Smatterings

  • the days of autumn

    Those overly bright, scorch your cornea days of last week have given way to more seasonal temps and drizzle.  The grey days of fall are pushing their way in.  The wetness accentuates color, in ways I prefer.  Not good for drying yarn but for dyeing…. yes!

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    Tomatoes have ripened on the window sills in the shop.  They do double duty, warming the house while roasting and scenting it with their sweet aroma.

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    C is back and at work again in the shop.  I’ve had it to myself so much lately it’s hard to share the space.  He’s in production mode.  We want to get enough skein winders boxed and ready to ship so we won’t have too much lag time over the coming holiday season.

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    More space is on the way.  Not shop space, but… lots of storage.  This is the shot from yesterday’s early morning check it out with Sammy walk.

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    Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, remember?

    6 responses to “the days of autumn”

    1. Carole

      I see beautiful yarn. And a beautiful cat, too.

    2. Kim

      The barn is looking great! I wish the rain would stop if just for one day.

    3. Manise

      Hmmm…… more of the Falling Leaves sock yarn? It certainly was popular last weekend 😉 I made Knitspot sun-dried tomatoes too! Try them on parchment paper- less mess and easier clean up.

    4. nancy

      I see lovely yarn and a wonderful place for a nice big tractor and lots of high storage space!

    5. Donna in Ma aka donnalee

      Looks good to me… and the tomatoes and of course the yarn is yummy too!

    6. Laurie

      I’m looking at tomatoes just before dinner. Yum. The color theme permeates and saturates.

  • knock your socks off color

    Saturday morning I got up, had a pot of coffee and hit the road.  It’s peak and beyond in the north country.  The highest hills are falling fast.   Some are showing the bare bones of the coming season.  It was the first day of bow season.  The hunters would be out in t-shirts and maybe shorts.  Unheard of weather, unseasonably warm.  Who’d eat meat gotten in these temps?  Color showed high all the way south into Massachusetts.  The intensity of color is dependent on the time of day,  the angle of the sun.  Late afternoon, when the shadows darken, the sun showers a golden light turning the landscape into a carnival of color, a sci fi, day glo world.  Inspiration… of course.   What artist would use such brash color..

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    Happy autumn, there’s no turning back now!

    12 responses to “knock your socks off color”

    1. Kim

      Beautiful pond picture!! Believe it or not, our color here in the valley is just starting to turn which is very odd. The mountains are still in peak color. I am sure that the hot and dry weather surely has extended our summer.
      It does make you wonder about global warming a little bit 🙁

    2. Laurie

      What artist indeed! The middle picture is stunning.
      Our peak is a week away, as usual.

    3. Ruth

      Gorgeous – love your colours!

    4. Carole

      Hmm. That colorway on the right looks awfully familiar. 😉

    5. Barbara-Kay

      Your fall color photos are heartbreakingly beautiful! It will be a month or two before we have any color here at our little lake in Louisiana, and it will NEVER rival yours.

    6. Manise

      Wonderful photos! Boy that colorway went fast! 😉

    7. cyndy

      beautiful colors!
      ….soak ‘um up now…while you can…amazing how fast they will fade…

    8. Kath

      I love your blog for all the natural content and it’s lovely watching the seasons change across the globe. Those colours are simply stunning – thank you for sharing!

    9. autumn’s daughter

      Oh my word… what gorgeous pictures! Isn’t this just the best time of the year? In Minnesota, we have a fair amount of color, but the wind has been fierce, so a lot of the leaves are gone already. Oh well, at least yarn doesn’t lose it’s color!

    10. Carol

      The photos and yarn are breathtaking!

    11. Anne

      YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    12. kelly jo

      The fall has the most beautiful and breathtaking pictures and you have captured them perfectly!

  • the gable & the cable

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    The gable:

    Cyndy is to be thanked for the title to today’s post. Very clever. In answer to the question, ‘what is it’, IT is a bump out, storage for
    the tractors and maybe a car. Above
    there will be more storage. It is really
    a royal pain and much added work in the winter, to have to dig the tractor out
    before you can plug in it in to preheat the engine, and eventually start it up
    and dig or blow yourself out. The plan
    is that now we can slide open the barn door (don’t laugh yourself silly on that
    naïve thought, Anne) and drive out blowing the path open in front… um..
    behind.. (well, the snowblower is located on the rear PTO which means you back
    up to blow) as you go. That is the plan. It would be nice to have a car in there for
    the same reason, don’t you think.

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    The cable:

    As is often the case, when I went to look for the yarn
    needed to finish a sweater I have on the needles, I found I had left it stored
    elsewhere. What I did find as I went
    through my stash bins was about 1200 or so yards of handspun Shetland in a
    nearly worsted weight. It is rather
    roughly spun. No excuse, I did it a
    couple years back and I don’t know why chose to spin it that way. I went through all my magazines, some books
    and spent some time online. I came up with this pattern, the Taconic
    V-neck. It wasn’t anything on my
    list but  swatched perfectly so I went ahead and I downloaded the
    pattern. C has been out of town for the
    past week. That gave me the quiet
    evening time needed to get the cabled front down. I’ve got less than 6” to go. The back and sleeves are mindless
    stockinette. I have enjoyed this knit so
    far. I did have to run down to the shop
    early the other morning and make myself a little cable needle. Luckily, I could.

    7 responses to “the gable & the cable”

    1. jessie

      To be able to crank out a v-neck that nice and that quickly, out of handspun no less, deserves high praise. The cable needle is just showing off! 🙂

    2. Laurie

      Just whipping up a little sweater in your spare time?
      *sigh*

    3. Marianne

      Hope the gable works out fine !
      The cable looks great,it’s a very nice combination of yarn and pattern.

    4. Anne

      Hee hee! Yes, the shoveling and snow removal to get to where you can….er… remove the snow. It does get a little old by late January, doesn’t it?

    5. Manise

      So it IS handspun! Kuddos to you! Looks wonderful! Cracking up at Jessie’s comment about the cable- such a self-sufficient woman you are!

    6. Diane

      Looking great!Nice choice!

    7. Cindy D

      To wear on the Taconic Parkway? :))))

“Our lives are dyed the colors of our imagination.” ~ Marcus Aurelius

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