Tuesday, October 21, 2008

What a Busy Month!

I am not quite sure how October has ended up becoming the busiest month of the year, but, every year, without fail, this is what happens for us. And we are not alone--lots of friends are saying the same. You would think it would be September, since that's the month that school starts. But it seems like the busy-ness of school time needs a little time to get up to full speed, and it really hits max speed in October. Of course, we often make it worse by going away in October, which is what happened this year.

We went to the mountains of Virginia to hike and camp and stay at Big Meadows Lodge on Skyline Drive the weekend of October 3. We had a wonderful time, although I did discover the hard way that walking around your neighborhood 3 times or so a week was completely inadequate training for the trails we picked out. Here are just a couple pictures:

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The night we camped out, of course, it was FREEZING. The fire was pretty, and good for making hot chocolate, but not much good in actually keeping us warm. By 9 pm, we had to get in our sleeping bags in the tent just to warm up. But we were lucky enough to hear the Phillies win on the radio--on the Philadelphia sports station! Awesome radio reception is, I guess, one of the benefits to being on top of a mountain.

When we got back, it was time to get ready for Cat Girl's birthday. She got some great gifts, including some new clothes for Nicki.
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Her party is scheduled for this upcoming weekend. I would appreciate prayers: I am taking 7 girls to see "High School Musical 3," and they are sleeping over. Help!

Knitting time has been at a premium lately, because of other commitments. But I have gotten some gifts done for people, which I can't show here. I also started a Woodland Shawl for myself:
Woodland Shawl, in progress
I am using Rio de la Plata yarn in the Crimson Green colorway. I am not sure I love this project, but I will keep at it. It's a lot narrower than I wanted it to be, and the yarn is kind of stripey. It could improve greatly on blocking, though, or at least that's what I keep telling myself.

I also made a quick improvised Edgar scarf for Cat Girl, and it is very cool:
Edgar scarf
The yarn is very soft, and the colors are so pretty. It's Sheep Feet, from the Sheep Shop Yarn Company. Very nice. I don't have a finished picture yet, unfortunately. I want CatGirl to model it for me. I am also about halfway through a hat for MathBoy, but have no picture.