Summer has left the Room

I guess I have to recognize that Fall is here in all its glory. What happened to Summer?? At least I have wool. It's funny, in the Summer, I hardly took the spinner outside on those few glorious evenings to spin at all. Now that Fall is officially here - well, all I want to do is spin wool. Silky, warm, lovely wool. And I want to knit with it too, of course.

I think Fall is probably my favorite time of the year. I love the long, warm days with the sharp, cool nights. It's great to cuddle under the flannelet covered quilt & listen to the story CD or read a great mystery. I love the colors of the trees as they start to go dormant - too bad they have to lose that showy color. And I love the Fall produce - berries, new apples, nectarines & all the bright root veggies to throw into the slow cooker for soups & stews. The bright fall colors remind me that the cold, dampness of winter is right around the corner & I haven't finished a sweater for ME yet. I'm a great starter but a lousy finisher. Sooooo many projects & sooooo little time . . . . . Arvik isn't yet finished & I want a sweater the color of the new Red Rome apples this year. Can you believe that? Hmmmmm - well, maybe I could overdye some of Arvik with a rich red & knit another sweater???


Speaking of Fall - I've finished the Spirogyra fingerless gloves from Knitty. I had some old grey handspun - some of the Dorset roving I think - so I whipped up a pair to wear in my warehouse jobs. I don't want something delicate or fancy for work - I just want something WARM. The wind kind of blows through those old single glazed windows onto the front computer where I work & I FREEZE. Arvik will be for work too - it's light but really warm & won't show the dirt. IF I EVER GET THE POOR THING FINISHED!


I finished the latest Garn Studio socks. I love the colors so these ones are going straight into MY basket. I may not wear them till the spring when I'll need short socks again but they're all MINE.

I've been sorting through my left-overs since it's also time to knit for my Bum Bags. I'm thinking Frankensocks this year - I've got about four bags of left-overs which I've sorted into Blues, Reds, Pinks/Purples & Everthing Else. Black & Red solids pretty well work with any color in the sock world although Grey is good too. I use the solids for the ribbing, toes & solid stripes between colors. I have to admit that Black is pretty spectacular at showcasing all the jewel colors in the stripes like these ones I knit a couple of years ago.
I've found that a lot of the Black yarns feel much thinner than the colored ones. Why is that??? Is it just my imagination???? Oh well - I got black, several browns & greys to work with for the folks who don't like colors.

And on the spinner - well, I bought some SuperWash wool from Lynne at Knitopia at the Spring Retreat hosted by the Langley Spinner's & Weaver's Guild in February. The bright colors called to me across the room & I had to have it even before it was unpacked & priced. Silly me. Like I need more roving to spin!! And especially more pink or purple . . . . I see a trend here - too much pink & purple in my wardrobe of yarns! And now I want rich burgandy & dark red for fall. Ooooops - maybe it's time to swap some of the pinks & purples I have hoarded away.

How the time flies . . . .

I can't believe that two weeks have passed since I updated this blog! But, then, I've been doing late tax returns like crazy - oh yes Virginia, I suspect even Santa has occasionally filed late !!

I get an audio book playing on the desktop & spend days & days with receipts & the calculator BEFORE I get to do the actual return. In the last couple of months, I've worked my way thru Ben Bova's 'Grand Tour' series & am now working on Kathy Reichs' "Bones" books. I like her heroine, Temperance Brennan, a whole lot better than Patricia Cornwell's Kay Scarpetta. Both fictional women deal with dead bodies but Temperance studies the bones while the dour Kay, deals with bodies that're still dressed in their meat & skin. Both are good if you like the genre though.

But, I'm getting off the subject here . . I've been busy. But not too busy to finish the Black Funeral Socks. They actually went quite quickly for black socks but the Preface yarn really feels thin - I'll have to get a report back from the wearer to be. It may just be my imagination!! My Olympic SockPut socks have found a new home! My Doctor's new receptionist has an eating problem. She's so thin that I volunteered to donate fat to her any time she needs it!! She proudly announced yesterday that she's gained 2.5 pounds in the last three months!! I congratulated her & rewarded her hard work with the wild socks I knit for the Olympics - she was so proud of herself!! I hope she's gained another 2.5 when I come back in three months.

I also cast on some new short socks for ME in the Garn Studio sock yarn. I really like the Garn Studio yarn - not only does it come in some great colorways but it's thick & springy & quick to knit. It's a little more expensive - a buck or two - but feels great when you're knitting & nice ON! With all the warm weather out there these days, I NEED short socks.


My friend Gail came to Wednesday Nite Knitting with a pair of fingerless gloves. They were really nice! She knit them from a pattern on KNITTY - called SPIROGYRA. We love Knitty!!! Now, I remembered seeing the pattern & thought it was interesting for Sweet Young Things but hadn't thought about actually making them for myself. When Gail brought her gloves to the group, we all tried them on. Gail made hers long - almost to the elbow!! I loved them! Laura threatened to wear them home. So, I came home that nite, printed off the pattern & started knitting them out of some grey handspun I had laying around. I'd actually started a pair of plain fingerless gloves in the grey last spring - they were thick & warm but sooooo uninspiring. So I tore them back to the ribbing, adjusted the stitch count to a multiple of 6 for the pattern & spent the weekend knitting my own interpretation of Spirogyra. I also made them long - they're halfway to my elbow - so I'll be warm in the warehouses when I work this winter. I wasn't going to waste my time making LACEY gloves but I discovered that lace makes them much stretchier - a good thing when working with handspun on small sized needles!! There's a reason for everything in this life . . . .

My Carpenter finally showed his face at my door - I got his body & arm measurements & am now able to finish his Wonderful Wallaby! He's really looking forward to wearing it when he goes North to visit Mom for Thanksgiving. Apparently, I chose his favorite color. I'm not surprised. The Anniversary Blue is wonderful when knit up & will look great on him. I originally thought the Heritage was too scratchy for a cozy sweater that would touch skin but it's actually very nice to work with & really softens up as you knit with it. And yes, you have to pick out a little bit of straw here & there but I sure wouldn't have a problem wearing this wool as a cardigan.

I actually knit a few more rows on Arvik in the last couple of weeks too. I'm thinking I'll be wearing it to the Fall Retreat this year just to prove I can knit a sweater for ME! With my Spirogyra gloves on & Arvik on my back, I'll have to knit up one of those wild fluffy scarves in hot pink to go with them for a bit of color . . . .

Back to the Blog

I have two calendars in my house. One sits on the wall, in the hall, close to the kitchen where I record the hours worked for each client - the stuff I'm supposed to put in the DayTimer that sits with bills piled on top of it - appointments & Things I Must Remember. I actually turn the pages & record stuff that needs to be recorded. The other calendar hangs above my desk in the office, where the computer sits. It's still on July. It waits for summer to come back. Guess which calendar I use the most?? Yup, the one with the pages that never get turned. Well, today, I bit the bullet & turned the page to September. It's not raining but the sky is that paler shade of grey that tells you to get out the knitting needles & finish the sweater that you started last Fall.

Speaking of knitting, the Carpenter Wallaby is still languishing for want of some measurements. And I hear Arvik calling . . . . . . So, I'm thinking, I'll just pick her up & start knitting for ME again.
So - I dug out poor Arvik. And then I realized I'd stolen her needles - I have the Denise set so I can change out the ends quite easily - I guess I'm using them for the Wallaby. Or maybe I WAS going to use them for the Wallaby before I had to go down a couple of sizes . . . . . It pays to actually pin a note on the sweater when you're robbing it of it's needles so you can find out what size you were actually using!! Now there's a notion we could use - a tag with the needle numbers on it that can be pinned to the sweater whose needles you're stealing . . .

And then there's the Black Socks. I'm just about ready to do the toe shaping on one & mid foot on the other. These have gone much faster than the last pair - I suspect it's the Queen's heel shaping that saved the day! Another evening or two will see them finished & on their way to their new owner.