Early November

Here comes November. I wrote this post off-line on Wednesday as our internet service was down. As I edit this in Blogger, it is Thursday evening. Honestly not much has changed. The wind was blowing then and it is blowing now. This last week the days have been beautiful. Leaf litter glitters in the sun. Lots of leaves have fallen in the last two days. Every year as I watch them fall, they remind me about letting go with grace. 

Belatedly I link to Kat and the Unravelers. Tuesday evening I finished the mitts in the above photo. They are a birthday gift for a niece. Although Pebble Island Yarn by Rowan is not superwash, it feels cozy. It has a nice hand. The two-ply structure would pair nicely with two-ply handspun. Since I knit loosely, I cast on four fewer stitches. I knit a two fewer rows on the hand because they were the right length. These mods allowed me to knit both mitts from one skein. 

In Connecticut, Kate and I went through the handknit hats and mittens to see if any new items are needed for the cold weather. Many of the mittens look worn and loved but the kids enjoy wearing them on walks to school and on the playground. Honestly, they have plenty but this Grammy wants to knit for them so we decided each child could request one new item. Norah requested a "rainbow" scarf. We looked at yarn together online so I had an idea of what she wanted. She called shortly after we returned and asked if I had forgotten to leave the rainbow scarf for her. She has a lot of faith in the speed of my knitting. 😊 So first up is a scarf for her. The shawl I'm working on can wait a little longer. 

The S'mores party celebrating the end of the Sock Scrimmage was fun. I met some of the knitters as we sat outdoors and knit. For the record, the s'mores were made and eaten outdoors and no yarn was harmed in the process. Approximately thirty knitters knit 101 socks in four weeks. I knit two pairs but had the first sock started before the scrimmage began. A few women knit a pair of socks each week. That much knitting would make my hands hurt but more power to them.  

Last night I finished The Round House by Louise Erdrich. This book is the second novel in a trilogy exploring ideas of justice and revenge. The narrator is a grown man, looking back to the summer he was thirteen and his mother was raped. Erdrich weaves information about legal jurisdiction on a modern-day reservation into this coming of age story. The story contains enough humor to keep the story from becoming so sad it is unreadable and she is an eloquent writer. As always her characters are complex, human, and believable. The book was first published in 2012 but the ideas about justice and abuse of Native American women are very applicable to today's world. This book very deservedly won a National Book Award. I don't often rate books on my blog but this is a five star book for me. 

I hope you are looking forward to all the good things this November. 

Just for fun: For Halloween, the Connecticut kids mostly dressed as characters from The Grinch Who Stole Christmas. Micah wanted to be a Ninja and part of the group. There could be a Ninja Santa in Whoville right?

The Grinch, Bricklebaum, Cindy Lou Who, Ninja Santa

Ravelry Links

Gold Thumb Mitts

Rainbow Scarf