toddler mittens

These mittens lasted all of 10 seconds before he pulled them off, placed them neatly on the ground, and then ran off to play. So it goes.

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If you'd like to make a pair of mittens for the toddler in your life to toss aside, find my notes here.

P.S. I'll have more about his coat in a future post, but if you can't stand the suspense, check it out here.

november socks (in progress)

I've been knitting away on my November socks during nap time. After I put Jude to sleep, I rush through any chores that must be done and then hurl myself into bed to work on these socks. That brilliant pink offers a warming contrast to our increasingly gray days here. Today we heard on the radio that we might get a few snow flurries, and Jude squealed! He has been enamored with snow books for most of this year, and just last week he tried on his snow boots and toddled clumsily around the house on his suddenly heavy feet. He is ready for the snow!

At night I've been getting lost in Not That Kind of Girl. I've been wanting to find a book to fall into. You know that feeling you get when you become so absorbed in a book that you forget about everything else and just keep turning pages late into the night? I wanted that. I used to get that feeling all the time as a teenager. I'd live in books then, identifying with characters as much as my friends. As I get older I find that kind of escapism harder to achieve, so anytime a book does that, I let it take me. Not That Kind of Girl, though nonfiction, lets me escape to New York for a few hours each night. My favorite quote so far speaks to the inability to be completely absorbed in a moment:

"A night of carousing never passed without me stepping outside the experience to think, Yes, this must be what it is to be young" (p. 184).

I read this and immediately thought about the time in college that some friends and I ordered Avon. The whole time we were discussing lipstick shades and which nail polish to buy, I couldn't help feeling like I was doing anthropological fieldwork. "So this is what college girls talk about," I thought. I just wish I'd made some field notes.

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I'm joining Ginny's Yarn Along and Liesl's Monthly Sock Challenge.

gramps

These are more photos taken in Hunt Park, Ann Arbor, Michigan, one of the final stops on our Michigan road trip a few weeks ago. We started in Mackinaw City, visited Mackinac Island and the Upper Peninsula, then made our way back down to a yarn mill in Frankenmuth, and finally hung out in Ann Arbor for a few days, drinking lots of coffee and eating Japanese food.

I love these photos of my boy, his toothy smile, and of course how sweet he looks in his mama-made cardigan. Gramps is a timeless sweater, and that shawl collar keeps my boy cozy. When the wind picks up, we flip up the collar to keep his neck extra warm. We've been rolling up the cuffs this fall, which I think means he'll be able to wear it again next year. And after that? I'll just have to knit another one.

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P.S. My hat is Snowflinga, a fun knit and one of my favorite knits to wear. It was designed by Jenny Gordy, whose simple aesthetic I just love. Did you see Joanna's post about her beauty uniform? 

october socks

My October socks remind me of an overcast day in Maine when my husband and I walked a short trail at the top of Cadillac Mountain in grayed out conditions. A cold mist settled over the mountaintop that morning, and we were the only ones crazy bold enough to be out walking on such a dreary day. Droplets gathered on my eyelashes and dripped mascara down my cheeks, and the wind tangled my hair. At some point our walk became more of a frenzied hunt for the car so we could get out of the cold, wet weather. We headed back to Bar Harbor smelling of wet wool and looking like wild animals. Lucky for us, there were plenty of warm coffee shops for us to dry off in, and a shop selling this pretty gray yarn that I bought to commemorate the day.

I'm joining in Liesl's sock challenge to knit a pair of socks a month for a whole year (though I'm taking it month by month). Find more notes on my October socks here.

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Sock Challenge Inspiration

I loved Jesse's faux cabled socks so much that I cast on a pair as my November socks.

I've had in mind to make gray socks with cream heels and toes, so when I saw Ine's Drizzly Day socks, it felt like a daydream come true for me. I've already got yarn lined up for a pair, but I keep wondering if I should throw in a little colorwork pattern on the leg.

Casey finished her October socks in a dizzying five days! Now that's motivation.

One more from Ine: Her Chamomile and Honey socks for November are so beautiful. I want to knit a pair just like them.