Bruce and I drove to a nearby mini-mill this week to drop off just under 28 pounds of Romney fleece for processing. Three were for me, and the remainder for a friend who had decided she wasn’t up to the washing right now. It was nice to be out among the leaves turning to red and gold and with the added advantage of roadside vegetable stands for sugar pumpkins, acorn squash and the last of the green beans and tomatoes. We even found one that had a petting zoo next door that included a pair of alpaca. One was the usual mix of brown and white, but the other was completely black — the only one I’ve ever seen. I’m sure there are others, but I thought this one was especially striking.
We have a new batch of carrot-ginger soup already made, and at least one of the bigger squash is destined to be stuffed with rice and other veges for tonight’s dinner.
We’ve also been stuffing ourselves with my favorite fall apple — the Honeycrisp. This is a hybrid that hasn’t been around for very many years, but it quickly supplanted all of the others for eating apples. I still want a stack of Macs for pies and sauce.
Meanwhile….
My summer spinning experiment/improvement project is also drawing to a close. I’m now in the process of finishing up with my production; getting some of it plied and making a few more notes about the types of fleece I did or did not enjoy spinning.
These are some of the results of that effort. My lack of consistency in spin shows pretty clearly in these 3 skeins, but I’m still pretty happy with the results. The blue/purple mix in particular is being set aside to be “something” (whatever that means!).
I’m also working on stash busting — particularly in the large pile of fingering-weight yarn/sock yarn. This is by-the-tv and knitting group knitting where I don’t have to pay a huge amount of attention to what I’m doing. This is the start of the design Find your Fade by Andrea Mowry from 2016. There are over 10,000 projects listed in Ravelry for this project, so you get an idea of not only how popular this pattern became, but why it continues to be downloaded and made. I’m looking forward to crunching through lots of left-overs and to having a nice cozy wrap for the fall.
These two balls of yarn happened to be sitting next to each other in the bin, and blended well. I’ve no idea what they are or where they came from. Also, I haven’t planned ahead, so it will be fun to find the next color to add in. I’m not usually this “go with the flow,” so it will be an interesting project to see how the colors sort themselves out. There’s a lot going on in the first ball, so I should have lots of choices, and there’s also the option of using either or both of these again (I think there are 6 color changes).
Also on the needles:
The Capstone sweater is now ready to be assembled, but I’m waiting until after I meet with my mentor next week to make sure she’s satisfied that I’ve met all of my objectives. Right now all of the pieces are on the blocking boards. This is the part where I always think I should have done more — or something different — or whatever. The second guessing that always comes with the design process, particularly when I try to keep things simple. However, it will make me happy again when I can finish the seams and try it on. I know it will fit, and I also know I’ll derive great pleasure from the process of stitching the seams. Like making swatches, I find seaming to be a great opportunity for calm and meditation.
And then there’s what to do with the rejected pieces and colors. I have a back all done, and some of the left-over colors are begging for participation. I don’t often wear pullovers (I get too hot), but I don’t want this to look just like the sweater I’m just finishing, so it will need more thought. I’m trying to convince myself not to put it aside, because that will mean that it just ends up staying in the abandoned works in progress for another year(s). I’m open to suggestions!
It might still be a little early, but today we are buttoning up the garden out front to get it ready for winter. The last big task is a mapping. We pulled out a raging weed patch next to the front door to make way for a hosta garden. As part of that we had to tarp over most of the ground to suppress the weeds, and then cover that with mulch. I planted a number of interesting hostas, including some that are miniatures, like Blue Mouse Ears, Sun Mouse, and others I can’t remember the names for. Hopefully I kept all of the little name plates that came in their pots so that I can finish the map and not order exactly the same ones next spring.
Scanning back up the page it looks like I’m all about color today, and that’s never a bad thing. We will be into the short days and long nights soon enough, and color will become that much more important to our spirits. Meanwhile, happy knitting, spinning and all the other delights that nurture your soul.
Ah yes, Honeycrisp. I just bought a bag for eating, and baking, from a small orchard in East Middlebury. So, whatever happened to the scrap sock yarn blanket? Did it get completed? My son is really into Hostas. We have a very shady front garden which he is filling up. Latest additions are “Dancing Queen” and “Earth Angel”. There is a small leafed one also, not sure if it is Mouse Ears, he tends to lose the tags! I bought “Captain Kirk” and “Vulcan” in the Star Trek series a few years ago. Looking forward to publication day and am pm-ing you for a signed book plate pretty please. Hugs, SS.
The sock blanket is likely to be unfinished forever, making it the perfect project to pick up and put down eternally. It’s still more of a lap cover than a blanket — many more squares to go. I too added Dancing Queen and Earth Angel to the garden this year. In the spring I’ll need to concentrate on middle-sized plants to fill in the holes. The bookplate is on its way!