A New Year and Knitting Overload

 And so begins a new year. It is a factious, discordant beginning. As if worries over Covid weren't enough, now many of us are sitting in awe and dismay at the unweaving of our social fabric. I want to acknowledge this here, but I don't really want to dwell on it. I just want this space to be a place to take a moment to breathe.

It has been a little cold here, and I haven't been outside much. We explored an outdoor park last weekend, having heard there was a lake in there somewhere, which there was.

As winter crept in (always slowly here in the south), the leaves on our Japanese maple turned rusty red, and then brilliant red and fell.

I finished knitting the Harebell Cardigan I have been wanting to make for a long time. The yarn (Berroco Tuscan Tweed) went on close out, so I knew I had to hop to it and get this out of my head and onto my needles. It is a just about the most perfect thing I think I've knitted. It fits just right! 

On election night, I started to knit this colorwork cowl so that I would have something to focus my mind on other than the television my husband had on in the next room.  In the end, even though this is soft and cozy, the colors are just too intense for me. But, who knows, maybe I'll grow to like it better.

It really has been a time of going quickly from one knitting project to the next. After the somewhat disappointing cowl, I cast on right away and made this hat from a free pattern I got this summer. Funny that it is the August Hat and I made it in December.  I gave it to my work colleague. It was my first Latvian braid, which was fun to do.

I got in one more knit when school was out for the holidays. This super quick sweater is made with bulky yarn so it was done really fast. Although I love this colorway, the yarn pilled up and shed a lot when I blocked it. I am thinking of making it again in 100% wool, although that may be too hot for my semi-tropical zone.

So--it sure looks like I did a ton of knitting doesn't it? Perhaps I did. Perhaps I needed to occupy my mind!

Just this last week, during our runoff elections, once again, I took to the next room with my needles and yarn. I had supported Ossoff and Warnock for months (Ossoff for years, really). I even went to do face-to-face canvassing, something totally new for me. When Warnock won, (of course, I had been popping in and out of the TV room all night) I was so happy I cried. My goodness!

What I made that night was this random little smiley monster.  The pattern calls him the Little Kindness Monster and I would like him to be a kind of avatar for the moment. 

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Just look at these celosia! Wow! This coxcomb variety is like velvet brain coral. 

The celosia reseeds, as do many of the other flowers in this bed. I just added some zinna seeds into the mix this year, because I didn't dare to go out to the garden center during planting season. Some of the zinnas from last year came up too, as did the guinea impatiens. There's others in there too, some melampodium daisies which aren't really supposed to be perennials here, but apparently are. I love these dramatic flowers. There is a huge bush of yellow celosia that grew next to a bed of snapdragons from what seemed to be just a crack in the driveway. It is now so big I have to take care backing out my car so I don't run it down.

When these plants were first emerging, they looked quite weedy, but I knew they weren't weeds and let them grow. Growing flowers gives me such joy! Especially perennials who sleep and then re-emerge as bright little surprises. I am always amazed they survive. And always happy to see how they have redoubled or spread. (Like the white butterfly ginger plant below).This year was a particularly great year for flowers. We had a very wet winter which I think made them all very happy. 

As for my sweater, I got lost on sleeve island for some time. Truthfully, I knitted one sleeve twice. 

I started with magic loop and found that my stitches in the round were just too tight. I was also not happy pulling the cord of the circular needles back and forth every half row. So I pulled back (almost the whole sleeve--oh dear!) went up a half needle size and went round and round on trusty dpns.  Now that I have one sleeve finished, it shouldn't be too hard to motor on with the second. However, I am pretty sure I am not going to have enough yarn to finish. Even if I undo my swatch. I only have one more full skein.

Each day I go to school and come home and see my dear husband. I walk or walk the dog. We eat and watch mysteries or old movies on TV. It is a simple, routine life, which feels important now because nothing in the nation is simple or routine. Each day brings tremendously unsettling news.  I do what I can, make donations, love and support all the people I know and see. Little by little I try to keep the doomsayers at bay and fight in small ways for justice and truth and peace. 

Late August

 

Last week I spent the days in my empty classroom teaching online mostly through Zoom. A large part of each meeting was troubleshooting tech questions. I feel so lucky to have the sweet students that I do. Almost all of them show up every day and almost all of them try to do what they are assigned. I have tried to keep things very, very simple for them and have made a lot of videos about how to log in and complete assignments, etc. 

There is a feature in Zoom which allows students to annotate on the screen. A lot of teachers turn this off because kids draw penises or write bad words. I keep mine on because most of my students can't figure out how to use that feature, but the one who did wrote a lovely little message "we love you miss." 

Next Wednesday some of the students, whose parents demand it, are coming back to the building. This is scary for us teachers, but again, I am lucky because my classes are small and I don't think my students will give me troubles about keeping on their masks. I just fear for all the families in the community whose health will be threatened by students bringing home the virus.

All of this weighs heavily on my mind.

I'm going to start the sleeves on my Harebell Cardigan. It has been a relaxing sweater to knit. I just knit along and listen to Podcasts. 

The garden is showing that late summer exhaustion with tomato plants going yellow and hydrangea blossoms fading. Most cone flowers have lost their leaves, and the day lily stems are dry and hollow and fall to the ground. Butterflies though are out full force, as are the hummingbirds. The gold finches come pluck seeds from expired echinacea. I bought some of these, which aren't expired! And planted them where a mediocre tomato was this year and last. Now that I know the yard a little better--having followed the four seasons here twice around--I know where the tomatoes are happiest. And hopefully these lovelies will be happy in this spot.

Pumpkins and Scones

Once again, it has been a million years (or just about) since my last post. It's all pumpkins and Halloween around here now, chaperoning Homecoming, running a pumpkin fundraiser, eating pots of homemade soup, and watching as the weather ever so gradually turns.

A free pumpkin

It is blustery today, and gray.  It's nice to be indoors with a warm oven. I tried my hand at scones.  I think they came out a little small, but the candied orange bits were great!

I winterized the rabbit hutch--which isn't much, just fixing on the removable sides made of lightweight what? Some material that is little more than cardboard.  Just heavy enough to keep out the wind.  They have on their winter coats and as the temperature drops, I'll add more piles of hay.  I think they are way better off in our mild winters than in the insufferable summer heat.  They've spent their nine years outdoors, and when I was tried bringing their elderly selves in out of the heat, it just freaked them out.  So, out again they went.

The broccoli and brussel sprouts are growing along slowly, and the lemon tree is heavy with fruit. But it's the blood orange tree that's showing off, laden with oranges beginning to color.

And, at long last, I finished my Nevis cardigan.  I was worried it wouldn't turn out, but it did, really, and it something I will actually wear.  It's just going to be awhile before I knit something with lace weight yarn again.

Here it is all coldish and gray, but of course, this it isn't really fall.  Some of my azealias are refusing to think so anyway, deciding that this is a great time to blossom.  Maybe they are taking a cue from the nearby fall blooming camellias, not wanting to be outdone.