Now it REALLY feels like fall. It’s getting cold. Most of the leaves are down. The cozy candles have been lit. The wood stove is on and so is the heated mattress pad (yes, you should go get one right now. It is heavenly! Here is a link if you want to get one on Amazon: Sunbeam Heated Mattress Pad | Quilted, 10 Heat Settings  ) Turned the clocks back and thank goodness for that – it was REALLY hard getting up to take Moose for his morning constitutional when the stars were still out.

Speaking of Moose, we are still trying to take him everywhere in the car. Here is his serious car-riding face:

It just cracks us up when he rides “like a person”, just sitting up, looking around, sometimes out the side window, sometimes moving his head a little to the left to see out the front window — instead of having his head hanging out the window or laying down like usual.

So, remember the Lake Forest hat I made?

Well, I finished the matching cowl!

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I love it! and I love them as a set. So squooshy and cozy. Find the pattern here: Lake Forest Hat & Cowl

I also finally finished my Worsted Boxy by Joji Locatelli.

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I started this on our trip to North Carolina in August, then put it down while I got obsessed with all those hats and things. It is warm and cozy and perfect for the chilly weather that has arrived. It was really hard for me to get a good pic of this because it is very drapey (boxy, as the name implies – basically a big square with 6″ arms knitted on to it!) and it is knit in a larger size and the lighting is terrible. The yarn color is a very pretty navy – you’ll have to use your imagination.

Speaking of hats and things, I also finished the Worsted Knit Basic Beanie, which is the pattern that was suggested for the yarn/pompom kit I bought at Rhinebeck:

I actually didn’t like how the pompom looked once the hat was done, so I made my own with the brim color!

The yarn ended up having more purple-y tones and not so much royal blue, so the kit pompom looked weird. I’ll re-purpose that for another project.

Since I finished a few things, I started another thing.

This is Inner Peace by Joji Locatelli. Can you tell she is one of my favorite designers?

This is a great shawl pattern – it’s fun and interesting. It is knit side to side and has a ton of bobbles along the edge (one every 4 rows). But they are EASY bobbles (in case you have made bobbles where you had to turn your work 8 thousand times for one bobble and cringe when you see something with a bobble…).

I’m using Plymouth Happy Feet Splash fingering weight yarn, which I just love. I think this project will make a great class so it is on my list for when I start teaching in-person classes again. Not sure when that will be.

Segue to why I’m not teaching classes yet: I know there are many knitting classes happening these days, with masks being required, and you’d think that would give me some comfort. And it does, somewhat. In fact I did teach two classes earlier this summer. But… I tend to be very talkative during my classes, and expressive, and I walk around A LOT. And I just had a very hard time doing that with a mask on. I felt like I was gasping for air and I was sweating like crazy (TMI?). So it was very uncomfortable for me. Add that to my lingering anxiety about being inside with people I do not know very well and not knowing if they are vaccinated, and needing to touch their work to help them, I’m just not ready yet. So, there you have it. I am hopeful of getting back to it soon-ish.

Moving on to some non-knitting things…

How about some more pumpkin stuff? I made Pumpkin Brioche! (click there for the recipe)

It was yummy! So far, we’ve just had toast, but the suggestion is to have it as French toast — Mmmmmmm. If you are a fan of the Great British Baking Show, then you may be familiar with Paul Hollywood and his critiques of the bread that is made on the show. Using some of his terms, I think it has a great, mostly even, structure and I don’t think it is over– or under- proved. However, it is slightly over baked. If I do say so myself — in a pretend English accent.

And I found this incredibly yummy and delicious Pumpkin Bisque at Trader Joe’s:

You’d think I’d be tired of pumpkin things, but I’m really not. Trader Joe’s pumpkin pancake mix was also STELLAR.

Something else yummy and delicious is Goat Poop.

Beekman 1802 (the company founded by Josh and Brent, aka The Beekman Boys) has several yummy goat poop options. I got the granola too.

A final food-related item…. we sadly went for out last soft ice cream run of the season. Guptill’s last day was yesterday, so we went all out:

Hot fudge sundae on the left, cider donut sundae on the right. Mmmmmm.

Non-food related goings-on include cleaning out the garden beds and taking Moose for a walks in the woods behind our house:

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He loves it back there! So much to sniff at, roll in and tug on. We are on super diligent tick patrol after those walks – and we are thankful he is light brown because they are easy to spot.

It’s wet and yucky back there so I got some galoshes:

How cute are they??? (Got them at Tractor Supply)

Next up is figuring out what/how much holiday gift knitting I’ll be doing, so stay tuned for that. I will also be putting some knitted items up for sale in The Spinning Room‘s yearly holiday market, so this is my plug for shopping small and shopping local this year. You don’t have to know how to knit/crochet/weave/spin to go into a yarn shop and find nice gifts! Please support small, local businesses and local artists. Their wares are not stuck on cargo ships.

What are your favorite fall activities? Do you have holiday gift knitting you are planning to do?