Grandkids, Self-Serve Snacks

It's been a busy summer.  We've had the grandkids a few times in the last month, and they always seem to be looking for what yummy treasures might be growing at this little place here.  With a little help from DH (getting the tractor out and positioned for them), and a little ingenuity of their own, K3 and Toad have snacked on cherries and mulberries.  They didn't seem to mind that it took a lot of time to pick them and not much time to eat them, it was the quest to reach the fruit that they enjoyed most of all.

cherry pickers

mulberry pickers with an 'elevator'

mulberry pickers testing their balance 

(K3 was able to stack 3 crates high and climb on & off without falling)

Yarn Along: July, a Little Late

I'm a few days late in joining Ginny for this month's Yarn Along. But better late than never, right? I'd say that having two grandkids and DH home for a week really threw off my schedule, but then again, I haven't posted at all since last month's Yarn Along, so. . .

Let's start anew.  Maybe July will be a better month with more posts than June.  Since the last Yarn Along, I finished the Riff socks I was making for Honorary Son.

I figured I was probably going to run short of the blue and white striped yarn, and it was kind of a one-time purchase, so I added in some thick red stripes.  Call these patriotic.  Or Captain America-esque.  Honorary Son likes the Marvel movies as much as he likes music, so I'm pretty sure these socks will be a hit when they are gifted to him.

Love the criss-cross pattern on the foot and leg

With that birthday gift out of the way, I cast on a pair of socks for myself. Because, you know, you can only make so much stuff for others before you need to make something you can keep just for you. (Yeah, I know I made myself a shawl out of the pickle-colored yarn in May, but these are socks. I love wearing handknit socks.)

The pattern is On The Fence, and I'm really enjoying how easy it is to do this little bit of colorwork near the cuff and toe of each sock.  The rest is plain stockinette, so really flies.  I have one sock done and am on the foot of the second sock all ready.  The yarn I'm using is Stroll Tweed from Knit Picks.  The gray is Flagstone Heather and the blue is North Pole Heather.

I also cast on for another Beachcomber shawl, this one in blues and gray, intended to be for DD2's birthday (got to keep working through my homemade birthday gift list; after Honorary Son comes DD2).  Although I think I'm going to have to rip it out and start over as I discovered that I was using the wrong size needle.The one I'm using is too small.  *sigh*  They should mark those interchangeable tips with larger numbers so they are easier to read. Or, as K3 told me when I asked her to read the number on the needle, "Grandma, you need to get a magnifying glass."  (Hmm, perhaps that is permission to get myself an OttLite?)

Speaking of easy to read, I've managed to read quite a bit of a very large book--shown in the first picture with the finished Riff Socks.  I still have a few hundred pages to go. The book was recommended to me by a friend who knows I like history, and I am very much enjoying reading Fall of Giants by Ken Follett.  Since stockinette knitting is great for squeezing in time to read, I can probably knock off another hundred pages or so while finishing my On The Fence socks.

I also read one other book in the past month. Roar by Cecelia Ahern is great for picking up and putting down when you're busy, as each of the short chapters is a brief story independent of the other chapters. A thought provoking read.