Thanksgiving Eve

On this chilly Thanksgiving Eve the sky is gray and a breeze blows through empty trees. The finches and chickadees huddle around the feeder. The blue jays squawk from the tops of the neighbor's locust trees. The little downy in his crisp black and white with a dash of red fluffs his breast feathers at the suet feeder. This is indeed a November day. We are thankful for roof over our head, heat coming though the vents, food on the table, and stores in the pantry. My husband has tools in the garage and shed and the bins of yarn are full. One of my nieces is recovering from a nasty bout with Covid but she is out of the woods if not quarantine. Other than that my dear ones are safe and healthy. We will be home tomorrow, enjoying a good meal and Face Time. This afternoon I plan to make my mother's recipe of cranberry relish. I wasn't going to make rolls but somehow this day calls for bread rising in a warm kitchen. Tomorrow I will make an apple galette and put it in the oven when the dinner comes out. Since we are on our own, the pace will be leisurely and dessert might as well be warm from the oven. 

My knitting pace is also leisurely. Last weekend I reached the halfway mark on the cabled poncho. Between the hand of the yarn and the two repeats in the cable, this is one of my favorite knitting projects. The little textured bit in the center of the design repeats every twelve rows and the two cables on the outer edges repeat every sixteen rows. I keep track of rows with stitch markers so I am not ticking off the rows on paper. By the time I finish one repeat, I'm not far from the other and that makes me happy to keep knitting. 

I finished Jonah's hat and mittens and cast on a mitten for Emmett. Two sets finished, two to go. I also crocheted a little purple flower and sewed it on Norah's hat. I reconfigured the thumb gusset on Jonah's mitten (notes on Ravelry.) When I knit the toddler and child sizes in this pattern, the thumb always lands too far up on the hand. Then I rip out the top of the hand and knit it longer. If insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result, this is a good example. 

Poetry keeps me company these days. Earlier in the month, I pulled my copy of Poems of Gratitude from the shelf. I also read The Darkness Around Us is Deep by William Stafford, a favorite poet. The title of the book is the last line of  A Ritual To Read To Each Other. Although this poem was first published in 1960, it has a universal quality that speaks to our time. I recently read in a commentary about Stafford "that he wrote amazing things without raising his voice, as though he was murmuring." When asked about that he replied that "a raised voice was usually a mistake. A murmur's enough." 

As I link with Kat and the other Unravelers, I wish you a Happy Thanksgiving.  

Ravelry links

Poncho with a Cable

Jonah's Hat and Mittens 

Emmett's Hat and Mittens