the needles. I love following the pattern and watching it come to life. Weird I know. The best part is I think I can get a couple pair of mitts and a hat out of all that yarn, love it!

We had a rough week last week with Miss M getting Lyme's after our camping trip and ending up in the hospital for a couple of nights. No worries she is back to her usual self already and should be just fine. Not the greatest start to our summer but we'll manage.

I am hankering to bake bread this weekend and cook some of the veggies from my CSA. Bok-Choy and Napa Cabbage are over taking my fridge! Seriously anyone have a good recipe for both or even just one? Maybe I'll try hit up the local farmers markets this weekend, the kids would like that. Hope all is well you all, take care!

Annual Camping Trip

Our yearly trip camping was last weekend. We chose to go to Northern Minnesota just south of the BWCAW.

The scenery is gorgeous.

Lots of wildlife to be seen, this is a turkey vulture.

The lakes are like nowhere else on Earth.

Kids enjoy the touristy things like taking pictures.

We had art class one day and make tie dyed shirts.

Our campground on Crescent Lake was pretty nice but super buggy!
Just a bad time of the year to camp because of the bugs. Good thing I brought other things to do, Miss M and I painted our nails one evening while the guys fished.

Noley shot things with his sticks.

Our highlight was a Momma Moose and her 2 babies eating at a lake. We stopped and watched them 3 times this day. They had lots of viewers and didn't seem to think much of the fuss.

Very little knitting was done but that is alright, sometimes you gotta take some time off. Hope your summers are getting off to a good start.

The End is in Sight, Will I Survive the Summer?

The end of the school year was today for my kiddos. Where has the time gone?

I went on a field trip Tuesday to the roller rink with Miss M and her class. Talk about a flash from the past. How many of you held hands for the first time on the roller rink? There was some fun activities while we were there, Miss M tried the hula hooping on skates and did pretty good!

Then we went to a local park for lunch. I can't imagine what the locals thought when 2 buses full of first graders pulled up. No kids were lost or hurt so we went from there to the OmniMax theater to see Mysteries of the Great Lakes. It was pretty good I thought, but it was mostly just fun to go with her class and enjoy the end of the year.

That night we went camping for a night. It was a beautiful night.We stayed in our pop-up camper in this field. It was pretty fun but BFing Cold! (don't ask what the BF stands for its not PC) I think it got down into the 30's that night and our heater is broken on the camper. I guarantee it won't stay broken too long.

The next day was beautiful though 60-70's with a slight wind and hardly a cloud in the sky. The older kids had school so Noley and I got to hang out there alone. We played a game.

I knitted on Noley's sweater.


Noley blew bubbles.

WE searched for and found some treasure.


We found some pretty rocks to take pictures of.

The field was used for haying so there were rock piles all around and in the field, big ones we could climb up on, so we did.

A fun end to the school year for all, I promise a FO for next blog post. The seamless sweater is done it just needs the right pictures taken.

Last but not least, it was KD's birthday last weekend and he turned 9, I thought you should see his new legos. Jealous? Oh come on you know you are!

It even comes with a little Darth Vader:)

From the Backseat

Miss M: Mom I wish chickens never went poop.
Mom: Well everybody poops (origional response I know)
Miss M: Yeah but I wish chickens didn't go potty all over the chicken coop, it's gross.
Mom: I know
Miss M: You can't potty train a chicken can you?
Mom: (attempting to not laugh out loud)

Just In Time For Spring

Finally a finished object. This sweater was finished a little while ago and has had frequent wearing already. I love the warm cosy feel of this knit and it keeps the chill off in those early spring days of Minnesota.
I used about 11 skeins of Lambs Pride Bulky yarn in Silver Grey. The pattern is from Rebecca Magazine number 30 I believe. Easy pattern to memorize and great result. I think I would plan more button holes for another one as there is one button at the throat of the sweater. It would be nice to be able to close it up a little more but all in all it is a great sweater.

The parting shot:)

Since we finally have nice weather, Saturday night we played a game of Bocce ball in the yard.

Watched the chickens in their new run.

Played with the poor neglected cat.

Admired spring.

And raked weeds out of the new raised bed gardens.

I love Spring.

Works in Progress

Starting off with the knitting, this is my seamless sweater which has fairly flown off the needles. I am at the exciting sleeve and color work part but have not had any free time to sit and knit on it lately:(
You will see my Mother's day present on top of the sweater, it is a new Blackberry Storm. Very cool and unexpected. I am in love with all the gadgets, plus now I can post to the blog even if I'm not home! This work in progress is the bunnies we got at the local Chicken Swap. A Chicken Swap is like a flea market with animals. We now have one Holland Lop which is the black and white bunny, Oreo. The other is a Jersey Woolly which is the grey fluffy one Miss M named her Fluffy, of course.KD is very proud of the bunnies and has been pretty good about checking on them along with Miss M. I made the cage last week while B was out of town for work. It isn't the prettiest thing but it does the job.

I also dyed yarn like a mad woman last week and have a load going to Yarn Harbor as well as a bunch to snap photos of and post on Etsy.

The ones above go in the shop, the ones below are going to YH.
Last but not least my 3 most important WIP, KD, Miss M and Noley.

So sorry for disappearing on you all. We had a busy week last week and it ended yesterday with Miss M's 7th Birthday. I can't believe I am old enough to have a 7 year old child but she doesn't lie and she definitely knows how old she is. I am very proud her in every way and think she is the most beautiful child anyone could have. But I am her mother and that goes without saying. She is smart, sweet, sensitive, moody, loving, quick tempered (um I think that comes from me) and growing too fast for her momma. I am blessed in so many ways but this child has always challenged and taught me so much. I love you sweetie I hope your birthday was a good one.

I won't bore you with all the craziness around here with work stuff and trips out of town but want to tell you about knitting progress and plans for good crafty things to come.

Today is clean house day along with dye yarn day. I am woefully behind on an order for Yarn Harbor and must work on that today, also the Etsy shop has been neglected lately. I need to play with colors and come up with some new colorways. I am bringing back the DK weight Peace Fleece because I feel the Worsted is sometimes a bit bulky for some projects. So I should get some of that dyed as well. This means I better get off here and get working.

Noley is coughing up a storm today and has a slight fever so I will juggle keeping him in the house and occupied with all that. Plus the drapes have had no work done lately since I packed it all away for a Pampered Chef party the other week and haven't pulled it out again. So my week off of work sounds like it has its work cut out for it already. Off to get it all done!