The days have finally cooled down here and the first leaves are changing color on my trees. The air quality is better as some rain showers in the evenings cleared the worst of the smoke from the air. The plants in the garden are recovering and so am I; the painful joints/muscles are now behaving themselves and I am getting good sleep again. I’m making more progress in cleaning my house (this week I got ride of fleeces that were at least 20 years old…) and am ready to return to a little quilting.
Knitting
I was really productive this week in the knitting department. I finished the Far Away Dreams shawl that I have been working on for a few weeks now.
Can you see in the picture above that the light outer trim on the right side of the shawl is just a tiny bit wider? I lost at yarn chicken and did the last row of the dark lace in the lighter color. I’m pretty sure no one will notice the difference while I’m wearing the shawl. 🙂 My Ravelry notes are here.
I like this shawl so much I already went digging into the yarn stash for more yarn to make another. This time I’m going to have a lighter outer border.
I need another shawl to knit on because I’m racing right through The Sharon Show shawl. It is so much fun!! I can’t wait for the new clue to arrive on Friday and I usually have it done within a day or two. This week I focused on finishing the Far Away shawl and put off Sharon until the end of the week. I got Clue 3 done Thursday night and was just chomping to start Clue 4 as soon as it dropped. I’m now halfway through Clue 4. I won’t show the entire shawl because… MYSTERY… and I don’t want Sharon from Security to track me down with a citation (but I’m pretty sure that Hannah would be excited to have her come visit and maybe play chase-chase with her…) but here is a glimpse of my latest work.
I kind of want to cast on another one of these shawls, too, but I’m waiting to get to the end before I make the final color decisions. I’m also fussing over yarns and color choices for another couple of sweaters these days (with lots of help from Hannah) and I’ve been reflecting on how robust my yarn stash is and how happy I am to be able to put together an endless number of projects using just stash yarn. Seriously, there is yarn in there that I’ve wondered, up until this summer, just what it could be used for that is now exactly the right amount and color for a new sweater pattern just dropped by a favorite designer. Good planning. Good luck. That’s my story and I am sticking to it.
Garden
To you see this? The miniature roses are starting to bloom again. This year I plan to plant the roses into the garden to overwinter instead of bringing them indoors for the winter because, Hannah!
Books
I’m reading again now that my eyes have recovered. I’ve gone back to the 16th century for some murder mystery action.
Our hero is a lawyer named Matthew Shardlake who has undertaken an investigation in the service of the Lady Elizabeth who wants to ensure that justice is served in the murder trial of a distant Boleyn relative who is also embroiled in a land dispute with a neighbor. This story, written about a time centuries past, also echoes some themes current today. There is a lot of political uncertainty as the current king, Edward VI, is 11 years old and his uncle is ruling in his name. You get a sense that power is being abused; coinage is so debased it is almost worthless. Landowners are turning out tenant farmers to enclose their land because sheep earn a better profit for them than crops. Displaced and homeless people wander the landscape in search of a living while the wealthy insist that their actions are necessary to maintain their way of life; the landless citizens are seen as dangerous and criminal by the more stable upper class and resentments are brewing. The shifts to the new religion and an English language mass continue and are also creating tensions. To be clear, this is a time of unrest and uncertainty that kind of rivals our own. In the middle of this a run-away wife is found murdered and Matthew is dispatched to discover the truth. I’m about a third of the way through and I’m enjoying myself.
Have a great week, everyone!!
Read a little, knit a little, and garden like your heart can’t live without it.
Yarn, Books & Roses 
I genuinely can’t notice a difference on the edges and wasn’t sure if you meant the left and right short sides, or you mean on the corner the left and right side. So I can’t see anyone noticing. The Sharon Show is very different, so many techniques in one item. I look forward to the big reveal. I’m so glad the air has improved and you’re feeling better. Have a good week.
It is really hard to see, but I mentioned it just in case. There are some people with eagle eyes reading the blog!! The fun of the Sharon Show is all the different stitches. I’ve learned a new one that I really like, and have been reintroduced to some that I haven’t thought of in a long time. Pretty adventurous, that Sharon!!
I’ve been sleeping like crazy in the cooler weather and I’m pretty sure that it is helping me heal up. Today I woke up to knees that were really sore, went back to sleep for another two hours and they were fine when I got up the 2nd time. Sleep is a good thing!!
Your shawl looks great and so do your roses! It looks like you have a great helper there with the sewing 🙂 So glad your weather has turned for the better and you are also feeling better!
Let’s hope the weather stays nice now for the firefighters. 🙂
Here’s hoping!
Good weather and health news; good shawl (I wouldn’t notice the difference); good idea re roses; good book
Which all means that it was a good week!
🙂
Your Far and Away turned out great! 😻😻😻 Glad you are feeling better!
It really is nice to wear. Garter stitch always drapes nicely. 🙂
I can’t see the difference on the edges. It’s a beautiful shawl, well done! It has got a little cooler here in the UK too, and I feel almost normal again now that I have slept better. Seeing Tombland has really made me realise I need to finish Heartstone. I have loved the Shardlake series, but this one I have really struggled to get through.
It really is nice to be able to sleep, huh! My pain level has really come down and my other symptoms are all better too. 🙂 I think that I did struggle a little with Heartstone, but with this book I’m happy to spending time with Shardlake again. I’m just so struck with each book how the law and legal process is still so much the same.
It really is! The lack of sleep really does make a difference to your quality of life, for sure. Some of the law really is, which is fascinating and also a little terrifying in some respects! I have a couple of SJ Parris novels to read too, though I think that is Elizabethan.
I just added a couple of SJ Parris novels to my Kindle to read last week!! I love those books and they weren’t available for a long time so I got behind. The other book that is kind of waiting on me is a Sharon Kay Penman historical novel set in Outremer. It sounds like we have similar tastes. 🙂
Hannah is growing – like, fast !!!!!
She is growing fast. I’m going to see if she will stage a photo with me like the one I took the day she came home when we get to her 6 month birthday. Her hind feet are of a size that concerns me…
Don’t concern yourself, Marilyn: I’m absolutely SURE she won’t turn out to be a Maine Coon .. 😉
Do you have a Maine Coon? I had a cat that I just loved that was part Maine Coon, but he had a bob tail. It was an interesting look. Both he and my most recent cat (MacKenzie) were big boys at 16 and 18 pounds, but nothing like those huge Maine coons!
Nonono ! – I have just the one very small mog. I was just teasing you. 🙂
Both shawls are beautiful! I can see why you’re thinking about what colors the next ones can be.
Your roses are gorgeous!
Hannah looks ready to assist with some sewing!
I’m kind of in a shawl mood now and luckily these two patterns are making me happy and eating up yarn from the stash. I haven’t really made rectangular shawls before, but after trying on the Far Away Dreams I realize that they are perfect for warmth while knitting in bed, or where ever on cool evenings. Must make more!! I’m fighting an urge to buy yarn to make a new sweater too. I keep going to Loopy Ewe to see what they have in stock. The perfect sweater pattern will come along eventually…
The color of the roses is deepening to a golden yellow. I just love that plant so I hope that it does well dug into the ground for the winter because I’m pretty sure that Hannah will be mean to it if I bring it inside.
Hannah is ready to assist with everything that I do. 🙂
Lovely shawl. I can’t see a difference. Hannah is so cute.
Thank you!
The shawls look great. I am working on one at the moment. I had a woodchuck nibble the rosebuds off my miniature plant all summer. He must have found greener pastures, because I am noticing a few blooms starting to show.
A woodchuck!! He’s supposed to chuck wood, not eat rosebuds! I had a visit by Japanese beetles who ate my roses out front. Evil (but beautiful looking) insects.
Oh, I know what you mean! They are like blue jays. I love them but they are a pest at the feeders.
Your shawls are so pretty! Does Hanna like it when you turn the sewing machine on?
I’m really careful to use it while she is napping, and as soon as I am done I unplug everything. As she gets bigger I’m less nervous about the machine, but boy am I careful with the iron!!