One Foot in Autumn

Even though it is mid August, the season is changing. I feel as if I have one foot in summer and the other in autumn.  We are still eating garden ripened tomatoes but the cucumber vines have dried up.  My summer home improvement and organization projects are not quite finished but I am two weeks into the fall school semester. While much of the midwest remains extremely dry, temperatures cooled off this past week.

On August 17, I drove into the school parking lot and spent a few minutes watching parents and children arrive for the first day of the new year. Some children run eagerly for the door while others hang back with their parents. Dads with cameras dangling from their wrists hold small hands. Moms tie shoes or adjust straps on backpacks before one last hug. I remember when Kate and Aaron set out for a new school year and suddenly seemed a year older and closer to being grown up. Those first days are over but next weekend brings another milestone celebration. Aaron is marrying a wonderful young woman. Although I plan to leave photos to the professional, I know there will be plenty of hugs and perhaps a few tears to go around. Then, after the party is over and my dear family leaves for home, I plan to spend a few quiet hours knitting.

Last week as we opened the house to cool mornings and evenings, I retrieved some of cooler weather  knitting projects.  I finished the summer knitting on  Nice Ribbed Socks  in "Vancouver Violet" sock yarn by Blue Moon Fiber Art.  I pulled out the Greenfield Cardigan I put away last Spring when having the growing wool/mohair project in my lap was too warm.

I'm swatching for another cardigan from yarn I bought ten years ago on our twenty fifth anniversary trip. Somewhere an unfinished soft gray Wool Peddlers Shawl lurks in the dark recesses of a closet.  Both the shawl and the unnamed cardigan have a story to tell. I'll keep you posted.