Newton's knitting: August 2008

It's been nice these past few weeks when I've popped by the blog (does anybody else do that? Visit their own blog even when you don't have time to post and it's been too long to reasonably expect new comments? Just to, I don't know, make sure it's still there?). It's seemed like I've been on vacation the whole time, enjoying the scenery and the kids in New York and Vermont.

Sadly, though, I've been back for a few weeks. A busy few weeks! The kids went back to school, first of all, which required shopping and planning and a little bit of motivational speaking. At work, four of our seven teachers went on vacation in the same week (seriously, who told them they could do that?). Then there's the camp laundry to catch up with, which always takes about a week, as gross as that sounds. (And yes, it usually is as gross as it sounds.)

I like being back home, especially when I am taking a shower, but I've got to say, our trip was great this year. We made a point of doing things that we hadn't done before. We were more spontaneous. The first day, we got in the car and drove through Ticonderoga and into Vermont. We stopped at a little restaurant that turned out to be terrific and saw the placemats advertising the Addison County Fair that week, so we decided to do that too. Wherever we were, we grabbed brochures and perused them back at the campsite to make the next day's plans. The result was a little bit of time spent driving around lost but a lot of fun and new experiences.

The one place we did know we would go ahead of time was High Falls Gorge, near Lake Placid, NY. We wanted to go last year, but didn't get a chance, so it was first on the list. It was beautiful, and a little scary, seeing the Ausable River pounding over the rocks with such incredible force:

That video was taken from this terrifying little platform, which J and I visited in shifts because I was NOT taking Baby Sister down there:

We did take her on all the walkways, which was fine, of course. I am a big baby is all. And it was beautiful.

Then there was the aforementioned county fair, which was just so much fun. We saw tons of animals, pig races, the rides at the midway, a bit of spinning, and an unbelievable amount of mud. (The mud made the scene in the parking lot almost as much fun as the fair itself!) I was surprised at how fearless the boys were when it came to the rides; they went on anything they were tall enough for. I couldn't help but thinking that just a couple years ago Little Brother had to stop and get off the extremely scary mini Ferris wheel at Storyland. Say it with me, they grow up so fast!

My favorite parts were the animals, and Baby Sister's reaction to them. She loved the bunnies and the ponies and the noise of the roosters. She wanted to touch anything she could. She was totally with me in wanting to buy an alpaca, but J shot us down. Spoilsport.

I think I could write about ten more posts about our trip, but that would probably get pretty boring. So I'll quickly mention other places we had a great time: the Wild Center, the beach at Scaroon Manor, and Lake George Village, of course, and then call it a day. On the off chance that any of you are planning trips to the area, these are spots to check out for sure.

As for camp knitting, I almost made a serious blunder in planning. I was completely convinced that the Opening Ceremonies for the Olympics were the Saturday that we were leaving, and I planned, printed, and packed all my Ravelympics projects. At the last minute, I went online to the time zone checker to see when I was supposed to start - and found that the Opening Ceremonies were not until the following Friday. Oh crap! I honestly could not figure out what I wanted to cast on instead, so - thank goodness for Ravelry - I went to my queue and saw Katja. And sure, the pattern link works now, but the night before I left my computer refused to open any knitty patterns. At all. So I looked at other people's projects, packed a skein of Cotton Fleece and winged it.

I like the way it came out, and I'm glad I decided to eliminate the "cups". My only problems with it are a little sag in the back and my own ham-fisted attempt at applied I-cord. And the fact that Baby Sister refuses to wear it. Cries when I offer it to her, actually. Sigh.

Speaking of alpaca (I was, a couple of paragraphs ago, honest) and fiber arts, I did make one purchase on our trip. (I went to Webs on the way home, too, but that's not "on our trip", right?) A bit of raw alpaca fleece from a local farm, bought at the county fair. The only raw fleece I worked with before is wool, so I was really surprised at how clean this was. And soft! And a gorgeous color! I can't wait to get started.