more fall colours outside my door

as promised here are more photos

sunday morning in the fall

sunday mornings are often often filled with pancakes for brunch. patrick whips them up for us around lunch time. this morning i made an apple breakfast cake. quite simple and tasty - it is based roughly on this recipe from d*sponge - theirs is still about summer fruit while i used fall-friendly apples and pears. i used more fruit 3 or 3 1/2 cups (theirs called for 2 cups of berries) and added pumpkin pie spice. it took a little more time to bake. oh and i would suggest sour cream or some yogurt with this - yum!

we are solidly into autumn here - the sweaters (rather than light summer cardigans ... they don't really count as sweaters) are out - these are the lighter pullovers and cozy cardigans ... not the massive ones .... hmm seems i have many classes of sweaters, but in my defense i do live north of 60: Fall arrives at the end of August; i scrape frost off the windshield most mornings now but thats OK - i don't need a coat yet!

here are a couple shots from my apartment patio. i'm going for a little hike this afternoon so may bring my camera as there are some lovely reds out right now too.

new project ...old project

so yes ... i hate to admit it but i do have a closet of wool. here is a very old project .... from the last winter olympics in fact! this was my olympic knitting project when i lived in dawson .... but i never finished ... as it was coming together, it umm was a bit blah. but when i saw new free pattern downloads yesterday from interweave i found inspiration to dig up that project, pull it apart and start on a cozy fall cardigan.

so i have it all balled now and you know it is really quite a lovely colour deep greens with some teal and clay hints. the pattern: Side-Way Ribs Cardigan by Norah Gaughan is quite simple and normally too boring to knit but it is going to be quick and has an interesting construction!

instant shawl

so i'm still working on that edging ..... 2.5 sections out of seven .... sigh
on my trip to dawson last weekend i cast on for a simple shawllette (placing beads on lace yarn in the car .... not that do-able) .... very satisfying to finish a project in the car there and back!

this is textured shawl recipe available on ravelry. i subbed in a bunch of other stitches and rows of stockinette between the lace

it is fairly small but it is perfect for this rustic pretty handspun wool that i bought in inuvik. hard to see but there are beads randomly glittering too

i made wool

ok maybe i didn't make it but i did spin it!

while in Inuvik i was able to take a spinning class ... well almost the class was full but they let me watch and listen. I learnt alot! and it gave me confidence to try drop spindling. that is the photo above: my drop spindle. it is a lovely little thing cherry wood and very light so i can spin lace weights. can should be in quotes ... so i could spin lace, once i get better - right now it is mainly fingering (sock) weight .. but there are fair chunks of thick and thin

here is my fibre .... Spunky Eclectic Spunky Club Roving: Romney wool, Pansy colourway

our instructor gave lots of tips - ie good begining fibres - romney, corridale are two goods ones as they have long grabby hairs/fibres. also variegated colours help too so you can see the twist.

and here is my first 4oz or 100 grams of hand spun wool!!!

all i do is edge

lacy knit-on edging: a fancy way to bind off

so i've had a few questions on how my current sweater is constructed. it is basically a giant circle. i cast on 7 stitches (centre back) and every other round i increased by 7 stitches.

step 1: knit the circle
step 2: knit the edging
step 3: sleeves

so right now i am on step 2 - the edging is basically a fancy bind-off, or in other words to cast off one stitch i have to knit 40 to 48 stitches. around the edge is about 550 stitches to cast off .... i don't want to do the math so lets just say it is a lot of knitting. Unfortunately it is kind of boring knitting which is part of the reason i'm adding beads to make it more interesting !

see what i mean how the colour shifts? here the beads appear copper ....
a post or two below and they look amethyst

just to clarify i haven't pre-strung the beads rather i add them to stitch with a crochet hook - whoever figured this out was brilliant. it works really well! you just need to find a tiny hook!

1985

mom and dad brought boxes of everything i've left behind at home ... most of it i haven't seen for years.
this morning i found my school journal from 1985:

My DaD is wroking on church. he allmot finish it. I like helping

this one is kind of hard to read ... but it is me helping my dad as he is working on the church (they were building an upper floor extension) ... how sweet hey .... now check this one out:

85/10/15. When I was walking to class Willa was makeing noses. I spaked willa said OWh!

yes .. that is me hitting my younger sister... ha! how awesome is that ... she was banging cups (?) so i decided to spank her and then wrote about it?! what the hell ... but i do love the expressions