Seasonal Finery

I'd hold onto the daylight with teeth and fingernails if I could, but even with the shortening of the days, I've always loved fall. The cool air, the brilliant colors. On a sunny day the trees have their party clothes on, and on a cloudy one they practically glow.

Weekend before last, I went hiking on Mt. Monadnock in southern NH. The leaves were still turning:


From the top of the mountain, you can see the splashes of color running down the side of the ridge:


Then last weekend, I was out in western Massachusetts, and shot some nice foliage around the college town of Amherst:



If you'd like more foliage, there are more pictures of Monadnock and of Amherst. Leaf season is all too short, so I'm delighted that I've been able to get out and enjoy it this year.

And for the last of my recent travels with knitting, I battled traffic on Wednesday to get down to Cambridge and hear Stephanie Pearl-McPhee speak. I picked up her new book at the reading, but then ducked around the corner to check out Porter Square Books, the lovely bookstore that was sponsoring the event. And found something else I'd been looking for:


I'm really hoping for a long lovely autumn, but when the nasty weather arrives, I'll be ready for it. This weekend? I may need to buy yarn.

A Whirlwind of Activity

I don't know where the month went, I truly don't. It was March, there was this blur (with a gloriously summery week in the middle) and then, poof!, it's May. May. I'm wondering if some scoundrel has made off with a week somewhere.

Last weekend I went out to WEBS to see Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (along with hundreds and hundreds of other people). Everyone and their mother has already blogged about this so I will say only a) Northampton was as lovely as ever, and had all her spring flowers out to welcome us, b) Stephanie was as funny and gracious as everyone says and c) sock yarn was on sale:


I consider that I was fairly restrained, though part of that was that I wasn't vicious enough to elbow and or trample other knitters to get to everything that I liked. The store was very busy and crowded when I got there- by the time I left for the theater, people were packed in elbow to elbow, and you could hardly see the yarn.

On the cardigan front- I knit on the way out to Northampton. I knit while chatting with my lovely and hospitable mother-in-law. I knit while waiting at the store, during the talk, on the drive back. I've knit all week since I got back. This damned sweater? Isn't done yet. (Okay, I'm on the button bands. But I'm not making any more predictions about how long this is going to take to finish. I'm out of the predicting business. It will be done when it's done. Didn't I say some weeks ago that I tend to overestimate my speed at getting things done? I wonder why I didn't listen to myself.)

So. It's a cold and rainy Friday. And that's a good thing, since my plans involve throwing in a DVD, drinking a cup of hot chocolate and knitting button bands. However, I did get just a little bit of sunshine- it came in the mail. Woats helped me open it:


I could tell you that she loves yarn, but that's a lie. She really wants to eat the tape on the package. (She wasn't allowed to. She's still sulking.)

So beautiful sunny Lola (in a colorway appropriately named A New Day), my prize from Karen's blogiversary contest, is hanging out with the other sock yarns. She doesn't have a plan yet, but I'm turning over a few ideas.