October

Ah, the tinkling sound of a jar of applesauce sealing! I love that sound. Anyone who has never canned can't appreciate the glow of satisfaction with every "tink" as the cooling jars suck their lids into place. It makes up for all the picking, washing, peeling, cooking, stirring, scalding and filling of jars. Once I am at the water bath stage, though, I enjoy the moist heat rising from my stove which warms up the house on crisp Autumn days. My kids helped out with the peeling this time, so as a reward, I held out some of the apples and made an Apple Cake. I got promises of future help as they heaped their plates. What a deal! October has indeed been a busy time, as I am getting back into freezing and canning food and baking bread regularly. The neighbors just got chickens and I had to visit to see those lovely happy free-roaming hens, crooning and pecking in the yard. Life in Vermont! It's the best! The trees have been spectacular this year, probably because of all the rain we had this summer, but the peak is over, at least on my hill. The next best thing is walking down the dirt road swishing the leaves with your feet. Another wonderful sound of the season.  Since I was a little girl, I could swear the sky is a different, richer kind of blue in October, and I still think so! On the Knitting Front, I have been focusing on my Latvian Mitten workshop, reworking the sampler to include motifs which have three colors in one round. Most knitters gasp in dismay and avoid such an ordeal. But the more I work with three colors, especially in smaller sized motifs, the more I enjoy it. The key is being comfortable working with a yarn in each hand, plus being comfortable working two yarns in either the left or the right hand. Once you have those skills, three or four yarns in a round don't seem quite as intimidating. Here is my new sampler for my Latvian Mitten class: I made a discovery when I was working the thumb. It is tricky to get good tension of the two (or more) colors on the thumb. At first I was stranding the yarns, and I found the base of the thumb restrictive. Then I lapsed into twined knitting, which makes 3 color knitting even easier, and the thumb loosened up, and actually is warmer now because of the twining. You can even see how the thumb expands at the point where I switched methods. I plan to work all my thumbs in twined knitting from now on.