And it’s November

For the first time in years, I am not doing November NaBloPoMo(Fo).  So, no daily emails this year. Truth is that I’m just kinda tuckered out and generally overwhelmed this year. But I have been steadily working on this:

It’s now at 63 rows, since I added five more orange rows last night.  I have no idea how many more I want to add.

But I have 23 or so weeks to decide before my kid is born.Yeah, you read that right.

Because the blanket is for him/her.

I made a thing

This should not surprise you. I make things. Not as many lately as usual, but still a decent number of Things get Made. In this case, I made a cowl.

I had been considering making one of these cowl things lately. San Francisco is an excellent place for the wearing of scarves, shawls and cowls, so I thought I kind of owed myself one. But nothing really seemed to come together. Then one day I was in Michael’s looking for cheap Halloween baking stuff, and of course I wandered through the (nowhere-near-the baking-stuff) yarn section, and happened upon sparkly yarn, and that’s how this cowl was born. The pattern is the Scalloped Cowl from Lion Brand, because I wanted something with a lace pattern.

Before we go any further, let me just note that this cowl indicates that I may be losing my mind. I’m not sure what got into me that I made a random impulse purchase of bulky, mohair-containing yarn with sequins. I don’t like any of those things, normally. Yet here it is. And so now I have a cowl that I am actually rather fond of, yet which I am allergic to, that I can only possibly wear on a mountain when it’s freezing outside over a turtleneck. Luckily it’s only 18% mohair, but my fingers itched and turned red for the entire three nights it took to make this. I really ought to block it, but I’m going to have to wait until it’s colder again, so I can bear touching it!

I think I might make this pattern (I liked it) again in a not-so-bulky yarn, perhaps the fuzzy Rowan Alpaca Cotton I found last year that I’ve been dying to try. It’s the only “haloed” yarn that I’m not completely allergic to, and I would love another cowl in maybe a nice soft gray.

Meanwhile, life continues here. We’ve been sort of alarmed/interested by the Occupy Oakland protests going on just a few blocks from our house. It’s gotten a little messy since this past weekend.  I’ve seen both the San Francisco and Oakland versions of this now, and they are very different from what I can tell, even down to being essentially about different ideologies and problems. I do wonder how long this is going to go on – who will get exhausted first?  The protesters or the police?

Halloween fast approacheth, and I have no costume this year. It’s true. I’ve just had too many other things that I’m worried about. I am making gingerbread this week, and the pie filling I made went off well. My carved pumpkin met an untimely end when it essentially collapsed onto itself, as hollow pumpkins will do. I also went to the Half Moon Bay Pumpkin Festival a weekend or two ago, and got my fill of junk food, craft booths and giant pumpkin carving contests, so that will have to do for this year!

Hopefully I will finish my the chevron-baby-blanket-that-will-not-die soon, and I have made a couple of surprise gifts that I’m dying to show, just because they amuse me so much.

Take it slow

It’s 2 pm on a sunny Sunday, cool breezes coming in through the open windows. There’s cat grass I grew for Callie on the windowsill, and  tomatoes from my plants ripening on the porch outside. I’ve been trying to take it slow today instead of cramming every possible thing into the available hours. So here I am lying on the couch with my computer.

I dug out the Halloween and fall decorations today. It’s been rainy and chilly this week, so it felt like the right time. This morning at the farmer’s market we brought home a sweet pumpkin for baking. At that point I decided it was a great weekend to go to a pumpkin patch. An hour later we had brought home  a rather large pumpkin whose long, curly stem really cracked us up. We also procured a small warty gourd and a bundle of wheat. In a few minutes I’m going into the kitchen to stick my arm into that pumpkin up to my elbows and turn that handsome guy into a jack-o-lantern. Sticky! I haven’t decided what face to carve on my pumpkin yet

Later this week I have plans for butternut squash soup, corn chowder, gingerbread and pumpkin pie. Oh, I do so love this season. Even if it were only food and not weather and leaves and Halloween too, I’d still love it the most. But the whole package really makes me happy. Somehow I ended up being a traditional person, and fall and winter tend to hold all the traditions I love the most, and which mean something to me. I know lots of people who forgo Halloween, Thanksgiving and winter celebrating if there aren’t kids around to decorate for, but what’s the fun in that?! I hope I can always make time for and be enthusiastic about the simple, fun things.

9:20 pm Update: I successfully carved a snaggly-toothed jack-o-lantern! It’s now flickering cheerfully and mostly non-threateningly outside using one of those LED “candles.” It may be slightly cheesy, but at least I won’t burn my house down! I also have pumpkin seeds from two pumpkins ready for baking, a gallon bag full of pumpkin to make into puree for various purposes, and a general sense of accomplishment. I did think at one point that I would be separating seeds from gooey mess for the rest of my life, but I prevailed.

Hope your days have been lovely and filled with rest and things you love too!

P.S. I published this, then went in to correct a typo, somehow overwrote all my changes, decided I ought to unpublish it because it was too late to fix it, but nevertheless it was sent out by email this morning. Blogging is not an exact science …