Before I forget, make sure you check out the new Knitting Podcast "Cast On" by Brenda Dayne.  You don’t have to have an Ipod or any mp3 player.  Just listen on your computer.  Its fun to hear a knitting magazine.  And it’s fun to hear the podsafe music that I’d never come across (at least probably never) in another venue.  Go back and listen to the music from the Halloween special.

Thanks for the well wishes, my back is somewhat better than it has been, but it seems that  knitting, or the position I take while knitting, really irritates it.  I’m going to experiment with short spurts of knitting, less than 15 minute sessions and see if I can manage.  For now, yoga positions are assumed several times daily and I’ll do as my back tells me.   My busy season, decorating businesses for the holidays has begun.  This afternoon I spent my time making  little felt uniforms for the Christmas tree for a uniform company.  They  are sort of looking a lot like pajamas.  Think anyone will notice??   Maybe in the spirit of the season, they’ll just look colorful, fun and festive. 

The BIG NEWS…. TA DA!!!  Thursday I’m going to see and hear, in person, LIVE… the Dalai Lama.   I’m still pinching myself. 

Some pictures from where I’ve been the past few days..

  the way my back feels
Seriously, they are BIG chains for this tractor.  All have ’em now!

 

Lastly, see the little button on the left, the map button??  If you click on it, you can leave a marker representing where you live on the map.  I’d love to see where everyone is.  I expect that these will be popping up all over the blog world.  It’s something fun and sort of new.

 

More often than not, Veteran’s Day weekend starts out sunny and ends up with a carpet of snow.  The hunters will be happy.  It makes tracking the deer even easier.  Tomorrow is the start of the craziness.  There won’t be too much drinking at the deer camps tonight. The hunters have to get up early for the first day of the season.  Tomorrow night, I won’t be out on the roads… too many celebrants, spell that d.r.u.n.k. h.u.n.t.e.r.s. 
After 16 days, the phone guys finally got this phone back up.  There are so many places off the grid, not by choice but from the storm a couple weeks back.  The woods are full of balsam tops and downed trees.  It makes cutting brush terribly easy this year, just walk around cleaning up and there’s more than enough material, just not enough time.
I managed, in between the real work of getting the tractors ready with chains and blowers and getting the wood up to the porch, to fill the window boxes at the barn with greens.  I also managed to work on the grey pullover and got a start on some yardage I want to get knitted for an experiment.  It’s good I took this shot.  I see that I’ve dropped a stitch.
   

My knitting has slowed.  It hurts my back to work very long.  Sometimes it will just go away and other times it takes weeks or months.  This pinched nerve works its way from side to side, resting at the moment on my right and traveling into my arm.  Keep your fingers crossed for me.  This time next week I’ll be making tons and tons of BIG red bows.  The season begins!

 

 

      

After the beautiful color in the Ribby, I needed a neutral.  Autumn to winter, the fading of color, richness to bare bones.  I settled on the charcoal grey.  As I discussed in an earlier post, I wasn’t satisfied with the center panel of the pattern and would change it.  I looked at beautiful intricate cable patterns, sure that I’d find just the right one.  It needed to fill a 22 stitch panel, or thereabout.  I needed to be realitively sure that I could end it near the point I wanted my neckline to begin.  It should end with the crossover.  It shouldn’t compete with the all over pattern of the 3-2 rib.   After playing with a few, I went with the simplest of all, a 4 stitch 2-2 cable, repeated three times.  It mimics the all ribbed body and defines the center front.  It is understated.  The magpie part of me is disappointed at the no frills approach.  This works.  Instead of a 78 stitch front, I’ve got 76 in order to center the middle cable.