wool pig

fall continues to charm here in central florida. the mornings are crisp enough that i'm consistently arriving at work on bike without being covered with sweat, which is a delightful treat :) it warms up to about 85 by midday and it's been clear, sunny, and dry... the kind of weather that just says picnic, and lakes, and other good stuff. i love it. i can't believe that in other parts of the country people are putting scarves on! for us in the south, autumn is a totally different experience.
so despite the fact that actual "sweater weather" is limited, the wool itch has arrived full force. i'm with bonne marie... i want to cast all the wool i can find! it must just be a knitterly thing, no matter where you live. my aunt did the same thing in bombay, where winter is still a hot and sticky affair. progress continues on the zimmerman sweater for mr. days, although it's a bit uninteresting to photograph. imagine the gray tweed i posted before, but in a circle about 3 inches long :) i did a hem with a turning row, as the last couple of knitted hems i did were without turning row and i found them a bit lacking. the one row of purl seems to crisp things up quite a bit, and i like the subtle little bumps. it's good movie knitting, and kept me occupied through a very long meeting today, but at 186 stitches around i can feel that this is going to take awhile. the magpie tweed, however, does not disappoint. it's beautiful and subtle and the little flecks of color are endlessly charming. it's got deep red, navy, green... keeps the gray from being too somber and creates a gorgeous fabric. i have yet to meet a tweed yarn i didn't like, and the magpie's sturdy softness just adds to the appeal. let me add my voice to the many who have mourned its discontinuance.
i titled this post "wool pig" (a la stephanie :) ) because a most un-florida package arrived this week... a bag of rich burnt orange "polar" yarn by rowan. utterly delicious and meant for the asymmetrical cable sweater from teva durham's loop-d-loop book. i've swatched for it and look forward to spending some time with the charts this weekend.
oh and i also wanted to show the rest of the birthday present from last week, though i was a slacker and didn't finish these till saturday, two days after the birthday proper. these are the cushion covers for my love, as modeled by the futon in his study. he chose the fabrics and i sewed them up... simple envelope-style, like the first ones i made. the fabrics are lightweight cotton so i strengthened the fronts with interfacing. the cats wonder why they're being disturbed. the second cushion, despite the odd flash issue, is not blotchy at all... it's an asymmetrical small stripe. hurrah for new cushions!
and i've also got to show the most delightful thing that has come into my sewing life recently. isn't this gorgeous??


i was talking at minerva's circle, my sewing group, a couple of weeks ago about my need for a pincushion, as i had in the preceding week knocked over my box of pins about 4 times and spent an inordinate amount of time picking pins up off the floor. lovely gisele told me that she would make a pincushion for me, and here it is! i adore it and it has made my sewing so much more pleasurable. the colors are fantastic and i am very taken with the stitching around the sides. i stuck my pins in immediately upon receiving it and have been using it every day. thank you gisele!!