Poem

Patrick, my loving husband, just had another poem published in the Monongahela Review. Check it out!

Knitting Pure & Simple and ChicKnits

I just love patterns from these two design groups. I find myself buying them over and over again (and sometimes the same pattern on accident!). During a recent outing to a yarn store, I found some patterns to add to my collection.

Knitting Pure & Simple has a fantastic collection of top-down sweater patterns.
I really appreciate the sizing options that they offer--we all are different shapes, after all.
If you take a top-down sweater class from me, we utilize these patterns a great deal. They are great beginner sweaters even though they might look complex. (You can also use any of Christina's Classic Cable Knits patterns that we have at the store.)

The awesome thing about ChicKnits is how modern and stylish the patterns are.

I picked up this Malabrigo to make the Knitting Pure & Simple Cowl sweater (shown above).
I got it home and realized how MUCH it looks like Patrick's Briar Rose sweater. Oh well...

If you don't have any patterns from these designers, stop what you are doing and RUN to get at least one. You will be happy that you did. (In our recent poll of the Knit Along group, these designers were the group favorites!)

More Silly Dog Pictures

Mr. Riley

She's a little ham...

This actually sparked this impromptu photo session. I looked up from taking yarn pictures for Ravelry and this was in my camera lens. Cracked me up that they were just looking at each other.

New Classed Added for January - March

Woo Hoo!!! Added new classes for the beginning of next year. There are also still spots open for most of the classes left for 2009 (over to the right on the blog).

January

Shalom Cardigan (how to resize included) / Wednesdays 1/6 & 1/20; 1 - 3 pm $30 Gina Kanouse

Beginning Knitting / Saturdays 1/9 & 1/16; 9:30 - 11:30 am $30 Gina Kanouse

Shalom Cardigan (how to resize included) / Saturdays 1/9 & 1/23; 1 - 3 pm $30 Gina Kanouse

Baby Alpaca Grande Vest / Wednesdays 1/13 & 1/27; 1 - 3 pm $30 Gina Kanouse

Top-Down Sweaters / Saturdays 1/16 & 1/30; 1 - 3 pm $30 Gina Kanouse

Beginning Crochet / Saturdays 1/23 & 1/30; 9:30 - 11:30 am $30 Gina Kanouse


February

Bramblewood Vest (cables/charts) / Wednesdays 2/3 & 2/27; 1 - 3 pm $30 Gina Kanouse

Crochet Afghan for Beginners / Saturdays 2/6 & 2/13; 9:30 - 11:30 am $30 Gina Kanouse

Baby Alpaca Grande Vest / Saturdays 2/6 & 2/13 1 - 3 pm $30 Gina Kanouse

Top-Down Sweaters / Wednesdays 2/10 & 2/24 1 - 3 pm $30 Gina Kanouse

Beginning Knitting / Saturdays 2/20 & 2/27; 9:30 - 11:30 am $30 Gina Kanouse

Bramblewood Vest (cables/charts) / Saturdays 2/20 & 2/27 1 - 3 pm $30 Gina Kanouse

March

Beginning Knitting / Saturdays 3/6 & 3/13; 9:30 - 11:30 am $30 Gina Kanouse

Felted Bags & Felted Flowers / Saturdays 3/6 & 3/13; 1 - 3 pm $30 Gina Kanouse

Happy Halloween!!!!

I loved Halloween growing up. The dress up, the candy, staying up late, a party at school--all of it. As a home owner, I despise giving out candy. Mostly because it freaks out our dogs. So, we are the boring neighbors who leave every light in the house off and hide in our bedroom. Pathetic.
We DO, however, make sure that we take care of the little ones in our life (aka Jack and Aidan, not Riley and Kiki).

Here is Jack's little package for Halloween. We picked him up this cute little cow in PA at the Boyd's Bear HUGE store.

He also received this little Pumpkin hat to wear for the rest of the fall.
Pattern: Pumpkin Hat from Patterns for Knitted Hats
Yarn: Encore Worsted
Needles: US 7
Size: 1 year

Aidan is a little older, so he got the candy. But we couldn't just give him any candy! We raided the candy aisles at the Boyd's Bear store. Patrick had a grand old time--cooked "eggs", bottles, and all kinds of other strange, but "cool for a boy", candy. Hope he likes it all.

The plus side of only buying for the nephews? No extra candy around to tempt us to eat sugar and ruin the weight loss!

Pumpkin Patch and Haunted Hay Ride

This past Sunday we decided to partake of a little fall activities. We originally had planned to go to the Haunted maze in Danville, but the weather was rainy on Friday night and cold on Saturday night--plus the long drive. Instead, we opted to go to the Russell Farms pumpkin patch on Sunday. It was a cute little set up and is great for kids--big and small. We played the tic tac toe toss game and ended it in a tie.

We then went on the treasure hunt in the corn maze. Patrick got done a LONG time before me, but he sat in water so I wasn't too upset at him! We "won" our little prizes, which went to Aidan (sucker and a little thing to get your finger stuck in--total boy toy).

We then went off to the patch and picked out a pretty large pumpkin. After grabbing a carving kit, we were off. (We did stop at the Noblesville Tea and Coffee house on the way home to exercise my new love of herbal tea. I was seriously disappointed. The music was loud and I didn't care for my tea. I seem to only like the tea that has cinnamon in it.)

I was SO excited that this pumpkin turned out. I have NEVER had one be successful. Yeah!

Patrick baked the seeds in olive oil and fake salt. Yummy, yummy, yummy.

Patrick being silly on the hay ride.

Goodness I look tired.

That night we picked up my BIL and his girlfriend and headed to the haunted hay ride at Connor Prairie. They had a headless horseman haunted hay ride. It was enough to make you jump. I will admit that I was the first of our group to get scared, but Doug screamed the loudest! The little boy (about 3) behind me accidentally kicked me in the back and I jumped a mile. He thought that was the greatest thing!

Mums the Word

Patrick had a few days off recently. We needed to cut back the hostas for the fall and put something pretty in to pop up in the spring. Now that we don't have those ugly bushes in the front of the house any more, we have some spots by the porch for flowers. We also cut out a large flower bed under one of our back yard trees two summers ago. Poor Patrick. I got the bright idea to put in bulbs and mums. Being the wonderful husband that he is, he told me to pick out what I wanted and he would do all the planting. Fourteen mums and 200+ bulbs later, things look great. I can't wait to see how it all looks in the spring!

All pumpkined up and ready for Halloween night!