Happy (Canadian) Thanksgiving!

Fall is here in a big way. The leaves are turning absolutely gorgeous! My favourite time of the year. You know how some people are gobsmacked by an amazing painting, a fine piece of music or a really lovely passage of writing? I get that feeling when I look down a street full of glorious autumn leaves. It fills up my heart with happiness. I wish this season would last forever but it really is the shortest season of all. In only a few weeks the trees will be bare and brown and the dreary rains will have set in. I need to hold on to the bright colours in my head through the whole dark winter. And hopefully celebrate them in at least some of my crafty work too.

So I promised what seems like ages ago to write up the rest of my finished knitting projects, didn’t I?

Blackbird Mitts

For: me

Begun: August 19, 2013
Completed: August 28, 2013

Yarn: Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks That Rock Lightweight, colourway Ravenscroft, 100% merino, 455yds=155g, used about 50g.

Needles: Clover Takumi dpns, 2mm

Pattern: Fitted Mitts by Nina Hyland, free pattern download, http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/fitted-mitts

Mods: Made 3” cuffs instead of full-length because I only had a little bit of leftover yarn to use.

Comments: Love these! Though I could have possibly made the cuffs slightly longer. Would have if I’d been knitting them tip to cuff. Maybe I need to reverse-engineer this pattern? That would be a fun exercise.

Then there is another scarf-shawl-thing:

Wandering Wingspan Shawl

For: me

Begun: August 27, 2013
Completed: September 3, 2013

Yarn: Regia Design Line Kaffe Fassett, colourway 4454 (exotic clay), 75% superwash wool/25% nylon, 210m=50g, used nearly 3 balls.

Needles: Addi lace circulars, 3.5mm

Pattern: Wingspan by maylin Tri'Coterie Designs, was a free Ravelry download but now costs and has expanded content, http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/wingspan-2

Mods: Knit a total of 10 points to make it a little longer.

Comments: This is a very fun pattern to knit, mostly simple garter but with enough extra to keep it from being boring. Since I was trying to navigate us through some tricky bits of the eastern US at the time I was knitting on it, mostly mindless was a very good thing! I’m glad I added the extra length because it’s still not all that long though it’s very warm and colourful. The blues, oranges and greens work well with a lot of my wardrobe.

Next time I might spin some yarn for this pattern with very long colour repeats because I like those versions that I saw on Ravelry. This pattern lends itself to lots of interesting variations.

Well, there’s still one more FO but I’ve run out of time. Gotta go get the turkey in the oven and peel a metric tonne of spuds! Yes, technically it’s really Thanksgiving tomorrow here but we’re having our big turkey-fest today instead. Somewhere in the neighbourhood of 20 family members! T and I have been grocery shopping for what seems like all week for this feast. I baked a ham yesterday because our fresh turkey is a little on the small side. Desserts are taken care of by other volunteers which is good because I never think about dessert. (We don’t normally have it at our house because both of us have trouble sleeping if we eat carbs too close to bedtime.) Since it’s also our great-niece’s 3rd birthday, her parents are bringing a cake. It’ll be fun! And the usual total chaos. Heh.