Knittin' Kitten

Today is the first day of my favorite month.  Days are still sunny, breezy, and 75 degrees, but it dips down into the 50s at night, which I love.  Borga is suddenly keen to go outside...

...but, well, the cooler temperatures haven't seemed to make much of a difference to the cats.

These nuts are falling like crazy!  Every few minutes we hear a loud thump on the roof.

It's fall, and that means a fall mantle.

It still seemed a little plain, so I decided to make a pine cone garland.  We've got plenty of pine cones!  Making the garland is easy.  Just tie a bit of twine or string around the end of each cone...

...and then tie each of those ends around a long, central length of twine.

I'm hoping to find some bittersweet to wind around the string, too.  But it's fine for now!

Fall means another thing:  frequent shipments of yarn.

I've done quite a bit of knitting lately.  This long, twisted cable hat:

This fishy something-or-other is part of someone's Christmas:

This stranded snowflake hat, knit with a lovely blue variegated yarn:

I love the radiating pattern at the crown, too.

The hat, Snawheid, is a Kate Davies pattern.  She's a brilliant designer, I think.  I'm in the middle of another of her designs, but I've changed it up a bit.  I've taken her color chart and made it my own.

That's part of the fun of knitting, I think...customizing it.  She has very nice colors in her design, and many people have copied them directly.

But for me it's a bit too bright.  I preferred a more muted palette.

I'm pleased with the way it's turning out...so pleased that I think I'm going to make another one.  Because you're only using each color a bit, the 6 balls of yarn go a long way.  I've got plenty left for a second, and probably a third if I was so inclined...but I'll save the yarn for another project.  There are several waiting in the wings.

I hope you're having a nice fall so far!