This is what the sky looked like on Thursday as Pk and I were leaving the house for work at 6:40.  The sun was just coming up and it was glorious.  We stood there on the front step just marveling at how beautiful it was.  I know that in a few short weeks it will be dark again in the morning (as it's dark right now at 5 pm) and we'll be feeling sunlight deprived but for the moment, we'll enjoy our sunrises.

We were afraid that when the hurricane came through that it would strip all the trees but we were lucky (in more ways than one). 

Some of the more sheltered spots in our area kept their leaves and they have been changing.  This is the courtyard in the back of my building.  The gold leaves have carpeted the ground and are all nice and crunchy.

On the craft front, I have had some success and some maybe-spectacular-failure.







In the success area, remember these?  I love these mittens and was very proud of them.  Only problem is that they were way too big for me.  My fingers didn't come close to the top.  I could have left off an entire pattern repeat and maybe they would have fit.  The pinkish yarn is superwash but the brown was a silk/merino blend and was not.

First thing I did was wash them by hand gently and put them in the dryer for a short time.  I had limited success.  (in full disclosure, I did offer them to my family but no one wanted pink and brown mittens).  I decided to throw caution to the winds and turn them inside out and throw them in with the laundry this week. 

It worked!  They shrunk and felted just enough to fit my admittedly small hands!  And felting helps make them even warmer.  I am thrilled with this.  It's getting cold enough in the mornings for mittens and I can't wait to wear them.

My probably spectacular failure is my sweater.  I have been working my way up the body and had the sleeves attached to the yoke and finished the first round of decreases for the yoke. (The twisted stitch/cable pattern didn't show up well so I just did a garter stitch row pattern to give the yoke some definition-it looks good)

My problem is that I am going to run out of my handspun yarn.  I thought I had enough.  I had the right amount of roving, spun to the proper wpi and everything but it's not going to work out.  And the kicker is, I won't be short by that much.

I sent an email to the company that sold me the roving over 18 months ago in the hopes that they might be able to sell me some more.  It's not dyed but the color (which they call root beer) came from blending the wool from more than one color sheep.  I'm not even sure exactly what wool it is but it feels like Corriedale. 

I'd appreciate it if everyone could cross their fingers that I'll get a positive response.......If not, I have to come up with a solution.  I thought about putting a colorful design in the yoke area but it would have to be handspun so that the texture would be similar.  I like the texture of  my yarn and don't think a millspun yarn worked into the yoke would be pleasing.   I guess I could buy some rovings in coordinating colors and spin up the yarns and then come up with a design to put into the yoke but I'll wait until I get a response from the company. 

I thought I'd get it finished by Thanksgiving and wear it but I don't think that will happen.  I don't want to have to unravel the entire thing.  That would be heartbreaking.

I wish you could smell what I'm smelling right now.  I'm making potato/leek soup for dinner and the potatos and leeks are simmering on the stove.  It smells delicious.  I have done as little as I could get away with this weekend.  We went grocery shopping yesterday and I did laundry today but otherwise, I watched episodes of 30 Rock and painted my nails and worked on El's August socks.  Pk didn't do much more than I did.  We had one of THOSE weekends where we had no real focus and just needed to coast.  It felt gooooood. 

And now I'm hungry so I'm going to go turn the potatos into creamy soup, make some grilled ham and cheese sandwiches and have some dinner.  Have a good night y'all.