October First

October first...fasten your seat belts! I feel like the pace is going to pick up soon--Target already has Christmas stuff out. I could spend an entire post bitching about how much I hate how Christmas comes earlier every year...but I won't. I suspect many of you feel the same way!

So it's October, which means we'll really start doing "fall" activities: apple picking, pumpkin picking, choosing Halloween costumes, etc. Yesterday the kids were off from school (our district gets Jewish holidays off--something that never happened when I was a kid in South Carolina), so I was determined to take the kids apple picking, dammit! We even ran down to the mall so I could use up the last of a Williams-Sonoma gift card to buy one of those hand-crank apple peeler/corers. And off we went to the orchard...

Would you put those apples in your basket? I didn't think so! We had over two inches of rain on Sunday, but it had been very dry before that. That combination of weather is believed to have produced these very nasty looking apples. The lady in the store assured me that there were still some really nice ones out there, but I pointed out to her that my crew wasn't exactly patient, and we bought these, already-picked apples instead:
Much better, don't you think? I still want to go picking again. Maybe to a different place. I made apple butter yesterday. I'd like to make some applesauce next time. Because there will be a next time, even if I have to go pick the apples myself!

I have joined a quilting group called Sew Connected. There are fifteen of us, so each month for the next fifteen months or so, we're going to sew a quilt block for one person using the fabrics she (or he, in the case of Quilt Dad) sends to us. This is our first month, and these are the fabrics that Rita has sent to me.

Isn't the embroidery so cute? I think this is just screaming "log cabin"! I have some fabrics from my stash that I'll incorporate. I think what makes this so fun for me is that I get to play with other people's great fabrics. My turn isn't until next December (that's 2009), so I have a looooong time to come up with a plan for my quilt!

On the knitting front, I'm having mixed results...here is the back to Caroline's hoodie. Somehow I have an extra stitch on the stitch holder, but I'm not going to get too worried about it. The back is huge, though, and it's supposed to be a size 8. I held it up to a size 12 sweatshirt that she has, and it's the same length! So she'll be able to wear this for a couple of years...that's okay. I've started the front now. Then it's just the sleeves. And the hood. And stitching the whole thing together. This is a big project! Good thing it's October first and not December first!
Finally, I like to have more than one knitting project going on, and I found this super cute hat pattern. I then found some super cute yarn in the clearance bin at A.C. Moore. I started knitting...I took it apart because it looked like it might fit an American Girl doll (and this hat was supposed to be for me and my slightly larger head). I then started knitting again with a double strand of the yarn. It knit up quickly and for my first time trying cables I was super tickled.
It's only slightly too big for this teddy bear! It won't even fit any of my kids' heads. Apparently I need to pay careful attention to whether the pattern calls for bulky weight yarn. The pattern did not explicitly say so, but a little common sense on my part would have saved me some heartbreak. I will make this hat again--for ME and my big head, but I'll get some bulky yarn to do so!

Today is a quiet day. We have no after-school activites to rush around to. Caitlin is starting Brownies tomorrow. It'll be an every-other-week thing, but I think it's going to be the same weeks as Caroline's troop meeting, so it'll either be calm or completely crazy around here! Happy October!