Corn Maze

We try to make it out to a corn maze every year. We've been doing this since '03, with the exception of the year when I was 9 months pregnant in October. We always go to Salisbury Farm, since they have awesome hours and reasonable admission fees.

This year my friend Kim and I went with the kiddos. This is the first year that Enzo has been walking without the option of a sling. Keeping track of 3 kids in a corn maze? Hard work. It's not so easy to find them once they are lost.

Luckily, we pretty much had the maze to ourselves, so no one else had to hear me yell "WAIT UP!" 500,000 times. We finished the maze in about 1.5 hours, which is decent considering the adults were outnumbered 2:1.









Tomorrow we're all heading up to the Berkshires to visit one of my most favorite friends. We're having Sunday Indian buffet and then going hiking to work it off.

thank you, cows

Wright's Dairy Farm

Last week I found a little green bug in the house that looked a lot like a baby praying mantis.
It was one of the few bugs in our house to see the outdoors again; Chris didn't kill it because he thought that it looked like a mantis.

I'm pretty sure that it was now- there's been a mantis and her... buddy hanging outside of our house for a few days. Yesterday she posed for a good long time. I got closer than I should have because I assumed that the praying mantis does not fly. I assumed wrong.

I think it'd be rather fun to leave a mantis on someone's screen door, ring the bell, and run away.






Yesterday we also went (back) to Northampton to see Ysolda speak at Webs. One of the things she spoke about was the importance of creating and photographing samples in larger sizes, and I really appreciate that. While it's nice to see how a sweater looks on a 34"-sized woman, I'd also like to see it on a 40. Hannah tried on a few things, and added more to her list of "knit me's". She also had Ysolda sign a post-it. :)

I have been relatively lazy about updating. Chris and I went on a kid-free vacation, and I only took two pictures, both with my iPhone. The Northampton photobooth took 2 as well.

Kid-free vacation ROCKED. We lazed in bed and brought our books to the hotel's jacuzzi. We ate really unhealthy breakfast buffet, did a lot of browsing in downtown Northampton, saw a Girlyman show, sat in coffee shops, visited our favorite restaurants, and took a really good hike. It's nice to be able to spend time together outside of the drudgery of raising decent human beings. We've vowed to get away at least once or twice a year.

On the knitting frontier...

I have had a hell of a time with the Hope Spinnery wool. It's a great wool, but there wasn't even enough to make a hat. After knitting it into a hat three times, it was starting to look a little ratty. Finally, it ended up becoming a cowl. Somehow, though, the written pattern made NO sense. I ended up winging it; I cast on 24 stitches on size 9s and knit in 4x1 rib until I ran out. I have about 10 inches left over.


I got a little worried about Enzo's obsessive need to roll things up. His favorite item to roll is this tape measure. He also likes to do belts, and once I found our runner rug-thingie entirely rolled up. I was spazzing out, thinking he must have some issue- until I noticed that I do the same thing. At least we can be weird together...


I really wanted to knit the Hurricane Hat, so I ended up using Malabrigo instead of the yarn I would never have enough of. It's for me, but Hannah's modeling. The first picture is the accurate color. I couldn't be bothered to match it on the second.

Sticks

I picked up two skeins of yarn from Hope Spinnery ast the Common Ground Fair. I had all of these grand ideas about knitting something stripy. And then the yarns knitted up at completely different gauges. And then one didn't feel as soft as the other. And then I ended up starting a solid-color hat. And then I didn't even have enough yarn to finish the hat.



Last night I cast-on for hat #2 with a completely different yarn. I need suggestions for this lovely mustard-colored yarn. A buttoned cowl, maybe?

and, non-stick related:

-Chris and I are leaving today for two glorious kid-filled days in the Valley. We're going to visit all of our favorite restaurants and catch a Girlyman show on Saturday. I'm hella excited. We haven't been away alone since 2004, and that trip involved a lot of pregnancy-related puking.

-I went to family court this morning with my mother. She's in the middle of a divorce. Family court is incredibly depressing. I always end up feeling really bad for the judges. That bullshit must get old.

-I wish I could fast-forward through winter. The real cold hasn't even started and I'm already done with it. I am dreading being stuck in the house for days with the kids.

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