Time flies...

When you're watching babies sleep...... Or reading lots of stories....

Or the myriad of other things that seem to fill up my days. But we stepped back a bit this last weekend when the guys went on their annual fishing weekend. The weather was great...for us...not for them. It rained, it poured, it blew, and we stayed inside and relaxed, mostly. My daughters and I used to to this every year while the guys were gone. Watch movies, knit, do nothing. It's a bit harder when there are 3 three year olds that are part of the weekend. They need to get out and we need them to. So we braved the elements donned in rain coats (no umbrellas, this is Oregon after all) and headed for the park to ride bikes and feed the ducks and take in the fall colors.

Gorgeous color. The saying goes: Fall is a second spring where every leaf is a flower. It fits.

The ducks were plentiful but not very hungry.

The bike ride did the trick and got three little ones ready to relax for the weekend and....

watch a movie and have ice cream.

On Sunday morning we got up and decided to do something the kids wanted to do. Ride the train. We drove 5 miles to park at a MAX station to pay to ride the train back the same five miles to go to a Starbucks just a mile from home and pay to have coffee and hot chocolate. As the saying goes: ticket for the train, $2.05, hot chocolate/coffee, $10, memories, priceless.

Lots to do and see on a train and we got memories of faces with this kind of look.

What's not to love about these kind of faces that make the $2 cup of hot chocolate worth it? I know the coffee was worth it.

It was a weekend like we always used to have...girl time and relaxing.

But in knitting news...there isn't much. I got my last package from my swap partner in the Teddy Bear Picnic swap. Here is a picture of most of the elements I received in the swap:

Pretty amazing isn't it? We had to include some required elements: teddy bear, tea set, blanket on which to have the picnic, and food. One of the elements had to be knit from the Itty Bitty books or the Spud and Chloe blog, etc and one the elements, the first one was to be sent as a kit. The rest of the swap was up to you and could be sewn, purchased, whatever. My swap partner outdid herself as you can see from what I received. What isn't in the picture is the yarn she sent just for me that I have to find a special pattern for, the tea set kit that I've got out and ready to start, the cookies that were so good we ate them right up, and the game for the grandmunchkins. It's a farm memory game and was a huge success. I even had fun playing. We played it on our girl's weekend.
When my partner sent the kit for the tea set she sent needles, stitch markers she'd made (they're already in use), and this collection of bags. I've already got my circular needles in the case, my project for the retreat in the project bag, and my knitting gadgets in the little bag. I absolutely love this set and when my swap partner said the fabric reminded her of Dr.Seuss, I loved it even more.

Finally, we did cast on something new for girl's weekend. I've had this yarn for 3 years. It's a Rare Gems from Blue Moon that I bought at the first OFFF I went to. It says Fall and feels wonderful as well as being beautiful. I finally found the perfect pattern for it...stay tuned.

Giddy up and swappin'

I saw the pattern for a stick horse (hobby horse) in the Interweave Knits Gifts book and thought it would be great for the little grandmunchkins to have one. I thought it would spark creativity and active play. I'm not sure they achieved either of those things for the grandmunchkins but they did both for me. That is if you think knitting is active play. I happen to think that it's a great active play for a 50 something grandmother. I finished three of them and the fourth is currently in progress. They are basically a huge sock that gets felted down to size. I knit one of them in an evening and a day. The ears are a bit big and the first two look a bit more like donkeys than horses so I sized down the ears a bit on the princess pony. The full details are on my ravelry page. I gave the kiddos their horses while we were camping so there was too much going on for them to take much interest in them. We'll see as time progresses if I got more enjoyment out of knitting them than the kids did in playing with them.

I joined yet another swap in the Itty Bitty group on ravelry. This is such a great group to swap with and they've become virtual friends through the swaps. This swap is a three month swap Teddy Bear Picnic swap. The first package was to be a kit for some part of the picnic. The elements can be sewn, knit, or bought and has to include a bear, a tea set, a blanket, and food. At least one element has to be knit or be a kit for a pattern from the Itty Bitty books. I sent mine out and I was so excited about sending it out before the deadline (I'm always late) that I forgot to get a picture! My kit included a tote bag, stitch markers, bamboo needles, yarn, and note pad to make the finger food in Itty Bitty toys. I also included a teddy bear quilt that matched the tote bag to sit on while stitching. The bag and quilt were from leftover fabric from other projects so it was a good use of fabric.

My swap package arrived while we were camping and is the kit to make the tea set using Tahki cotton classic. I spied this pattern a while back and almost bought it so I was pretty excited my swap partner included it. The bag and stitch markers she made and I'm pretty excited about both.

I can't wait to see what the next package holds. This was such a fun one to receive!