Autumn Adventures

This morning is crisp and cool. Down the street is a maple whose streaks of red leaves welcome autumn. The birds are more active at the feeders. A red-breasted nuthatch flits in the birch outside my window. The green in the birch leaves fades to yellow and brown. This afternoon I begin the last weeding of the perennials along the fence. The perennials look sad and dry. Who knows what will survive this summer's heat and drought. Saturday we dug up and divided two patches of overgrown iris. Before replanting the separated iris, my husband unearthed some compost and we spaded it into the ground. In the process we found potatoes growing in one corner of the bins. They grew from the tops of last year's plants. Gardening is an adventure. 

Making is also an adventure. Wednesdays I link with Kat and the Unravelers to post about making and reading. The hat for my daughter-in-law is finished and looks like something she will enjoy. It was a one skein project with a few yards leftover. I had ordered two skeins of the KP's Swish because they are only 123 yards each. I'm happy to tuck the extra into my stash for hats and mittens for kids. This summer I learned an Omaha hospital accepts hats to give out in their hospital and emergency rooms. I have a bag of superwash DK scraps that is destined to become hats for them. 

Since the hat was finished, I put another gift in the Christmas project bag. I usually knit a pair of socks for my daughter. I saw the colorway above in the local yarn shop in August and knew it was perfect for her. Dee mentioned this pattern and I thought it was a good match for this yarn. I decided an "eye of partridge" heel flap complimented the yarn. Yesterday we drove to an orchard to pick up some fresh apples and I finished the heel flap, turned the heel, and picked up gusset stitches. 

Falkland Fiber

I am making a two-ply yarn with this Falkland Fiber. One of the many interesting things about spinning is how the look of the fiber changes during the process. I plied a short skein and then washed and finished it to check the twist. It's better than the last fiber I plied. I picked up some tips from Maggie Casey and her book on the basics of spinning. 

I finished The Plague of Doves by Louise Erdrich. When I began this book, I was upset by the news swirling around me. I also had a hard time getting beyond the vigilante justice and lynching of Native Americans that is the core story so I set it aside. The discussion in the Erdrich-Along Group spurred me to begin again. I read the story in bigger chunks which helped keep the characters and their relationships sorted in my mind. Erdrich is a master writer about difficult subjects. For me, her writing is worth rereading. At times I feel like I'm reading prose poetry. Even considering her style of storytelling, I felt like this narrative was a little disjointed than others.  As always, I enjoyed the layering of story and themes in this novel. Reading it reminded of one of my favorite quotes about story. I found it in the book, Writing for Your Life by Deena Metzger

"Stories move in circles. They don't move in straight lines. So it helps if you listen in circles. There are stories inside of stories and stories between stories, and finding your way through them is as easy and as hard as finding your way home. And part of the finding is the getting lost. And when you're lost, you start to look around and to listen."

Corey Fisher, Albert Greenberg, and Naomi Newman of a "A Traveling Jewish Theatre," Coming from a Great Distance  

Here's to listening and to autumn adventures. 

Ravelry Links

J's Bankhead Hat

Candy Floss Socks

 

Almost Autumn

Today a strong breeze blows in cooler air. Thank goodness. Rain is also in the forecast. Fingers crossed that it materializes. Here, summer has more stories to tell. Monday and Tuesday the high temperatures were 96 and 101 degrees. Yesterday I made my favorite summer lunch of warm pasta with fresh chopped tomatoes, basil, garlic, olive oil topped with freshly grated Parmesan. I harvested parsley to freeze and made a little bouquet of zinnias and lavender. Last evening at 7:00 p.m., the temperature hovered at 97 degrees. Feeling cooped up, I walked around a short block. Monarchs flitted among several patches of flowers, including a tall stand of sunflowers. I have noticed quite a few and wonder if we are on a migration path.  

On this last Wednesday of summer, I link with Kat and the Unravelers. My knitting news this week is short and sweet. Saturday evening I finished what I titled "Summer Socks" on my Ravelry project page. I cast them on in July as we headed home from days in Minnesota so its appropriate that I finish them before autumn. 

I'd like to cast on some autumn themed socks but instead have begun my holiday gift knitting. I'm knitting a hat for my daughter-in-law. For inspiration, I put it in a holiday themed project bag. Once upon a pandemic, I sewed some project bags and this set was one that I kept. My DIL likes stocking hats in certain colors and prefers not to roll up the brim. Just for fun, I tried some new-to-me patterns but my gauge was off and they were all too big. Not that I knit a gauge swatch for a hat. How hard can it be for an experienced knitter to knit a hat from DK yarn? After three cast-ons, I went back to the Bankhead Hat, one I have knit several times. As the old saw goes, "doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result is a definition of insanity."

I also finished the fall embroidery piece. I plan to make a table topper. We have a square coffee table in the living room and I usually have a small quilt on it. You may have noticed I take many photographs using the table as the background. I don't have an autumn-themed table topper so this will become one. Yesterday I got out some quilting stash fabric for inspiration. I think it needs a small amount of an accent color. I don't have much yellow fabric so it might be a deep blue or green. The finished piece will be something fairly simple to frame the embroidery. Every photo I take of this piece becomes blurry in the blogpost. I'm not sure why as the photo itself is sharp in Preview. 

While working on tomatoes and spinning, I listened to The House on Vesper Sands by Paraic O'Donnell. This spooky Gothic tale is set in the 1890's in London. The beginning is a little gruesome and I wished for a little more resolution regarding the magic but I enjoyed the story. The interplay and dialogue between the curmudgeonly Inspector Cutter and sidekick Gideon Bliss is entertaining. The women characters are also well written. 

Today is Norah's fourth birthday. I love that she wore comfortable shorts, her favorite Minnie Mouse shirt, and carried a Minnie Mouse backpack on her first day of preschool. Cheers to Norah Jane, a fun year at preschool, and cooler weather. Hope all is well with you. 

Ravelry Links

Summer Socks

Bankhead Hat

Mid-September

Hello friends on this mid-September day. Thankfully a little rain fell on Saturday. Sunday gave us a glorious autumn day with a clear crisp morning and warm afternoon. As of yesterday, we are back to 90 degree temperatures. I'm yearning for October but making the most of September. The tomato plants are still producing fruit. I've got to grocery shop today because we need to eat something besides tomatoes, olive oil, basil, and parmesan cheese. I love the combination but I'm thinking more greens and healthy protein would be a good idea. 

My making is a little bit of this and a little bit of that. Most days I worked a little on this piece of embroidery. The design comes from the book in the photo, Patchwork Loves Embroidery Too by Gail Pan. I like the whimsy in the designs. I enlarged the one I'm working on by 10% in order to gain a little more room to stitch. The directions are to stitch it in one color but I am using various colors. I haven't decided what I'll do with it when I'm finished. 

I knit a little more of the second summer sock, knitting the heel flap and turning the heel. Right now I'm decreasing the gusset. I hope to finish soon because I have a couple of Christmas gifts to knit. I've also been spinning some Falkland Fiber. According to the Fleece and Fiber Sourcebook, Falkland wool comes from a mix of sheep breeds from the Falkland Islands but is not itself a breed.  

As I spin, I try to learn something new about spinning. I found a nice used copy of Maggie Casey's book, Start Spinning. It's too bad books published by Interweave Press are harder and harder to find or when one finds them new, they sell at a ridiculous price. I may have written this before but I think there are as many opinions and ways to spin as there are spinners. In that way spinning and knitting are similar. I enjoy the eclectic approach. When I was learning to quilt, the "rules" or methods felt a little restrictive or I was younger and less likely to strike out on my own. I haven't kept up with quilting so perhaps that has changed. 

I (mostly) read Life in the Garden by Penelope Lively. I enjoyed the majority of the nonfiction essays but skimmed a few sections. Lively touches on the garden as a metaphor, how the garden influenced artists like Monet and VanGogh, and has played a part in literature. She covers a wide swath of time including the garden of her childhood in Cairo. The most intriguing essay was about gardeners and time. Lively is English and so the English cottage and estate gardens are part of this book. I had to smile when she wrote about the inhospitable climate in Connecticut. When I visit coastal Connecticut, I notice the ample precipitation and lush vegetation. Lively must not have experienced the dry winds and extremes on the Great Plains. It's all in one's perspective. 

As always, on this Wednesday, I link with Kat and the Unravelers. I'll leave you with this photo of a planter outside my LYS, Knit Paper Scissors. The coleus has been beautiful all summer long. That's me reflected in the corner of the window and wishing you a Happy September.

Toward Autumn

Friday was my seventy-first birthday. My Dad's family celebrated birthdays by inviting a large group of extended family for cake and open faced sandwiches. They considered aging to be an accomplishment. They set an "over fifty" table as a mark of honor. Those aunts and uncles are gone but I think of them on birthdays. I didn't have a big party because that isn't my style. Instead we had a fun weekend with our son Aaron and grandson Austin who were in town. Saturday, I watched the Nebraska football game with the guys and knit on a sock. I am not a football fan but you know, a mother does what a mother has to do in order to spend time with a grown son. Sunday Aaron gave me a lesson in grilled salmon and it was delicious. We roasted some Yukon Gold potatoes and I made a green salad that included tomatoes, cucumbers, and chives from the garden. Our dessert was pound cake with a peach/butter sauce and sliced peaches. We fed that college guy as best we could. It was the best kind of long weekend. So here I go, another trip around the sun. Seventy one years hardly seems possible. I am grateful for every one of them. As I look at these sweater photos, I can see how much I resemble my Mom. That makes me happy.

Today I link to Kat and the Unraveled Wednesday Makers. You know you are a knitter when you take finished object photos of a sweater while wearing walking shorts. Doesn't everybody where a hand-knit sweater in September with walking shorts? Well maybe only for photos. At the time, the temperature was 68 degrees and I'll take it. This afternoon will see us back up into the 90's. Rain is in the forecast for the weekend. I hope it materializes. Our area had a trace of precipitation in August, one of the driest on record, and not much more in July. Regardless we are inching our way to Fall. The Forager sweater is finished and it is one of my most successful. I like the fit, the sport weight wool, and the details of the mock cable on the sleeves and body. The same mock cable runs down the center of the back. 

In other making, I knit on the second summer sock and started an embroidery project. I have plenty of floss left from my cross-stitch days. I have always wanted to stitch this little design so I traced it onto a piece of muslin and am giving it a go. My embroidery is far from perfect but I hope the imperfections add to the charm of the piece. I have two Christmas gifts to knit but this little fall piece was calling to me.

As for reading I have abandoned several books. One was an audio that had a narrator with an annoying voice. I have begun The Plague of Doves for the Erdrich read-along. For some reason, I am having trouble getting into this novel. I am sure I'll find something soon.

Here's to September and the gentle slide toward Autumn. 

  

August's End

What is that hiding in the tomato/cucumber tray? I picked up the leaf this morning. Even though the temperatures continue to soar into the 90's, the mornings begin to cool off. August 31 is not yet autumn but transition is in the air. The sun is setting earlier each day. A few leaves on the maple trees are withered and brown. I wonder if the trees are so exhausted from heat and drought they are shutting down early to conserve water. A rumpled house finch chick perchs in the tree outside my window. He looks a little bewildered by his world. I know how he feels. 

Anyway, today is Unraveled Wednesday with Kat and other makers. I finished and washed the Forager Sweater. The ends need to be woven in and then I'll post a few photos. Spurred on by that finish, I went back to the summer socks. This week I finished the first sock and cast on the second one. I like to get the second sock on the needles so I don't procrastinate or forget about the project. 

I plied this skein of Targhee Fiber on my spinning wheel. This is the first real skein spun on my wheel. As I said to my husband, it's not the best yarn I've spun but it sure isn't the worst. The singles on the first bobbin were more inconsistent then the second so it is thick and thin yarn. However, the yarn is balanced, that is it hangs in a long loop without twisting around itself. This might be the skein I keep on hand to use as a baseline for spinning skills. 

This week I listened to The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd. Goodreads describes it as a thriller. I wasn't entranced by the story but I listened to the end in order to see how the plot resolved. I enjoyed the descriptions of the New York Public Library and the central question asked by several characters: "What is the purpose of a map?" I found the audio performance overly dramatic and some plot twists predictable. I also had a hard time suspending my beliefs about the value of a map/cartography concept versus the value of human relationships. Writing more would be a spoiler. The story with magical realism kept me entertained while preserving tomatoes in the kitchen and doing some household chores. 

I read Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi and am still thinking about it. It is this month's selection for my local book group. I predict we will have a great discussion about this story of a Ghanian family living in Alabama. All of the main characters are well developed and written but I loved the strong young woman who is the narrator. The tension she feels between science and religion runs throughout the story. Gyasi is a talented writer. She explores racism, addiction, mental illness, and neuroscience by "showing, not telling." The novel wasn't as heavy or as difficult to read as I thought it might be. I found it an excellent book for these August days.  

I'm late today because Norah and I Face-timed this morning. Kate, Norah and I made decaf lattes (hers has a lot of oat milk), clinked our matching Minnie Mouse mugs and read "Where's Spot?" I am happy to report Spot was not in the tomatoes or drinking out of a Minnie Mouse Cup. "No Grammy, he's in the basket" and so we found him. As we hung up, she was off to paint a picture of Spot and I with a smile to carry me through this last day of August. 

What is making you smile today?

Ravelry Link

Summer Socks

The Home Stretch

The summer has flown by and the end of August is in sight. I walk most mornings. Today I stuck my head out into a still humid morning and the air felt oppressive. I decided to make order in the kitchen. All the surfaces need a good scrub but I am waiting until the tomato harvest slows down. Despite the humidity, the forecast holds no chance of rain. 

I am happy to report I am making good progress on my sweater. No unraveling on this Unraveled Wednesday with Kat and friends. The third try on the first sleeve was the charm and I am almost finished with the second sleeve. I meant to feature the second sleeve but we took the photo quickly as it is warm on the deck. I know some knitters find sleeves tedious but I enjoy them. Once I fiddle around with the first one, the second is, as my grandmother used to say, duck soup. The sleeve circumference is so much smaller than the body. Stitch markers at each decrease keep me knitting, as in I'll knit one more section before I go to bed. I am on the home stretch and I have plenty of yarn for long sleeves. I am glad I bought an extra skein, even though it had three knots and two yards of either a single ply or overspun yarn. I'm sure it happens now and then but still. I cut it apart four times. I'll probably use some of it and the cuts won't make any difference in my project. 

Sunday I finished spinning the second bobbin of the first project on my wheel. In two weeks, I spun the entire braid. Except for a few joins that came apart at the beginning of the first bobbin, the spinning went well. Now they are resting before plying next week. I have one more bobbin and it is tempting to use if for another project. Instead I decided to wait and see what this skein has to teach me. I wonder if part of the single on the first bobbin might not have enough twist. Time will tell.

Today is my brother John's birthday so I am thinking about him and his family. If he was still with us, he would have been up early, walking and exercising his labs, and then gone to work. Later he would have played in the pool with his grandchildren. No doubt he'd have grilled ribs or steaks and served them with Iowa sweetcorn. One of his daughters and/or his wife would have made salad and dessert. He was a good man and we all miss him. As I wrote last September, we are all richer for having known John.

Often I walk by a patch of sunflowers under a street lamp. One evening last week, I could hear the bees. I've never had sunflowers in my yard but I enjoy their bright yellowy gold color against the green. They brighten up these hot August days. 

How are you spending the last days of August?

 

Ravelry Link

Forager Sweater

Spinning: Kansas Prairie

Knitting in Place

Monday and Tuesday a little rain fell, perhaps half an inch. It's not enough to ease drought conditions but any moisture is welcome. The temperatures dropped out of the hundred degree range to the high eighties. Yesterday was cool and breezy and there is a hint of fall in the air. This morning a pair of chickadees are poking around in the birch. I hope they are eating a few of the insects that are biting me. 

Our eldest grandson has attended his first week of college classes. Here, public school started Monday. Last week while grocery shopping, I saw Moms and kids coming out of Famous Footwear with shoeboxes. The student in me has a yen for new pencils, yellow with pink erasers, notebook paper, and a pencil case to clip into a three ring notebook with the blue cloth cover. Does anyone else remember those notebooks?

Today is Unraveled Wednesday with Kat and company. Knitting the beginning of this sleeve three times makes me feel like I'm knitting in place. Sometimes it happens. Generally I go up one needle size with the DPN's to knit sleeves. The first try left a noticeable difference in the size of stitches. So I ripped it out and knit with two sizes up which is working for gauge. At the same time, I need shorter sleeves than the pattern specifies so I calculated stitch and row gauges and worked out a different rate of decreases. I knit about six inches based on that Math and tried on the sweater. The sleeve was a little snug so I ripped it out again. This go around I followed the pattern for the first two decreases. At some point, I'll have to decide how to get down to cuff width in the remaining rows. 

I'm not happy with the line/crease that shows up on the sleeve where I put the stitches back on the needle. Believe it or not, it's better than the first time around. Now I wonder if the magic loop method would make a difference. Any thoughts? I'm sure changing needle sizes has something to do with it but I've not had the problem previously. I don't like to magic loop but I might have to give it a try. After I finish the first sleeve I'll block the sweater again and see if it comes out. Oy. It's a good thing I like knitting.

I'm reading Blackberry Winter: My Earlier Years by Margaret Mead. Awhile back I read Euphoria, historical fiction about Mead by Lily King. I also know of Margaret Mead in a general way so I decided to read this book. Mead's analysis of her family, relationships, and college years reflect her training as an anthropologist. I wondered if the writing would be dry but I'm finding it quite interesting. It is also a way to see her mind at work.

In other making, I'm harvesting a bumper crop of tomatoes. Saturday evening I picked this tray and pot of cherry tomatoes. Sunday, I made sauce and roasted Juliet tomatoes (a small Roma or a large grape tomato variety) to freeze. This afternoon I'll make more sauce and freeze chopped tomatoes. Come winter, they will be a taste of summer. Excuse the garden get-up. In order to avoid chiggers, mosquitoes, and spiders, I layer a short and long sleeved shirt and jeans when I'm reaching into the tomato jungle. I did take off the large floppy hat before we took the photo. 

May your chigger bites be few and your ripe tomatoes free from squirrel bites. I hope you have a good week. 

Ravelry Link

Forager Sweater