Weekending with the Pupper

Monday again -- how quickly it always seems to arrive! Rainbow and I spent the weekend puppy-sitting my brother and sister-in-law's dog while they were out of town for a wedding. We did this once before earlier in the year, but it was so frigid that weekend that it wasn't much fun. This time around, we had gorgeous fall weather that made it actually pleasurable to go out for walks. I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but they live up the street from the house where my brother and I grew up, so it was fun to walk around the old neighborhood. Leo also entertained us and came up to make sure we were awake both mornings. He cracked us up with this funny face as well:

Before the weekend with Leo, though, I had a lovely day off on Friday. The weather was spectacular, and after a good run in the morning, I picked Rainbow up at school at 11, and then after lunch, the Mister joined us to go out to the farm. We came home with one big pumpkin for the front stoop and a couple of mini pumpkins for interior decoration, a quart of apple cider, a half peck of several varieties of apples, an apple pie, and some fresh apple cider donuts (we each had one in the parking lot before we got back into the car to come home). The donuts and pie have all been consumed, and a couple of the apples have been enjoyed. We haven't yet decided if we'll carve the pumpkin, but I happened to see this video over the weekend and think it's genius!

When I wasn't out walking the dog over the weekend, I spent the time knitting and watching TV with Rainbow. We watched some baking shows (Is It Cake? and Nailed It!) as well as the original Hocus Pocus before starting the new one because Rainbow had seen bits and pieces over the years but not the full movie. She had a scrappy crochet project and I had my knit projects, and quite a lot was accomplished.

First, I finished my socks:

I'm delighted with how they turned out, and the pattern is currently with my tech editor, so these will soon be out in the world as a pattern everyone can make. I didn't try to make the stripes match because of how long the repeat was, which is a good thing, because there wasn't too much yarn leftover. But what was left was immediately put to use in another scrappy charity hat:

One of my friends on Ravelry is collecting hats for a children's cancer center, so I'm planning to send this and the other similar hats I've made, plus any more I can finish this week, on to her. This hat used close to 300 yards of leftover Fibernymph Dye Works Bounce in various colorways held triple. I cast on Saturday and finished it Sunday morning, so it was just about instant gratification. Rainbow also mentioned that she'd be happy to work on one, provided I cast on and do the ribbing and crown decreases and put it on a 16" needle (I worked the body of this one magic loop, which she hasn't mastered yet).

I did not manage to start the project with the mini skeins, but that will be cast on very soon. Right now, though, I'm sneaking in a quick knit that will be part of Rainbow's Halloween costume, the rest of which she's made herself.

 

Any guesses? All should be done and ready to be revealed by Wednesday.

Have a good start to your week!