Fantastic Foto Friday

Oy vey, what has happened to October? It seemed like just yesterday it began and now its almost over. I guess the good news is that we're that much closer to spring. The last week was such a blur for me. I trying to be proactive with the whole SAD thing that I'm almost 99% sure that I suffer from. I don't want to end up in the pit of despair that fell into last Winter. I've started a daily diary for the next month so that I can hopefully pinpoint the trouble spots before I go to my doctor for a professional diagnosis. I'm tracking my eating, exercise, the weather and stressors. I also bought a full spectrum (OTT) light that I plan to use when there's no sun (like today). I REALLY don't want to feel like I did last Winter ever again if I can help it.

Okay, so I owe y'all a ton of updates.

First up, the Fall Foliage update. I'm really hoping that people are busy taking pictures which is why they're slow coming in. Please oh please tell me that some of you have beautiful fall foliage in your part of the world.

Julie obviously loves fall as much as I do. She sent an entire portfolio leave picures. Check them out here. My favorite is this one.

Busyhands' tree in the front yard is quite the show off. Check this out this beauty.

Jane emailed this loverly photo to me.



Doesn't she have some incredibly vibrant color in Nova Scotia. What a gorgeous yard! BTW, she has a free range scarf design contest up on her blog. Check it out!

Finally, here's a shot of the foliage in my backyard.



Not much to get crazy over is it? :( That's why I need your pictures. Go ahead. Flash me. I dare ya!

Now, even though I had a rough time last week, I was able to movivate myself to finish a sorely neglected UFO. I FINALLY present to you, exhibit A. Dear sweet Rogue.



"Finally, she finished me! Woot Woot!"

Specs:
Pattern - Jenna's incredibly well written Rogue pattern
Yarn - Cascade 220 Tweed (the color is a brownish green sorry but I've lost the ball bands)
Needles - Size 6 and 7 Denises
Project timeline - Sept. 2004 - October 2005 (Day-um!)
What I learned and what I'd do differently - I learned a helluva lot about knitting the "right" way; that cables rule and are less intimidating than I originally thought; that it would have been easier to knit this in one block of time rather than over the course of a year plus; that a well written and sized pattern does wonders for your body image; that taking the time to finish a sweater properly pays off in the end.

It took some soul searching to figure out why it took me so long to finish her and came up with several reasons.

1.) I'm not happy with my body shape and wasn't thrilled with having to knit one of the larger sizes.

2.) I hate knitting seemingly endless rows of stockinette and after the wrist cables, the sleeves were just that.

3.) I didn't have the proper motivation to finish. However, I promised myself that I couldn't even open the box on my new cellphone until every last stitch was done, the ends were woven in and she was seamed and blocked. Needless to say, I was done in two days. BTW, all of the pictures in this post were taken with my new cellphone. While they're not fabulous, I think they're pretty damn good.

4.) I have major completion issues because I dread the thought of saying "goodbye" to anything (human or inanimate).

5.) Having not knit set in sleeves before, I was a nervous wreck about doing them correctly. Plus, my gauge in the round and on straights is different and even after many calculations, I wasn't positive that it would work out in the end.

Wouldn't you agree that I worried about absolutely nothing?

"Oh Happy Day!"

Check out those hoodie cables!

I finished it on Wednesday, which ended up being one of the hottest days we've had in years in October - near 80 degrees! However, today its in the low 60's and Rogue is oh, so warm and snuggly!

Now King Thing is bugging me to finish his handspun cabled vest. There are no sleeves so this baby should fly off the needles.

On the fiber front, there was no spinning this week. However, I finally found a cashmere sweater at the thrift store (I've been searching for a couple of weeks) and have been happily reclaiming its yarn. Its a beautiful deep red and will yield close to 2500 yards of laceweight yarn. Enough for many beautiful lace shawls and scarves. I think I'm going to have to share some of this with some of my knit buds because its so loverly :)

Oh and I almost forgot that I made a quick visit to the new location of Knitting Sisters while in Williamsburg to speak at the Virginia Library Association state conference. They have the most incredible selection of yarns - Rowan, Colinette, Noro, Lorna's Laces - just to name a few. And a mega ton of pattern books, including the new Noro Revisited by Cornelia Tuttle Hamilton. While I am no fan of Noro yarns, I love some of the patterns in this book. The pictures aren't up at the Knitting Garden yet but I do encourage you to check out this new book. It's worth it! As hard as I tried, I did not find that I needed anything but a skein of Lambs Pride for a test project, some Kookabura wool wash and a 40" Denise cord. Exciting huh? But at least I got to soak up some good fiber rays with other knitters. Happy knitting and spinning this weekend!