Finished Objects

These are the twins' sweaters knit in Prairie Silk in Navy and Dough and Guilder Green and Dough. Max's sweater (in Brick and Dough) is about half done. The twins have been wearing these sweaters for three weeks now, but finally left them unattended long enough for me to get them washed and blocked and photographed.

What you have here is a photo of the boys with the little Ghosts they made. They then hung the ghosties in the cherry trees. Max is wearing his revised Halloween costume. We'd bought him a pirate costume but discovered to our dismay--when he went to dress in it for his piano recital on Saturday--that it was FAR too small. It would probably have fit one of the twins okay. We hit the Halloween stores again, but the college students had decimated the stores the week before and there was just nothing left but the nasty and the too-scary-for-this-crowd. We got to talking about what we had at home and when I mentioned the purple cape (knit for Chris by Alice), his face lit up.

So now he's going to be a super hero. He's wearing his blue swim goggles, a pair of Batman gloves, and the purple cape.

Feeling left out in the cool eye-wear department, Milo wore his goggles for the photo, too.

Ben? Ben is lucky he's not naked. Unable to find the fourth zarkin' shoe, Ben is wearing one sneaker and one slipper.

These are the pumpkins we finished last night. Click on the image to see it larger and with a tiny bit more detail. Mine is top left, Chris' is top right. Bottom row is Milo's, Max's, and Ben's. They're very large pumpkins and will look smashingfantastic Tuesday night.

These are Milo's finished "weekend" mittens, to replace the Target mittens that have been lost. They are "spiral rib" mittens and they look exactly like every pair of mittens that my Grandma Arganbright would make. Except these are hand-died 100% wool with some varigations, and Grandma Arganbright leaned towards simple, solid colors. I haven't a clue if the yarn was acrylic or wool or what. I was just glad that she knit so many of them that you could come in from playing in the snow and leave one pair on the radiator to dry, eat lunch, and grab a second pair from the mitten box in the hall closet on your way out the door.

I aspire to a mitten collection like that.

The finished mittens also mean that I'm all done with the math that had to get done and I have one last dragon to kill to have safely navigated the first quarter of the Month I Said Yes One Too Many Times.

In my defense, I had No Clue how big the last project was. I thought it was a few ancillary pages, not a whole 'nother Teacher's Edition, and by the time I figured that out, it was too late to say no. I *always* ask if it's "full time or part-time" but, not this time. I was painting the back bedroom when she called on my cell phone and she said, "Someone quit on me! Please write!" and I said, "Okay!" and I guess I should have asked a few more questions first. Oh, well. In this moment, things look doable as long as I don't do anything stupid. I'm a little worried about Ben and Milo's birthday party coming two or three days before it's all over--but not as worried as I'd be if I'd tried to hold the party here in our house.

For the record, absolutely noone without young children at home, noone who considers themselves a "neat freak", and noone with "time on my hands so I might as well clean" is allowed to come over for the next three and a half weeks. The carpet cleaner is coming in mid-December. You can come after then. In the meantime, everyone else should feel free to show up unannounced, and if you need anything to drink, I'll show you where the dish soap is so you can wash up a clean cup for yourself.

I am caught up on laundry, but Chris is behind in folding it. Neither of us is caught up with dishes. There was hope, but then there was the pumpkin project. I have dinner and overnight guests coming on Tuesday and the only reason I'm not in hysterics is because I know they'll all totally be fine with me ordering 6 pizzas that night if that's what's called for and because--well, I'm just pretty sure they like me okay in spite of my ugly carpet. They're looking for a warm, safe place to crash, not a page out of Better Homes and Gardens.

9:40 p.m. I love "fall back." It makes everything seem doable ;)