The Winter of Discontent: Yarn Stories

Finally, finally, somewhere back there, I finished crocheting the Convergence top, a summer project that didn't get finished until late fall/early winter. The sleeves seem a little pokey-outey so I may need to add some more stitches to keep them down, or they may relax with wear.  But, by the time I was done making this, I was just too tired of it to adjust it.  I loved working with the yarn and the cool way the colors shifted, but my passion to make it just wasn't there. I was making it because I had bought the yarn. Making this was not a disappointment as all, just a lukewarm experience that I think will feel all better once it is summer and I am ready to look at it again in new light.

Discontent #1. So, in my spirit of use up yarn, I made a funny little cloche hat with yarn set for that project about 100 years ago when I was learning about yarn weights, etc. and wasn't very good at it. It is gray cotton yarn and I couldn't think of anything else I wanted to make with it--so, a hat it became. I am not including any pictures of this hat because I am not convinced it is any good and the pictures of it certainly aren't.  But at least the yarn is out of the bottom of my project bag that sits by the couch where I often knit or crochet.

Which brings me to discontent project #2.  I wanted to make a dog sweater for my son's shivery dog Nancy.  She has sparse, close fur like a lot of American bulldogs.  I mathed out a sweater in her size and had it more than half done, when my dog ate a hole in it.  !  This is craziness.  She has never eaten any of my projects before.  She has never eaten anything she wasn't supposed to before.  She is the kind of well behaved dog, that if you left a sandwich on the coffee table overnight, she would not touch it.  It is like she was jealous. As if she knew I was make a sweater for another dog and not her. I was so upset, I just abandoned the project until I feel I can look at it again.

Discontent #3. My dog--who never chews up anything--my 15 year old dog who never eats anything not food--pulled my hat made from lovely (I almost typed delicious!!) blue Misti Alpaca wool off of my coat which was hung over a chair, and ate a hole in it.  It is now fit for a unicorn.

The Guilty Party.  An old dog looking for ways to get more fiber in her diet-ha!

Hat of Christmas Past

Sooooo, continuing in the spirit of use up yarn, I knitted up an Antler Hat which is not on the Discontent list AT ALL.  In fact, I love this hat and have had it on my Want to Make mental list for a long time.  I am making another for my husband who wants a sports team colored one (garnet and gold) which was not in the use up yarn pile, but you know--when someone you love makes request...

Antler #1

I was knitting this hat during the annual Poetry Out Loud contest in fact, and unbeknownst to me, my yarn ball slipped away and rolled, rolled, rolled (down hill of course!) several rows of seats in front of me.  It was a bit of a scramble getting it back--a little like a multi-person Cat's Cradle yarn tangle during the intermission.

Each of these wonderful kids recited two poems while my yarn did a runner.

Fall

Fall has always been my favorite time of year.  I love the way the light shifts and becomes hazy and gentle.  I love how the leaves crunch under foot and float down from the sky or skitter over the ground with the breeze.
Fall is like a big sigh.  Like the world has been holding in or building up as the August temperature gauges push over 90 degrees day after day--then comes that first little sneak of a cool morning, and I know the sigh of relief is on its way.

Yes, it was 85 yesterday, and today too.  But autumn is here.  The pine straw is everywhere!  My roof and yard are starting to pile up with straw and pinecones and leaves.  No use raking it yet though.  There's still plenty more to come.

The heart shaped leaves of these camellias always make me smile when I see them in the driveway.

I have been able to work some on the Convergence Top and it is sweet reunion with my old friend the crochet hook! I got the yarn for this two summers ago.  I didn't feel like crocheting a summer top in the middle of winter when I finally got around to finishing longer projects, and then I lost my mojo and didn't feel like making it at all for awhile.  But oh!  I am glad I am making it now!  It is easy and fun to watch the yarn stripe itself.

Well--I'm off!  Busy as always, and here come the trick-or-treaters!