Happy Halloween! It’s spooky how much knitting I’ve completed this week.
I blocked my Zadie Sweater. The bottom is rolling a bit. As I was knitting it I thought there wasn’t enough garter to keep it from rolling. I was right. I should have listened to my gut and adjusted the pattern. Other than that, I like the sweater a lot. It’s cozy and casual. I will wear it a lot.
I finished the gusset on the first sock of my current sock project. These are slow going, but when I actually pick them up to work on them they go fast. Funny how that works.
The project that I can’t stop working on this week is Nightshift by Andrea Mowry. I find mosaic color work addictive. Most of the yarn I’m using is leftover from Mary-Claire’s Scrap Yarn Shawl Knock Off. As I knit the shawl I’m thinking about her, which makes knitting it even more delightful. I’m suffering from the delusion that often comes with shawls that grow wider as you knit them – I think I’ll be able to finish this in a week. I know that is unlikely, but I can dream.
In non-knitting news, last night was Beggar’s Night in Des Moines. Des Moines has a weird tradition where kids trick or treat the night before Halloween. I did not grow up with the tradition and find it annoying, because it makes Halloween a bit of a let down for the kids. Stupid tradition or not, the kids were excited to trick or treat. 
I hope you get a spooky amount of knitting done this week too!
I’m about halfway through my second sleeve. I hoped I would be further along by now, but I have been on the go too much to knit. I didn’t even take pictures of the sweater this week, so I’m going to post a bunch of pictures from our orchard trip this morning instead. My mom met us at the orchard, which was a nice treat for us.
We had a picnic dinner. This big guy fell off of the top stair of the camper. He is fine, but for a minute there I was terrified (so was he).
He just needed some extra snuggles.
Once Elliot felt better we sat around the fire.
Elliot and Bryan had a nice little chat.
The kids had s’mores. They were all fans.
After the fire we put the kids to bed. Then my kids were absolutely crazy and Elliot is no longer allowed to camp until he is 4 and I thought they would never sleep. It sucked. I am not taking them both camping at the same time next year. If I tell you I’m taking them camping please remind me of this blog post. Audrey and Elliot were so naughty I grounded them from the Laurie Berkner Band for two weeks. Are they too young to understand a punishment that long? Absolutley. I’m already feeling guilty about that, but not guilty enough to listen to anything but my music on the way home.
We headed home after the playground. It was a 4 hour drive. Both kids were exhausted. Neither child napped. I’m now going to make a cup of tea and try to forget the bad parts of the trip and focus on the fun parts.
They drove tractors.
Did they nap? Of course not. Did they complain when I didn’t let them listen to The 
mildlygranola 