The Yettlest Pumpchin

My son is four, and he's the tallest kid in his class. He's talkative and sociable. But the way he talks is so sweet that it often makes people melt. There are so many words he still can't say right. When he says "Mom, I want to tell you sumpin (something)," I secretly hope that he'd keep saying just like that.

Last Friday afternoon when I went to his preschool to pick him up, he was listening to a story called "The Littlest Pumpkin." In it, the littlest pumpkin at the pumpkin farm was left alone on the Halloween night, since no one wanted her. On Sunday, when we went Pumpkin Patching, he was determined to find "the Yettlest Pumpchin" and take her home.

The Yettlest Pumpchin was nowhere to be found.

"I don't think this is the yettlest," says Mitch.

"I found them! Five of them!"

The littlest pumpkins proudly came home with Mitch, and are now in his room.

There were several fiber-related fun at the Tolay Pumpkin Patch in Petaluma too. Two spinners at the Wyammy Ranch booth, and one of them was very young and very experienced, expertly spinning silk. I got to talk with Joann, Wyammy Ranch's owner. I think I bought her dyed romney last year at the Sebastopol Apple Festival.

Mitch also got to try felting.

I should tell you that I've started spinning Erin's alpaca last Saturday at our Knit Night. It's heavenly, not a hint of guard hair, and I was so desperate to spin it I was taking the fiber right off the carders!

Now a dilemma.... I just read in the spinning book that since alpaca has no elasticity, in order to avoid the garment to sag, you should blend some wool into alpaca. Hmmm. I don't have any sheep fleece that matches this sweet coco brown color. What to do? Oh yeah, another visit to the pumpkin patch, obviously!