InsanKnitty

1. What Hogwarts house have you been sorted into? Ravenclaw

2. List your favorite double-point needle brands, including size and length.Or would you prefer circulars?

I love bamboo needles and have several Clover ones but would like to try another brand (but don’t know of many names) Since I’m a scarf swapper, straights are fine, I don’t suppose I’d need DPNs

3. Would you like to try a new brand needle? If so, which brand? Size? Length?

I would love to try a different brand of bamboos, though am not familiar with the various brands out there other than Clover.

4. If you are a RAVENCLAW, do you prefer the colors in the film or the book? Do you have a strong preference?

I prefer the movie colors

5. Do you have any allergies?

Nope thank goodness

6. If you are swapping scarves - what is your desired length for the pattern? This will help your partner find the pattern that is just right for you and buy yarn accordingly.

I’m vertically challenged… so I guess I’ll need to measure some of my scarves… I do like how the Harry Potter scarves tend to be long… I imagine that whatever amount of yarn is required for a standard scarf will certainly work for me since I’ll be knitting mine just a bit shorter…

Ok… I did get some knitting done over the last several weeks, not a whole lot, but some…

First off.. I finished (late as is the norm this summer) my Dog Days Swap Package.. Steph was my partner, and we didn’t get to do much ‘chatting’… between my unbelieveably hectic summer and hers… well.. it just wasn’t in the cards… She posted today that she got her package and that she liked it…  :-)  here’s what I sent her…

Here’s the dishcloths

This is a pattern available from Emily…

This is the ‘Trinity Stitch’ cloth that I got from the book of patterns my previous Dishcloth Swap pal sent me…

And a ‘paw print’ dishcloth from here

Here’s the ‘Mandy’s Candy Bag’ I knit up and filled with Dr. Pepper flavored Jelly Belly’s

I have also knit (through a few ‘test knit’ groups) a few other dishcloths…  I’m still working (and sadly will be late) on my vacation swap pal’s package.. but I don’t think it will take me too much more time!

The night before camp starts we (and about half the staff) stay at a hunting lodge for the night to have our meetings and prepare for registration… This year the owner of the ‘Vacation Inn’ invited me to bring the kids back to his property to pick blueberries off of his 200+ blueberry bushes… Of course I graciously accepted the offer…
On Thursday when camp had settled down finally (well as settled as it’s going to get) I drove the kids over to Rocco’s for blueberries…

We picked to our hearts content… and then JJ tells me that Abby found ‘Bear Poop’… so I investigated, and sure enough…

Bear Scat

Bears love berries, and this looked fairly fresh.. so we finished up then and there… and I’m not so sure I’ll be bringing the kids back there next year… Rocco told me (when we returned to thank him) that yes… the bears are there regularly (Ok, Rocco.. I greatly appreciate the opportunity to go there and pick, but I guess it’s been a long while since you’ve been around children… I just don’t think a ‘bear-berry patch’ is where I’d like to bring my kiddos!

Ok.. I’m sure you understand that a running camp is mostly about RUNNING… but what do the kids and I do all week?  Well, obviously with three children ages 7 and under I don’t get a whole lot of running in  for myself.. ;-)  I do get some running in… running to the nurse to get info, running messages to kids and counselors, and running back and forth to meals etc.  But I don’t get too many chances to go on the organized runs with the campers…

Instead, this is what I get to do during the week…

Frog Hunting…

and we saw a snake…

we got to go on LOTS of golf cart rides … which is one of the absolute FAVORITE things that the kids get to do during camp week…

And then we spend probably HALF of our time in the Canteen playing games…

And of course.. in the evenings when the Canteen is ‘open’ we get to have a special treat… and be generally ‘goofy’…

We are a sciency family … it’s my fault and I love it!  We collected some Monarch caterpillars in Maine during our recent trip there… and of course… they went into the pupa stage and then into the chrysallis just in time for us to have to bring them to camp.. since they were due to ‘hatch’ on the final day of camp!
We dragged our silly bowl with us to camp and I photographed the chrysallis as it changed over time…

Day 1

Day 10

One of our little winged wonders didn’t make it.  The chrysalis turned a funky color and then made no other changes on about day 6…  but #2 progressed as expected and hatched the night we returned from camp.  Here she (yes it’s  a SHE) is drying her wings .

10 minutes since hatching

1 hour after hatch

2 hours after hatch

It was one of those nights where the weather was going to drop in temps pretty quick that night, so since she hadn’t eaten and hadn’t flown we ‘transported’ her inside and brought in a few flower clusters from our butterfly bush for the night.  The temps dropped into the mid 40s and it rained much of that night, so I’m glad we brought her in.

The next morning here’s what she looked like…

When she started to ‘fly’ we took her outside..

For 2 straight days it rained… and rained.. and rained…  I looked for her little body… expecting that she had died… but didn’t see her… and then the next day the sun came out.. and there she was… eating off the butterfly bushes!  I see her every day!  And now she has a ‘boy’ friend with her…  So we headed out yesterday in search of milkweed.. butterflies only lay their eggs on milkweed because the caterpillars will only eat the leaves of the milkweed plants…

I transplanted 3 milkweed plants into our yard and with the three plants we also got 2 more caterpillars!  So we’ll get to experience the process again!  This will be the ‘5th’ generation group (the new caterpillars that is)… and it’s the 5th generation each spring/summer that will migrate to Mexico/Southern California for the winter!  I do so hope that our Butterflies decide to lay eggs on our plants.. :-)  I’ve been keeping my eyes out for activity on the plants from the butterflies…

Do you remember that game in elementary school?  Bombardment?  The game with two teams split over the entire gym… you would throw playground balls at the players on the opposite team, and if they caught it you were out, but if you hit them and they don’t catch it, then they are out…

I loved that game.. I was always petite, and fast… and so hitting me wasn’t always the easiest.. especially when the teams had dwindled down…

I expect that you (if you’re playing the game with me) will have trouble not being hit with all the photos I’m about to post!

I’ll try to go chronologically for the past several weeks, but you know… I’m sure at some point I’ll get something out of order

Let’s review the topics we’ll cover

Butterfly life cycle

Camp: Canteen Fun with the Kids

Camp: Frog Pond and Golf Carts

Blueberry Picking

Knitting progress and Projects

I’ll post each as a separate post… 

I have MANY updates and photos to post, but today is the first day BTS… so I have my annual first day photos ready to share…

The kids are going to St. Jude’s School this year. Lots of firsts… first school with uniforms, first school that they get to ride the bus to and from, and first year of school for JJ! Wahoo!

1. What is your favorite yarn for felting, and why?

Hmmm I’ve only felted two items thus far and both were made with Patons Mernio Wool yarn… I don’t know if that makes it my favorite, but I didn’t have any troubles with it!

2. Name one person in the swap who is not from the U.S. and tell us where they are from, and link to their blog. Chrissie is from Singapore!

3. Find one person in the swap who has a dog, and let us know the name of their dog(s) and link to their blog. Alana has ‘Flex and Jayda’ two totally adorable boxers…

4. Find one person in the swap who has a child or grandchild and link to their blog JoAnn P. has grandchildren (which by default means she also has children hahaha)

5. And finally, tell us if you like October or November more, and why! (Yea, I know part of September and November are technically fall, but for this question, only October and November matter!) October hands down… typically in October you can still wear jeans and a sweater or sweatshirt without a jacket… and.. October first is my first baby’s birthday.. Murphy (our dog) will be 13 this year… October 13th is my youngest child’s birthday and she’ll be 3 this year.. and October 10th is my wedding anniversary… #9 this year! I adore halloween and the chance to dress up and pretend with my kiddos!

I can’t resist Harry… he’s my secret boyfriend you know… the idea of living the life of a magical person… eating chocolate frogs and hiding under the cloak of invisibility while lighting off some of the Weasley twins wizard weezers.. (is that what their called… man, it’s late and my brain is failing me!) just the idea of living in one of JKR’s books… well… I can’t get enough of it… so… here I am signing up for Round 3 (2nd round for me though) of the Sock kit swap, and I’ll instead be doing it as a scarf kit swap !

I had the option of choosing my house.. but did the sorting hat quizzes anyway… oddly they all came out different, and what’s most odd is that in my first round I was sorted in 3 out of 4 quizzes into Hufflepuff, and this time… not one of the four had me in Hufflepuff!!  I had 2 for Ravenclaw, 1 for Slytherin, and 1 for Gryffindor!!  Weird… I chose majority and am going to be in Ravenclaw… which is good since I love blue and grey (aka, Silver)…

1. How long have you been knitting or crocheting? How did you learn? or from whom? Since I was 12, so that means… hmmm roughly 24 years? Wow.. that’s forever! I learned from my step mom, and then after a few years of ‘not knitting’ I retaught myself from memory and a book (though the book didn’t help much). I learned to ‘throw’ the first time, and when I retaught myself I became a picker.
2. What was your first felted object, and why did you decide to try felting? I felted a needle holder… it seemed like an easy project to start with for felting… and I decided to do it because a friend in my knitting group was doing a felted bag.
3. What are your favorite colors? Any you hate? I like all colors.. in some combination or other if not by itself… my absolute favorites are greens and blues of all shades (except neons), but I love love love fall colors in combination like orange with yellow, red and brown… but none of those colors alone.. does that makes sense?
4. What are your favorite styles\types of bags? (Long straps? Short handles? Handbags? Totes? Embellished? Plain? Include links to patterns or photos if you’d like – give your pal an idea of what you enjoy!) I’m not at all picky when it comes to bags. I don’t carry large bags in general… I guess I’m more of a handbag kinda gal.  I’ve researched a bit and found a few that  I like, or would like.. ‘Ayla bag‘ The ‘Misty’ bag, though not with a fair isle pattern maybe just a simple stripe or something, The Booga Bag, which I think everyone in the world has heard of… I also like the felted pouch found on knitting pattern central, and the one skein noro bag. All are fairly simple, and semi-similar.. which I think gives a good idea of the type of bags I like
5. What handbag or bag are you carrying today? Do you use a separate bag to carry your knitting? Hmmm lately I’ve been carrying a cute woven bag from my Dishcloth exchange pal (here’s a picture of it).. and my knitting.. sadly is in a yucky old canvas bag…
6. What other things do you enjoy knitting or crocheting? Dishcloths, scarves, hats and mittens… I’ll try just about anything!
   
7. What sort of needles do you enjoy working with? (straights vs circs, bamboo vs aluminum) I like all sorts of needles.. but knit most of my small stuff (Dishcloths and scarves, hats and mittens) on bamboo straights… I’ve just recently dug out my circulars for some hats and a few other projects… I have a new love of addi turbo circs that I bought last spring.
8. What’s one project you’ve not yet tried but are dying to make? Socks…
   
9. What’s one yarn you’ve not yet tried but are dying to work with? Hmmm… I just bought Trekking to do socks with… it was on my ‘must try’ list… also have never worked with Cascade 220 that I hear about all the time, or Cherry Tree Hill… I think that’s the name…
   
10. What other hobbies do you have? Do you spin? Sew? Garden? Running! And I love scrapbooking… I’m very sciency, and do lots of science stuff with my kiddos… I also love to cook/bake and garden.
    
11. Besides yarn, do you collect anything? Magnets and Christmas ornaments from places I’ve visited…
    
12. What kind of goodies do you enjoy? Sweets? Salty? Anything you hate or are allergic to? I’m a sweets kinda girl. I’m not a big chocolate fan though.. I like caramels and butterscotch, and hard candies… Thank goodness I’m not allergic to anything!
13. Do you have any kiddos? (Furry kind count!) DO I?? hehehe… Yes, 3 children of the human variety, ages 7, 5 and almost 3… and 2 Furry canines and 1 furry kitty..
14. What kind of project best personifies you and why? Probably dishcloths or scarves.. they’re quick and easy.. and with 3 young kids.. I’m always hopping.. so a short project gives me the greatest pleasure as it’s easy to get the gratification of finishing it!
    
15. What is your favorite part of Autumn? You can also share a special Autumn memory if you’d prefer! I love everything about Autumn, the new smells, the crunch of the leaves under my feet when I run, the cooler temps that require jeans and a sweatshirt… the apples… the colors… halloween… I love fall so much that my hubby and I were married in the fall!… what isn’t there to love about Autumn!?!
16. Tell us 3 things you would do if you won 10 million dollars in the lottery. 10 million… wow.. first I’d pay off our house, and any of our debts… then I’d buy my mom a house and car and set her up wherever she wanted to be.. then I’d set up trusts for my kids and my nieces and nephews…