BOB and Martha

My Martha sweater is totally done and buttonized now - I guess you can't see the buttons too well in this photo though. I had wanted some sort of gunmetal grey button to pick up the black and grey flecks in the yarn, but all that was available was too big. I ended up going with some shell buttons and they are good and well when all is said and done. I had finished it without even trying it on. At the last minute Friday night I decided I was going to go to Portland the next morning for a family funeral and was trying to figure out what I was going to wear. I popped this on with a black teeshirt and some black slacks. Oh. This is so cute on! Great for travel, yet dressy enough for a funeral. It's a great sweater - you have to make one!

Sunday my brother came over to help me harvest my bees. Quite a few years ago we had some Mason bee houses (the 4 x 4 blocks with holes drilled in them) and had a huge population of bees. This lasted a few years, but then mites ended up killing them. We tried to repopulate but just didn't have any luck. My brother (Hi, Dave!) in the meantime came up with a great way to launch the bees in the spring and then harvest in the fall and have them hibernate in the fridge until springtime. This should eliminate the mite problem. So, at Christmas last year, he said he was going to set up with a bee system of my own. This spring he brought over the box, a bunch of tubes with liners and a launch box. Oh, and 100 bee cocoons. Long story short, from my 100 bees, I now have 411 bee cocoons for next year! Here's some pictures in case you are curious. These straw like things are the paper liners that go into the paper tubes.

There is quite a bit of mud and pollen that comes out - all sort of gross, but just part of nature. Here's the bees soaking a dilute bleach/water solution. Hopefully killing any baddies and getting the bees ready for a long sleep in the fridge! And last, I tried getting a close up of a cocoon. These bees are just really cool!

Sock progress has been slow but steady. I did finish the Rocktober Charade socks, and a plain Jane stockinette one for Sara. I let her look through my sock stash the other night and she picked out this yarn for a pair for herself. They are my non-thinking time socks. We all need a project like that sometimes!

Here is really what I've been working on for the past few days. It's why you don't make latkes in your mom's all-clad pan. Ugh. Yes, the culprit should be the one working on it, but she is severely stressed out with trying to finish up her degrees this quarter. I'm just a nice mom! Imagine fully half the pan coated in burnt on oil. Yuck. Vinegar seems to be helping though.
Last, but not least I thought I'd take a picture of my project bags and stitch markers. They are all from Amy's site. Check it out!