Sunset

Today was one of those glorious, crisp, sunny late autumn days and although I did not manage to scrape together the energy to get out in it, I still enjoyed it from indoors.  As befits such a day, the sunset was glorious, our upstairs room was lit up with a warm golden glow, with the slightest hint of pink and the trees were silhouetted against the sky.



A top class sunset does seem to need some scraps of clouds to show off its colour and glory to its very best, a bit like a picture needing dark as well as light.

Seasonal bewilderment

This unseasonably warm weather has caused the garden to be a profusion of flowers and unseasonable new growth, so that alongside more usual sights there are also fresh nasturtiums coming up, summer flowers still flowering and even supposedly spring flowers putting out fresh flowers.


Next door's apples ripening in profusions


Holly berries ripening, we shall be unlikely to have any left by Christmas for the Christmas pudding given the birds' appetites.


The roses by the pond, although they have flowered in mid-winter before, they have a natural enthusiasm.


Summer flowers and foliage


A hoverfly on a poppy


More poppies in waiting


And lastly some enthusiastic primroses

On the needles

As it has been a while since this blog, supposedly about knitting, has had much on it about knitting, I thought i would do an update post on what I have on the needles.



A couple of days ago I finally finished this pair of socks, which, embarrassingly, I started in February.  The delay was owing to how long it took me to get the hang of the pattern and also various interruptions, but now they are finished I am very pleased with them.  The pattern is Elm by Cookie.a and the yarn is from one of my current favourite indie-dyers, Countess Ablaze.  Although I do increasingly enjoy a plain "vanilla" sock, particularly in stripy yarn, I do sometimes enjoy a more challenging sock, particularly by Cookie.a whose designs are so clever, I often marvel at how she does it.



Inspired by autumn's imminent arrival, I have mostly been working on Lady Marple cardigan by Nadia Crétin-Léchenne in Artesano Alpaca Aran, which is a gorgeous mix of alpaca and wool making a lovely warm, not too heavy fabric with a slight halo.  The yarn is slightly tweedy in its depth of colour - the shade I am using is called twilight and is a mid turquoise with hints of red. The pattern has a nice balance between mindless relaxation and a bit of lace to keep it interesting; it is an adult version of a pattern written for a child - Miss Marple.  As it is on 5mm needles it is making fair progress and I am currently a few centimetres from dividing at the armholes to work the back and two fronts separately, and so I am fairly confident of finishing it before the cold weather (touch wood).




Apologies for the quality of the photograph, it can be quite challenging photographing a work in progress, this was taken over a week ago too so I have progressed a fair bit from there.

In between times I have been finishing off some baby knits and really need to get more done - there seem to be a lot being born at present.

A couple of FOs

Finally, after several months of hard work I have finished my Thelonious socks and I feel like I understand better how travelling lace patterns work.



I have also finished the stripy scarf I showed off in my last post.  For a scarf in knit 1 purl 1 rib it simply flew by, the chunky yarn helped, as did the mesmerising colours.  In fact I do have to admit that I have been plotting more similar scarves and wondering if there is a limit to how many stripy scarves one person needs.  The scarf is lovely to wear, smooshy, soft, squishy and elastic and I am hoping it will brighten up the winter.



This finishing has not left me bereft of knitting though, I am beginning seriously on Christmas knitting, early though it seems, these projects take time.

Autumn

Time slips on, complicated hat has made way on the needles for complicated mittens, while in the past few days I have been enjoying finally being able to wear the complicated hat. When I finished it we were in the middle of our intense Indian summer and I had to unearth my sun hat instead. How glorious that was and how cold it felt yesterday by contrast.

Stepping outside today, despite the comparative warmth, there is a definite smell of autumn, of falling leaves and damp lawn and cooling earth and decay. It is the sort of day which inspires me to want to put on some wellingtons and do some digging or other essential autumn job in the garden. If only I had the energy.

Sometimes I regard this slow slipping into winter with dread, all those dark, cold days, but in my saner moments I just take each moment as it comes and watch all its changes and moods. This is a better way I think, it feels calmer. Watch the leaves slowly change, the birds, who all vanished during the heat of the Indian summer, return to use the feeders so lovingly set up for them, wash and drink in the bird bath and chatter and preen in the bushes, hopping around the branches of the big holly as though it were a green stair case, up and down, up and down. Watch a robin sitting apparently doing nothing, looking casually about him before diving to the ground for some grub smaller than I can see.

That robin is delightful, he always comes down when I am outside to see what I'm up to. I'll look up from my magazine or book, having heard the flutter of wings, to see him sitting on a branch two feet away watching me. I love the look of triumph in his eye when he has a particularly juicy worm or a good berry, a look that says "this is mine, back off". The blackbirds are just the same.

These trees were so golden, lit up by the sun, I half expected Aeneas to turn up, guided by doves, for his golden bough.

In between there have been blacker moods and darker times, part of chronic illness I suppose. But I am writing this almost to prove to myself that it hasn't all been bad. And time slips on, flowing past, while I nap and knit and watch.