first of fall

happy autumn!



for me, "mums" (chrysanthemum) speak of fall - i think because they seem to be the most predominant fall-bloom in this area. cheerful, even while they portend the arrival of a chill in the air. fortunately, i have a finished solution for any chill:



finally, completely, totally finished!
pattern: diamond cable jacket from knit 'n style, dec. 2006
yarn: cascade 220 superwash, color 865

i really like how it turned out - except for one small detail - the sleeves are waaaay too long for me! i tried to shorten them while knitting, but i obviously mismeasured/miscalculated. ah well - lesson learned. for the seaming i used a crochet slip stitch - which probably took me a little longer than sewing would have, but tricked my brain into thinking i wasn't really seaming, i was crocheting! it's the little things...

of course, now i have to try to focus on the next project. and despite a nice line of wip's (which i realize is actually not too bad when compared to some), i'm finding continual new temptations. first, there's this:




this is just half of the araucania nature wool i bought on saturday. i wasn't looking for this yarn, i was actually looking for something completely different (which i of course didn't find), but i stumbled across this and couldn't let go. it's hard to tell from the picture, but the yarn is a lovely deep read which is slightly variegated. i think i'm going to try this with the dickinson pullover from the fall 2007 interweave knits. i had this on my to-do list, but not for a while down the road...the yarn has struck again!

as if this is not enough, i also came across (somewhat intentially - whoops) an absolutely gorgeous lace book:


victorian lace today by jane sowerby, photos by alexis xenakis. i was sold before i even got to the patterns, the photography is so beautiful. and as for the patterns - i think i want to try at least half of the book! plenty of knitting ahead...