A Weekend Full of Leaves

Last week was a strange one – I couldn’t pull anything together for the blog for some reason. I feel bad about missing my Monday and Friday posts, but that’s just how it goes sometimes. I’m hoping this will be a more typical week for me! This is the picture I meant to share on Friday. Our tree looks like it’s nearly done but I’ve learned the hard way. There’s still hundreds (thousands?) of leaves up there and they will all end up on the ground. Our front yard will be a carpet of dead leaves soon! I love driving down the road and seeing everyone’s yard look exactly like ours.

There are more leaves to come. The kids love making little paths through them, getting buried by them, and throwing them up in the air. It’s good and cheap fun! Matthew and I managed to rake them all up yesterday and the kids enjoyed jumping into the piles and spreading them out all over again. But when we went inside, they were all in one giant pile and it started raining overnight (and will rain for the next three days?) so that will weigh them down and hopefully (!) they won’t blow all over the place again. Then that pile will turn into mulch and we can use it in the gardens. Circle of life, or something.

I wound the yarn for my Junction sweater (Ravelry link) this weekend. I’ve had a lot of doubts about this one, but I think I’ll keep calm and knit on. Remember when I bought this yarn at the NH Sheep and Wool Festival? And remember that I thought I was getting three hanks of the same shade but when I got home I realized that I ended up with an oddball one (because the yarn didn’t have tags!)? Yes – there it is on the left. I’m going to do my swatch and start the collar with the oddball. And then I’ll just alternate balls every few rows. It will be obvious that there’s a random color but hope that it will only add to the charm of the sweater.

My second worry was that I didn’t buy enough yarn, but I remember standing at the stall and doing the math several times to make sure I had enough. And when I wound them up, my ball winder almost couldn’t handle it all! So I’m pretty sure that I’ll be okay. If not, then I’ll just end up with a short sleeved sweater and that’s okay too.

I was going to knit the swatch last night but decided to work on my Inclinations Cowl (my Ravelry link) while watching Magpie Murders instead. I’m hoping to settle in with an audiobook tonight and do it then. It’s possible for me to finish this by the end of the year and I think this would make a lovely sweater for the holidays! And I love this yarn – it seems so rustic, which is something I’m suddenly into. I’m shifting towards fibers that look more natural and can withstand heavy wear. Maybe it’s a maturity thing? Who knows? But I was taken by Knit Picks’ most recent catalog, which was full of natural fibers.

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Whew! I was worried that I was going to give up on this post and not publish anything today. I’m glad that I broke the ice and just wrote something anyway. I’m planning to be back on Wednesday with an update on this week’s reading. Until then – take good care.