Bits of Autumn

Just a handful of photos from various of my walks.

I love sunlight filtering through some of the leaves, and also clouds!

Thankfuls 1-10

 

I almost forgot this year, but saw a friend posting and was reminded:

Day 1 - I am thankful for LIBRARIES. Today I spent some time at the main library of my county, learning about local and state history, meeting other history nerds, and surrounded by BOOKS!

Day 2 - I am thankful for modern washing appliances, as I have a lot of laundry to catch up on after two weeks of almost nonstop travel.

Day 3 - I am thankful to have a friend to take the ticket to a play I cannot attend; scheduling is always a risk when I buy season tickets, but it's worth it to support local arts organizations.

Day 4 - The ability to vote. I know what some of my ancestors went through to escape oppressive regimes and come to the USA so they could vote. I know what it took for most Americans to be granted the right to vote, when they were previously denied because of gender, race, or socioeconomic status. I cannot understand people who cannot be bothered to vote.

Day 5 - Glad for music. Specifically tonight, an "Opera About Town" performance featuring four people with wonderful voices. Also for my library book club, but I've already cited libraries.

Day 6 - Thankful for Braver Angels and similar groups that are trying to reach across the political divides. I spent part of my evening in a group of people discussing political violence and ways to disperse or avoid it. We agreed that it affects both sides, but is avoidable.

Day 7 - Thankful to have professional organizations that boost individuals as well as the profession, and where I can contribute.

Day 8 - Thankful for a beautiful day and time to spend at the Triangle Weavers Guild Show & Sale, and the Triangle Twisters Sit-and-Spin. Lovely stuff to buy, good food to eat, nice to visit with people.

Day 9 - Thankful for excellent weather on a weekend day when I can get out and enjoy it.

Day 10 - Thankful for a working heating system. (Annual checkup was today, and it passed comfortably.) Also thankful for my community that has at least two "White Flag Warming Centers" for cold snaps like this one, and I see in news reports that many others have opened.

Eighty-Seven Years Ago

On November 9-10, 1938, Kristallnacht or "The Night of Broken Glass".  As one commemoration today said:

Kristallnacht marked a turning point in Nazi Germany -- the moment when years of escalating antisemitic legislation burst into open, coordinated violence carried out by Nazi stormtroopers (Sturmabteilung), SS forces, Hitler Youth, and civilians. On those two days in November 1938, close to 100 Jews were murdered, and approximately 30,000 Jewish men were arrested and sent to concentration camps.

It is one of many things we must never forget.  In that memory, tonight many homes are leaving a light burning all night, as a reminder and a signal of sanctuary across the decades.

This many.

I'd hoped for a hat a day in October, but the final total is twenty-three and one-half:

Yes, I have some ends to run in.  Technically one hat is a stand-in because I made a third of the Peacock colour in the lower left, but donated it to a local group's hat drive.

I was at our department's in-person meeting this week, and am self-conscious about knitting in those, so got almost nothing done, at least in terms of hat production.  Here's hoping that November is more productive.

Fine Times in Philly

I am on a quick turnaround at home between the ACC Annual Meeting and heading to Texas for our quarterly Legal Department All-Hands.  I had fun leading walks in the mornings, and meeting people, and seeing friends, and learning stuff.

Because I am in leadership roles I am invited to the Leadership Development Institute, where we had a team-building exercise to create the tallest possible structure using spaghetti, some masking tape, a piece of string, and a marshmallow.  The structures were measured from the surface to the marshmallow which had to be at the top.

My team had two engineers out of the four of us, and we won:

Design based upon oil derricks and the John Hancock
building in Chicago - and we didn't use the string!

I also, to my surprise, won this:

I did take time on Saturday, after arriving, to visit The Fabric Workshop and Museum and the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts, which in addition to having some interesting exhibits was participating in the Philadelphia Open Studios Tour (POTS) so I met a number of artists and saw their ongoing works.  I picked up supper at the Reading Terminal Market and ate in my hotel room.

Sweet bologna on rye with mustard, and a pickle.

And I knit a bunch of hats:

Technically the pink one at the top was mostly finished when
I left for the conference, but the other five were knit there.
One of the blue ones was finished after I returned home.

Sitting out the nor'easter.

Bit of weather, but not too bad where I am: lots of rain, gusty wind.  A good day to stay inside with a plethora of fiber group online meetings (Center for Knit and Crochet's monthly member meeting, talking about Knitted Knockers; Franklin Habit; KnitStars; and KnitTalk) and organize the items I need for tomorrow's Triangle Fiber Guild meeting.

I keep plugging away with hats, and remembered before it was completely too late to take a photo of these with a bit of the yarn they share.  One hat has a blue carry-along and the other has a pale yellow one, with the result that they look very different.  I plan to use a bit of tonal deep blue when the multicolour yarn ends.  All of these are (near as I can tell) sock yarn leftovers a friend gives to me.

And here they are, finished:

The ones for our Hundred Hat Challenge (which I am pretty sure will come in well under, but it's good to have a generous goal plus it's alliterative) are finished and tagged.  I set a limit of ten per person as I know how many I can create and wanted it to be fair when we do the drawing for prizes based upon hats a person made and donated.

Yes, it's only seven - I have made many more, of course, but
for another collection.  Although I may add three if the
Guild collection looks very sparse.

I've also begun packing for next weekend's trip to the ACC Annual Meeting, figuring out what to do with my Saturday afternoon and evening, and when to get the token prizes for the program I am running on Wednesday, and routes for the morning walking group.........

And of course, yarn and needles to make more hats.

There went the days.

The Days of Awe finished last week, with Yom Kippur.  I've had two crazy weeks because I went to the NAMWOLF Annual Meeting, then DFW Fiber Fest, got home just in time for Rosh Hashonnah to begin, and then last week did a cybersecurity test development workshop for three days, followed by Yom Kippur on the fourth day, so Friday was my only full day at work.  And unusually for a Friday, it was loaded with meetings, many of which had been pushed out from an earlier day.

So posting was sidelined.

I was able to work on hats, since they are simple and portable and much needed for two charitable donation projects.  Some are using up leftover yarn, and some are using new balls or skeins.  One is a skein I received in a yarn exchange, which turned out to be very tangled:

I should have taken photos of the tangles.  I wanted to wind it on the speed winder, but couldn't until I'd pulled out about a fifth of the skein.  Then it kept jamming, and this was when I realized I couldn't do any more as the yarn wove in and out of the remaining rounds.  So I finished by hand.  Then knit a hat:

I knit it using the yarn doubled, because it was thin, so this is a thick and warm hat.  I might crochet the remainder into a second hat, but there isn't enough for more than a newborn size, so I'll have to use it with something else.  I didn't know the yardage or weight since the skein was untagged, and I think it's sportweight instead of the expected fingering.  Usually I can get a hat and a half or a couple hats out of skein of fingering, depending upon pattern and method.

Speaking of method, I need some crocheted hats for a demo class at the Triangle Fiber Guild meeting next week.  So I worked up a few from a jumbo skein of yarn:

There is yarn left, which might be a knitted hat as I want to do a couple in other weights of yarn to show how the basic pattern adjusts.  That is what I thought I'd do with the leftover autumn coloured yarn.  I'll see what the stash suggests.