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.

-

Common Ground

+ no real responsibility beyond keeping track of my wallet
yummy food
good company
lazy morning eating grapefruit and reading paper in tent
fiber and corresponding animals
Chris' expensive North Face sleeping bag
lots of walking
cute children who didn't belong to me
good coffee
hypoallergenic horses

- the hippies & their djembes and didgeridoos
the freaking coldest night i have ever spent in a tent
no showers/running water

sticks

Annabelle's birthday sweater, finished a day after her birthday

.

score!

I spotted this cute mug at Savers yesterday. I don't really understand my obsession with vintage Corelle/Pyrex/Fire King, but whatever. It's not like I'm compulsively buying fine china or shit that doesn't get used.

So, I thought this was cute, and it reminded me of one I had when I was little. But I have this habit of looking up thrift store scores online, just to see how much they're worth...
And now I can't drink out of it, because that design is apparently very rare and people are willing to pay $200 for it. And the one I have is in brand-new condition.

Field Trip Friday

Today we joined the Colucci clan for a trip to the Puppetry Museum at UConn Storrs. The campus was one of the most depressing I've ever seen. When I was telling Chris about it, he was like, "oh yeah, that's the campus with a correctional facility across the street." I asked the girls who worked at the museum about a college coffee shop, they directed us to a Dunkin' Donuts. pshaw. I believe that every college town needs at least one independent coffee shop.

The museum was cool, but not really kid-friendly. There were some really amazing diorama-type puppety things. I was kind of surprised that Bread & Puppet wasn't mentioned/displayed anywhere.

After we left, we went for a lunch/dinner at The Vanilla Bean Cafe. We had passed it on the way, and I was intrigued by the name and prospect of coffee, but I was actually running on time and didn't stop. Definitely a place I'd return to. For our last stop, we hit up Roseland Park in Woodstock. We stayed until the park closed. Wild folk, we are.

sticks

Next weekend, Jenn and I are camping at the Common Ground Fair. While I'm freaking excited for a kid-free weekend, I'm not anticipating a warm kid-free weekend. I'm going to start digging out the woolies this week...

I have three projects I'm pretty intent on finishing before then. I promised I'd knit somehting for Chris, and he requested another headband. I almost wish he had requested a hat instead. The headband is draggggging. I'm saving this one for last though, since Chris is heading to Las Vegas on Sunday. I'm sure he won't need a woolen headband out there.

I started these last spring. They're still not done. Debating between a sewn and tubular bind-off. I know my life is a-okay because I actually have the time to worry about which bind-off will look/act better.

I also started a pair of legwarmers for myself. Shockingly, they have actual bright colors in them. I usually prefer earthtones. I have no idea what got into me. I'm also on a striped underwear kick. I've been tearing up Marshall's in search of striped cotton underwear. They're not easy to find.

(also)

I squeezed into a pair of pre-Annabelle pants yesterday.

Definitely too tight to wear out, but hello, old Carhartts. I missed you.