As the weather hints of cooler temperatures and the onset of Fall, my knitting calls to me more insistently. I've been sewing and sewing on the old quilt blocks and have completed half of the log cabin blocks, thanks to the help of my sewing machine. But the voice of my knitting gets more insistent and the quilt blocks are starting to give way.




With memories of extremely cold feet last winter haunting me, I have been working on a pair of wool socks for me. I love sailboats and when I saw this sock kit at Blackberry Ridge, I knew my feet would be safe from the cold this upcoming winter.

Additionally, with the start of homeschool this past week, I've managed to add a few more rounds to Kurt's Dale sweater.




Even though it is longer than specified in the pattern, Kurt is 6'2" and so I am making it longer. I measured it on him yesterday and I think one more inch ought to do it. That will leave the neck and sleeves to go.

I've already been thinking about a wool sweater for me. I have two fleeces, a Gulf Coast Native Improved and a Corriedale. I thought I'd spin yarn from these different color fleeces and knit myself a sweater. I've already been carding and spinning the GCNI.




(Click on picture for closer view)

I've managed to take my Legends of the Shetland Seas stole into Chart C and have almost finished my first repeat of this chart.




One and a half more repeats of Chart C and I will be where I was in the pattern last year when I decided to "frog" the whole thing and start over. This really does feel like the "never-ending project."

We haven't quite given up on summer even with a couple of weeks of Fall like weather. After all, we do live in Florida.




After 3 years, the old blow up pool was shot. However, I managed to find another giant blow up pool online. It was so nice not to have to add air every 30 minutes! AND Gabrielle learned to snorkel in the new pool. Unfortunately when I told her I wanted to take a picture of "you snorkeling" she responded by ripping off her snorkel and showing it to me. She must have thought I said I wanted to take a picture of "your snorkel." Mom, if you are reading this, do you see the Yates' genes? (Unfortunately, our family is proof positive that there is a link between blond hair and "dingy". Despite that my children ended up on the dark end of the blond spectrum, the "dingy" is alive and strong in my daughter despite her IQ being in the gifted range. Sigh.)