Pumpkin Sunrise

This month is my birthday month!  In honor of my fabulous birthday, I thought it would be fun to celebrate with a giveaway to thank all of you lovely readers who leave comments, some I have known for quite a while and some I've just met.  Then there are the many readers who only read.  I appreciate all of you and thank you from the bottom of my heart. So for one lucky winner I will be awarding a skein of silky alpaca lace yarn in a pink colorway, so soft and yes lace weight :) For three other winners, I will send you a packet of six photo note cards.  I have been busy this past weekend making them. So what do you have to do to win?  Well leave a comment on the blog of course-simple as that. Please make sure you have an email address or a ravelry name in the comment so I can get in touch with you. I will use a random number generator to pick the winners. I will close the comments on November 17th in the evening and announce a winner on November 18th in a new post. (I

My weekend was nearly the same as most of my weekends except I had a bad dream on Saturday night that I thought I'd share with you. I was in a favorite yarn shop that was located in a big drafty barn (that doesn't exist in real life).  Yarn was displayed everywhere in many rooms.  I was looking and looking for lace weight yarn and all I found was bulky or worsted weight.  I was sure they carried lace weight and I had my heart set on purchasing some.  I asked an attendant who looked suspiciously at me and avoided answering my question pointing me to some sport weight wool.  So I asked another clerk and another clerk.  Finally the last sales clerk instructed me to ask the manager who was hiding in a room knitting with bulky yarn. Here's where the scary part happens.  I asked the manager where the lace weight yarn was displayed and she stated firmly "If I have my way, we will never ever carry lace weight yarn".  Oh my, my knitting heart was broken to pieces...

I have been waiting for this photo, wondering when the pile of red maple leaves would appear in front of my house.  This autumn, orange and red were not the colors that usually have been abundant.  I'd have to say yellow and brown grasped center stage this year. I love when I grab the big camera to walk outside, Frodo does twirls and dances about because he loves photography as well.  Ever so patient, when I stop, he stops and waits.  We walk and crunch and notice nature.  He is secretly looking for the squirrels that evade him.  This week, Frodo almost caught a squirrel, but I yelled "Frodo, no!!!!!" and that split second of ignoring me and continuing the hunt gave the squirrel a fighting chance. Here is a leaf bouquet for you :)  I knew you'd like it! This oak tree will keep it's fall dressings until the spring.  I believe he wants to be a trendsetter when it comes to autumn and spring behaviors. I love him :) I received an email from a r

Click clack click clack- That is the sound of me furiously knitting away to make an imaginary deadline of a sweater completed by Thanksgiving.  A knitter can dream and be hopeful, right?  Currently I am finished with the body shaping decreasing.  The pattern is quite nice and I must agree "effortless", there's miles and miles of stockinette to fly threw.  I'm nearly through the second ball of yarn (440 yards knitted!). I started two books this week, Oh My Stars  by Lorna Landvik which so far has been quite sad.  Her character qualities and development remind me of Catherine Cookson's heroines.  You know, not the ideal "perfect" beauty.  I miss Catherine Cookson ...When I was newly married I read all of her books and Agatha Christie's books, just because the library had all of them neatly on the shelves. I also started The Violets of March  by Sarah Jio on my Ipad so I can knit and read at the same time.  My local library has an ebook borro

We had dear friends over for dinner and company on Friday night, the first dinner of many without a single child between us!  As much as I was sadden by the lack of children, I embraced the quick and easy clean up and the abundance of desserts on the tray.  We had a good time, with every intention to knit while together but we ended up with knitting in our bags at the ready untouched. Saturday afternoon I resumed walking with my husband and Frodo, gingerly-I'm happy to report that the ankle is doing much much better and as long as I watch where I'm going I should be fine.  Those dastardly shoes have been safely tucked to the side. I feel incredibly lucky to be recovering so quickly. The time change offered me a chance to knit a tiny bit more on the Thanksgiving sweater.  "I think I can, I think I can", is the mantra in my head. Positive thinking and all that stuff.  Besides the conversations with my two kids, I had a lovely chat with my favorite Aunt and Uncle.

This week has found me finding my happy.  You know the stuff that makes you smile on the inside and the outside.  Family, children, and friends are the standards to the list, but I was thinking along the lines of selfish happiness.  What makes me happy deep down inside and it's just for me. Knitting is my number one on the list.  I love to start projects and finish projects, and I do cheat on the current projects by dreaming of projects to be.  Some projects become real just like in the Velveteen Rabbit book (you should read that book, it's a tear jerker).  The hat in the above photo has finally found a recipient in my mind.  But I can't tell you who because it's a Christmas present, but I promise that person is definitely knit worthy. Below are two Zauberballs  that are in my stash that I keep looking lovingly at and dreaming of all the what ifs.  I assure you they will be a shawl, just not sure exactly which one as of yet. Now you must be wondering why I am l

Oh October, I love you so, you will be sorely missed.  It seems that you were only here just a brief time.  I documented your beauty daily with words and with photos.  How nice to have been graced with leaves changing and falling temps.  I will hold you deep in my heart until another year passes and you visit once again. Sincerely, a devoted fan. (me) I have begun the list making for the holidays.  Who to buy for, what to give, what has been made, what do I need to make.  My goal is to be done and wrapped by December 1st.  That way I have three more weeks for what I didn't accomplish.  I do not perform well under pressure. Along with the personal list making, have you seen the post from Amanda  where she created this  prompt a day for the month of November!!  I thought it was generous of her and I love the idea of using the prompts for personal journaling, photography, or maybe for a blog post.  I have a lovely notebook that is begging for some new creative entries.

I've made lots of progress on my Thanksgiving sweater , as you know I quickly cast on last week impulsively and I've already completed the armholes and now am whizzing along the body of the sweater.  Will it be done by Thanksgiving?  Who knows! But I'm enjoying the process and the color is divine.  Remember my interesting socks  well they are finished !!  They are still a VERY interesting colorway and I am happy to know they will be tucked behind jeans and boots keeping my feet warm through the winter. My husband and I watched  Grapes of Wrath  on Netflix... does that count as reading?  I guess not.  I finished The Secret Keeper  by Kate Morton and loved it.  My only criticism is that I guessed the surprise ending half way through the book and therefore lost steam in reading the rest, but I did and I'm glad I did.  I recommend the book.  Still reading Grace Eventually  by Anne Lamott, nearly finished.  For variety I snapped this photo of Emily Dickinson's Colle

Saturday morning found me driving to my daughter's apartment to do a computer swap.  Her six month old computer was acting weird and she needs a functioning computer for note taking and for final exams at law school.  I enjoyed a beautiful drive soaking in the autumn countryside while listening to a few podcasts.  We swapped computers (gave her my husband's) and then proceeded to have a lovely lunch and a bit of shopping. As you might have guessed, the computer isn't acting weird here.  But it has a wellness appointment at a local computer repair shop-fingers crossed they find something!  This reminds me of the days of when my children would be sick and while at the doctor's appointment, their fever would break, or their cough would disappear.  How awful to wish your child would show any sign of illness to prove to the doctor that something, anything was wrong to make the appointment viable. Once I was home from the computer swap, I enjoyed a delicious curry dinn

I will announce right here and now that I am not knowledgeable in cars, just in knitting, but I do know an old car when I see one.  Earlier this week our riding lawn mower broke and my husband was stumped on how to fix it, so he called a friend to help.  Our riding mower is over 20 years old and my husband refuses to let it die and be replaced "its engine is strong". When our friend came over to help out, he brought along his little project-a roadster .  I saw an excellent photo opportunity.  I love how the car "smiles" at you from the front, see it?  After at least 10 photos, I noticed that one of them had my reflection and the beautiful autumn day! Between the two of them, the tractor was resurrected once again to continue lawn duties. This week has seen the temperatures drop and yes, frost!  Yesterday when Frodo and I went to pick up the daily paper in the darkness, I saw frost.  Good bye fall weed allergies, you will not be missed by me.  We continue to w

I'm furiously knitting on many projects and so far I'm enjoying each of them immensely.  This knit is the Nae Shawl  and is wonderful to work on.  The pattern is side to side construction and the yarn has a bit of bamboo, so the texture is kind of slinky, kind of crunchy and overall soft.  The project is a decadent tactile experience!  My sock progress is coming along, I finished the gusset of the second sock and I'm sure that I will be done very soon. Oh and in yesterday's post I announced that I am foolishly going to knit a sweater by Thanksgiving.  I've cast on and working my way to the sleeve division (top down construction of course). My reading....sigh, it's been the same again.  I'm thoroughly enjoying Secret Keeper by Kate Morton and it's a long book!  Since I'm knitting so much during the day while my fingers hold out, my reading time is limited to the evenings and as you know I tend to fall asleep.  I believe I will finish this book