Another Month Gone By

It's been busy here. College students are home and I am just trying to keep track of who is working where and what camp starts and ends.  School starts for the high school child in a few short weeks and the others will be back at college.  Busy finishing things up and starting new projects.  An update on the home made vanilla extract:

Before picture:

After one month:

This will be wonderful come December.

Finished up another pair of socks:

They faded quickly in just one wash.  Luckily these were not a gift. 

My patio chairs are giving out so I made two seat bottoms.  Not too bad, I will replace them as needed:

We finally got a large amount of needed rain yesterday.  My garden is happy. 

Needle in the Eye

Once when someone asked me if I knit, my response was I would rather stick a needle in my eye.  Well, I will have to retract that.  I have been crocheting many years, and have finally picked up needles.  Last year there was the Dr. Who scarf:

This had taken me quite a long time so I swore no more needles. I had also purchased a book on making socks that is collecting dust.  But then I picked up a booklet that teaches how to make socks.  I had to rip them out five times.  The last try I said the hell with it, I am knitting through no matter what and if they are funky, so what!  

They are a little wonky but usable and I did learn to make socks.  I also learned that a pattern that teaches how to knit socks really shouldn't have errors in it.   Right now I am working on a hat.

It is called the Nice and Knit Beanie.  Since it is just a hat and knitted in worsted it should work up quicker than the socks.  This has made me more confident to try the socks in this book:

Socks From The Toe Up by Wendy Knits.  This is the book that has been gathering dust.  My husband joked that it is a good thing that we didn't have to rely on my sock knitting to have socks because they would all have to share one sock and jump around on one foot by the time I made one pair.  Guess who isn't getting socks???