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one of these things is not like the other

Last week when I was at the Coop, I bought a pumpkin for our pumpkin pie. A little further down the aisle were some different squashes, and I couldn't get past how beautiful one type was in particular. It looked sort of like a pumpkin but all wrinkly and with a powdery surface. I had to get it.When I was checking out, the worker picked up my squash quizzically and pronounced, "This is not the same as this," pointing to my pumpkin.

"I know," I said, "it's a squash."

She repeated her line, until I found the squash on her checkout screen for her.

Isn't a pumpkin a squash? The Donatello statue titled Zuccone is translated academically as "Pumpkin Head," when it literally means "big squash," and I don't think they had (or have) pumpkins in Florence. Hm...

November update

I feel like I've just awoken from a long nap or something. I guess that's what happens when you have a break in your crazy work schedule.

The weather is beautiful. The leaves are nearly all off the trees, and those that are on are beautiful shades of yellow, red and orange. Today is sunny and bright, a day for being outside. I wish I had a yard I could do some work in. (I know, I could just walk down to the park and skip the work part, but I've sworn that today will be used for much needed apartment-fixing projects, and a walk to the park doesn't count.)

I have been finishing but not blogging various knitting projects. I've also not really been photographing them, so you may be hearing about them here and there.

First up: socks.
I have never had much interest in knitting socks. I mean, you can buy a decent pair for less than $5. But people seem to love making them, so I thought I'd give it a try. Of course, I knew that a plain sock would drive me crazy, so I picked a complicated pattern (Spring Forward from Knitty), and I started them on my trip to Cape Cod in early September. They were a great road trip project, and later turned into a good subway project. Of course, pulling my sock-in-progress out of my backpack over and over resulted in a broken needle, and so I knit most of this pair with 4 #1s and 1 #0 needle ala EZ. You can't tell, there's so much going on. Anyway, the last sock was sitting around for a few weeks, waiting for me to graft the toe, and I finally did it last week. Grafting is no big deal; not sure why I have such an aversion to it.

Second: handspun.
I don't even know when I stopped writing about my handspun. I've been trying to get back into spinning, and realized at some point recently that I haven't been treadling the wheel fast enough, so my yarn is a bit underspun (and extra fluffy). I am trying harder to treadle faster, and wonder if my wheel might benefit from some oil to help me do that. Of course, the whole point of this style of wheel is that it's not supposed to require lubrication. We'll see.

Anyway: yarns I've spun since I last blogged my spinning:
Two different colors of wool from roving bought at the Hope Spinnery this summer.
54 yards of orange30 yards of brown/orange/redthen there's 82 yards of the Blue Faced Leicester that I dyed with goldenrod this summer. And lastly, 69 yards of Jacob Sheep wool bought at Rhinebeck. I'm not doing so well with the yardage here. Clearly I should be trying to spin a little thinner.

Maybe I should also be trying to find something to make with my handspun. I seem to just be accumulating it at this point...

crisp air

Fall seems to be here.

It's been so warm and so humid that somehow I wasn't prepared yesterday when I went to the Guggenheim and then dinner with a friend. For the first time in months, I didn't have enough clothing, and longed for a pair of mitts and a shawl to warm me up.

It's funny. For months now I've been browsing Ravelry, admiring all of these new sweaters that have wide 3/4 length sleeves, wondering which one I should cast on. And then (usually after choosing one, and then browsing which yarn would be appropriate) I remember that I have a sweater in progress that more or less fits that criteria, and I should probably just finish that first before I decide I need another one like it. Especially since I can't imagine that wide 3/4 length sleeves are very appropriate with cold winter temps and are probably a huge pain to get an overcoat over. (Just imagine those bunched up sleeves and cold arms. I cringe just thinking about it.)I cast this on back in February. It's the Cables and Lace Kimono from Sweaterbabe, and I am using purple Queensland Collection Kathmandu DK that I got on sale from Webs last fall. The yarn is gorgeous (though the color doesn't photograph so well), and I'm loving the sweater.

Two minor hitches however: a) the needle I was using has now been moved to another project, which I'm more actively working on and b) since it's all being knit in one piece it's gotten very bulky and it's really not so portable. I may be able to work through these barriers though. Seems like if I'm ever going to wear it, now would be the time to finish it, right?