Last week, I found this happy place -- so many pumpkins and squash and gourds!
I just let myself have at it -- it was like fabric shopping but I don't have to make anything out of them!
I can just sit and admire them!
Then we can eat them or feed them to my son's chickens!
Win, win!!
Fall happens so fast here and I don't want to miss my favorite parts of it.
So I've been indulging myself and staying outside as much as possible. That means there hasn't been much stitching (saving that for the rainy days just around the corner). I'm doing as much walking and birding and puttering in the garden or knitting in the back garden as I can
On a good day, I can enjoy several of my past times simultaneously without leaving the yard!
This red-breasted nuthatch and it's sidekick spent most of a sunny afternoon "planting" sunflower seeds around my flower beds while I carried on knitting close at hand.
(I couldn't get them to understand there are new seeds everyday so no need to hoard!?!)
I'm knitting Katie's Kep, the featured pattern for this year's virtual Shetland Wool Week, when another knitter's version on Instagram caught my eye -- it was a perfect interpretation of the landscape colors I'm seeing all around me.
(Check out the hashtag #katieskep on Instagram for an eyeful.)
A creative spark flashed in my brain and suddenly I was snapping pictures on my walks to interpret in another version of the Kep (Shetland talk for cap).
(Note: walking into a pawpaw grove with the woman I raised to bird with me!)
Of course, I don't need another project.
One of the discoveries I've made about myself during "isolation" (or perhaps just finally admitted) is that I have the attention span of a gnat!!
The result of this is a lot of UFO's.
However, if I have a specific reason to make something, I'm much more likely to finish.
So happily, my subconscious (love that part of my brain) figured out while I was poking through my yarn stash that I could make mini-Fair Isle mittens for the triplets using those color inspirations.
Creative inspiration + "need" = finished project . . . of course, I'll finish Katie's Kep first!
Last week, at the end of a babysitting day with the triplets, their mom brought home their first set of wheels!!
Smiles all around!!
He is a natural at steering and one of his sisters was as happy to push as he was to drive.
I must say I was feeling pretty glum when I started this, but that cup of coffee and "talking" with you has cheered me right up. There was crummy news this morning (I need to have a tooth extracted) and wanted to cry all the way home -- it's not that awful in itself, but it's just one more thing?!?
So when I got home, redirecting my energy and my mind was absolutely necessary.
And there you were, waiting for my return to this page.
So thanks for reading!
Think I'll head outside and deadhead some plants.
Hope you have strategies for lifting yourself out of the doldrums!!
Mary
We've had bright sun for several days in a row now, that is enough to lift me out of the doldrums. We're going to make some late season hay. Yesterday afternoon was a perfect fall day to be outside, sunshine, soft breeze, warm temps. I just sat on the tractor and breathed it all in while mowing hay. Love days like this, too soon the triplets will be needing those mittens. Enjoy these autumn days while they're here, the sewing room will always be waiting. Hope the tooth extraction goes well. Happy birding & knitting!
ReplyDeleteI've also been outside, sometimes just sitting and stitching a binding on. Lucky me, I have three quilts ready to bind! Most of the time, I'm bent over cleaning up garden beds, taking one more 'last photo' of a particular flower or a photo of some type of wiggly crawly to identify. Your newest caterpillar was a cutie pie. My granddaughter has decided that yellow tiger swallowtails are the most special of the butterflies even though we get super excited when we see a Monarch. Happily swallowtails are the state butterfly and we have seen many this year. I just read the females may be black or yellow! Sorry about the tooth.
ReplyDeletegood to here from you
ReplyDeleteI understand glum; we just returned from a long over due visit with our grandson. I was happy that the family had moved halfway across the country making them closer to visit but realizing how he accomplished so many new things in our short visit made me sad to know how much I miss every day. Hope you conintue to find inspiration with your birding and fulfillment in your studio work. I am tackling my mess with thoughts of feeling better now too. And today, the sun shines.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your post! Autumn is happening fast here too (central Illinois) and I was just looking out the window and thinking I need to soak it all in! How nice that you have a birding companion, walking through the woods is always uplifting.
ReplyDeleteI'm still here.
ReplyDeleteSorry about your tooth. The triplets are at such a fun age!! What a beautiful hat you are knitting, Mary.
ReplyDelete