when Autumn leaves start to fall...

the sudden transition from worst-of-Summer to deep-Autumn temperatures has taken a mighty toll on my being. i have been utterly and completely unmotivated to do anything this past week (other than refill my hot water bottle and climb back under the down blanket).

in all fairness, it should be noted that i generally despise Summer... and this one was a very odd Summer indeed. Spring (which is more like late-Winter in these parts) lingered well into (what should have been) the Summer months. i wore my favorite winter boots right through late June, before digging up a pair of sandals from the back of the closet. even then, it was advisable to keep a light sweater handy as evening walks tended to be a bit chilly.  then August hit and it went from winter-blanket to too-hot-to-sleep overnight.  but that didn't last for long, as we did the whole winter-blanket to too-hot oscillation several times over during the next 4 or 5 weeks.

then my mom came to town for the long (and insanely hot) Labor day weekend, and she left mid-week, taking the last of Summer in tow.  since then, it's gone from refreshing to  somewhat-chilly to (downright) cold. i am having nightmares at the prospect of heating this (suddenly too large) space during the long winter months, and my strict, year-round dress code of tank-tops has been abandoned for warm sweats and thick socks.

so you find me, perched on my favorite couch, long-panted legs tucked under a small blanket and sock-encased feet propped against the hot water bottle. anything to delay the inevitable turning on of the heat. of course, this is my favorite time of year. the air is crisp most days.  there is the occasional fragrance of a wood-burning fireplace drifting on the breeze. and, most importantly, there is wool!!!

i have literally been daydreaming about all the woolly things i want to procrastinate over make in the coming months.  i cannot wait to get my hands on these two new yarns (the creation of which will probably be the subject of my next post... once i talk myself into sorting through all the photos i took along the way).

but, first, i need to finish this project that's been in hibernation for the past two months. there's no rush.  Autumn's here and i am in my happy place.

(Sábado) what the eff...

i was trying to come up with a good subject to wrap up my week of posts, when one pretty much fell into my lap.

allow me to paint you a picture...

it was a lazy Saturday afternoon here at casa gnu.  following a late lunch from the new Pho place around the corner, we retreated to the nearest cozy space (he grabbed a cat and a brush and headed for the balcony...

 and i grabbed a basket of yarn and assumed a crossed-legged position in front of my laptop).

when what should drop, quite literally, from the sky but this little guy...




so i run to grab the camera, cause that's what one does in these situations, and i start snapping away.  i was moving in to get some closer shots when this happens...

in case you missed it... it looks left, looks, right, then raises its large antennae thingies and bares its fangs.

through the lens, it looked like something from a Godzilla movie. i swear i even heard some hissing, but that might have been me shrieking with fright. at this point, my favorite animator's behind me laughing his head off while i'm screaming, "it's gonna eat my face", over and over again. trust me, you would have done the same thing.

this is when the situation went from interesting to downright frightening. being the caring coward that i am, i suggested we move it to a different location, lest a bird (or one of the cats) kill it.  the maple tree seemed like a good enough place, since it probably fell from there in the first place, so we he picked it up with a piece of paper, leaned over the railing, and deposited it on the nearest leaf.

it was a bit breezy out, so it took him a few seconds to get his bearings, then he turned and wandered off into the canopy.

after a bit of Googling, it seems to be the caterpillar of the White-Marked Tussock Moth (Orgya leucostigma).  it's a potentially destructive pest to a wide-range of trees, which is probably why our maple looks like swiss cheese.  beyond that, it is poisonous! the hairs are hollow and contain a toxin that is released on contact (similar to the noxious stinging nettle).  the effects can range from a severe rash to respiratory difficulty on par with an asthma attack.  so, i've more or less ensured the survival of a tree-destroying, poisonous pest. yep.  pretty much.

(Viernes) finished objects...

i now live around the corner from my favorite yarn store—like, literally around the corner—and i haven't been in there even once since we moved more than two months ago.  shocking, i know.  i did, however, find it necessary to pop in for a visit on that snowy day when we first came to view the apartment, and i may have bought enough yarn that day to make a cardigan (for myself, but it doesn't count cause i was celebrating the pending move). i may have also popped back in a week or so later when we came to sign the lease, and i may have bought enough yarn to make another cardigan (for my mom, so it, also, doesn't count).

during the first visit, i saw a sample of this cardi-type garment on a mannequin and i instantly saw my mom wearing it (she's fashionable like that).

the (unnamed) pattern was designed by the store's owner, and she was offering it for free with the purchase of the yarn. so, of course, i had to go back to get it. [i was trying to steam out the fold lines on the back, but my piece of garbage steam iron chose that moment to self-destruct... after being used like 2 times since i bought it a year ago... but i digress].

i may have also experienced a total meltdown during the last week of pre-moving preparations, prompting me to rip open multiple boxes till i found the appropriate yarn to start this other cardi.

the pattern is Kara by Cecily Glowik MacDonald.  i was listening to marathon amounts of the The Fat Squirrel's podcast (more on that at some later time), and she made one for herself in a lovely green, which reminded me that the project was lurking somewhere in my Ravelry queue.  it's a Summer-friendly 97% cotton yarn from my stash.  the main attraction of this pattern is that simpler-than-it-looks lace and the very breezy wide collar/ribbing.

i made the sleeves shorter than the pattern suggested (check out my super-neat seaming)...

i made this for me, but i'm sending it off to my mommy... cause i love her... plus it gives me an excuse to make another one for myself.   everybody wins!

(Jueves) evidence of the crime...

i had a terrible time getting to sleep last night. with the weather being 12 degrees one  day and 30 degrees the next, my poor sinuses are in a constant state of unhappiness. i finally fell asleep as the sun was threatening to rise, so i ended up sleeping in rather late today. after rolling around in a groggy daze, i tried to sit up in bed,and then it hit me. a blinding pain in the middle of my head, like someone was trying to press my brain out of my skull through the center of my eyeballs. i grabbed a pillow, jammed it over my head, and pulled the covers up over that for extra measure. the hope was that i would drift back into peaceful slumber, but what followed was an eternity of agony... or, so it felt. when i eventually gathered the wherewithal to venture outside of my cocoon of dis-ease, i tossed back the covers and stumbled toward the kitchen in search of caffeine and relief. the little grey cat (who tends to get extra-excited when i wake up) was trying desperately to get my attention by weaving in and out between my feet, and i barely acknowledged the cheerful greeting from the studio as i ambled past the door. i flipped the switch on the kettle, and staggered into the bathroom and i was just beginning to survey the impressive collection of sinus-headache treatments, when i heard a familiar click, and (about 5 seconds later) the voice from the studio. "sweetie, did the power just go out"?

you know that day when you're in that 'so not in the mood' mood and even the tiniest of problems threatens to push you right over the edge? yep. pretty much. after about five minutes of waiting for the problem to sort itself out, it ocurred to me that it may not be a building/neighborhood outage (which happens every now-and-then), so i checked the circuit box and rectified the situation with a flip of a switch. the kettle sprang back to life and i was soon walking into the living room with a tall cup of coffee in hand. i placed the cup on the table, rested the two tablets (still individually wrapped in their sealed for my protection packaging) next to it, and my tush was just about to make contact with the couch, when i heard the voice again from down the hall. "did you see what happened outside"?

i knew from the tone that "what happened" was not going to be good. there's been major renovations going on in the building—some of it across the hall, some of it two floors down—so i was prepared for unpleasantness that could be blamed on the workers. what i found was this...

the culprit even left a calling card. see it?

look closer...

yep.  pretty much.  one pot that got flooded by the recent rains was full of mud, which ended up splattered on the ground and wall...

even the little plastic caterpillar that usually lives in the pot with the tall croton ended up entangled in the oregano in the herb box...

 

i wanna say that the cat was bothered by all of this, but she was staring at a bird...

and here's the best part. he dug up my herb box and like 3 potted plants, because of this...

 

this was the point where i (finally) broke the seal on the plastic packaging and swallowed two very welcomed pills.

(Miércoles) mid-week mildness...

i've finally figured out (part of) the reason why the squirrels seem to spend so much time hanging around our balcony.  our concierge likes to feed the local wildlife.  there's a small mountain of peanuts on the grass near the entrance to the building. it may seem perfectly harmless, but the squirrels keep digging holes in my flower pots to bury the empty shells. i actually had to intercede as one of the cats was about to pounce on a squirrel in the middle of hiding away his precious.  Diesel, the cat i had before these two, was in the habit of hunting stuff outdoors then bringing the carcass indoors and depositing it in my shoe as some twisted form of "sharing".  while i don't expect these two to be equally insane, i would rather avoid the risk of finding a dead squirrel in my favorite pair of sneakers.

i have, however, come to terms with the local flock of pigeons that like to hang out on the edge of the roof.  i even have a favorite.  this one...

ain't (s)he purdy???

i'm  finally gotting around to taking a few photos of my (relatively) recent finished objects.  this was a sweater i made for my favorite animator's birthday some months ago.

he has this thing about close-fitting collars, so many, many, manyyyyy sweater designs were rejected before he finally settled on the plain-Jane Flax pullover from Tin Can Knits.  the deciding factor? as he put it, "it has a wide collar, plus, i can run my fingers up and down the arm ridges like i'm playing a washboard".  yep.  pretty much.

i had two batches of yarn in a lovely heathery wool-alpaca blend, but i did not have enough of either batch for the project, so i used one strand from each dye lot, held together, for even more heathery goodness.

and i finished it off with a nifty label from RememberWynn. i'm still fighting the urge to get some custom labels from them so that i can sew my name into all my clothing, big kid style.

alpaca is notorious for blooming after the first wash, and this one did not disappoint.  looks like a veritable garden of cushiony mosses (and this is the most spot-on representation of the color).

some of the definition of the shoulder ridges was lost along the way, but as he put it, "i can still feel them when i run my fingers up and down my arm". yep.  pretty much.