Photo Friday

It took a while but...

Weather Cowl 10/24/18

Fall arrived.

Apples!

Remember a while back, Sarah & I were planning to go apple picking but the car wouldn't start so we postponed the trip?  I never mentioned it, but we made new plans to go.... and Sarah went to Florida instead.  She came back, and we made a new new plan to go apple picking... and it rained.  And rained and rained and rained.

Finally, the weatherman said the rain would stop.... but it was going to be 40 degrees and dropping into the low 20's by evening.  I wasn't exactly thrilled about going in such cold weather.  I'm weather phobic (I tend to get a little panicky if the temperature goes above 72 or below 65) and I assumed that if it was 40 degrees here at home, it would probably be about 6,000 degrees below zero on top of the mountain.  (The apples are grown on a mountain.)

The scenic route

Well, despite Mr. Weatherman's prediction, off we went (we took the scenic route and stayed off the interstate) and as it turns out, I wasn't too far off on my guestimate of the mountain's temperature.  It was FREEZING!  The wind was just .... just unspeakable.  

There's a reason they're called The Blue Ridge Mountains

We arrived at Carter Mountain Orchard which starts off on the side of the mountain.  We checked in, got out apple picking bags and the instructions on where we were supposed to go and up the mountain and into the orchard we hiked. Thankfully, once we reached the actual orchard and got lost among the rows of trees, there was no wind at all.  Just gloriously warm sunshine.

apple picking

Sarah and I each filled our bags with apples and had a good time laughing at my lack of coordination.  The paths between the rows of trees were pretty muddy in places and let's not forget, we were on the side of a mountain.  And I'll admit, I was looking up at the apples on the trees, not at the ground so I kept stepping on apples.  It really is a miracle I didn't break a bone, but at the same time, I imagine my slips and slides were probably YouTube worthy.

View from Carter Mountain Orchard's deck

After filling our bags with apples, we made our way back down to the barn where there was plenty of delicious hot apple cider and apple cider donuts awaiting us.

apples

And now we're home.  Home, wondering what the heck are we going to do with a bushel and a half of apples?

Three on Thursday - Happy Things

Today's Three on Thursday post is a list of things that have made me happy this week.

1.  I got to enjoy coffee time on the deck with Bambi and his mom.  Please, ignore the junk piled up along our fence line.  But check out Bambi - he still has his spots!  And while you're ignoring the junk pile, ignore the blurry photo too, please.  I was shaking just a bit because I so excited that the deer hung out long enough for me to go inside and get my camera.  They're also slightly out of focus because they didn't like the sound of me dropping the lens cover.

2.  The leaves are starting to turn.

3.  I've been knitting.  I spent a few hours at the tire store getting new tires put on Little Red this week.  It was a shame I had to do it.  The tread on the tires she came with looked brand new but they were horribly dry rotted.  As much as I hated to put out the cash, the wait time did provide me with a few hours of uninterrupted knitting.  Not only have I gotten several hats for my Etsy shop knit this week, I also feel much, much safer flying down the highway in Little Red.

Just don't ask me what happened to my "Z" key.  That is NOT a  Happy Things thing.

To see who else is participating in Three on Thursday, join me over at Carole Knits.

Knitting at the DMV

(This post contains an affiliate link.)

Little Red (that's her name) is all legal-eagle now with real, metal license plates and everything.  And that means, I spent yesterday at the DMV.

Knitting at the DMV

It was an interesting experience.  I sat and knit, and read and knit, and knit and read, and checked my phone, and knit and read some more....  Every now and then, I'd glance up at the reader board thing to see if possibly I'd missed my number being called.  Nope, still on F144.   (I was F148.)  After about an hour and a half of knitting and reading and occasionally apologizing to the lady waiting next to me because my stomach had started to growl.... DMV finally called F145. Good Lord, it was taking forever. Thankfully, before I got too mean and hangry, ran out of Kindle battery or finished knitting the hat, they called my number.

So, are you wondering how Little Red got her name?

Mike and Big Red, 1993

My husband's dad's truck was Big Red.  It seemed only fitting.

Little Red's ready for fall

To celebrate not harming anyone at the DMV, I stopped by my local Dollar Tree and bought Little Red a fall floral thing to go in her vase.  Okay, I also bought her a Halloween decoration but you'll have to wait a few more days to see that.

It's Here

It's here!  Fall, it's definitely here.

The killer Virginia humidity has left and in it's wake, we have rain.

The State Fair is in town so we have more rain.  And the occasional hail storm.

We are experiencing those awkward temperatures where it's too chilly for shorts but you sweat to death if you wear jeans.

I have a MASSIVE case of startittis.

Basket Weave Hat

I want to knit ALL the things.  Actually, that's not accurate.  I want to start all the things.  I don't really want to knit them, I just want to start them, toss them aside and have them magically finished the next time I look at them.

It's not even October yet and I've already eaten so much candy corn I sort of never want to see another piece of it.  And yet, I'll pick up two more bags of it the next time I'm at the store.

And then there's nature's fall decorations.

Our annual visit from Mr. Spider.  He usually spins his web across our front porch steps in an attempt to give the UPS man a heart attack.  This year, probably due to the hail, he set up shop across our front door.  Looking at him through the beveled glass on our door does not help the ick factor.

And what is that spiky barb thing on his front leg?  Do all spiders have spiky barb things on their legs?  Eek!  I'm not going outside until there's a foot of snow on the ground.

Remind me again, why fall is my favorite time of year?

Singing September's Praise

Ahhhh..... September!

It may be going back up to the mid 90's later this week but right now, and for the past few days, it's been in the 80's.  Praise September!

Labor Day has passed which means my job is a weekends-only thing for the next two months.  Yesterday was the beginning of four days off for me.  Four days in a row!  Four whole days!  Praise September!

September means the grocery store aisles will be packed with candy corn. Yay!!

September means fall and fall means knitting season.  Okay, every day of the year is knitting season but September marks the beginning of serious knitting season.   To honor the beginning of the new season, I started a new scarf/shawl/stole thing.

Autumn Fire

My camera hates the color red and the photo doesn't do it justice.

The plan is for this newest project to be a stole style shawl/blanket scarf type of thing. I cast on a gazillion stitches and for the width, I plan to knit stripes until I run out of yarn.  We'll see how that plan goes. I've got twenty skeins of Knit Picks' Palette in the Fire Opal color group.  There's no stripe pattern going on. I just keep the 'to use' and 'used' skeins separate.  Once I've used them all, I start over.  I've knit several others (this one and this one for example) in the past.  I think this one is going to be my favorite by far.  I absolutely love the mix of firey reds, golds and browns. I'm calling this scarf Autumn Fire.  It's the perfect project to kick off September's knitting season.

All that garter stitch involved in Autumn Fire also makes it the perfect project to knit while reading.  At the moment, I'm reading Fallen by Lauren Kate.  One of Ginny's fellow Yarn Along participants recommended it to me a week or so ago.  I'm hoping that with four days off this week (thank you, September!) I'll be able to get lots of reading done.  Reading and knitting.  It is after all, knitting season!

It's coming

It's coming!

first fall leaf

Autumn!  It's coming.

Maxwell

Max says, "Dammit woman, it's not fall yet.  It feels like Hades out here."

Seasonally Challenged

I never seem to be knitting for the current season.  My knitting is seasonally challenged.

It's spring here in Virginia and we're actually having a spring.  It's the first time I can remember in my entire life where we actually had normal spring-like weather.  In past years, from the middle of March to early May it is either snowing or 85 degrees.  There's no inbetween.  Freezing cold or hot as blue blazes.  And days flip flop back and forth so that on Monday you're outside wearing flip flops and shorts and getting sunburned then on Tuesday, you're back in your warm woolen sweater with a fire in the fireplace.  But this year, we're actually having spring.

And spring feels like fall.  It's too chilly for short sleeves but I'm hot in a sweater.  And the rain!  Oh my gosh, we've had some rain.  All those memes about Prince and purple rain.... well, it literally began raining the day Prince died and it hasn't stopped since.  It feels like fall, not spring.

Autumn Cowl

So I'm knitting for fall.  This cowl is the same multi-colored style as the Make Believe cowl I knit for my daughter last year.  My original plan was to use a matching green for the solid color, but the boldness of the self-striping yarn reminded me of maple leaves in fall so I decided to use brown to represent the tree trunk.

Autumn maple tree, www.danasokb.top

 I borrowed this photo from Google Images for inspiration.



And, since it's Wednesday and I've set a goal for myself to participate in the weekly Yarn Along that Ginny over at Small Things hosts....  I'll mention what I'm reading.  I'm queen of the 99 cent Kindle books and this week's choice is Sweet Southern Trouble written by Heather McGhee.  I'm only 17% into it according to my Kindle so I can't tell you much about it other than that it's the story of a big city girl meets small town cop and so far, I'm enjoying it.  And I have to say, this fallish spring weather we've been having is perfect for reading & knitting while curled up in a comfy chair.

Giving Thanks, Day 4

Today's Giving Thanks post will be short.  I've managed to catch a horrible cold & feel all ughy, so besides being thankful for Advil Congestion Relief,

Fall foliage

I'm thankful for fall foliage against a bright blue sky.

Fall on the lake

And the simplicity of walking the dog in the fall.

Sunset on Lake Caroline

And watching the sun begin to set over the lake.

Don't leaf the lights on

I'm making a public apology for all the times I've yelled at my daughter recently for leaving her bedroom light on when in fact, she hasn't.   The tree outside her window has such bright yellow leaves that it's glowing & lighting up her room.  From the hallway, it looks just like she's left the light on.

Meanwhile, the Eclipse knitting continues.  I hesitate to say it because it's a guaranteed jinx, but... it's almost finished.  Only a few more rows to go.  Well, maybe a few more than "a few" but I've reached the home stretch and the end is in sight.  It's taken a lot longer to knit than I expected. I think November's blogging every day thing has cut into my knitting time much more than I thought possible.  Or maybe it's because two new books have shown up in the mail this week.  Or perhaps I have been busy doing a summer's worth of laundry & housework instead of knitting while I was at work.  Whatever the reason, what I thought would take one week has now passed the three week mark.  It's starting to seriously cut into my budgeted Christmas knitting time.  Maybe I should skip the housework from now on.

But speaking of daily blogging in November.... Today I am oh, so very thankful for all my Etsy shop customers.  You'll never know how much I appreciate your patronage & kind words.  Thank you, all!

It's Pi

Blocking is complete for my Wendy Knits Pi shawl.  I even got a compliment from my husband.

He came in from work, saw the blocking process spread out all over the dining room table & said, "Wow, that's a monster.  That's really impressive."  That's about as complimentary as he gets when it comes to my knitting.  He just doesn't get it.  Yes, he gets that I need to knit for my sanity & everyone's safety.  He totally gets that.  He even shouts at me, "Oh, just go knit!" when I'm shouting at him for some silly little thing he's done.  What he doesn't get is the difference between hand knit & a Walmart purchase.  I'm not sure how we've managed to put up with each other this long with his obvious ignorance.  Maybe it has something to do with my lack of caring about lumber & car parts.  Rather than agreeing to disagree, we've agreed to ignore each other.

Anyway, I'm happy to have the Pi project completely scratched off my to-do list.  The only problem is that seeing it finished has made me want to start another.  The actual knitting part took place so long ago I can't even remember if I enjoyed it to the end or if it became one of those, "Good Lord, will I ever finish this?" projects.  I imagine I enjoyed it to the end.  I have never met a Wendy Knits pattern I didn't like.  Dammit!  Another pi shawl really does't fit into my panicking over Christmas knitting schedule.  But I do have the perfect yarn in the stash....

I may not be overly thrilled or grateful for my obsessive need to knit everything right now, today, but I am truly thankful for the beautiful autumn colors.  The view past our back gate it impressive.

I'm even more thankful for a husband with a leaf blower & a son who's still young enough to force rake duty on.

Throwback Thursday - The Pumpkin Patch

It's TBT & in celebration of our annual trek to the pumpkin farm...

That's a 2001 shot of my daughter, Sarah, on the left, my son, Zack, on the right & their friend, Lorane, in the middle on a wagon ride at the "The" pumpkin patch, other wise known as Mt. Olympus Farm.   We've bought our pumpkins from Mt. Olympus every year since.  It's tradition.  Zack & Sarah are almost-adults now (almost 18 & almost 20) but they still love going to the pumpkin patch to pick their own pumpkins.  Zack even rearranged his work schedule so that he could go this year.  I like to think it's because they like hanging with their mom, but I have the sneaking suspicion it's more like they know Momma's buying.

So, that's our pumpkin picking tradition.  What's yours?

Fall Fiber Fest

As if candy corn, lower humidity & leaves changing colors weren't enough reasons to love fall, there's another, even bigger reason.  Even bigger than candy corn!  It's the Montpelier Fall Fiber Festival.

Despite showing up wearing an acrylic, GoodWill sweater & not a single stitch of hand knitting on my person (I blame that on total lack of sleep,) it was a huge success this year.  The weather was absolutely perfect!  I don't think I've ever been to a fiber festival in good weather before.  When I think back, it's always been 98 degrees with 400% humidity or pouring down rain.  Sometimes freezing cold & pouring down rain.  But this year, ahhh....  weather bliss.  Blue skies without a cloud in sight & low to mid 60's.  It just doesn't get much better than that.  The sheepdog trials were fun to watch & the runaway sheep incident made them even more interesting.  The strawberry lemonade was to die for, even though we thought we might actually die from the number of bees circling the stand.  But what was best was the shopping.  Oh, the shopping!

I took my daughter along to keep me under control, but it turns out, she's an enabler, not a credit card protector.

As you can see, I was too excited about my new yummy yarns to photograph them before winding a few.  First on the winder was a wool/silk combo from Dirt Woman Fiber Arts.  I'm knitting their Monarch Shawl pattern which was free with the purchase of the yarn.

The next yarn to go on the swift was Blue Ridge Yarns' Colorburst in the River Rocks colorway.   Pre-winding, the skein had a lot more gold & browns in it & matched my State Fair hen colors perfectly.

I was SO excited to find this colorway and especially to find it made by Blue Ridge Yarns.  I've knit several other projects with Blue Ridge and have always been very happy with the results.  Even though the socks are turning out to be a bit bluer than expected, I'm quite happy.  Besides, there's nothing wrong with river rocks.

What is wrong is that, yikes!  I have to go get ready for work.  More about the other wonderful yarns & patterns in future posts.

Mad Skills

Have I mentioned how skilled I am at procrastination?  I have some serious, mad procrastination skills.  My to-do list is out of control.  It makes me shudder just to think about everything I need, should, or want to do.  So rather than actually accomplishing something on the list,  I just spent a little over an hour making fancy, scrapbook-worthy holiday to-do lists.  I didn't even write any tasks on them, I just made pretty pieces of paper to scribble on.  Good grief.

I'm even procrastinating with my knitting.

As you can see, I haven't gotten very far with the striped scarf.  It's a tad bit wider than I'd anticipated.  It's another of those lazy projects where I just grabbed a needle, some yarn & started casting on stitches.  No gauge consideration at all.  I simply cast on enough stitches that I could knit comfortably in the round with the needle that was closest to hand at the time.  And that means, my scarf is turning out to be 17 inches wide.  That's not a scarf, it's a sweater body.  Good grief.

Because progress on the striped scarf/sweater body was creeping along so slowly, I started something else.  It's basically a poncho but I hate to call it a poncho because the word makes me think of Red Heart yarn & the 1970's.  The funny thing is, I am using acrylic yarn.  Cheap acrylic yarn!  I guess I really am knitting a poncho!  I'd stopped in the local big box craft store for something totally not yarn related but.... this yarn was on sale for less than $2.00 for 678 yard skeins!  It's Loops & Threads Woolike in Teal Lake.  I stood in the store arguing with myself about it for quite some time.   The argument went like,  I could knit a lot of lace very cheaply vs. it's acrylic. How will it block? Will it block? vs It's acrylic.  It's machine washable.  Machine washable lace!  Finally, in the end, the fact that it was less than $2.00 won.  Who was I kidding?  I'd have even put Red Heart in my basket if it was less than $2.00.

Anyway, it's going to be a lacy poncho with a cable running up (or down, actually) the front & back.  My intention is to wear it like a light weight sweater, not huge gianormous 1970's style poncho.  And so far, I'm enjoying knitting with cheap acrylic yarn!  The knitted fabric is actually turning out to be very soft & it has good stitch definition.  Yay!

Ooh - see what it's sitting on?  That's my new knitting journal.  Which I'm totally in love with.  I've kept records of all my knitting projects for years & years but I've never been completely happy with any of the journals I've used.  They've been too small, too bulky, too ugly & even too expensive to write in & "mess up."  Yes, I have bought expensive, leather bound journals (yes, plural) that I've never written in because I might "mess them up."  Good grief!  Anyway, this one is perfect.  It's a regular old composition notebook (I got 8 of them for about $3.00 at the local wholesale club recently) and I simply glued scrapbook paper on the front & back covers and inside the covers to pretty it up.  The finished result is perfect!  It's the perfect size, it stays open when laid flat, it's pretty and super cheap so I don't worry about what the inside looks like.  I can't wait to cover the rest of them.  In fact, it's on my to-do list.

Another reason I've been procrastinating with my knitting is that I sorta gave myself a massive case of carpal tunnel.   At my job, I get assigned to different areas doing different things.  Lately, I've been assigned to one specific area that, in all honesty, only has about two hours worth of work over the eight hours I'm sitting there.  The rest of the time, I just sit, literally, waiting for something to happen.  During all that waiting time, I get to entertain myself with reading, knitting, playing computer games...  Lately, I've become obsessed with Zentangle.

Obviously I'm not an artist, but I really enjoy Zentangling.  The only thing is, hours & hours of Zentangle doodling is hard on my wrist.  It's even starting to affect my elbow.  And that is why I haven't been knitting as much lately.

As you can see, I'm slightly obsessed with circles.

Like I said, I am not an artist, but Zentangling is a great way to pass the time at work.

And on a bright note, it's fall!  Yesterday was the first day of autumn.  Yesterday morning, our air conditioning was still running but the weather man was promising an overnight low of 48 degrees.  By early evening, we turned off the a/c & opened the windows.  By midnight, I was chilly & had to get a blanket.  Today, I'm sitting here with my warm (more like hot) laptop in my lap & a shawl wrapped around me.   I'm even thinking about putting on socks.   I LOVE fall!

First sign of fall

I am so freaking excited!  Take a look at the view from my back door.

Do you see it?  No?  Take a closer look.

The leaves are starting to turn!  I am so excited!  I love fall.  No, that's not really accurate.  I LOVE fall!  Love, LOVE, LOVE it!  Autumn is my absolute favorite time of year.  I like it even more than Christmas!  In the fall, the nasty humidity goes away.  The days are still plenty warm but the nights cool off.  The green leaves turn into beautiful shades of yellow, orange & red.  The local farms' fields are filled with pumpkins and every store you go into has at least one shelf of candy corn.  Have I mentioned my love of candy corn?  And, while it may be too early to start playing Christmas music (although I'll admit I want to,) it's not too early to start thinking about Christmas.  I can make my Christmas knitting list (which I should have made six months ago but apparently I prefer total panicked pressure knitting.)  I can even start fantasizing about how this will be the year the house gets decorated like something out of a Southern Living magazine and how all of the baking will turn out perfectly without a single smoke alarm going off.   And as long as I'm fantasizing, let's say the candy corn is calorie free this year.

Ah, I love my fantasy life.

Sadly, I'm not living that fantasy life at the moment.  Yes, this is a knitting blog without knitting photos.  That's because my house is so messy & gross there's nowhere to photograph my knitting.  There literally isn't a clean, junk-free space big enough to set Mr. Creepyhead so that I could take pictures of the two hats I finished this week.  Janet, the mannequin, is wearing clothes I haven't gotten around to hanging so she's not available to show off the scarf I finished and the dining room table (where I always lay my blocking mats) is still too covered in junk to block my Allegro sweater.

That's going to change though.  I am going to get this house cleaned up.  Right after I knit another round or two on the cowl I started last night.

The Missing Month

Wow.  I have missed a whole month of blogging.  Good grief!  I had to get a post in today though, if for no other reason than to have it show up as 10-11-12.  Yes, I'm easily amused.

A lot has happened over the last month.  First, I became a Great Aunt.

Allison Danielle.  She's perfectly adorable & seems to sleep & eat when she's supposed to.  Can't ask more of a newborn than that!

As for the knitting, I've finished numerous projects and branched out to non-knitting.

It's a Scattered Leaves table runner.  I absolutely love it!  I looks like a pile of leaves scattered down the table.  I'm keeping this one for myself but I've also listed it as a Made to Order item in the Etsy shop.

And remember this shawl?  I loved it so much I decided to make another in shades of green, blue & purple.

Wow.  Is that showing up as being very washed out on your screen?  It's not looking anything like the actual colors on mine.

Have you ever wondered if a Lands End canvas tote bag is really worth the money?  I'm here to tell you, Yes!  I have two of them in different sizes and I absolutely LOVE them!  The handles on one have started to fray a bit but I've been carrying it around with me since I was 14 years old.  I'm 50 now!    That's 36 years of use and the bag itself is still going strong.  My other one is only 5 or 6 years old and it still looks great.  Well, it's a bit dirty - I don't think I've ever washed it, but other than dirt, it's showing no signs of wear at all.  But, my local craft store had bags that looked exactly like Lands End bags for about a fourth of the cost.  I bought one.  I washed it.  And look what happened -

The color ran.  Now, the white part has green splotches all over it and the green part has faded, almost white splotches all over it.  And if you look in the photo up above, you can also see that the cheap bag's seams are not finished.  You definitely get what you pay for with these bags.

Now, I must go knit some more on the cocoon baby sack for Allison.  She likes to be bundled, but she also likes to kick & keeps kicking off her blanket.

Laughing With, not At

I’ve talked before about how much I’ve enjoyed my Etsy  experience.  Today, I’m going to tell a funny Etsy story.  I really hope I don’t offend anyone, but the fact that I’m worrying about it probably means that I will.  I’m sorry.  I remember back when I was 11 or 12, I went to Ithaca, New York to visit a friend who lived there.  I remember how embarrassed I was when all her friends would say, “say something” to me then crack up laughing when I did.  Remember, I’m from Virginia.  My southern accent was hilarious to them.  Luckily, I couldn’t understand 90% of what they said so I have no idea how badly they were poking fun of me and my accent.  That story reminds me a little bit of the story I’m about to tell.  Except, I’m not telling it in meanness.  I promise I’m not.  As my father used to say, I’m not laughing at you, I’m laughing with you.

I highly admire the folks on Etsy that are from foreign, non-English speaking countries and yet are communicating in English.  I took two years of French in school and the only two words I learned were one I can't use in front of my children and bonjour.   Thus, I think anyone trying to run a business in a foreign language deserves high, high praise.  But having said that, I love to read the descriptions of items that foreigners have written.  Sometimes the spellings are wrong, because after all, the American way is the right way.  Right?  (Said with sarcasm.)  Sometimes the adjectives come after the nouns.  Sometimes even the English speaking British word things in a manner that sounds odd to my American ears.  And then sometimes, you just gotta stop and wonder what the heck the people are talking about.  Take, for example, these washing instructions:  “You can wash dry.”  What?  I can wash dry?  I read it and reread it and reread it once again.  And suddenly it dawned on me.  You could dry clean the item.  I giggled for hours.

And that dear friends, just goes to show you how desperate I’ve become for daily blog fodder.  Exactly how many days are left in this month?

As penance for poking fun of those struggling with American grammar, I decided to offer a discount to anyone that can find an error in any of my own descriptions.  Unfortunately, I'm sure there are a few.  Click  here  to find out what I'm offering.  The details are at the bottom of my profile.

On the knitting front, I finished the cabled hat that I'd started yesterday.  Photos will follow soon, but first, I have to find my camera charger.    In the mean time, I'll leave you with this, just because I think it's pretty.

Gimme Fever

Wow!  And I thought I had a bad case of Fall Fever before.

I started this simple scarf last night, thinking I'd sell it through my Etsy shop.  But nope!  Not gonna happen.  I'm keeping this baby!  I absolutely LOVE the colors.  They scream "Autumn leaves!"  I can't wait to wrap it around my neck & go pumpkin shopping.  I don't care if it is still 108 degrees outside.