Aaantici-paaaaa-tion

Winter is coming!

OK, it's just after the Opening of Autumn; it may be a little early to actually talk about winter. My fun, funny tomato plant is absolutely loaded with tomatoes, all as green as can be; I'm assured that they'll redden with time. I may wind up bringing them in and either a) learning to make fried green tomatoes; or b) testing to see if putting them in brown bags really does allow them to ripen indoors. They're absolutely wonderful, and I'm just as tickled as I can be. I'm planning to plant some next year - I think I'll make a litttle area with a fence around it and fertilizer in it. My ordinary dirt here is dusty, clay-y and allover not great, but I can richen up a small section. I suppose it's dorky to grow tomatoes at the front of the house (although my Mr T is a very attractive, big bushy thing) but there's not so much sun in back. But WAIT! That's not WINTER ANTICIPATION..........>

You can see my early plans. The large skein at the top, ornamented by my #11 Lantern Moon rosewoods (I really DO use them, but I also just stroke them sometimes, they're so beautiful) is alpaca, undyed, 820 yards - this is the stuff that I keep threatening to put a pretty little collar and leash on so I can just carry it around petting it. What's it going to be? Aye. Yup. Uh-huh. No idea.

Going clockwise, the variegated wonderful soft stuff is Wisdom Yarns' "Poems". It's almost like those Paton "Natural" yarns...very much like it, actually, I'm VERY partial to that colorway/feeling/texture &c. Get a load of the DPNs there. They're the ones that look like tortoiseshell, but they're actually a plastic of some sort. I thought they might be too slippery to use very well but somehow, they're NOT! They're warm and they have a "grip" to them not unlike the bamboos. I'm going to do some research -- my feeling that 18th century knitters had tortoiseshell needles are not enough on their own for me to take them to reenactments, but I'm hoping I can find some documentaton because they are just so COOL!

Continuing around clockwise - some NETTLES! It's a fairly coarse yarn, and I bought two balls of it because I can use some of it to illustrate nettles drawn into fiber as the Wisconsin native population did. Then I saw a lace window panel, actually made from flax (probably Euroflax) at the Sow's Ear, and it occurs to me I can try to replicate that with the nettle stuff. I have NO idea how it will wash up (or even "if") but it's intriguing and I'm going to give it a shot.

Then that lovely blue-y, gray-y ball...it's Rowan, 'Tapestry", 70% wool and 30% soybean! Honestly, I bought it because it was soft and beautiful and luscious - would you believe it if I said I honestly didn't know a) that it was Rowan; and b) that I didn't know it was soy, until this very moment? Well, I'm blushing ly admitting that, and I'm delighted that I bought two balls. What's that? What am I going to make out of THAT? Yes, well. That would be -- err...determined later. I feel a great spate of wrist warmers and fingerless mitts and maybe anle warmers and/0r legwarmers of various lengths coming on; very possibly this'll be something along those lines.

I reiterate: I am a Process Knitter (with a nod to the YH for defining the differences). What that means is, it almost doesn't even matter WHAT it is when I'm done, I'm tickled to pieces to end a skein, hold it up and go "OH! wouldya lookie that, a shawl!" (Or scarf, headband, &c) The sheer tactile delight of this yummy stuff sliding through my fingers is an almost obscene pleasure. And I"m not the only one like this, I've seen knitters hunched over their work with that satisfied, contented, drowsy-eyed expression of sheer joy.

And lastly, I"m anticipating more READING. I happened to hear an author on NPR last Sunday...I almost shouldn't even listen, I can get into more trouble that way. His name was Charles de Lint, and he was talking about incorporating what I call the Elven World - faeries, satyrs, that sort of thing - amongst normal human 21st century regular joes. Sounded intriguing. Fascinating. Irresistible. The new book is called "Widdershuns". I went to Barnes & Noble. Now, Mr Dearling states that he has taken out a Restraining Order keeping me out of bookstores, but my Old Lady with Benign Smile disguise has never let me down. So I bought one of the earlier books, pictured here: "Greenmantle". I'm enjoying it a great deal (yes, I know, this is supposed to be about anticipation, but I couldn't resist starting it, right after finishing Crazy Aunt Purl's book).

That's the beginning of my Winter Anticipation. When my friend delivers her triplets, on (or maybe before) the third week of November, I'll begin the project I have planned for the three wee kiddies. And I have another de Lint book too, not to mention a burgeoning list of other things I want to read this year. I think I'd be well advised to keep myself so busy reading that I can't listen to "All Things Considered".......