Hello Gentle Readers. Rain fell on Monday. The sun shines brightly on Tuesday. The light and changing November skies are beautiful. I love that deep blue-gray-periwinkle color that comes with an overcast day in November. Despite a dry dry early fall we have had some lovely autumn color. A maple tree down the street is a stunning orangey-red. For some reason it has hung onto its leaves longer than others. Fall is my favorite season and I mean to enjoy the remaining days.
Wednesday, I'll link this post to Kat and the Unravelers. Both the previously mentioned hitchhiker and the Leaflette Scarf/ Shawlette are finished and blocking. There is some kind of knitting irony in finishing one piece with progressively longer rows and the other with progressively smaller rows.
I cast on a top-down raglan sweater that may or may not get finished. I have this crazy idea to use the gray yarn as a base and fade in handspun yarns in several different colors. I swatched the gray yarn but have no idea if I can wrangle the gauge and colors of all the handspun yarns. I thought it would be fun to try so I threw caution to the wind. By next week, I may have frogged the whole thing.
I also cast on a pair of holiday socks. I plan to knit the colorwork portion and then knit a vanilla sock the way I usually knit socks. The body of the sock will be a deep red with green accents. I knit a swatch and washed it to make sure the red won't bleed into the white.
I am still thinking about Held by Anne Michaels. To me, the novel is a meditation on remembering and thinking of loved ones. Since that story began with an injured soldier in 1917, I decided to reread One of Ours by Willa Cather. Her writing, although different from Michaels', is also beautiful. Just last night I read a lovely passage about falling snow. Cather's Pulitzer Prize winning story is based on a Nebraska-born nephew who served in France during World War One. It always reminds me of my grandfather who was also born on a central Nebraska farm and served in France. It pleases me to be reading an old worn copy from the second printing in 1922. I bought it years ago.
How about you? What are you enjoying these November days?
What an amazing and beautiful tree! Despite our weird weather we've had a colorful Fall as well and I have been enjoying it. Congratulations on your two finishes and the yarns for your "possible" sweater are so pretty all together. I hope it works. Willa Cather sure wrote some beautiful passages. I still love "My Antonia." Have you read anything by Sarah Orne Jewett? I have a copy of "The Country of the Pointed Firs" that I've been meaning to read for ages.
ReplyDeleteThat sky is an interesting color and so is that amazing tree! We are supposed to have real rain tonight into tomorrow so I will be grateful for whatever color our skies are as long as they are delivering some rain. Your holiday socks look like a very nice design and I will be interested in seeing how your sweater plans play out. Thank you for recommending The War That Saved My Life. I loved it and am eagerly awaiting the sequel.
ReplyDeleteThat tree is incredible! I have no idea if we have that kind of color in the neighborhood because I've been stuck at home so much, but I was pretty disappointed with the dogwood in our backyard -- it usually turns a beautiful red but pretty much went right to brown this year. I'm sure it's due to the drought. I look forward to seeing how that sweater progresses and hope you have luck with working in your handspun. I find that knitting is pretty forgiving, even when the yarns don't quite match, so it may well work out just fine.
ReplyDeleteI am nodding along with your November days thoughts. Autumn is also my favorite time... the light is just so incredible and we have had some broody stormy skies recently as well! And the bonus is that our weather has been so incredibly mild.
ReplyDeleteI smiled at your thoughts on the longer rows versus the getting shorter ones. The ‘not long now’ excitement versus the ‘how much longer to go’ weariness.
ReplyDeleteThat was a very menacing looking sky up top…..did it rain or just blow over. And it’s sad to see the leaves drop when a Maple has put on such a glorious show
the way you feel about your top down is how I feel about my throw!! I am just chugging along knowing I can rip out what I do not like. I love autumn and I love winter, we might get some flakes today and I do hope so!!
ReplyDeleteOh Jane YES! Held is about what happens (to us and those who are remembered) when we remember. I've been thinking lately about kairos time (thanks in large part of Madeleine L'Engle's Genesis trilogy) and something tells me that remembering gets us closer to what that kind of time might be ... it's mind-blowing and beautiful to comtemplate. (also, I read One of Ours years ago - and I love the suggestion to re-read it with this whole idea about time/memory - thank you!)
ReplyDeleteHello, Jane! I've been thinking of you and your prairie home...so, love hearing your mention of [one of my favorites]--Willa Cather. Do you get or have access to the periodical, Orion? In the Autumn 24 issue there's an essay titled _Protecting the Prairie_ by Sarah Smarsh. It offers such a unique perspective, especially for those of us who preach 'forest-forest-forest.' I found it informative, urgent, inspiring -- and I thought of you!
ReplyDeleteGood luck with your raglan adventure. I think I've knit less than a dozen sweaters, ever, but I just did my first top-down raglan and suspect I may NEVER go back to setting in sleeves. I hope to become comfortable enough with it, over time, to experiment like you're doing.
Take good care. I've missed you since stepping way back from blogging!