wrapping up the summer of socks

I guess summer isn't technically over, but I feel like maybe the summer of socks is drawing to a close. As I said on instagram; the summer of socks is probably over when you feel the need to wear socks.

A photo posted by Jodie (@ja_gardner) on Sep 12, 2015 at 8:28am PDT

What I feel most bad about not completing is the large scale darning project I attempted. I hate darning, but thought it might be a good idea. In the end, I fixed the worst of my socks, and really what is left are places where some swiss darning or duplicate stitch would work (thin spots). My attempts at it have been less than stellar, and I need some practice. This is always a clue that it probably won't get done.

I did finish the first of the "emergency travel" socks. One of my daughters (the one who is not extremely picky about socks)claimed them.

A photo posted by Jodie (@ja_gardner) on Sep 18, 2015 at 4:50pm PDT

Second sock is underway.

Also in the underway category, Halloween costumes. If you have been following me for a while, you know I like to sew these and I like to get a head start on them, because I am not a big fan of night before runs to the store for blue paint or whatnot. I thought initially that there would be little or no sewing involved this year. One girl wanted to be Sadness from Inside Out. I figured blue facepaint, blue hairspray, blue leggings and a trip to some thrift stores for a light blue or off white turtleneck sweater and presto.
The other daughter wanted to be a three headed.... something. Again, not terrible, wig stands from the craft store, a toy football shoulder pads to attach them, maybe make a garment to cover it all and presto!

The three headed girl wanted to look at patterns. (no sadness patterns this year, still no Olaf patterns) Remarkably three headed girl changed her mind. She decided she'd rather be a princess. Perhaps like Glenda, but more grown up. (she was Glenda in kindergarten). We found a pattern that she liked and bought it (on sale--score!). She wanted to buy fabric RIGHT NOW, but I made her wait until I could read the pattern. This weekend we went fabric shopping. There was talk about scary blood stained lace princess, silver princess, fuscia princess. Imagine my surprise when suddenly she wants to be a minion.

Officially, I have no idea what to do. I gave her a deadline (October 1) and I guess I'm leaving it at that.

As for the future, aside from much shopping at thrift stores, and possibly attempting to make minion goggles from canning lids, I want to plan sweaters for the girls. It has been three years since I made them sweaters, and they have both outgrown them. I made a gray sweater and a purple sweater. The gray sweater replacement will be the same pattern, possibly in gray(!) or maybe pink, or maybe blue or maybe.... (Yes, she wants to be a minion this week). The purple one wants to look at celeb and gossip magazines to find a "fashionable" sweater. I think we will be looking at ravelry--easier to figure out if I can actually replicate. She is thinking a blue green that will "compliment her eyes." Never a dull moment when you live with tween girls.

I'll keep you posted.

peaches, socks, and school Oh my!

I felt like maybe I should title this post "what I did over my summer vacation" because I think that would make me feel more accomplished than a list of things I put off that I need to accomplish in September or even this week.

The kids went back to school and OH the list of things I put off while they were home is long.

Last year I did this whole write an entry every day as I slogged through my canning of both peaches and tomatoes. This year, I finished tomatoes so early. They were abundant this year instead of moldy. And then, peaches started coming in.

So here are the peach statistics so I don't forget. I made two batches of jam, one regular and one peach vanilla. I didn't really have enough fruit for the regular and so it is a little grainy, but the vanilla is OH MY. Then I managed to buy a half bushel of peaches from my regular orchard, even though they technically weren't selling them, And then a few days later I bought another (and they were selling them). So it worked out well and I ended up canning 24 pints of peaches. I didn't do any honey spice because it turns out that I'm the only one who likes them. I actually have enough peaches left on my counter to do another pint, but I think I'm going to smoothie them up instead. Maybe freeze them too.

I have been slowly slowly working on socks. at least the plain socks. until I ran into this

Yarn barf

A photo posted by Jodie (@ja_gardner) on Sep 8, 2015 at 5:02pm PDT

And so now I am busy untangling yarn so I can knit. It should have pushed me to work on the complicated socks, but I am having complicated feelings about them. I'm sure that once the newness of school wears down, and my kids get healthy again (yes, school started yesterday and my kids have head colds), I will not feel like such a zombie all the time and will actually (gasp) maybe even have time to knit during the day every once in a while!

And yes, Halloween is on the horizon. I think I have a plan. One girl picked something I can easily scrounge around at second hand shops and find (she wants to be "Sadness" from Inside Out), and while the other one was more complicated (she wanted to be a three headed... something), she has decided instead upon being a pink sparkly princess. The pattern I bought is a generic Glenda, but we are going to "un-Glenda" it by maybe choosing some fushia and gold or silver. Stay tuned on that one.

And in case you were curious--all the caterpillars are now cocoons! It was a fun process, and now one of my many September jobs is to get them set for the winter, safe so animals don't eat them, and exposed to weather. Then we wait.

Last of the birch eating #cercopia #caterpillars has pupated

A photo posted by Jodie (@ja_gardner) on Sep 8, 2015 at 4:11pm PDT