Well, the socks aren’t necessarily summer socks. But I finished them in the summer! I had the first sock of both of these pairs completed in March, and the second socks were lagging for one reason or another. The stripey pair, I needed more yarn, and then I needed to finish the purple pair. The purple pair, I guess I’ve just been busy! It took far longer than it should have to finish up that second sock!!

But I’m happy with both pairs. I LOVE the purple pair. The yarn is nice (it’s Joann’s Sensations Bamboo and Ewe, which knits up nicely) and I love the pattern (Harris Tweed). This pair was made for a friend of mine, at her request. I don’t think there’s ever any way to charge a fair price for a hand-knit pair of socks, lol. $1 million should suffice.

The stripe pair is from Knitpick’s Felici yarn. I love the yarn, and I like the pattern, with one exception - it’s baggy around the legs, particularly the cuff. Annoying!

Oh, yes, completely in love.

It started with an overabundance of milk, and my need to use it up before leaving for a week. I decided to bust out a quick batch of soap while waiting for some of the milk to heat to an appropriate temperature for yogurt.

I started with an organic glycerin soap base, and then I added a bunch of fresh goat’s milk - from Ginger, my goat. (Have I mentioned I have a goat? Yeah. She lives in rural Swan at Sugar Creek Family Farm. She is the queen of the barnyard, at least in her opinion. And she produces about 2 gallons per day. um….  it’s a lot of milk.)

After that, I threw in a dollop of raw honey from Cypress Grove Farms, also in Swan.

And I added a touch of honey fragrance for a bit of boost to the honey scent.

mmmmm.

There is a LOT of milk in this soap, making it really a lot like taking a milk bath. It’s very soothing and gentle, not drying at all. I fell in love with it while suffering from some sort of rash from an unidentified weed of some sort that itched like crazy. It was so nice feeling on my irritated skin. And the scent is pleasant but not overwhelming.

Yeah, I love it. Want to try it? Available at Etsy!

I made these both with Willow Ridge Farms yarn CSA yarn, which is about my least favorite yarn ever, but at least I’m slowly getting rid of it, lol. The blue and purple one is basically just improvised pattern, the brown one is the Belladonna nighttime shorts pattern, which has disappointed in the past. I keep thinking it’ll be better if I keep using it, but it’s not.

This is not a craft I ever thought I’d do, that’s for sure!

But I was pleasantly surprised to find that making balloon animals is not altogether difficult. The hardest part is getting the dang balloon tied. Second hardest is not wincing every time you twist, in anticipation of popping the thing!