we’re living in a fishbowl of vibrant colors this month—the foliage is putting out the best display i’ve seen since we moved to ohio.

we’re lucky to live in a home surrounded by a grove of very tall, old oaks, interspersed with maples. i’m struck with awe when each new day brings a different slant of light or new depth of color-in-wetness.

sunday morning was a sunny one and i woke up to the light pouring sideways through the oak leaves. i jumped out of bed and grabbed the camera to take some photos of the neighborhood.

out in the back yard, the first pair of winter cardinals was playing on the fence

(the boy one is trying to get the girl one to come over, but she’s not having any of it)
while the coffee perked, i set to work tackling the last basket of tomatoes david picked from the dying plants before pulling them out

after sorting them, i put a sheet in the oven to dry and the remaining green ones

i washed, dried, and placed between layers of newspaper on the old pool table to ripen. maybe we’ll bring them to my mom’s in a few weeks when we go for thanksgiving, for one last garden tomato sauce.

the vegetable garden is all but done now

david pulled up all the plants except the greens at the back (which continue to give and give, bless them) and some herbs and celery at the front. he spread a layer of dark composted earth over the top of the spoiled straw-and-newspaper mulch and will till everything under come spring.

i don’t know what that baby slug is going to eat now, but it doesn’t have much time left to get big (and honestly, i’ve no idea how fast they grow; i don’t think i want to know . . .)

today it’s wet and rainy; the colors are deeper and more immediate

days like this are often great for getting pictures of hard-to-photograph colors, so i dragged my knits outside for a little photo shoot

here, finally is a good depiction of my current project in great northern yarns mink/cashmere, colorway radiant purple. BTW, craig now has all of his colors back in stock.
yes, i’ll wait while you go look . . .

this is the truest representation of the purple yarn i have and it’s showing up really well on my monitor.

i dunno if you can see it in the photo, but my favorite part of this purple is its slight haze of chocolatey brown which gathers in the folds of the fabric.

i’m completely in love with it.

i picked this cable pattern for its soft, curvy plumpness. the yarn is wonderful for cabling because it’s so light and relaxed—it’s not at all hard on the hands, even when crossing four over six. it looks just the way i hope it would—soft, feminine and utterly touchable. i’m thinking a hat with some slouch to it will complement the scarf beautifully, while being light enough to hold itself up where it belongs (i have to be careful about slouchy hats because they tend to fall right off my nutkin head).

i finished up my green sleeve on monday evening, and last night when i went to debby’s to knit, i started the second one

this is the last piece i need—i’m actually gonna miss this knit when it’s done; i’ve enjoyed it immensely (maybe because it went to rhinebeck with me?). i have a semblance of a pattern written, but i’m waiting to see how it fits before i commit to the numbers. i really think it’s going to be fine—everything is measuring up great against my predicted size. it just remains to be seen whether i like it once it’s on. it’s sounds funny, but even a sweater that has all the right measurements can need some tweaking once i do a full fitting; since each yarn makes a unique fabric, i don’t have the opportunity to make that final assessment of its “feel-good” qualities til i can put it on my body.

it’s exciting to anticipate how it will turn out and sometimes, a little nerve-wracking (oh, i love living dangerously). i feel pretty confident that this one will be what i want, but i’ve been surprised before.

on the other hand, there is the blue henley i started the other day

(again, i finally got a decent shot of the dusk colorway, which often wants to show up as a reddish-purple instead of the denim-y blue it really is).

i started the front the other night and i love the fabric. this is knitting notions superwash sport and i’m diggin’ its cotton-y soft hand—it’s knitting up into a wonderfully comfy henley fabric.

i’ve knitted to the waist and now i’m a little nervous about the sweater width. it’s a cable rib and i calculated the cast-on number according to the gauge in my washed swatch (a method which usually serves me well). the problem, i think, is me—i don’t trust myself, hahaha. the cables and rib pull the fabric in a LOT; my swatch grew about 25 percent in width, unstretched, after soaking and drying. the fabric, though cabled, is very soft and flexible (because it also has openwork and the yarn is relaxed). i do not want this sweater to be baggy; i want it to be sexy, so i chose a size that’s pretty close to my body size.

what concerns me, is that over the larger pieces, the cabling seems to provide more tensile strength than the swatch did (i.e., less stretch), which may make it feel too clingy. it’s just a theory, but i will always look for a reason to worry anxiously over things. it could also stretch a ton after being worn and washed a bit and i wouldn’t want it to hang badly then . . .

just in case, i’m going to put aside the front and start a sleeve. i can finish the sleeve up quickly, wash it, and block it out to see how the fabric changes. i can even sew the seam and wear it around the house for a while to make sure i like how it feels. i should’ve done that to begin with, but i thought it would be smarter to knit the front.
i should not think about what’s smart—i should just do it, heh.

i’ll be mulling all of the options over this afternoon when i get back to the project. but i also want very badly to finish my sprössling sweater . . . will i be able to split my time or will i be all driven and do one or the other? i dunno—i might be leaning toward driven today . . .

while i was taking photos of the leaves over the last few days, i started collection lichen pictures too—we have an amazing variety of lichen throughout the yard; it’s one of my favorite things to look at and something i haven’t written about yet. but i’m preparing . . . i have a yarn that i’m dreaming on to go with it

i am chomping at the bit to cast on with my precious cash/silk handspun, but haven’t yet perfected a design for it. i’m working on it though—this will be my treat to knit in between making christmas knitgoodies . . .