Monday, October 31, 2011

Day 302 - Still Holding On

Wrapped in wool and watching the fire. Still holding out until November to turn on the heat.  Not joking, yes the house is cool.  A balmy 56 in the living room. I'm wearing alpaca over a turtleneck and a wool hat. Mid 60s is going to feel warm.  Tomorrow is the first. Everything changes.

I made my 11 working on my beret.

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Day 301 - Frogs

The beret was way too big, even for my fat head, so off to the frog pond it went. 

After church today, I ran out to Utica for fresh apples.  Turns out it's the last day of the season for Branstools Orchard.  Came home with a big bag of Goldrush, crisp, sweet, and juicy, yum... 

Came home through Granville so I could stop by Wisp and pick up another hank of Malabrigo to match the hat.  I can't decide if I want to add fingerless mitts or a neck warmer to the set.  This gives me options. 

And I'll leave you with this.  Frosted covered rhubarb and sage with the bars of early sun coming through the fence in the garden this morning.  All the shades of silvery green.

Saturday, October 29, 2011

Day 300 - Multiple Milestones

Three hundred days of 11 minutes of fiber related fun a day for 2011.  Three hundred days of somehow documenting it, either here or on Podcasting for Machine Knitters. According to the stats this post is also post 100 on this blog.  So multiple milestones have been achieved today.

It was cold last night and this morning.  I could see my breath in my bedroom.  Yes I'm still being stubborn.  It was a chilly 48 degrees F in there this morning. 

When I stepped out for firewood this morning I was greeted by this.  Yes that is ice on the lily pond.  Bloody cold this morning.

 But doesn't it make the edges of the leaves beautiful?
This is Bloodgood Japanese Maple.












Yes I made my 11 working on the beret.

Friday, October 28, 2011

Day 299 - Home Again

My truck is back all repaired and shiny clean on the outside.  Eddie actually worked on cleaning it inside and out but said he gave up on the floor.  My sister has been tweeking me for several months about the rolling trash pit that is the passenger side floor, so I more than understood his problem. It was a work truck for several summers and stuff tended to accumulate there.  So I guess my assignment for tomorrow is to clean it out and get the bits and pieces stored away. 

I'm sitting in front of the fire, which is working hard to take off the chill.  Back to work on the beret.

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Day 298 - Brrr...

Coldest night of the season so far.  Still holding off on the heat.  And the fireplace is working hard to take the edge off tonight.  Should have enough firewood to last until Monday.  Stubborn, I know.

I had my annual visit to my allergy doc this afternoon and spent my wait working on my beret.  Turns out my doc is also a knitter and loved the yarn, wanted to know where I got it etc.  We talked about knitting, family and construction for at least 45 minutes.  So yes I did get my 11 in today.

Day 297

Restarted the Malabrigo beret. Made it through the band. So I got my 11.

Got a lead on a possible job, so my focus is on getting that application polished and submitted so the post is short.  Fingers crossed.

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Day 296 - Done

Trips to the frog pond, redesigns and unhappy finishes are behind me and the secret project is done.  I finished binding off on the second attempt this evening.  A couple of ends to weave in, a nice bath and blocking and this project will be ready to send on its way. 

So yes I made my 11.  Probably back to the redesign of the beret for my work project and on to the stocking design for my evening project tomorrow.  Need to chart it in DAK.  Pictures in a couple of days.

Monday, October 24, 2011

Day 295 - Two Steps Forward, One Back

The shaping on the secret project was finished during lunch.  But I decided that I didn't like the edging and it needed to be re-done.  A careful snip and subsequent picking out of the row and pick up of the live edge and I was off knitting the edge on smaller needles.   Progress but a step back to regroup and finish.  Should be done tomorrow afternoon.

I fell asleep several times in front of the fire, and proved that I can't knit in my sleep. Yes I got my 11 but I'm off to bed.

Day 294 - Practice Makes Better

Over the years friends have asked me why my pictures of things seemed so much better than theirs.  I think that part of it is simply practice.  The more you do something the better you'll get.  Note: Digital makes this MUCH easier and cheaper too. The other thing is that I'm willing to keep at it until I get images that I like.  Take this series from this afternoon.

 This is a ginko tree in my parents front yard.  That's my car parked behind it.  The amazing color is what caught my eye.  But the background is cluttered.  There's my car.  The walnut tree and house across the street in the background.  The only thing this really shows is color.
 Now I've started closing in on the texture and color of the leaves.  But they are a bit back lit, so you don't see the colors as well.
 Now I'm starting to frame the shot to pull your eye through it.  The diagonal lines of the branches pull your eye around the photo.  What background you can see through the leaves is more diffused.
 Still back lit, and playing trying to unclutter the background.  The trunk doesn't do anything for this shot.
Still back lit, but all about the texture of the leaves.
 Trunk provides more visual appeal, but the background is distracting again.
 This tine I thought the contrast in colors of the leave and the grass with the diagonal of the trunk giving movement to the shot would be an improvement. Still back lit.
 This is more tightly framed.  Still has the trunk and it's shadow pulling your eye through the picture.  Still back lit.
 Pure color and texture, but the back lighting has it all in shadow.
 Texture, contrasting shadows and lines.  A bit of clutter in the lower left, but cropping it would also remove the lines.
 Good detail of the leaves.  Color is truer in with the sun behind my shoulder.  Tree trunk on the left is distracting and should be cropped in the final image.
 More tightly focused.
 Trunk and leaves no longer back lit.  A bit too close, not enough foreground for my taste, but the texture of the bark is now highlighted.
Better color with the sun behind me.  Using the trunk's shadow to create movement.









Are these perfect?  No, but they aren't bad, especially since I did them with a little point and shoot.  Like many skills they get better with practice. 

Work continues on my mystery project.  Shaping started last night and ripped out this evening because it wasn't right.  Made it a bit longer and started shaping again.  Much better this time.

One of those hard practice makes perfect things.

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Day 293 - Prep time

Spent a large portion of the mid-day prepping/cooking for tomorrow's Sauerkraut Luncheon at church.  Lunch for 70 - 80, means that the meat has to be cooked in advance so it can be sliced and reheated with the kraut in the morning.  Three hours of roasting time = several hours of knitting time, so progress was made on the secret project. 

The afternoon was spent running to LYS to pick up commissions, look for special orders and returning stuff.  The evening was spent baking, picking tomatoes and playing with fire.  But the house is significantly warmer tonight that it was when I got up this morning, or even when I got home this afternoon.  A trip to Dad's for more firewood is already lined up for tomorrow.

Friday, October 21, 2011

Day 292 - Minus Wheels and Still Power Shopping

Eddie, my miraculous body and fender guy, called last night to say that he had found the parts to repair the truck after it's misadventure a couple weeks ago, and that I should bring it over when I got the chance.  Since I got off work about 30 minutes early, I called to follow up and mentioned that I just needed to find a ride home.  If I could get there in no more than 45 minutes, Eddie would take me home.  OK so off through evening rush I went out to the next county and way out into the country.  Yes 30 minutes and I'm there.  Another 45 and I'm home again.  About this time it dawns on  me that I need to go shopping for the church Sauerkraut luncheon this weekend, that I need to haul in all the tropical plants as there was a frost warning, and oh by the way I only have firewood for one night and now I have no truck to haul any more home.  oops.  Priorities, plants will die, put in garage.  Need to cook in the am, take the car and go to GFS.  Wood, well Daddy loves you and will likely loan you his truck, tomorrow.

GFS is winning for customer service today.  The guy asked me what I was looking for, I had a detailed list, but couldn't remember what size cups I needed.  Turns out that if you are an organization, they actually keep a record of what you've bought in the past for just this sort of thing.  So he looked it up, found it for me and ran around with me and found all the remaining things on the list.  After it was rang out and I was leaving he helped take it out to the car and pack it into the trunk.  It's so cold tonight, that I left everything out there.  Refrigerator on wheels is what it is tonight.  All told the power shop took less than 30 minutes. 

The house is chilly tonight, and I didn't bother to light a fire for the less than 2 hours I would be downstairs.  The thermal mass of the chimney wouldn't get hot enough to radiate into the room in that time, so I would be wasting the wood.  I just sat under the afghan, dressed head to toe in wooly warmth and worked on my secret project.  Yes I made my 11.

Day 291 - Progress

Tonight I curled up under this and made serious headway on my secret project.  The stitch pattern works, the gauge is holding and the two color bit didn't pucker or anything.  Success. 

Let me tell you that cuddling up under a WIP, while keeping you warm and toasty, is not the best of ideas.  You have to make sure that the knitting and stitch markers don't slide off the needles.  I think that's probably a sign that I should just break down and finish it.  There are only a couple more 36 row repeats to go to finish it. In bulky yarn, on big needles and the rows are only 234 stitches wide.  Just saying...

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Day 290 - Toasty

I sit here with my wool hat on and Nagano sweater, stubbornly refusing to turn on the heat on this chilly and wet fall night.  The house was a whopping 61 when I got home tonight.   Actually there is a fire in the fireplace and it has driven the temperature up several degrees in the last couple of hours. For a about an hour when I first got home, I was starting to wonder if I had lost my touch with fire starting. 

Any one who has every camped with me has learned that I have a true gift at being able get a fire going pretty much regardless of conditions.  I like to be warm. Fires keep you warm.  If you want to stay warm learn how to build and maintain (responsibly on all counts) a fire.  I even wrote a research paper in grade school on how fire works and what it takes to make it happen, complete with photos of arson fires.  It helped that my dad was a firefighter and knew who to ask to get me photos.  It's simple, you need heat, fuel and air.  Get it hot enough and almost anything will burn, even rain soaked firewood.  My problem was just that, it has been raining all day, and most of the firewood is really wet.  The house is cold, and I needed to get the starting fire hot enough, to ignite the wood and keep going.  Gotta love paraffin/tealights.  Almost anything will burn if you put hot wax on it. 

The heat doesn't get turned on around here until about November 1.  This will make 68 degrees seem really warm in the evening this winter. 

No, I'm in no danger of freezing.  I own plenty of wool, go figure, and a down comforter to sleep under.  I'll be fine.  And that heavy afghan I've been wanting to finish.  It's getting fairly large.  Well it's amazing how warm that puppy is to put in my lap while I work on it or even sit and read.  Any excuse to sit and knit.

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Day 289 - It's Back...

Chilly and damp, autumn has reappeared a bit more forcefully this time. Shiver.

Spent the evening potting up bulbs in the hopes of blooms for Christmas.  And cuddling a brand new baby.  At 9 pounds plus, she's not tiny,  no wrinkled, old man face there.  Cute as a button and Grandma is so proud. 

Welcome to the world little Isabella.

Monday, October 17, 2011

Day 288 - Not much

Pretty day, too bad I need to work in order to eat. 

Today was the day the every one wanted me to haul stuff home from work for them.  Marcus called last night needing help getting 15 sheets of OSB and studs home.  My neighbors came by to pick up stepping stones and asked if I could bring them home. I started laughing and offered to let them borrow the truck if they could get it back before I had to leave.  In the end only Marcus needed help.

Worked on a mystery project, knitting during lunch and this evening.  Worked on creating the necessary charts and stitch patterns this evening.

Looks like rain and chilly for the next several days.  Welcome to fall.

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Day 287 - Quiet Day

One down, three to go.  Onward.

It warmed up nicely and I opened the windows to let the warm air in.  Worked on secret projects for most of the day but went out several times to enjoy the temps.  Working my way through Bones, Season 6 too.  Looks like its starting to rain, so time to close up the house.

Hope you've had a wonderful Sunday too.

Saturday, October 15, 2011

Day 286 - Christmas is Coming

And I have officially started my holiday knitting.  Started and ripped and started again in all honesty.  This first piece should be a quick one and easily completed in the next week.  I also need to swatch for two other pieces and get back on the machine and finish another.  I still need to decide what my Christmas sweater is going to be too.  I think another Dale of Norway pattern.  Finding the pattern books has to be next on the agenda.  Then charting it into DAK.  For once I think I have the yarn.

Speaking of DAK has anyone seen the new features and price lists?  I think the upgrade will be on my list as soon as I finish paying off the latest batch of home improvements. 

Most of the day was spent trying to get Lindsey's jeans hemmed.  As usual most of the time was spent on prep and the actual hemming took about 15 minutes.  It was the 4 plus hours of prep that makes you nuts.  So I've more than rocked my 11 for the day.

Friday, October 14, 2011

Day 285 - Finished Object

The mittens are done.  So a FO to report.

A new yarn was swatched and a new secret project cast on.  New knitting mags were returned and a hedgehog/porcupine blankie pattern was acquired.  Nothing real exciting, but a bit of progress all the same.  Off to hem Lindsey Babe's new jeans.

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Day 284 - Why Now?

Anyone that knows me fairly well, or has read this blog knows that for most of its existence my postings have been sporadic at best.  Early this year my friend Heather challenged her friends and readers to knit 11 minutes a day and post about on her blog or their own.  Earlier in the year I was occasionally posting on my blog, if I had pictures, and pretty faithfully commenting on her's.  She has been podcasting for several years and asked me to co-host with her earlier this year.  We've been having a lot of fun with it and we have each learned new tricks, techniques or skills from the other.

About a month ago I got a text from her that she was ill.  Over subsequent conversations and emails it was decided that she needed some guest posts to keep the blog going as she had planned this year.  I agreed to help. Initially I didn't have access to anything but the comments so I posted there and ask people to join me over here.  Eventually she realized that she wouldn't be able to continue and gave me access to her blog.  Other than the initial post which was cross posted from here, I have been writing an original post there.  And different although usually related post here. 

She was right, after nine months of documenting my work in comments on her blog, or occasionally posts here, I did get in the habit of writing something every day.  With the new commitment to guest post there and still write a post here, over the last month it has become a habit that has stuck. 

She's seriously ill.  She's fighting hard, in good spirits and occasionally posting to Facebook and her own blog when she's able.  I'm asking anyone who reads this to send good thoughts, mojo and prayers her way.

And of course comments on either blog are always welcome. 


Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Day 283 - Half Done?

One mitten is finished and it's mate has been started. Is this a FO or a half FO? Along with a brief glance and the Clara Parkes book and starting to look at The Knitter, I really haven't played with the fiber too much today. 

It was gray and rainy all day and it quickly reminded me that I will be wearing woolens more often in the near future.  For now I'm getting by with minimal layering.  A vest, and cotton at that to go outside. 

There have been three requests for knitted goods, Robin would like an NZ sweater of her own, plus a hat "that doesn't make her head hurt" when she wears it.  Beth would like a short sleeve sweater to wear under a blazer, she has supplied the wool and would like it to be dyed some shade of green.  I have a kimono started for my best friend on the knitting machine.  It's actually about 1/3 done.   Other than the hat and some of the detailing on the NZ sweater most of this could be MK.  Guess I need to get motivated again.

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Day 282 - Something to Show

The mittens are showing real progress.  Yes, mittens, there is enough yarn to make mittens instead of mitts.  And they do reach 3/4 of the way to my elbow.











 And UPS and USPS left goodies on the porch.  My favorite magazine, The Knitter, Clara Parkes new book, DVDs to watch while I work, and this box of goodies from Bijou Basin.
 How did your day go?

Monday, October 10, 2011

Day 281 - Tie ins

I decided this morning that ham and beans in the slow cooker would be a great idea for dinner.  I came home at lunchtime to make sure the beans had not absorbed all the liquid.  (A foolish thought as it happened.)  At that time the gas co. contractors appeared to be making the final tie ins of the new service lines to the main.  Nothing I needed to worry about.

When I came home tonight, my driveway was blocked 2x.  A small trenching hoe was parked on it and my lawn, and a truck was parked across the end.  And of course everyone street space was also taken on both sides of the street.  I just sat in the truck signalling to turn and waited.   The foreman came over to ask if that was my house and was I coming home, and if I was it would be really nice if I didn't want to leave again for an hour.   I would have thought it obvious but whatever.  As I pulled in the drive I could see that they had trashed the lawn along the driveway with the tracks from the hoe.  Sigh.  I finished making dinner, ate, cleaned up the leftovers and decided to take a walk before it got dark. I had been home about 90 minutes or so and they were still out there and the hole in the neighbor's yard was even larger.

It was apparent that they were hooking up the lines and meter at the front of the house, tying into the house and cutting off the original line in one operation.  The foreman told me that he hadn't been able to get the boring equipment to be able to bring the new service through my yard, and he was not going to dig up the landscaping, and would wait until it is available.

They were just pulling away when I got back from my walk around the park.  The start of my first mitten was about 4 inches long too.  Knitting as stress relief.  Yes I made my 11.

Day 280 - Family Afternoon

Today was a beautifully clear day, comfortable temps, sunshine and blue skies and breathtaking colors.  (And we're not even to peak yet.)  Perfect day for a drive to my sister's about an hour away for her annual fall gathering.  While I was finishing the chores here, my niece calls to confirm that I would be there because she needs her new jeans hemmed before she goes home to NC next weekend.  Not sure when I became an expert on alterations, but...would I be at Beth's this afternoon?  OK throw some pins to mark the hem in the bag with the tape measure.  Side note: why would any clothing company assume that a woman who wears size 00 jeans has a 34" inseam.  If she's that tiny she's not going to be 6' tall.  Just saying...

Because one of the other things that needed to happen was to get measurements from both of my sisters for the knitwear they have requested.  A beanie hat for Robin and a short sleeve sweater to wear under a jacket for  Beth.  In fact Beth wanted to know if I had dyed the yarn yet.    I told her the plan was to knit the garment with undyed so that I could make sure there was enough yarn, then dye the finished garment.  I really don't think that she's bought enough yarn yet, but we'll see. 

I came home and mowed the grass, noticed that the utility companies have been busy with the spray paint in the front yard again, but some how haven't bothered to call me about coming in to run the supply line to the house.  I'm thinking about telling the neighbors to call the cops if they show up when I'm not home.  No way to they get to work in those areas without CLOSE supervision.

Sunday, October 9, 2011

Day 279 - Short Update

Short post, its really late/early depending on your point of view.

Mystery project completed and sent off in the post.

A day of fiber overload was had by two.  I need to take pictures of the spoils.  More tomorrow.

Friday, October 7, 2011

Day 278 - Love This One


 Jean Frost Custom Knit Jackets did arrive and it's wonderful.  I have her original Jacket book, love it and have knit several jackets from it.  I have also taken classes from her several times.  This book takes off from there.  It goes into great depth on how to measure yourself and adapt the patterns to fit YOUR shape.  She takes one basic pattern and shows you how to change the fabric, the details, the gauge, the fit etc. and create many different styles.  She also talks about lining the finished jacket and shows you step by step how to do it. 

Yes, there are lots of measurements of yourself that you have to make.  Get a good friend to help you. There are charts to fill in and compare to the charts that the garments in the book are based on.  She then shows you how to tweak those to fit you.  Yes you might have to do some math, but nothing really scary, actually pretty simple stuff.  Yes she recommends swatches.  But again that's not unusual and after the last couple of days I have to go along with that.

If you are a hand or machine knitter this is an invaluable addition to your library.  And I highly recommend it. 

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Day 277 - Something to distract you

I'm knitting and ripping, repeat...  Yes I made 11.  Enough said about the yarn today.  I did see that the new Jean Frost book is supposed to arrive tomorrow. 

Let's see if I can find some pretty pictures to distract you.  Did it work?

Alpaca, isn't it cute

This is Fall in my book

Pie in the rough

Bloodgood

Shades of indigo

Dye day

Future NZ sweater

Bright

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Day 276 - New Pattern Book

A man in brown delivered this yesterday.  Notice that it says COLOR knitting, but as I was looking at it last night, I kept thinking tuck stitch.  The patterns are just that many, many charts for that are intended for color work.  No garment patterns just stitch patterns.  I kept thinking that some of them would also work well as texture stitches. 

That's my goal for the next couple days, to play with some of the more adaptable patterns and turn them into texture rather than color and see what happens.

Want to play along?

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Day 275 - Surprise

I won something, a hank of Dream in Color Smooshy with cashmere.  I've never won anything before from a random number draw and I was really surprised.  I have to thank Lea-Ann at Knitting Today for the bounty.  Last night I chose a rich red, and came home to find and email saying that it was on its way.  I'll be watching the mailbox the rest of the week.

I worked on a new hat design today.  Am only about an inch and a half past the cast on so it's too early to tell  much yet.  I got my eleven, but not much to show.

Much of my free time this evening was spent planting mums and spring bulbs, with a quick trip to Dad's for firewood.  Hoping that the sunny weather continues for a while, so I won't need the wood.

Day 274 - Surprising Reflections

A friend tonight told me that she's been reading my posts over on Podcasting For Machine Knitters.  I was surprised, because I didn't know that anyone local ever read anything I wrote. (I'm declaring that Facebook does not count here.)  Over the weekend, I had told my best friend that in the span of a few weeks, I had gone from very random posts on my own blog over the past two years, to entirely different posts on two blogs.  We were chuckling about it, because although I am a voracious reader, in all of the years we have known each other, and all the years we worked together, I have never been known for what I was willing to put in writing.  I was and still am, a heck of an editor, but generally I'm more comfortable at honing/polishing someone else's message. 

M's feedback tonight got me to thinking how surprised my HS senior English teacher would be to see me producing two blog posts a day.  I came insanely close to failing her class for my flat out refusal to submit a journal every week.  Actually I was failing her class when my mother was called in for a parent teacher conference at the mid term.  When she came home the law was laid down, I would submit something, if only three sentences per week, to comply with the requirement that a journal be submitted.  So for rest of the year my journal had three entries a week that said "This is stupid." "My thoughts are none of your business." and other pithy phrases in a similar vein.  An entire semester fit on maybe two pages.  Yes stubborn was there from the beginning. 

To my teenaged mind, what she was asking felt like an invasion of privacy.  My daily existence was pretty average, aka boring, and I saw no reason to document it in writing.  (Note I was a photographer.  I spent my entire HS career with a 35mm over my shoulder or in my backpack.  My life was well documented visually.)  I didn't keep a diary or journal in any form.  Never put anything in writing that you didn't want anyone else to see or be able to use against you was my motto.  I shared a room with two younger sisters and privacy was hard to find. There was no way I was putting anything in writing and submitting it to a teacher who might share it with my parents.  Not a prayer.  My friends and classmates poured their thoughts into pages and pages every week.  I ignored the requirement until handed both an ultimatum and a compromise.

Even in college, when I was studying architecture for the summer at Oxford and had the requirement of keeping a sketch journal as part of my grades, I wasn't very diligent at it.  My sketch book had pithy little observations of what I was visiting, or at most extremely sketchy drawings and a running list of the rolls of film I had shot, the date, location and type of film.  It wasn't until half way through the term, when I had to do a presentation on something, and produced a very focused series of photos to illustrate my points, that my professor realized that what he had been requiring in the sketch book, documentation of our observations of the architecture/spaces/built environment we were visiting, I was doing with my camera.  Truth is I was simply more focused on capturing what I saw around me on film, which I always felt let me document far more things in my limited amount of time, than I could every capture in my sketch book.  I shot about 70 rolls of film that summer. 

I have long joked that generally when I need to explain something that it's generally a visual thing.  I admit to being both a visual and tactile learner.  And to this day, even though this post doesn't really show it, I prefer to convey my ideas visually rather than purely verbally.

OKC - cast on the purple yak.  The fabric so far seems a bit drapey.  Need to get a larger sample to accurately assess.  The cold weather has also encouraged me to restart the NZ sweater.  If nothing else it warms my lap.  Yes I more than accomplished my eleven for the day.

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Day 273 - FO

After a failed attempt and a re-work, the beret is finished.  Ready to move on to the matching mittens.  Tomorrow night is my knitting group meets and I almost think that I have nothing new to show.  I've obviously been making things, but nothing stands out.  But it's always good to see friends and trade ideas and inspiration.

I did take a basket of hats over to my sister's for her to try on.  She's been complaining that all of her hats make her head hurt.  (I'm guessing too small.)  And she was convinced that nothing would work.  I thought it was funny that the style and fit she like the best was a simple beanie, both Fair Isle and plain versions.

OK that's simple enough....

Saturday, October 1, 2011

Day 272 - Time for Woolens

After months in the 90's and rapid change in temps, was it really only a couple of weeks ago that I was wearing shorts, I broke down and dug out my turtlenecks and heavy sweaters.  It was 58 in my bedroom this morning, but I slept well under quilts and afghans.  But the chill had me pulling on the Nagano sweater, wool socks and a wool hat to stay warm.  Actually I'm wearing all of that in the house because it's a bit chilly.

Actually it's unusually cold for this time of year in central Ohio.  October is a bridge month and some of us try to put off turning on the heat as long as possible.  My goal is November 1 and right now that seems like a real challenge.  I think I'll be trading wheels with my sister tomorrow at church so I can get some firewood from Dad tomorrow afternoon before trading back at the wedding shower we're hosting for our cousin at my sister's house.  I only have to hold out a couple of days and it will be back in the mid to upper 70's during the day and mid 50's at night.

And yes at the moment, I'm very thankful that I know how to knit and have a couple of heavy UFO's to snuggle under in front of the fire while I knit, and watch Hawaii 5-0.