Knitting Notes

October winds do bluster - one day warm and and the next quite chilly. Yesterday's outwear for walking included a barn jacket, hat, cowl, and real mittens, not the fingerless variety. Most trees are dropping leaves. One crimson maple has shed almost all. One warm day last week dry green leaves blew across yard and street. So it goes. I savor these days, storing up the colors against winter's monochromatic shades. While I like winter, I miss colors in the landscape. When we returned from Texas, I expected the summer pots on the front porch to have been nipped by frost. Instead, tucked up in the corner near the house, they survived. This yellow rose begonia is blooming away. I don't have the heart to dump it while it is so pretty but the days are numbered. I tried to slip a couple leaves with no luck.

I bound off the bottom of this sweater as per directions. I don't know if I like the bind-off ( a plain row at the end of the ribbing and then binding off in all knitted stitches) or not. I plan to lightly block the sweater as is and knit the neck ribbing before picking up for the sleeves. Barb of the 2 Knit Lit Chicks podcast completes the neck of sweaters before knitting the sleeves. She reports neck finishing sometimes affects the length of the sleeves. I want to try her suggestion with this sweater.


On the Texas trip, I began hat and mitten sets for the Connecticut kids. I finished two hats and the red mittens - minus the thumbs. This week I've been knitting here and there on the sets. When the blue and red sets are finished, I have two left to knit. Norah's hat is also on the needles.

I listened to Evvie Drake Starts Over. Although I became a little impatient with the main character, some descriptions and figures of speech made me smile and nod my head. They story was not great literature but enjoyable enough. Currently I am reading The Downstairs Girl, historical fiction set in Atlanta in the early 1900's. The main character, a young Chinese woman, works by day as a lady's maid for a rude difficult daughter of a prominent family. By night, she composes a newspaper advice column under a pseudonym. As the story progresses she attempts to write about the injustice she sees around her. Here is yet another piece of history that never made it into the history textbooks of my education.

The sun is out. I am off to take a walk among the autumn colors - no hat and mittens needed.  Have a good week.