Seasonal Shift

I am always resistant to put on additional layers as summer comes to a close. Tank tops and flip flops are my summer staples, so even putting on a shirt with sleeves feels like a concession. By the end of summer, socks feel confining and pants are downright oppressive. I clung to my summer wardrobe as long as possible, but when I got into my car last week and saw that it was 38 degrees (3.5 degrees Celsius) I knew it was time to give in to the jeans and hoodies. I find the weather so fascinating here in the mountains because it can vary so wildly from place to place. We have some friends who live only 6 miles down the road, but it is consistently 8-10 degrees warmer at their house than ours because they are in a larger valley, and we are tucked into the mountains 1,000 feet higher. Don’t bother looking at a weather app out here because they are never accurate. There have been times when I could face one side of my yard and watch a thunderstorm and then turn around and see that the other half of the yard was dry and sunny. Several days I would leave in the morning with several inches of snow on the ground and more coming down, only to arrive at my friends’ house to a bright sunny day with no snow in sight. All this to say that while it is officially Fall at my house and the leaves are blowing, it is very possible that someone somewhere nearby is still sunbathing. “Microclimate” is the word my friend introduced me to when I moved down here and it is really interesting to experience.

With this blanket of damp, chilly air settling in I am starting to feel a greater sense of urgency to wrap up the loose ends on some half-finished items before it gets too cold. I have a few pairs of socks in my drawer where the bind off on the cuff is way too tight and every single time I wear them, I make a mental note to pull it out and redo it before I wear them the next time. These are not new pairs of socks, either. These are socks that I have been wearing for 2, 3, 4 years. But this is the year I fix the issue, I can feel it. I have them set aside and ready to get back on the needles for a quick update. I should really go locate the yarn I had originally used for the cuffs so I have everything together and then no more excuses. As soon as my current pair of socks is off the needles, redoing the bind off will be next to go.

This pair is meant as a gift and won’t be needed for a few months, but it will be nice to check them off the list. I am a very slow sock knitter. Not because it takes a significant amount of active knitting time to get them done, but because they’re always sort of floating around in the background for me to pick up here and there. I’ll do the toe of a sock and then put it down for a month or two. Then I’ll come back and finish the foot, maybe turn the heel, before moving on to something else. At this pace, I only get a few pairs of socks done every year, but I always have one in the works ready to pick up when I need something easy and mindless. I always knit my socks on size 0 needles (2.0mm) because I want them to be sturdy and hardwearing. These are made with Jawoll Color in the very poetic color name “902.0141”. I tend to knit pretty plain socks, so self-striping/patterning yarn makes it a little more interesting. For years, the only pattern I have used is David’s Toe-Up Sock Cookbook, which is more a template than a pattern and you can plug in whatever stitch pattern, gauge, or size you need. I have made dozens of pairs of socks using this pattern and they always turn out really well. For myself, I knit toe-up socks with a contrasting toe/heel/cuff because I have large feet and this approach lets me squeeze every last inch out of a ball of yarn that I can. If I didn’t use contrasting yarn, I’d end up with a whole drawer full of ankle socks.

My other current knitting project is going to have to take precedence this week as the mornings and evenings get colder. I mentioned in my last post that my husband had requested a new pair of fingerless gloves earlier this year, and the time has come to get those finished.

The first one is nearly done with just a round or two left on the thumb before it is complete. My husband’s hands are smaller than mine, so I can’t decide if I should be amazed that I was able to stretch this onto my hand, or concerned that they are going to end up too big. I’ll let you know when that mystery is solved. Kyle pulled yarn out of his own stash for these and chose Tosh DK in the color “Cloak”. When I was actually working on this project it knit up pretty quickly, so I am confident I will be able to get the second one completed before too long. The pattern is Handyman by Lone Kjeldsen. I like how understated the pattern is, with just a bit of interest in the shaping of the thumb gusset.

We decorated our house for Halloween this weekend, which some might claim is a little premature, but I have been gently “suggesting” that we do so for several weeks now. Halloween is Kyle’s favorite holiday and I want to make sure it gets the time it deserves. Fitting, then, that I completed the run of Halloween-themed towels I had on the loom this weekend as well.

That is 10 yards of towels ready to be cut apart, edges secured, washed, pressed and hemmed. I’ll add them to the pile of finishing work I already have waiting for me, but it felt nice to get this project off the loom. I have my next five weaving projects already planned and designed, so I was ready to jump right into my next experimental project – twills in miniature.

All that detail in just six inches of fabric! I designed (or as Elizabeth Zimmermann would say, unvented) ten different patterns to try out for this project. I am excited to see how they all turn out.

The green warp is 40/2 linen, and the black weft is 20/2 perle cotton for a bit of sheen. I think my weaving projects are going to keep me very busy through the end of the year. I look forward to sharing them with all of you.

Until next time, stay creative.