Fall has Fallen

The trees have only just begun to give a us a slight glimmer of the colors that lie within their leaves, but I know it's Fall. It's not merely because the thermometer tops out around 62 everyday and dips to the mid-40's at night it is cuz this happened yesterday.

The farmer dude came and edged out the field. The beans have been turning for a few weeks now and soon they will be not much more than twigs with pods, all dried out and perfect for harvest. Edging out the field is one last step to hasten the drying out of the plants. I imagine the farmers around here have been doing a happy dance lately. Even though we got oceans of rain recently, the weather has been ideal for pre-harvest drying. Strong sun, and cool temps suck the moisture out of everything. Summer has ended, Fall has fallen.

I suppose another indicator of the changing season is Oktoberfest. We had our three-day festival this pass weekend. A good time was had by all. No pix to share with you this time. It would be kind of silly to show photos of Joe and I in the same costumes as last year, although next year there are sure to be photos of the days leading up to the event. Joe bought a new hat to go with his Lederhosen. The pair he has now are black, his new hat is dark green. He'll need a green pair for next year. Good thing I have some green suede in my stash!

On the fiber front there's been some spinning and plenty of knitting done of late but not really worth bloggin about. Miles of spun singles and oceans of stockinette/moss stitch is not thrilling to those who are only watching. I'm still working on Gillian's Pretty in Red. sweater, body done and sleeves begun.

OK, that's sort of a lie. The body isn't totally done, I don't think. If you look closely at the pic you'll see the shoulder stitches are on holding threads and they each have tiny balls of yarn hang from them. I do this with almost every top I make. I get to the supposed bind off point and keep the stitches live with a length (a few row worth) of yarn still attached. I just think it makes it easier for any adjustments that might be needed later. Ripping out something that has been bound off ticks me off to no end. It's a make or break deal for me. If I bound off these stitches right now and then discovered that I needed one or two more rows on a shoulder the whole thing would never get done. The sweater would languish in the blackhole of UFO's for all eternity. Only needing 19 stitches unbound, a row or two of those 19 stitches knitted and then bound off again. What would you say, 10 minutes of work after how many hours invested? It's silly, I know, but there you have it.

Papa G, the bulky remake of the Mr. Greenjeans sweater, wasn't enough to quell my need for bulky woolie knitting so I started something else the other day. A chunky car coat that I'm sort of winging as I go along. I was merrily knitting away on it and it was flying off the needles. See? this is what it looked like a few days ago.


I stopped knitting on the bodice shortly after the colorwork and began the sleeves. I figured I would make the sleeves and then knit the length as far as my stash would allow, hopefully fingertip length. What happened next I care not to show you even if I could. Both sleeves complete, with a colorwork band that lined up perfectly with that of the band on the bodice. But wait! Did it really line up?? Something wasn't quiet right. It looked funky and wonky and not merely cuz it was not blocked, there was something else about it I couldn't put my finger on. Then it hit me. I hadn't worked the same the colorwork pattern. The pattern on the bodice is a fretwork pattern, the pattern I worked on the sleeves was a Greek key pattern.

Ooops. Although, "oops" wasn't the word I used.

I have since ripped out both sleeves all the way up to the armpit so it once again looks similar to the blue blob in the photo above. I ripped all the way up cuz not only did the pattern not match, neither did the stitch multiple. All the figuring I had done for the decreases was wrong.

Bummer. Although "bummer" wasn't the word I used.

I haven't touched it since. I have looked at it a few times. Is it just me, or is my sweater mocking me? Take a quick glance. Doesn't this look an awful lot like a row of Swastikas to you?


"Oops"

"Bummer"

"Darn"