Krafty1

On the road

Creatures of habit...that's what we are.  Each year since moving here, we have made the migration back to Madison, WI for Rhythm & Booms, the Midwest's largest fireworks display set to music. As usual, we took along our supplies and our shopping lists.

The weather was perfect.  Not too hot and not rainy.  We left on Friday so that Saturday morning we could visit Farmers' Market.

Thirteen summers we spent our Saturday mornings strolling the capital perimeter shopping for our weekly meals and people watching. It felt good to stroll down memory lane and was especially comforting to find many of the same vendors in the same locations they'd been in eight years ago when we left!

As we did many of the old familiar activities, Panda recounted tales of days gone by. "Hey, I remember going to dance class and getting a big cookie afterwards!"  (Part of her weekly routine from ages 4-6.)  Unfortunately, Special K, who was 3 when we moved, is a "visitor" when we visit the city she and her sister were born in. For me, Madison holds SO many precious memories of their early childhood.

However, geocaching in a beloved city levels the field and we all discover new places together.

Of course, there were also knit shop stops.  There are new additions for the stash AND my library.  Stay tuned.

BTW Did you happen to notice how lonely Shaun looks (above) in my windshield?  His traveling buddy, Luke, is currently on his worldwide tour.  First he was in Tokyo and now he's safely landed in another foreign country...actually, he's visiting someone a little closer to Shaun's original home.

A Great Weekend

Is there anything better than friends showing up to spend a nice summer weekend!?!

What would the weekend be without a few introductions!?! 

Sudden rain storms seemed to surprise them.  We've learned to take them in stride.  Even Doogie, comfortable enough in his manhood to grab the first rain coat available even if it's pink, wasn't going to let a little rain keep him from grilling dinner!!  (He does most of the summer cooking, I do the winter cooking.)

Of course, we introduced them to a little geocaching.  In another sudden downpour!  Honest, when we left the house the skies were blue with large, puffy white clouds.

One of our other favorite things to do with visitors is to go for a walk out to the lighthouse.  The kids attempted to not be blown away! And look, the skies are blue with puffy white clouds merely thirty minutes after the geocache photo.  (And yes, there was one more sudden downpour while they were here...that one included a rainbow!)

Dino is home from Iraq and doesn't have to report for work at the Pentagon until July 11th.  In the meantime, the three of them are roaming the highways and by-ways of the US (they're on their way to Niagara Falls now) and getting to be a family again. This is one of my favorite photos from our time together...father and son, hand in hand.  You can't ask for a better weekend.

So much nature

Ahhhh. nature. 

There's nothing like it to return calm to a soul that's been disturbed.  Disturbed I tell you!  No, my knitting has not pushed me over the edge...but my neighbors did.

If you're a regular here, you know it's not in my nature to use the blog to vent.  However, grant me this one lapse to share with you my deepest, darkest pet peeve: lawn mowing on Sundays.

That's right...it drives me nuts to hear lawn mowers running on Sundays.  Now, before anyone writes and says that it's the only day of the week that they are able to, let me just restate that it's my own personal pet peeve.  When I was a kid, Sunday was the "day of rest".  It was the day to play with your family, not catch up on the chores.  AND especially not fill the air with the obnoxious sound of lawn mowers.  Heathens, I tell you.;-)

This Sunday, when the eighth lawnmower's engine revved into gear, I snapped.  We grabbed the GPS units and headed into the woods.  It was beautiful!  There were flowers, lots of flowers.  There was mud.  WE didn't mind the mud because there were deer tracks in the mud.  There was a woodpecker rattling away at a tree to get his dinner.  He was the only "noise", besides us, in the woods. 

And there were geocaches.  Two of them to be exact, in the very same woods.  Notice Panda rearranging the "fallen bark" to re-hide one of our finds.  That one was the easy one.  The other, well, let's just say that some caches are large and some are small...very small...35mm canister small.

In fact, look closely and you will see the cache in the group shot photo.  The only hint I'll give is to say that it's a good thing that Doogie is tall. 

Ahhhh.  So much nature.  Peaceful nature.  (Then again, it was adjacent to a cemetery.) 

Tops and Bottoms

A few stolen moments on the streetcar allows for a bit of knitting, but for the most part we have been "on the move"!  TIP: If you visit New Orleans, ask at your hotel desk about a VisiTour Pass.  For $12, your pass will allow you to hop on and off the trolleys and buses as many times as you'd like for three days! We get one whenever we visit.

We've spent the past couple of days doing a bit of geocaching.  As many times as I've been to New Orleans, I've never seen it from this vantage point. Nothing quite like being at the "top" of the city!  Absolutely beautiful!!!

One of the wonderful aspects of this city is that it would be difficult to run out of things to do.  Each time that we've been here, we do a few of our favorite things and then try out a few new things.  The aquarium & zoo are spectacular, 40 museums would keep you busy for awhile and, of course, riding the streetcar never gets old! However, Geocaching this time allowed us to look at the city from an entirely different point of view...literally and figuratively!

Something else is that we took a ride to the end of the delta...to Venice...Louisiana, that is. This is the heart of "ground zero" for Hurricane Katrina.  The rebuilding is an interesting thing to see.  Both the size and the scope hits both ends of the spectrum...but we'll save that for another day.

As for my girls, they have now been to both ends of the Mississippi River. They've walked across through the headwaters and played at the edge of the southern delta...at the bottom of Louisiana.

Roadtrip

Miss me?  The kids had a break from school and we fled to the big city...Chicago.

In particular, the kids (and the sock) went to visit the Star Wars exhibit. Out of this world!

In the 22 years that Doogie and I've been married he often teases me about my ability to run into someone I know.  The story remains the same even in a city of 3 million people.  While Special K was busy trying to teach a robot to walk, we managed to run into our former neighbors from ten years ago!  Imagine what might happen if I came to your town.

Of course the exhibit wasn't the only thing Chicago had to offer.  We played tourists and went to Navy Pier and walked the Magnificent Mile.  There was a geocache at Water Tower Place and soon we had a pretty good idea as to why Chicago is known as the Windy City.

Unfortunately, all of the hats, mittens and scarves were tucked away in the laundry room drawer.  (We could've used a few items from the drawer.) 

Along the way Special K, who lives in her warm woolens at home, HAD to buy a hat. The fact that is was just like Kelsi's from HSM2 may have had something to do with it too. (She loves that movie and soundtrack!)

Later, when we met up with Tom and Franklin for a late lunch, I'll admit to being slightly embarrassed when Franklin asked if I'd knit Special K's hat.  How I wanted to say, "Why yes...that is one of my projects."  But, instead, I admitted to being the knitter who purchased acrylic knitwear for her child.  These things happen when you roadtrip.   

Summerfun Web

• It's hot out!  What better way to cool down than to think about Christmas!  Christmas Around the World Swap could help you think about something other than hot weather (assuming you live where it's HOT!).
• There haven't been enough hours to play with Color Inspiration yet, but love how it looks.  If you've used it, please feel me in.
• For those of you who've wondered about our geocaching adventures, this story does a good job of showing what it's like.  (Well, actually in order to "see", you should watch the video.)  We really enjoy it...especially when it takes us near an old fashioned ice cream parlor like this one did on our recent trip to MI! (After all, hiking and searching can work up an appetite.)
• Brenda's been talking about scouting and camp this summer in her podcast.  While listening I find myself thinking about all kinds of childhood activities...including paper chains.  The ones in this link are a bit more "upscale" than the ones we made as kids; ours were mostly made out of chewing gum wrappers.  I never did manage to learn how to attach the two ends to make a necklace out of my summertime chain.  Hmmmm, it's never too late. 

Stay cool everyone.

Wild(life) weekend

With several co-conspirators, we managed to surprise Fairy Godmother and hold another "Up North Knit Camp" complete with knitting, nature, shopping, lessons and some geocaching.

The Knitting 

The first of Kaleigh's "heeling socks".  The second sock made it all the way to the heel on the trip home. It will surely be finished before the cast comes off!

The second of my Madame Rosmerta socks for my Harry Potter pal.  The pattern is based on Grumperina's pattern for Roza's socks from the Spring 2007 Interweave Knits.  The difference being that I rewrote ""transmogrified"" it to a toe-up pattern.  I can't wait to knit it again this way.  This week Owl Post will be prepared for a Gryffindor pal out there.

The Nature

Dragonflies were the "pretty" nature we saw. I will spare you the two super-sized spiders, the army tent worms by the billions, and the 5 ticks we picked off of four of us! 

You never know what you'll find in the woods...how about a giant (plastic wrapped) snake with bright, pink umbrella!?!

The Shopping

Fairy Godmother spent 45 minutes sorting through her knitting to pack along for the weekend only to leave her knitting bag at home.  I hate that when that happens!!!  Thankfully, it also means a "required" trip to the knitting store for supplies. 

Knit Camp happens to have a number of nice shoppes in the area.  This time we checked out Unraveled.  They had a really nice selection.  Fairy Godmother decided that she wanted to learn how to knit socks...so we got sock yarn.  I managed to leave with only ONE new skein of yarn (Sockotta 6673).  I also picked up a copy of Meilenweit Sock Pattern Book #3...it's already on loan to Fairy Godmother!!  Cool.

The Lessons

As this was "knit camp", the "Gangsta Knitting School" was also in session.  As previously mentioned, this time the subject was SOCKS. (What else!?!)  Fairy Godmother cast on her first pair of top-down standard socks. 3rd Daughter dove in with toe-up socks on two circs!  The timing for Summer 2007 Interweave Knits lessons in toe-up socks couldn't have been more timely!  By the time we were ready to leave, 3D had completed the foot and heel of Ann Budd's On Your Toes socks !!  She is really a quick study!

The Geocaching

Of course, no trip would be complete for the Krafty1 Gang without a cache or two.  3D's sister was unable to join us last fall, so she came along this time to learn the ins and outs of geocaching.  We let her man the GPS unit to find two of the caches we found last fall.  PLUS, we did two new ones...our 89th and 90th finds!

All in all, it was a great weekend!  The company of good friends, good food, and good times...is there any better way to spend a weekend!?!  Now it's back to work and school. The girls have another week+ to go.  The dog is home from the kennel (...the hardest part of any get-away weekend is kennel arrangements!).  The next big getaway will be in July.  Then there will be Stitches in August.  I can't help but wonder though, when will the next "Up North Knit Camp" be?  Knitting and nature...gotta love it!

Holiday Weekend

When I left you on Friday for the holiday weekend, I merely had the yarn for the Harry Potter Sock Swap. 

As quite often happens, when I have one thing in mind, another thing presents itself.  In this case, Roza's socks by Grumperina came along and suddenly I started thinking of Madame Rosmerta.  She doesn't seem to do things in the normal fashion and thus an idea was born.  Sure, it looks great tonight as it awaits its mate.  But, if you've learned anything about me in the past months, I enjoy new challenges.

Thus Madame Rosmerta's socks are based on Roza's, but are knit toe-up.  Rewriting the pattern required a bit of magic (and a frog or two). 

At one point the heel seemed a bit short.  Not a problem...just pull out the needles magic wands and place them where they can work their magic... 

Bring in the frog chorus...and then go to bed.  Once you've frogged, it's best to set the knitting aside so that it can think about what it's bad behavior.  I'm happy with the results and am anxious to get the second sock cast on.

But, this was a holiday weekend....not all about knitting. (Don't gasp too loudly!)  There was a lot of fun to be had on Saturday while geocaching our way to my brother's house.  We stayed with caches that would be "level" for my young one with the "broken wing".  My Dad dubbed her "Special K" and it seems to be a nickname that is going to stick around awhile. (Some of you did NOT like the switch to Casey...too bad if you don't like the Special K moniker...Grandpa likes it and that's what counts!!)

Now, time to make sure that Madame Rosmerta has a "pair" of socks.

Sweet Saturday

Start the day at a fundraiser pancake breakfast.  Next head to the llama farm for their annual shearing event (going on next Saturday as well, if you're in the area).  As a bonus, a geocache within a quarter mile of the llama farm.

I can't imagine a better way to spend a Saturday morning!

For Moms and Pseudo-Mums

Happy Mother's Day!

I bet there were a lot of gifts today that included flowers.  These were for my Mom.  The photos were "leftovers" from our trip.  They made great notecards.  Who else got flowers today?

Not me...I got exactly what I wished for...a day spent geocaching with my family.  It was a gorgeous day for it.

There were gifts too.  Though, these aren't from my family.  I am "Pseudo-Mum" to a fine young lady, aka 3rd Daughter, and she sent these. 

She obviously made a little trip to Michaels.  I only know this because I was there recently and picked up a few of these items for SP giveaways and gifts. 

Check it out...obviously her Michael's has more selection than ours.  Ours had the notecards and magnets, but not the books, shopping list or ribbon!  Thanks for thinking of me, 3-D!

Now, it's time to put up my feet and do some knitting.  The lace project from my Secret Pal is going to take a month at current pace.  The pattern isn't difficult, but the yarn is like knitting a cloud.  The only comparison I can come up with for the texture of the yarn is that of dandelion fuzz wrapped around a silk thread.  Very delicate! 

Now, all of you mothers...put the kids to bed and head to your knitting chairs....Enjoy!

A New Season Begins

What to do on a beautiful Sunday afternoon!?!  In the Krafty1 household, we decided it was time to resume our weekly Geocache adventures.  What better than to run through the fields in search of "treasure".  Granted, some areas were a bit damp soaked.  Poor KC ended up with soaked shoes and socks.  But, she's still smiling!

For those of you who are unfamiliar, geocaching is a type of "hide and seek" where GPS receivers are used to find hidden containers called caches.  There are nearly 400,000 containers hidden around the globe.  It's great fun!  If you have access to a GPS unit, give it a go...warning, it can be addicting.

The fresh air was welcome after my internet struggle.  Meet the bane of my surfing existance...the cable modem.  This particular model is approx. 7 years old and is under death watch.  Work for an hour, dump.  Work for 3 minuted, dump.  Work for 20 minutes, dump.  At any moment, there is no guarantee it will communicate with the "mothership".  Can you imagine what it was like to review 70 knitting blogs for SP10 today!?!  (I have contest results for my group to post that will need to wait until tomorrow.)  Ahhh, fresh air, just the answer.  Tomorrow the modem will be introduced to the fresh air when it is kicked to the curb.  The cable company has promised us a new modem.  Then we can return to uninterrupted knitting content. 

Road trips=knitting and geocaching

Road trips...the eight hour kind...are perfect for two things; knitting and geocaching.  When we left on Thursday, I started the first sleeve for the baby sweater.  In the past, a long road trip meant endless, mindless hours for the kids...sleeping, reading, movies. 

But now that we are geocaching, it also means a chance to check out places along the way. A chance for us all to get out of the car and stretch our legs. Notice the smiles.  Sure, stopping to cache added an hour to our trip, but in the end, though it took longer, the time seemed to go by faster!

The weekend was fantastic!  Just what the doctor ordered after dealing with the I-diosyncratic R-esearch S-preadsheets. While on our retreat, we took in a few caches with our friends. (Notice that also meant the opportunity for ME to be in a geocache photo! Thank you Fairy Godmother!) 

Over the next couple of days I'll share the knitting that was accomplished by all of us while on retreat.  But since Sundays are for geocaching, the only other knitting that I'll share with you is from the trip home; the second baby sleeve.  One sleeve up, one sleeve down.  One GREAT weekend, all around!

Sunday Drive

As has become the habit, Sundays are made for a drive and a bit of geocaching.  Today, we headed an hour west, picked up my cousin and searched in her community.  We had been worried that we wouldn't get out today. Originally, the forecast had been for rain and snow but instead we had sunshine and COLD.

Mittens were in great demand!  At one point KC's mitten landed on the other side of a fence! [She'd been climbing (what else!?!) to get a better view of the lime covered pond.]  Panda found a BIG STICK and went "fishing". Thankfully, she "landed" it and her sister was quite grateful.  (How often to most parents here one sibling thank another profusely!?!)  "Cuz" borrowed one of my mittens and later mentioned that today was just the incentive she needed to finish knitting her second mitten.  It seems that mittens suffer from the same syndrome as second socks.

In the end, we found seven new caches, stopped at an apple orchard, took the dog along for several LONG walks, visited with my cousin, aunt, and uncle, and laughed.  A good day was had by all!  Shaun the Sheep welcomed us back into the car for a bit of knitting on the drive home.  This week, baby sweater needs somes sleeves.

Chicago!

Doogie and I headed to Chicago on Saturday afternoon to spend the evening with a friend from college; he was Doogie's roommate and our Best Man.  Our friend lives off of Lake Shore Drive where there was plenty to do including LOTS of walking and talking and catching up.

Since it was Sunday, we took advantage of the morning (and the need to walk the dog) and searched for a couple of geocaches.  Our friend had never heard of geocaching, but I think he enjoyed it.  For some geocachers the hunt is about "how many" they can find.  For us, it's about the things we see along the way.  Like this harbor shot with the Hancock building on the left and the Sears Tower in the distance on the right.

We had a great morning that included the opportunity for me to cross another item from my life list of things to do; we rode the infamous Chicago L (elevated train).

Before heading for home we found Knit1.  It was a tiny little shop.  There was a group of ladies having their Sunday afternoon gathering.  There wasn't much room to manuever and there wasn't much in the way of stock, but somehow I managed to find a "souvenir" skein of sock yarn.  The plan is to knit it up for Best Man.

With an overnight that included four hours of travel time and a  few glasses of wine; it was time to start the baby sweater.   Both hats are finished, and the sock just needs a cuff.  The baby sweater is a nice distraction (and super quick!).

Overnight with my honey, some good company and good wine, plus a dose of knitting...what more could a girl ask for!?!

GeoSunday

Last weekend we didn't get to go geocaching since we had company.  This weekend we got back on track with our weekly tradition.  We went to one of the pumpkin farms in the county and stopped at a couple of caches along the way.

We always find amazing things along the way.  Today's included a garter snake, HUGE mushrooms, and a working pump water  fountain.

Hard to imagine that just a few hours earlier Panda was dressed to the nines for the homecoming dance! (She's just as comfortable tromping through the woods.)  It was a late night.  What's a Mom to do when she's waiting for her daughter to return home from the dance?  What else, she knits!  This time it  meant another stripe of the Fair Isle Sweater was completed and the sock that I started yesterday is nearly to the point of getting a heel...but there are enough photos in this post.

Busy Sunday

I know, I know, Sunday is supposed to be a day of rest.  Around here, it used to be, but not anymore.  This morning started with a pancake breakfast...50 miles away.  We went to visit my post-surgery brother.  He's doing great (thanks for all of your well-wishes)!  He has a Sunday pancake tradition and we wanted to make sure that wasn't disrupted due to his post-op recovery.  The tradition remains intact and so is my brother.  More importantly, the surgery was successful; he no longer has the intense pain that he had.

Back at home, we headed to my parents.  Dad's birthday was yesterday, but since we all were at his sister's birthday party (it was her birthday on Friday), we didn't get to celebrate it yesterday.  So this afternoon we caught up with his birthday.  Whew!  Brother; checked.  Dad; checked.  (Don't worry, Mom's turn is in another week when she has surgery on her hands.)

With everyone checked and daylight running out, we headed out to a nearby park to find a geocache.  That's what we do on Sundays. Unfortunately, the cache near my parents' house is a micro cache.  That means it's tiny, really tiny.  Our Garmin eTrex GPS is sensitive to within a 200 foot range.  We can get within 30 feet of an object and then we rely on our sense of observation.  It works really well for regular sized (ammo) caches and even for the small caches, but not so well for micros.  We'd REALLY like to get the Garmin GPSMap 60CSX which has much greater sensitivity. That "thing" sticking out of the top (an antenna) is what makes this device perfect in areas with heavy tree coverage. Unfortunately, its price and our recent incident with the kitchen chairs means that the new GPS unit will need to be on our Christmas list.

So what do you do when you've been unsuccessful but you still really want to claim a find...we tried for a regular sized cache.  Near our house is a popular bike path we ride.  Along the trail are several caches but we have been "saving" them.  Today was a day to use one.  It was a great choice.  On our walk to the cache we saw 6 deer grazing in a nearby field.  Then, not only did we find the cache but we also found TWO wooly caterpillars.  For us, geocaching is not only about finding the caches, but about what we see along the way and taking time to enjoy each other's company: finding a good belly laugh is just as important!  Doogie, eat the worm!

Speaking of things "wooly".  Another stripe is finished.  From the the measurements, when I get to the top of the footstool the sweater will be finished.  I've discovered that I'll need to do a bit of re-write on the pattern.  The instructions are to knit all the way up and then CUT a neckline for the sweater.  I've done several steeked sweaters and enjoy cutting the steeks, but I'm NOT going to cut willy-nilly a neckline!  I'd much rather rewrite!  Two more stripes till it needs to be decided.

Harvest Festival

It's Sunday, that means geocaching around here.  Cedarburg was holding their Wine & Harvest Festival this weekend.  Doogie & I had seen info on it when we were on our anniversary getaway.  There were a number of caches in the area so we combined our geocaching with the festival.

All told we found 6 caches.  One of them was in a coffee shop where they roast their own beans.  The air was FILLED with my favorite kind of "perfume"!  The cache here required that we put together a puzzle first in order to get our clue.  We had the best time.

We had lunch at the festival.  They had butterfly potato chips.  If you look closely at the photo, he is using a power tool to cut the potatoes.  It was hysterical!  We bought some kettle corn to snack on. At our final cache stop along the Cedar Creek, we shared some of the corn with the ducks.  This is why we love geocaching so much.  It's not just about finding the caches, it's about spending the days together laughing and enjoying each other's company.  We love spending time with our kids! Knowing that Panda will be off to college in a couple of years makes wanting to spend time laughing together, while we can, all the more important.

And since this IS a knitting blog, here is the progress on the second sock.  Cedarburg was filled with plenty of amazing twists and turns for us.  During the commute I managed to get the heel turned on this Falling Leaves sock.  Once turned, I left Shaun share the spotlight with the sock along with the traffic (heading in the other direction) from the Packers football game.  Thanks India for Shaun and my fabulous sock yarn!

Another geocaching Sunday

What a beautiful day!  For the fourth Sunday in a row, we went geocaching.  We started with a little "bushwacking", and then headed to the lakefront.  It was a gorgeous day for a walk along the beach with an added portion of hiking along hillsides and clambering over rocks.  We found 5 of the 7 caches that we attempted, had a nice lunch together, and hardly noticed that we'd been gone for six hours!  Mind you, we never even left town!!!  Next week, we plan to travel to out of town for our geocaching excursion.

I wish that I could say that I finalized my package for KSKS once we returned home but my family needed marinara sauce.  I'm not sure how much I made last year, but there was only ONE jar left in the pantry yesterday.  There was a great deal of fear at Chez Krafty1 that without fresh marinara there would be a shortage of noodles or homemade pizza.  Just imagine a 9-year old with worry lines over the potential loss of pasta in her diet!

Tomorrow is another day and I still have time to make sure the parcel gets to Postmaster Larry.

Happy Trails Weekend Recap

When last you heard from me, I was preparing for the bike trip.  Well, now I've returned from that very same bike trip and yes, there is knitting progress to report.  Both the fair isle sweater and the feather and fan scarf came along.  The men took turns cooking over the open flame.  Sitting by the fire, trying to stay clear of the line of smoke, there was plenty of time for knitting progress.  I won't bore you with the scarf progress, since lace is slow to show progress, but the blue section looks cool, especially with the lawn chair as back-drop.  I've said it before and I'll say it again, this is an awesome project for keeping the mind stimulated; it NEVER gets boring!

Since Sunday is Geocache Day for our family, and we were along the bike trail, we hit three caches along the trail.  We had SO much fun! Then it was time to hit the trail and head for home.  A good time was had by all!  The girls are anxious for us to do more traveling to find more caches.  As long as I can continue to bring my knitting along; NO PROBLEM!  Another day we will head down another trail; recommendations gladly accepted.

Scarves and Boots

It's halfway!  Yes, as of tonight I was able to attach the second skein for my feather and fan scarf.  An inch a day and now there's nearly 38 inches completed.  This scarf should easily be finished before the snow flies. (Maybe...after all, this IS Wisconsin!) 

Unfortunately, the scarf has turned into such an easy take-along project that I haven't started any socks in over a week.  In fact, the sock that has been sitting waiting for kitchener stitching is STILL waiting.

A couple of weeks ago I posed the question to my SP8 group as to what they would do if their stash were stolen.  There were a LOT of great answers, but Robin went one step further and included animation to her answers.  Today she received her prize.  Enjoy!

In geocaching news, we found a travel bug this past weekend that needed some repairs.  Since we hope to "drop" the Boots bug on our bike trip, we decided to play "cobbler" by using Fimo clay and Super Glue to repair the boot.  It may not be "like new", but the repairs should prevent it the boots from disintegrating any further.  One more trip preparation completed.  BUT, I still haven't decided what knitting to take along!

State Fair, Sunday Drive & Sheep

What a great weekend!  Saturday we went shopping in the "big city" and then to the Wisconsin State Fair.  Silly me.  We walked through all kinds of buildings and saw lots of exhibits but it wasn't until today, when I saw Jen's ribbons, that I realized that I didn't look for a single knitting entry or sheep while we were there!  There's always next year.  Maybe I'll even be brave enough to enter.  I totally forgot to get an entry for this year's county fair.  BUT, just in case you think I'm losing my touch, I did manage to find these really nice sheep notecards in a fabulous box while we were shopping.

This afternoon we went out geocaching.  It's becoming our new reason to go for a Sunday drive.  We found two caches but had difficulty with a third.  We also found our first travel bug plus a 2007 Jeep challenge bug.  KC was THRILLED that we'd found one.  She is totally hooked on geocaching!  She's already planning trips to take the "bugs" to their new drops.

Thankfully, there was enough time in the car between caches that I was able to get some knitting on my scarf completed.  I've still been managing to get an inch completed each day.  In the next day or so I will have used up the first skein and will start the final second skein.  Tomorrow I'll have an update with photos of the cardigan.  I'll also have to get a progress bar/chart/graphic going.  Any ideas/suggestions/advice as to where I can find some good ones that will work with Typepad?

DARK trek

I know, DARK trek sounds like either a sock gone bad or a really bad episode of Star Trek.  It's neither.  It's our family's new name for Geocaching. There was an article in the Milwaukee newspaper about it.  We got our name assigned and today went on our first adventure.  (The GPS unit was a Christmas present from my husband a couple of years ago.)  We found both of the caches that we were looking for and had a great walk outdoors on a beautiful Sunday afternoon.  Even the dog had a good time "hunting" with us.  At least I can take my knitting along in the car.

I am putting the finishing touches on the second sock and hope to have it ready to send out in tomorrow's mail.  Next, I'd like to start the Knit Picks Fair Isle Sweater.  New adventures around every corner!