Can you see the Progress?

Autumn is my favorite season. I'm not a heat-loving person, so I look forward to cooler days when the sun filters through changing leaves. I love the way the greens and oranges stand out sharply against a rich blue sky. The bluest sky I know happens in October and November. I'm a bit blue these days too. This is the time of year of family birthdays -- the family I grew up in -- and Thanksgiving. In my family of origin, it all gets blurred together, but now that I have distanced myself from some of that, the days stand out more sharply. I was aware of my parents' birthday in late September. I sent cards. I celebrated my birthday as a single entity, not as part of a conglomerate. It was a fun day. Sunday was Thanksgiving, and I did not go to where my family was gathered. Instead I celebrated yesterday with Doug's family, and I was thankful that I have an emergency back-up family where I belong. Yesterday was also my dead sister's birthday. I was due on her day but came a few days early. Cathy would have been 46 years old. I always wonder what she would have been like at different ages. She didn't make it past eighteen.

My therapist has been on my case about knitting. She doesn't have anything against it as such. It is the fact that she knows that I use it as an anaesthetic that causes her concern. She's been yanking my chain lately, and much as I don't like it, I know it's for the best. Yesterday was Thanksgiving Monday, and it was my dead sister's birthday, and it was also the anniversary of the day I started seeing my therapist. Four years I've been trudging up the stairs to her office. Four years, and sometimes I wonder if I've learned anything at all. Today I passed a homeless person sleeping in a doorway on the way to her office. It's getting colder out at night and in the morning. I wished I had a knitted hat or scarf on me to lay beside the sleeping person. A surprise for when they woke up. At the same time, I was thankful. Thankful that I have a wonderful family of my own -- Doug and the kids -- and an emergency back-up family, and even a painful limping family where I began. I am grateful that I can afford to knit and to see my therapist and that I live in a beautiful city with such a blue sky.



This is the sweater I'm working on these days. It is a very simple pattern, knit side to side in one piece. The tweedy rusty red yarn makes me feel in sync with the season. That and the homey nubby texture of the yarn. I wonder though -- is it a requirement of tweed that there be little bits of sticks and flotz in there? I don't get that.

I've made it up one sleeve to the shoulder and the sides of the front/back. Pretty soon I have to divide to make the front openings.



In this position it looks a bit like a loin-cloth. Tarzan wouldn't appreciate the little sticks 'n bits though.



This is another sweater in the Debbie Bliss book that I want to make. This looks like something I want to put on when I get up in the morning and wear all day.



I want to make it in Elann Sierra Aran in Fiddlehead Green. My white box arrived this morning. And it was free! Sort of...if you spend enough money at Elann, eventually you get some free yarn. I think of it as free yarn anyway.



More lovely colours of Sierra Aran. What I like about this picture is that in the direct sunshine, the yarn looks lighter than it is in person, but you can see the texture and the colour flecks in each ball. These colours are Paprika, Lichen, Damson, and Walnut. They look good together, and I'm thinking of combining them into something. I'll post some other pictures of them later.